[IWD2] My party..

[Kakero]

I'm a restart freak, I always make one party and play them for a while before restarting a new game with another new party. So this time I've decided to once and for all to play a party till the end of normal mode and HOF. Any suggestions?


This is my latest party.


1. Aasimar Male Paladin X/Fighter 4 (Lawful Good)- Str18 Dex13 Con16 Int3 Wis18 Cha12
Function - Main tank, holy avenger wielder , bash open locks/door. The main damage dealer until my caster get their spells. Dex13 for dirty fighting feat. Yes, I don't have any rogue ability in my party so I use him to bash open locks/door.

2. Wild Elf Female Sorceress X (Chaotic Neutral)- Str10 Dex18 Con12 Int1 Wis16 Cha18
Function - Main Bombardier and also summoner. Also uses bow/crossbow hence the high dex when she's not casting spells.

3. Half Orc Female Druid X (Neutral Evil)- Str20 Dex18 Con16 Int1 Wis18 Cha1
Function - Secondary healer and 3rd Bombardier and also summoner. During early and the middle of normal mode she is a tank with her shapeshifting ability. During later period of normal mode and HOF, she stick at the back and cast healing/AOE/Summon spells. Why half orc? I've no other races left.

4. Half Elf Female Cleric X (Chaotic Evil)- Str18 Dex13 Con14 Int3 Wis18 Cha10
Function - My main healer and also my third tank (in normal mode). During HOF mode she'll stick behind to cast heal/summon. Dex13 for dirty fighting.

5. Moon Elf Male Wizard X (Neutral Evil)- Str10 Dex18 Con10 Int18 Wis16 Cha3
Function - Secondary Bombardier and summoner/ alchemist. Like the sorceress, he also use bow/crossbow when not casting spell.

6. Human Female Monk X (Lawful Neutral)- Str18 Dex18 Con16 Int3 Wis18 Cha3
Function - Secondary tank, mage killer, scout, trap damage absorber. My favourite character of all. In normal mode I always use her to go to a place full of monster and lure all the monster inside. When all the monster surrounds her my wizard and sorceress will blast them all with their AOE spells.


Note
====
1. I always use a class only once.
2. I always use a race only once, if the race have been taken, I choose another.
3. I dislike Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling race and will not use them in any third person view rpg/mmog. Don't ask me why.

~I'm tempted to replace the half orc druid to a half elf druid, however if I do this I need to switch the half elf cleric to a drow cleric. However drows got a steep level adjustment plus drow characters cannot have blue hairs *cough*. I'm just not sure what to do.

~What level onwards should my sorceress starts selecting summoning spell?

~When fighting with Isair and Madae my characters will suddenly disappeared into thin air and their belongings will drop to the floor. How to prevent this from happening?


Thanks

[ 01-12-2007, 04:10 AM: Message edited by: Kakero ]

[ZFR]

What on earth do you need dirty fighting for? It's as useful for a tank as a bicycle is for a goldfish.

My suggestion: a paladin doesn't need 18 WIS, but he could use higher CHA. He gets many bonuses from CHA, including adding CHA bonus to all saving throws (so every +2 CHA is like having luck of heroes feat). My manual also says it adds bonus to AC but I don't think that's right. Reduce DEX and WIS and add those points to CHA. Remember you still need the WIS to cast spells.

[Aerich]

Good points, ZFR. I'd add that your magic users would benefit from having higher Int, particularly the Sorceress (take stat points from Wis?). You should be putting at least a point per level into concentration, but that leaves you no points for spellcraft and thus no elemental magic feats.

A half-orc druid is fine, why do you want to switch it to half-elf? The stats look fine, aside from the skill points issue. With physical stats like that, I'd question why you'd shapeshift much. A 20 Str half-orc with a two-handed weapon is a force, even if it's not a warrior.

There's too many good spells for your sorceress to take many summoning spells. I'm not sold on the Monster Summoning spells except at quite high levels. I might take the occasional "special" summoning spell like Cacofiend, if there's nothing more urgent for you to take.

Note that the party may have some trouble with HoF (where AC reigns supreme).

[Kakero]

Long long time ago, when the earth was still at its infancy stage, I saw a walkthrough somewhere on the net that says dirty fighting is a must for heavy melee characters.

Alright, here's a revised party.

1. Aasimar Male Paladin X/Fighter 4 (Lawful Good)- Str18 Dex10 Con16 Int3 Wis16 Cha20

2. Wild Elf Female Sorceress X (Chaotic Neutral)-Str10 Dex16 Con12 Int12 Wis12 Cha18
I put points into concentration and spellcraft. I noticed that when Int is 12, she'll get 2 skill points per level up which I can spend on those two skill. Thus when spellcraft is 10 she can have those elemental magic feats.

3. Half Orc Female Druid X (Neutral Evil)- Str15 Dex18 Con10 Int12 Wis18 Cha1
Same as my sorceress ala concentration and spellcraft.

4. Half Elf Female Cleric X (Chaotic Evil)- Str18 Dex10 Con16 Int3 Wis18 Cha10

5. Moon Elf Male Wizard X (Neutral Evil)- Str10 Dex18 Con10 Int18 Wis16 Cha3

6. Human Female Monk X (Lawful Neutral)- Str18 Dex18 Con16 Int3 Wis18 Cha3

Originally posted by Aerich: Note that the party may have some trouble with HoF (where AC reigns supreme).

I thought AC is useless in HOF where monsters can hit your character like a knife slicing a butter. People usually use their summons for tanking while they plummet the monsters with spells. If I get what you mean...

That's why I have 4 summoners (c/d/w/s) and 3 spell casters (d/w/s).

edit : The only time where I forsee the need of AC in HOF is in battlesquare and black raven monastery tests. But I'm sure I can conjure up enough AC for my Paladin/Fighter (Who will handle battlesqaure) and Monk (who will handle black raven monastery test) by that time.

[ 01-13-2007, 12:20 AM: Message edited by: Kakero ]

[Aerich]

Originally posted by Kakero: I thought AC is useless in HOF where monsters can hit your character like a knife slicing a butter. People usually use their summons for tanking while they plummet the monsters with spells. If I get what you mean...

That's the more conventional route. You can tank in HoF, but it takes planning from the very start in order to get the AC you need to be nearly impervious. IIRC, you need 70+, and it takes mad multiclassing, and so is out of your party's reach by your own guidelines. It's also a rather clinical approach to party-building, and takes some of the fun out of the game, IMO, as it's as powergamey as you can get. If you want to read up on it, try here. Even though you get hit early and often in HoF, it's still sensible to get as much AC as you can, because a monster's BAB goes down in a progression, and with fairly high AC you may be able to avoid taking a 3rd or 4th hit in a round from the same enemy. Sometimes you can't avoid getting attacked for a round or two, and it's nice for your "tanks" to survive those times.

Considering the restrictions you put on yourself (no small races, no two the same, almost no multiclassing), that party's about as strong as it can be. One tweak I might do is switch the races of the sorceress and monk. Humans get an extra skill point per level, and it might be of more use to the sorceress. Seeing as the monk is going to set off rather than find/disarm traps, you don't really need the extra skill point. The monk just needs a few points in Hide and the rest in Move Silently. You could then leave the sorceress' stats the same, or tweak Int downwards to use 2 or more stat points elsewhere and maintain the same number of skill points as your original build. Note that you will probably want to maintain a decent Int because you have to achieve a spellcraft rating of 10 for the elemental feats, and iirc low Int modifies your rating downward. Such an exchange could also benefit the monk, allowing you to take the 2 points off of Int (if you can stand a monk with 3 Int, you can stand it with 1 Int ) and put it on Dex or Con as you choose.

[ZFR]

When I played through HoF, I went with the conventional methods.
Use summons+disabling spells to neutralize the enemies, and then pound them with spells. It didn't really matter if my characters were wearing armor or naked, because they rarely came into combat.

(I assume you want to play game in normal, then import those characters and start a new game in Hof?)

About choosing summons, druid had some pretty ones (elementals, creeping doom) Cleric had the undead summons which were also great.

For your sorcerer, pick one summon spell towards the end of your normal game, so you have the highest possible summon when you start HoF. After that just see when you can spare spells and pick summons too. Just remember you need at least one damage area of effect spell per higher level (7.delayed blast fireball, 8.horrid wilting, 9.firestorm). Make sure you pick disablers (web), and any mass spells that attack will saving throws (mass charm, mass confusion).