Party doesnt feel right any advice?

baldrat60

Im looking for some advice my party is level 9 and im just starting heart of winter. Something isnt clicking for a few of the members os im looking for some advice on swapping them out. Ill basically be using eekeeper to reset them then give them the xp to match the rest.

Currently i have
Elf Sorcerer Dragon Disciple ( Really like very good spell Caster)

Half Orc Fighter Cleric ( Good tank and has cleric spells)

Archer (possibly my favourite very good)

Bard (using as a ranged along with the archer)

Not sure if i would have been better with class or plain bard?



The last two are the problem

I have a fighter rhief for locks but shes not much cop in a fight and i just dont use her much.

A barbarian again hes not as much of a tank as cleric fighter and sems to go down fairly quickly.

Any advice on what to replace them with?

CaptRory

The fighter/thief is probably just not being used well yet. Use "Thief Weapons" and they can backstab which is how they make a notable contribution to a fight.

If the barbarian is coming up shy you might try a Dwarven Defender though a Druid/Fighter or Mage/Fighter would give you buffs, especially the druid with Ironskin. The mage/fighter loses out slightly because of the lack of spell scrolls in IWD, ALTHOUGH with only a bard in the party the Fighter/Mage is actually a really good choice because one bard isn't going to use up enough of them to really impact their availability.

baldrat60

How about Paladins or other ranged fighter?

Belanos

You don't mention what race your Fighter/Thief and Barbarian are, that could part of the problem.

You need to have some sort of Thief in your party because of all the traps and locks. So if it's not doing as well in combat, you should maybe accept the fact that it is other uses instead. Not every character can be a big hitter.

Sigleaf

I'm not a big fan of archer because a fighter/thief will handle that same role, albeit not as well, while still providing your thieving abilities and giving you another character slot for something else. Just my opinion if you're going to use multiclasses.

OurQuestIsVain

I have the same party set-up as you do except for the barbarian, I have a Cavalier (which is a really great front liner). I like my halfling fighter/thief but I think it might have been better to go with an elven swashbuckler. That way he would level quicker and get those nice AC and Hit/Dmg bonuses. Then, later in the game, I would have him dual wield long swords. Until that point I would use either long or short bows for the racial THAC0 bonuses (probably short bow since my archer uses long bows).

I made my dragon disciple a half-elf since she would eventually be able to gain enough constitution to have passive HP regeneration. I think I would have been better off with a regular sorcerer though. The class abilities of dragon disciples are nice, but they aren't very useful if you play her as a caster since she will be sitting in the back of the party most of the time. Plus my bard would eventually be able to sing the Sith song and grant the whole party HP regeneration.

I think you would be better off replacing your barbarian with a cavalier. Her resistances are great to have especially if you use her as your front liner. You could possibly use a half-orc berserker that dual wields to deal out massive damage very quickly and continue using your fighter/cleric as meat shield.

deltago

Change the fighter/thief to a cleric/thief and use it as a heal bot and buffer.

A two cleric set up allows one to focus on offensive spells and debuffs like curse, the other on healing and buffs.

If you are EE keeping your team, I'd suggest a dualled thief kit/cleric maxing pick locks and find traps. Probably bounty hunter and use his traps in kiting clusters of critters for quick takedown.

A dwarven defender with a high con can replace your barbarian as a meat shield. He has the potential to have a higher AC and withhis stancee can take a beating.

SharGuidesMyHand

baldrat60 said:

A barbarian again hes not as much of a tank as cleric fighter and sems to go down fairly quickly.

Contrary to popular belief, barbarians aren't really meant to be pure tanks due to their armor restrictions. I happen to love playing as a barbarian, and they have the potential to be very effective, but I'll be the first to admit that they require a bit more strategy and finesse than a typical warrior class - see my thread here for some tips on playing a barbarian: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/35841/playing-a-barbarian-part-2-advice-for-using-a-barb

I think your problem could be that your party requires another tank/meatshield in addition to the fighter/cleric (barbarians are more effective as flankers and sharpshooters). In that case, you may want to consider a berserker - they have a similar rage ability as the barbarian, and (unlike a barbarian) they can wear heavy armor and get grand mastery in weapons.

If you find that you're not making much use of the fighter/thief other than thieving, you may want to consider a mage/thief or a cleric/thief, so that you can also get a backup spellcaster.

baldrat60

My thief is a halfling my fighter a dwarf.Im thinking of cavalier or beserker for one still unsure on the thief. What would be a good ranged build?

Ligg

You do need at least 2 healers in this game or you'll forever been resting. This is much tougher than BG1 largely because of the scarcity of over-powered equipment. My choices would be:

Trade the barbarian for a fighter/druid, (druid spells are great in this game) or
Trade the fighter/thief for a cleric/thief, as mentioned above. (NB: the thieving skill button is pushed to the special abilities set. Use hotkeys to jump around this. It's a pain with the mouse).

Or swap the fighter/thief for a fighter/mage/thief. There is plenty XP in the game to warrant this. You will 'eventually' pick up enough scrolls for 2 mage books - but it takes a while. You will max out locks and traps quickly. You could always do with another ranged fighter.

Belanos

baldrat60 said:

My thief is a halfling

That's part of your problem, Halflings aren't really that good in combat. I'd suggest you use a Dwarf instead. They get good Strength and Constitution plus get better bonuses for finding traps and opening locks. You'd be able to have it in your second party tier, so it would be better at detecting traps. Halflings are only good in the back row firing away with a Sling, which really doesn't do much damage. A Dwarven Fighter/Thief more towards the front would be a fairly good hitter with a melee weapon. Right now you have too many back row characters, you need more up front.

Fardragon

Agree. One of the main reasons for choosing a ftr/thief over a single class thief kit is to get % strength, and therefore be melee-compent. halflings can't get that and so is only useful at range unless they can boost strength (e.g. Multiclass cleric). You should go with a dwarf ftr/thief if you want to melee. Use 3rd edition sneek attack and duel wield.

SharGuidesMyHand

You could also use a half-orc for a fighter/thief, and get both 19 str and con.

Fardragon

You could go single class assassin with a half orc though.

cbarchuk

Would the 19 CON that a half-orc gets benefit the assassin class? I thought fighter based classes were the only ones that benefited from a CON above 16. Not sure though. Yea a half orc would be a pretty beastly fighter/thief or assassin especially if you want to focus on sneak attacks.

CaptRory

I don't think they'd gain bonus HP, there are some potions that trade X for Y so a higher con might help there.

Belanos

SharGuidesMyHand said:

You could also use a half-orc for a fighter/thief, and get both 19 str and con.

Except that Dwarves get a higher innate bonus for finding traps and opening locks. While that's offset somewhat because Half-Orcs can get a better Dexterity score, I think the Dwarf would still be a better as a thief. They also get 19 Con, and if you roll it right, the difference in Strength is not going to be all that much.

Klorox

It doesn't matter which race makes a better thief.

I played a FMT as my only thief and he was good enough to handle every lock and trap in the game.

Fardragon

19 con is okay on a fighter/thief, but since you onlly get bonus hp on fighter levels, doesn't make a huge difference like high strength does.

The main reason for going dwarf over half orc is the shorty saves, although being able to max out locks and traps at level 5 rather than 7 is nice. The main reason for choosing half orc is you can get high strength without needing to be a fighter multiclass.

I would say this: there is no reason your trap-remover shouldn't contribute a significant amount to party damage. But to do so they must either have str 18/01 or more (spells count), or be good with ranged weapons.

I notice the OP describes their bard as "ranged". Bards really shouldn't be using any weapons in IWDEE, they are too useful singing.

cbarchuk

Klorox said:

It doesn't matter which race makes a better thief.

I played a FMT as my only thief and he was good enough to handle every lock and trap in the game.

Well if you're only using a thief for locks and to disarm traps then you are probably right. But if you want use everything the thief class brings to the table then I would argue it does matter.