Who's the Best Ranged User?

[Death Knight]

Ok, this might not make sense but bear with me-Ive been thinking of the ranged possibilities in all the games and while thinking of the avernum series, I thought of g series. While avernum almost completely forces you to use bows, geneforge gives you many classes that sort of overlap each other.

 

You get a warrior. This class is excellent at missile weapons, meh at shaping and bad at magic

 

You get a servile. This class is just as the warrior, great at missile weapons, and ok at magic, shaping w/e.

 

You get an infiltrator, who is pretty good at missiles and excellent at magic, with no emphasis for shaping.

 

The question about all this rant is of the 3 (or 4) solo characters, which one is the best missile weapons/baton expert? I never sort of understood the real difference between a warrior and a servile only that the warrior is more defensive due to better healing and the servile is capable at magic. The infiltrator might pose a threat as well though as she is excellent at magic and not so bad at shaping. The only way i can see the warrior standing at all to this is if you went pretty gungho on augmentation through healing spells, thus making yourself a hardy sniper.

 

I would have included the shocktrooper but that makes no sense as any shocktrooper that doesnt use creations wouldnt work ever.

 

Has anyone ever decided who is the ultimate king of missile weapons in geneforge series.

[Alorael at Large]

You get one good skill set, one average skill set, and one poor skill set. Of note, the poor set for the infiltrator is shaping. They're not quite "not so bad," although their weakness is one of the easiest to circumvent with equipment.

 

If all you care about is using missile weapons, the guardian/warrior and servile are equally good with them. It's a matter of secondary priorities: do you want to add shaping, the former are better. If not, go with the latter.

 

If you want to use any ranged attacks, the agent/infiltrator becomes much more viable, especially in early games. A combination of magic and running away is very effective, but that magic is often mental magic and not direct damage.

 

—Alorael, who wouldn't say that Geneforge is in general friendly to missile-only characters. Someone in your party has to be in melee except if you focus on an early-game shaping strategy of first strikes.

[Slawbug]

I know that in G3, I did the numbers out and the Agent was literally hands down, in every situation, better at missile weapons than the Guardian, if you put similar amounts of points into each. I don't know if this applies to the same extent in G4 and G5, but I expect at least that Warriors and Serviles are not much better with missiles than Infiltrators and Shock Troopers.

[Randomizer]

It also depends upon which secondary skills you want to use with missile attacks. Warrior/Guardian have better healing to keep you in the fight while an Agent/Infiltrator or Servile can use blessing and mental magic to shoot better and daze opponents that could hit back.

[Slawbug]

Warrior/Guardian do not have better healing. It's true they get Healing Craft cheaper, but having a high Healing Craft score is not really useful, whereas having a high Spellcraft score is decent. So in practice, Agent/Infiltrator has better healing.

[Death Knight]

Im mainly looking for someone that is average at fighting, but amazing at healing/augmentation. If i remember correctly, augmentation is a lot of fun as it gives you extra health making you more hardy. i always thought that was pretty cool running around with a crazy amount of life as an agent in g1. Id play the shocktrooper missile style, but is it possible to do that without shaping? I tried doing the shaping this time with a melee shocktrooper and i couldnt get into it. Shaping was never fun for me in any of the geneforge games. Would that work if i got augment and some of the crazy good healing spells that heal anything+plus a bit of regular magic (bless, haste) and missiles. I'd still have a large essence pool, i just wouldnt be the best at regular magic. Has anyone tried the shocktrooper solo without creations?

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Death Knight

Im mainly looking for someone that is average at fighting, but amazing at healing/augmentation. If i remember correctly, augmentation is a lot of fun as it gives you extra health making you more hardy.

You probably want a servile. They have excellent HP, good combat skills and decent magic for buffing and crowd control.

Playing a shock trooper with no creations is sort of pointless: you could do it, but why would you want to? They only have average combat skills and poor magic skills, so a warrior or servile will be a better solo character.

[Alorael at Large]

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S

I know that in G3, I did the numbers out and the Agent was literally hands down, in every situation, better at missile weapons than the Guardian, if you put similar amounts of points into each. I don't know if this applies to the same extent in G4 and G5, but I expect at least that Warriors and Serviles are not much better with missiles than Infiltrators and Shock Troopers.

Link or explain? I can't imagine how the class with cheaper skills is beaten by the class with more expensive skills. I'll buy that the agent is better at range, but not strictly with batons and javelins.

—Alorael, who thinks you're better off with a character that excels a its tactics rather than one that can be buffed to excel at its tactics. Fewer turns are wasted buffing. The ideal is excellence with the potential to buff even more, of course, and that's where serviles and agents come in.

[Micawber]

Agents have 2 extra points of dexterity, and that cancels out the cheaper cost of missile weapons skill.

[Slawbug]

Micawber is correct.

 

The other key is that, since Dexterity pumps batons and javelins just as much as Missile Weapons does, the Agent does not actually pay 1 skill point extra per point invested. Instead, the Agent pays 1 skill point extra per point invested in Missile Weapons, which (if you are maximizing missile attack ability) is going to be a few skill points LESS than what she saves by buying 2 fewer points of Dexterity.