Is This Game Inordinately Hard or What!?!

[Seraph]

I've personally found that Rangers still are not worth much.
Atleast not comparted to a Druid, or a Paladin.

[NobleNick]

Dundee,

Thanks for serving up the straight gouge from the manual! It's nice to know the right answer!

Merlin,

Most people on this forum, I think, would agree that Bards and Druids are mediocre in IWD, if you do not have the HoW expansion. *HOWEVER* when you install HoW, the game is rebalanced. A MAJOR part of the rebalancing included giving a lot more capabilities to the druid and bard, to address the former shortcomings of these characters.

I am grooming a fighter to dual over to druid, so can only speak from second hand knowledge; but I have yet to hear anything but rave reviews for a druid in HoW. Some of the more spectacular anecdotes I have heard involve the use of moonwall spell; use of static charge (as Dundee so aptly pointed out) and lightning; and of turning into a water or earth elemental, totally immune to slashing attacks!

I *DO* have a bard, in one of my parties that is deep into Dragon's Eye. She has, among other songs, War Chant of the Sith (Yea!); some really neat spells, including Aganazzar's scorcher, lightning bolt, skull trap, monster summoning, and fireball. I bought her the Bardic Horn of Vahalla, so we also get treated to a berserker party about once a day. She is definitely a worthy member of a large party (where lots of members are available to benefit from her songs).

Are you talking about starting a party for IWD:HoW, Merlin? Heh, heh, then your REALLY opened a can of worms! EVERYONE has advice on that! Let me get my two cents in, first. I am only about halfway through the game; but am running two parallel games, so that I can cover most of the available classes. I, like you, lean towards magic users. I think a great full party (6 members) would be:

(dc = dual class. mc = multi-class. When two options for a slot are given, my personal preference is listed first. If the first pick in each slot is chosen, EVERY member has magic spells or magic-like abilities, and most also get VERY respectable fighter abilities and "fighter-like" hit point stats.)

1. Paladin
2. dc Fighter/Druid (Get AT LEAST to fighter level 9 before dual over. Level
. . . 12 to 13 is preferable if you are doing HoW/TotLM areas or HoF mode.)
3. dc Fighter/Specialist Invoker (Again, get AT LEAST to fighter 9.)
4. dc Cleric/Fighter OR Cleric/Ranger (I forget the sweet spots for dualing
. . . over a Cleric; but would go at least to level 9, just for the extra hp.)
5. mc Thief/Specialist Illusionist (race = Gnome) OR mc Thief/Fighter
6. Bard (Pick a race with infravision if your mc Thief does not have it.) OR
. . . ANOTHER dc Fighter/Specialist Mage (I prefer Conjuror.) You know the
. . . drill, by now: AT LEAST fighter level 9. I think a Bard is better; but
. . . for my other party (started before HoW, so with no bard) I use this guy.

What's a party,
Without a song?
Bard's ROCK!
Party On!

Edited mostly to add party suggestion for Merlin. Edited again, because pritchke's post, below, is correct: fire elementals are not immune to slashing attacks.

[ 11-05-2002, 09:56 PM: Message edited by: NobleNick ]

[pritchke]

Just one correction for the druid, NobleNick, I don't think the fire elemental is immune to slashing although I could be wrong. I think I remember being sliced and diced as a fire elemental before. I can't check right now because I have uninstalled my game recently. Although I still have my saves and characters. The earth and water elementals I do know are immune to slashing and do large amounts of crushing damage with water doing the most.

So if you cast static charge before turning into a water or earth elemental you can do some severe damage.

[ 10-28-2002, 03:40 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[NobleNick]

pritchke,

I think you are right.

Can hardly wait til I can speak from a vantage point of experience with this character.

[ 10-28-2002, 10:57 PM: Message edited by: NobleNick ]