What's your style?

I'm with Legolas here - I like using bows and missle weapons and always make sure every party member has one. Though I always go with swords and shields as a rule, I keep a bow in everyone's inventory. My party for the current game I'm playing is:

Me (Fighter)
Khalid (Fighter)
Jaheira (Fighter/Druid)
Ajantis (Paladin)
Dynaheir (Invoker)
Imoen (Thief)

As you can see, I tend to lean towards fighters. This makes me feel safer - I always think I can handle pretty much anything as long as I have a few good tanks in my party.

[Intimadater]

My party consists of:

Me (a fighter) -10 ac
Minsc (ranger) -4 ac
Branwen (cleric) -3 ac
Skie (thief) 0 ac
Eldoth (bard) 5 to 0 ac
Dynaheir (mage) 5 ac

I send in Me,Minsc,and Branwen to do the heavy fighting. I shoot arrows and a wand of magic missles with Skie. With Eldoth I can suit him up with Drizzt's armor and other things to fight or I can set him up like a mage and cast spells. With Dynaheir I have a sling equipped and she never gets close to enemies. When I get something strong I put it on my strongest fighter whick is me and work my way down the line with the stuff. If you kill Drizzt you lose 10 reputation points but it is worth it........you get a Schimitar +5 five which gives you -3 THAC0 and 2 armor classes another Schimitar +3 but it is still good and armor even though it is magical it is equivalent to full plate mail and a lot lighter.

[Katherine]

Here are the statistics for my players as per Midget's stat query:

_______________XP Value____Percent of Kills___Total Kills___Days in party
Custom Invoker: 25%____________13%________________96____________69
Custom Thief: ____34%____________48%________________334_________ __69
Quayle: __________ 3%____________13%_________________41___________38
Yeslick: _________10%____________12%_________________88____ _______44
Shar-teel: _______20%____________13%_________________93______ _____16
Xan: _____________5%_____________5%_________________41_ __________45

I'm not sure what these stats mean. It's hard to say. Some NPCs were in the party for a short period and got a lot of kills, others were in it forever and got very few.

I avoided using much in the way of projectile weapons in this game, except with the thief, so that is probably why some of the weak, stand-backish characters got relatively low XP percentages.

[ 04-23-2002, 03:16 AM: Message edited by: Katherine ]

[Little Dragon]

I used Legolas method when i start a new game. But then i use my main character to take on groups of people and use the others characters snipering them with bows, crossbows and sling shots.

Legolas is the name of my main character. Hes an Elf to.

am trying to play a lord of the rings game

[ 04-23-2002, 05:19 AM: Message edited by: Little Dragon ]

[Midget Gems]

As a follow up, here are some observations about the data I gave for 'average experience gained'.

Bards did better than I expected. This is only a small data sample but even Garrick, once armed with Longbow and Wands, was able to contribute a good score.

Clerics can be useful with their magic abilities but killing is not their forte. Even when I used Tiax as party leader he was a Blocker, rather than a Fighter, and manager a 10% contribution. I guess that restricted weapon choice and limited weapon specialisation is too big of a handicap to overcome.

I was trying to compare a bow user against someone with a cross-bow or a sling, but it's hard to find good examples. Good archers can score over 30%, while I would expect to get 20% from a Fighter/Thief with Missile specialisation. A Thief with a short bow managed about 15%, it just isn't as powerful, but still a useful contribution.

I had hoped magic users would do a little better than 13%, but their skills develop late and powerful spells can have long casting times - compare their rate of fire with a 'hasted' archer. Best score I had with a Mage was from Xan with 15%, but I can't figure out how he did it, unless it's because of his Moonblade.

One thing I haven't figured out is this - does anyone get credited with the XP from indirect kills? For example if a kill is achieved by a Charmed NPC, or as a result of Confusion or Rigid Thinking, or even by a summoned Monster/Skeleton (just wishful thinking).

[Hayashi]

Originally posted by Midget Gems: One thing I haven't figured out is this - does anyone get credited with the XP from indirect kills? For example if a kill is achieved by a Charmed NPC, or as a result of Confusion or Rigid Thinking, or even by a summoned Monster/Skeleton (just wishful thinking).

I think so - any enemy that is killed by the party, or by characters controlled by the party (charmed enemies, summoned monsters) yield XPs when killed, which go to the party members.

[Little Dragon]

Midget Gems. I think cross bow's are more powerful but Bow's are faster and if you have a good archer you can kill monsters with one shot.

[Colin]

I try to use a variety of missile weapons/bows throughout the party so found magical items don't go to waste.

Me (Halfling Thief) - Short Bow
Minsc - Light Crossbow of Speed (2 attacks/round)
Kivan - Composite Long Bow
Branwin - Sling
Imoen (dual classed to mage/thief) - Sling
Dynaheir - Sling

Typically, I'll stealth my thief and set him up for a backstab (this typically does about 30 damage). At the same time, the rest of the party starts raining in arrows/bolts/bullets while my thief runs back to the party. Minsc moves forward to engage/block and my thief switches back to bow.

-Colin.

[Grimslade]

If have only played through BG once, so bear with me. But I have found this type of party effective.

6 characters. Front row- have 3 chars who can fight. Back row- have 3 chars who can used ranged weapons.

On the front row, one of those fighters is a cleric, useful for healing up. On the back row, two are thieves (or fighter/thieves) as I find them very useful for lots of situations. The last person on the back row is a mage, whom you give all your spells to. I like having one, general and superpowerful mage, who is protected by the others around him or her.

If you play RTS games, then you will recognise such a strategy.

[Intimadater]

My experience percentage for my fighter(I created him) is always around 65% but I just put him in the middle of a lot of weaker opponents and nobody else is close to his ability in my party.