I have always been partial to the ranger class. Persnal preference. I made a good raner and a Dwarf fighter. My dwarf fighter is a much better tank that the ranger. No matter what skills or feats or magic items my ranger has my dwarf fighter (GUNNAR the AXE) always gets more kills. Has anyone else found after they made there favorite character that another character has stepped to the front. I really like Gunnar.

Yeah, well.... in IWD1 I was blown away by how destructive a thief with a bow could be. I think in all the 2D games (BG, BG2, IWD, ID2) bows are overpowered. I am playing a solo monk class character and not too long ago i wiped out a 20 strong crowd with only a bow.....

It takes a little while, BUT, I did not loose a single point of health since they never came close to touching me.

Anyone who has not caught on to how good bows are should try it with the rapid shot feat...it works like da bomb in skilled hands.

Yes a good bowman in your party can make all the difference a good example of this is Mazzy in Baldur's Gate II.

I noticed how inefficent my Ranger is w/ a bow which is quite distrubing. I created a Drow Ranger w/ 18, 18, 16, 10, 13, 5 (I think) and he sucks w/ a longbow. I remember in IWD, he would kill just about anything in one shot. Now, it takes like 3 shots before he even hits anything. Luckily, the Goblins are so weak that once he does hit them, they go down quickly. I gave my Ranger Rapid Shot and added another prof in Bows, but it doesn't seem to help. Any ideas as to what is going on? I'm also playing in Insane mode.

I've completed IWD2 twice, both times with 6 person parties. I tend to armed everyone in my party with ranged weapons. The tanks rarely use them, but sometimes I'll let sommoned monsterscharge the enemy and let everyone open up with their ranged weapons, just to get some cheap kills early on.

I tend to have my spell casters save their spells for nastier battles and use bows or crossbows to contribute to the battle.

My experience thus far in IWD2 is that while ranged weapons provide nice fire support from my support characters, the tanks will get most of the kills.

BTW, # of kills is a weak stat. Other characters could do 99% of the damage, but the kill goes to the PC that delivers the final HP of damage. Too bad that IE didn't keep track of the amount of actual damage that each PC is responsible for dealing out. How often has your wizard cast a fireball into the middle of a mob of bad guys, doing serious damage to all, but killing none, only to have your tanks get all the kills?

Ranged weapons are nice for keeping the pressure the enemy's own spell casters. They're also nice for finishing off nearly dead enemies.

Hmm... I find that my archer is very useful. He's a tiefling. 10, 20, 18, 20, something and 1... More or less, his main problem is his low strength. His charisma is no big deal, thats the paladin/monk job. ;) heh heh

My archer used rapid shot feat, weapon focus/specialization and has an okay bow. Hes frightfully efficient. For melee, he just uses weapon finesse, so no biggee.

Bows are nice, but throwing weapons are even better under the new rule set. You can get the same number of attacks per round with a throwing axe as a bow (even rapid shot), but you also get your damage bonus from strength so you can deal serious punishment.

And, back to the original topic, I've noticed that fighters have become a little too powerful under 3rd edition rules (or at least in IWD2). Since Int and cha don't effect a fighter, you can boost Str, Dex, and Con to the roof give them a great sword for melee, a throwing axe for range and all the extra feats and nothing lives long enough to touch them. I tried a balanced party when I first got IWD2 and it kept getting slaughtered, so I switched to a party with 3 fighters, and now the fighters are the only ones who do anything. They each have about 30% of the kills.

Ive noticed this to... MY sorcerer has become a buffer and my cleric and theif skip around holding hands and singing while my Barbarian Fighter and Monk Clean up... Sad... I AM going to solo with a sorcerer next time through though... Ah the power of a Drow Sorcerer! "Us'ta'quat!"

Dwarves rock!

STR 18
DEX 12
CON 20
INT 8
WIS 12
CHA 6

Focusing on axes and hammers.

Damn! He's superb! But I love my ranger/rogue too! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Try this, and give him a throwing axe with rapid shot:

Shield Dwarf
STR 18
DEX 18
CON 20
INT 3
WIS 16
CHA 1

True carnage

lol, its called 'power gaming', and you loose any hopes of remaining realistic in any way, shape or form. With a 3 charisma, your fighter is possibly the ugliest THING in existance. EVERYTHING hates it. He would be singled out in a fight to be killed BECAUSE HE IS THAT ANNOYINGLY UGLY! lol

I think that fighters are MUCH LESS powerful in IWD2, because they only get one more specialization of the weapon (only +1 on damage) so I can't understand why someone would chose a fighter in their party. My party : SOR, PAL,MON,CLE,ROG,BAR was difficult to play with at the beginning, but now, no one can realy hurt me (except fot that lich). Paladin with a holy aveng. in one hand, and a longsword +4 in the off hand, abidex.,two-weapon... KiKs @ss!!! I am sure that a ranger would be just as powerful, and they are much more interesting to play with than a fighter.

Um, what do you think a FIGHTER is supposed to look like? This is a guy who spends his life having people swing sharp heavy objects at his face. Many scares and very few teeth is how I picture him.

Three main reasons:
1) Stat distribution: If you are playing a Paladin or Ranger and want to make use of their abilities, you need to distribute at least some points to INT, WIS, & CHA. This means lower STR, DEX, & CON. If you don't plan on using their abilities, why pick them in the first place.

2) Spell casters are weak in IWD2. This isn't so much a problem with 3rd edition rules as what I've seen of IWD2. The game just has way too much combat for casters to keep up. Unless you rest after every other fight, you are going to run out of spells fast becuase of the shear number of opponents who seem to make their saving throws on a regular basis, forcing you to repeatedly cast spells.

3) And most important: Feats. Most characters only get 11 feats by lvl 30, a fighter will have 26. This means you can get all those nice saving throw feats to help build a character that can't be touched, weapon specialization in your choice of melee and ranged weapon, and all the other nifty abilities other classes have to pick and choose from. Two levels of cleave and specialization in great sword in the middle of a mob is better than a meteor swarm.

Are spell casters weak in iwd2?
I don't think so. I think they are just so strong that this game seems a bit unbalanced.
Have you ever tried fighting a cleric around level 20 summoned units such as the undead using your best fighter? Do you realize how many attacks can they make one round? Can you see how much damage they made? And did you notice their special ability like extra element damage and damage imm?
The arcane spells are even stronger. Imporved invisiblity and improved haste are enough to prove the wizards' value, and fireball, sunfire, delayed fireball with spell focus on evotion and spirit of fire can wipe out your enemies in no time.
Some people think heart of fury mode is stupid. I agree with them.
It is designed for spell casters. Fighters are no match for them in this mode.

AB-SO-LUT-LY!

Um, what do you think a FIGHTER is supposed to look like? This is a guy who spends his life having people swing sharp heavy objects at his face. Many scares and very few teeth is how I picture him.</font>[/QUOTE]lol, I don't think you realize just how damaging charisma that low is. In 3rd ed, they have placed the emphasis of cha off of looks, to things like social skills etc etc self esteem etc etc, and WAIT! A creature with 0 cha is unable to distinguish between itself and things that AREN'T itself. 3 isn't much above that. A 3 charisma would be inhumanly ugly (we're talking a gory mess where a face should be that oozes green, acidic slime), and he would more or less be unable to fight, as he would have such a hard time DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN HIMSELF AND HIS ENEMIES! lol

I really don't think you understand the gravity of the situation. lol

As for the insult directed at warrior types, just what happens when the fighter has MR and just kills your mage before he can summon anything? Summoning takes time, beating you over the head with a sword does not really. When that drow fighter cuts your head off, I'm sure the fact that you've memorized lots of summoning spells is going to make it ALL better. lol Summoning with a non-cleric is much weaker is IWD2 than in previous games. lol, Once the cleric can cast 3rd level spells, The game is now broken. ;) Can anybody say Great Boneguard? lol

Whoa, youse guys are nasty. Jus' 'cause all my teeths is gone, youse makes fun a me. Wait for my double axes to chop youse heads.

I'm happy with my dwarf. My dwarf is not so stupid (int 3) and not so ugly (cha 1) like yours [img]smile.gif[/img] ) He's just an angry type [img]smile.gif[/img]

FIGHTER class is a must have! No pure paladin nor pure barbarian. Always 4 levels of fighter. Pally, Barb the rest.

Rangers are not useful in 3rd edition.

Only %5 IWD2 players choose this class.
%99 of them do it for free dual-wielding feats (only 1 level)
%1 of them reload and take another class [img]smile.gif[/img] )))

With 3 int and cha, you'd be equally likely to split your own skull. It would make you more or less unable to fight, and if I DID call you a dum-dum head, you'd likely go off and cry in the corner, you would be like the cyclops that couldn't, so to speak. ;)

Whats wrong with rangers? I'm going to run one eventually... Animal Rage is fun and useful. Or not really. lol

Dwarf fighters rule: the duergar in my party is one heckuva tank. He'd be extra skeery with a few levels of BattleGuard, but alignment restrictions forbid it. Oh well...next time...