Not sure I can face creating a full party from scratch - suggestions?

Oxford_Guy

Hi - I've been away from these forums for a long time due to a change in job and house move, but was a very active BG player. I'd like to start playing again, but am not sure I can face going through BG from the start again and no longer have my save files from previous games, so am thinking of starting an IWD game.

The biggest problem for me, though, is that it takes me a long time to work out the character build I want, and this will be multiplied by a factor of times 4-6 in IWD, as it doesn't have join-able NPCs like BG.

Any suggestions for how to get around this? Are there any good mods that add in some join-able NPCs?

I will likely be playing a bard of some sort, as usual :-)

SionIV

I have found out that it's easier to create a party than it is to create a character when it comes to IWD. Instead of focusing on one character at at time, i sit down and think about a party in itself. When i created my last party i based it on a holy group of Lathander, that specialized on hunting down undead.

2 priests of lathander
1 undead hunter
1 rogue/fighter (scout)

Which made it much easier and more interesting for me.

So do you see yourself making a good aligned party? Neutral? Evil? Do you want to go after a certain theme?

Try to look at it from a party perspective instead of focusing on one character at a time, that helps me when i make my groups in IWD.

Oxford_Guy

Alignment-wise chaotic neutral/chaotic good, not evil, but not particularly law-abiding.

I love rogues (all types), not so keen on clerics, so usually only have one

BTW are the any good bard-specific items in IWD? There weren't many in BGEE1

Also are scimitars still an okay choice?

Oxford_Guy

Might also consider this: http://www.pocketplane.net/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=174&Itemid=122

SionIV

There are a few good bard specific items in the game, but the bard in IWD doesn't need items to be good, he is very powerful in his own right. There are many bard only quests/quest solutions in the game and their song become ridiculously good.

A bard would be a good start, you'll probably want a F/T as your thief. Druids are awesome in IWD and so are clerics, you'll face many undead in the game, there are also two new cleric kits introduced in IWD that you could try out.

reivision

Bards are awesome for IWD. There are unique songs available for unkitted Bards in IWD that do not appear in the BG series, including a particularly powerful one later on that boosts party AC and provides a hefty rate of endless regeneration. There are also unique dialogue options for bards and a number of bard specific items.

For general party composition, I always make sure I have a Thief of some kind for traps and a divine caster of some sort for healing. The second is kind of a convenience rather than a necessity, but I'd say having a Thief is necessary unless you want to trigger all the traps in the game.

IWD features large groups of enemies with fewer casters than the BG series, so fighter types end up being more effective with their high AC, THAC0, and attacks per round.

Druids are also great in IWD, as they have a bunch of new spells they don't have in the BG series.

There are also two new Cleric kits to check out.

Scrolls are also slow to come by so heavy arcane parties probably aren't a great idea. I usually go for a Bard + 1 Mage multi or dual.

Building parties around alignments and themes is fun and gives you some creative impetus. Don't be afraid to roll up multiple parties either. As someone who enjoys exploring builds and synergies, this is one of the aspects of IWD that is most enjoyable.

Looks like SionIV beat me to the punch.

Scimitars should be fine, as there are a number of decent Scimitars including one that

adds an extra attack per round

. I would make sure there are party members that can use Flails/Morningstars and Longswords as there are a lot of good ones and some of the best weapons in the game are in those categories. Longbows are pretty nice too.

Oxford_Guy

Any reasonable crossbows?

My main character will likely be a blade, but I might take an unkitted bard too

SionIV

Oxford_Guy said:

Any reasonable crossbows?

My main character will likely be a blade, but I might take an unkitted bard too

There are some really good crossbows in the game, including one you can buy for a hefty price in the second town you visit (you'll get there an hour into the game). It's a +3 damage +5 Thac0 one that has a pretty name to boot!

While i normally advice people to pick the blade kit in BG, I'll have to say go with the pure class bard here. You'll be focusing on singing quite a bit, spells slinging (you can get to level 8 spells on bard in IWD) and doing all kinds of stuff as a bard. It's a bit counter productive to pick a blade as you'll want to spend most of your time up front, which really isn't what the bard is meant to do in IWD.

reivision

I actually haven't finished the game yet, but I hear crossbows are a decent choice too.

Some of the loot in the game is randomized, while other loot is fixed. This may be different from the BG series IIRC. So you will not get the same items every time you play. I think the good midgame crossbows are random loot, but a good midgame longbow is certain to drop. I am not sure about the endgame options for both as I haven't gotten there yet.

Oxford_Guy

Hmmm... can't seem to get the IWD joinable NPCs mod to work I get: FATAL ERROR: Failure("Not a game directory") even when running the installer in my IWD Beamdog game directory.
Shame, as it's meant to be compatible with IWDEE :-(

Oxford_Guy

SionIV said:

Oxford_Guy said:

While i normally advice people to pick the blade kit in BG, I'll have to say go with the pure class bard here. You'll be focusing on singing quite a bit, spells slinging (you can get to level 8 spells on bard in IWD) and doing all kinds of stuff as a bard. It's a bit counter productive to pick a blade as you'll want to spend most of your time up front, which really isn't what the bard is meant to do in IWD.

But I could take a Blade *and* a pure class bard, right? I like bards...

SionIV

Oxford_Guy said:

SionIV said:

Oxford_Guy said:

While i normally advice people to pick the blade kit in BG, I'll have to say go with the pure class bard here. You'll be focusing on singing quite a bit, spells slinging (you can get to level 8 spells on bard in IWD) and doing all kinds of stuff as a bard. It's a bit counter productive to pick a blade as you'll want to spend most of your time up front, which really isn't what the bard is meant to do in IWD.

But I could take a Blade *and* a pure class bard, right? I like bards...

Twice the amount of awesomeness? Why not

Oxford_Guy

Oxford_Guy said:

Hmmm... can't seem to get the IWD joinable NPCs mod to work I get: FATAL ERROR: Failure("Not a game directory") even when running the installer in my IWD Beamdog game directory.
Shame, as it's meant to be compatible with IWDEE :-(

Aha! Got it working, was a permissions problem, worked when I re-installed the game into c:\Games