themed party issues
Iamdorf
Member Posts: 60
Every time I find some cool portraits on-line I start a new themed party. My problem is there are certain classes that I just can't be without. For example: I wanted to do a barbarian party then thought to myself but you need a thief, also what about healing? get a bard, oh and you want a diviner don't you? That seems to happened all the time. I try to do smaller parties but want someone who can hold a bow, or need a healer, or an item identifier etc... I guess I am not hardcore enough to do without some things.
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All rogue party - every member must have rogue skills of some sort - thieves, bards, thief multi's - rangers or monks might even be allowed if stealth is enough to fulfill the requirement (monks are a 'stretch' as a rogue though)
All arcane party - all members must have access to arcane spells of some sort - mages, sorcerers, bards, mage-multi's and even Darkmoon monks and stalkers would fit the bill.
All fighter types - can be even more specialized as melee or ranged specialists - fighters, barbarians, paladins, rangers, blades, swashbucklers, monks and fighter/ranger multi's.
and for arcane, a bard works perfect, they get those arcane spells all the way to level 8, and it fits a barbarian team very well because barbarians love to hear the stories and epics of their adventures and they themselves want to become legends, and you need a bard to do so
to be perfectly honest, it is actually possible to beat the game with 6 barbarians, but at the same time, if you want to swap up a barbarian or two for something else, that is perfectly viable, its always possible to RP the reason why that sort of party member is in that group; for example: it may be hard to RP why a paladin is in a barbarian group but no so much for say a ranger or druid, a swashbuckler might not make much sense in a barbarian group ( since i look at them to be more like pirates ) but i think a bounty hunter works well, since barbarians no doubt do lots of hunting for food, and a bounty hunter is a master trapsman, so no doubt the bounty hunter would be the trapper for the group/scout
Sometimes it's fun to deprive yourself of some utility, though. It can really change encounters that are otherwise a cakewalk, like
I love themed parties, like
barbarian clan: barb, barb, shaman, fighter/thief, skald
Drow: cleric, fighter/mage, fighter, blackguard(edited to elf), fighter/thief
Dwarf: cleric, fighter/cleric, fighter, fighter/thief
Adventurer: fighter, cleric, mage, thief, bard
Dirty dozen: blackguard, cleric of talos, bounty hunter, necromancer, shapeshifter
Holy power: paladin, cleric of lathander, mage/thief, fighter/cleric, bard
All fighter: paladin, archer, fighter/thief, fighter
Locks? Orc barbarian with 19 strength, raging, which pumps strength can bash locks.
Healing? Rage before resting, pumping Constitution, gaining Regen for the rest. Or before traveling. (Never tried it... Does it work?)
Anyway, definitely not impossible.
We have Princess Alicia Kendrick, she is a warrior turned to Druid in the books. I play Avenger druid in IWD, because she is tutored by arcane spellcaster Keane.
Then we have Keane, he is the mentor of Alicia and an arcane spellcaster, the books suggest he is a Mage (the books are true to D&D so he reads spells to learn them) but IWD lacks scrolls so I play Sorcerer.
My Leader is Tavish the bard, and she is a kitless bard because I want to play with the different songs.
I have an Elf Paladin Brigit Cu’Lyrran, She is the Captain of the sister knights of Synnoria and just fought a Demon. So I thought it was appropriate to make her a Cavalier.
Than we have Pawldo of Lowhill, a Halfling Fighter/Thief. In the timeline this play through he should be dead, but in this alternate timeline he is alive and kicking.
And on the last place we have the Northmen Prince Brandon. I play him as A half-orc Barbarian, he is a Huge human barbarian in the books so I thought it was fitting.
The story is that they drifted off when the where sailing to find Evermeet, and broke down on Easthaven.
Another suggestion is a Songs and Swords series group.
Arilyn Moonblade fighter/thief or stalker or assassin
Danilo Thann a bard highly skilled in magic
Elaith Craulnober Evil Fighter/Wizard
Bran Skorlsun Ranger
Bronwyn Rogue
Foxfire Elf (Lythari) shapeshifter
Can't legally do that dual in 2nd edition though. It's a shame, really. You can dual thief to berserker but Conan doesn't seem very berserkerish to me.
Half-Elf Thief/Fighter
Half-Elf Cleric/Ranger
Elf Avenger
Elf Archer
Elf Stalker
Elf Bounty Hunter
Cleric/Ranger and Thief/Fighter can tank, if needed. There's no proper mage/sorcerer, which I'm a bit afraid of (I've always had one caster at least) and quite a lot of dual wield and backstabbing going on. There's also nobody to identify items - I guess the thief, if given high wis/int could identify things? But I'm not sure how well that would work.
Do an elf Fighter/Mage/Thief instead of fighter thief. You don't even have to gimp him/her with no-armour if you don't want to. He/she can take off armour to pre-buff or cast utility spells and then put it back on. Later when you find or can afford to buy good mage robes or bracers, you can use the mage spells to full potential. Also you can summon a familiar to offset some of the hit-points you'll lose.
Thanks, that's an excellent suggestion. I've never played a F/M/T, because my parties are usually quite balanced (see lamdorf's conundrum). F/M/T and Cleric/Ranger are essentially compromises on the theme, because I feel I always need someone to deal with traps and buff/heal (and, again, identify items, but this is just a comfort function, I guess). Hence, there's sadly no space for a beast master (I really like the idea, I really hate its implementation, especially if you have an elven "I-will-mow-you-down" archer in your group) and a barbarian...
If your compromise is the half-elf, you could go with an elf Fighter/Druid instead. The pure cleric spells aren't all that necessary if it's going to affect your enjoyment...
I could see myself without a thief easily enough and I could do without a cleric as long as I have some healing. The main problem is Bards. I love war chant of the sith so much that's it's hard to do without a vanilla bard. I wish the race requirements weren't so strict.
Skald
Blade
Jester
True Bard
Shadowdancer
Shaman
Idea is they are a theater troupe that gets dragged into adventuring. I haven't actually tried it yet but really want to.
I had a party like that. A theatre company.
Bard the singer
blade the knife thrower
skald the poet
swashbuckler the acrobat
illusionist/cleric the illusionist
The blade and swashbuckler go frontline, supported by skald, bard songs, and summons.
The early game was not great, or easy but later the party got stronger, but never become invincible.