My IWD:EE Party, Tell Me What You Think!

ElectricMonk

I have played Icewind Dale a few times, but I've never made it too far into the game, so I'm not too familiar with it and this will be my first full playthrough (I hope). I'd prefer to avoid spoilers, just looking to share my idea, for some general feedback, and possibly some suggestions on weapon profs and an answer to the XP concern listed below. So, this is what I'm thinking:

Undead Hunter
Cavalier
Bard
Fighter/Druid
Fighter/Mage
Cleric/Thief

1. Human --> Paladin --> Undead Hunter --> Lawful Good -->

Will start with two pips in two-weapon style and two pips in flail/morningstar, will add longbow and will likely add warhammer or mace at some point.

2. Human --> Paladin --> Cavalier --> Lawful Good -->

Will start with two pips in two-weapon style and two pips in long sword, with axe added later.

Alternatively, I could give him pips in two-handed weapons and haldberd/spear/etc.

3. Half-Elf --> Bard --> Neutral Good -->

Will start with a pip in spear and longbow, will add a pip in two-handed weapon style at some point. I went with no kit because all the kits took away the use of the bard songs.

Note: I've never played with a bard in any of the IE games, but I've seen it mentioned a couple of times that it's foolish to go without one in IWD, so this will be my first time having a bard in the party.

4. Half-Elf --> Fighter/Druid --> True Neutral -->

Will start with two pips in quarterstaff and sling, will add two-handed weapon style later.

5. Elf --> Fighter/Mage --> Neutral Good -->

Starting with two pips in shortbow and quarterstaff, will add two-handed weapon style later.

6. Gnome --> Cleric/Thief --> Chaotic Good -->

Starting with a pip in sling and mace, might end up getting sword and shield or two weapon style, not sure which one; focusing thief points on Find Traps, Open Locks, and Detect Illusion.


My thinking is that a Cleric/Thief will be enough thief utility for the party and that a full class cleric isn't needed as a multi cleric, multi druid, and two paladins should be more than enough divine power to go around. IWD is pretty undead-heavy I hear, but I figured the diversity of having one undead hunter and one cavalier would work out well. I don't have any pure fighters or fighter duals, so no grandmastery, but I don't want to babysit dual classes and I figure my two paladins and a fighter/druid make for a formidable front line. I'm hoping to have enough arcane between my fighter/mage and my bard. The only major change I could see being made would be going pure druid and pure mage instead of the fighter multis (or maybe just pure druid but keeping the fighter/mage as is), but I don't intend to rest-spam so I need characters that can keep on putting out damage after the spells run dry. The real concern with the fighter multis is experience: In BG I know my party is going to hit the experience cap, but I'm not as familiar with IWD and I'm wondering if three multi-class characters are going to end up requiring too much experience. I was intending to play on hard (I've heard this increases XP a bit) and would love some feedback on whether or not my party is going to be hindered (/under-leveled) by having three multi-class character.

Let me know what you think!

CutlassJack

Looks good to me so far. You may want to consider having your bard use a one handed weapon and pick up Single Weapon style at some point. You'll find as the game goes on your bard will probably be singing full time, so a little defensive bonus might be useful. You'll definately want to keep a ranged option for when they're not singing in the early game.

Alternately you could give them a buckler, but that would keep you from easilly swapping to the bow. (I miss weapon sets from IWD2)

If you changed them to one handed, it means you could consider giving spears to your druid instead, for less quarterstaff competition. But not sure about new itemization in the EE. May be reasons to disregard all of this.

Aristillius

Looks fun!
Personally I would make the mage pureclass, I think you will have enough fighter-types with your party already and the extra spells will be great after you reach a few levels. Dont worry if your mage isnt too effective in the start, as you get awesome spells he will be a very good addition to your group.
Maybe change your first character to use longbow and flail/shield and then add two-weapon fighting as you level (some bow-power is handy early).

JuliusBorisov

Go for it!

The party of 2 pallies, one bard, two half-fighters covering druidic and arcane magic + cleric/thief has all that is needed, I think.

The only thing I see here that maybe should be re-considered is that you have only one half-mage and a bard for arcane magic. There're many fine top-level arcane spells in IWDEE including the new ones and your half-mage and bard will get them later than if it was a pure caster. I think that 2 pallies and a fighter/druid are wonderful tanks and it will be enough to have three of them. You can change a fighter/mage with a mage - to try all those arcane spells

BelgarathMTH

It looks like a great party to me - you've got all six of the base classes covered so you can try everything, even if later rather than sooner with the mage. IWD is so melee intensive, I find a fighter-mage who can handle himself in a fight and shoot a longbow more useful than having the high level arcane spells sooner with a pure mage. But it's a matter of play style, I guess.