I am going to start a singleplayer multiplayer game, and I am not sure how many and what kind of players to make? I hear monks are good, but are they better than paladins or fighters. I was thinking of a six member party until I heard its better not to have 6 people because you are limited to less quests. This is my party so far, what do you think?
Cavalier
Sorceror
Archer
Thief/cleric
Illusoinist
Fighter (half-orc) OR Monk

Any suggestions?

Hmmmm. Tricky Question.

When you first start your journey down the path of holy monkydom your character can be a bit weedy as your forbidden from using alot of. As you progress in levels however you become a force to be reckoned with and can get some very cool abilities. Once (if ever) you get your monk to the dizzying heights of the 21st level your pretty insanly hard to kill seeing as how you should be immune to normal weapons ( this is something i've read somewhere - maybe even the manual but i've never been the sort to study my choices before I start a new game.)

The fighter offsets these skills with the ability to carry a huge arsenal of weapons and armour and gain in weapon skill to a stunning level of competence, thus you should be able to knock that s*** out of anything this side of mortality.

Personally id go with a monk due to the sheer mundane choice of different tactics offered by a fighter (get up close and whack with your axe or stand at a distance and riddle some one with arrows).

Rabit Slayer

What abilities (wisdom, strength, etc) should a monk have? I bet wisdom is one. How does a monk become immune to normal weapons like you say?

Strength, Wisdom and Dexterity.

The monk is a warrior class who just happens to be a very competent cleric too. The monk has certain theiving skills like stealth and detect traps.

As for becomming immune to normal weapons this is an ability that comes about when you reach one of the Highest level (20th or 21st i think) its a naturall ability for the monk.

Thanks for the advice, but can anyone give me advice on what and how many party members I should make? I will put a monk in their, but what other people should I have? Are there any important quests I will miss out on if I dont have someone?

personaly i never use a fighter
fighter have nothing special i always have a ranger
my party
Stalker (ranger)
Undead Hunter (pallie)
Avenger (druid)
Assasin (thief)
Necromancer
and Sorcerer.

eh i never multi or dual class coz in the beginning you'll be down 1 level or so but later
you'll only have half the level of singel charcter.
don't have a cleric neither but i like the avenger and she's got all healingspells
i do lose a lot of money raising people

BTW RABIT SLAYER
remember that the INSANE RABBIT CLAN WILL HUNT YOU DOWN
HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Sorry

bye

PERSONALLY I FOUND A PARTY OF 6 PALADINS WERE ESPECIALLY EFFECTIVE AGAINST FIGHTING EVIL

DONT FOLLOW THE EVIL PATH DEATHTOUCH DON'T MAKE ME HATE YOU

SO SAYETH JEROME THE PALADIN

I dont think a group of 6 paladins would work. You couldnt use any thief skills or use any spells other than the limited selection of paladins. And what makes you think I want to be evil.

Bunnies are EVIL!!!!!!

Their race will be exterminated from the face of faerun. I will not tollerate the incesantly evil hopping a moment longer!!!!!

Join with me my brothers and sisters!! Let us exterminate their foullness from the world of all that is good and holy!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH HAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Can anyone help me with the number of players I should make? And can anyone give me some advice on what characters do you think I should get rid of/keep? I really want to get it right, so I dont regret what I did after I have been playing for weeks. I dont like starting over. Thanks.

Well, you definitely want SOME kind of thief in the party. Preferrably one that is good with traps and can backstab. The backstab comes in handy if you have a tough mage opponent and you are in stealth mode. Also, your thief if he is good with traps can kill some of the enemy with his land mines (traps).

A good fighter type is a good choice. Monks are ok, but kinda hard to start off cause they are kinda weak to begin, but become damn near unstoppable at high levels. I really prefer a Ranger type myself. They are really good with bows, plus they too eventually get the stealth option and some druid spells. I dual classed a Ranger/Cleric and this made for a pretty good option (be warned that if you dual class anything, it's gonna take time before you can use BOTH of their abilities. A Paladin is pretty good too, but if you do the wrong thing in a quest, you lose the abilities just as fast as you got them.

Unless you have deep pockets and/or can get money with relative ease, I would also recommend some kind of cleric or druid in the party. A cleric does give you a few more options than the Druid (who is hard to go shopping for since they don't like most weapons). If you have a Paladin in the party, he can Lay hands, but this really doesn't help for those major battles. A ranger also can heal some, but again not a good choice for the same reason. Paladins and Rangers take a long time before than get really any good with healing. The monk can heal some too, but unfortunately, can only heal himself.

If you want to have some good offensive abilites in a party, then you will want the mage. His fireball alone is worth the effort. Pierce magics notwithstanding, can protect themselves at higher level from damn near anything too. They can bring in more aid than most others too. Clerics/Druids can also bring in stuff, but mainly can't until really high level.

A good combination would include whatever types you role play best.

For example, I like a good fighter combination party.
I have:

1) Ranger/Cleric
2) Fighter/Thief
3) Mage/Cleric

Now that's MY main characters. I try to balance them with whatever NPC's I meet along the way. You'll notice two clerics stats. The Ranger/Cleric I brought with me from BGI and I created the other two to party with him. Since they both started off at low levels (especially the first one cause I dual'ed him) I offset the healing capabilities by adding this other cleric class. Gives them more low level healing for what I miss from the high level. Hardly ever really need potions except DURING combat. Sometimes those hitpoints go down WAY TOO FAST. You'll notice a fighter/mage/cleric/thief present in the 3 characters. I am less dependent on the NPC's now because of that fact alone. I don't specialize, but then you don't really have to. I tell you this though, since I found BRACERS AC 3, my fighter thief has become damn near unstoppable. I use stealth on him and then let him go wading in backstabbing. (You go in stealth and attack and withdraw - then go back in stealth mode - then go attack again til the thing is dead). Benefit of having the fighter side is the hitpoints they gain per/level. This makes my thief last longer (especially if he fails at the backstab and the enemy can get an attack in before I get him out of there). I have solo'ed certain parts of the game with this party member because it is too dangerous to do otherwise. There are certain monsters that can see invisible creatures though (as that is basically what stealth mode is), but it hasn't been too much of a problem cause of the other members of the party. In order to play the game, you really only need one party member to begin it with though. By creating your own party members, you are making more children of BHAAL. They get the same abilities as the protagonist. So you can get some limited healing with them as well. Hope that helps you out some there. Gameplay is something personal. You have to decide what kind of character(s) you like best and just give them a go. There really is no SPECIFIC answer. Who I like to play and who you like to play may be two totally different parties. Just give it a go and if you don't like it, you always have the option to re-start. Just remember that you are learning the game as you play with these people though, and that will give your new party members (if you do have to re-start) a definite advantage over the prior party.

yes ditto to tobins advise

i like the thief/fighter combo espesially if you take the assasin kit (poisoning) to the 9th level (*4 backstab) and then dual to a fighter and if you do the maths you get to the same level with your fighter (takes a little longer and a little weak when you do the dual class as you need to be in the game a bit). which means you get a great fighter that can do something like 120 damage on a critical hit as well as poison the enemy to finish them off, if it is needed. i like a bard (blade) for the high lore and with the blade you can use two wepons ie long sword combined with some good armour and they are pretty good. my many character is the bard and i keep mistaking him for a ranger and nearly geating him killed.

i also use a harf-orc cleric which when you use 19 str and the flail of life she beats crap out of most things as well as being a good healer. finally i have a sorcerer as my power behind it all, sure you don't get to have 50 million different spells in your arsenal as you do when you are a mage but she makes up for by have the ability to cast all the same spells or one of each without having to second guess what you are going to need (and she is pretty sexy, i just wish you can do some custom dialicts as then my bard would be really happy!!!!!). you can still use all the scroll anyway and you pick up heaps along the way. this leaves two spots for npc which i find has been good till now.

this is the first time i have ever played without a ranger, i played AD&D, BG1 and icewind dale with a ranger and this time i wanted to try some of the other charaters. i must admit i think they are great and i am glad i left the ranger in the closet this time as i am having heaps of fun.

i think the most important thing is to have a well balanced crew, there is no use running around with 6 palidins (sorry JEROME) as you need all different skills to solve different problems. i also play pretty neutral characters thus my view on having the balance.

the trick is enjoy it and use a few that you havn't played before and they will surprise you with some of thier cool tricks.

My BG2 party:

Dwarf, straight up fighter. The tank. From BG1, so he has 19Str, 18Dex, and 20Con. He is so cool. Natural regeneration so when I need to heal major damage, and he’s able to take a lot, I can just take a snooze.

Ranger/Cleric. Thought I’d give it a try. I was partial to the Fighter/Cleric, but I’m trying this one out to see which I like better. Still undecided.

Swashbuckler/Mage. I love the extra –2 to AC the swashbuckler gets, and I never really used back stab as much as I probably should have. Bring the swashbuckler up to level 11 and you can max out 3 out of the 4 thief abilities and put 75 percent on the last. I left hide in shadows a little low because I like to just use invisibility for its greater reliability. With mirror image, he is even very effective in hand to hand combat.
One bad part of this combo is that I couldn’t specialize the mage, but I usually can get a rest in before I use up all my favorite spells anyway, so it’s not so bad.

Cavalier. The poison immunity is pretty cool, and so is almost everything else about this fellow. In P&P D&D, when the cavalier came out he was the hottest thing since stuffed baked potatoes. He still can handle himself very well, and another tank type (no missile weapons) to back up my dwarf enables them to take care of just about everything that comes their way.

I covered all the major bases with only 4 guys (really only 3 because the fighter and cavalier are kind of redundant, but I don’t like carrying around all those arrows anyway) and I left the other two spots open and use them to check out all the NPCs and get quests with. So far, I haven’t left anybody behind and have Minsc and Yoshimo out of the dungeon and chilling out at the bar and Jaheira’s got my back. Also having only 4 guys lets you get Exp more quickly; you can even ditch the NPCs momentarily before you finish quests to screw them out of some of the XPs. Not very nice, but effective.

I never dualclass
You never got good that way

The BEST party (but not the most fun):
1. 3 Half-Orc pure fighters, 19 str and con, 18 dex. 1 spec. two-handed/two-handed sword, the others dual-wield (longsword/hammer, longsword/mace).

2. Ranger dual to Cleric immediately. Get HPs of a fighter, access to Cleric and Druid spells. Specialize in sling, mace, sword and shield style.

3. Thief Dual to Mage. Locks and Find/remove traps, dual to mage when second thief can use thif abilities again.

4. Thief Dual to Mage. Pick Pockets/Hide in shadows specialist, dual immediately.

The fighters can cover for the cleric and mages as they level. One thief duals only when the other has reached sufficient level to use thief abilities again. In this game, if u start with 6 (as opposed to 4 in single player mode), you really have a cakewalk until you leave the first chapter.

This is a sterile, precision, killing team, not a fun role-playing team. There is no better combo than this for this particular game, but you may get bored. The only game-specific change I might make would be to make one Paladin to use that SUPER awesome Holy Avenger Sword.

when you dual class a thief (max level 9) into a fighter or mage you get to the same level with them as you would have, as the thief doesn't take take much exp to go up level at the begining. *4 backstab and poisoning, what else need saying

Into a fighter would be pointless for a thief - you lose all those boss xp. Fighter dual to thief is much better.

Actually, no. It's best to switch from a thief to a fighter. Now, here's my reason why. In AD&D, and in this game, when you class change, you gain the restrictions of your new class. If you start off as a thief and then dual to a fighter, you gain the fighters abilities with weapons. (*PROFICIENCIES*) Really key here. You can wear armor if needed. Basically, it's a thief that tanks. Granted that with certain armor you are limited in your thief skills, but then that's a choice you can make. Your hitpoints won't be as high either, but weapon specialization will more than make up for it. If you go the other route then you will have less options. You will be stuck with the restriction for both armor and weapon use (stuck with a short bow or sling and really limited to close range weapons too). Plus, as you gain levels as a fighter, you will gain more and more attacks. Granted that with a thief you do get a higher attack probability with backstabs, but it takes forever to raise that up. I use a Ranger/Thief mix. I do kind of regret having to go that route, but he is a good character. Since you can't specialize in the second class, I couldn't opt for a Thief/Ranger, but I did try the Thief/Fighter. Very respectable.

TDZHON, your points about a good party were well stated. Yes, your tanks are about the best in the game and I like your idea about the thief route too. I usually put my thief at the back until he was high enough to start out on his own. He was even behind my mage. LOL. It never occured to me to make two thieves. I guess I just got so caught up in wanting all the NPC's in the game. Ah well.

1. Human Berserker or Kensai. Will be dualed to Mage or Cleric at Level 9
2. Half Orc Barbarian or Human Monk. The first character is a very
good tank against enemy mages. The second one take some time
to develop but he will be good at higher levels.
3. Human Inquisitor - the best paladin kit you want someone who is able to use the
holy avenger
4. Elf Fighter/Thief, Mage/Thief or human swashbuckler dualed to mage at level 9 or 10
5. Human Cleric
6. Human Sorcerer

I went with this first time.
My fighter (Imported from BG1 with quite a few stats at 19) and kitted in BG2
A kitted Paladin
The fighting version of the thief which was cool as he can get to specialise in weapons.
Good Cleric
Conjurer
Sorcerer

I reckon 2nd time I play I'll go for something different. Monk / Bard / Druid / Sorcerer / Thief plus 1 NPC

I am thinking about this:
Cavalier
Illusionist
Archer
Monk
Thief/Cleric (this guy seems very good in stats, but I never tested him
1 NPC

I was going to have a sorcerer, but I hear you need NPCs to get some quests. I want to use the archer because I like archers in any game. And the idea of any game is to have fun. How does this sound? Is one NPC enough? Thanks for all the help. What are some good NPCs to get quests from also?

Um, in response to the dual from thief to fighter:
1. You can use any weapon the fighter can use.
2. You can put on armor any time you want - u just can't use your thief abilities while in armor.
3. If you dual at level 8, for example, you would have 112 hps starting as a fighter. A thief would have 64. That is a HUGE difference.

Yes going up in levels with the fighter is better for thaco, but you would have been better off with a pure thief. Get the X5 back stab and 100% in everything.

IMO, a thief is kinda useless unless you are role-playing, all u need from them is find/remove traps. That's why a thief/mage makes sense - better hps for the mage plus bow ability, and you double as the find traps expert. In fact, I don't know why anyone whouldn't dual a mage in this game. Doesn't matter what the class! Cleric/mage for better hps and healing for your mage, thief/mage for better hps and find traps, fighter mage so you can waltz around in your globe of invuln with a two handed sword and have over 100 hps - Ranger/Cleric for specialization in blunt weapons and access to druid spells.

In fact, the way this game starts out the first chapter is pretty easy with tons of xp points - your ENTIRE group could start as fighters and immediately dual. Use Imoen for traps in the beginning and minsc for fighting if you want. After chap 1 you will have a bunch of chars with over 100 hps and their new class skills - thief, mage, cleric, whatever!

Dual class is the way to go for this game. BG1 was harder to do this since you start from level 1 and you would prob dual a lot earlier, but this game is PERFECT for dual. Right now I'm playing again with only 4 chars so I can get those 9th level mage spells (Imoen only got to level 15 when I played while my primary fighter got to 19th), and I want to try out all those cool spells.

4 person party:
Half-Orc pure fighter
thief/mage
fighter/mage
ranger/cleric

This combo would probably beat most 6 member parties by the end of the game.

Ok, I understand your point now. You must not use the thief's backstab ability much. That's mainly why I chose a thief. That and the ability to hide in shadows (stealth). I combine THAT with the fighting ability of the fighter. HP's don't matter if you never get hit. (Not saying he doesn't, but he does move around enough and I protect him enough he doesn't get hit much). Like I said, I have used this 1 character to take on an entire dungeon before (does take longer than using a full party, but it's easier for me to both control and protect). I will admit that I do use the Open Locks and Find/Remove Traps option too, but not as much as I do my BACKSTAB. Whatever I hit FIRST, I kill. So I am pretty much guaranteed that at least the 1 hardest enemy, I can take out right away. Should I decide to attack from range, I do have my Fighter with his BOW stats, or he can waddle up and use mult attacks with his specialization to quickly take someone out. Again, he doesn't have too many hitpoints/granted, but I don't really need them.

I don't like the barb bec. the best armor they can wear is splint mail. My front line fighter needs to have really low ac. That, along with lack of specialization steered me clear of the barb. Wasn't worth the extra 18 HPs. A low level barb is absolutely a great char - would have been awesome for BG1.

I did make a 1/2 orc barb for fun, but since they can't specialize, I figured a pally or ranger was a better addition than a barb. I don't like the fatigue thing either.

As to the thief/fighter thing, if you were going to play just one char all the way through, that would be a good choice. Since direct assault is not an option with one or two chars, that backstab and the better attack rate of a higher level fighter would indeed be good. I will concede that point. But for a larger party (4 or more), I would go the other route. Also, while you are leveling in your fighter class, you would be absolutely useless (and you would need the NPCs). And your ONLY option is hiding and backstabbing. But if that's what you like, it does make sense. 19th fighter, 9th thief would do some NASTY damage. Only prob is you would HAVE to use the cloak of non-detection or you would be scried, thus you wouldn't be able to use the cloak of reflection... I'm actually a bit intrigued by the potential. Only a thief/fighter combo would be able to have any real chance of this game solo... But I foresee a LOT of restarts.

Hmm I can't understand why none wants to use a barbarian.
They get d12 for HP.
Rage makes them immune to many nasty things.
They get some resistance at higher levels.
Think about a half orc barbarian with 23 Str and Con equiped with the
cloak of reflection.

It's not that barbarians aren't strong. They can be a really good option to play too. The only thing I really like about the thief class is the stealth and backstab. If you choose a thief alone though, you are really limited. A really good combo is a fighter/thief. You don't have to dual-class a human to get this option either. A really good choice would be a dwarf. They may not have as high a dexterity, but they do get the con bonus and aren't usually too shabby as a fighter. I just prefer humans though. If you could class change from a thief to a barbarian, I'd say all for it. But I can't even change from a thief to a Ranger. Well, when the new games come out (3rd edition) we will have better options. They allow characters (any) to multi-class. Even humans. I really do like the BERSERK option of the Barbarian too btw. This is what you called RAGE. And yes, they definitely get good hitpoints.

the thief dualed to fighter is really good, specially if you use boots of speed as you can run in do the hit, then run around the corner go back into the shadows then finish them off. even better if you make the thief an assasin, then you get the poisoning. if you leave the dual till 9th level you get *4 backstab and you can still get to 19th level with your fighter which means a lot of proficiencies in one class ie lots of damage and lots of attacks for your backstab.

Yes, you are very correct there. When I changed the thief to a fighter, it was a LONG route to getting everything how I wanted it. I couldn't backstab, but I could wear armor. That helped a lot. Also, I did use NPC's to BEEF up and I used the de'Arnise hold as a way to gain levels. You see, I already had a Ranger/Cleric that I had raised up. He was my protection. I also had Nalia, Jaheira (though she was cursed, she did add to hitpoint totals.), Minsc, and Yoshimo. Yoshimo was my ACTIVE thief until my thief/fighter TRULY dual'ed. At this point, my thief/fighter took his position in the front of the party. As for a cloak of non-detection, I didn't really need that. Once I gained the cloak of mirrors, he was effectively protected from direct spell cast. I mean fireball or something could still affect him, but I was able to scout him around that. Actually, the levels started getting worse and worse (magic was coming faster and deadlier), so I just started using him to scout out areas. With the boots of speed, he was able to get out of range fast enough that I could let him go inviso (stealth) again. Granted, there were a few really tough fights, but eventually, perserverance and time became my allies. A direct assault may have been faster, but I would have lost too many party members. I remember a couple of times I attempted a direct assault and Minsc was DISINTEGRATED. Gone, totally, with no chance for resurrection. Then Yoshimo got ate. GONE, totally, no chance for ReSuRrEcTiOn. I gave up direct assaults. The game penalizes you for this. So I started going into stealth mode (constantly - used thief script). Then I would sneak in and check out a place (most couldn't detect me, though there were a few that could see inviso people), but once I found the cloak of mirrors, that was not as bad a problem. Normally, you will see an area effect spell go off, so you had a chance to get out of range. With the boots of speed that wasn't too hard. Then I would sneak out and go stealth again. I kept the NPC's around though because I ran into another problem. I couldn't carry enough. Jeez, is this the monty-haul campaign or what? LOL. I mean, if you sneeze in the wrong direction while you are walking around gold pieces will fall down. I keep a party of six and usually end up with more items than they could all carry together. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't keep any members with me. I had 3 of the scroll boxes and 3 gem boxes and a bag of holding and I still filled them up and five other party members slots. They musta looked like pimps or something by the time they got out of an area. I ran out of regular backpack slots so I started having them WEAR the jewelry and stuff they found (preferred magical jewelry over regular though). I ended up throwing away so much stuff that a pauper could have been king if he were following behind my party. JEEZ. Anyways, it's a really awesome game that fills in til I can get a real PnP adventure started.

I would recommend making either 3 or 4, and adding the other from the NPC pool.
My current party is:
Human Ranger(Stalker, rangers shouldn't wear heavy armor anyway!)
Dwarf Fighter/Cleric
Human Figher Dualed to Mage
Human Mage dualed to Thief

This way I can keep all the sub plots available, as well as keep some flexibility with the party.

Why put npc in your team ?
they're never the way you want them to be