Sniper with no armor or dodge?

[Van]

You may think this is a crazy idea, but I've been thinking seriously about switching to a sniping/picker. Right now I'm a balanced OHE/Shield/Picker, but something occured to me recently - often, during a typical hunt, the critters never see me - not once. So, all of those points I have put into Armor, Dodge, and Shield are pretty much wasted 90% of the time. Granted, on the 10% chance that I'm revealed before the ambush, they save me from dying, but that's only 10% of the time. It occured to me that if I had all of those points put purely into sniping, I could uphunt considerably, which would reduce my hunting time before I get fried, which would reduce the amount encounters each outing, which would also further reduce the percentage of "getting revealed", which would also increase my down time and "picking time".

Has anyone gone physcho and nearly eliminated the defensive skills? I'm not talking zero points, but something very, very low. Like .25 in Dodge and Armor and picking up a Bow. I realize this would llimit the types of creatures you fight, but I'm already doing that now...I rarely fight creatures that have a decent chance of finding me anyways.

Does the use of a bow significantly increase your chances of being revealed in hiding? I might think that going from 2x Stalking/Hiding to 3x Staling/Hiding would easily compensate for this. I might even think just a change from 2x to 2.5x would offset the difference, seeing as how I"m rearely discovered while at 2x.

[Artha]

Not to be too much of a negative nancy, but I think it's a pretty awful idea and you'll regret it if you do it.

[fallenSaint]

Originally posted by Artha
Not to be too much of a negative nancy, but I think it's a pretty awful idea and you'll regret it if you do it. :yeahthat:

[Bobmuhthol]

As an archer, I had 2x picking/disarming, 3x hiding/perception, 2x ambush/ranged, 35 armor ranks, and I think 2x dodge. I don't know why you would ever have to sacrifice defense for archery, since it's very easy to have the best archery with great defense.

[Alfster]

Well if they hit you 10 percent of the time...

...and you kill 10 critters per hunt, there's one time per hunt you're going to get nailed by dropping all that shit.

Do it though, the clerics will love you.

[Drew]

Sniping's just not effective enough for this. I know several rogue archers who wear brig, 2x dodge and 30 armour ranks isn't that tough.

[Gizmo]

What Bob and Drew say hold true, stick with 30 armor ranks and go with the brig...35 Ranks if you plan on casting in it. Brig isn't the toughest armor around, but it does protect nicely yet isn't so heavy on your damn body.

Armor Use..........................| 130 35
Combat Maneuvers...................| 90 20 <--Migrating to 6
Ranged Weapons.....................| 148 48
Ambush.............................| 150 50
Physical Fitness...................| 150 50
Dodging............................| 150 50
Harness Power......................| 50 10
Stalking and Hiding................| 150 50
Perception.........................| 150 50
Climbing...........................| 120 30
Swimming...........................| 120 30

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 8

[fallenSaint]

Also how fun would travel scripts be if anything that took a shot at you as you ran through would have a decent chance at disabling you.

[Van]

All points are very well taken - thanks all.

[FinisWolf]

A point that may have been overlooked, or perhaps not, but you were speaking of uphunting if you made this change. The more you uphunt, the easier it is for the critters to see you, so that 10% could easily jump to 25 to 50%, if not more depending on the critter.

Finis

[Krayton]

First off, how old is your character? When you get to be around 35+, there's no way you won't be sniffed out by SOME critter if you plan on uphunting, even only a few levels. Good luck staying hidden on roa'ters even if you are tripled in hiding.

[The Ponzzz]

Why hunt roa'ters? You can easily by pass any "animal" like creature for quite some time... Can hunt humaniod creatures up until mid 50s. Then it gets hard...

Personally, as a sniping rogue with thrown weapons, I find no use for dodge... I have been slowly dropping it. I don't uphunt much at all though... 1.5x seems like a waste right now, so I'm going for 1.25x and most likely will get it to 1x.