[NobleNick]

john,

Welcome back to IWD. Yes, as was said earlier, install IWD, HoW and TotLM (in that order) immediately, before beginning IWD. Read old posts to see the many reasons why. Basically: HoW adds adventuring area, patches IWD, and gives you lots of new features. TotLM is the final patch for IWD/HoW and gives more game play. It is a free (albeit large: 72MB ) download. You can download TotLM now, while you are waiting for IWD/HoW to arrive.

Here is a link that I clipped out of one of Micah Foehammer's old posts. The link is still good, but fileplanet is a pay site:

http://www.fileplanet.com/files/60000/62184.shtml

Here is a free download site:

http://planetbaldursgate.com/iwd/info/luremaster

If you are doing it on dial-up, make it the last thing you do before going to bed. It is worth the wait...

Most people on this forum, I think, would agree that Bards and Druids are mediocre in IWD, if you do not have the HoW expansion. *HOWEVER* when you install HoW, the game is rebalanced. A MAJOR part of the rebalancing included giving a lot more capabilities to the Druid and Bard, to address the former shortcomings of these characters. The Bard, especially, made out like a bandit in the rebalance.

I have a Bard and Fighter/Druid, in one of my parties that is in TotLM, now. The Bard has, among other songs, War Chant of the Sith (Yea!); some really neat spells, including Aganazzar's scorcher, lightning bolt, skull trap, monster summoning, and fireball. I bought her the Bardic Horn of Vahalla, so we also get treated to a Berserker party about once a day. She is definitely a worthy member of a large party (where lots of fighter-types are available to benefit from her songs).

I have not found the Bard hard to play, in fact it is quite the opposite: After she gets War Chant, all she does is sing! O.K., and do the mage-thing occasionally, and let the berserkers out of the bag once a day. She has some excellent weapons... which she NEVER uses; because her other abilities are so much more useful in a fighter-heavy party: a VERY powerful support character if your party packs a lot of fighter-types)

Are you talking about starting a party for IWD/HoW? Heh, heh, then you REALLY opened a can of worms! EVERYONE has advice on that! Let me get my two cents in. I, lean towards magic users AND Fighters AND dc (dc = dual class, mc = multi-class). My favorite party is currently in TotLM. As best I remember, their stats are:

1.) dc Ranger[10]/Cleric (wish I'd done dc Fighter[9]/Cleric)
2.) dc Cleric[12]/Fighter
3.) dc Fighter[10]/Druid
4.) dc Fighter[9]/Thief
5.) mc Gnome Thief/Illusionist (wish I'd done dc Thief[7]/Illusionist)
6.) Half-elf Bard

I think a great full party (6 members) would be: (When two options for a slot are given, my personal preference is listed first. If the first pick in each slot is chosen, EVERY member has magic spells or magic-like abilities, and most also get VERY respectable fighter abilities and "fighter-like" hit point stats.

1.) dc Fighter/Cleric or Paladin Get AT LEAST to Fighter level 9 before dc, especially if you are doing HoW/TotLM areas or HoF mode.
2.) dc Fighter/Druid (A Druid is great. A Fighter/Druid is better! Get AT LEAST to Fighter level 9 before dc if going into HoW.)
3.) dc Fighter/Illusionist (Again, get AT LEAST to Fighter 9.)
4.) dc Cleric/Fighter OR Cleric/Ranger (Get Cleric AT LEAST to the point of acquiring "Raise Dead" spell; but no higher than Cleric[12].)
5.) mc Dwarf Fighter/Thief OR dc Fighter/Thief
6.) Half-Elf Bard OR a 2nd dc Fighter/Specialist_Mage. You know the drill by now: AT LEAST Fighter level 9. I think a Bard is a much better choice here.

Things to remember:

For all your dc Fighters, use the Fighter phase to stack all your Proficiency Points (PPs) into exactly ONE melee and ONE Ranged weapon that your other phase can use (e.g., don't specialize in blades and bows if your Fighter is going to dc to Cleric). You can use the non-Fighter phase of your dc character to sample other weapons.

You are going to want lots of Cleric power when you get into HoW and TotLM --> a minimum of: high-level dc Cleric AND Paladin AND Bard; or 2 high-level dc Clerics.

A Bard is a good support character in a normal party; but an EXCELLENT one IF you bring lots of fighter types along (which the above party does). A party full of Fighters with high weapon proficiencies and the Bard singing "War Chant" just plain ROCKS!! Often, I have been able to wipe out entire parties of toughies, with a party like this, before they could close to melee range.

If you only have one specialist Mage, make her an Illusionist. If you have two specialists, just make sure that between the two of them, they have all magic schools covered. An Illusionist and Bard, or an Illusionist and a Necromancer, make a great magic team.

It's nice to have a race with infravision in the party.

When rolling a dc character think forward to the character's next phase when allocating points to character traits. After each dc character levels for the first time, save and try to dc them to what you would after they are seasoned. Re-roll to fix any problems, now, rather than find out about it after investing 9 levels worth of expo. A good dc Fighter/Druid is especially hard to roll (See other posts: you need AT LEAST 90 points, distributed very carefully); but the result is worth it.

EDIT: Dundee Slaytern just told us about a cheesy tactic of casting dispel magic on your Druid after he shapeshifts, so that he can use weapons. For a Fighter[9]/Druid this means that you could shapeshift to, say, a water elemental, getting all the immunities of that transformation AND, after the dispel, get to wield a weapon with grand mastery proficiency. AND your F/D would retain this ability indefinitely until he choses to shapeshift again. I have this vision of an elemental (or winter wolf, etc.) running around with about 140 hit points and grand mastery in a +3 weapon: WOW!! Sign me up!

--------------------
What's a party,
Without a song?
Bard's ROCK!
Party On!


[ 02-05-2004, 09:28 AM: Message edited by: NobleNick ]