Doing a Ranger/Cleric 4-man challenge. Need a second frontliner.

GamingFreak

As stated I'm doing a challenge involving a 4 person limitation through all of SoA. This is basically to cheese as much XP as possible throughout the game to the point where I'll be even more awesome in ToB, while still having fun.

So far my planned members are:

myself, A Ranger/Cleric of epicly exploited cheese
Aerie, a Cleric/Mage with tons of spells/utility and planned romance on this character
Jan Jansen, the Thief/Illusionist because I need a thief and a specialist mage that can get more spells per level.

So that covers pretty much all the magic and a nice hefty frontliner to boot, but I need one more to hold me over. I'm taking suggestions, though it really doesn't matter

Scuffles

I might say Keldorn? You're not super-equipped with arcane magic so he can pull double-duty with dispels and illusion-busting as well as being suitable for whacking things with swords.

But what would I know, he only spent about ten minutes in my party so far!

abacus

Good (mostly) party, can't go wrong with Keldorn... Epic dispels (your split classes will hurt you on that front due to slower leveling)... True sight... Dex Gauntlets... Carsomyr... Profit.
Korgan & Dorn don't really fit, although Korgan is a prodigious tank. Anomen tanks well at high levels, but you already have two divine casters. Edit: There's also Minsc, but Keldorn has always seemed a better tank to me (good saves & some immunities)

Dzuk5

if don't mind to latel cheat get dorn equpit him with helmet of change aligment and give him crasomir he isbeter then keldorn but the best tank is korgan.
i sugest allsow new aproch valegar as backstaber with cromfier in left hend i lovs this guy;)
or Haerdalis as full mage team as liatel pepper to your romace with aerie;)

FinneousPJ

I wouldn't use two multiclass mages, but that's your call. Anyway I'd recommend Keldorn as well, he's just so good. If you don't mind evil then Korgan and Dorn are great too.

karnor00

Korgan will fight Aerie so isn't really a viable option. Keldorn is a mage killing powerhouse so I'd definitely go for him.

mylegbig

FinneousPJ said:

I wouldn't use two multiclass mages, but that's your call. Anyway I'd recommend Keldorn as well, he's just so good. If you don't mind evil then Korgan and Dorn are great too.

Yea, it's going to take forever to get high level mage spells. Unless you're dead set on having a high level thief, I would go with Imoen.

Anyways, I agree with everyone about Keldorn.

elminster

I'd go with Mazzy because she is a capable fighter.

Serpion

Keldron. dispel magic and true sight... it's cheat kit at fact!

GamingFreak

FinneousPJ said:

I wouldn't use two multiclass mages, but that's your call. Anyway I'd recommend Keldorn as well, he's just so good. If you don't mind evil then Korgan and Dorn are great too.

In a smaller party it wouldn't make a big deal, honestly. Generally speaking I reach around 2.6 million XP by the end of SoA; which for Aerie is fairly close to level 8 spells. And that's all in a full party. Cutting out 2 members mean's a 1/3 more XP gains for the whole party. And honestly, what am I missing out on? Bunch of level 9 spells? Meh, I'm only going to do the 4-man party for SoA. Doing smaller parties in ToB is way riskier unless you know what you're doing.

Liking the ideas so far though; my guess will be Mazzy or Keldorn, but Mazzy sounds more well fit in the requirements. I thought about Haer'Dalis but that would mean that 3 of my party members can't even wear armor without losing their casting ability (Elven/Bladesinger chain and Jan's default armors excluded). And as for Keldorn, well my Ranger/Cleric can get true sight and as long as I get that and breach on either Jan or Aerie I'm pretty good in terms of taking down mages.

kryptix

Armor is overrated anyway, bracers of AC 3 and robe of Vecna will work for two of them and your ranger cleric is all the tank you really need until aerie becomes your tank.

This play through I'm going with just fighter illusionist and skeleton warriors to tank and it's working fine, unless you consider hexxat in shadow dragon mail a tank... Celestial fury backstabs win!

Keldorn is pretty boss though, I used to always get carosmyr early via cheese and have him plow through SOA...

[Deleted User]

Keldorn is probably the best option, but I'm going to toss an unconventional suggestion out there:

Rasaad

With a four person party, he should pretty rapidly progress from middle-weight to heavy-hitter. It won't take long for his AC and fist damage to ramp up, and built-in magic resistance is nothing to sneeze at. Not to mention that bringing him along gives you some extra content to play through.