My Completely Generic Greeting

[Noone]

Hello, I figured it was proper for new members to make completely generic and boring introductions. Anyways, during one of my late-night random searches through the internet, I found the DMFA comic, and I have to say it's quite excellent, and it gives me something to browse through late at night when I should be studying for my exams.
*cough cough*, anyways, on a more serious note, I was quite impressed with the comic, but perhaps more so with the extensive background information that went with it, and it makes web comics much more understandable and complete, rather than the type that makes me want to throw my laptop out a window so I never have to see it again.

About me, I'm a college student learning how to program(though I do know how to code in Java, I'm learning C++ this year), I'm also an active chess-player, and a DnD (Dungeons and Dragons) player. I also get a craving for RPing occasionally, (and NWN doesn't fulfill that requirement). Anyways, I hope to be an active member of this community.

*Smiles and waves*,... or something along those lines.

[Tapewolf]

Welcome aboard.  Don't forget to read - and follow - the rules, and don't do anything silly like provoking the moderators.  Apart from that have fun.

I program in a slightly C-like interpretation of C++ for a living, but I don't know Java.  Sometimes I wish we'd been taught it at uni instead of Smalltalk, which is a useless crock.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

The only thing I've run across programmed in smalltalk is swiki, and that's a crock.

Any wiki that corrupts itself, but continues to run happily until you reboot it, upon which it promptly claims it never worked, and that there's an error somewhere, but it won't tell you where...

... or that implements an entire graphical desktop in the wiki code, which is required to config the thing, or to debug it...

... or that stores the DB in random collections of xml, with no line breaks for no reason other than it wants to lower disk space usage...

... is to my mind, somewhat flawed.

But I digress.

[Noone]

Java certainly has it's role as a 'first-learned-language', it's mathematically intuitive. One of my favorite things about java though is the Javadocs, the information is so much more readily available than say... for C++, which I can spend an hour trying to find whatever function I'm looking for C++ where it would only take a minute to find it for java. Compilation and running java code is quite easy, just type 'javac file.java' and it's done, then 'java file' to run, instead of 'g++ -c file.cpp file.h' and then 'g++ -o file.o'... etc. On the other hand, from what I have heard, java isn't useful for more specialized applications, and it's GUI aspects are not very powerful, particularly nasty for games.

[Tapewolf]

At the firm I work for, we do use Java for the Blackberry, because there is no alternative.  Practically everyone who has ended up developing for that device has sworn eternal hatred for the language as a result.  To be fair, a lot of this may be down to RIM's shitty implementation rather than the language itself per se.

For C++, you either want an IDE or makefiles.  Invoking the compiler directly from the shell is something you only usually do if it's a one-file program.

[Brunhidden]

welcome, feel free to ask questions about any of our more.... unusual compatriots, i enjoy enlightening those who come by before the mob of insanity has too much chance to inflict itself on newbies

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Hey Kobra. Nice to see you join here. I see you've already challenged me to chess.   Gonna have to show you that I still kept *some* of my edge. But it's nice to see you join in contemporary culture

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Hey Kobra. Nice to see you join here. I see you've already challenged me to chess.   Gonna have to show you that I still kept *some* of my edge. But it's nice to see you join in contemporary culture

It's nice to see you join in here, too... ;-]

[Amber Williams]

I'm also an active chess-player, and a DnD (Dungeons and Dragons) player. I also get a craving for RPing occasionally, (and NWN doesn't fulfill that requirement). Anyways, I hope to be an active member of this community.

NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERD!


....

(my elven wizard could totally take you on in a fight. )

[Noone]

(my elven wizard could totally take you on in a fight. )

Actually, I don't really like elves as far as wizards go, I don't really like the DEX for CON swap(some systems allow you to play sun elves, which have INT for CON, in which case it's a good swap, but not many play with sun elves), since wizard/sorc AC is abysmal and more HP is always handy. Elves are generally more suited for dex based characters like rogues or monks, the extra feat that human gets is generally more useful to casters(more spell foci, possibly metamagic and spell penetration too.), and I don't think the bow proficiency is that great considering a light crossbow is probably better early game (19-20 crit range), and by the time you hit 12th level for the second attack, your weapon damage is probably not going to matter much anyways, especially considering an arcane casters low BAB. Tenser's Transformation might alleviate that somewhat, but most arcane caster characters dump strength and don't take weapon finesse, so that is better for eldritch knights. A human also gets 1 more skill, but that is more suitable for a sorc, since wizards get a lot of skills from a high INT.
Anyways, as far as arcane casters go, sorcerers also get the interesting opportunity of splashing a paladin level (or 2 in 3.5) to add their charisma to saves. In NWN, especially to characters going epic, a 38/1/1 sorc/pal/monk combo is a very popular combination, though it's usually best to stay pure before you acquire 9th level spells. That is not of course as popular in the 3.5 system, where it takes 2 paladin levels to get the charisma based saves bonus instead of 1 level. Wizards can splash rogue, (and possibly take able learner), to use their massive amounts of skill points to their group's benefit, though again, human would work better with that.
As far as PvP goes, sorcs and wizards usually come out at the top of the food chain, usually due to the bigby's hand line of spells, usually followed by high DC death magic, bigby's forceful hand is an opposed strength check where the hand gets +14, and I think the only type of pre-epic character who could possibly beat that with a reasonable chance is a Dragon Disciple, who get +8 to strength as a class benefit. I think that sorcs come out ahead though, since in a direct confrontation, they get more spells/day (useful for big counterspell clashes), and have more flexible spell usage. However, most arcane caster confrontations usually come down to who lands the first disabling spell, or sometimes death magic, Finger of death at 20th level, assuming maxed DCs, can naturally hit 25(27 if GSF necro gives +4 total instead of +2), more if they have boosted intelligence/charisma from gear. Fortitude saves on arcane casters don't usually get that high then, unless it's a paladin splashed sorcerer anyways.

NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERD!

Ok, I concede, I agree .

[Amber Williams]

...

My wizard is the elven equivalent of a 12 year old girl. 

I never tend to consider actual stat effectiveness in the characters I make so much how fun they are to play. 

[Noone]

Heh, I know the feeling.
I play kobolds more often than is healthy..
For visuals:
(Thats part of a screenshot from NWN, so you know).

[Reese Tora]

Sometimes Deekin makes me wish friendly fire was enabled.

Playing games like NWN, I usually go with a competent build (not necessarily the most powerful, though, but not gimped, either)  The scythe wielding weapon master is just pure cheese, though.

playing table top D&D with a DM and other paleyrs, I tend to play more concept characters that are sub-optimal, like my high charisma rogue; he was a lovair, no a faitair. (and escaped death more closely through sheer luck more times than any D&D character deserves.)