3 Man Party

gokengt

Recently started a Multiplayer game with some friends and we decided to not use NPC's after we had already created our characters. I am now wondering if our party will struggle through the game. We have the following -
1 - Archer
2 - Kensai
3 - Assassin
I am playing as the Archer and I am feeling like I should maybe play as a Fighter/Mage or Mage just to balance out the party. I love Archers and have beaten BG as one, but with only 3 people, won't we "need" some arcane support?

What do you guys think?

Grond0

I've played 2 person no-reload MP games for years, using pretty much every possible combination of character classes. If you know the game well then any combination can be successful. If you don't know it well, then not having a thief can be a pain - but you've got one of those. The group above can absolutely be successful, but you may find it hard going. The lack of a character to act as a tank means you'll need to do a lot of running round to win some battles and MP lag means that's more of an issue than in SP.

If you really want to change classes, but still stick with the general philosophy of your original choices, then why don't you switch to ranger? That will still allow you to sneak around if necessary and still act as a very good archer most of the time - but also gives the option of putting on plate armor.

OrlonKronsteen

Hmmm... Kensai is really tough without a tank to follow into melee, though there's an AC-boosting item in the game, IIRC. You might find yourself missing a cleric more than a mage, and the lack of thief points on the assassin may make certain areas uniquely challenging. Personally I like to have a mage, too, but you can certainly survive without one, especially with the damage your archer is going to be doing.

Papa_Lou

If I were you, I'd definitely consider switching over to a fighter/mage, as you said. That way, you could potentially cover the tank and arcane issues with one character, if you know what you're doing.

Of course, you don't necessarily need a mage, but the extra magic power will certainly come in handy.

As others have said, though, you can complete the game with any mixture of classes, but this one in particular may be a fair bit more difficult compared to some others.

gokengt

Thanks guys, I actually WAS going to make a Cleric, but I'm too vain and love bows too much. I know, I know, stupid reason! I suppose I will just stick with an Archer and find out the hard way on what we are lacking, but I really appreciate the feedback.

OrlonKronsteen

It should be a fun challenge!

GreenWarlock

I don't think any role is critical in BGEE, it is BG2EE that is more challenging. That said, I always appreciate a good thief focused on traps and opening things.

The main problem I foresee for this party would be werewolf island, but it should still fare better than my party of clerics . You might want to stock up on fancy arrows for the archer though, especially as no-one can use wands.

Skatan

My personal opinion is that when playing small parties, it's always great to have someone who can use wands and someone who can do traps/locks. The assassin's lack of points make them quite weak in actual thievery since they have to invest quite a lot in sneak to do any decent backstabbing.

Great that you will try anyways, I respect that, but I'd prolly advice going one (or more) levels in mage and dual to fighter if human. That would still make you a great archer and be able to use wands. With the ring of wizardry you could identify most things and cast a decent amount of low level spells and if going slightly higher you could add Knock to the repertoire before dualing to fighter. But this is very different from your chosen approach so I dunno, just do what you feel is best

bob_veng

@gokengt
you're going to do fine. but you will have to coordinate a lot. first you will have to rely on ranged weapons and your archer will have to tank!
and the kensai will have to use ranged weapons most of the time (it doesn't matter because he's devastating at ranged). so that's going to be a bit paradoxical.

...but you will still be able to snipe with the archer (and the kensai) as the enemies are approaching (you should hold ground and not waste actions on anything other than shooting). when they come in melee range, the assassin can strike the strongest enemy from hiding and pull back and the archer will have to distract enemies in melee so that they don't go after the assassin and the squishy kensai (that will now both be attacking from behind) too much. the squishy duo should attack approaching enemies going past the archer, and when these enemies come into melee contact with the back row, the kensai will only then switch to melee and clear the room of remaining threats. you're going to absolutely decimate all melee threats this way (primarily ranged groups will obviously not be a problem), but you will have to rely on the assassin to deal with the mages.

don't change your party layout, it will be pretty fun

Zagacious

I would recommend adding a mage somewhere, possibly replacing Kensai with Gnome Fighter/Illusionist or just a plain Fighter/Mage. Archer is pretty OP in BG, so you could also replace that with a mage with darts or throwing daggers, up to you really, a mage isn't necessary but I also feel lacking without one.