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12-08-2000, 02:10 PM

Well, I agree, a party of a ranger/cleric, an inquisitor (dispel magic is needed), a f/t, and 3 tank half-orcs would have the easiest time making it through this game.

But if you only have 3 or 4 chars, a mage with area of effect spells to "soften up" the opposition and summoning spells are necessary. IWD was a great example of a game where this is evident. I made a party of 4 instead of 6 and had a much easier time. Most of the work was done by an illusionist/thief who would hide in shadows and use fireball/cloudkill to soften the enemy. You'll find the battles are a lot easier.

My advice is try out a small party with an illusionist/thief and see for yourself. The enemy never uses healing spells, so haveing the mages reduce the hps of the enemy by half means your fighters can go in there after and have a much easier time. With 6 chars, this also works, and you can do cool things with your thief - have him go invisible with non-detection, send him into the mind flayer areas, and have all your casters summon elementals, etc. You can kill off a bunch of those (chaotic commands on the elementals helps), or soften them up a lot b4 you send your troops in.

I always thought the same way as you until recently. The main diff is you need to plan ahead for the battles and use more strategy than the hack-and-slay approach. But you'll be surprised - it's actually a lot more fun. Plus your casualty rate will go down, and so will your frustration. With mages you can actually use the core rules and the higher difficulty levels. You'll be hard-pressed to get fighters lvl 19 with less than 100 HPs to survive a lot of these battles. I would say the ONLY way to make it through on harder difficulty levels is to have mages to assist and attack. But if you play on normal or low difficulty, you can make a tank party that will do better in most "surprise" situations. The key is that using scouts to go ahead will allow you to prepare for a battle, and give your spell-casters more time to make an impact. If you just walk ahead into a room, the tank party will do better. IMO, scouting ahead makes the game more interesting and you will have a lot more fun. It will take a bit longer at first, but you will have a lot less reloading, thus making you "feel" better about the battle. You weren't just "stronger", you were "smarter".

12-08-2000, 02:10 PM	#4
Glorick the Half-Orc Guest Posts: n/a	Well, I agree, a party of a ranger/cleric, an inquisitor (dispel magic is needed), a f/t, and 3 tank half-orcs would have the easiest time making it through this game. But if you only have 3 or 4 chars, a mage with area of effect spells to "soften up" the opposition and summoning spells are necessary. IWD was a great example of a game where this is evident. I made a party of 4 instead of 6 and had a much easier time. Most of the work was done by an illusionist/thief who would hide in shadows and use fireball/cloudkill to soften the enemy. You'll find the battles are a lot easier. My advice is try out a small party with an illusionist/thief and see for yourself. The enemy never uses healing spells, so haveing the mages reduce the hps of the enemy by half means your fighters can go in there after and have a much easier time. With 6 chars, this also works, and you can do cool things with your thief - have him go invisible with non-detection, send him into the mind flayer areas, and have all your casters summon elementals, etc. You can kill off a bunch of those (chaotic commands on the elementals helps), or soften them up a lot b4 you send your troops in. I always thought the same way as you until recently. The main diff is you need to plan ahead for the battles and use more strategy than the hack-and-slay approach. But you'll be surprised - it's actually a lot more fun. Plus your casualty rate will go down, and so will your frustration. With mages you can actually use the core rules and the higher difficulty levels. You'll be hard-pressed to get fighters lvl 19 with less than 100 HPs to survive a lot of these battles. I would say the ONLY way to make it through on harder difficulty levels is to have mages to assist and attack. But if you play on normal or low difficulty, you can make a tank party that will do better in most "surprise" situations. The key is that using scouts to go ahead will allow you to prepare for a battle, and give your spell-casters more time to make an impact. If you just walk ahead into a room, the tank party will do better. IMO, scouting ahead makes the game more interesting and you will have a lot more fun. It will take a bit longer at first, but you will have a lot less reloading, thus making you "feel" better about the battle. You weren't just "stronger", you were "smarter".