Does Parry offer any passive aid in combat, or is it an invoked skill only?

In the past, I thought I understood this skill and was using it effectively (on other PWs and mods), but on EfU, I am having trouble with it.

Much thanks for input.

Parry is solely an Active skill, however, when activated, it stays so until disabled (like Power Attack). But if I were you I wouldn't bother about it anyways. I've had but bad experiences with that skill.

I've experimented a little with Parry skill, and my conclusion is that you should never put any points in it. Only way you should even consider it, is that max it out with full ranks and take the Skill Focus : Parry feat, and even then it's not very useful.

Enemies need actually score a hit against your AC until you can Parry it, and even then the DC is 10 greater than their to-hit roll, for you to be able to try the Riposte counter-attack. Fighting more than one enemy, the skill becomes increasingly less useful.

You're much better off with just taking Expertise.

well then, I have been burning points on nothing :-(

Parry is useful for some roleplaying sparring sessions and when you have a group that needs a single enemy busy while they smack him down. That's about it.

My recom.'s - don't put more points into that skill. :)

It is (I believe) unmodified, and is an active mode. However, it is a skill that can really and truly be quite effective in some situations on servers like EfU in particular (low levels). Definitely not a waste.

http://www.nwnwiki.org/Parry

I'd have to disagree on even that, Howland. There are plenty of monsters with two attacks per round in EfU, and even one such is enough to demonstrate the skill's bugginess. An example:

Your character has two attacks per round. You use Parry against an enemy that also has two attacks per round. You parry the first attack and beat the attack roll by 10 or more, thus gaining a Riposte attack. Since Parry works the way it does -- Riposte counts as a parrying attempt and you may not parry more attacks than you yourself have (or max one per flurry) -- you now have no parrying attempts left for the monster's second attack and are helpless to do anything about it if it beats your AC.

Now, if you know precisely how the skill works and are able to avoid using it in situations like the above where it would be suicidal, then it may be a worthwhile skill. I don't think anyone knows for certain exactly how Parry works, though, so I'm not sure if it'd be a wise idea even then. If your character dies because you used a buggy NWN feature, there's nothing else that can be said than "tough luck".

My character's parry skill is extremely high. In cases of 1 versus 1 combat, parry has done him good where his 15 AC would fail him. Parry is not made for fighters, but for people who have low AC.

Anthee

Riposte counts as a parrying attempt and you may not parry more attacks than you yourself have (or max one per flurry) -- you now have no parrying attempts left for the monster's second attack and are helpless to do anything about it if it beats your AC. .

If this is the case it's definitely not working the way it's described. That wouldn't make any sense at all. The riposte should count as part of the first parry.

I've used parry effectively in situations where I'm fighting one enemy (I switch to expertise when there are more). I have more problems with expertise and the way it's implemented. Specifically the fact that it switches off every time you drop out of combat mode. This can be fatal if you're fighting in a crowd and suddenly "can not reach target." You find yourself standing there, being attacked, with your AC suddenly reduced by 5. I can only hope that gets fixed in NWN2.

I too suggest using Expertise instead, since you will likely need it as a non-fighter with INT and a vulnerable AC and wants to fight...aka, Rogue or Rogue/Fighter.

Good enough for low levels if you have the extra bonuses such as skill focus: parry and improved parry. Unfortunately it falls flat in the situations described with anything with more than one attack, or in facing more than one opponent, and also at levels above 6 in PvP when people begin getting more than one attack at decent AB. As stated it has good application and use, but in the proper situations.

Well, one thing I have noticed is considerable lag in switching to Parry mode, where 2 or 3 attacks pass before I switch.

I also am usually being set upon by several smaller creatures (bats or rats) or one (or more :roll: ) larger creatures like giant spiders or rat-men. I am not sure if they have more than one attack per round, but usually when I try to switch to parry mode, I get hit for most of my health and am sent packing.

Also, as it stands, its really senseless to stand there and give your opponent(s) numerous free shots at you while you parry and attempt to reposte... making no active offense. In my mind, it translates to waiting for your opponent to get lucky...

Its things like this that make people start min/max'ing their skills, ya know?

Take a dex based rogue with plenty of skills to spare, but not much in the ways of feats. If you're tumbling around getting sneaks on the monsters your party is fighting, and all of a sudden a big monster starts focusing on you, it can be very useful to quickly switch to parry. For many characters, it is far easier to invest skill points into parry than it is to take an expertise feat.

I'm well aware of the limitations of the skill, but for many kinds of characters it can have remarkable, life-saving situational use.

One thing that needs to be kept in mind about parry is that it is a dex skill. On a dex build with improved parry and skill focus:parry feats you will reposte often.

I'm toying with it on another server with a level 9 ranger against very risky giants, one on one, or with my animal companion, two on one. This ranger has 20 dex, 12 parry skill ranks, improved parry feat, skill focus:parry feat. His parry skill is 24. It is working very nice versus one opponent with +11 BAB. Two opponents may be doable. 4 opponents, no. I'm not totally sold on it because I'm still not done testing it and I haven't yet determined why I sometimes take damage. The attack screen scrolls fast.

It goes well with an animal companion. The panther is nice for the sneak attack damage. But on that server, the opponents target sneak attackers. So, I have to switch it off/on to get the opponents attention again or stop wasting time. In parry mode you will not attack. You just stand there in parry stance unless you are attacked. I use it with a shield for the occasional failure. If I have a 2nd opponent to deal with I dual-weild. I think I get aother parry like that. It would be nice if you get one parry/riposte combo per attack. :)

I imagine a front line of parrying dex builds could be effective.

It would be really really nice if parry got repaired in patch 1.67, if it's broken.

Edit: It seems that natural 20s cannot be parried.

Howland Take a dex based rogue with plenty of skills to spare, but not much in the ways of feats. If you're tumbling around getting sneaks on the monsters your party is fighting, and all of a sudden a big monster starts focusing on you, it can be very useful to quickly switch to parry. For many characters, it is far easier to invest skill points into parry than it is to take an expertise feat.

I'm well aware of the limitations of the skill, but for many kinds of characters it can have remarkable, life-saving situational use.

You precisely described who I am using it on (I wonder how you did that :D). I have 10 parry, 19 dex, and sneak well. When things turn to hit me though, by the time the Parry gets up, I have taken a beating, and often, as soon as it goes in to effect, the baddy has retargetted on another assailant... making me question my choice.

I think I will stop raising it from here on out though, and focus on diversifying my skillset to make for a more well rounded rogue. I have taken a smattering of points across a lot of rarely used social skills for RP purposes, along with points in pocket dipping, even though its 99.96% worthless on EFU as far as I can tell. Aside from Rufus, nobody is giving me scripted dialog options to pick their pockets, and I am not going to risk getting caught with a -44 PP randomly checking it against every other NPC :?

Pickpocket also counts toward hiding items during searches.

Arkov Pickpocket also counts toward hiding items during searches.

How does that work exactly?

Does PP effect concealed looting success?

And for both, are the formula's for such checks made with the adjusted negative PP score, or do they use the real skill level?

It affects concealed looting as well.

They're both made with the correct score, not the modified one.

How does one go about concealing things in a search situation?

Is that a OOC skill check, or is there a mechanism for searching, and concealing?

In fact, how do you search a persons belongings?

Sorry for all the questions, but these aspects of the skill are new to me, and seeing as I spent the points, I better learn how to use them to their fullest.

If there is a resource you can link me to, I will leave you alone :D

for now

Searching will change eventually. Presently it can only be done via the guard rod. It will eventually be changed so that anybody can search anybody else (as long as the victim consents, or is beaten down). Concealment is automatic-- a pickpocket versus search/spot (modified by some other factors, don't remember exactly what) is rolled for each item, and if the check is successful, the searcher won't see the item.

You can not parry more attacks per round, then you can make per round. This makes it.... incredibly useless in my opinion heh, though if you have skill points to spare its not neccesarily a waste.

If you fail on parry check vs enemies ab and they get to swing at you, do they still attack vs your ac?

Yes