Another party up for judgement!

[Tyrion]

Ok...i've been having trouble so i reinstalled and deleted all my savegames (why i don't know) and decided to try a career as a female elven Barbarian. i know it's weird but she rocks anyway, doing 20 damage or so in the beginning! Now i wonder just who to take in my party...right now im planning:

Me (barbarian)
Anomen*
Keldorn*
Nalia/then Imoen*
Soulafien*
and one more...right now im all out of ideas of whom to take...any ideas?

[pcgiant]

I'd recommend either Jan (for his thief skills and a nice HLA once he hits 3 million XP) or Mazzy, for ranged support. You might also want another cleric, so you might like Viconia or Aerie.

[Angelousss]

well unless he has happy party mod, keldorn will kill viccy so she's out. he's tanked up pretty well so i'd go for another mage. actually mazzy makes sense too. but Jan proably your best bet. secondary mage and thieving abilities are nice. you could go less traveled route and take somebody like Haer-dalis or Valygyr

[Tyrion]

but ill have two mages already...at least when Solafein comes! and Aire is a whimp, som maybe Mazzy then, what about that Cernd? what does tha shapechanger rebalancing thin in tactics do?

[pcgiant]

Originally posted by Tyrion: what does tha shapechanger rebalancing thin in tactics do?

Basically, it makes Cernd a NPC you'd like to have along.

I quote from the readme:
This makes Shapeshifters less of a joke. You might even be tempted to have
Cernd in your party now. Well, let's not go overboard. Anyway, this fixes
the bug where the Shapeshifter's paws could be dispelled and then any
weapon could be put in their place. That exploit essentially gave you 2
extra attacks with whatever you wanted, plus all the werewolf powers.

Shapeshifter abilities now create "symbolic paws". When you wield one you
turn into a Werewolf, when you remove it you're human again. No possible
exploits, and you may choose whether to put the paw in your on-hand or
off-hand. Since your off-hand THAC0 as a pure druid is, shall we say,
sub-optimal, I recommend the on-hand.

This also fixes a "bug" where attributes of the CRE file for "PC
polymorphed into a Werewolf" were not actually given to the PC by the
Polymorph opcode. Normal Werewolf:

You Were Supposed To Get You Actually Got
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Base Magic Res 20% Magic Res *LOCKED AT* 20%
Immunity to Normal Weapons Nothing
Paw = 1d12 slashing Paw = 1d6 piercing

For the Greater Werewolf ...

You Were Supposed To Get You Actually Got
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THAC0 6 Nothing
Saves 1/1/1/2/1 Nothing
Base Elemental Res 50% Elemental Res *LOCKED AT* 50%
Base Magic Res 40% Magic Res *LOCKED AT* 40%
Immunity to Normal Weapons Nothing
Paw = +3 Weapon Paw = +2 Weapon
Paw = 2d8 slashing Paw = 1d6 piercing
Regeneration 3 HP / second Nothing

To see this for yourself, check out werewodr.cre, weregrdr.cre, brbrp.itm,
etc.

The "Rebalancing" gives a Greater Werewolf Shapeshifter the +7 HP per Level
due to a fighter with 25 CON (before you just got +2). Most importantly,
Shapeshifters may now cast spells while in Wolf form. Hey, they're supposed
to have dedicated their lives to controlling lycanthropy. I'm sure a little
fur won't mess up their communion with nature. Yuan Ti, Githyanki,
Sahuagin, they can all cast spells. Why not wolfmen?

In addition, the Druid spell choices were a bit weak in some areas, so some
Priest-only spells were made Priest-Druid: Sanctuary (sylvan sanctuaries
abound), Chant (they got Bless, why not Chant?), Zone of Sweet Air (sounds
nature-y to me!), Glyph of Warding (no excuse, but they need a damaging
spell here that isn't Call Lightning), Righteous Magic (listen to Jaheira
for a while and tell me she's not Righteous ... more importantly, if
they're going to tank around they need some extra help).

Finally, 99% of all sixth-level druid spell slots go to "Summon Fire
Elemental". You can get a 24 hit dice monster with +4 claws that lasts for
hours with that spell. It's so much better than the 7th level "Summon Earth
Elemental" that it isn't funny. The other 6th-level summons just don't come
close. To give you some actual choices, "Conjure Animals" has been changed
to summon two 20 HD Greater Bearweres (they're like Greater Wolfweres).
However, the duration remains 4 turns. Do you want Fire Elementals forever,
or Mighty Big Tanks for a short time? You decide.

By the way, I initially coded up a version of the Shapeshifter paws that
would not be useable even by Thieves with UAI (this is the intended spirit
of the power). However, I'm not the police, so I removed it. If you want to
cheat, go for it.

[ 03-10-2003, 05:07 AM: Message edited by: pcgiant ]

[Rataxes]

Originally posted by Tyrion: Ok...i've been having trouble so i reinstalled and deleted all my savegames (why i don't know) and decided to try a career as a female elven Barbarian. i know it's weird but she rocks anyway, doing 20 damage or so in the beginning! Now i wonder just who to take in my party...right now im planning: Me (barbarian) Anomen* Keldorn* Nalia/then Imoen* Soulafien* and one more...right now im all out of ideas of whom to take...any ideas?

You're just gonna leave Nalia on her own in Spellhold? You evil bastard!

You already have clerical spells covered and you'll have a sufficient thief in Imoen once you get her.

What I can see is somewhat lacking in your group is arcane power. You only have one full mage and one partial mage. Though I went through SoA/ToB Ascension with only two partial mages myself, I have to admit things are a lot easier now that I have two full mages (one a sorcerer) and one partial.

You seem to have sufficient melee power, though more wouldn't hurt. In the end it's your choice if you want more fighters or more spellcasters, because those are the only things your group lack. For fighters, Mazzy, Minsc and Valygar are great choices. For spellcasters, Aerie would do, she'll even give you more divine power. Haer'Dalis could work as well, he can both fight and act as a mage so it would be the perfect compromise.

[ 03-10-2003, 07:55 AM: Message edited by: Rataxes ]