[Aerich]

Welcome to IW, Feagil. [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img]

Assuming you still do not have HoW, here's my comments on your party:

Dwarven Fighter - solid like a rock. A great tank, and utterly destructive if you (eventually) put 5 proficiency points in Axe.

Human Paladin - good choice. There's a paladin-specific longsword that automatically makes a paladin a good choice. Also, paladins are decent fighters and great party leaders. They get a few dialogue options offering extra XP.

Gnome Thief - not so good. You can only dual human characters - demi-humans (e.g. any race other than human) have to be multiclassed or singleclassed. A Gnome Thief/Illusionist is much, much better than a pure gnome thief. In general, straight thieves aren't that great, as I'm sure you've figure out. Anyway, you can't dual a gnome, so multiclass it instead.

Lots of other options to round out the party. Two priestly spellcasters is a good idea. Based on the three above characters as the "core" members, here goes:

Ranger/Cleric - a good multiclass character. In the basic (non-HoW) IWD, a R/C gets druid spells. As you don't have HoW, a dual-class R/C should dual from Ranger to Cleric no later than 9th level, and maybe even at 7th. An alternate to the R/C is the F/C - the advantages of the F/C over the R/C in the basic game include: that it takes less XP to level up, but the difference isn't that much. You can also put more than two proficiency points in a weapon. However, I'd still go with a multiclass R/C - it's more versatile, and provides for smoother gameplay (e.g. you have the warrior and cleric classes active for the whole game).

Single classed Cleric. Good idea. Not a fighting character, but great for protective spells, healing, and undead turning.

Conjuror. A good choice for IWD, but not for HoW. Opposition school is the useless Divination in IWD, but Evocation if you have HoW. You might consider starting this character out as a fighter, going to level 7 or so, and then dualing over. It'll only cost you 64 000 XP, and it means many more HP and you'll be able to use a bow or crossbow to good effect from the back of the party when you don't want to use spells.

So here's my recommendations for your new IWD game (they'd be different if you had HoW).

Dwarven Fighter
Human Paladin
Gnome Illusionist/Thief (mc)
Half-elf Ranger/Cleric (mc)
(Any race except gnome) Cleric
Human Fighter[7]/Conjuror (dc)

This combination (or many others) should serve you well.

[ 10-21-2004, 08:03 PM: Message edited by: Aerich ]