Neither Revision mod is installed. Would it make much a difference? (Wont install them any way, just curious ^^) Cleric isn't important for that party I guess? (I don't think so at least) Why do you not like Sorcerers in parties?
IR/SR do change some things, the most relevant change is probably Improved Haste no longer doubling attacks (just +1 APR to party, regular Haste is single target). That makes duals stronger and weakens multi, because GM + APR weapons isn't necessarily as good as GWW anymore. It also makes Clerics a bit stronger due to some spell changes (but not hugely). I'm not the biggest fan of Clerics in general outside of LoB runs, where buffs actually have time to accumulate value.
I don't like Sorcerers because their big advantage is gaining access to spells earlier than you should, which is diminished in parties due to shared XP - while at the same time they are fairly weak in terms of damage output.
If using a single lev7 spell, PI, to send to the enemy 5 MM, 5 MMA, 5 Fire Arrows or Skull Traps, GM, lower their magical resistance, dispel their protections and leave a couple of them petrified or feebleminded and gate a Planetar in a little more then a couple of rounds is a weak damage output I agree. Is true that in a full party a Sorcerer reach 3M xp and the IA spell later, but imo is also true that most of the parties that use PG leveling strategies, like retarding the Xp from the quests or erase and scribe the scrolls to make the dual down time less relevant, use those strategies in a quite dumb way. A lot better can be done. In an ideal situation all the party members should get all the quest XP, as it is not diluted and the full amount goes to each party member. Only the party members who need more Xp in a certain phase of the game should be present when the Xp from the kills is gotten. This need a versatile party, were no one is indispensable and each function can be performed by more then one member or replicated in an other way. But the individual growth curve of each member can be shaped in a very precise way according to your priorities. Having the Sorcerer grow quite fast until that 3M Xp imo is one of those priorities, more important than making a single down time shorter, is possible to have a high level sorc a lot more sooner than what many people think possible even in a 5 or 6 men party if enough priority is given to that.
Is perfectly possible to run a PG party without a Sorcerer, but he don't lack of power and in my experience you have to avoid to use all his power if you don't want to make the game too easy.
If using a single lev7 spell, PI, to send to the enemy 5 MM, 5 MMA, 5 Fire Arrows or Skull Traps, GM, lower their magical resistance, dispel their protections and leave a couple of them petrified or feebleminded and gate a Planetar in a little more then a couple of rounds is a weak damage output I agree.
Compared to what properly equipped fighters do under IH, all day long, it is pretty pitiful damage per time. The 1-spell-per-round limit and the setup time really kills it for single target damage, the only way to compete is on many enemies at once - which is rare, especially when it comes to non-trivial mobs.
A properly equipped fighter can not give to himself IH unless he is also a mage, a sorc with the robe, IA and PI can give IA to all the party for every big battle in about the same time a F/M without the robe can give it to himself alone. Is easy to think that IA is granted for everyone all day long, but is not so, a sorc can be an incredible source of really fast IH for everyone, and it take may be just one second of his IA. or better of his PI's IA. Too many enemies at the same time can be destroyed with Skull Traps and ADHW, for single non-trivial mobs he uses things like feeblemind are vorpal spells, when they hit you can basically forget him, destroy his helpers and then send Imoen with a normal staff to kill the dragon. I usually run 3-5 people parties, some of them with the sorcerer and some without it. In most of the situations the fact that the sorcerer is not a good physical damage dealer is more than compensated by the speed an efficiency he has in hasting and protecting the other party members, dispelling the enemy's protections and dealing magical damage or disabling the enemy. Sure an underleveled sorc is not so useful to a party optimized for high DPR but give more attention and priority to his leveling and he will soon become the oil that make all the gears of the optimized party run so smooth, he haste the companions, he debuffs the enemies, dispell their protections and serve them to the fighters on a dish, ready to be cut in little pieces, then he deal a lot of damage with his spells (5 MM, 5 MMA, 5 Fire Arrows or Skull Traps in few seconds, do yourself the math). He does all this in a couple of rounds at the cost of a single lev7 spell, he is so fast that TS is not even needed. I am not talking of having infinite spells or giving to the fighters infinite GWW, all 25 stats for everyone and other things like unlimited XP and money that are in his possibilities, if he wants to really use all the potential of the class, just of a normal PG use of him in a context where wearing the RoV and using the PI as is implemented in the game is not a scandal. If we take in account the cheesy advanced use of a sorc let's say that my sorc has destroyed all the Tor-Gal level of the tactics modded game in 4-6 rounds, in less than a minute from the moment he descended those stairs he was the only one alive in that part of the dungeon. Is this a pretty pitiful damage?
I'm pretty sure I've had this conversation at least 3 times in this thread alone. Fighter-based hybrids are more reliable, more efficient damage output. Yes a mage is incredible for many reasons, but there is no need to make it a Sorc. Splice it into a fighter, and you still get the good spells while also hitting things over the head.
Yes a mage is incredible for many reasons, but there is no need to make it a Sorc. Splice it into a fighter, and you still get the good spells while also hitting things over the head.
True, is a good way to go. There is no need, but in my experience both ways have advantages and disadvantages.
Using the multi-dual mages to your buffing and spellcasting you have one more hard physical damage dealer, but they will take time to buff themselves as they have to cast both the protections like Stoneskin and the offensive buffs like IH, time that prevents them to be fully operative in the first rounds of a battle. The hoice has a cost in physical damage you can deal. And you have to wait more before your multi or dual reach the point where fundamental spells can be used. You have also more versatility before the rest, but less after you have chosen the memorizations.
Using the sorc you loose a physical attacker, but you gain a spell caster who level fast (the difference is less against a lev9 dual, multi and lev13 dual suffer it more) and he will cast using the robe and amulet, using PI and IA, this advantage can not be replicated as there is only a robe. There is a lot of synergy in this, the sorc can pop out the PI and the clone cast the IA in a quite short time as the F/Mages protect themselves with SS-PFMW, and then you are a couple of seconds from having the enemy debuffed, your fighters hasted and protected and the sorc starting to use his damaging spells. Only a sorcerer has the in battle versatility to buff all your party, dispell the enemy protections, lower his MR and saving throws and pelt him with damaging spells for let's say 3-400 DMG in a couple of rounds, without any preparation. ( 5MM= 5*5*(1+1d4)dmg, 5 Melf' Arrows = 5*2d4 + eventual damage for some rounds, 5 Flame arrow(5*4*(1D6 piercing + 4d6 fire, the last halved if ST is successful)) Assuming that no ST is successful and without calculating the added acid damage that the MAA deals in the next rounds I get an average of 462 dmg. All this in the first 12-18 secs of the battle without even touching the heavy bombs like ADHW or Dragon Breath.
I know that you've had this conversation at least 3 times in this thread alone, and I really appreciate your knowledge and ability to test different builds and party compositions. But I have also seen as before some conclusions of your experimentation was biased by the environment where you did test. I am talking of your opinion on how a bard can be less useful then an other high APR fighter and how you gave so much importance to the ability to deal damage against the tanking capability. Only using a different environment like LoB you are now talking about how you re evaluating Skalds and Tanks, but their power was there before just as is now. The fact that with a very high DPR output before you could destroy everything before the power of a good tank or bard would be needed does not imply that they was powerless or not useful, just that your unbalanced setting, all dedicated to physical offense, was successful in that situation so you failed in seeing their usefulness. I think that the same is happening now about the sorcerer.
Is perfectly possible to have a fantastic party without a sorcerer or a bard, on this I agree, and the playing style affects how they can be useful in a party, a party sorc has to be played in a different way from a solo one, has completely different uses and priorities (even if he can use about the same spell selection). But a sorc can vastly contribute to the dmg dealed by the party, just his sling or darts will have a very little part in it, each IH that he cast is more APR for the party, each Planetar is one more tank and dmg dealer, and that 3-400dmg in the first couple of rounds are not a pretty pitiful damage for someone who is at the same time buffing his party and breaching the enemy.
I 100% agree that Sorcerers are amazing versatility and flexibility. I am also 100% convinced that versatility and flexibility are grossly overrated, as any serious powergamer will be able to predict what is going to happen in any fight... 100%.
EDIT: I should probably qualify this. I don't mean you know the outcome of every roll or the sequences of every combat action (and I'm sure someone would have accused me of claiming so). I mean you know the limited variations of what enemies will TRY to do.
You're right that if you're playing for the first time, things will be different. However, this is a discussion about powergaming, and I'm not sure that powergaming is the right term to describe people playing the game for the first time (or second, or third, for that matter, considering its complexity).
Powergaming is an attitude and is not the same of relying on metagame. A new player who doesn't want to be spoiled about each battle and enemy, but seek information about the more effective builds and the better weapon proficiencies or how to min-max stats is powergaming, as an experienced player who try the first time quest mods can use PG without relying on metagame. Technically they are very different things but in RL they very often go together.
Also PG is not automatically trying to obtain the maximum DPR or to win the battles in the faster way. From Wikipedia: "Powergaming (or power gaming) is a style of interacting with games or game-like systems, particularly video games, boardgames, and role-playing games, with the aim of maximising progress towards a specific goal, to the exclusion of other considerations such as storytelling, atmosphere and camaraderie." The specific goal is the key, winning the battles very fast is one of the possible ones, but winning a little slower without almost taking any damage or being prepared for everything, also things that using metagame we know will not happen, can be others. To tell "I don't care to protect me against some things that using metagame I know will not happen because I am PGaming" is as correct as saying "if instead of a stupid and predictable AI you would fight against an human player the enemy would have destroyed your PG party with that couple of spells, this is not PG but exploiting AI weakness".
Does powergaming not imply not just min/maxing but actually having the knowledge to do so effectively? Going in without knowing how things are going to work out seems to me a fairly weak premise if you want to grind out every little advantage (which is what powergaming is about, really).
Don't get me wrong, I encourage everyone to play any way they want, but if you want to make the most out of your game then knowing the conditions you're working with seems like something of an obvious requirement - in games without inherently random conditions, anyway (not talking about mere rolls here).
I don't see the point of building a powergaming party for the purpose of fighting the same battles that you've already did (and have extensive information about it). Where is the fun in that?
I prefer to let the player decide what is funny for himself, What is the fun in running 100mt on the same track trying to grind some more thousands of seconds from the average 10 secs needed to run the distance? Some people like to do it and many people appreciate them, that gold medal is one of the most important in the Olympic Games...
I'm not sure how you would even define what is powerful without knowing what's possible. It seems to me that in order to be the best you can, you have to know what makes you "the best". It's a relative term after all, not an absolute - it makes no sense without enough information to determine what you are talking about.
While jumping into the unknown can definitely be fun for its own reasons, I struggle with the idea of "powergaming" an unknown environment. The first step in the powergaming process, to me, is always learning as much as you can. It's akin to a puzzle that you want to solve; first you need to have all the pieces, then you can worry about how to solve it most efficiently.
Imo, and I am aware that is a very personal opinion, the best powergamer is the one who goes no reload. His style is very different from the one usually associated to PG, but he has a goal and devotes his effort and choices to it. He has the more important goal in the game, to win all the battles without a single condition that force a reload, he is the most effective one. Every reload is a lost game, does not matter if he has won easily and very fast the previous 100 battles, each single time Charname dies or the party members are decimated and not resurrectable the goal to survive to the game is not obtained. Not obtaining that goal imply that all the other goals are also failed. As I told is a very personal opinion, but the aim of maximising progress towards a specific goal, to the exclusion of other considerations is really important in a no reload game.
I'm not sure how you would even define what is powerful without knowing what's possible. It seems to me that in order to be the best you can, you have to know what makes you "the best".
I agree on this. But there are ways to know what is possible and what is best that don't rely on having played before that mod or part of the game. The new players who ask about the best builds, the best stats and proficiencies and abilities allocation on this board are powergaming. The player who devote his time in studying the magic system and the combat one is also powergaming. All this can be done as he try to acquire also information and effective tactics about each single battle or the location of each trap or without spoiling himself. To know what makes you "the best" is not univocal, the best in a very circumstanced and well known environment is not always the best in absolute. An easy and quite extreme of that is the use of the Shield of Balduran, as it trivialize Beholder battles can be seen as the best aid of the powergamer, if the goal is to win in a fast and effective way. For an other powergamer using that shield strike against the whole idea of powergaming as for him the goal is to win challenging battles.
An easy and quite extreme of that is the use of the Shield of Balduran, as it trivialize Beholder battles can be seen as the best aid of the powergamer, if the goal is to win in a fast and effective way. For an other powergamer using that shield strike against the whole idea of powergaming as for him the goal is to win challenging battles.
This isn't really related to the subject but the EE made the Shield of Balduran utterly useless. Not in the sense that it doesn't work but in the sense you can now trivialize Beholder encounters even without. See, in the EE, Polymorph Self cannot be dispelled anymore, even with Antimagic Ray. So Polymorph Self: Mustard Jelly will make a character completely impervious to anything a Beholder can throw at them. To add insult to injury, they can't even bite you to death because Mustard Jellies are immune to piercing damage. Only Elder Orbs can still be a threat due to them casting Imprisonment.
More on topic, powergaming is finding the most efficient solution to reach a specific goal. Generally it means killing everything as quickly as possible in which case Fighter/Mages are the indisputable kings. With certain configurations, such as Improved Anvil, the balance of power shifts but honestly there aren't many mods making changes deep enough to dethrone Fighter/Mages. In case of a no-reload killing quickly is still very important because dead things can't pose a threat to you. For a solo it means a Fighter/Mage will still be superior to a Sorcerer even in a no-reload context, but in a party a sorc can bail you out when you mess up more easily than any other class.
Ideally in a no-reload you should strive to eliminate the luck factor entirely but humans aren't exactly perfect and it doesn't hurt to have an insurance.
-Kensai9-Mage -Mazzy Paladin but which kit??? really can't decide, they are all nice Dx -Korgan Fighter/Thief or Fighter/Cleric (probably keepering Berserker into him) or pure Berserker -Yoshi/Imoen Skald -Substitute till Sarevok Kensai- or Berserker-Mage (dig fighter/mages more and more) -Whoever strikes my fancy... class heavily depends on my choice for Korgan, maybe Archer/Cleric or Swashbuckler/Mage either multi or dual
-Kensai9-Mage -Mazzy Paladin but which kit??? really can't decide, they are all nice Dx -Korgan Fighter/Thief or Fighter/Cleric (probably keepering Berserker into him) or pure Berserker -Yoshi/Imoen Skald -Substitute till Sarevok Kensai- or Berserker-Mage (dig fighter/mages more and more) -Whoever strikes my fancy... class heavily depends on my choice for Korgan, maybe Archer/Cleric or Swashbuckler/Mage either multi or dual
-Kensai9-Mage -Mazzy Paladin but which kit??? really can't decide, they are all nice Dx -Korgan Fighter/Thief or Fighter/Cleric (probably keepering Berserker into him) or pure Berserker -Yoshi/Imoen Skald -Substitute till Sarevok Kensai- or Berserker-Mage (dig fighter/mages more and more) -Whoever strikes my fancy... class heavily depends on my choice for Korgan, maybe Archer/Cleric or Swashbuckler/Mage either multi or dual
Advice is appreciated as always
I would use the following;
Kensai mage Cavalier for the versatility Berserker Cleric as they are insanely strong Imoen Archer/cleric as your party seems pretty melee heavy
-Kensai9-Mage -Mazzy Paladin but which kit??? really can't decide, they are all nice Dx -Korgan Fighter/Thief or Fighter/Cleric (probably keepering Berserker into him) or pure Berserker -Yoshi/Imoen Skald -Substitute till Sarevok Kensai- or Berserker-Mage (dig fighter/mages more and more) -Whoever strikes my fancy... class heavily depends on my choice for Korgan, maybe Archer/Cleric or Swashbuckler/Mage either multi or dual
-Kensai9-Mage -Mazzy Paladin but which kit??? really can't decide, they are all nice Dx -Korgan Fighter/Thief or Fighter/Cleric (probably keepering Berserker into him) or pure Berserker -Yoshi/Imoen Skald -Substitute till Sarevok Kensai- or Berserker-Mage (dig fighter/mages more and more) -Whoever strikes my fancy... class heavily depends on my choice for Korgan, maybe Archer/Cleric or Swashbuckler/Mage either multi or dual
Advice is appreciated as always
I would use the following;
Kensai mage Cavalier for the versatility Berserker Cleric as they are insanely strong Imoen Archer/cleric as your party seems pretty melee heavy
Of course I will use Immy xD With your suggested setup I would pick Swash/Mage for my last slot
@Baldurspawn if you go with a Swashmage, consider dual-wielding daggers and scimitars. With Firetooth+3 and Belm+2, you get 4apr unbuffed. Honestly, one of the most exploitable things the latest patch brought into the game.
-Kensai9-Mage -Mazzy Paladin but which kit??? really can't decide, they are all nice Dx -Korgan Fighter/Thief or Fighter/Cleric (probably keepering Berserker into him) or pure Berserker -Yoshi/Imoen Skald -Substitute till Sarevok Kensai- or Berserker-Mage (dig fighter/mages more and more) -Whoever strikes my fancy... class heavily depends on my choice for Korgan, maybe Archer/Cleric or Swashbuckler/Mage either multi or dual
-Kensai9-Mage -Mazzy Paladin but which kit??? really can't decide, they are all nice Dx -Korgan Fighter/Thief or Fighter/Cleric (probably keepering Berserker into him) or pure Berserker -Yoshi/Imoen Skald -Substitute till Sarevok Kensai- or Berserker-Mage (dig fighter/mages more and more) -Whoever strikes my fancy... class heavily depends on my choice for Korgan, maybe Archer/Cleric or Swashbuckler/Mage either multi or dual
Advice is appreciated as always
I would use the following;
Kensai mage Cavalier for the versatility Berserker Cleric as they are insanely strong Imoen Archer/cleric as your party seems pretty melee heavy
Of course I will use Immy xD With your suggested setup I would pick Swash/Mage for my last slot
What setup wer you thinking of going in terms of items etc?
@comebackhome Aside from weapons, I never think about that in advance, whatever strikes my fancy, I guess ^u^ As I still cant seem to figure out how to make a Cavalier tanky in SCS, I consider a pure Spellsword party just for the heck of it xD Maybe adding an Archer/Cleric (with bows, thanks to some mod... dunno which) for flavor...
Kensai9-Mage =Mace/Shortsword Blade =Longsword/Scimitar Berserker9-Mage =Halberd/Twohander Swashbuckler9-Mage =Quarterstaff Fighter/Illusionist =Warhammer/Flail Archer9-Cleric =Shortbow I somewhat doubt that this setup needs any equipment at all xD
comebackhome Aside from weapons, I never think about that in advance, whatever strikes my fancy, I guess ^u^ As I still cant seem to figure out how to make a Cavalier tanky in SCS, I consider a pure Spellsword party just for the heck of it xD Maybe adding an Archer/Cleric (with bows, thanks to some mod... dunno which) for flavor...
Kensai9-Mage =Mace/Shortsword Blade =Longsword/Scimitar Berserker9-Mage =Halberd/Twohander Swashbuckler9-Mage =Quarterstaff Fighter/Illusionist =Warhammer/Flail Archer9-Cleric =Shortbow I somewhat doubt that this setup needs any equipment at all xD
I'd suggest giving daggers/scimitars to the Swashmage and Longswords/Axes to the Blade (otherwise you won't have anyone using the Axe of the Undying, and you can find magical throwing axes pretty early on in BG2 to leave your Blade out of danger until it become tankier). Also, for the Kensage I'd suggest Bastard Swords instead of Shortswords (because in ToB, Foebane > all).
Comments
I don't like Sorcerers because their big advantage is gaining access to spells earlier than you should, which is diminished in parties due to shared XP - while at the same time they are fairly weak in terms of damage output.
Is true that in a full party a Sorcerer reach 3M xp and the IA spell later, but imo is also true that most of the parties that use PG leveling strategies, like retarding the Xp from the quests or erase and scribe the scrolls to make the dual down time less relevant, use those strategies in a quite dumb way. A lot better can be done. In an ideal situation all the party members should get all the quest XP, as it is not diluted and the full amount goes to each party member. Only the party members who need more Xp in a certain phase of the game should be present when the Xp from the kills is gotten. This need a versatile party, were no one is indispensable and each function can be performed by more then one member or replicated in an other way. But the individual growth curve of each member can be shaped in a very precise way according to your priorities. Having the Sorcerer grow quite fast until that 3M Xp imo is one of those priorities, more important than making a single down time shorter, is possible to have a high level sorc a lot more sooner than what many people think possible even in a 5 or 6 men party if enough priority is given to that.
Is perfectly possible to run a PG party without a Sorcerer, but he don't lack of power and in my experience you have to avoid to use all his power if you don't want to make the game too easy.
Too many enemies at the same time can be destroyed with Skull Traps and ADHW, for single non-trivial mobs he uses things like feeblemind are vorpal spells, when they hit you can basically forget him, destroy his helpers and then send Imoen with a normal staff to kill the dragon.
I usually run 3-5 people parties, some of them with the sorcerer and some without it. In most of the situations the fact that the sorcerer is not a good physical damage dealer is more than compensated by the speed an efficiency he has in hasting and protecting the other party members, dispelling the enemy's protections and dealing magical damage or disabling the enemy. Sure an underleveled sorc is not so useful to a party optimized for high DPR but give more attention and priority to his leveling and he will soon become the oil that make all the gears of the optimized party run so smooth, he haste the companions, he debuffs the enemies, dispell their protections and serve them to the fighters on a dish, ready to be cut in little pieces, then he deal a lot of damage with his spells (5 MM, 5 MMA, 5 Fire Arrows or Skull Traps in few seconds, do yourself the math). He does all this in a couple of rounds at the cost of a single lev7 spell, he is so fast that TS is not even needed.
I am not talking of having infinite spells or giving to the fighters infinite GWW, all 25 stats for everyone and other things like unlimited XP and money that are in his possibilities, if he wants to really use all the potential of the class, just of a normal PG use of him in a context where wearing the RoV and using the PI as is implemented in the game is not a scandal.
If we take in account the cheesy advanced use of a sorc let's say that my sorc has destroyed all the Tor-Gal level of the tactics modded game in 4-6 rounds, in less than a minute from the moment he descended those stairs he was the only one alive in that part of the dungeon. Is this a pretty pitiful damage?
There is no need, but in my experience both ways have advantages and disadvantages.
Using the multi-dual mages to your buffing and spellcasting you have one more hard physical damage dealer, but they will take time to buff themselves as they have to cast both the protections like Stoneskin and the offensive buffs like IH, time that prevents them to be fully operative in the first rounds of a battle. The hoice has a cost in physical damage you can deal. And you have to wait more before your multi or dual reach the point where fundamental spells can be used. You have also more versatility before the rest, but less after you have chosen the memorizations.
Using the sorc you loose a physical attacker, but you gain a spell caster who level fast (the difference is less against a lev9 dual, multi and lev13 dual suffer it more) and he will cast using the robe and amulet, using PI and IA, this advantage can not be replicated as there is only a robe. There is a lot of synergy in this, the sorc can pop out the PI and the clone cast the IA in a quite short time as the F/Mages protect themselves with SS-PFMW, and then you are a couple of seconds from having the enemy debuffed, your fighters hasted and protected and the sorc starting to use his damaging spells. Only a sorcerer has the in battle versatility to buff all your party, dispell the enemy protections, lower his MR and saving throws and pelt him with damaging spells for let's say 3-400 DMG in a couple of rounds, without any preparation.
( 5MM= 5*5*(1+1d4)dmg, 5 Melf' Arrows = 5*2d4 + eventual damage for some rounds, 5 Flame arrow(5*4*(1D6 piercing + 4d6 fire, the last halved if ST is successful)) Assuming that no ST is successful and without calculating the added acid damage that the MAA deals in the next rounds I get an average of 462 dmg.
All this in the first 12-18 secs of the battle without even touching the heavy bombs like ADHW or Dragon Breath.
I know that you've had this conversation at least 3 times in this thread alone, and I really appreciate your knowledge and ability to test different builds and party compositions. But I have also seen as before some conclusions of your experimentation was biased by the environment where you did test. I am talking of your opinion on how a bard can be less useful then an other high APR fighter and how you gave so much importance to the ability to deal damage against the tanking capability. Only using a different environment like LoB you are now talking about how you re evaluating Skalds and Tanks, but their power was there before just as is now. The fact that with a very high DPR output before you could destroy everything before the power of a good tank or bard would be needed does not imply that they was powerless or not useful, just that your unbalanced setting, all dedicated to physical offense, was successful in that situation so you failed in seeing their usefulness. I think that the same is happening now about the sorcerer.
Is perfectly possible to have a fantastic party without a sorcerer or a bard, on this I agree, and the playing style affects how they can be useful in a party, a party sorc has to be played in a different way from a solo one, has completely different uses and priorities (even if he can use about the same spell selection).
But a sorc can vastly contribute to the dmg dealed by the party, just his sling or darts will have a very little part in it, each IH that he cast is more APR for the party, each Planetar is one more tank and dmg dealer, and that 3-400dmg in the first couple of rounds are not a pretty pitiful damage for someone who is at the same time buffing his party and breaching the enemy.
Now I am so sold on the sorcerer xD
EDIT: I should probably qualify this. I don't mean you know the outcome of every roll or the sequences of every combat action (and I'm sure someone would have accused me of claiming so). I mean you know the limited variations of what enemies will TRY to do.
Technically they are very different things but in RL they very often go together.
Also PG is not automatically trying to obtain the maximum DPR or to win the battles in the faster way.
From Wikipedia:
"Powergaming (or power gaming) is a style of interacting with games or game-like systems, particularly video games, boardgames, and role-playing games, with the aim of maximising progress towards a specific goal, to the exclusion of other considerations such as storytelling, atmosphere and camaraderie."
The specific goal is the key, winning the battles very fast is one of the possible ones, but winning a little slower without almost taking any damage or being prepared for everything, also things that using metagame we know will not happen, can be others.
To tell "I don't care to protect me against some things that using metagame I know will not happen because I am PGaming" is as correct as saying "if instead of a stupid and predictable AI you would fight against an human player the enemy would have destroyed your PG party with that couple of spells, this is not PG but exploiting AI weakness".
Don't get me wrong, I encourage everyone to play any way they want, but if you want to make the most out of your game then knowing the conditions you're working with seems like something of an obvious requirement - in games without inherently random conditions, anyway (not talking about mere rolls here).
While jumping into the unknown can definitely be fun for its own reasons, I struggle with the idea of "powergaming" an unknown environment. The first step in the powergaming process, to me, is always learning as much as you can. It's akin to a puzzle that you want to solve; first you need to have all the pieces, then you can worry about how to solve it most efficiently.
His style is very different from the one usually associated to PG, but he has a goal and devotes his effort and choices to it.
He has the more important goal in the game, to win all the battles without a single condition that force a reload, he is the most effective one. Every reload is a lost game, does not matter if he has won easily and very fast the previous 100 battles, each single time Charname dies or the party members are decimated and not resurrectable the goal to survive to the game is not obtained. Not obtaining that goal imply that all the other goals are also failed.
As I told is a very personal opinion, but the aim of maximising progress towards a specific goal, to the exclusion of other considerations is really important in a no reload game.
To know what makes you "the best" is not univocal, the best in a very circumstanced and well known environment is not always the best in absolute.
An easy and quite extreme of that is the use of the Shield of Balduran, as it trivialize Beholder battles can be seen as the best aid of the powergamer, if the goal is to win in a fast and effective way. For an other powergamer using that shield strike against the whole idea of powergaming as for him the goal is to win challenging battles.
More on topic, powergaming is finding the most efficient solution to reach a specific goal. Generally it means killing everything as quickly as possible in which case Fighter/Mages are the indisputable kings. With certain configurations, such as Improved Anvil, the balance of power shifts but honestly there aren't many mods making changes deep enough to dethrone Fighter/Mages. In case of a no-reload killing quickly is still very important because dead things can't pose a threat to you. For a solo it means a Fighter/Mage will still be superior to a Sorcerer even in a no-reload context, but in a party a sorc can bail you out when you mess up more easily than any other class.
Ideally in a no-reload you should strive to eliminate the luck factor entirely but humans aren't exactly perfect and it doesn't hurt to have an insurance.
I need new advice regarding my party:
-Kensai9-Mage
-Mazzy Paladin but which kit??? really can't decide, they are all nice Dx
-Korgan Fighter/Thief or Fighter/Cleric (probably keepering Berserker into him) or pure Berserker
-Yoshi/Imoen Skald
-Substitute till Sarevok Kensai- or Berserker-Mage (dig fighter/mages more and more)
-Whoever strikes my fancy... class heavily depends on my choice for Korgan, maybe Archer/Cleric or Swashbuckler/Mage either multi or dual
Advice is appreciated as always
Kensai mage
Cavalier for the versatility
Berserker Cleric as they are insanely strong
Imoen
Archer/cleric as your party seems pretty melee heavy
With your suggested setup I would pick Swash/Mage for my last slot
Aside from weapons, I never think about that in advance, whatever strikes my fancy, I guess ^u^
As I still cant seem to figure out how to make a Cavalier tanky in SCS, I consider a pure Spellsword party just for the heck of it xD Maybe adding an Archer/Cleric (with bows, thanks to some mod... dunno which) for flavor...
Kensai9-Mage =Mace/Shortsword
Blade =Longsword/Scimitar
Berserker9-Mage =Halberd/Twohander
Swashbuckler9-Mage =Quarterstaff
Fighter/Illusionist =Warhammer/Flail
Archer9-Cleric =Shortbow
I somewhat doubt that this setup needs any equipment at all xD