I was wondering about the use of some skills and feats in ToEE and how much use or usefulness they get or have. I am generally more a Roleplayer when it comes to my charecters then a min/maxer so I don't mind if their use is limited, but I do like them to have at least some use or opportunity during game to make use of them. So I am starting this thread to see if anyone has made use of certain skills and/or feats that are generally considered sub-par (in the computer game not PnP). But have come across situations or made good use of them or want to find out if anyone else has used a skill effectively that they they haven't yet. To start off... here is three? 1. I probly brought this up a year ago or so, but it seems the Rangers Tracking skill is about worthless in ToEE which is to bad that there is not some scenario where to get a bad guy and award or find somebody and reward relying on the tracking skill doesn't at least happen once. So has anyone ever used track in this game where it made a difference? 2. Blind-fighting this feat just didn't seem to get much use to me, and then I started using smoke sticks to give my opponant the concealment penalty in melee while I could fight in the fog penalty free...also gave new use to the fog banks, and other concealment spells at first I avoided them as my allies took the penalties as well as foes, but give your warriors and rouges blind fighting and smoke them with spells and sticks and it can turn the advantage in tough encounters where your Armor class can't hold up against the bad guys. 3. Slieght of hand, ok always avoided putting points into this skill even with my thieves because it just didn't seem like situations came up where I felt a need to pick pocket anyone...out of curosity does anyone use this skill much?
I've found the Tracking feat rather important, unless you don't mind your overland map encounters to start with the baddies right on top of you. Although you will see that this feat is far different in TOEE than it is in the actual DnD rules. High tracking = further distance between you and foes at start of battle. Blind Fight is a feat that I think every melee character should have as it negates many advantages the baddies might have, (as you pointed out). The skill Sleight of Hand is nice, (especially in a role play fashion) because my rogue just can't keep her hands out of almost everyone's pockets. Sleight of hand can even come in handy when solving a few of the main quests.
Interesting, I knew that the survival skill affected your choice to avoid a random encounter when traveling, but was not aware that tracking..effected the distance at which those encounters were started at. Thats the kind of nuggets I was searching for Sirchet . I figured there are other little things out there like that are not easily found. I play alot of Rangers too and it never occured to me thier tracking skill was setting up the distance..always thought it was just random, but I will be looking for the difference between parties I have rangers and those I don't in the future.
