Theorycraft

A bit of thread necromancy here.

What's the best "bartender" build, playing into the trope that the bartender is an absolute monster in a fight, but only fights when someone messes with his bar. Extra points if the build somehow gives the ability to be privy to information that most wouldn't have access to.

Father Ridigan wrote: A bit of thread necromancy here.

What's the best "bartender" build, playing into the trope that the bartender is an absolute monster in a fight, but only fights when someone messes with his bar. Extra points if the build somehow gives the ability to be privy to information that most wouldn't have access to.

Dwarf Gambler/Alchemist.

Run games in the back, serve up "Brews" That function as potions. And when someone gets out of line, you use slight of hand to administer this into their drink:

Secret Recipe: Insidious Poison
Ingestible. 1 hour after consumption the victim drops to the last minute of the Critical Stage of their death count. Upon death the poison dissipates into the body and cannot be detected by any means.
"Odorless. Tasteless. Dissolves instantly in liquid. And has claimed more life tags than Steve Oros."



....Don't look at me like that. I totally haven't been planning on bringing in this character for over a year.

Hey Tom,

Sounds to me like the majority of your challenge could be accomplished with equal parts good rp and time, mixed together and poured into a glass of solid attentiveness. A friendly and helpful demeanor will always get you more info than using skills ever will.

As for the combat side of things, it depends on what style of combat you're looking for. If you are looking to be lethal, Drew's suggestion is a fantastic one, though a bit more of a covert method of combat. Alternatively, a Berserker could be a monster in a fight, but it doesn't mean that they are relatively good at killing an opponent; it takes a huge amount of time to fight someone down to 0 and then killing blow compared to poisoning them or quickbinding+kbing. That's going to be something you want to think over and decide fits the playstyle more.

If you're dead set though on being lethal and having the ability to get more info out of people through the use of skills, psion can provide you with a nice toolset. It will have some weaknesses- specifically your health- but being behind a bar will help you get a little breathing space to fire off your attacks.

Hope that gives you some food for thought. Good luck with the character concept designing!

My personal build for best fighting bartender would be Satyr Alchemist (or Healer) and Buccaneer. Buccaneer may sound like a strange choice but it offers three things of importance to this build:
1: The Pirate Accent.
2: Tolerance.
3: Intimidate.

Tolerance is best because of a Satyr's alcoholic endurance in terms of having drinking games with rowdy patrons and Intimidate should help with the ones who can't handle that.

As for potions, I'd start with the rank 1 and 2 healing recipes, ingested poison, Fire Bomb (because pirate) a rank 1 hermetic of choice and itching powder (for fun.)

Intimidate and Treasure Sense are good for being privy to unusual information, as is poison (if used correctly) and itching powder (if used excessively.)

As for combat, Get a sword, get a knife, get waylay and get Subdue.

I'd say that gives you a good start, but oh the things you could do with Pioneer [strike]Bartender[/strike] Alchemist...

Something I'd like to see is the Battle Bard. Bonus points if you use a 1HB guitar as your weapon. Even more bonus points if you don't use any of the 'Warrior' Classes, such as Cav. Chaos Warrior, or even Swashbuckler.

Brawler, Bard, scholar, racketeer. The ultimate self buffer. When properly prepared, this Bard build has scrolls available for any situation. Even better when they bring friends.

Either way, you'll want to go heroic scholar for the tome. You can either go heroic Bard, brawler, or racketeer, depending on play style.

That build is not good for defenses. Swap out Brute for Warrior monk and it's amazing however.