How little healing, melee power can I get away with? (new party)

[Marty4]

Pshhht, wizards are the most powerful arsenal of offensive ownage in the game. Slap on full luck gear (both tymora's loops and the HoF nucky), and you have a prepped nuclear missle that hits for 150-200 damage. The key is knowing where to fire for a maximum effect and making sure your guys are out of the way.

[PoleCat]

Going nuclear won't help when your foes are immune to elemental damage. Xvimian Slayer Knights don't take elemental damage, Icthyu(sp?) Xvim is actually healed by lightning, etc. Granted, wizards are helpful to a point, but fireballs, cloudkills, lightning and other big damage spells are useless in the later battles.

In the final battle I ended up using my mages for casting O's resilient and buff only, in between scratching their asses....

On a side note - what are Tymora's loops? I never found any luck eq in the game. Is this a HoF thing only? If so I haven't gone back and tried that yet.

[PoleCat]

Oh, and don't get me wrong on the Monk thing - I often would retrest from tough battles to a doorway and had my monk just obstruct while I peppered the bad guys with arrows, bolts, bullets and spells. Especially nice when the monk in question has 52 spell resistance and Improved Evasion - dropping clouds and fireballs on my own dude is VERY fun.

[Marty4]

Originally posted by PoleCat: Going nuclear won't help when your foes are immune to elemental damage. Xvimian Slayer Knights don't take elemental damage, Icthyu(sp?) Xvim is actually healed by lightning, etc. Granted, wizards are helpful to a point, but fireballs, cloudkills, lightning and other big damage spells are useless in the later battles. In the final battle I ended up using my mages for casting O's resilient and buff only, in between scratching their asses.... On a side note - what are Tymora's loops? I never found any luck eq in the game. Is this a HoF thing only? If so I haven't gone back and tried that yet.

And since when does horrid wilting do elemental damage?

You named two enemies that magic is somewhat inneffective against. However, they can be handled by warriors. The vast majority of the enemies of the game are vulnerable to fireballs.

Spoilers
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In the final battle, my mages were instrumental to my victory. They were the ones who silenced both enemy summoners in seconds, stopping the room from being filled with demons and shades, allowing for my warriors to take on I and M.

Tymora's loops are a pair of +3 luck rings. Once is looted off of Saablic Tan's corpse, and the other is found in the severed hand. Young Ned's Lucky Nucky, a +2 luck amulet, is pickpocketed off of one of Deidre Gallaway's helpers in HoF mode (the normal mode version is a simple +1 to saving throws ammy). Combine all three, and you cannot roll less than 9 on a D20, and I believe you have a 8/20 chance of rolling 20s. This can be used to have a disgustingly high magic damage for nukes, or to guarantee criticals from warriors. I find giving them to mages to be more effective.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

Sorcereseses! You can take one IMHO and that's all you need. Granted I'm new, but this is so much like BG2 it would be the same. The party of 4 I have now is just a waste.

I've never tried a Monk, and a solo Cleric would work too I think. If I do take more than 1 in a party, I like them all the same for challenge.

What are good stats for a Monk?

[Western Paladin]

For a monk? High strength, high dexterity, high constitution, reasonable wisdom (it gives bonuses to saving throws). I don't think monks need intelligence or charisma.

[ZFR]

Originally posted by Western Paladin: high constitution, reasonable wisdom (it gives bonuses to saving throws).

HIGH wisdom (it gives bonus to AC as well!!) and REASONABLE constitution (I consider 10 to be reasonable here).
the purpose of monk is to have such a high ac and magic resistance he wont need all those hit points.

er... and you meant a svirfneblin monk right?

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

What advantage does a svirfneblin monk have?

[ZFR]

Originally posted by Variol (Farseer) Elmwood: What advantage does a svirfneblin monk have?

magic resistance and +4 AC bonus!!!!

[Gimli]

RE: Svirf Monks - also +2 Dex, free mirror image, blur and invisibility, all very handy for a monk to have.