Oh no, I've been CURSED! [heheheh]

Remove all ads!

I've been checking out the effects of the Cursed Scrolls, and some of them may be slightly beneficial to certain characters:

The Cursed Scroll of Ailment forces a fortitude save, and if you succeed, you take 40 poison damage over 10 seconds. I don't think failing the save will give any better results.

The Cursed Scroll of Clumsiness lowers your Dexterity 10 points

The Cursed Scroll of Foolishness is unclear: It lowered my 20WIS, 5INT character to 3WIS, 3INT. However, it didn't set my 3WIS, 1INT test dummy to a higher INT. In fact, it did nothing, just gave it a curse symbol.

The Cursed Scroll of Petrification forces a save vs. petrification.

The Cursed Scroll of Stupidity has two effects: It lowers WIS down 8 points, but also sets INT to 3. I can't think of a character that would benefit from this.

The Cursed Scroll of Ugliness is potentially great for ugly races (Deep Gnome, Shield & Gray Dwarf, Half Orc and Tiefling) with 1 Charisma to start. Using this will set the CHA to 3 permanently, and allow for a bonus from an item too! Its usefulness may be limited, but my DG rogue/illusionist wearing Crow's Nest, may succeed in a conversation where it would fail otherwise It improves Turn Undead at the very least...

The Cursed Scroll of Weakness may actually be the best one: It SETS STRENGTH TO 5 permanently. If you had a sickly character, starting with 1 STR, it then gets 5 STR

Be advised that 'permanently' is a relative term. The curse will expire if your character expires; your character will be raised from the dead uncursed

 

rofl. too much time, boredom and curiosity.

 

Can it then be further boosted with BS?

Doesn't seem all that useful regardless. Assuming the character has maxed CON and DEX, he'd have to be trying to max two mental stats at the expense of STR and the third mental stat... but most characters just want to max one mental stat.

 

Pfft, don't discount the almighty Bard/Druid diplomatic furry. Maxed INT, WIS and CHA to open all possible conversation options. I know of at least one that checks your wisdom and one for Int, along with miscellaneous race/class/non-conversational skill ones.

Not only does such character carry BOTH troublesome classes without anyone else having to deal with awkward mix-ins (assuming you absolutely MUST have them for a reason or another), it creates an actually usefull use case for druid's shapeshifting ability. How about a Mirror Imaged Dire Panther singing Tymora's Melody in yer face?

 

Something like this?

 

only after a failed shapeshift

A singing animal sounds pretty cool, but what do you do with all those spells you can't access? Devote it all to healing/buffs? Druidic offensive spells would be impractical, since you'd need to transform back, and then cast the spell, which takes 2 rounds.

 

Question. Why would you even want a character with STR 1? Poor guy/gal couldn't wear the robes s/he has on back

 

With Bull's Strength she could get it up to 30 lbs., which is enough for some basic equipment. I'm playing with a 6STR bard now, but I still prefer to giver her a +4STR item, for a comfortable 70 lbs. The Scroll of Weakness and a lucky casting of Bull's will give her the same effect (10STR), which is pretty neat.
Relying on that single scroll of weakness to enhance her STR is not a reliable strategy of course, but if she were to survive without dying, it would be fun to try.

 

Nah, the shapeshifts are never a long-term solution, that much I agree.

However...

Think about the diplomat character stereotype. High INT for skillpoints and high CHA for.. err.. being charismatic speaker. That by itself doesn't leave that much room for physical stats, since you most certainly can't use CON as a dump stat either. Sure, you can use a (cross-)bow without damage penalties from low STR but however you slice it, your diplomat is going to be rather weak in physical combat.

Now, if you do a side by side comparison between a warrior and the shapeshifts, you should notice that shapeshifts actually improve FASTER than a warrior would. The Arctic Boar form has some damage resistances, damage comparable to a warrior using a two-handed sword and two attacks per round - already at level 5! It gets even better when you get to the Polar Bear form - three attacks per round with a STR score most warriors can only dream of - already at level 9.

Sure you can't cast spells while shapeshifted, but consider the following list of spell picks:
Lvl 1 - Cure Light Wounds
Lvl 2 - Barkskin
Lvl 3 - Call Lightning
Lvl 4 - Cure Serious Wounds
Lvl 5 - Static Charge
You'd start a new day in human form, buff your party with Barkskin, start the day's first combat by casting off your Call Lightning and Static Charge spells, hit the shapeshift button and start shredding enemies while occasionally zapping them. Shift back to human form after a tough battle, use up your healing spells instead of your main healer's and switch back if you still have daily shapeshifts remaining.

The over-arching problem with warriors (of any kind) is that they start losing their edge compared to casters when your party reaches higher levels. The druid/bard diplomat gets you the best of both worlds - an early access to a souped-up beefy warrior type and an excellent spell caster later. And, as we all know, neither STR or DEX is of any paramount importance while casting spells, even less in HOF mode.

 

That's kinda what I thought, like your average bard in gameplay, with the perk of combat and druid spells, but the downside of no spellcasting (not even from items) in combat.

I just noticed something about the Cursed Scroll of Ugliness: It also lowers my mage's Intelligence. So for it to be beneficial, the character would need to be both dumb and ugly.... maybe a half-orc

 

No, read it again. What you EFFECTIVELY have is a Fighter/Bard melee unit during the early chapters where fighters are the strongest of the bunch, that smoothly transforms into a full-fledged Druid/Bard caster (aka Druid with Mirror Image and other arcane goodies) later on.

 

I found that combat is incompatible with bard duties, while spellcasting is quite feasible in combination with the Lingering Song feat, and 'Auto Pause: Spell Cast' on. Unless you enjoy turning the song on every two rounds, this 'Fighter/Bard melee unit' can do either one or the other. It's a versatile character though, and I'm a big fan of versatility. Just too bad that this is mutually exclusive in practice.
Would you suggest a human bard5/druidX, a bard11/druidX, or something else?

 

Depends on what you want to achieve. I don't personally value the 11th level song all that much, so either Bard(5)/Druid(x) or Dreadmaster(4)/Bard(5)/Druid(x) as I'm playing now. That takes care of being able to use Chant, too, without it disabling one of my other cleric's spellcasting to do that.

I am a huge fan of micromanaging my characters during battle so I've never considered having to click through my bard songs every two-three combat rounds as anything major. Plus, songs just plain work better with someone 'in the thick of things' instead of the back rank caster.

 

I've always seen my bard as the party tactician, and never felt the need for her to engage in combat. She stays in the rear, and serves as a free hand for minor spellcasting. While the rest of my party is heavily buffed, and engaged in serious melee or spellcasting, my bard can do a bit of 'micromanagement'. Taking care of pesky clerics by stunning them with Chromatic Orb, maybe charming a weak-willed attacker to tip the scales, or slowing down approaching enemies with some Grease. Later she Confuses the enemies, summons a little, and the level 4 Dismissal has proven to be exceptionally useful. I've had a sword (mod item) in my posession that sets STR to 22, allowing for a bonus over that, but never really considered sending my bard into melee. I'm sure she'd do ok, but she lacks combat feats like Cleave and Improved Critical. I've designed her as a focused singer/spellcaster, and she shines in this role.

I thought I was a control freak, with all my buffing and micromanagement. But then you told me about your 'lingering fighting/singing'. As a powergamer, I really shouldn't complain about your exploiting the Lingering Song feat. But the amount of micromanagement involved in re-activating it every 2 rounds... you definitely take the cake

 

Ehh.. What is Lingering Song good for unless you (ab-)use it to do other things in between?

Or do you mean its bugged status, as in it still should have to wait until the actual song activates on its own first, unlike now where it's an instant thing if you double-click the song icon?

Edit: Had to test the Cursed Scroll of Weakness thingy. It seems it has a duration of about 24 hours only - my 1 STR test guy lost it while traveling from the Vandering Village to Fell Wood. So much for that strategy.