Willpower on front row melee?

[Sheogorath]

Hi there! First post.

I usually go for max dex on my front row melees (figher and rouge) because of accuracy and evasion bonuses. Rest of the points in vitality. On my first playthrough I did a lot of 2x2 with my mace fighter to even out some experience imbalances (due to slow cooldown and reliance on ranged attacks, I guess) and with 50 Maces he did run out of energy pretty fast.

Is it "worth it" to invest in Willpower on front row melees for more damge output via special moves? They DO a lot of damage. Maybe it's a worthwhile trade off? What do you say? Could "max will" on one slow hitter be part of an interesting build?

Best regards!

/Sheo of Sweden

[Thels]

Willpower is useful to a majority of class/skill combinations, though there are a few, like the missile weapon rogue, that really don't need any energy. Another reason why Minotaurs make fantastic archers.

[Sheogorath]

Willpower is useful to a majority of class/skill combinations, though there are a few, like the missile weapon rogue, that really don't need any energy. Another reason why Minotaurs make fantastic archers.

That it's useful for a melee is quite obvious, don't you think?

Question being: would investing points (maybe all of them) upon character creation be a good trade off for a front row melee? There is a price to pay: less points for str, dex and vit!

[Thels]

Energy would result in extra damage on longer fights. Vitality would help your survivability. It's kind of hard to compare the two.

Nonetheless, I used 2 lizardmen in the front row on hard, and left their willpower on 8. They were Unarmed and Swords. Towards the later levels, after they had gotten some of their specials, their energy was sometimes completely drained on the longer fights, limiting the effect of their attacks.

[Sheogorath]

I now have played through the game with a human fighter ("Lord Willax") maxed out in Willpower with the "Strong Mind" and "Aggressive" traits. He used the Conjurer's Hat on all level ups from (I think) 5 to 15. Built him for 50 Axes and 25 Armor. Conclusions:

• He never ran out of energy, not even close, therefore:
• Such a set up would suit a faster hitting character better. Even so:
• I doubt that it's a trade of worth doing. Higher dexterity is more valuable for a fighter, as is vitality. This char started out with 10 dex and 14 vitality and simply got hit too often, even though he had the Scaled cloak and Shield of Valor and the 25 in armor skill (double bonus from equipped shield). Full Valor set doesn't do much good when getting his by an ogre or one of these monstous flail wielding thingies in the end game.

My "max dex" human rogue ("Faron the Fighter") with "Fist Fighter" and "Evasive" traits (50 unarmed, 2 dodge, 4 missile and 4 daggers (both for dex bonuses)) with full Lurker + Scaled Cloak simply was a better fighter, even though his energy was significantly lower.

An interesting experiment, all in all. Even though I wasn't perfectly happy with my "max will fighter" it was a very powerful party containing also a human mage with 50 spellcraft and 13 ice magic (for frost bolt) as well as a max strength minotaur rogue with 50 throwing, 2 dodge, 4 assassination and some spare points. Low energy for the front row melees simply isn't an issue if nearly any monster you face goes down within seconds after impact. A freezing frost bolt from the mage, a couple of throws from the minotaur (double damage because of "double throw" technique) and like one swing each from the front row = dead critter.

Final conclusion is that maxing dex on the fighter and giving him swords instead of axes would be the perfect thing to do if you wanted to "max" this setup.

[Thels]

Of course maxing out Willpower does nothing for survivability. The question is, would he deal less damage if his Willpower was not maxed out.

[Sheogorath]

Of course maxing out Willpower does nothing for survivability. The question is, would he deal less damage if his Willpower was not maxed out.

Answer is most likely "no", because, as I wrote, he was never even close to energy drained. The team took out critters too fast and he is a slow hitter with the axe. Maxing dex for better evasion and accuracy would be the better option. As expected I guess, but it was a fun try, and now we know, at least with this setup.

[Thels]

The big question is then, would he have been depleted of energy without all the additional willpower? I doubt so, but if you consistently found him out of energy without the additional willpower, then it might've been an improvement.

I expect it to be more efficient on unarmed and swords, both of which have pretty fast attacks.

[Sheogorath]

The big question is then, would he have been depleted of energy without all the additional willpower? I doubt so, but if you consistently found him out of energy without the additional willpower, then it might've been an improvement.

I expect it to be more efficient on unarmed and swords, both of which have pretty fast attacks.

My unarmed human rogue with Willpower 10 was down on half energy at most, so again, I don't think additional Will on a melee warrior do much good. Maybe with 50 swords because of the double speed. Someone could give it a try, perhaps.

Ps. from dungeon level 6 and downwards all my party members were on class level 14 so many monsters simply wersn't tough enough to survive all that long. Without grinding the situation might be different.