Str 6 halfling... Insane?

[Raoull]

Contemplating a new toon, and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with a str dumped halfling.

How horrible is the 3/4ths carrying capacity and str, do you get encumbered at the drop of a hat? Are str drains your biggest weakness?

Just wondering whether I'll level it up to 10 and then think "Oh my god what did I do....".... and hoping to avoid that.....

The worst part is... I like my stuff. I'd carry plenty of scrolls/wands/potions no matter what, I usually have all inventory space except about 30 spaces filled (including the purchased page). I can deal with leaving heavy armor in chests, but other than that I doubt I'm willing to make many concessions to weight.

[Maelodic]

I didn't have any issues with carry weight on my wizzy, but I started with 10 STR.

Just don't make any character you'd like centered.

[arkonas]

Contemplating a new toon, and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with a str dumped halfling.

How horrible is the 3/4ths carrying capacity and str, do you get encumbered at the drop of a hat? Are str drains your biggest weakness?

Just wondering whether I'll level it up to 10 and then think "Oh my god what did I do....".... and hoping to avoid that.....

The worst part is... I like my stuff. I'd carry plenty of scrolls/wands/potions no matter what, I usually have all inventory space except about 30 spaces filled (including the purchased page). I can deal with leaving heavy armor in chests, but other than that I doubt I'm willing to make many concessions to weight.

i hope i wont come out rude for saying this but this is a bad idea if you group with others. anytime a str effecting weapon or spell hitting you will make you useless for a while. Not to mention you might constantly say hold on wait up im unloading stuff. to me its a bad idea if you group with others. 3/4 of the time you will probably be helpless or something and not worth anything to a group. Solo not sure if that is any better. so just think about it if you group with others dont be a burden to them because they have to wait or use resources on you when you could prevent it.

[cru121]

I have recently started a vet 4 halfling with 8 starting strength. I have lucked into a +4 str belt ML5 race-restricted, and the only quest where I had trouble was Irestone Inlet. I also had to destroy a handful of heavy plates. All in all, not a big problem imho.

[Raoull]

i hope i wont come out rude for saying this but this is a bad idea if you group with others. anytime a str effecting weapon or spell hitting you will make you useless for a while. Not to mention you might constantly say hold on wait up im unloading stuff. to me its a bad idea if you group with others. 3/4 of the time you will probably be helpless or something and not worth anything to a group. Solo not sure if that is any better. so just think about it if you group with others dont be a burden to them because they have to wait or use resources on you when you could prevent it.

Considering I'm asking if this is a good idea or not.... definitely not rude to say it is a bad idea.

Toon would be a rogueish multi, but woudn't need to be centered or anything.

I do have full access to twink gear, so the guy wouldn't be lacking in +str items or tomes.


Sounds like the concensus is pretty close to my initial thoughts.... At 10 str I'll be fine, 6 is probably a bad idea, and 8 is somewhere in between....
hmmm... ah well. Not in a rush, I won't be building the toon until post expansion.

Thanks for the info.

[Wanesa]

Contemplating a new toon, and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with a str dumped halfling.

As halfling sorc i started with str 7 (i put there 1 spare point on 28 pt build). I did TR into halfling bard and started with str 12. With +6 gear I did not problem with weight.

As melee, running full finesse and it looks great (boosting dex and racial sneak attack)

[FestusHood]

i hope i wont come out rude for saying this but this is a bad idea if you group with others. anytime a str effecting weapon or spell hitting you will make you useless for a while. Not to mention you might constantly say hold on wait up im unloading stuff. to me its a bad idea if you group with others. 3/4 of the time you will probably be helpless or something and not worth anything to a group. Solo not sure if that is any better. so just think about it if you group with others dont be a burden to them because they have to wait or use resources on you when you could prevent it.

Maybe the only thing worse than being helpless in a group is being helpless by yourself.

I tried a 6 strength halfling cleric, but ended up using the free lesser reincarnation to bump it up to 12. Not only do you have to worry about getting enfeebled when you are low level, but symbols of weakness seem to be pretty common in higher levels, and they can drop your strength even more. I'm not sure if there is a way to get rid of the effects from symbols, and they last for minutes at a time.

[PsychoBlonde]

Contemplating a new toon, and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with a str dumped halfling.

How horrible is the 3/4ths carrying capacity and str, do you get encumbered at the drop of a hat? Are str drains your biggest weakness?

Given some of the stuff that's coming with the expansion, completely dumping str will probably be optimal in many cases. With a tome and an item you can usually avoid serious issues with strength drain--with a tome and an item or two you can easily have over a 20 strength even with a 6 base, and that's enough to prevent you getting made helpless in one shot. That's also plenty of carrying capacity.

[PsychoBlonde]

I'm not sure if there is a way to get rid of the effects from symbols, and they last for minutes at a time.

Lesser Restoration clears symbol of weakness. Symbol of pain can only be cleared by dispel magic or break enchantment.

[arkonas]

Maybe the only thing worse than being helpless in a group is being helpless by yourself.

I tried a 6 strength halfling cleric, but ended up using the free lesser reincarnation to bump it up to 12. Not only do you have to worry about getting enfeebled when you are low level, but symbols of weakness seem to be pretty common in higher levels, and they can drop your strength even more. I'm not sure if there is a way to get rid of the effects from symbols, and they last for minutes at a time.

Exactly, if you make yourself helpless or a simple spell gets you then yeah its not a good idea. 10 str or 12 is usually fine to go with because with tomes str items and even other bonuses you can still get it up there. you just dont want to start so low that you cant do anything.

[arkonas]

Lesser Restoration clears symbol of weakness. Symbol of pain can only be cleared by dispel magic or break enchantment.

correct except if your helpless you cant use it on yourself or remove any exhaustion spells either.

[NaturalHazard]

could be painful especially at lower levels.

[Moltier]

Contemplating a new toon, and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with a str dumped halfling.

How horrible is the 3/4ths carrying capacity and str, do you get encumbered at the drop of a hat? Are str drains your biggest weakness?

Just wondering whether I'll level it up to 10 and then think "Oh my god what did I do....".... and hoping to avoid that.....

The worst part is... I like my stuff. I'd carry plenty of scrolls/wands/potions no matter what, I usually have all inventory space except about 30 spaces filled (including the purchased page). I can deal with leaving heavy armor in chests, but other than that I doubt I'm willing to make many concessions to weight.

I had a 6STR cleric, and a 6STR monkish build. Im not saying i never had problems, but only the first life gearless cleric was helpless 1-2 times in kobold assault. Never after. If you have gear, problem solved.
My monk was never helpless and i carried a tonn of gear with him. Sometimes i made mistakes (switched out STR item), and lost my stance, but thats all.
~25STR was possible before U14 at level 20. Now pretty sure 30+ is easy even if you start with 6.

[Alistina]

Contemplating a new toon, and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with a str dumped halfling.

How horrible is the 3/4ths carrying capacity and str, do you get encumbered at the drop of a hat? Are str drains your biggest weakness?

Just wondering whether I'll level it up to 10 and then think "Oh my god what did I do....".... and hoping to avoid that.....

The worst part is... I like my stuff. I'd carry plenty of scrolls/wands/potions no matter what, I usually have all inventory space except about 30 spaces filled (including the purchased page). I can deal with leaving heavy armor in chests, but other than that I doubt I'm willing to make many concessions to weight.

I'm thinking about TRing my main into a 6 str halfling as well. Can't say much cos of the NDA, but there will be no issues what so ever with DPS & to hit, it will in fact, end up being better with points not wasted on str.

IMO it will be just fine past lower levels, shouldn't matter at all past lvl 11 where +3 tomes take effect. What I'm more worried about is being useless (ray of exhaustion) at lower levels where the gear can't be equipped and tomes don't take effect yet.

I'm thinking as long as you have pp to buy pots/scrolls/wands, and get best possible gear with str bonust for each level (or even better, craft gear which will have 2 lower ML than normal gear with masterful craftsmanship shards), it should be doable.

[Therigar]

IMO it depends on what character class you are planning and on the other elements of your build plan.

Strength drains do happen, there isn't much consistency in the game about when or where. Some people might see this as a significant problem because of the content they play. Others might never encounter the situation at all.

Keep in mind that at 6 base you will easily reach 18 by L25 -- 6 base + 4 tome + 8 item -- and you can probably get to 24 STR with + 1 exceptional + 3 insight + 2 ship buff. That is a fairly easily attainable number in the current game.

So, to answer your question: No, it is not insane provided you have a competent build plan and appropriate class choice.

[PrimalConcreteSledge]

I had a halfling rogue with 8 starting str before u14. It was a real struggle, i ended up lr-ing it to 10. Still had to watch my weight but wasn't too hard to keep it under control. However, then +2 tome was a max. and all you could have was a +6 item. So yeah now (at least on cap) you can get away with a starting 6 easy with resonable gear/tomes.

EDIT:
At the time collectables and ingredients had more weight too so it should be even easier now.

[phalaeo]

I didn't have any issues with carry weight on my wizzy, but I started with 10 STR.

Just don't make any character you'd like centered.

To answer the OP's question- I would try for 10 base STR on a non-monk halfling as an absolute minimum. Doesn't matter if it's 8 base, plus a +2 tome, 9 base and a +1 tome.... however you can do it. If you plan on running centered with Monk levels (especially if you plan on being in Water Stance), minimum base should be 12 STR.

My main is an 18Clr/2Mnk, Halfling, with starting STR of 12. She carries a metric ton of heal scrolls, clickies, situational gear, etc. On top of the 3/4 carry capacity, -2 racial penalty to STR, and low base STR, she also runs around in Water Stance (+2 WIS, -2 STR). I guess with the racial penalty and Water Stance, you could consider her as having 4 STR straight out of the box.

You can make it work, just be smart about it. Get tomes. Wear STR gear. Don't let your pack go over light load... watch what things really weigh, and you can keep the heavy stuff in the bank. Note: the stack of 2,500 dragonshard fragments that's taking up space in your ingredients bag weighs about 25 pounds. Bank it. Full Plate? 10 pounds. Biggest offenders in the heavyweight category are: Stacks of scrolls/pots, Ingredient Bags, Full Plate, Greataxes/GSwords, Khyber/Siberys shards, hidden stacks of arrows and bolts.

The only time I ever had a problem was around level 10-12 in the desert. I had 10 base STR initially, and the wizards out there would just ray of enfeeble the snot out of me. I LR'ed to 12 base STR, and as I leveled out of the desert, I was able to wear higher +STR items. It hasn't been a problem since.

[Failedlegend]

6 str is a little annoying if your starting from level 1 but its quickly alleviated with str items and tomes....if your starting a lvl 7 (vet status 2) than your laughing just down a +2 tome and your best +str item and you'll never look back.

[Aolas]

You would still want STR for combat DC but going for a full caster or healer it makes sense to dump it. You can wear a +4 STR item at level 6-7 and with 10 STR I reckon you wouldn't have any problems. Only thing going to hurt you is low levels but if you have veteran status or higher you don't even have to worry about that.

[Saekee]

could be painful especially at lower levels.

This. It makes the game no longer fun. Do you really want to constantly futz around with gear, loot, etc.? I did this also with a Halfling rogue mechanic and ended up dumping the toon due to the frustrations.