just beat the game, now my 2nd time next, party of 4?

[Ziggurat]

Whick3, the party I have is not for the first attempt with a 4-party. They are all hybrids. Only one death so far (the samurai in Rynjin, should have protected him better). They cover the four magic classes and just got to the Castle at lev 21:

Monk (Mook, Robes of Rejuv and Brilliant Helm, SoD)
Ninja (Faerie, Canezou Robe, spike boots and CM helm, CoC, no second weapon)
Samurai (?, +12 armor with I.Helm and Snake Boots, Fang with Heater Shield, Strongbow)
Valkyrie (Gnome, +16 armor with I.Helm and Mantis stuff, Excaliber or Blade Cuisinart with Rainbow Shield, Frontier Phaser or Strongbow)

A hybrid party takes awhile to develop compared to a more traditional 4-party such as rogue, bard, bishop + colorful player of your choice. Another good starter is fighter, rogue, priest and mage as mentioned above. (3 fighters and a bishop can chomp through anything but it IS boring to me.)

Notes about a hybrid party: It makes you really spread the magic more to use all hybrids, but as a bonus you will have 4 portal users who can really fight! When you set one on a certain fountain in Trynton, you have unlimited magic except during a long battle. You can set a second one at Ferro, one at the Trangaporter and have the 4th at wherever you are. Another bonus is you can put up bless, element and soul shield and have an offensive spell sent off all in one move.

On the other hand, in the current game I got lucky and have more good weapons than I can use. (For a change I got Excaliber, Blade Cuisinart, Rainbow Shield, Gem of Power, Hi-Kane-Do and other goodies in Rapax Castle. Now It's a challenge to find uses for these without changing professions. Going for the Zat Bo for the Monk so he can range again. The Valk who was using a Dread Spear has 2 skill points in sword and 0 in shield! It's the Wiz 8 curse, you get the best weapons in chests only when you can't really use them...)

Edit: also note that the races I chose are not ideal but adequate. Although somewhat hampered at first, they had some bonus strengths I don't normally develop (like vitality, etc.). You may want to match the races better.

[ 03-29-2004, 11:08 PM: Message edited by: Ziggurat ]