Multiplayer Questions

[DiffEq]

Greetings Icewind Dalers!
Im almost finished with BGII single player.
I bought, but never played BGI.

Multiplayer in BGII wasnt satisfactory. I controlled all characters except the one my friend did. And all those NPCs begging to join my party. Im very excited about playing IWD with my friend but I have a few questions:
1) Can we play on a LAN with one copy of the game? (BGII allowed it)
2) How does IWD work in reference to which characters are controlled by whom? (Best if we both controlled 2 characters each)
3) Can we access each others' inventory? (In BGII I could access my friend's inventory, but not vise versa.)

A 2 character party would be great at providing a realistic environment (2 players, 2 characters) but I dont think it would be possible. A party needs a thief, a fighter, a mage, and a cleric. Oh... and a druid if IWD has the Insect Swarm spell. That spell got my vote for most effective BGII spell (Up to 5 enemies suffer 100% casting failure for 6 rounds with no saving throw. Dont leave the inn without it!)

You can play with only two characters. One should be a fighter/thief/mage and the other a ranger/cleric (both multiclass). Now, I did it without trouble by playing till chapter 3 and then giving these items to my two characters. You may be able to do it by giving yourself thirty thousand gold so you can buy the best things out there. You do want to run through all the town quests in the beginning twice to be ready for the battles ahead. This will get you up to level 3.

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Thx for the info.
I was thinking about multiclassing to cover all the class requirements.
But, so far, I cant find any info on proficiencies/equipment for multiclassed chars.
For example, a fighter/druid (my persona):
1) The fighter is allowed 5 proficiencies, the druid 2. So how many is the multiclass allowed?
2) The fighter can wear any armor and wield any weapon. What about the multiclass?
There must be a chart/rulesheet somewhere for this

The ranger/cleric is much better than the fighter/druid because of the severe limitations on druidic weapons and the fact that druid weapons are really bad in the game. Several of the best weapons in the game are flails and morningstars (especially because the blunt weapons are effective against both undead and any armor wearing NPCs). Rangers also get an extra attack if they use a 1handed weapon without a shield (simulating dual wield, but better than it). With the mess of undead you also want to turn undead, and being able to raise dead helps a lot too (ranger/clerics get both druid and cleric spells). Multiclasses only get two prof's maximum in a weapon slot, but this is ok since you will probably want to specialize several types of weapons if you have so few characters. Fighter-multiclasses can wear any armor, but cannot cast spells or use thief abilities in ones that thieves/mages can't cast/thief in, but in IWD you can pause to take off armor unlike BG II.

[DiffEq]

Thx G.W.

Everything u said makes perfect sense (of course!)
I ended up playing with a Half Elf Ranger/Cleric (missile, flail, sling, staff)
My wife chose a Half Elf Ranger (bow, dagger, short sword, long sword)
I tried to convince her to go with an Elvin Ranger because of the 19 dex for her ranged attack and also Elves get a bonus to bows and long swords (i dont remember what that bonus is.)
We should be ok without a mage, but its gonna be tough without a thief

Im glad u mentioned that I could change armor while in combat. I had assumed that I couldnt. I think it might be to our little newbie party's advantage for both of us to crawl the dungeons while hidden in the shadows. We can thoroughly scout an enemy before we engage. And if one of us drops out of the shadows mistakenly, we can pause, throw on our best armor, and deal with the situation.

Oh.. i was gonna ask: Is her character gonna reach max level before the game's end? Considering that she is singleclassed and there are only two of us?

[Leafy]

With two characters, you should have no problem reaching max levels.. i think there's enough exp for about 3, maybe 4 players to reach their max..
Don't worry about not haivng a thief, there are not TOO many traps. and as a cleric, you can at least detect them and try to avoid them. Scouting while hidden is good for the ranger; but might i suggest the ranger/cleric forfeit the ranger abilities by wearing plate mail. Instead of hiding in shadows, you can cast "sanctuary" and scout ahead without fear of enemy attack (though some enemies may follow you at a distance).

As for the earlier post about proficiencies for multi-classed characters. a milti-classed character should recieve half of the proficiencies of each class.. though, there are some anomolies or bugs. I once made a Cleric/Mage who ostarted with 3 slots and only ever gained one more when he reach level 9 as a cleric???? so make sure you choose wisely when you begin. Maces and longswords are a safe bet.

[DiffEq]

Wow. I guess clerics get an additional proficiency at lvl 9, but mages dont get any more.
Well, a cleric/mage would be too busy making pretty colors to get much use of a weapon anyway. And his thac0 would be embarassing, etc.

Thx for the info Leafy.

Oh.. there's no "archer" ranger kit.
Ive been looking into the best bow-using character for IWD.
Looks like an Elvin Fighter/Thief, tho im not sure.

Gonna go see what we can figure out for ourselves.

[Leafy]

don't assume that a cleric/mage can't fight.. when you assume, you make an ASS out of U and ME..
I reached a -2 thaco and -16AC with my cleric/mage, thankyou. in fact, completed the entire game with only one cleric/mage .. no cheats, no importing items or gold or exp.. (some reloading of course).. it's possible.. it all depends on how open your mind is to approaching this game from different angles... it's not necessarily all hack 'n slash... (although hacking and slashing will win you the game and some fast gold).. as you play the game, you'll gain experience and perhaps you'll understand...
i think the fighter/cleric/mage pretty much has this game in the bag too...

the nest challange, one bard.. i think it can be done

as for the archer an elvin fighter thief is safe bet... although, an elvin Fighter/Mage would be an excellent archer too as he'd want to stand awwy from combat and fling arrows/spells anyways... and if he casts HASTE, he could double his rate of fire on that bow..

Hmm, I'd suggest a thief dualed to fighter that will specialize in using bows and crossbows, instead of a second ranger. Unfortunately you would have pretty bad strength (a pure 1--so you could a fighter-thief multiclass. Or a pure class fighter so you can get five proficiencies in weapons. (I think axes may be better than large swords). The traps aren't as deadly as BG II but still annoying. There is no problem with locked chests in the game, however. Yes, I have a gnome fighter-illusionist who is great. Mirror image will help immensely when there's only two characters in your party. There's also a special purchasable helm that can be used only by gnomes and halflings which is probably the best helm in the game.

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Mirror Image.. that's an excellent idea G.W.
I didnt use it in my 5 character party in BG2, but for just the 2 of us, nice.

Leafy, I dont understand how a cleric/mage can get -2 thac0. Clerics and mages dont get thac0 bonuses at level ups, so i dont see how their To Hit can ever get below, say, 15.

Also, the thac0 listed in the character screen is bothering me. It must represent the base thac0. Our level 2/2 fighter/mage has a listed thac0 of 19. It dropped from 20 to 19 when she leveled. But she should be getting +2 from her bow specialization and +3 from her 19 dexterity. It should be 14.

We started over. I stayed with a half elf ranger/cleric (maces, flails).
She switched to a Elvin fighter/mage (bows, daggers, large swords).
I suppose i shouldve been proficient in bows, but ill do that with my next proficiency point (which i "assume" is at level 8.)

I understand that these Infinity engine games arent hack-n-slash. Thats why i fell in luv with Planescape Torment. Ah.. i can still hear the main menu music.