Opinions on my party plan for a "Legacy of Bhaal"-no reload-playthrough (first), all Games, please!

justfeelinathome

Ho there!

While the way I usually play can probably be called "casual" without offending me too much, I'd still love to try this, and, as I am in truth Nüber, who happened to create a forum account, after finding a magical Laptop, I'd love to get some advice before rolling up my characters. I've been reading up lately on these insightful pages and think I can make it!

Out of frustration I'll probably switch to minimal-reload at some point, but my will is strong. With the advent of the next patch I'll start the run and just began rolling up a, hopefully, strong party. While I know not all classes on this list are "OP", I hope they are all viable at least and would love to have your opinions/ blessings for my team.

I tried to take a power gaming approach, since, again, this will be my first try at this.



Sooo... here's what I've got:
Dwarven Defender Bhaalspawn. "The Muscle" Survivability for the one who shall not die. Come the end of SoA, he'll probably take some evil routes in hell, to make him even tankier.

Elven Archer. "The Eyes" Death from afar. Shortbows > Longbows because come Gesen, I'll be practically able to hit anything. Two points in Sling after that, to hit even those who require +5.

Half-Elven Blade. "The Mouth" Face-Character and general flexibility as a Pseudo-Fighter and -Mage. Probably the hardest in terms of stat-avocation, but has gotten some cool gear options in SoD that will port over.

Gnomish Cleric/Illusionist. "The Brain" While giving up Wilting and Skulltrap hurts, I've always been a sucker for this classes gazillion of spells. He will hopefully make magic happen, if the next patch fixes Contingencies and Sequencers on Mage/Cleric-Multis.

Half-Orc Shaman. "The Soul" Liked M'Khiin in my recent play through and think that the flexibility of a Shamans spell casting lends itself well to some of the more situational Druid spells, that are great sometimes and a burden at others. He'll be my secondary reviver/healer. Also Half-Orc strength is always nice, even just for muling and I liked the HLAs (I checked) way better than clerics.

Halfling Assassin. "The Toes" Now here I'm not entirely certain. While I have enough 18+ Strength in this party to be able to spare an item for buffing him/her, I just wonder if I'll have enough casts/potions of invisibility early on, when I have to allocate points mainly to open locks/disarm traps. Detect Illusion will eventually be covered by the Shaman, so that saves some of them. Probably more of a meh-ranged character early on, hurling darts and distributing poison.



So that's all six of them: Do you think this party can make it? The rolls will be high, but there is still some time to change up any oversights I've made in my general plan.

fujisan

I've only played LOB mode recently on SoD and found the enemies to be extremely tough because of high HP. It started off being ironman but became minimal reload like you mention.

I tried my best but in the end I found cheese tactics were the only real way so would suggest replacing the assassin and blade with bounty hunter and sorcerer. I briefly tried the shaman and decided a cleric was better.

justfeelinathome

Thank you for your feedback, @fujisan ! Yeah, I already felt those were weak spots myself, but was hesitating, in case of the Blade because of the cool Belt, Hat and Instrument (rather gimmicky, I know) that carried over. Maybe I'll go for a swashbuckler, in stead, since I still care for the belt at least.

In which ways do you feel a cleric is better? I never liked them to much and with the Shamans added spells it seemed to me he'd be reasonable substitute for a non-multi one and gets cooler HLAs (I think cleric has the worst, there), and your spirits can tank in stead of you, if you know beforehand a battle will happen... So you loose out on armor and turn undead. Is the later that important, does it still work reliably on LoB?

Bounty Hunter would also be a very reasonable swap, since I thought of that as my secondary choice already. Have to see if I go Swashy, though before, to decide if Bounty is happening.

fujisan

I'm not a big fan of druids and tried out the new shaman but was unable to get her to do anything substantial. The spirits seemed like a good distraction but very weak...this might be different at high levels though.

For power maybe a fighter dueled to cleric or cleric/mage would be best in long run. Turn undead could be extremely important because the last thing you want is them getting close on this difficulty. Sunray wold also be helpful I would imagine.

Victor_Creed_SFV

Fyi Assassin sucks now, that poison only has one application which can be saved against.
In SoD LoB the weakest enemy types constantly save.
Blade is not that hard to roll, since it seems to get better rolls, at least I roll 90+ constantly, often you can get 92 in less than 2 minutes.
Dwarven Defender is not that good in LoB, not saying it's bad but a Berzerker Mage surpasses him by far in SoD (dualed at 7).
There's constant level drain and some super low level enemies have a Thac0 on Sarevok scale.

justfeelinathome

I know about the Assassin poison nerf and saw that my Blade came along pretty quickly, that's why dropping it would ail me. But Swashbuckler is appealing right now (since it covers part of what both classes would have) - maybe with a Dual to Fighter in Mind. It's just that the timing sucks, when Dualing from Thief to Fighter...

For the DD I have a plan in mind: after war hammers or axes I'll pick up flails, to uses the Defender of Easthaven and stack with the Helmet of Dumathoin, the Class Resistances and Defensive Stance/Hardiness to 93% in physical Resistances except for missile (73%). Plus I'll have a metric shipton of HP at eventually 25 Constitution (+2 from the Helm) and very good saves that get even lower with the stance. Looks good on paper, at least.

I've heard many people praise the Berserker Class for it's immunities in Rage an must agree that the list looks nice indeed. It just never felt like it brought much to the table, asides from that, and thus felt rather... bland to me (like Vanilla Fighter). But a Dual I can see being more flavorful (albeit thematically unfitting).

So my updated list would be:
1. Dwarven Defender
2. Archer
3. Shaman
4. Cleric/Illusionist
5. Swashbuckler (maybe Dual?)
6. ???

Victor_Creed_SFV

Well I was talking about SoD in BG2 it's different.
In SoD you have neither Easthaven nor Hardiness.

justfeelinathome

Since I plan to do all three games and I expect the biggest challenges in BG II, that's my primary consideration. But just for Siege, I agree.

Tenrecc

I really dont see such a weak party managing the trilogy at all, tbh. But maybe that's just me. I'd be interested in knowing how you are doing, if you have gotten started yet.

Incantatar

Do a minimal reload core difficulty first. Then try no reload core. Then again for SCS. That's my advice.

justfeelinathome

I already did minimal reload on core and hard and also a minimal reload on HoF in IWD: EE, which was quite successful (in large parts due to a Dwarven Defender, which, admittedly, had more tools to work with there than in IWD).

I'm not a big fan of modding, though that's just me and should not lead into a discussion about what I'm missing out on (I know that already).

This run is, however, put on a momentary hold due to me getting my hands on DS 3 soon™. That should be a fine challenge for now. I'll start a new thread as soon as I arrive in candle keep to claim the legacy.