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Vassago · 02-01-2005, 10:04 AM

IMO, party creation is the hardest part of the game. Trying to come up with a party that you like and covers everything you want it to be. I have never beat the game, but I know I have taken atleast 8-10 different parties up Chapter 2. My current game is the only exception and I am mainly playing it just to see if I could. I'm running a solo Deep Gnome Monk. This brings up another point about xp. If you run a party less than 6, you can control the amount of xp you receive by squatting levels (i.e. not taking a level up when you have the xp you need). You have to be careful squatting because your xp can rack up rather quickly. In the case of my solo Monk, by the time I was headed to the Fortress I was level 6 w/ 5 levels squatted. I didn't want to take all 5 levels b/c then I wouldn't get any xp from monster kills, so I used a program called Dale Keeper to "tweak" my total xp points. I reduced my xp down to enough to go to level 7, loaded my game back up and advanced to level 7 and then went back into Dale Keeper and added the rest of my xp points that I had removed before leveling. This allowed me to contorl the number of levels I wanted to take when I wanted to level. That's the problem with squatting. If you don't use Dale Keeper, you are forced to take all of your levels at once (and they can only be used for one class). I wish they would have left this like they did in IWD where you could take each individual level instead of all or nothing.

Aside from my solo Monk, I typically take 3-4 characters. Another xp tactic would be to start with one character and then other characters throughout the game. From my experience, I've noticed that the amount of xp per monster kill doesn't change until your average party level exceeds 6. For example, a goblin will give you 75 xp points per party (not character) until your average party level is 7. Average party level is determined by adding up all of your parties levels (not effective class levels, but just levels) and dividing by the number of party members rounded down. For example, if you party consisted of Drow 5, Human 7, Deep Gnome 4 your APL would be: 5+7+4=16/3=5

I hope this helps and good luck to you.

02-01-2005, 10:04 AM	#8
Vassago Manshoon Join Date: August 21, 2002 Location: KY Age: 52 Posts: 188	IMO, party creation is the hardest part of the game. Trying to come up with a party that you like and covers everything you want it to be. I have never beat the game, but I know I have taken atleast 8-10 different parties up Chapter 2. My current game is the only exception and I am mainly playing it just to see if I could. I'm running a solo Deep Gnome Monk. This brings up another point about xp. If you run a party less than 6, you can control the amount of xp you receive by squatting levels (i.e. not taking a level up when you have the xp you need). You have to be careful squatting because your xp can rack up rather quickly. In the case of my solo Monk, by the time I was headed to the Fortress I was level 6 w/ 5 levels squatted. I didn't want to take all 5 levels b/c then I wouldn't get any xp from monster kills, so I used a program called Dale Keeper to "tweak" my total xp points. I reduced my xp down to enough to go to level 7, loaded my game back up and advanced to level 7 and then went back into Dale Keeper and added the rest of my xp points that I had removed before leveling. This allowed me to contorl the number of levels I wanted to take when I wanted to level. That's the problem with squatting. If you don't use Dale Keeper, you are forced to take all of your levels at once (and they can only be used for one class). I wish they would have left this like they did in IWD where you could take each individual level instead of all or nothing. Aside from my solo Monk, I typically take 3-4 characters. Another xp tactic would be to start with one character and then other characters throughout the game. From my experience, I've noticed that the amount of xp per monster kill doesn't change until your average party level exceeds 6. For example, a goblin will give you 75 xp points per party (not character) until your average party level is 7. Average party level is determined by adding up all of your parties levels (not effective class levels, but just levels) and dividing by the number of party members rounded down. For example, if you party consisted of Drow 5, Human 7, Deep Gnome 4 your APL would be: 5+7+4=16/3=5 I hope this helps and good luck to you. __________________ [img]\"http://img25.exs.cx/img25/5295/Thief_image.jpg\" alt=\" - \" />