[Wids]

So one of the Forgotten Realms groups or factions which has intrigued me for years is the Scarlet Mummers. They are to the rest of the Church of Lliira what the Companions of the Noble Heart are to the Church of Ilmater: They kick ass (and willfully sully themselves through the kicking of ass) so that their peace-loving brethren don't have to kick ass.

What I know about the Scarlet Mummers:

1) They often receive their orders directly from Lliira (who, despite being a minor goddess, apparently has time to monitor every last Mummer in existence and to personally weed out both fallen Mummers or impostors pretending to be Mummers).
2) They passionately Kung Fu Loviatans to death and go after whatever other enemies oppose Lliira and her Church as well.
3) They place great emphasis on agility, incorporating such nimbleness into both their entertaining performances and their martial prowess.
4) They earned their name from their first appearance: After a Loviatan assassinated Lliira's Revelmistress in Selgaunt (an assassination which I imagine was neither quick, painless nor pretty), a troupe of performing scarlet-clad mummers appeared outside Loviatar's temple in Selgaunt and put on a big performance. When the Loviatans grabbed their whips and hurried outside to chase the mummers off, the mummers converged on them and whooped their asses.
5) Their weapons of choice are bladed boots. I don't see anything which says whether or not Scarlet Mummers were proficient with other weapons as well (or how keen their spellcasting may be), but they definitely favor the boots.

I doubt that Lliira, being a Chaotic Good deity, has any monks or paladins. But if one were to build a Scarlet Mummer character (not that I will be adding any new characters to my roster anytime soon, mind you), what might be some good builds or Class combinations for such a character? And how would Scarlet Mummers as a whole be best handled on this server, factionwise or otherwise?

[DarkRanger]

Divine Champion with all the unarmed related feats.

[Bishop Edward]

Only clerical types are actually limited by deity alignment... plenty of chaotic gods have lawful followers (such as monks) and visa versa (lawful gods with chaotic followers such as bards), so they very well could be monks,

Actually what I would think would work best, though it would take a lot of alignment finagling, would be a monk/bard of some nature.

[Wids]

Yeah, it would take a lot of Alignment shifts to create a Bard/Monk in the first place. But what about a Bard/Divine Champion? You'd need 10 Levels in Bard before you could take a Level in Divine Champion, but that might work. And Divine Champion would fit the concept perfectly; the Mummers are said to take their orders directly from Lliira herself, after all.

Alternately, what about an unarmored or lightly armored Bard/Fighter? The Fighter bonus feats could be used to shore up the Mummer's fighting style, while the Bard half would shore up the Mummer's charismatic, performing side.

(If only NWN had followed tabletop's lead and let the non-Bard Classes take ranks in Perform. Monks and Rogues in PnP D&D can take Perform as a Class Skill. That could have been useful.)

[Wids]

Hey, look what I found! :)

http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Category_talk:...ive_skills

It turns out that, with a little .2da editing, those exclusive Skills (Animal Empathy, Perform and Use Magic Device) can be made available to all Classes (or most Classes, or some, or none at all).

Of course, I could see issues with game balance cropping up if any character could take ranks in Animal Empathy or Use Magic Device; a Fighter leading a dire bear around and blasting people with a Wand of Lightning Bolts could be quite the force to be reckoned with. But as NWN stands, Perform is only useable by Bards and is only used for Bardic Music and Curse Song, Feats which no other class has. So if Perform were made available to classes besides Bard, I don't see how that would make a character more powerful; all it would do is add another facet to roleplay, which could be a good thing. If your Tempuran Fighter is a poetic soul who writes a new poem or a new song every time he survives a major battle, one would expect him to have at least a few ranks in Perform to back up his habit. Sinking points into Perform wouldn't make him a better Fighter, but it could make him a better character.

But I'm wondering how editing that .2da can differentiate between Class Skills and Cross-Class Skills. Would it be possible to follow the tabletop books and make Perform a Class Skill for Bards, Rogues and Monks while making it a Cross-Class Skill for everyone else?

I might have to back up my own skills.2da file, edit it and see what I come up with. :-/

(Also, it's good to see our own server represented on the Wikia, but what was this other Thay of which the Wikia speaks?)

[DarkRanger]

Wow I always wondered that myself. I'm guessing it's defunct now.

[Animayhem]

I like the fact of some class feats and skills being limited to that class. With the enchanting forge one can get spells and other things added of other classes to use. Yes but some people say" But that costs so much gold and Xp". Yes it should.

The restrictions make things challenging. For instance Marister is a pure ranger and as such is unable to take skills in UMD so cannot use wands or rods. So that comes to a decision one has to make. Does one stick with the ranger or take a few rogue levels so they can use devices? Personally for Marister I have decided to stay pure ranger. Eventually if he ever gets enough gold he may enhance items with spells. Also this place has quests by which you can get special items to augment what you lack.

Caramiriel is a powerful Druidess yet some arcane spells, especially defensive, are a nice back up. So she saved her gold and added some arcane spells to items she
has which has saved her and her traveling buddies at times. Many times she rarely has to use them but they are a nice back up.

This is just my personal view. :)

[Wids]

That's nice, Animayhem. But you may not have read the bulk of my post, where I said, in essence, "Animal Empathy and UMD could cause problems if made available to every Class; Perform, however, wouldn't cause any problems as far as I can see." The powergamers might call Perform a waste of Skill Points for non-Bards, but that's why powergamers tend to be lousy roleplayers.

[Animayhem]

That's nice, Animayhem. But you may not have read the bulk of my post, where I said, in essence, "Animal Empathy and UMD could cause problems if made available to every Class; Perform, however, wouldn't cause any problems as far as I can see." The powergamers might call Perform a waste of Skill Points for non-Bards, but that's why powergamers tend to be lousy roleplayers.

Yes I did. However I could see it opening a whole can of worms. If there was enough people to back modifed changes then go for it. Maybe submit your idea to Sundroi who can run it by the staff. Just because a skill may be modifed it still may not be used. Actually Animal empathy and UMD have built in dice rolls here. Classes who have that do not always succeed.

I disagree to your statement on powergamers. We should refrain from making generalizations about gameplaying styles. :)

[dark_majico]

I like the fact of some class feats and skills being limited to that class. With the enchanting forge one can get spells and other things added of other classes to use. Yes but some people say" But that costs so much gold and Xp". Yes it should.

The restrictions make things challenging. For instance Marister is a pure ranger and as such is unable to take skills in UMD so cannot use wands or rods. So that comes to a decision one has to make. Does one stick with the ranger or take a few rogue levels so they can use devices? Personally for Marister I have decided to stay pure ranger. Eventually if he ever gets enough gold he may enhance items with spells. Also this place has quests by which you can get special items to augment what you lack.

Caramiriel is a powerful Druidess yet some arcane spells, especially defensive, are a nice back up. So she saved her gold and added some arcane spells to items she
has which has saved her and her traveling buddies at times. Many times she rarely has to use them but they are a nice back up.

This is just my personal view. :)

Is it multi classing that you want to avoid or is it just that rouge doesn't fit in with your characters personality, because if your character has an interest in wands or rods then they might feel inclined to study wizardry, but if your talking about your own desire to use rods or wands then I understand.