advice for my first time playing :)

darnock

I'm not looking for the best party, but I'd like some tips, thats all, i'm not really sure what weapons to use or kits,

paladin, undead kit sounds cool, thinking of going long sword and board

archer, elf , 19 in dex, and longbow

some type of mage, just not really sure on what

I heard totemic druids are fun, I need advice on this or a cleric

berzerker, but i'm not sure on this class and what weapons to use

then I'll need some type of thief, just not really sure



As you can see i'm pretty open to ideas, I just need alittle info to fill in the gaps

thank you!

Dev6

Paladins are always nice. I personally prefer the Cavalier, but the Undead Hunter will be quite useful for you since there's lots of undead enemies. By "board" I reckon you mean shield, and yes, Long Sword and Shield is a good combo for paladins, and it looks nice. There's many great longswords in the game. Don't disregard bastard swords tho, specially with a Paladin it's quite quick and easy to get two pips in both.
I've also played a dual-wielding Paladin before and they're quite fun, though you may want to leave dual-wielding for another character.

No comments about the archer elf, it'll be a powerful character and since this is your first time playing it'll really help you out to have a long-range powerful character.

As for the mage, a Sorcerer is always good to have. I find them more powerful than normal mages and easier to play as, as long as you choose your spells carefully.
You may also want to try a Cleric/Mage. They're a little slower to level up but are quite powerful, and thus leaving you with an open space for....

The Druid! I never played Totemic Druids so can't comment, but a pure Druid is fun to play. A Fighter/Druid is also a good alternative. Or, you might as well make use of the new 2.5 patch and get a Shaman instead!

Berserkers are fun. I like making berserkers who wield axes. Either single or dual. They're powerful and fun as hell. A Barbarian is also a nice alternative.

As for the Thief, here's the thing... I hate thieves. I know I'm in the minority, but I hate the whole "oh I hide in the shadows and backstap enemies" BS. The only reason I have a thief in my party is because of traps and locked doors. Now, don't get me wrong, thieves are useful and since this is your first time playing you're better off having a thief than not.
I'm not the most helpful person to give you advice here but... Swashbucklers are fun and straight-forward compared to other thieves. I've also had fun playing with a Fighter/Thief before.

To give you a couple more ideas, here's my current IWD party (copied from another thread):

Karazum, a male half-orc Blackguard - Sword & Shield - pips in Long and Bastard swords
Asterion, a male minotaur Berserker - Single weapon - pips in Axes
Aleena Carrack, a female human Swashbuckler - Dual Wield - pips in Scimitar
Inyakha, a female, half-orc Shaman - Two-handed - pips in Spear and Sling
Lyria Capella, a female half-elf Bard - I use her as an archer, pips in shortbow
Shi'nil Onyxia, a female half-drow Cleric/Ranger - Dual Wield - pips in Flail/Morning Star

SharGuidesMyHand

I STRONGLY recommend having at least one character with good dext and con, with enough strength to equip almost any armor or shield, and at least one point in sword and shield style, who can stand at the head of your party formation and deflect most incoming missiles. You're going to get a LOT of missiles fired your way, and it can be very tedious and time-consuming to have to continually stop to heal your party members (and also rest more often to replenish those healing spells). Take note that you can use a cleric for this role, which would allow you to condense two party roles into a single character.

A few other of my personal recommendations:
-You can never have too many healers in IWD. I recommend having at least two single class healers (with at least one being a cleric) in your party.
-If you're not a big fan of hiding and backstabbing, then you likely don't need a single class thief in your party - you're probably better off using a multi-class one.
-Skalds are VERY useful in IWD - their songs give very noticeable benefits to attack and defense.
-Try to have as many party members able to use missile weapons as possible. There are often times when you'll need to be able to strike an enemy from afar at the drop of a hat.

Grond0

If you've played BG before you may be aware that druids are pretty restricted in the spells they can usefully use at low levels (though great at higher ones). As this is your first time with IWD you're probably not aware of just how much better the range of spells for lower level druids is in that than in BG - so if you like the idea of druids that can hand out meaningful amounts of spell damage then give them a go. The totemic summons are pretty powerful, but if you're running a full party you probably won't really need them.

Another difference in IWD is bard songs. At higher levels a bard song can provide not just combat bonuses, but regeneration - who needs healers in your party then .

darnock

okay, i'll do a bard! what do you suggest as far as race, weapons, ect ect, never done one

Grond0

For race you have to be human or half-elf, so that makes very little difference. For weapons use whatever you fancy - bards have a very wide choice of weapons, but normally you'll be more use to the party singing or casting spells than fighting anyway.

fluke13

Hey, I just started playing iwd after a very long break.

My current run is my most enjoyable yet and I would have loved this to be my first run.

My advice/opinion:

First game set up: download game, download npc mod, download portraits for minor npcs mod, download improved shamanic dance mod.

Team set up: PC - shaman, the 5 npcs are designed by the mod, but I chose thief/mage multi, undead hunter paladin, berserker to dual to druid at lvl7, ranger/beast master, bard/skald.

Set difficulty to easy to avoid the grind.

Enjoy

Raduziel

The Undead Hunter is very welcome in any IWD party, as many of the enemies are undead.

If you want to, I have a component in a mod o' mine (I Hate Undead) that makes the Undead Hunter more similar to its Pen and Paper counterpart.

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Monotremata

I usually use the same boring party type I always have from the GoldBox games up to Baldurs Gate hehe. My PC is always a ranger, two weapon style so I can use two longswords. Bow for ranged backup. Then a fighter type for a tank of sorts, Khalid is usually it but I got rid of him in my latest BG run and replaced him with Minsc since he doesnt whine. Then a Cleric, possibly a Druid if anything but BG1, for extra spell power/healing/extra melee damage.. Then a Thief, for ya know, thief stuff and primarily ranged damage. And then two mages to maximize damage in combat (I have no problem with the game taking ages in game years sleeping between every battle just to be able to use like 12 Magic Missle spells in a row for every one hehe) I used to do it with three fighter/melee types, a cleric/druid, thief, and one mage. But I really like the extra firepower, especially in Baldur's Gate 2 when you start to get to use Spell Sequencers and you can still store up extra Magic Missles to cast after you've memorized how many of them you committed to the sequencer spells. I probably could go back to that now that Im far enough into my BG run and Imoen is dual classed enough as a thief, but I like only having her as a backup for backstabbing if needed so she can concentrate on spells an entire fight. Plus by the time I got Safana to replace her as a dedicated thief role, I was way late into the game, and she's already passed Imoen's thief level and abilities anyways.

jsaving

The main IWD guide recommends five FMCs and one FMT in its powergaming party so they should be in the mix for sure. Sorcerers are also a very strong choice due to IWD's shortage of scrolls, you won't go wrong with 1 or even 2 of them in your party.

For melee characters, my advice would be to specialize in blunt weapons since so many IWD foes are resistant to slash or pierce damage. Flails are especially good due to the large number of magical options but other blunt weapon classes are also solid selections. If you opt for a paladin, cavalier or undead hunter are your best options while inquisitors are notably weak (which you might not expect if you're coming from a game like BG2 where they are nearly indispensable).

Bards and druids are both better than you might expect. Bards are solid because of the skald's song and the game's above-average selection of bard-only magic items. Druids actually aren't great weapon-wise because of their inability to use most blunt weapons, but their summoning spells are very good especially on high difficulty levels.

My favorite party is: cavalier, FMT, FMC, cleric/ranger, sorcerer, and skald. If I'm ramping up the difficulty level then I'll typically opt for fighter/druid rather than cleric/ranger, and swap in a second sorcerer for the skald.

The good news is that you can beat the game with a wide variety of party configurations, so you should do what you think best. Good luck!

oakheart

Here's what works for me. I'm something of a traditionalist, so I tend to stick with less exotic kits and classes -

Fighter/Druid up front (useful buffs, emergency heals and summons)
Fighter, sword-and-board meatshield
Fighter/Thief, double-weapon skilled, also longbow when appropriate. A scout.
Cleric/Mage, primarily a healer- but also offensive/defensive caster, crowd control
Sorcerer. Sorcerers are awesome. Enough said.

Sometimes I'll mix things up a bit with a Fighter/Mage, Mage/Thief or Ranger/Cleric in one of those slots, or swap the F/D for a paladin.

(Right now I'm playing a party of 3 brothers - Fighter/Thief, Fighter/Cleric and Fighter/Mage)

Fyl

F/M/T -- 18/91+ 18 18 18 whatever & whatever.... or 17 con 19 dex elf
F/M/C -- same, some wisdom is nice but not essential to how cleric is implementsd
F/D --- same
Shaman ---- halforc w/points in slings and axes --- 19 str 18 dex might as well do 19 con, might use some +1 con item for regeneration
Dragon Disciple -- human, 18 str 18 dex 18 con since itll grow to 20 and give you regeneration after class bonuses with enough levels