Which classes NEED spellcraft???

[Jack of Speed]

Ok... I was thinking the way to go on my next party would Be Fighter/Druids and Fighter/Clerics and to get the MAXIMUM stats out of them I plan to make them either Human OR Half Orc and lower their Cha and Int ALL the way down. BUT if spellcraft has any other benefit BESIDES the "Spirit of Flame" etc feats I would go with human to get the extra skill point (AT 3 INT)and put it into spellcraft. Is there a bonus with Divine spellcasters? Every time the manual talks about Spellcraft checks its only talking about arcane casters trying to write scrolls. What does spellcraft ACTUALY DO??? If it doesnt do much for Divine Spellcaters, why is it a class skill?

[Nightowl2]

Spellcraft has the following functions:

1. Identify spells the enemy is casting.

2. Used as a modifier to rolls when wizards write a new spell in their books.

3. Opens up the Spirit of Flame, etc. feats. This one, for instance, would apply to Flamestrike.

And that's about it.

Nightowl2

[Jack of Speed]

WOW, thats totaly lame... BUT it does mean my Army of Half-Orc Druids and Clerics is gonna rock. [img]smile.gif[/img] only put points into concentration 20 Str 16 Dex 18 Con 18 Wis 1 Int and Cha... Gonna give em 4 levels of Fighter a peice. I was thinking 2 Half-Orc Fighter/Druids 2 Half-Orc Fighter/Clerics 1 Aasimar Sorcerer(1 lvl Pal) 1 Teifling Wizard66%/Theif33%. Im planning on STARTING this party in HoF... the summons can kill a gobby at level one... and the way HoF hands out Exp to Low Level Characters they should all be level 15 ish by the Horde Fortress. 6 Spell Casters will be nice and 4 tanks to boot. Its like having 10 characters for the price of 6 [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Nightowl2]

Interesting combinations there, Jack. With a little care, you should do all right in HOF mode with this bunch.

Suggestion: send your thief out alone (stealth mode) and get into Tamewater's house (no need to chat first). Grab the xbow. Head on to the Salty Dog. Buy the greataxe and bow from Guthwulfe. Also as much ammo as possible, but leave a couple of slots open for the other bow and spear outside the tavern.

That gives you three ranged weapons, one decent melee (axe), and one that's slightly better than the toothpicks you start with

If everyone beats on the same gobbie, that, along with the summons, should take them down fairly quickly.

I know this from experience

Nightowl2

[Jack of Speed]

Cool, thx for the advice... On the topic of weapons: the Druids get a level 1 spell "Shillelagh" [img]smile.gif[/img] 1D10+1 Plus one is pretty nice for a lvl 1 Chracter in Targos. I think I will let my summons handle the gobbies for awhile though. In HoF they do more damage than my characters have hit points. They will be level ONE in HoF that means my tanks will only have 12 hit points... but my "summon monster 1" monsters will have like 50+ hit points. [img]smile.gif[/img] Cheap but regular mode is just TO EASY once you have played HoF... And the weapons hardly seem worth it anymore. I went back to regular mode to play a solo sorceress and found it FAR to easy. This will be an interesting challenge. They are going to be easy pickens until they are level 15.

[Night Stalker]

Don't forget Scion of Storms for druids. I use call lightning and static discharge frequently.

[Jack of Speed]

Good point... I had forgot about all the Electricity spells... Maybe humans will do. 18 strength compared to 20 isnt a huge difference.

[Nightowl2]

Remember that summoned critters don't last long at low levels. At first level, they will be there only 4 rounds. So it's a good thing if you can help your friends.

I was able to clear the docks (up top and down below) with a regular party of 2 tanks, 1 cleric, 1 rogue, and 2 sorcs using the suggestion I made earlier. It was one of my "Experiments in Craziness" to see if a raw, level 1, buck naked, "armed with toothpicks" party could survive. Did have a few white-knuckle moments, but they did pull it off.

Basically we did the first warehouse (healing potion) and all the gobbies outside before doing Firtha and the house by the docks with two gobbies.

For 1st-3rd level parties, gobbies are 3600 pts, so 600 per for a party of six. At 4th level, that drops to 3200, and so on down from there.

Not counting the second warehouse, there are 16 gobbies topside, so you can figure where you'll be in level before heading to the big one.

Nightowl2

[Jack of Speed]

Four rounds is enough if you can summon 15-20 monsters. [img]smile.gif[/img] 6 spellcasters is a beatiful thing. Sure you can only summon 6 at a time but as each one gets killed or wears off you can put a new one in its place... once they reach level 4 they will have better summons and may actualy be able to go melee with the gobbies.

[Nightowl2]

So you're gonna start everyone off on the magic side? Hmmm, wouldn't be my first choice, but I must think about this; there might be advantages.

But I can see you'll be spending a lot of time snoozing in the early going

Nightowl2