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Old 02-10-2002, 03:52 PM   #1
Darkman
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Join Date: July 11, 2001
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Well I'm starting to get a little frustrated with my current crew. I resisted the temptation to create an "uber" party with a bunch of fighters and everyone having 18/18/18/x/x/x stats, and it would seem I am being punished for trying to roleplay a bit. My two tanks are a dwarven Cleric with high STR but low DEX and a gnome Fighter with low STR and high DEX, and they have been getting their arses handed to them lately. Ever since the Temple of the Forgetten God they have been taking a lot of damage, more they I can heal (which is saying a lot because I have two full time healers in my party!), and they REALLY took a beating on the last level of Dragon's Eye

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not giving up just yet. I'm going to try to take this party all the way, but to preserve my sanity I think it might be nice to have a little revenge, to take a party of complete badarses through the game as well, hacking everything in sight! So I want your opinions on what the ultimate party would be. I heard that having fewer party members is best for powergaming because your characters will level-up faster, so here is my proposed party for The Ultimate Party (tm) :

Dwarf Fighter -- ** axe, * hammer, * sling
Half-Elf Cleric/Ranger -- ** mace, * sling, * flail
Elf Ranger -- ** bow, * great sword, * staff
Elf Mage/Thief -- * bow, * long sword OR * dagger

What do you think?
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Old 02-11-2002, 05:15 PM   #2
Midget Gems
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Hi Darkman. I'm just getting to the end of IWD for the first time and I followed the advice of using 4 characters, to give a nicely balanced party. Things worked out pretty well for me so I say go for it. My choice was Fighter, Fighter/Cleric, Fighter/Thief and Mage (Illusionist), your party looks well balanced too. There are interesting variations if you want to go Dual-Class, this is a strong option in IWD.
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Old 02-11-2002, 05:52 PM   #3
Morgalas Everhate
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My party is as follows

Human Paladin -- Heavy Crossbows
Dwarf Fighter/Cleric -- Sling
Halfling Fighter/Thief -- Short Bow
Human Bard -- Light Crossbow
Half Elf Druid -- Sling
Elf Fighter/Mage -- Long Bow

I mention only ranged weapons since I do most killing with them. I am up to Dragon's Eye 3rd level and all I can say is WOOHOO !!.
I can severely hurt or kill most baddies with a barage of missle fire before they close in. Goblins have low hit points and die fast, Zombies and Yuan-ti are slow to close distance and thus get hammered without much harm to me. Lets not forget those pesky Blast Skeletons either best kill them from a far. For things like trolls, I do one full party missle fire then have my Dwarf and Paladin do the melee while the rest do missile fire. This way only two characters need healing. Spells like Web and Stinking Cloud do a great job to hinder a swarm of baddies coming at you all the while missle fire rips them apart. If you have Heart of Winter installed, the new spells for Druids are great!! He's got more spell casting offensive punch which makes him play like a Cleric/Fighter/Mage all in one package. Spells like Sunscorch, Alicorn Horn, Moonbeam Wall .... Too many Cold Wights coming at you ?? Drop a Moonbeam Wall in front of your party and POW!! 5d10 damage to undead !!

Sure it may seem hard on experience when you have 6 characters and 3 are multi class kinda like have 9 but I am at 3rd level Dragon Eye and my lowest I believe 5/6 highest 8 level character. And ya I had to reload a few times for battles that went down the tubes but in all missile fire works well when all six guys target one poor soul...
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Old 02-12-2002, 12:06 AM   #4
NobleNick
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Darkman,

You really NEED to have high STR, DEX, *AND* CON for front-line guys. I don't know what I would do if my fighters didn't have 18/18/18 (or higher, where race allows it) for STR/DEX/CON. I started out with 4 fighters, a paladin, and a Gnome mage/thief. I averaged about 30 minutes rolling EACH character, to ensure each one could max out on STR/DEX/CON/XXX; where "XXX" is whatever the prime requisite was for the multi-class, or for the class to which I ultimately intend to dual-class three of the fighters (e.g., "WIS" for priest, "INT" for mage).

You need a total of 88+ on the ability dice to do this comfortably. (This allows 18/18/18, plus 18 in a fourth (prime requisite) ability and 8 in each of the other two.) This takes some patience (20 to 40 minutes of die-rolling per character); but I have enjoyed the results.

Another way to get a lot of bang for your buck is one I have already alluded to: dual-classing. Think about who you want in the party, then start everyone you can as a fighter (obviously this won't work with paladin or bard; and you shouldn't dual-class everyone, because only humans can dual-class, and someone in your party needs infravision.)

The extra HP that high-constitution fighters get really adds up: You can get a 70 point headstart on your mage's HP by going to 5th level as a fighter, first. (This costs you 16,000 xp, which is a PITTANCE in IWD.) Also, fighters get a lot of proficiency points; and they get to stack up a lot of those proficiency points in one weapon.

An example of one thing you could do: I am grooming one fighter to be a dynamo fighter in mage disguise. I am taking this fighter to level 7 before switching over to specialist wizard. (You get an extra proficiency point at level 6 and an extra 1/2 melee attack at level 7.) I am stacking 4 proficiency points into 2-handed sword. This immediately gives her an 84 HP headstart and will eventually (when she reaches level 8 mage) give her 3 melee attacks per round, each attack with 18 STR and weapon master bonus for "to-hit" and "damage." When the party is in a pinch for front-line tanks, she could cast "blur" and "mirror image" onto herself, then wield the 2-hand sword (hopefully with additional bonuses from a magical weapon)... With about 130 HP, incredibly hard-hitting and also incredibly hard to hit, she will be QUITE a melee force to be reckoned with! Now I call that a versatile and FUN roleplaying character to have in the party!!

Total experience to get to 7th level fighter, then dual-class to 8th level specialist wizard (128 HP): 64,000 + 90,000 = 154K.

154K XP will see a single class fighter into the 8th level (112 HP) OR a single class specialist wizard into the 9th level (54 HP).

I know which character I'd rather have!

Hope you found this amusing.
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Old 02-12-2002, 05:01 PM   #5
zakharak
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Party on, NobleNick, thats some time spent devoted to your chars!! I kinda wish i had known that dice rolling skills are built the more it is done!! I wonder if my chars are increasing their STR, DEX, etc as they gain experience... I hope because I think that my party might be trouble in the future.

I am at ch. 2 now, (can't play now) and i realised that i have to save soooo often, becaues i hate to lose someone, but for instance the lizards i must reload 10 times to get past the first few. Maybe MY skills aren't quick enough, i don't know: anyone have any bright ideas (strategies?)

But anyway, i wonder if i should consider making a new party with badder arse chars that might soar right through to ch2. The problem would be getting through Vale again, i suppose, but i realize, now, that i missed a lot of things in Easthaven all ready!! id like to go back to do those, well, whatever. my party is (so i am not just posting here without following the topic [img]smile.gif[/img]
Fighter
2 Rangers
Thief/Fighter
Mage
Priest

Peace friends
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Old 02-12-2002, 05:03 PM   #6
Beaumanoir
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Your Party Seems Fairly Beefed Up Already Zakharak! Just Plod On!
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Old 02-12-2002, 05:38 PM   #7
Morgalas Everhate
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If you want you can also check off the max hit points per level box in the options screen. This way you can still play with non-heroic stats across the board and just take a little more pounding to knock your characters down. Or go for better stats as was mentioned above.
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Old 02-12-2002, 09:32 PM   #8
NobleNick
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zakharak,

I read all the time about how parties start getting hammered in Chapters 2 and, especially, 3. I am not there, yet; but am taking measures to ensure that this is not my song when I get there. Part of the preparation is having characters with high ability scores. Twenty (20) EXTRA minutes of preparation in character generation PER CHARACTER can save you hours of agony later.

Your characters' ability scores will NOT increase with experience! That is why it is worth it to take a few extra minutes at the beginning to get the points necessary to max out the important ones.

High STR affects your ability to hit in melee combat *AND* the amount of damage you do. DEX, in addition to affecting thieving abilities, affects your ability to hit a target with a ranged weapon. CON of 18 gets you as many as 4 EXTRA hitpoints PER LEVEL for your warriors, and 2 EXTRA HP for your other characters (for about the first ten levels of each class). A WIS of 18 gets you as many as 6 EXTRA spells for your priest (2 extra 1st level, 2 extra 2nd level, and one extra for 3rd and for 4th levels). High INT affects your mage's ability to write spells and the maximum number of spells she can have in her spell book. INT and WIS both affect lore bonuses. CHA of 18 gives your Paladin some extra advantages and affects how dialogue (storyline) progresses.

You are actually pretty early in the game. If I were you, I'd create a party of new characters; but create them one at a time and adventure them each solo through Easthaven proper: to collect the full 5,000 xp for the simple quests onto EACH character. This will get each character to 3rd level. Once you've done that, band together into 2 parties of 3 characters and take the 2 parties individually across the bridge to get the goblins that stole the ... (you know), and the orcs that stole the (you know). After scarfing up the experience for all those quests twice, do the same in Kuldahar Pass and Kuldahar. (With your characters buffed up with the extra experience, you'll have 3rd level characters entering Kuldahar pass, instead of 2nd level.) By the time you are done in Kuldahar and bring your full party of 6 together, you should have 4th level characters. Since you already know what strategies to use, your power party should sail very quickly through the Vale.

I just finished Vale; but realized that my party has a weakness that makes it unfit for chapter 3. (No priest until one of my fighters duals over at level 7.) So, before I enter Chapter 2, I am starting a new priest back to Easthaven. I intend to run him through to Kuldahar solo. (I'll bring in a power character to help him through the rough spots, if need be.) Then I'll cheat a little and let him experience the rewards of the Vale finale solo, which should bring him up to the level of the rest of my party (level 6 or DEEP into level 5). Then he'll boot my lead fighter out of the party; and I'll have a priest that can dual over to fighter about the same time as my fighter duals over to priest.

Hope you found this entertaining.
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Old 02-12-2002, 09:38 PM   #9
NobleNick
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Oh, yes! Don't neglect to do what Morgalas Everhate suggested: Go into your gameplay options and make sure that Max hitpoints per level is checked off. (You'll be glad you did!)
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Old 02-13-2002, 12:57 AM   #10
zakharak
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oh yes, NobleDude! thats great advice, i wouldve never thought of that... i should anyway look into the whole import/export deal, huh? Another thing, like i mentioned some time long ago! is that i never got a chance to go on all the subquests in easthaven and am looking forward to them now.

Trouble, which no one can probably fix: my video card *still* doesn't work, soooooooooo... no ICEWD for me for a day or two. ts'ok i should study some physics and logic, etc. But My time is now not games but the damned card. (constant battle..) later
Peace Bros.
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