[Dyntheos]

This I think i my 4th restart. All these parties have been a learning process each refining lessons learned by previous parties or characters.


Party 1. The Beginning: Newbie City.

First started with a mixed group no idea about point allocation, can't even remember the group I think it was a fighter, preist, mage, gadgeteer, samurai, fighter I know I was placing points into intelligence for the fighters because the manual said they used it for combat skills...

I got to Arnika with that group then restarted. All the skills were off and I was getting my horse/donkey whooped.

this was basically the "take the game for a spin and see how things work out there" party. I new this party would'nt last long.


Party 2. Munchkin Power Gaming to the rescue...

Next group was an all Fighter, all Human affair, 4 Fighters a Ranger and Bishop. My first group had a priest and mage and I found I ran out of things to do with the single book casters in combat after a few rounds, so I thought I would get more out of a bishop and only one at that. It was a good descision. With one bishop I could cast spells every round and always have something to do, plus the bishop could fill many rolls in the party and not be limited in spell choice or relegated to melee or missile fire once spells had been used. This is a great advantage of the Bishop. He is still a pure spell caster, so gains quickly and has versatility.

I got this group to the swamp then restarted. This group worked out ok yet it failed due to again poor point allocation and not knowing what the characters do at higher stat levels. I think 10-11 is about where most characters start to see their potential yet my stat allocation let things down.

Fighters:

For the fighter I beleive I had spread my points too thin and had not achieved 50 in close combat or sword, and had nothing close to expert skills, so I was lacking iron skin or powerstrike. My attacks were still at 1 per strike and I had failed to put much into dual wield and nothing into dagger (all my fighters were dual weilders) my dual was at about 20 and dagger was like 10 naturally. The Fighters were not tanking because their attacks were down and they had no hitpoints, and little speed. This showed me that although humans seem a good chioce at first their mediocre stat allocation at the beginning makes those expert skills that much further away. My damage was ok but not great, I couldn't get into combat because my speed was down and my vitality was low so my hit points were aswell. These fighters were mediocre in everyway, stats and skills. I learned a valuable thing with this group and that is to specialise to maximise potential. Spread things too thin and you end up with "average"

Ranger:

The Ranger was working out fine I believe I got him on the nose. I only pumped his bow skills and was heading for dex and speed. The only thing I was disappointed with was the damage but it was early game so I was waiting for him to develop later.

Bishop:

The the Bishop ended up being very enjoyable to play. The versatility of things proved very helpful. I had not learned how to train at this stage very well but that changed with the next party.

One thing I did differently here was party formation. I got rid of the entire front line. I placed 2 fighters on each flank and then placed the ranger in the middle. The Bishop held the rear rank. This setup allowed me to focus 5 characters upon the front rank of enemies or single creatures all using swords. In a word, devastating. The added bonus is that you don't care about being flanked. "So what I have 2 fighters on my right and left, surround me I don't care". I think that every party should do away with the front row, it only limits you, and leaves you open to flanking attacks. The other bonus is that the creatures who got behind me were still within melee range to the flankers if they got to the Bishop in the rear.


Party 3. If all else fails do the same thing but different...

What immediatly struck me in the fighter group was lack of attacks. reading this forum I had heard monks attack alot so being the niave fool I was I replaced all my fighter with monks [img]smile.gif[/img] (silly me, but hey it's a learning curve thing). The Ranger left and was replaced with a fairy ninja ( I wanted to check out this cane of corpus thingo )and I kept the bishop as she worked out really well in the previous party.

Monks:

4 Monks all human. (yes I made the same mistake with the humans. but for the monk they seemed to be a good chioce.) Initially the damage was quite good. They all tanked well and dealt out a fair amount of damage. Yet at times I could see that a fighter would be doing it better. I pumped speed and dex again and had the proper point allocation pushing only martial arts, close combat and stealth. All in all they proved to be quite effective yet I KNEW that a fighter would be acheiving more, at least I knew a correctly setup fighter could be acheiving more.

Fairy Ninja:

My first. He sucked. Badly. In my defence I would like to say that he was a victim of newbieness and therefore he cannot be held responsible for his poor performance. I still had not learned the lesson of spreading things too thin. You see I knew he was going to use staffs, for the cane, yet I gave him numchuks which he trained. So I threw away all that training in nummies, when ultimately he was going to use the cane. I also forgot to pump dual weild. So when i finally DID get the cane he was getting 1 attack with it at a poor attack rating. I also pumped pickpockets (I KNOW! I KNOW! KILL ME NOW!). Yet again, it was my first so hey. All up a good learning experience, yet a victim of stat allocation.

Bishop:

Ok my 2nd bishop I knew things a little better now, and fireball was my freind before so I pumped Preist and Mage books as well as the fire realm. The Bishop kicked alot of badness with that fireball. I also discovered that Vault doors are your friend and ones with 8 tumblers are like a punching bag for spell casters. Vault Door + Knock Knock + 1 hour = Earth realm and WIzardry to 60+. This allows you to open up spells easily with the high wizardry and allows a level 5 or 6 (green) web. Web is you freind. We all like web. High level webs take out many evil doers. get it, train it, use it. Nuff said. (Btw the ability to open locks with a high knock knock is good too [img]smile.gif[/img] ) This Bishop was a Fairy too. Worked well. Fairy + Bishop = good.

This party picked up RFS-81. So I had 5 monks and a ninja in the fornt row (2 Flank, 2 middle, 2 Flank). RFS-81 is good I picked him up in the next party....


Party 4. When things start to work and much killage begins to flow...

Ok after all those restarts and testing of several classes I had learned a few things.

1. Specialise. Pick a character. Then pick what he is going to do. 3 skills, 2 stats. Then STICK TO IT. branch out later when they are maxed. The error here is that if you don't, you end up with no firepower early on.

2. When you specialise do it with the right race. Humans may seem like a good chioce but ultimately they do not allow maxed skills early on.

3. Training of skills. I found that ALOT of skills merrily go up by themselves. and at about 10 to 12 they are nearing high 60's. Your other skills really then are waaaaay behind. Now this may seem to contradict what I have said earlier yet this is rather specific to each class. For a bishop, for instance, placing points into realms of earth or mental or divine etc is wasted because they pump themsleves, through training and spell use. I only pump the books, wizardry, psionic etc. For a fighter though, pump those sword and close combat skills UNTIL the expert skills open up, then ditch them and place it all into the expert skills. This goes for all expert skills, as soon as they open up stop pumping the other skills, they will train themselves, yet the extra push into the expert skills will pay off more.

My party then for restart 4.

Lizardman Fighter
Lizardman Fighter
Fairy Ninja
Hobbit Samurai
Fairy Bishop
Fairy Bishop

Lizardman Fighter:

Vit and Str initially till expert skills open up (which is extremely early) then speed and Dex. Close combat, Sword, and sheild till, expert skills open up. At 11th level I have 50+'s in close combat and sword, and my expert skills are around 10 for both Iron skin and Power strike. Snakepeed is about 3 levels away or so. Currently the powerhouse of scales is comfortably doing around 60 points of damage per hit, at level 11, and often upwards of 80. They have 20+ armour and are delivering multiple attacks per round. Hit points over 150.

Fairy Ninja:

Speed and Dex. Close combat, Dual wield and Alchemy. The Idea here is that the 2 fairy wands I was using have pumped the staff skill for the cane (which i now have) and the dual and close combat being pumped would keep the skills all even and together (which they have). Stealth is also rising by itself nicely. The Alchemy pump is an investment for later when I can use more portals. Dealing VERY good damage, and with the 50% sleep and the bonuses on the Cane OF Corpus, raw damage is excellent and consistant. Critical strike is being trained all by itself and will kick in later at higher levels. For raw damage the ninja is on par with the fighters now that he is using the Cane. The increased occurance of Crits later on, will just be gravy.

Hobbit Samurai:

Speed and Str. I'll then be pumping senses then dex. Dual wield, Sword, and Wizardry. Wizardry is being pumped for the same reason as the ninja. Currently beserking with antone's sword which is producing great results and great damage. Lightning strike is kicking in quite often aswell now. All round an excellent fighter. No points into Critical Strike, as its rising by itself easily. Multiple attacks and High damage at level 11 make this version of the Samurai a killing machine.

Fairy Bishop:

3 books each. alternating psionics and Alchemy. I took 2 bishops because 2 fireballs are better than one, and are majorly paying off. The ability to heal AND damage, or Damage and Immobilise each round is fanatstic. The Front row just takes out the garbage. The power behind the group are the bishops. Web is a cone yet with 2 I can now cover all monsters even when I am flanked. With a large group of monsters, say 10+, 2 high level fireballs can deal 60 points of damage to every creature. That's about 600 points of damage a round. That's even BEFORE they come into melee range where they are webbed, and insane, then Fireballed twice the round after.

The party was set out with 2 melee characters on each flank and the 2 bishops at the rear, nothing in the centre. It's like you have line of 4 then a line of 2, leaving the centre open did not leave my bishops open to frontal attacks.

With all my restarts I guess I have found for my style of play that specialising and training is the way to go, with appropriate race choices. Iam very happy with this party and have picked up the andriod again having him as more muscle.