There is a new power gamer character creation guide at gamefaqs I just found.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/dos...me/430803.html

Interesting...

Not bad at all, it corresponds with much of my own thought. ;) A good find of introductory material.

Seriously, it doesn't add much to the knowledge already on the forum. It is in a more accessible form, though. I'm sure that Azred, Dundee, Nick, Marty, and I, as well as a few others, could each write a powergamers guide that would be substantially similar - there's already bits and pieces scattered throughout the forum.

If you have HoW, make sure you scroll down to the HoW part - two potentially costly differences between vanilla IWD and IWD/HoW are the added bard skills and opposition schools for specialist mages. You do NOT want to take a conjurer specialist if you have HoW, nor overlook the bard as a character class.

The section on dual/multi classing is excellent, although the author tends to prefer dual classing at an earlier level than I do. That's probably a reflection of the extra XP available at my preferred higher difficulty levels.

Definitely a good read.

I saw a couple of things that made me wonder.

Do dexterity, constitution and wisdom actually affect saving throws as the author asserts? I thought that none of this was implemented.

And what's with the line about Dwarves
"Decent pure fighter, but humans or half-elves are better"? Whether dwarves are better is something that is clearly subjective, but what do the human and half-elf have that the gnome doesn't? Meaningful stats are identical, but the gnome get +5 savingthrow. And go ahead and tell me that the items available to the gnome are worse than those available to the human or half-elf [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 06-27-2005, 05:33 AM: Message edited by: ister ]

Dexterity and wisdon IIRC dont affect.
Dwarves gnomes (and halflings?) get bounus saving throw for every 3.5 points of constituition. Or somesuch. Can trememebr exactly.

IIRC dwarves halflings and gnomes get +5 regardless of constition, despite what the manual says. I think that's how they implemented it - not what the rules and manual say. In any case even if it's implemented the way the manual, the guide is still worng, because saving throws are only affected for dwarves gnomes and halflings, for everyone else there's no effect.

On the other hand the guide seems well researched, and it's possible I'm wrong.

Dwarves are good pure fighters and they make one hell of a good Fighter/Cleric multiclass (the ability to have 19 constitution is a boon to their hitpoints)

Dex, Con, and Wis only affect saving throws in games based upon 3rd Edition rules, which IWD is not.

Well researched, but fitting to another's playing style, I like having access to my magic 24/7, not after dual-classing. (I also find a party of mostly humans to be a bit dull and boring >.> )

Humans have the ability to dual-class, which makes them rather unique in that case. Half-elves have almost every multi-class option open to them, including triple multi-class options.(But I find that triple multi-classes can be quite underpowered at times, they fit more into games like BG2)

<font color = lightgreen>You're probably correct, Aerich. [img]graemlins/beigesmilewinkgrin.gif[/img]

My powergaming guide would include active use of IEEP and Near Infinity to create interesting new spells or use lesser-known effects; for example, instead of "panic" (used in the spell Horror) use "break morale", which has the same result but no foe is immune to this effect... But that is really bending the rules....

Powergaming is all about min/max-ing your character. [img]graemlins/petard.gif[/img] </font>

I'm almost sure it does depend on constitution and is only for dwarves gnomes halflings.

I remember researching this once (long ago) and it is +1 bonus for 3.5 points of CON (this btw, is also how it is supposed to be by 2nd ed ADD rules).

Now I just cant remeber if I did research for IWD too or only with BG (there it is definately implemented that way), but I'm almost sure I did for IWD also.

<font color = mediumspringgreen>Hey guys,

Are we all looking at the same guide? This guy throws out some useful information for the complete tyro; but I would not call it a powergamer's guide (and neither does the author). And hidden amongst the good information are frequent faux paus like:</font>

Halflings:
Highly resistant to poisons and magic. +1 bonus to Dex, -1 penalty to Str. Good with Slings. Some use as fighter --- thief. +5 on all thieving skills, except stealth +15. Elves are better.

<font color = mediumspringgreen>Elves are better than Halflings for what? Certainly not as a Fighter, Tank or a Thief; which seems to cover all the possible contexts the author could have been pursuing.</font>

A distracter is a very optional character. But can only be used if you take less than 6 characters. A distracter is a character of around level 4 with high Dex, Con and Wis who you send 1st into battle to absorb damage while you blast the enemies with spells and ranged weapons

<font color = mediumspringgreen>What *is* this guy talking about?? The only part of the above paragraph that is not total BS is the first seven words.</font>

Multi-class characters are useless in IWD.

<font color = mediumspringgreen>I know (well, actually, I *hope*) he means sans HoW. Still, even a hardcore DCer like myself would disagree. (Cases in point: MC Thief/Illusionist or MC Thief/Fighter).</font>

...but depending on patience you can roll up to around 20 times and probably end up with a character that’s better than most as long as you increase and decrease the allocation well.

<font color = mediumspringgreen>Not a very patient fellow, is he? The number of allowed rolls, to the best of my ability to tell, is unlimited. Though I will often stop after about 80, I've gone well past 300 to get a good DC Fighter/Druid.</font>

If your druid is operating as a second tanker then you can sacrifice
dexterity on that character to ensure high Str, if and only if you give him/her
amazing armour

<font color = mediumspringgreen>There is no amazing armor that would make up for that mistake. And if there were, your tank should be wearing it! This is absolutely the wrong thing to do (as I found out the hard way by ignoring Dundee Slaytern's advice on the subject).</font>

The increase in HP is per level, so constitution is slightly better than Dex overall.

<font color = mediumspringgreen>I disagree.

~

I agree in principle with Aerich: There were many brilliant statements by this author; but his guide reminds me of an authentic enchilada topped with rice, salsa, sour cream... and cyanide: 98% heavenly goodness; but spiked with enough bad stuff to kill you if you just swallow the whole thing down...

EDIT: I had a lot more bad things to say, but edited them out after seeing that the treated IWD separately from IWD(HoW). Yeah, I know he said he was going to do this; but it was unclear to me that he was indeed doing that until I was 3/4 through his guide.

</font>--------------------<font color = mediumspringgreen>
What's a party,
without a song?
Bards ROCK!
Party On!!
</font>

[ 06-27-2005, 08:50 PM: Message edited by: NobleNick ]

Meh, it's okay. Like Nick pointed out, I dont think the guy even plays HoW. This is a character creation guide, not a powergamer guide. There are MUCH better powergamer guides for IWD2 then there are for IWD1, probably since there is more room for powergaming.