<font color="skyblue">I am currently playing my first game of IWD.

This is the party I created.....
Paladin - human male
Ranger - elven female
Thief - gnome male
Cleric/Mage - half-elf male
Specialist Mage (Invoker) - female human

That gives me two straight fightes (each with their own special abilities) plus a back-up fighter in the Cleric. It also gives me two mages with a good range of spell choice, and the healing magic of the cleric.

By taking only 5 characters, I have managed to get the fighters and mage up to 4th level and the thief to 5th level before even encountering a boss in the Vale of Shadow. Advancement for the Cleric/mage is slower than I would like, of course, but that's the trade off of multi-classing.</font>

I'd definitely suggest having a thief-there are so many traps that trying to go without one is a serious risk. Focus on improving the stealth and trap skills - they're the ones you need most. I made mine an illusionist/thief so they prove to be really useful.

I use - a half-elf fighter (specialising in great swords)
a human fighter (as above)
a half-elf fighter/mage (specialising in archery/long sword)
a gnome illusionist/thief (best with a long sword)
a human cleric (best with mace, and the healing spells...are great)
a human bard (best with mace, but can also use missile weapons)

(I tried using an elf mage once but they die far too easily early on in the game and are much more expensive to resurrect, so I wouldn't recommend using elves).

As to characteristics, try to bump up everyone's constitution as much as possible to increase how much they can carry and the amount of hit points, taking into account that mages need high intelligence to learn spells....

By the way - do you think it's better to play with bad or good alignment? Has anyone tried it on bad or a range? After all, the bad alignment weapons are pretty impressive......

<font color="skyblue">Just a minor correction needed here. Constitution has nothing to do with how much your character can carry. That's strictly a function of Strength. Also, unless you play a fighter/ranger/paladin, then you don't need a Constitution score any higher than 16. Only fighter classes get the extra Con bonus past this.

Mages DO need a high intelligence and clerics need a high Wisdom for their spells.

All characters benefit from high Dexterity scores (-1 to AC for every point above 14) and Dexterity is also the primary attribute for thieves.

Haven't tried the evil side yet, <font color="palegreen">B1ade</font>. I'm just now making my first trip through. May have to try that next time around.</font>

The best group I have created that seem to be able to handle any battle.

1. Fighter - elf (Max - Dex, Con, Str)
2. Fighter/Thief - half-elf (Max - Dex, Con, Str)
3. Ranger - half-elf (Max - Dex, Con, Str, and Wis as the next priority)
4. Druid - human (Max - Dex, Con, Wis, and Str as a next priority) later on my druid eventually shapechange to earth elemental to battle creatures that do slashing damage.
5. Bard - human (Max - Dex, Con, have Int, Chr, Wis high but balance somewhat (I think wis has something to do with lore so somewhat important for identifing items, Int you can always dring potions to improve for memorizing spells)) Plays a great support role.
6. Cleric/Wizard - half-elf (Max - Int, Wis, Con, Dex, use Str as a next priority)
Note: Currently has chr of 1 but oh well just keep her out of shops.

I would probaly mix in a dwarf or halfling as well. But I was going for an elf human theme.

Here is my current party that I haven't started w/

Male Elven Ranger (bows++, long swords++, trolls as r.e.)
Female Hafling Fighter/Theif (missle weapons, daggers)
Male Elven Druid (missle weapons, long swords and eventually spears)

I've got my characters created, but haven't started yet b/c I just found out that I'm going to be getting IWD2 soon and I'm dying to play it. I usually play on Insane mode and with a small party. I like to get my party beefed up from the get go. I usually play straight characters too, but I wanted my theif to have more hps. I always have a theif, ranger & druid in my party as well. I like having the theif w/ high pp skills so that when i get to Kudlahar, I can pp a couple of rings of freedom. When I am in the Vale, I leave my druid in the back & have him cast entangle, then take my other 2 to stir up some monsters. Once the monsters get stuck, my characters wail on them using melee weapons. Sometimes I'll even throw in a spike growth ;)

[ 09-05-2002, 12:56 PM: Message edited by: Vassago ]

I have:
Male/Aasimar: paladin/close combat
Male/Elf:Fighter/bow
Male/Dwarf:Fighter/close combat
Male/human:cleric/close combat
Male/Halfling:rogue/bow
Male/human:sorcerer/bow
cant remember their stats but they are level 10ish

OH YA, IF ANYONE HAS MSN HERES MY EMAIL: lordsolar@hotmail.com
i rather talk person to person than on a forum, so please add me thanks

Hello,
I used:
- paladin
- dwarf figther/thief
- half-elf ranger/cleric
- (half-elf? elf?) mage/fighter
- half-elf mage/cleric
- human bard

- Twilight