Party Help
Joneser
Member Posts: 12
Currently I have a party that is getting wiped out in the beginning of chapter 2. I am seriously considering restarting my current difficulty setting is core. I am not a fan of multi-classing but I am open to one or two
My team:
Half-Orc Barbarian
Human Cleric (Priest of Tyr)
Halfing Thief
Elf Archer
Human Mage
Human Invoker
The strongest characters are the Barbarian, Archer, and Invoker. The thief is dead weight and I find the Cleric cannot keep up with all the damage the party receives. Does anyone have some suggestions for me to improve my new party? I am thinking about getting rid of the thief and trying a fighter/their or fighter/mage/thief or ditching the thief all together. Two mages are not as strong as I had hoped. AOE almost always seems to hurt my melee.
My team:
Half-Orc Barbarian
Human Cleric (Priest of Tyr)
Halfing Thief
Elf Archer
Human Mage
Human Invoker
The strongest characters are the Barbarian, Archer, and Invoker. The thief is dead weight and I find the Cleric cannot keep up with all the damage the party receives. Does anyone have some suggestions for me to improve my new party? I am thinking about getting rid of the thief and trying a fighter/their or fighter/mage/thief or ditching the thief all together. Two mages are not as strong as I had hoped. AOE almost always seems to hurt my melee.
1
Comments
Undead hunter, ranger/cleric (or fighter3/cleric dualclass), archer, fighter (berserker, dwarven defender, your best), mage/thief (or swashbuckler6/mage dual) and a sorcerer.
If you want more divine magic:
Paladin, fighter/druid, fighter/cleric, mage/thief, archer, sorcerer
After that there is evil party combos, duo party, and martial party.
Martial party(boring for lots of players):
Fighter, paladin, ranger, fighter/thief.
The big problem with bringing multiple mages in IWD is that there's a scarcity of scrolls, so unless you have your mages specialize in different roles (i.e. one is a blaster/CC type while the other is a buffer/debuffer), they're always going to be fighting over scrolls, reducing their overall effectiveness. I think you can safely get away with just having 1 Mage in the party for IWD, and as you might have already discovered, damage/CC mages are somewhat hamstrung in IWD due to the high numbers of undead and elemental-type monsters you'll face.
My own party for IWD:EE consisted of:
- Human Female Paladin (Cavalier kit. My main tank. A combination of heavy armor and innate resistances + immunity to fear and poison make her quite capable of handling undead and spiders in the early game without difficulty.)
- Dwarf Male Fighter (Berserker kit. This guy was my main melee bruiser. Use his Enrage ability before entering big fights and he becomes immune to just about every type of CC out there!)
- Human Male Generalist Mage (my all-rounder Mage who changes his spells to suit whatever is needed at the time, mostly a combination of CC and buffs, with some high damage spells mixed in here and there)
- Human Male Cleric (of Lathander kit. The buffs vs undead come in quite handy.)
- Female Elf Ranger (Archer kit. My Archer was actually by far and away the BIGGEST DPS machine in my party. By the end of the game she had dealt almost 50% of the party's damage! Set her to attack high value targets like enemy spellcasters; she'll usually mow them down within a couple rounds.)
- Female Halfling Thief (Shadowdancer kit. I tried the Shadowdancer because in theory it sounds fun, but I found it to be too micromanage-y to be truly effective for my needs. If I was doing this again, I'd reroll her as a Swashbuckler and make her dual-wield so she'll be more potent in combat.)
IWD is a bit different than BG for a number of reasons and creating a party can therefore seem different as well. Looking at your party and your difficulty setting (core without the higher EXP from higher diff and higher exp from that level) you could perhaps argue MCs are less effecient since you will level slower than playing on the highest difficulty setting with increased EXP gains from that (which actually makes the game easier IMHO).
* So, the barbarian is good, you can keep that.
* Clerics are decent, though since damage output and damage mitigation/avoidance is on high demand in IWD, my personal favorite is F/C dwarf since they function as both tank/buffer and still do consistent damage as well.
* Thieves as singleclass is a waste in IWD and any and all MCs are infinitely better; C/T, T/M(I), F/T. Since arcane is less needed in IWD, I actually like C/T so I have two clerics who can summon skeletins (meat walls, ahem.. bone walls).
* Archers are kings. Choose either longbow for a very specific drop later in the game or xbows IMHO.
* 2 mages is a waste. One mage and one bard is a lot better, one druid, one bard and multiclassing the thief as thief mage or thief illusionist gnome as well.
So, avoiding to many MCs, as per your request, this would probably be a well-balanced team (but there are many, many other setups as well of course):
* Halforc Barbarian
* F/C Dwarf
* F/T halforc (for STR to damage) or Dwarf for better save rolls, take your pick. Or elf for THAC0 with bows and swords. In BG I always prefer dwarfs but in IWD I think HO is the better pick for the few times they engage in melee.
* Elf Archer. Machinegun. Bring a lot of arrows!
* Bard
* Druid or Mage. (you can also take Sorc, but IMHO they are too good in IWD since they do not need scrolls.)
Please also note singleclassed mages will sometimes find themselves without spells to fill up their spell slots, since there's a scarcity of scrolls in IWD, especially on hgher difficulty with increased EXP gains. Hence why I prefer to only have a bard as my only arcane (or a MC Mage/X), the bard can then plink away with a bow if you want to, but primarily sing and sling spells.
FMT (mainly casts defensive buffs)
Half-orc fighter/cleric
Ranger/cleric
Fighter/druid
Sorcerer
Skald (can replace with second sorcerer if desired)
My current party:
Paladin
Warrior/thief
Ranger Archer
Avenger druid
Bard
Sorcerer
Hehe, you went from a SC Cleric to no cleric without passing though the MC Cleric
Maybe a biclassed cleric from fighter will be the best option: dual at level 7 or 9 will make it a good fighter with fast cleric progression. As you said Turn Undead ability is a fantastic feat in IWD, after passing level 15 almost every Undead is dead without even starting the fight (and undeads are like 70% of enemies).
Undead hunter
Dwarven defender or berserker
Fighter/cleric
Fighter/druid
Mage/thief
4 warriors, 2 single classed, 2 multiclassed and a mage/thief. Lots of divine magic spells, heals. Dwarven defendfer or berserker can mastery/grandmastery in melee weapons. If you wanr add an archer and steamroll iwdee.
Which ones are you struggling with?
MC = multiclass, SC = Singeclass, etc.. Just ask and someone will reply.
I was wondering if a dual wield F/M/T would be a good idea. I miss the Barbarian on the front lines or am I being too greedy?
For a single run it's quite painful to make your f/m/t to dual wield, your thac0 progression is slow and you will miss hits quite often.
I advice you to start with one weapon+shield (there are a lot of great long sword) then add proficiences in flails too (same as before, great flails/morning stars around).
Note that your Archer should also get a bit of spellcasting as they gain levels, and Ranger spells aren't as useful as cleric buff spells, so feel free to have her slot healing spells instead.