Thoughts on first time party..

[TheGlow]

So many options, yet so hard to make up my mind.
1. I was thinking for my standard tank a dwarf fighter/barb mix.
2. I have a love of rogues I cant deny, but I know pure is somewhat useless here so I was thinking either Fighter/rogue or maybe Monk/Rogue. Not sure. Race either Human or Tiefling
3. Pure cleric would be I think a drow priestess, not sure on race yet.
4. Back up cleric/tank thinking Human Ranger 1/Druid X.
5. Pure casting figured Drow Wizard.
6. And diplomacy chatty ness figured an bard 11/Sorc 19. How does that seem? and what race recommendations?

Im used to BG2 or in other games being pure Thief(Rogue), and then having npcs compliment my party. Usually have 1 wiz/sorc total, and usually only 1 cleric. So Im not usually heavily into magic, yet from what I can tell magic seems critical in IWD2.
And what would be good spell choices for the bard/sorc? I guess amount of spells doesnt matter too much if I can rest fairly often. Unlike Planescape:Torment where you only get to rest very rarely.

[Gimli]

1. I was thinking for my standard tank a dwarf fighter/barb mix.

Can't really go wrong there. Just take care not to keep Wis at a decent level for his Will saving throws.

2. I have a love of rogues I cant deny, but I know pure is somewhat useless here so I was thinking either Fighter/rogue or maybe Monk/Rogue. Not sure. Race either Human or Tiefling.

Just made a rogue/monk so I can offer some advice here. If you want him to fight unarmed, don't give him more than one level of Rogue as it will nerf the table used for unarmed combat. I think Humans are the best choice for the bonus skill point, can skimp on the Int stat that way.

3. Pure cleric would be I think a drow priestess, not sure on race yet.

If it's a first party you might not want to go with a Drow as a cleric as the 2 ECL penalty will mean you'll get her healing spells later than usual which might be a problem.

4. Back up cleric/tank thinking Human Ranger 1/Druid X.

That's a nice mix, I love Druids and the free dual-wield will help him tank.

5. Pure casting figured Drow Wizard.

See #3, getting the better spells ASAP will make things easier.

6. And diplomacy chatty ness figured an bard 11/Sorc 19. How does that seem? and what race recommendations?

Well if you are going to play the game twice (once through normal and then again with the same characters in HOF mode) you may hit level 30. But if you're just playing through once in normal mode, figure you're going to (with a party of 6) get to level 16 or so tops, so plan accordingly. I haven't tried a Bard/Sorc, but if I took one through normal mode I'd probably only go with one level of Bard, or just pure Bard, because I think there aren't enough levels to gain in normal mode to make a 1:2 multiclass type effective enough. My "talker" bard is currently a Cleric of Bane(1)/Bard(X) - the Dreadmasters get some cool unique dialogue options and also get +1 to all talking skills so it worked for me.

"And what would be good spell choices for the bard/sorc? I guess amount of spells doesnt matter too much if I can rest fairly often. Unlike Planescape:Torment where you only get to rest very rarely."

Again I'd go more pure Bard or pure Sorc - pure Bards IMHO are very effective with enchantment magic and Sorcs are the best nukers, so it depends [img]smile.gif[/img]

[TheGlow]

Yea Im sorta rethinking the drow thing. I wanted them for the RP reasons, but having lvls thrown off that bad, is pretty damn vicious. The cleric I opted for human, and just picked drow portraits and sounds. The po mans drow.
For the Wiz, I dunno. I wanna keep something legit.

[Gimli]

Well if you really want one for RP reasons then try one out - you can sort of "reduce" the ECL for one character per game anyway. Spoiler alert: there is a certain book you can always buy at about mid game or so that will give any one character an extra level, so you can always use that on the Drow Wizard to help offset his ECL.

[CerebroDragon]

Greetings intrepid Icewinders,

Only my second post to this part of Ironworks...
I'm only just starting out myself, saw this thread and decided to share my party here as well, which has a similar tanking theme to yours, TheGlow. Because the game is meant to be so hack and slash oriented (not too disimilar to the original I'm thinking) I've decided to go for a less magic intensive party than what I had in BG2. Here's my make up thus far:

1. Half Orc Barbarian (Aggalax Pikemist)
2. Dwarven Fighter (Vastlaar)
3. Half Elf Ranger (Missile specialist. It was either this or a bard...wasn't sure. May still make a bard, if this proves difficult/unwieldy)
4. Halfling Rogue (Yes, Pure class here! I don't like the watering down in multiclassing that much)
5. Drow Cleric
6. Human Necromancer (To add to the dark wintery feel of the game...more of an aesthetic choice than anything.)

Fairly standard and straight, which is how I like it, providing my stats measure up. I was interesting in some opinions on only having two spell casters and the extra tank (ranger) over the bard. Will I regret having a lack of magic and does the game punish you for not having enough?

Cheers,
Cerebrodragon

[Gimli]

Hey Cerebro - I don't think the game will be much easier with a bard over a ranger with that party, it will be more than strong enough either way to finish the game. IMO you at least want one good arcane caster and one divine one, and you already have that. My feeling is I'd take the bard, but that is because I don't like the way IWD II handles the ranger class all that much - you'd think they would make the best archers but the only fighting perks they get are free dual wielding feats. In this game fighters would make the best archers - although a ranger(x)/fighter(4) would be good to get WS in the long bow. But the extra fighter feats come in handy when you want things like improved critical, dirty fighting, rapid shot and precice shot to make your archer-type more effective. I think the bard class makes more RP sense to me and in this game and is more fun to play, but either way you'd be OK.

[Spiff]

TheGlow, if you want to use drow in your party don't let the ECL throw you off. Your party isn't going to be too low level to do well in any area.
I recently beat the game with a party somewhat similar to yours, but a little more magic intensive, that was a couple levels lower than what they should have been.
Your characters won't have to be lvl 15 or 16 by the end for you to stand a chance in the game.

The problem with the ECL penality is, as Gimli mentioned, you will get your spells later. So if your only going to play through once but wanted to get lvl 7 or 8 spells you might not want drow. Again though, don't think that the game is going to be so hard that you will need those high level spells to get through areas.

[Luvian]

Originally posted by Gimli: Hey Cerebro - I don't think the game will be much easier with a bard over a ranger with that party, it will be more than strong enough either way to finish the game. IMO you at least want one good arcane caster and one divine one, and you already have that. My feeling is I'd take the bard, but that is because I don't like the way IWD II handles the ranger class all that much - you'd think they would make the best archers but the only fighting perks they get are free dual wielding feats. In this game fighters would make the best archers - although a ranger(x)/fighter(4) would be good to get WS in the long bow. But the extra fighter feats come in handy when you want things like improved critical, dirty fighting, rapid shot and precice shot to make your archer-type more effective. I think the bard class makes more RP sense to me and in this game and is more fun to play, but either way you'd be OK.

Well... I don't see how someone trained in tracking, stealth, and surviving in the wilderness would be better with a bow than someone that dedicated all of his life to it...

Rangers are scouts, not professional archers...

[Gimli]

Well when I think Rangers I think of archery, maybe it's my own RP bias [img]smile.gif[/img] But I've seen alot of people post party ideas where they want a ranger to be their archer (in IWD II and alot of other games) so there must be something to this Ranger/Archer idea. Wiz 8 for example gives the Ranger class archery benefits (ranged criticals), and TOEE lets you choose a fighting style, it can be dual wield or archery. To me the whole dual wield thing is Drizzt's influence which is odd because he was a fighter before he was a ranger, and learned dual wielding before he ever became a ranger.

[ 05-20-2004, 07:24 AM: Message edited by: Gimli ]

[TheGlow]

Well rangers tend to love the wilderness and you dont exactly find longswords growing on a tree. Natural weapons tend to be clubs and bows. And since they maybe also hunt for survival on occasion, Archery would be more efficient. Thats my guess. If I was a ranger, Id be using a bow all day as well. The whole idea of dual wielding, I never grasped. Why of all the classes they get it for free, when they dont necessarily seem like theyd be using 2 weapons over something else, like a fighter, or even a rogue.
As for Drizzt, in the wonderful realm of literature, Salvatore may have had his end product, a ranger, already in mind and just did other things to meet it in the middle, like fighting dual style already. In books, everything goes, like a good Drow, etc.