Hi everyone / Some help with my party please

[Luke84]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here and was after some advice as I'm fairly new to the game as well.. Before that I’ll do a quick intro.. I live in Melbourne, Australia and I am 20 years old. I've been playing the game for about a month and have beaten SoA but I haven't started Throne of Bhaal.

Anyway, down to business. I plan on making a Multiplayer group of 5 characters and than I was going to take along one NPC at a time and doing their quests as I believe they make up a good part of the game. Below I have listed an outline of how I plan to make these characters, but seeing as though I have limited knowledge of the game I wanted to get a second opinion (or third and fourth!) on whether or not this would be a powerful and well built group. I plan on playing the group through SoA and than ToB. (I didn’t know where to post this so I put it in both forums, sorry if it’s against any rules.)

I'm after feedback on absolutely anything I have listed below. I got the idea off some website and thought it looked good. One thing in particular I'm looking for is what weapons would be best suited for the different characters, and also where to spend the *'s. Another area is what level to dual class.


1st. Kensai/Mage (Dual lvl 12)
Lawful Good

(Celestial Fury + Dakkon Zerth's blade)

Katana *****
Two Weapon Style ***
Leftover *'s???


2nd. Kensai/Mage (Dual lvl 12)
Lawful Good

(Staff of Magi)

Staff *****
Two Handed Weapon ***
Leftover *'s???


3rd. Kensai/Thief (Dual lvl 12)
Neutral Good

(Crom Faery + Flail of Ages)

War Hammer *****
Flail *****
Two Weapon Style ***


4th. Paladin Inquisitor
Lawful Good

(Casoymir)

Two Handed Sword *****
Two Handed Weapon ***
Leftover *'s???


5th. Ranger/Cleric (Dual lvl 9)
Lawful Good

(Axe Unyielding + ???)

Axe *****
Two Weapon Style ***
Leftover *'s???


I'm not sure what I should wield with the Ranger/Cleric, I've read the Axe of Unyielding is good but I wasn’t sure what to put it with.

One last thing, I've read that the Staff of the Ram is a very powerful weapon, should one of my characters be wielding it?


That’s about it; any feedback, tips or help would be much appreciated.

Cheers

[Dirty Meg]

I may be wrong, but I don't think a ranger cleric can use an axe.

[Hank Parsons]

is there any roleplaying reason you have 3 kensai's dual-classed at level 12, or is this just pure coincidence?

[img]graemlins/ninja.gif[/img] 1st. Kensai/Mage (Dual lvl 12) : Ho! You there. Halt, or I'll shoot magic missles at you. What's your business?

[img]graemlins/imnotworthy.gif[/img] 2nd. Kensai/Mage (Dual lvl 12) : I am just a friendly Kensai Mage walking down the road.

[img]graemlins/ninja.gif[/img] 1st. Kensai/Mage (Dual lvl 12) : OK then join my party I'm a Kensai Mage too.

[img]graemlins/imnotworthy.gif[/img] 2nd. Kensai/Mage (Dual lvl 12) : OK, sounds good my liege. By the way what level are you?

[img]graemlins/ninja.gif[/img] 1st. Kensai/Mage (Dual lvl 12) : Dualed at 12, of course.

[img]graemlins/imnotworthy.gif[/img] 2nd. Kensai/Mage (Dual lvl 12) : [img]graemlins/cheers.gif[/img] Alright! Me too. Way to go, my liege.

[Hank Parsons]

[img]graemlins/ninja.gif[/img] 1st. Kensai/Mage (Dual lvl 12) : Hark! Who goes there? Another approaches.

[img]graemlins/imnotworthy.gif[/img] 2nd. Kensai/Mage (Dual lvl 12) : Be on guard this is a dangerous area!

[img]graemlins/1deadly.gif[/img] 3rd. Kensai/Thief (Dual lvl 12) : Why look at you too! What a pair of twinkies you are.

[img]graemlins/ninja.gif[/img] 1st. Kensai/Mage (Dual lvl 12) : So what do you think you are, some kind of great kensai?

[img]graemlins/1deadly.gif[/img] 3rd. Kensai/Thief (Dual lvl 12) : I am just a plain Kensai. Can I join your party?

[img]graemlins/ninja.gif[/img] 1st. Kensai/Mage (Dual lvl 12) : OK you can join.

[img]graemlins/1deadly.gif[/img] 3rd. Kensai/Thief (Dual lvl 12) : OK. *Backstabs 1st. Kensai/Mage (Dual lvl 12) *

[img]graemlins/thief.gif[/img]

Yep, I think your party will work just fine.

[ 10-02-2004, 06:03 AM: Message edited by: Hank Parsons ]

[Harkoliar]

good stuff hank [img]smile.gif[/img]

i was thinking for your ranger/cleric make him use hammer (there is a hammer at the end of the game) . other than that well.. 3 kensai's would be interesting indeed. lol

[Neomi]

Have your ranger/cleric dual wield flails (FoA + Defender of Easthaven is a nice combo) or flail/hammer to use Crom Faer.

For an extremely powerful sneaky-archer-type, give your Kensai-thief short swords (for backstabbing, plus some of the nice short swords available early in the game, Arbane, etc.) and daggers (throwing daggers, especially the returnable kinds, in the hands of kensai are deadly).

By the way, Hank, that dialog was hilarious. Methinks this group is geared more for power than role-play...

[Neomi]

And one other thing...

Luke84, consider the problem you'll have early on in the game with three kensais and a ranger all trying to gain enough experience to reach a "good" point at which to dual. Here you will have an extremely fighter-heavy group with few spells of any kind, not to mention very little ability to find traps or open locks.

Then, at some point the ranger will cease to be useful in battle and will become a weak cleric with only a few spells. Then, the three uber-powerful kensai will cease to be useful for swordplay and will become 2 weak mages and 1 weak thief. What you are left with is an Inqusitor trying to carry the weight until the other guys recoup their fighter levels. While I agree that the end result will likely be extremely powerful (and some might argue, extremely cheesy) once you reach a few million xp each, you may have a long stretch of frustration until you get your kensai and ranger levels back.

One way to avoid this problem would be to use a couple of multi-class characters instead. For example, the Ranger/Cleric multiclass is awesome. You can tank, heal, and summon through the entire game, and once you get ironskins your tank is virtually untouchable. You could replace one of your kensai duals to a multiclass character. I would recommend a straight-up fighter/mage multiclass, which is also extremely powerful from the get-go, with good defensive spells and summons. Or a fighter/thief multiclass, which I don't think is quite as powerful early on but once your backstab multiplier is x4 or x5 will demolish enemies with one hit.

[ 10-02-2004, 10:10 AM: Message edited by: Neomi ]

[Luke84]

@Dirty Meg: thanks

@Hank: Lol!

@Harkoliar: I've gone for (Crom Faery + Flail of Ages) for my ranger/cleric

@Neomi: thanks for all the help, its made me make a few changes for the good i think.. with the multiclasses for my fighter/mage and ranger/cleric what race would best be suited?

anyway, here are the changes i made, is there anything else i should change?


1st. Kensai/Mage (Dual lvl 13)
Lawful Good

(Celestial Fury + Dakkon Zerth's blade)

Katana *****
Two Weapon Style ***
Mace hammer or flail *****


2nd. Figher/Mage (Multiclass)
Lawful Good

(Staff of Magi)

Staff *****
Axe (throwing) *****
Two Handed Weapon ***


3rd. Kensai/Thief (Dual lvl 13)
Neutral Good

Short Swords (Which two?)

Short Sword *****
Dagger *****
Two Weapon Style ***


4th. Paladin Inquisitor
Lawful Good

(Casoymir)

Two Handed Sword *****
Two Handed Weapon ***
Blunt weapon *****


5th. Ranger/Cleric (Multiclass)
Lawful Good

(Crom Faery + Flail of Ages)

War Hammer *****
Flail *****
Two Weapon Style ***


thanks again to everyone

[JayS]

IIRC rangers cannot duel.
I never heard of anyone dueling Minsc.

[Moon-Child_Lman]

Yeah, you can't duel a ranger. You have to be an elf or half-elf and multiclass to a Ranger/Cleric.