Priest-heavy parties (expect spoilers)

[Aerich]

What do you all think about parties mostly or entirely comprised of priests? Has anyone taken such a party through to the end of the game?

There are plenty of reasonably good priest spells that can be used to good effect, but they tend not to be, because healing is a higher priority with just one or two priests.

Here's my idea for a priestly party:

Druid - offensive spellcaster/summoner, occasional healer, missile support

Fighter/Druid (multi) - healer, missile support, 3rd tank, secondary summoner

Thief[8]/Cleric - scout, party protection, will take over primary healing and protection duties once he/she levels high enough

Fighter/Cleric (multi) - primary tank, personal buff spells, secondary party protection

Cleric[14(?)]/Necromancer (evil) - nasty offensive spellcaster, occasional tank (with the Giving Star and touch spells) - late-game king

Fighter/Mage - either multi or dual F[9]/Mage - best archer, secondary tank, focus on enemy dehibilitation (Web, Slow, etc) and personal protection (Stoneskin, Mirror Image, Improved Invisibility)

There are three weaknesses with this party, but I hope they could be overcome by the masses of priest spells available.

1) Melee power - not a lot of swords, axes and bows can be used here; magical blunt weapons will have to be spaced well. One (not ideal) solution could be to replace the multi class F/C with a dual class Cl[?]/Fighter. I think it would then be allowed to use edged/pointed weapons once dualed over.

2) Loss of thief skills - in the middle-game this could be a problem. Could be solved if playing on insane/spend a little time on DE lvl 3 to level up.

3) Mages - Will take some time to reach full power, as the F/M will be either a dual or a multi class, and the Cleric/Necromancer will not max out its potential for quite a while.

Edit: added a long-overdue spoiler tag to the title.

[ 12-23-2004, 04:13 AM: Message edited by: Aerich ]

[pritchke]

1) Melee power is possibly the weakest issue but this can be overcome with dual classing to obtain pointy sharp objects as you said and not to mention you will have tons of buff spells, the druid can change to Earth and water elemental which is great for some battles. The druids can also use returning throwing daggers and scimitars for pointy, sharp objects. Plus summons may do much of the melee.

2) This is not really any issue with the party. With the priest detect trap, and knock will be useful and you have more than enough slots to use for these spells. To disarm traps cast mirror image and run across the trap. The only thing that will be lacking is pickpocketing and if you want that use your points on the dual thief.

3) Would not worry too much about this as the druids have some nice offensive spells, and there will be plenty of summons.

[ 06-17-2004, 01:49 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[Aerich]

Well, I was so fired up by my own brilliant idea that I decided to make the party that I detailed above [img]smile.gif[/img]

It's not so easy in the early going (on insane). I walked out of Easthaven and just barely managed to avoid AIDBG (an ignonimous death-by-goblin).

I then, having used up my entangles and all but one of my healing spells, decided to go take out those three wolves before heading back to rest (I had two Sunscorch and a Magical Stone left). Bad idea, as I found out. I drew ONE wolf with my dwarven F/C, and hit it with a sunscorch and slings. It killed the F/C with one bite, then took out my F/D with another bite BEFORE the combination of slings and spell killed it...

... I then decided to go to bed.

[ 06-21-2004, 07:00 PM: Message edited by: Aerich ]

[Aerich]

Note to self: use caps more sparingly. It would be a da*ned bad joke if the wolf could take out anyone *after* it was killed. That's all we need in the prologue - undead wolves with 9 lives -

If that makes any sense at all.

[ 06-18-2004, 06:46 PM: Message edited by: Aerich ]

[Aerich]

This is starting to look like my own personal thread... maybe no one else is interested.

I'll post updates on the priest party every so often, for those that care to keep track of my experiment.

I'm now through with Kuldahar Pass. It was actually a lot easier than the goblin fight and the orc cave in Easthaven. Now it takes more than one hit to wipe out my front character [img]smile.gif[/img] I've started to get spells like Alicorn Lance, Hold Person, Chant, etc, which absolutely rock when you've got two each of druidic and clerical casters to spread the healing load.

Three spells saved my bacon in the orc cave. Entangle to keep the orc hordes from destroying my party in melee, Sleep to derail the archers and give my slingers a chance to out-missile the orcs, and Sunscorch to blind ogres and make them stand still and be slaughtered.

In the final fight of the cave, I managed to entangle the whole lot of them in the passage, and took out all the orcs before the ogres got free. As soon as the first ogre made its save, I backed everyone off to the large room where you encountered the first orc shaman. I moved the entire party well back, and had the only non-spellcaster (the thief who will dual to cleric) out front to run decoy. The ogres obliged by showing up in twos, which allowed me to take full advantage of Sunscorch (I also used Magical Stone and Command).

On to the Vale of Shadows...

[pritchke]

On to the Vale of Shadows...

I am thinking for the most part this will be easy. Minus the yetis of course.

[ 06-21-2004, 11:34 AM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[Aerich]

It HAS been easy, although I've taken quite a few hits. Lots of healing + surplus of blunt weapons + Magical Stone + Sunscorch + Alicorn Lance + Detect Traps + Shield + Animate Dead + Moonblade + ...

The yetis haven't been too tough. My F/M is casting Grease and Web exclusively, then switching to arrows.

[pritchke]

Have you been using Turn Undead?

I would have your highest level cleric stand around and do nothing but use this ability. That way all the undead will die or run away so you can concentrate on them one at a time without worrying about taking to much damage.

[Cienden]

I love clerics! And your thread is interesting to read, so keep updating on your progress.

[Aerich]

I actually haven't used Turn Undead very much. I'm not high enough level to destroy them, so it's most useful upon entering crypts where a whole bunch of undead rush the party. I've been using Entangle, Grease, and Web to reduce the damage.

Mostly I'm taking damage in 3 ways:

1) I'm playing on insane, so hits on my tank do quite a bit of damage. Hits also seem to come fairly frequently, despite Protection from Evil, Chant, Curse, etc.

2) Skeleton Archers - generally I try to have them notice me then draw them around a corner to meet The Maces. Every so often the archers hit the decoy. Unavoidable.

3) Apparently Detect Traps does not work on objects, but just on the floor. I've stood in front of boxes and tombs that I know are trapped, but nothing doing. My thief has focused his skills on open locks, stealth and pick pockets, so he's useless to actually detect the traps.

@ Cienden - I love clerics too. Those people who only play for melee power don't know what they're missing. I'll keep posting. Currently up to the second level of the big crypt in the Vale. I've cleared the big room, now I just need to crush the side rooms to get assorted treasure + the Talisman.

[ 06-21-2004, 04:29 PM: Message edited by: Aerich ]