[Aerich]

Welcome, MichaelLi!

Party looks good. It will do well on insane/HoF. The hardest part will be at the beginning (because of lack of healing), but once you dual over and/or your bard gains the War Chant, you will be flying high.

One thing I would have done is give your bard a better Int; you don't need 18 Str, as the bard is probably your 5th melee option, at least until you dual over the two fighters. He is at best the third option, though. A 13 Int will greatly restrict the number of spells you can learn. I know that your bard isn't your primary spells option and you may spend the majority of his memorization slots on a few spells, but I would personally have the bard's int at least up to 15-16. It's easier to learn spells, and Int affects a bard's chance to identify, so the higher, the better.

Additionally, you may wish to switch up your alignments a little more. There's a decent amount of evil-only items, and a few that can't be used by lawful characters. It won't cripple you to leave your alignments the way they are, though.

I second Stratos' advice; you should have someone able to use great swords, and at least one who can use crossbows. Don't bother editing/remaking your party to do that, just take those proficiencies as you level up. You may also want more blunt weapon proficiencies, as there are lots of skeletal undead (who take only half damage from slashing, piercing and missile attacks). Some of the magical blunt weapons also have a chance to stun, which can be enormously helpful.

Again, as Stratos said, you don't need to take identify right at the start. Magic will be in short supply for a while, and a bard is good enough to identify the majority of what you pick up. You can also get Identify from spell scrolls.

Re: first level spells - it depends what you envision your mage doing. Stratos suggested Shield and Armor, but I don't think both of those are necessary. Armor is good, because it lasts a long time. If you don't expose your mage/thief to missile fire, you shouldn't need Shield. You can get that spell later. Magic missile is good, but so is Chromatic Orb. An overlooked spell is Grease. It's very helpful in the early game against tough melee fighters like Ogres and Yeti. It slows them down so you can kill them with just missiles - saves your party a lot of damage, especially on Insane.

I would go with Grease and Magic Missile (there's a Chromatic Orb scroll in Easthaven, so you don't need to choose it). You could also choose Armor, Shield, or Protection from Evil (the mage version stacks with a paladin's innate form). I would steer away from Burning Hands and Shocking Grasp. You have four excellent tanks, and these two spells require the vulnerable caster to get very close to the targets. You don't need to.

[ 08-14-2004, 09:22 PM: Message edited by: Aerich ]