Post your Black Pits 2 Roster
Kurumi
Member Posts: 520
Share your Black Pits 2 roster
Here's my current (2nd) party:
Mara - 100p Human Barbarian/Druid
Vanessa - 96p Human Inquisitor
Oji - 94p Human Monk
Idris - 97p Elf Stalker
Anaïs - 96p Elf Shadowdancer
Amber - 95p Human Sorceress
Here's my current (2nd) party:
Mara - 100p Human Barbarian/Druid
Vanessa - 96p Human Inquisitor
Oji - 94p Human Monk
Idris - 97p Elf Stalker
Anaïs - 96p Elf Shadowdancer
Amber - 95p Human Sorceress
5
Comments
The Inquisitor leader. Leeroys into enemy mobs with a true seeing if a mage is spotted.
Ranger / Cleric. Casts a defensive harmony, then follows after the Inquisitor to help. He usually dies though cos I havnt bought him good enough armour yet, and dont have time to cast an Iron Skin.
Kensai Mage. Starts of buffing himself (Spirit Armour, Stoneskin, Prot From Magical weps. Later these will go into a spell trigger, but he isnt high enough level yet).
The Blade. Casts a haste on the group then buffs up the same as the Kensage.
The sorcerer. Specced fully in enchantment CC and Anti Mage with only a few damage spells (Flame Arrow, MMM, Horrid Wilting, Energy Blades, oh and MM and Chrom orb of course). Opens battle with a time stop, then either strips down the enemy mage with a Spellstrike > Breach > Energy Blades spam, or casts 3 horrid wiltings if the enemy mobs are tightly packed together. Then spams CCs if needed, or goes after other casters is there are more.
Uses a Greater Malison > Hopelessness > Hopelessness sequencer, and a GM > Hold Monster > Hold Monster Spell Triger which shut mobs down fast, and casts slow to reduce the damage my melees take.
The Archer. Assists the Sorcerer in dispatching mages. Just pop a GWW after the time stop ends, and the mage is dead with no chance of rebuffing. Then uses smites to keep enemy mobs away from himself and the sorc.
Oh, and by the time the middle two are buffed, they just go pwn everything with Kai and Offensive Spin.
Also Im only using conjured +3 weapons with the Enchant Weapon spell to save Gold. The only weapons I bought were Blade of Roses for the CHA buff to lower future prices, and a Compo longbow +3 for the Archer.
I tired copying my save over to the MP directory, simply changed the character ingame, added the same EXP back, copied back to SP. And then she broke and kept vanishing after each fight.
I got up to the fallen deva fight, those are causing me even more pain than the Drow did.
I also changed the R>C to a multiclass R/C instead, because he wasnt getting to use many spells in this arena so I'd like some fighter HLAs on him too.
I found another bit of a gold saving trick to use for the Archer:
Maybe a bug more so than a trick, but I like it.
Inquisitor
Dwarf F/C
Gnome F/T
Elf Sorcerer x2
I initially started with a four-person party and the drow fight was really hard for me too (that poison wtf!) and I took too many blase picks with my sorcerer.
So I made this new party and prioritsed the Sequencers and Contingencies since you can prepare them in the bunk room. Sequencers of 3x Skull Trap allows you to breeze through all the fights up to the drow and Triggers of 2x Animate Dead + Haste made the drow fight very manageable. I sent my F/T around the other way with Arrows of Dispelling and occupied the mage and priestess and it was a very manageable fight.
Dwarven Berserker - for killing ... hmm ... everything
Half-orc Fighter/mage - support fighter, traps, thief job outside the arena
Human Avenger - used mainly for summoning, buffing, insect swarm & creeping doom
Human Skald - song, magical support, debuffing (greater malison, lower resistance). To my dissapointment his high level traps did not work :-(
Human Sorcerer - I was suprised how strong this character was in the end (I didnt play a sorcerer before). Timestop -> Improved alacricity (spelling?) -> Comets -> Chain eventuality to cast 3 horrid wiltings on the nearest enemy at once and the fight was almost over after this sequence
And also a couple of rounds before that I got this sword, its only +2 but it has charm protection, HP gain on hit, and both my blade and kensai are using longswords since its one on the weapons you can create:
So I have 3 charm immune players now, Inquisitor, Cleric with a charm proof helmet, and the Kensai since the Blade has a much higher spell save.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HII0-EncZa4&feature=youtu.be
(watch in full screen and increase the resolution if you can).
I guess it was Beamdogs intention to give the people the best of both worlds.. meaning "BG/BG2" with new NPCs for the people who like that style and the "The Black Pits" series for people who like the IWD style.. and also like to test lots of builds etc. - of course you also can play BG/BG2 with your own created chars, but then you miss lots of quests etc. if you don't mix own NPCs with the ones included.. in the end I've to agree, that I'd also (always) would like some kind of choice like it will be done in Project Eternity.. a mix of own created chars and some deep personality-rich NPCs.
Here, read through this:
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/25021/black-pits-ii-run-during-soa-a-la-watcher-s-keep
It's a pain in the ass, but it's doable
@Mungri
Any chance you could upload the high-res pic of that sorceress of yours?
1. Is archer any good in BP2?
2. Is it possible to reach the levels that allow you to get HLA? If yes, how soon?
Im going to play with 6 people party.
Not done yet. Don't spoiley.
1. Yes.
2. Yes, that's the point. You should gain HLAs after finishing the first tier. Ergo, you have HLAs through most of TBP2.
Sir Laughalot (male Inquisitor)
Sillyvan (female Skald)
Allinside (female Fighter/Mage)
Rottenguard (male Berkserker->Cleric)
Crossedatme (male Archer)
Walkcastrun (male Conjurer)
All in all, I have 10,25 party members. Plus an extreme amount of summons.
-3,25 Fighters
-3 Arcane Casters
-2 Clerics
-1 Thief
-1 Druid
So the setup:
1: Jagrak the Stallwart, Dwarven Defender (Dwarf...)
One of the Fighters, the main tank.
2: Teresea Bladebind, KenSage (Human with pointy ears)
One of the Fighters plus a High Power Mage.
3: Lotharial Silverspeed, Wizardslayer/Thief Dual (Human)
Third fighter (she's using longbows and single katanas), the thief. I think I need not to state "Use Any Item".
4: Uturna Bearheart, Beastmaster / Cleric (Human)
She's the last quarter of a fighter, but really the druid and the first (High power) Cleric, and also the main summoner.
5: El'Arion Baelothsbane, Dragon Disciple (Elf)
He's the parties "Face" the protagonist and the most powerful Arcane Caster.
6: Tiddleworth Tumbletongue, Cleric / Illusionist (Gnome)
This little chap is the ultimate utility support, with quite a few, albeit not so powerful spells.
Then I started messing around. I tried one party with a pure Elf Assassin and a Skald. At first I didn't think a pure thief could amount to anything - but after a 200 point backstab I changed my mind. Improved haste and the Guantlets of Mastery (the ones that give you bonus attacks) make the Assassin a decent melee character). The Assassin nearly always had a St of 23 because of Alchemical potions - which is big deal in BP2 because it gives you free potions (I took Alchemy twice).
I was disappointed that the Skald's class ability was made totally obsolete by the bard HLA bardsong (which replaces the Skald's bardsong). However, that HLA bard song really made a noticeable difference.
Ran an archer both times. Spent tons of money on arrows but it was worth it. The actual damage inflicted was less important than the effect of HLA's and the archer's called shot power. Numerous times I sent enemies flying away after hitting them with an arrow. An archer can really keep the weaker characters safe that way.
My main character only started to level up once I attained enough XP points to upgrade his traps to the Maze ones, and able to obtain high level abilites such as Spike Traps. The rest of the others continue to stay up till level 15 for the entire duration of the BP2 game as I purposely retained their long range trap damage abilities. It may sound cheesy to have this kind of party. And contrary to what others might say about this technique, I'd say that you could still lose a fight even with a cheesy trap strategy to your dirty advantage. You still need to have good strategy to be able to take out high level opponents such as Leah RedSun and her Bone Golems, the DemiLiches etc. Even the Elemental Wizard with his minions and his summons can be tough as well, but with some cunning maneuvers you can overcome him easily.
Here are some tips that will tip the scales of combat to your advantage, sometimes even before you start to fight at all! (If you are attempting to use traps strategy, that is):
(1) Before a current battle ends (preferably with one enemy left around), have your trap setters lay at least six traps at the point where you know the next enemy will appear in the next fight on the same grounds that you have fought before. In that way, when you revisit that same battleground again with a new bunch of enemies, they'll either be all critically injured, or lying all dead before the battle even begins.
Cheesy? Yes. Effective? Guaranteed! To me, its all about the results. I don't care about a fair fight at all. Untriggered traps that are laid will remain where they are even if combat for the current round ends. So use that to your advantage.
(2) If you are playing a main character, or have others as a bounty hunter with combination of other thief classes(except shadowdancers), or IF your party are all are bounty hunters, when you have one of them level up enough to obtain Maze traps and high level ability traps such as Spike Traps, you can throw Maze traps to make enemies disappear and recharge your depleted traps in the midst of combat by resting ( the only exception is the Bhaal cultist battle, where the ravager cannot be Mazed and maybe one or two other battles).
Yes, you can rest even amidst raging chaos with this method. The only downside is, when the enemies reappeared back into the battlefield after you have rested, their hit points will be restored back as normal as before a fight occurs.
Betty: Chaotic Neutral Halfling Thief
Dee: Chaotic Neutral Human Cleric
Violet: Chaotic Neutral Dwarf Fighter
Braga: Chaotic Neutral Half-Orc Barbarian
Half-Orc: Berserker
Human: Berserker / Cleric
Half-Elf: Skald
2 Elf Sorcerers
Blackguard is your front line tank that rips apart the THAC0, DMG, and AC of opponents.
Pure Berserker is your primary melee DPS w/ 2H Sword, buff him with improved haste and let him loose.
Berserker / Cleric is your only cleric support that is quite decent at fighting as well.
Skald buffs ally THAC0, DMG, and AC. The HLA improved song is amazing. Also additional mage support.
2 Elf Sorcerers mainly used for summoning, charming, and destroying mage defenses.
I'm not done yet, no spoilers please, but it's going fairly well so far. I think an Inquisitor may better a better choice than the Blackguard, but with the Skald song + Blackguard ability you get an 8 THAC0, DMG, and AC difference between your allies and opponents.
I imagine once my sorcerers both get a few more HLAs and level 9 spells I won't have much trouble in fights. So far I really like BPII though, really challenging and fun.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/34880/barbie-vs-zerker-now-with-dwarven-defenders/p2
Two things were really clear - first, barbarians are brilliant, zerkers are extremely good, defenders are pretty good; and second, I'd swap any three of them for a sorceror
Kilgor dwarven fighter/thief
Bragor dwarven barbarian
Trigor dwarven priest of lathander
Mellom elven ranger (racial enemy:demon fell)
Trinity elven fighter/mage
Selen human pally (undead hunter)
I really enjoyed this run,only 2 survived the last battle but it was fun.
EDIT:
Thinking of the following team
Human Inquisitor for mage dispelling and true seeing
Human Dragon Disciple for blasting and timestopping
Dwarf Fighter/Cleric for a brawler with clerical magic
Dwarf Berserker for a killing machine
Human Kensai 14 -> Mage for hopefully another killing machine.
Human Shadow Dancer 14 -> Fighter for backstabbing many times in one fight.
I would have to dual at 14, not 13, due to the way experience progression works in BP2.
Assassin is a possibility - higher backstab and poison weapon. But I would have to dual the assassin later to get any benefit out of it.
Is backstab useful in BP2?
EDIT 2:
I've come up with a theme for the party names and finalized (I think) the party classes. I might post a thread detailing my exploits, since this will be my first time through Black Pits (of any kind).
So, the party will be:
Human Inquisitor
Elf Sorcerer (decided against Dragon Disciple)
Human Berserker 14-> Cleric
Human Shadow Dancer 14-> Fighter
Human Assassin 12 -> Mage
Human Kensai 14 -> Mage
Yes, a lot of dual classes. I'm hoping I can pull it off. If I can pass the first few battles, they will all regain their inactive class abilities. The Assassin 12 -> Mage will regain his after the first battle.