HoF Party Weapons and Spell Guide

[Silver Knight]

Hello fellow adventurers. I have been playing hof in normol most of the time. The game is really good. I want to try Hof now. Can somebody advice me on weapons and spells for wizards for the below party? Spoilers welcome please

Paladin (good)
Ranger Cleric (good mc)
Gnome Fighter Mage (evil mc)
Fither Druid (neutral mc)
Fighter Mage Thief (neutral mc)
Bard (evil)

[Aerich]

Hi Silver Knight, [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img]

Paladin: axe, sling, flail, longsword - use bows instead of slings if you don't mind switching out your shield everytime you need to shoot.

R/C: Mace, sling, flail, staff
F/M (actually F/Ill, if a gnome): bow, greatswords, dagger, hammer
F/D: scimitar, sling, club, spear
F/M/T: bow, longswords, bludgeoning weapon of choice, maybe dagger
Bard: axe, bow (doesn't matter really, as this character shouldn't be shooting)

Note that the blunt weapons are interchangeable. I like to take flail with the paladin because of the Hammer Flail, Shocking Flail, and Misery's Herald (two stunning flails and one with bonus against elves). However, you could just as well take maces for Three White Doves (undead destroyer).

For spells: you should be able to get MM and CO with all three, same for Mirror Image. Aside from that, take close-range spells with the F/Ill; Burning Hands, Shocking Grasp, touch spells, Cone of Cold, Sunfire, etc. The F/Ill should also have Blur and Stoneskin. If you use your F/Ill to scout, you might find Chaos or Confusion useful. The bard gets "buffing" spells - Strength, the Emotion spells, Protection spells (fr Evil, Normal Missiles, Petrification, etc), summons, and uncapped damage spells (Acid Arrow, Skull Trap, Mordenkainen's Force Missiles). The F/M/T gets duplicates and most of the necromancy spells. Spread out your summons a little: it's often good tactics for every caster to have a summoning spell ready if you are in dire need of meat shields.

It's an art more than a science. Think about what role each character is best suited to playing, and pick accordingly. Try to have a bit of balance, though.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Just wanted to pip in a thought.

If you want a ranged option for your Paladin, consider Throwing Axes.

This will-

..) save you from pumping points into other proficiencies.

..) enable you to maximise your proficiencies, since the Defender Axe+2 is a good melee weapon too.

..) save you the trouble of removing your shield.

..) save you the trouble of stocking up ammo for him once you get the Returning Axe +2.

[Ultra Marine]

FMT: bow, lsword, staff, dagger -- the staff is able to cripple and its 2handed so you can stay out of direct battle.

F/I: bow, mace, axe, gsword -- there is a 2nd returning axe+2 and it beats switching bows.

You might consider putting daggers on the druid because there is another returning dagger. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Roboghost]

Paladin (good)
Mace 1_1
Bow 1_18
Large Sword 1_3
Axe 6_9
Flail 12_15
Great Sword 21_24
Missile 27_30
There is a random HQ morning star at start and then +1 mace’s in Vale.
You'll need the bow to start off with since your THAC0 will suck for melee in HoF (1 PP only: take note) - you'll be able to replace bow with throwing axe by level 9. Replace Mace with +2 Confusion Sword during Dragon's Eye.

Ranger Cleric (good mc) [assuming tank 2]
Hammer 1_1
Missile 1_1
Flail 3_6
Mace 9_12
Club 15_18
+1 hammer in Vale then the +2 flail in Dragon's Eye & a +1 hammer that can hit anything.

Gnome Fighter Mage (evil mc)
Mace 1_1
Bow 1_1
Axe 3_6
Spear 9_12
Large Sword 15_18 (a very nice +4 coming in HoW)
Missile 21_24
Staff 27_30
+1 mace in Vale then +2 axe in Dragon's Eyes ... +3 spear then a +5 spear. There are also some HoW staves down the road. Gives you chance to fight close with shield or without one ; )
Spells to start:
Armor
Grease
Then:
Magic Missile (disrupt)
Horror (not level dependent)
Web (not level dependent)

Fighter Druid (neutral mc)
Dagger 1_1
Missile 1_1
Club 3_6
Large Sword 9_12
+1 dagger in Vale and some nice daggers in Dragon's Eye and a possible +3 club. The scimitars will come later…

Fighter Mage Thief (neutral mc)
Bow 1_1
Large Sword 1_1
This guy will almost always be using the bow, so...
Spells to start:
Armor
Chromatic Orb
Then:
Burning Hands
Agannazar's Scorcher
Stinking Cloud

Bard (evil)
Missile 1
Dagger 1
This guy will almost always be singing or spell casting - use buckler shield until you can buy that item that goes in your armpit down the road
Spells:
Chromatic Orb (life saver)
Acid Arrow (disrupt)

Note that the spells for all above can get you quite a ways into the game all by themselves -- wouldn't be quite as fun though. You may have too many mages though...consider a C/T instead of the M/T (the Gnomes can be a husband and wife team or try a human DC - this last requires good timing though.)

[ZFR]

Originally posted by Silver Knight: Bard (evil)

Harp and flute.

[Raffin]

Having had loads of fun with the challenges of HoF from the start, here's some advice:

---SPOILERS---

1) try to have all of your characters with at least one prof. point in either slings/missle weapons or hammer/mace/flail before you go hunting in the Vale. Even if you're better in bows, when you see skeletons, switch to slings. Ditto with swords.

2) some of the best spells are:
-chromatic orb (nothing beats a 1st level spell with a 50-50 chance of paralyzing the target...especially if said target is a HoF-mode Ogre about to beat your paladin to a bloody pulp
-Hold Person (top choice for cleric second spell) same as Chrom. Orb, but it's about 50-50 chance of paralysing 1-4 monsters.
(note-as you may know, paralyzed monsters in HoF are basically free experience points...a LOT of free XP [img]smile.gif[/img]
-Animate Dead (IMHO, a great reason to swap your Fighter/Mage for a single class evil or neutral cleric) Can you say summons in the Orc Cave? Watch the Orges try to fight their way through 8 undead, all the while you're drilling them with arrows and spells
-Summon Animal I (this and Animate Dead make the Kuld. Pass and Vale almost a walk in the park...summons are your friend in HoF)
-Sunscortch/Alicorn Lance/Blindness (yes, your target is damaged...also loses THACO and is easier to hit. VERY useful)

3) IMHO, you're better off with two mages max, counting the bard. Ditch the mage/fighter for a neurtral/evil cleric with animate dead and a heck of a lot of frozen orcs from hold person.

4) remember this-if the you outnumber the enemy, and are at least as fast as they are, and they don't have ranged attacks and you have room to manuver, the battle is as good as yours. Simply gear up with bows and other ranged weapons and do the shoot-and-run dance. Especially good in Easthaven goblin fights and Vale Yetis.

Have Fun!
-Raffin

[Ultra Marine]

The R/C in a party of 6 can only get summons after completing orc cave and return to easthaven to for extra exp. Unless I miss something of course...

If you want skeletons, drop the bard and replace with a pure class cleric. After the R/C gets summons, drop the pure cleric and replace with bard. 26k exp is nothing n Hof. The bard can still get warchant after complete the tomb and return to kuladar.

[Aerich]

Slings are no advantage over bows against skeletal undead. Both slings and bows cause missile damage, thus doing only half damage to skeletons. Slings will do more damage if you have exceptional (18/xx) Strength, but bows give a higher ApR.

There's no need to cap the mages in your party for any reason other than number of spell scrolls. I'm running a party right now with three multiclass mages, and it's doing fine. It's unnecessary to switch mage casters in and out for clerics. Patience and good strategy are the keys to starting fresh characters on HoF. As long as you have spellcasting classes covered for later on in the game, your party composition doesn't matter too much. The orc caves can be completed without summons. You won't get summons in time for the orc cave unless you are using single-class clerics.

[Silver Knight]

Thank you fellows. I am restarting my game. The problem is from level 1-9 where i sometimes don't have +1 weapons to hit.

I also want to reconfigure. The F/M/T levels so slow compare to others. I try now with. Paladin, R/C, F/I, F/D, F/T, Bard.

Spells should be easy to distribute already.

What is the best weapons distribution for now?

Is there easy way out of easthaven? Very hard fight with no summon.

Please help me thanks