confused

[GodBeastX]

strange, i swore when I was using a tower shield with an alt I was suffering -2 attack bonus.

It's all a matter of style and perspective on how you utilize a fighter. As far as a fighter not being able to get some might ACs? Seriously, with imp combat expertise and heavy armor/tower shields it's pretty damn good without any magical means.

Lyonette's fighting style alone reinforces my point.

Every fight I saw Lyonette in, she lost I mean, a scythe weapon master can crit for over 200 depending on build. If he gets you on first hit, what's the point of all that AC?

[Fajitaduke]

I'll look into it when I get a chance; no idea when I'll get home tonight, though.

I'll try to get it figured out before I delete the character (was one of a few test characters for trying out the server before I rolled up my permanent one).

[Xanderleo]

*slaps forehead* I give up.

That sounds exactly like Deflect Arrows. Open your character sheet, click the "Feats" Tab and scroll through to see if you have it.

[Fajitaduke]

Ah, by message I meant it shows up in the stat box where you see the rolls and modifiers for hits and damage. It says *deflected* or *arrow deflected* or some such thing (don't recall exactly). In the game engine, the effect is the arrow bouncing off my character and hitting the ground, but no floating test message like a true parry effect.

[Xanderleo]

I see, this is what threw me. By "message" I meant the big white message that floats above the character's head when a feat or something like it, gets activated.

Interesting find there though, but I can't for the life of me figure why they would have coded the engine to say that at it serves no purpose to put into text. Not only is it redundant, but it's confusing since there's an actual skill that deals with parrying *choke*

Oh well, anyway. Glad you got it sorted.

Edit: Wait, didn't you say you were getting the "Arrow deflected" message...not the "Parry" message? I'd do another forum search.

[Fajitaduke]

According to a poster on the Bioware boards, its shield-related:

http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums...hlight=deflect

"Is this happening to any character that isn't using a shield? I think this goes back to the NWN engine. Basically, if a ranged attack would have hit your character if they hadn't been wearing a shield, it gets marked as a 'parry' in the combat log. Any further shots are probably counted as misses because they're subsequent attacks and wouldn't have likely hit to begin with."

[Xanderleo]

It's a free granted feat for the Monk and Duelist. It requires a prerequisite otherwise, so you probably didn't take it by accident.

No race or sheild feat (that I know of) grants this ability.

I'm somewhat confused now.

[Fajitaduke]

Thanks, I don't recall ever selecting this feat. Is it class or race based? Or tied to shield feat or another feat?

[Xanderleo]

The former. Am I confusing unrelated functions?

Yup!

The former is a feat that requires no activation, the latter a skill that does require activation (and further does not work against missles).

As for seeing it occasionally...that's only because it will automatically deflect the first incoming missle attack each round. Let's hope it's the one that was going to do the most damage!

You won't deflect a missle if you're flatfooted regardless...i.e., shot from behind or before your initiative.

[Fajitaduke]

The former. Am I confusing unrelated functions?

[Xanderleo]

You get the *Arrow Deflected message* or the *Parry Successful* message?

If it's the latter, it may be a bug...that's not how it should work.

[Fajitaduke]

It's not just graphical with the shield, since I get a message when it happens.

The character is an elven bard, on the off chance that makes a difference.

[Xanderleo]

Parry only works against melee attacks, so I'm pretty sure that's graphical, Fajitaduke. Some times when an arrow misses the AC of a character holding a sheild, it looks like it hits the shield. This is just to mix things up a bit visually. (just like characters do different attack and dodge animations).

A good way to see if you're actually deflecting the arrows is that you'll see it fly off in a different direction when it gets deflected.

The nice thing about the Duelist granted Deflect Arrows is you don't need to meet the feat prerequisite of Improved Unarmed strike.

[Fajitaduke]

I just gave duelist a quick try in the early going of MOTB, and it worked rather well.

One thing I've noticed is that my low level test character on Sundren (who has no parry skill and is never in parry mode) was able to parry arrows from time to time, but the duelist was not able to do so (deflect arrows being a skill picked up by the duelist at higher levels than I tested).

Was my low level character parrying arrows by holding a shield?

Defense against missile weapons seems like one area a parry-based defender might be relatively weaker than an armored equivalent.

[Fajitaduke]

Ok, now my mind is spinning from all manner of possibilities for my character.