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Party composition advice

AralyonAralyon Member Posts: 11
edited June 2018 in Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
Hello guys,

I would like to know your opinion regarding my planned party composition for new IWD+HoW playthrough (Android, IWD:EE).

As per my requirements - I do not like micro management of thief on Android (it is truly annoying to position thief correctly there). I would also like to have covered arcane and both cleric and druid divine spells.

I, for some reasons, also like dual wield characters, as it seems funnier than single weapon or 1H+shield (I also consider added value of shield to be quite low compared to second weapon). It also allows me to utilize more kinds of weapons.

Therefore - I have planned sth like this:
  • Sorcerer - Arcane magic, party leader (18 CHA, 16 WIS, 16 INT to get access to all discussion options based on these stats), aims for offensive spells
  • Fighter -> Cleric - divine magic, dualed probably at 7, dual wield with flails, maces or war hammers. Dunno which is best in IWD. Here I am not sure about exp gain for party of 6 to estimate how quickly I would be able to utilize cleric spells and use dual wield efficiently. I would like to access higher level of cleric spells quicker than with Ranger / Cleric multi, altough it is also an option.
  • Fighter / thief - elf with 19DEX and 18STR which serves as archer with option to go melee (I will probably stick to bows / crossbows tho)
  • Fighter / druid - druidic divine spells - dual wield scimitars or clubs (think of Jaheira)
  • Paladin (Cavalier) - 2H weapons
  • Bard (probably Skald) - universal access to lower level arcane spells, utilizes scrolls and wands and provides arcane support spells
My other consideriations:
  1. Replace fighter / druid and Fighter -> Cleric with Ranger / cleric with heavy armor and the same dual wield options (with 2 pips in DW for ranger it might work even better?). I am not so sure about spell progression tho...
  2. Replace bard with Mage / Cleric to access both arcane and divine spells and also replace Fighter -> Cleric with Druid (Avenger) and Fighter / druid with Ranger (probably better dual wield character than fighter / druid). I would like to keep bard for his unique dialogs tho.
What do you think of this party? I am not sure how quickly I will be able to cast high level divine spells, but replacing fighter / cleric with pure cleric seems like I would be quite low on front line fighters and too high on spells.

I am also a bit afraid that I will became a bit underleveled, because I do not know how much XP there is in IWD without unnecesary grind.

EDIT: Another idea might be to get Ranger -> Cleric at lvl 1, which would not provide druidic spells, but would still give me free points in dual wield and quick progression in cleric spells :)
Post edited by Aralyon on

Comments

  • sibakruomsibakruom Member Posts: 28
    edited June 2018
    Here are a couple reference points based on my past playthroughs, to help you decide when to dual. All of them assume neither bonus nor penalty from difficulty, a party of 6, completing sidequests and gaining extra exp from conversations, but no grinding nor killing of non-hostile NPCs.

    First, the grand total for a single IWD + HoW + TotL playthrough is around 2.8 - 2.9 millions.

    Then for IWD, assuming that you've not started HoW in-between.
    Beginning of chapter 2: around 25-30k
    Beginning of chapter 3: around 115k
    Beginning of chapter 4: around 230k
    Beginning of chapter 5: around 330k
    Beginning of chapter 6: I didn't keep a save close, sorry
    Point of no return: around 1200k

    Now assuming you've sprinkled some parts of HoW and TotL during IWD.
    Beginning of chapter 5, one third of HoW done: around 660k
    Beginning of chapter 6, two third of HoW done: around 1500k (estimated, as my save is a bit further into chapter 6)
    Point of no return, two third of HoW done: 2100k
    Point of no return, two third of HoW done, TotL done: 2500k
    Point of no return, all of HoW and TotL done: 2700k

    You can start HoW as soon as you reach 250k exp (which is early chapter 4), and you can earn a further 150k exp at the beginning of HoW before having to do a single fight. This is interesting if you're willing to dual late as 250k just happen to be Fighter 9, a notable dualing point (in particular a Fighter 9 -> Druid will have no downtime at all this way).

    Aside from that your initial party seems fine. The Fighter -> Cleric can do with any weapon type but I would probably go for Morning Star/Flail, while for the Fighter/Druid the best scimitars tend to be better than the best clubs but they are found quite a bit later. I'll also note that your Fighter/Thief can probably afford to be a Fighter/Mage/Thief if you want - you lose almost nothing you care about while gaining some spellcasting.
  • DanacmDanacm Member Posts: 951
    So 2,7 milion per character or its the maxiumum in 6 characters sum?
  • sibakruomsibakruom Member Posts: 28
    Sorry, forgot to mention that. All of these values are exp per character. And I think the requirement to start HoW is for the character in the first slot at character creation to have at least 250k exp (I assume total exp in case of multiclassing, but I can't test that).
  • RaduzielRaduziel Member Posts: 4,714
    @Aralyon I would remove the Cavalier in favor of an Undead Hunter.

    If you take this route, you may use my version of the Undead Hunter, available in I Hate Undead Kitpack, that brings this kit closer to its PnP counterpart.
  • AralyonAralyon Member Posts: 11
    Thank you for all your advices guys. I have just reached Dragon's Eye L3 and it is quite smooth so far (except for the fight with trolls & clerics @ Zigurrat - but this one seems to cause troubles to most parties). I am still missing cleric spells (fighter to dual is now level 7), but it is not that bad.
    I think that druid had more of cleric spells in BG:EE - e.g. chant or hold person - I miss those. But new spells are deffinitely not that bad :) (especially sunscorch is very cool for level 1 spell)
    @Raduziel - I have decided to kept Cavalier, but I agree that Undead Hunter may have been better. I just somehow don't like it's lore :smiley:
    Overall it seems like there are tons of experience points compared to Baldur's Gate. Those levels are rising in astonishing rate and I may have been worried needlessly :)
  • ElendarElendar Member Posts: 831
    Make a party of 5 dwarves and 1 gnome. :)
  • FylFyl Member Posts: 62
    edited August 2018
    Everyone should be a caster class or multiclass with casting.

    Stoneskin and Ironskins on everybody make life easier, so Sorcerors Shamans and Fighter/Druids are nice (stoneskin scrolls are alas rare and late)

    Sorceror or Dragon Disciple
    Shaman
    FMT
    FMC
    F>D or F/D
    Are pretty much the power party... not sure if you can find all essential scrolls in one run though

    R/C used to be epic win, but got nerfed to mediocrity (level 22 ranger to finally catch up and get iron skins...no bonus attack with 1H weapon)

    Shaman is great because most druid spells in each level are meh so you easily get everything you wanted anyway, the halforc 19str plus the different list of weapon restrictions mean you can actually get some mileage out of good gear you could never normally find a home for, and then they even get additional summons and additional cleric-like shaman spells
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