Advices???

[Xen]

Originally posted by Bernardo: Thanks, but I think I bought a version with TotLM already installed.. I'll check! What about the group, what do you advise?

2 Fighters, a Thief,Bard a Druid,Mage.

[NobleNick]

Bernardo,

Xen's advice is right on target. Get a Bard and a Druid (but ONLY if you have HoW installed) and have a fighter-heavy party. (Your Bard makes your fighting characters much more effective.) The only thing I would tweak in Xen's plan is to add a little more Cleric power. Here is the party I have, (as well as I can remember the details) that did very well in HoW and is doing very well in TotLM (DC = Dual Class, MC = Multi-Class):

1.) DC Cleric/Fighter (DC to Fighter at Cleric 9)
2.) DC Ranger/Cleric (DC to Cleric at Ranger 9)
3.) DC Fighter/Thief (DC to Thief at Fighter 9)
4.) DC Fighter/Druid (DC to Druid at Fighter 10)
5.) Half-Elf Bard
6.) MC Gnome Thief/Illusionist

The tweaks I would make to the above party, if I had to build a new one for another adventure, are to characters 1, 2, 5 and 6:

1.) DC Fighter/Cleric (DC to Cleric at Fighter 9).
2.) DC Cleric/Ranger (DC to Ranger at next Cleric level after character #1 reaches, say, Cleric 6. Make sure character #2 can "raise dead" before DCing to Ranger.)
5.) Gnome Bard (or another race with infravision, to compensate for Character #6 getting changed to Human).
6.) DC Thief/Illusionist (DC to Illusionist at next Thief level after Character #3 has DCed to Thief 1.)

You need to know exactly what you are doing to make the DC work: Read the instructions about dual-classing very carefully, and understand them before you roll your characters, or you WILL be disappointed. Then, make sure you can DC by doing a test case after your characters reach level 2. Finally, pay attention to weapon resrictions, and specialize your Fighters in a weapon your Clerics and Druids can use. It is especially hard to roll a good Fighter/Druid, but the results are worth it.

What's a party,
without a song?
Bards ROCK!
Party On!!


[ 10-13-2003, 04:26 PM: Message edited by: NobleNick ]

[Bernardo]

Good!

But I thought TotLM was a patch! Is it an other expansion???


I never had a bard in BG... what does it do apart sing and "make happier singing"???
Does he fight?

[NobleNick]

Bernardo,

Yes, TotLM adds adventuring area. I guess the story is that when HoW came out, customers and reviewers were disappointed by the short length of the expansion. Although HoW did many wonderful things for IWD, folks could not get past the fact that the added area was too short. Black Isle's answer was to create the free (downloadable) expansion TotLM, that could only be used if HoW was installed. This add-on to HoW effectively makes HoW long enough to remove the only black mark against this wonderful expansion.

So, TotLM is two things: 1.) Added adventuring area for those who bought HoW; and 2.) A complete and final patch to IWD/HoW.

The Bard: If (and only if) you have HoW installed the Bard (and the Druid) becomes a much tougher hombre. The Bard can melee a little better than a thief; but if you use him for that you are missing the point. The Bard is almost as good a magic user as a multi-classed mage. But even better than that, he can sing. Songs include tunes that give your gruop increased resistance to fear, increased resistance to sound attacks, enthrall enemies, and the BIG one: War Chant of the Sith, which gives all your party (that remain relatively close to the Bard) +2 bonus to armor class, +2 bonus to THAC0 and +2 HPs of regeneration per round. Healing up after a fight is snap with this song, so you only need to rest to regain spells and fight fatigue; and your clerics can ditch most of their "cure ___ wounds" spells and use the slots for other useful spells.

Let me put it another way: You take 3 Fighters and pit them against 2 Fighters and a Bard singing the War Chant. All 5 Fighters are, say, level 9 and have equal stats (before the Bard starts singing). Who will win? I hope you guessed it.

If the Bard has the Bardic horn of Valhalla (available for purchase in Kuldahar), then the Bard and 2 Fighters would almost certainly whip even a party of 4 equal Fighters. Don't forget that the Bard also has the capability to scribe any of the full range of all mage spells, like fireball, skull trap, magic arrow, Cone Of Cold, Ag.'s Scorcher, Lightning Bolt, oh and let's not forget Malavon's Rage. (One of my favorite tricks is to have my Bard cast Stoneskin, Mirror Image AND Blur; then sing War Chant while monsters pound harmlessly on her... and the fighters pound mercilessly on the monsters!) Yes, If I had to pick one of these parties to duel with another experienced player, I would certainly want to enter the fight running the Bard's smaller party. And the Bard would never draw a weapon. That's why I say:

What's a party,
without a song?
Bards ROCK!
Party On!!

P.S. Not that I'm recommending a party with fewer fighters: A Bard is best in a Fighter-heavy party, since the effect of her songs are multiplied by the greater number of Fighters who can take advantage of them.


[ 10-15-2003, 03:04 PM: Message edited by: NobleNick ]

[Bernardo]

Cool man!


And what about the story... what does it talk about (please don't tell me any kind of spoilers, only the plot).

[NobleNick]

Bernardo,

Hmmm... To tell the plot without revealing spoilers is very hard. I'll give it a shot; but the description will be short and sketchy and still contain some very minor early game spoilers...

~
~
~
~
~

Your party arrives in Easthaven to find that rumours abound that things are not going well in the susrrounding areas. Your early adventures around Easthaven support those rumors; and eventually you join a relief party to go help the folks in Kuldahar. Once in Kuldahar, you find out that someone or something is sucking all the warmth out of the area, and possibly has even more devious plans. Your party undertakes many missions out of Kuldahar to find out who is behind the scheme and find the means to stop them. The mystery unfolds slowly throughout the game. After several failures, successes and plot twists, and after dispatching several powerful fiends with agendas of their own, you finally totally unravel the mystery and confront the force behind the north land's woes

What's a party,
without a song?
Bards ROCK!
Party On!!

[Bernardo]

Interesting!

I was wondering... are there new weapons apart BG ones???

And a strange but inportant thing... how is the music, the sound track?

[Xen]

Originally posted by Bernardo: Interesting! I was wondering... are there new weapons apart BG ones??? And a strange but inportant thing... how is the music, the sound track?

Yes.. weapons are not even near BG series.(not even one weapon from BG AFAIK). Music/soundtrack is just the best!

[ 10-16-2003, 02:46 PM: Message edited by: Xen ]

[Bernardo]

Nice....
And what about the map?...
Is it big as BG1?
and the areas... are they big?

[Bernardo]

In IceWind Dale can you have the following classes:

Dwarf, Warrior/Thief;
Human, Ranger;
Elf, Mage;
Halfling (do you spell it like that?), Bard;
Human, Warrior/Priest;
Human, Warrior.

?????????????????????????????????????????????

I was planning to have a party like this...
Is it good or bad?