just beat the game, now my 2nd time next, party of 4?

[whick3]

i want to make a party of 4. I just beat the game, so i know alittle about it now. But I don't know how to make a good 4 man team. I want to play this 4 man team for a long time, something to do, try and max out skills. So what would be a good team, any ideas?

[Marathon]

I'm running a four man team right now (around lvl 18) that works pretty well - Faerie Bishop concentrating on Alchemy, Psionics and Wizardry, just now getting Divinity to rise, a Human Lord dual wielding Fang and DE with strong Divinity, a Felpur Samurai w/Bloodlust and an enchanted Washi?? & using spells for long range and a Mook Bard that's at level 18 using an enchanted longsword and shield. I'll switch the Mook to Fighter next level to use the Giant Sword. Can't say this would be the best, but it's worked well for me.

[Scatter]

I've had great success with a few foursomes, and i think you can do well with many combinations. The easiest ones have been 3 Hybrids and a Bard, and the best of them is probably Lord-Sam-Ranger.
Another one that was a lot of fun was Gadgeteer, Rogue, Bard, Bishop.

[whick3]

okay, i got a rough idea so far, let me add some things to this list, I want my characters to have some stealth and crital strike some time so i can build on the skill, maybe not all, but it helps. I've never played a bard, is a bard really worth having more so than a spell caster?

Weapons i will be using.

Staff of doom for sure, but on what class? A monk for stealth and strike build up on psi, then go fighter for beserk and armor?

Fang and DE , always a good combo, is on a lord best?

I'll do the FN with the coc, not tired of that yet

2 questions here

can a sam mook use a Giant sword? is bloodlust and the enchanted washiwhatever the best?

how to build a good bard? i've seen a few good shields so a wep and a shield, does a 100 in int
help music that much?

any thoughts or advice, i'm all ears, thanks [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Mr Creosote]

Giant Sword is useless. And yes, your Mook Sam can use it.
Its a fab weapon but is SOOOOO heavy requires huge amounts of Stamina. Ok in a short battle but the longer battles one char will permanently be casting Stamina for the wielder. EVen with maxed Vit you will run out of stamina after a couple of rounds.

Lightweight weapons are best in this game, they require less stamina and improve initiative. Lightweight weapons with Crit % are the optimal.

Samurais apart from their role playing aspects are also a waste of time. Yes, they CAN be good, but a good Sam is never as good as a good Fighter or Rogue and level up slower. If you concentrate on their magic aspects then all you end up with a poor magic user and poor melee char. They rarely Lightning Strike and their crits are determined by their weapons. This game is all about specialised chars. Hybrids in general are a poor relation to specialists.

Apart from a well trained Bishop IMO the simple chars are the best in this game - Fighter, Rogue, Bard. Ninjas are useless also EXCEPT of course the Fairie Ninja with CoC but even then its a close call between a FN and Fighter with good weapons. Build a good Fighter with Staff of Doom and then see how good your FN looks, the Fighter with SoD will make them look like a girlie [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Scatter]

Gee, Mr Creosote, have you tried any of the Hybrid suggestions which answer all your reasons for disliking them?
And in a foursome, the best reason for hybrids is that everyone can cast at least well enough to do the healing and buffing and still be able to fight well.
Sam's crits are determined by their Crit skill score plus any bonus the weapon has, and they get plenty Lightning Strikes if you develop them adequately and don't load them. Maybe their proper development is a bit too cheesy for some, but when done right, a Sam will have as many kills as an equally patiently developed Fighter.

To answer the remaining questions: Yes, i really like Lord for the Dual Wield bonus, but i usually compound it with Mauler's Mace bonus, and let a Bard or Fighter take Fang.
Int only helps a Bard learn faster, so if you do any practising, you don't need to add any. I usually make everyone dual wield, but i guess in a foursome you don't need to, so give the Bard Fang and shield, esp once you get a stat-bonus shield.
Doom is great for anyone, except the curse on it makes it tough to also use missiles, so if you put it on a Fighter, you'll be stuck with bombs for ranged attacks. Unless, as you plan, you've learned some magic along the way...But i really like Doom on a Bishop, myself.

[Mr Creosote]

I enjoy playing the hybrids as they offer more development opportunities, but from a pure powerful char perspective its tough to beat the simpler chars.

Pls do explain how to develop Sam's "adequately" and how to obtain "plenty Lightning Strikes".
I'm nterested to know as I have been unable to develop a Sam that regularly Lightning Strikes.

[Scatter]

I just bumped an old Samurai thread. There's a few more; i just picked this one out of my search results because it had an unanswered question at its end.

[MasterPooBaa]

lord-samurai-ninja-monk
valkarie-samurai-ninja-monk
bishop-samurai-ninja-monk
bishop-bishop-bishop-bishop
ranger-thief-bard-gageteer

or the old classic
Fighter-mage-priest-thief

And yes, hybrids work well in smaller parties.
There is more exp recieved so they level up faster, and you work them harder so their skills get trained quicker.

[ 03-28-2004, 08:44 PM: Message edited by: MasterPooBaa ]

[Dedzy]

whick3,
I started a 4 man team last week, and they're doing just fine so far (12-13). Here it is:
Mook Fighter
Mook Fighter
Lizard Fighter
Elf Bishop

The fighters are brutal and kind of boring. But man, they sure clean up. I am dualling maces and swords with the mooks, and straight maces with the lizard because she is so stupid. I like having a strong ranged presence, so I am pumping bows on the fighters, and had Madras cook me up some doubleshot crossbows. If I didn't have such a fondness for ranged fighter ability, I would have definitely gone the way Mr. Creosote suggests with the staff on one of my fighters. Everyone likes to talk about how great lizard fighters are, but my experience is mixed on this: They are highly susceptible to mental and divine spells. Mooks on the other hand are not, plus they have the intelligence to help them with close and ranged combat.

As for the bishop, she completely kicks ass. I trained her on knock-knock for traps, plus she wears a thieves shield/poseur's cap for opening locks and traps. I have given up on pickpocketing, no point in getting a class to help out with that. Plus I hugely dislike the save-reload-save-reload cheese that goes with it. I chose elf instead of faerie for equipment purposes: There is a certain robe that you may know about which faeries can't wear, also if she chooses to change class to a lord or ranger on the last couple of levels for the best helm, faeries can't wear those either.
Bishops take a fair amount of training, make sure you read up on the order that you train the different classes of spells from what other people have already posted here once you get to Arnika. Otherwise, you'll make it twice as hard on yourself.

[ 03-29-2004, 01:02 AM: Message edited by: Dedzy ]