Race Designs & Strategies

[Taqwus]

It rather depends what's on the off-hand, no? The shield 'Barrier', for instance, would be useful... or the Aegis, or a Magebane/Blood Thorn combo.

Or for a blood-mage SC who includes Leech or something like that in his script, perhaps.

[PDF]

The main drawback of a HS is no shield, but IMHO it only makes a real difference if you can afford one of the rare really good shields -Aegis/Barrier.
But the HS also "free" a slot with its 50% FR, so for example you can have any ID 100% FR with an Elem Armor, and an "additional" misc slot to use.
And about the high Att/Def of ID, it's true, but they often have to fight pretty good opponents, so the difference between damage 24 and 29 can really make a difference on a Prot 25 foe ...

[Vicious Love]

So dual Blood Thorns != good?

[Nagot Gick Fel]

PDF said:
The main drawback of a HS is no shield

Not true. I've seen Hell Swords kill their wielders because they turned Berserk too soon. If you're counting on your ID's Breath of Winter to do most of the damage, you've got an issue to deal with here.

but IMHO it only makes a real difference if you can afford one of the rare really good shields -Aegis/Barrier.

If the other slots are filled with resistance stuff, and you're facing a Botulf Barrage (tm), a Shield of Valor will probably be better either of these.

[PDF]

Nagot,
Sure I have less experience than you have, but I recently saw a good number of ID fights and not once did they fail to cast Quickness/BoW before fighting. Sometimes they were killed before (by spells) but the sword wasn't in the equation .
Agreed on your remark about Shield of Valor, it should also work against Eth X bow and JMCs.
But I now wonder if a combo Athame + MageBane, or Faithful, or Firebrand isn't better, at least against other SC (not against hordes of chaff dying to BOW alone ..)

[Nagot Gick Fel]

PDF said:
I recently saw a good number of ID fights and not once did they fail to cast Quickness/BoW before fighting.

I have. Although I've yet to see an ID die because of this, I've seen a KOEF bite the dust once because of his own Hell Sword (he failed to cast Phoenix Pyre, which was his main objective). As long as your IDs aren't immune to everything, expect your ennemies to trigger their berserking with AOE or 100 prec damage spells they're not resistant to, or heavy missile fire, or fliers.

Sometimes they were killed before (by spells) but the sword wasn't in the equation .

I note the 'before' - so indeed it would have been in the equation if these spells had only damaged them. QED

But I now wonder if a combo Athame + MageBane, or Faithful, or Firebrand isn't better, at least against other SC (not against hordes of chaff dying to BOW alone ..)

Different situations ask for different answers, but I never take for granted the unique artifacts will be mine.