Battle of the Builds allows you to instantly raise your PCs to level 30 and pit them in mortal combat against some of the finest power builds from the NWN2Wiki and the Epic Character Builders Part Deux. If you've ever wondered how your character build concept would fare against the likes of the Iron Sorcerer, Kaze no Kama, or Lord of the Mountain, Battle of the Builds will allow you to test your character's kung fu against theirs. You can even pit the NPCs against each other in one-on-one combat and watch the ensuing debacle in relative comfort and safety.
This is not an adventure module. There is only one NPC whom you may talk to, the Arena Master. At your command, he will arrange gladiatorial fights for you, give you experience points, and offer you the kind of gear that you may buy, loot, or craft in both the Original Campaign and Mask of the Betrayer. You may then pit your PC against any of the power builds to determine the PC's strengths and areas of improvement. The ultimate objective of this module is for you to test your character build concept against other epic builds or to test how these builds would fare against each other.
It is highly recommended that a good AI routine be installed for testing your character builds. This module works very well with Tony_K's AI.
Battle of the Builds may be of interest to the following types of people:
Powergamers who want to test their character build concepts
Builders seeking inspiration for deadly NPCs to put in their modules
Scripters who want to look at some examples of special combat AI
Wanna play as one of the power builds of the Arena? If you think you can control any of the characters in this module better than the AI, you're probably right, but you'll never really know until you try. Now you can download the Power Builds of the Arena and play them as PCs. Take your favorite gladiators for a test drive and see how you like them.
What's new in version 1.23.1
Fixed a problem regarding the Quest Journal not displaying the stats of the current set of gladiators.
Recompiled some scripts to address the issue of PC clones not disappearing when a fight is canceled.
Note: Edition 2.7.1 of "Meet the Power Builds" has corrections on the armor class and saving throws of several power builds as well as on the leveling guide of the Epic Arcane Trickster.
What else is new in version 1.23
Added the following new power builds: Left Fist of Gond, Pointy Stick, Right Fist of Gond, and Terracotta Soldier.
Updated the Divine Soul to JeminiZero's version 3.
Added an option to toggle the notorious weapon-grabbing tactic of gladiators that can disarm their opponents. Note that this won't necessarily prevent weapons from automatically landing in a gladiator's inventory through successful use of the Improved Disarm feat.
Added an option to limit fast buffing only to spells and feats with a duration of 24 hours or more.
Made several improvements to the AI.
Changes in version 1.22
Improved the AI of all NPCs, particularly the rangers, bards, non-caster gladiators, and the Blood Scholar.
Fixed a bug that was sometimes causing NPCs not to fight even when they can see their opponents.
Fixed a bug that was causing NPCs not to pick up their weapons when disarmed.
Changes in version 1.21
Added a new power build, the Claw of Malar.
Updated the Iron Sorcerer to version 2 created by JeminiZero.
Added journal entries listing the stats, feats, and skills of gladiators.
Added Zalantar spears among the weapons that are available from the Arena Master.
Added a new item to the Arena Master's list of available armor and clothing: the Swashbuckler's Tunic. This is an unenchanted piece of clothing that looks a lot better than monk pajamas.
Fixed the spellcasting animations and spell ranges of the Blood Scholar.
Made numerous improvements to the AI.
For details on the complete version history of the module, see the enclosed readme file.
Credits for the Power Builders None of the power builds in this module were created by me. All the character builds here are better than any PC that I've made in the past. To give credit where credit is due, I've listed the creative minds behind each build.
adzaroo: The Epic Arcane Trickster
Aekula: Ithil'kyw the Underdread
chipzahoy: An Inconvenient Ranger
Dark Eternal: Fallen Angel
Dark_hold_ / Darkhold: Black Dragon Soul
Dimeron: Eldritch Blade
DirtyFinger: Illusionary Blade, Kage Kaze no Kama, Kaze no Kama
Falconhurst: Drow Fury, Kaze no Kama Duelist
Felexitus: Holy Dragon Dervish
GT74: Claw of Malar
jeminizero / JeminiZero: Armored Fist of the Fallen, Blood Scholar, Divine Bard, Divine Ranger, Divine Soul, Divine Storm Soul, Divine Warlock, Eldritch Paladin of Candlekeep, Halfling Ninja, Iron Sorcerer, Obsidian Sorcerer
lokigr: Lord of the Mountain
Lorstaff: Sacred Spear
Mithdradates and TyrTemplar: Terracotta Soldier
rain4november: Restless Soul
SchnaKe: Veteran
steelsamurai: Pointy Stick, The Left Fist of Gond, The Right Fist of Gond
Zhonn-vei'ay: Black Dragon, Joe Average, Thuggernaut
Peek-a-BIC: New Tool for Power Builders Peek-a-BIC is a standalone program for viewing and documenting the stats and level progression of your player characters. This software reads your character BIC files and displays the data in any of several formats. Now you can view and upload your character's stats and level progression with just a few easy clicks. If you enjoy power building, give Peek-a-BIC a go.
The characters in "Battle of the Builds" are so powerful, you'll doubt they're legal. This PDF document proves that they are. Inside are the complete stats, equipment, and spells of all the power builds featured in the module. The document even has a leveling guide so you can recreate your favorite builds as PCs. (Not that you'll need to. You can get the Power Builds of the Arena as BIC files. See the link in the main description above.)
An interesting example of game mechanics is explained in a recent build on wiki (Chosen of Velsharoon). I'm not really sure how this works and if it is implementary in the AI, but sounds relatively easy to implement and completely destroys divine casters mantle spam strategies (Although those only worked vs AI anyway). Here's the quick copy: Example: starting time - 0 ---- you cast quickened Breach - effect will trigger at 1.5 ---- your enemy casts spell mantle(usually he'll have to cancel his action before casting mantle and it will take some time so usually Breach / Offensive spell is enough. But lets look at the worst scenario - he starts to cast it immediately) - effect will trigger at 3 ---- now you cancell your quickened offensive spell and replace it with a second quickened Breach - effect will trigger at 4.5 ---- your enemy casts his second mantle - effect will trigger at 9(!) ---- now you cast your quickened offensive spell - effect will trigger at 7.5 ---- in this way your opponent can defend himself only with quickened mantles
Posted by BeLiaL at on01/05/09
I'm sure there's a lot of people willing to help you with this mod somehow including myself, though I'm not really good at anything like programming or writing backstories (only at ranting about somethings not right, like the rest, hehe).
Posted by Elysius at 2008-12-1800:12:07
BeLiaL, You're right about Blacklock. My documentation is outdated since my description of this character is from an earlier version of my module. With so many NPCs here, it's kind of hard to keep track of how each one fairs compared to the rest. Thanks for your tip on binding blast, btw. I'll give it a shot. _________________________ Yay, I have a blog. Faithless: The Making of an NWN2 Module
Posted by BeLiaL at on01/05/09
Arena master and Meet the builds file says Blacklock is among the "better" powerbuilds, but I couldnt make him win against even weaker ones like Joe Average or Dragonmaster negotiator. Divine warlock fares much, much better. I think Blacklock is the weakest build in the mod (and wtf is with WF: Longsword instead of divshield?). Also I think warlocks in mod should switch word of changing to binding blast.
Posted by Kepler at 2008-11-2520:34:32
That's understandable, I mainly was just trying to figure out if I missed those at some point. It's definitely a requirement to have a common baseline. I see so many different calculations people do for describing the AC of their builds, it's crazy. You've done a good job leveling the field.
Posted by Elysius at 2008-11-2510:21:10
@Kepler, Actually, the enchanting of items mostly follows the crafting rules of MotB. As for items that are not crafted, such as the Bracers of Armor +10, I couldn't really recall whether they were in MotB, but since they were in the toolset, I put them in my module. I could restrict the items to those that could be found in the OC or MotB if only I had a reference to what items are available in these campaigns. _________________________ Yay, I have a blog. Faithless: The Making of an NWN2 Module
Posted by Kepler at 2008-11-2220:38:28
I was looking through the gear of each of the builds in the pdf and noticed many use the "Bracers of Armor +10". These bracers aren't found anywhere in the campaigns. There's an item ID form them in the toolset, but they aren't in the campaigns. I thought equipment was restricted to what could be found in the main storyline. Or am I mistaken?
Posted by Elysius at 2008-09-1521:41:15
@d00wal, If anyone is willing to do what you suggest, they are free to rip my AI scripts and adapt them for their own module. The usual protocol is to credit the person whose work you're using in your own module, of course. As for me, I'll beg off from incorporating PrC packs into Battle of the Builds. Doing that will be a ton of work. @smallredbird364, Hi, I read your email to me, but I thought you were referring to my Peek-a-BIC program. I didn't realize that you were actually referring to my Battle of the Builds module. Since I don't know how much you know about running community-created modules in NWN2, I hope you don't mind if I give detailed instructions below. It's better to err on the side of giving too much info rather than giving too little. Anyhow, to run the module, you have to put the module file in the folder "My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\modules". When you've done that, run NWN2. At the opening screen, click "New Game". At the next set of menus, click "New Module" then click "Battle of the Builds" from the list of modules that will appear. Click the "Start Module" button that is at the lower right corner of the screen. From there you can either create a new character or select one of the existing ones that you already have in your computer. I hope this helps. _________________________ Yay, I have a blog. Faithless: The Making of an NWN2 Module
Posted by smallredbird364 at 2008-09-1509:26:43
i am having some trouble with getting the program to work. "This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem." i installed the program into my localvault folder, i tried redownloading it, even moving it. now is it something wrong im doing?
Posted by d00wal at 2008-09-0403:57:20
Heya, Just a thought, but I wonder if anyone would be willing to incorporate Kaedrin's PrC pack into this mod? I mean, make some AI builds using Kaedrin's work. I can just imagine the sheer amount of backside-kicking builds that can be added for so much fun... "To paraphrase, 'I think, therefore I scram'"
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