Revisiting IWD:EE HoF

Carnifex

Hi,

After a couple of years away from the game I've recently decided to give it a go once again. However, I'm having trouble deciding between the party compositions below. Perhaps you could provide some input regarding which setup would be optimal for a HoF play-thru (from level 1, that is).

6.0)

human berserker7/cleric (flail, warhammer)
human berserker9/druid (scimitar, club)
human berserker9/mage (axe, bastard sword)
human swasher10/fighter (longsword, longbow)
elf sorcerer
half-elf skald

6.1)

dwarf dwarven defender (axe, warhammer)
human berserker7/cleric (flail, mace)
human berserker9/mage (longsword, bastard sword)
human berserker9/druid (scimitar,club)
elf fighter/mage/thief (longsword, longbow, katana)
half-elf skald

6.2)

human berserker7/cleric (flail, warhammer)
human berserker9/mage (axe, bastard sword)
half-orc fighter/cleric (mace, warhammer)
half-elf ranger/cleric (flail, mace)
elf fighter/mage/thief (longbow, longsword)
half-elf skald

6.3)

gnome fighter/cleric (flail, mace)
gnome illusionist/cleric (warhammer, mace)
half-elf fighter/druid (scimitar, club)
half-elf fighter/mage/cleric (flail, warhammer)
elf fighter/mage/thief (longsword, longbow)
half-elf skald


Also, I guess I could go kendudu/kenmage rather than berdudu/bermage, I'm just a bit biased towards zerkers And I haven't listed sling as a proficiency as I'll prolly only spend one point in it in the early game, so I didn't think it relevant.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

jsaving

Any of these parties will get the job done, but I'd offer these observations.

1 - Scrolls are not exactly plentiful in IWD so sorcerers are a much better choice than dual-class mages, unless you worry that sorcerers violate the low-magic "intent" of the devs.

2 - The kind of intricate mage battles you may remember from BG2 are few and far between in IWD, which makes berserkers less useful than they are in BG2. (Doesn't make them "bad" by any means, only less useful.)

3 - For HoF mode, you'll be relying fairly heavily on stunning effects due to massively increased monster hit-point pools, and likely relying more heavily on summons as well since they benefit from the increase. This lessens the usefulness of melee-only characters in IWD (though judging by your party compositions you seem to already know this).

4 - Opinions are divided on whether druids or clerics are more useful in IWD. Clerics generally have a better selection of melee weapons in IWD and their turning ability is actually fairly useful given the large number of undead in the game. On the other hand, druid summons really come into their own in HoF mode. Bottom line is, you won't go wrong either way.

5 - As a side effect of scrolls being so sparsely distributed, going with 2-3 mages (or bards) will sometimes mean you'll level up without having any spells to put in your new slots. As a result, you'll want to think carefully about which characters memorize which scrolls (and whether you want to replace any of your mages/bards with sorcerers).

Balrog99

Elves can't be skalds, or any kind of hard for that matter. Half-elves get a bit of a boost to their pickpocket so I'd go with one of those. Also, the vanilla bard is very useful with their more varied songs and non-gimped pickpocket skill. You may want to consider one of those instead of the skald...

Carnifex

Balrog99 said:

Elves can't be skalds, or any kind of hard for that matter. Half-elves get a bit of a boost to their pickpocket so I'd go with one of those. Also, the vanilla bard is very useful with their more varied songs and non-gimped pickpocket skill. You may want to consider one of those instead of the skald...

Right, it slipped my mind, I'll be using half-elves for any bard I'll bring along. I'll keep the vanilla bard option in mind, thanks!

Carnifex

jsaving said:

Any of these parties will get the job done, but I'd offer these observations.

1 - Scrolls are not exactly plentiful in IWD so sorcerers are a much better choice than dual-class mages, unless you worry that sorcerers violate the low-magic "intent" of the devs.

2 - The kind of intricate mage battles you may remember from BG2 are few and far between in IWD, which makes berserkers less useful than they are in BG2. (Doesn't make them "bad" by any means, only less useful.)

3 - For HoF mode, you'll be relying fairly heavily on stunning effects due to massively increased monster hit-point pools, and likely relying more heavily on summons as well since they benefit from the increase. This lessens the usefulness of melee-only characters in IWD (though judging by your party compositions you seem to already know this).

4 - Opinions are divided on whether druids or clerics are more useful in IWD. Clerics generally have a better selection of melee weapons in IWD and their turning ability is actually fairly useful given the large number of undead in the game. On the other hand, druid summons really come into their own in HoF mode. Bottom line is, you won't go wrong either way.

5 - As a side effect of scrolls being so sparsely distributed, going with 2-3 mages (or bards) will sometimes mean you'll level up without having any spells to put in your new slots. As a result, you'll want to think carefully about which characters memorize which scrolls (and whether you want to replace any of your mages/bards with sorcerers).

Excellent input, valid points all! I may reconsider the amount of arcane casters included, I had forgotten about the scarcity of scrolls present in the game.

Thank you!

Balrog99

Carnifex said:

jsaving said:

Any of these parties will get the job done, but I'd offer these observations.

1 - Scrolls are not exactly plentiful in IWD so sorcerers are a much better choice than dual-class mages, unless you worry that sorcerers violate the low-magic "intent" of the devs.

2 - The kind of intricate mage battles you may remember from BG2 are few and far between in IWD, which makes berserkers less useful than they are in BG2. (Doesn't make them "bad" by any means, only less useful.)

3 - For HoF mode, you'll be relying fairly heavily on stunning effects due to massively increased monster hit-point pools, and likely relying more heavily on summons as well since they benefit from the increase. This lessens the usefulness of melee-only characters in IWD (though judging by your party compositions you seem to already know this).

4 - Opinions are divided on whether druids or clerics are more useful in IWD. Clerics generally have a better selection of melee weapons in IWD and their turning ability is actually fairly useful given the large number of undead in the game. On the other hand, druid summons really come into their own in HoF mode. Bottom line is, you won't go wrong either way.

5 - As a side effect of scrolls being so sparsely distributed, going with 2-3 mages (or bards) will sometimes mean you'll level up without having any spells to put in your new slots. As a result, you'll want to think carefully about which characters memorize which scrolls (and whether you want to replace any of your mages/bards with sorcerers).

Excellent input, valid points all! I may reconsider the amount of arcane casters included, I had forgotten about the scarcity of scrolls present in the game.

Thank you!

Another cool thing about bards is if you make them true neutral you can get a rabbit familiar. The rabbit has a pretty good find traps ability that can be boosted by a luck spell and the bard luck song. If you keep it invisible it can disable most of the traps in the game without putting it in danger. This is especially handy if you don't want to have a thief in the party. With knock spells to open locks, the rabbit for traps and the bard for pickpocket you've got all the bases covered...

Hint: If you buy the Lucky Scimitar, which is pretty cheap, you can get a free casting of luck once per day.

Redrake

If you play IWD1, always use the vanilla bard. With their songs they can be lifesavers in HoF, especially War Chant of Sith, as it saves you from serial resting and also Tymora's Luck song which adds to your criticals.

Carnifex

Balrog99 said:

Another cool thing about bards is if you make them true neutral you can get a rabbit familiar. The rabbit has a pretty good find traps ability that can be boosted by a luck spell and the bard luck song. If you keep it invisible it can disable most of the traps in the game without putting it in danger. This is especially handy if you don't want to have a thief in the party. With knock spells to open locks, the rabbit for traps and the bard for pickpocket you've got all the bases covered...

Hint: If you buy the Lucky Scimitar, which is pretty cheap, you can get a free casting of luck once per day.

Yeah, I usually do that when I do solo runs with a Sorcerer, it's very useful Granted I'll lose out on Sash of Shimmering, but it's worth the tradeoff when running a solo Sorcerer IMO. Plenty of spells for defense anyways.