Evaluate my 1st party
Fregasega
Member Posts: 45
Well yes, another thread about party composition. For my 1st run I decided to play a full party, mainly because there are too many nice classes and don't want to leave any on the bench. After reading some threads I decided to run a low arcane magic party, with only a bard casting arcane spells. Swashy will dual to fighter when maxed traps/locks and specialize on long bows (or short ones are better in IWD?)
Do you think it's a well balanced group or is too much focused on melee? Would you change something?
Do you think it's a well balanced group or is too much focused on melee? Would you change something?
4
Comments
Ygritte : WIS 18 instead of CON 18 is pointless. Barbarian's don't need any WIS.
Missandei : Here, too, I think that Clubs are okay, but they are rare, and you depend a lot on whether one is found within the random loot. Conlan only sells a +2 one (+4 vs. spiders). For a Fighter/Druid I still favor spears ... safe to get ... two-handed and longer range and attack from second line because of poor AC for a very long time. Darts are a matter of taste ... Slings there are multiple good ones.
Hodor : Weapon skills choice is okay for a pure priest.
Obara : CON 18 on a Rogue? Two wasted points. With CHA 18 it would be a second leader. Longbows are clearly the better choice in IWDEE.
Theon : Forget dagger early on. Crossbow for bards is okay. There are good ones to get ... and there are enough longbows to find, too. If you let the bard learn the Knock spell, you can dual your Swashbuckler earlier ... it will become a better fighter.
Ygritte: Drop 2 points of wisdom and push Con up to 18. And it may just be personal taste, but I'd rather have my barbarian have two weapon fighting. She can only get ++ in any kind of weapon, so there will be plenty of proficiency points to go around. This will let her pick up different types of weapons which might otherwise go unused. Longswords are always a good choice.
Missandei: I agree with Merina. Though sword + board isn't bad for fighter druids, as they can switch to slings/darts quite easily.
Hodor: Looks good
Obara: Keep her stats as they are, and dual her to fighter once she gets 100 pick lock/detect trap. The other thief skills aren't really needed, as she can't backstab, and while traps are fun, they aren't required. Getting swashbuckler bonuses with fighter levels? That is fun.
Thoen: I like it. He gets to use the free dagger you find in easthaven. And let's be honest here, he should be singing all the time. I'd drop crossbow and give him single weapon fighting for the +1 AC. Then just let him do his bard song. Eventually give him the bard sword, or a weapon of defense, to help keep him alive. Then sing, sing, sing.
Your stats look heavily optimised but then with some mistakes. Warriors (fighters, paladins, rangers and barbarians) should have 18/91+ str, 18 dex, 18 con (including multiclasses). If you have the points available then always put intelligence to 9 on every character to be able to use scrolls.
Weapon proficiencies wise I can advise that there is almost no worthwhile two handed weapons in the game compared to dual wielding options. Always try to have a ranged weapon available. Never put points in sword and shield style. Roughly speaking the best weapon types are flail, long sword, flail (again), axe, mace. Scimitars get a mention but only on a Druid (you have an opportunity to craft one somewhere cold, don't miss out). Longbows are the best ranged weapon available but to get the best one you have to kill an innocent.
Both Paladin and Barbarian will be hit a lot. Paladin may wear heavy armor, but that doesn't help much if not using a good shield. Whenever I played a paladin in IWDEE it was with two-handed weapons (sometimes crossbow later) and attacking from behind the blocker.
Else, if you like what the Barbarian class offers ... he happy.
Just be warned that there is a trade off, using a Paladin the can also restrict your dialogue options, by forcing you to take the noble path. Their Detect Evil also plays a part in dialogue, sometimes forcing you into confrontations earlier than you would like, or even making you skip potential side-quests.
On the topic of weapons, I also agree with giving someone a flail or two, especially early on. Without giving any storyline spoilers, there are lots of enemies (Especially in chapter one) that are resistant to slashing and piercing weapons, taking reduced damage. However these enemies are often more vulnerable to crushing, taking bonus damage when using these weapons. Paladins gain spells slowly and in limited number. Also they tend to benefit more from memorizing the self buff spells that will help them on the front lines, armor of faith, call on holy might, righteous magic etc will turn your Paladin into a little juggernaut of destruction.
If you prefer Barbarian then by all means go for one, I love them too, and from an role play point of view they fit nicely into an IWD party.
Paladins make good early tanks with access to heavy armour and good tanks later as well with Armour of Faith and damage resistance items. In contrast a barbarian only becomes a decent tank late game.
Damage wise it's pretty even, DUHM and Rage are pretty comparable.
Then dual wield whichever good ones that you find as your weapon proficiency.
Starting with warhammers is a great idea to crush all of the skeletons.
That said, early game going with sword and board is often worth considering for a tank.
As for the number of pips, you may refer to http://playithardcore.com/pihwiki/index.php/Baldur's_Gate:_Progression_Charts
By level 9, you will gain 3 additional pips in addition to the 4 at 1st level.
Warhammer***
Dual wield**
Axe**
Paladin kit (any is fine except Blackguard)
Thief kit (Swashbuckler most likely)
Fighter/Cleric or Cleric kit
Druid kit or even pure. It actually works in IWD
Dragon Disciple Sorc (for the style, some needed fire immunity, fire breath and no scroll dependency)
Bard kit (Blade perhaps, for the scrolls, some RP options)
The rest are details and you can adjust. And the stats as said above.
Fighter (Dwarven Defender, tanky tank tank)
Paladin (some kit, tank and buffs)
Cleric (some kit, heals etc...)
Ranger (Archer, tons of ranged damage)
Assassin or Swashbuckler (trap spotter and damage)
Sorcerer (Dragon Disciple, damage and debuffs)
You'd go Druid and Bard over Fighter and Archer? I was under the impression this was a much more slug-fest oriented game and straightforward ranged damage dealers and tanks would be useful.
Additionally, vanilla bards and all Druids are significantly buffed making them much stronger than in BG.
Honestly I'd avoid a sorcerer as they completely circumvent an entire experience of scroll scarcity that the game developers tried to offer.
Perhaps something like:
Druid (kit, dual or multi)
Bard (vanilla)
Paladin (undead hunter or cavalier)
Cleric (Tempus kit for the dialogue)
Assassin (dual to Mage if you like)
Barbarian (or Dwarven defender)
Vanilla bards get a number of new songs that have a variety of uses and all bards get spells up to 8th level.
My bard tends to mostly stand around and sing sure but is ready to throw a disabler or damage spell if needed and has a few important buffs to share around augmented by that high relative caster level.
Yes the bard is the least active party member but with 5 others to keep track of I don't mind honestly.
Anyway, the point stands that with the spells available like Web, Chromatic Orb and Skull Trap that the bard is adequately active even if the least active, at least for me.
I think it's good to vary weapons proficiencies at first (like axe + warhammer). Unless you know the game well you never know which weapon will be the most usefull. I just bought IWDEE yesterday, and I don't remember all the weapons from the original game. But I do remember that blunt weapons are very usefull in some early dungeons.