Perfect party (sequel of the one in bg 1)

I've decideto make a multiplayer singel player game and i started out with this party

A Ranger
Monk
Swashbuckler
Avenger
Cleric/mage
and a sorcerer

but i think the monk sux big time so i change hiom to a paladin (very complicated first bring the savegam to multiplayer. make a pallie and give him the exp. point of the monk import the palli instead of the monk bring the savegame back to the single play saves)

and i have got three question does anyone think a monk is good
what would your party be
and what would you party be i you were allowd to have 8 char. mine would be like this:

a archer (or stalker)
a pallie (paladin not underclass coz they suck)
a avenger
cleric of the good god (something with a Loth.)
bard (blade)
mage (specialist)
sorcerer
and a thief (not swashbuckler didn't know backstabbing would be so powerfull)

so answer if you like don't if you don't like (or dislike or like it not or ah well i'll shut up now)

lookink back i can see i'm obsessed with offencive magic anyone with the same ?

A few neat things about monks

1. Lots of attacks per round, great to keep MUs from casting
2. Hand of death - nice to have an attack that can kill a dragon with ONE shot
3. If you die - use resurrection and you don't need to pick up your goods - you can be very effective without any items at all!
4. Levels - you go up in level much faster than a fighter
5. Thief abilities - you can scout ahead and take out nasty MUs all by yourself easier than a thief
6. Speed - you move real fast, and don't need boots of speed at higher levels.
7. If that ain't enough to convince you, just the funny graphics of kicking and punching is way cool. 8

and what do i appose to your monk

1 a off. spin blade has a lot of attacks pre round as well and fighter as well
2 i think killing dragons should sacriface killing other monsters (that palli is good as well)
3 others can carry your weapons
4 levelling up isn't always as great (a level 15 druid is a lot strong than any other level 17 char who is not a druid)
5 they can't backstab and that's sometimes enough - a ranger can kill mu better thann a monk can and they're very good in stealth
6 i don't like fast moving as it sepparates you from the group (never use boots of speed)
7 god it says enough that you think up of this kindah stuff

why i dislike them

1 they can't use heavy weapons yet they have no reall magic or good thieving abilities
2 they can't use magic
3 they can't use any good ranged weapons
4 they can't wear armour (though natrual armour is very good)
5 they can't use magic (al my others can except the thief and i dislike thiefs but you do need them so)
6 they look stupid (so does the rest but that not the issue)
7 they can't use magic (i know 3rd time but magic is importent)
8 they walk to fast

well these are my reasons you might not agree but thats you right as an indivual
i do wish to say because i dislike them you dont have to

When you say they can't use magic, what do you mean? There are magic items they can use...

Plus, at Grand Master of Flowers level, a monk has 7 attacks per round (lvl 17), and if you have nice str, you can be VERY devistating. (at least that was how AD&D was - haven't played a monk up that high yet in BG2)

Also, hand of death can be used several times during a day as a Monk goes up in level, and this is a great way to take out a few baddies instantly in a fight. I don't like the lower HPs of a monk though, that was the only reason I switched my original party which featured a monk as the primary character. When I saw that the Half-Orc could have 19 str and con, it was a no-brainer.

The perfect albiet boring party would be 3 pure half-orc fighters, 2 dual-class thief (7th go dual) MUs, and one dual-class fighter (7th) cleric.

All fighters are for melee - 19 str, 18 dex, 19 con. two should specialize two points in dual-wield, one in long-sword/mace, one in axe/hammer. The other should use 4 points in two-handed sword, 2 in two-handed weapon style.

The dual classed thief/mu's should split their thief skills - one is great at locks and traps, the other at hide in shadows/detect traps. At 7th (the beginning of BG2) switch to MU and follow your fighters. You'll run into a bunch of traps, so you may want to stagger your second thief and wait until the first gets his MU level to 8 (will go quick) so you have a funtional thief for the beginning of the game. The Cleric should start as a fighter and immediately dual to cleric (specialize in sling and flail - 18 wis and dex, str you will get from magic items). You should have no prob in the beginning of the game protecting the dual mages and cleric until they level up.

Not the most interesting or exciting party, but unbeatable IMO.

Use magic means use spells.
Paladin has his cleric spells
a ranger (real not melee fighter) has druid spells and so on
I still dislike monk but i'm beginning to that some may use him (or her)

Well, for spells - do you really think at 13th level the "command" spell is really useful? For that matter, at the high levels the rangers and pallys get spells, are they really that useful?

I'll take the higher specialization ability of the pure fighter and the faster leveling any day over a couple low-level spells that my spell casters already have. In standard AD&D the ranger was the only char that could dual-wield, so he was useful. But since regular fighters (and thiefs, lol) can now dual, I see no real advantage to being a ranger, and I never saw an advantage to a Pally w/o a warhorse. Now with the summon warhorse ability, a Pally was most excellent, but they don't have that feature in this game.

I am a bit intrigued in the Archer Ranger character though, with the called shot...

First, monks rocks

Heres my party :

Leader: Champion. Basically a paladin on steroids, a very nice tank, rarely dies, and of course the one reason to pick pally over warrior: the holy avenger.

Primary damage source: Monk Hes a bad mofo, i swear! 18/98 str, 18 dex, 18 con. Attacks faster than ANY warrior and even bard on off spin, so however who said otherwise was wrong! Awesome speed to allow to go ahead and scout or to go talk to a specific npc on a map quickly. Neat battle style, great abilities. I destroyed my Kenshi-Mage to get him. I had hoped Kenshi mage would be godly, it turned out to be average, i certainly think the monk beats him all the way. A note though, for those who use the "fix" for multi attacks; that fix makes the game less balanced since things were balanced for the basic system. Changing it makes warriors attack WAY more, removes a lot of challenge, and makes monks comparitively weaker.

Tank/healer: Half Orc Warrior/Cleric. Cheezy. 19STR, 8DEX, 18 with dex gloves (*grins*), 19 con, 18wisdom 14int 10cha. what can I say? He kicks a lot of ass Awesome AC, great healing skills.

Most-understimated-ever: Archer, LongBow Specialist. What can I say? Death from the skies. This guy is so leathal that if you see him and survive, he was either sleeping or you are a god. Sure, my granny can tank better than him, but when it comes to raw damage, he rivals sorcerors.

Speaking of sorcerors, thats my 5th party member Powerful, although a bit limited spell wise. Im sure ill enjoy 6 level 98 spells a day though. (I raised my exp cap to 3,750,000 to get the level 9 spell I usually dont do such things but i really prefer level 20 characters to level 17 ones. .

And finally, my thief: A swashbuckler. I like the nice fighting abilities and all but im beginning to think an assassin or assasin/mage would have been better, and id like some input on that...

Overall, my only regret is that i didnt have any room left for a skald. Their song seems awesome, too bad they cant attack while singing though.


Input?

[nimzo]

My BG2 party:

Dwarf, straight up fighter. The tank. From BG1, so he has 19Str, 18Dex, and 20Con. He is so cool. Natural regeneration so when I need to heal major damage, and he’s able to take a lot, I can just take a snooze.

Ranger/Cleric. Thought I’d give it a try. I was partial to the Fighter/Cleric, but I’m trying this one out to see which I like better. Still undecided.

Swashbuckler/Mage. I love the extra –2 to AC the swashbuckler gets, and I never really used back stab as much as I probably should have. Bring the swashbuckler up to level 11 and you can max out 3 out of the 4 thief abilities and put 75 percent on the last. I left hide in shadows a little low because I like to just use invisibility for its greater reliability. With mirror image, he is even very effective in hand to hand combat.

Cavalier. The poison immunity is pretty cool, and so is almost everything else about this fellow. In P&P D&D, when the cavalier came out he was the hottest thing since stuffed baked potatoes. He still can handle himself very well, and another tank type (no missile weapons) to back up my dwarf enables them to take care of just about everything that comes their way.

I covered all the major bases with only 4 guys and I left the other two spots open and use them to check out all the NPCs and get quests with. So far, I haven’t left anybody behind and have Minsc and Yoshimo out of the dungeon and chilling out at the bar and Jaheira’s got my back. Also having only 4 guys lets you get Exp more quickly; you can even ditch the NPCs momentarily before you finish quests to screw them out of some of the XPs. Not very nice, but effective.

[dragonslayer]

This party proved really effective in IWD but I decided not to use it in BG II due to the NPCs reactions.

Human Female Paladin, 18/79 Strength 18 Constitution, Dexterity and Charisma,(Long Swords)

Dwarf Male Fighter, 18/93 Strength 19 Constitution 17 Dexterity (5 Prof Axes)

Elf Female Ranger 18/62 Strength 19 Dexterity 17 Constitution (Somehow the Game let me have 3 Prof in Longbows)

Elf Female Cleric 15 Strength 19 Dexterity 17 Constitution 18 Wisdom

Halfling Male Thief Strength 17 19 Dexterity 18 Constitution

Human Female Illusionist Dexterity and Constitution 17 Intelligence 18

I think I rolled five hours to get the stats I got for these characters, Paladin has 94.

They completely slaughtered Belhifet the first time through. In all battles my tactics almost always were, scout ahead with my thief, rush straight in with my Paladin (using Pale Justice) and sometimes Dwarf with Lonesome Road (20 Constitution), shoot Arrows with Ranger (Longbow +4 Hammer), Cleric attacking with Morninstar +4 Defender, Mage casting Magic Missile. I've found the Illusionist being the most effective mage since I very rarely use Necromancy spells. Alternatively my Dwarf uses Boots of speed (normally on Paladin) and uses Throwing Axe +2. Almost nobody stood against my Paladin and Cleric this way.