Help me make my Power-gaming party of heroes, enjoy the discussion :)

Sweron_Dern

Here we go, decided to try this party even thou I'm always unsure about few choices and you can't put everything you want into one party. I'm not new to Icewind Dale, but there is tons of stuff I haven't yet tried or forgot and that's why I ask for help of the veterans.
Besides, its always more fun when people are gathered and enjoy talking and developing something together

Game Version: Icewind Dale EE 2.5.17.0

Wanted to make all moral goodies party for strong cleric buff "Righteous Wrath of the Faithful" + some really "good only" items like Shimmering Sash, but there he is , that druid always has to act special
Also I decided to cut Swashbuckler out, and instead make him Thief/Illusionist gnome that fills the wizard and thief role which I don't really like to have much in Icewind Dale.
Also, Helm of the Trusted Defender is too good, needed one guy who can wear it.

So, here are the members of my party:


Irene, I always have a Paladin in a group, it is how I envision a charismatic group leader. Also, best weapon in the game "Pale Justice" is for Paladins only. Tried Undead Hunter this time, even thou I think Cavalier is more powerful or endgame, this time my Paladin will actually use ranged weapons too (crossbow).

proficiency : long swords - best weapons (Pale Justice, Sword of Aihonen, Sword of action+4), crossbow for range attacks and maybe bastard sword later just in case I find a good one + I like bastard swords even thou I don't feel they got the love they deserve in this game. she will dual wield long swords, preferably 2x Pale Justice for HoW difficulty



Kharn, between cleric/ranger, fighter>cleric, decided to go with strong brute half-orc cleric 19/18/19, making him strong from the start. what would you pick if it was your party ?
He will dual wield flails/morning-stars as there is abundance of good ones in this game, also warhammers second and mace weapons later.



Lawana will be my berserker dualing into druid. I usually don't like druids too much, don't feel like you need them even thou they are probably stronger here than in BG games.
now the question is, do I need Druid early at level 3 or 6 ? Or could I wait till 13 to get all the bonus attacks per round you get as a fighter class and all those thac0 per levels ?
Proficient in dual wielding scimitars, that's the best choice for druids ?
Or maybe go for that +5 spear you get from Salamander Queen ?



Saturna, probably my strongest endgame fighter once she learns to buff her majestic blade dancing artistry of hack & slashing with impenetrable magical defense :P
Eh, I usually envision kensai chars to use katanas, but I'm not sure about it, don't have much room to pick more than one weapon for grand mastery before I dual her to mage.
So I'll probably stick with axes and swords cause I want someone to wield those strong axes I find, even thou long swords would probably be the best choice lategame (2x long sword of action+4 ? ) What do you think guys ?



Delwn, an elven archer, now this is always juicy to me, just immagine longbow +4:hammer oh him ^^ total overkill
single class who is always getting stronger just like Kensai, love it.



and finally Sweron, my fictional char I use in most of the games ^^ he's actually human but had to make him a gnome here to fill the position of thief and mage and also to have a guy who can wear that OP HELM
I really wanted to play Swashbuckler and dual him waaaay late into the game so I end with 25/30 swashbucker>fighter who is a menace but well, another time maybe.

I like him for roleplaying purposes to stick with pointy wepons like daggers, darts, short swords. Usually I pick crossbow / slings for my thief.

Ok that's it for now, I'll give this a try for a while then I'll decide if there needs to be changes before I delve far into the game, I'm interested to read your comments 1st

sarevok57

to be honest, i dont think pale justice is all that poweful, some of the things that you are immune to you can easily do through spells, and that is WHEN they would actually happen to you

although longsword of action +4 is where it is at, not only granting an extra attack per round, but also providing +1 AC bonus AND 15% slashing resistance, that sword is top notch, especially if you can pair it up with a great shield +3

although if you are going to dual wield longswords, cant go wrong with pale justice and sword of action +4 at the same time

for blunt weapons, flail/morning star is definitely the way to go, a nice dual wield option is the fast flail +2 and the defender morninstar +4, or if you are super lucky x2 defender morningstar +4, there is even a defender warhammer +4 which is really great for defense, but not so much for damage, but it can make a great off hand weapon for dual wielding, but it can also only be found randomly which is kind of a pain

for the fighter dualing over to druid, it depends on how you are going to play your game for what point you are going to dual at, since this is a powerful team i would suggest playing insane difficulty with extra XP turned off, if you do that then the time you hit the end of IWD and do EVERYTHING possible, you might hit around 1.3 million XP, then if you take that team and bring them over to HoW and do the TotLM stuff as well then you might hit around 3 million XP the time you fight the last boss in HoW

so with that said, if you dual at level 13, then you are basically going to be using your berserker for all of IWD and dual at the very end and that would mean you would basically play all the way through HoW and TotLM with only the druid side and it wouldn't be until the very end of HoW before you would have both abilities back, now if you plan to bring this team over into HoF mode after you complete HoW, then i would say go for it, your team will be able to pick up the slack that entire time, but if this is going to be a play through go, then i would either dual at level 7 ( which means you will gain your fighter abilities back at the end of chapter 2 ) or level 9 ( and get your fighter abilities back somewhere in chapter 4 i would say )

weapon wise, druids really get the short end of the stick, especially for dual wielding purposes, good scimitars are far and few between, and good spears are even farther and fewer between ( it could be completely possible that you won't get a magical spear until chapter 5 ) actually with that said, it can also be the same scenario with scimitar as well, for me, when i used a fighter/druid i went with dagger and shield, and then eventually scimitar and shield when i finally found one

if you REALLY want to dual wield, you might want to throw some dagger in there, there are lots to go around, and especially the ones that deal poison are actually quite useful, like presio's dagger +2, get lots of hits in with that and stack up that poison damage, good stuff

for your kensai i would stick with axes, this makes it so she won't conflict with other character's weapons and there are lots of great axes that can be found in IWD, if you want to go with katanas, there are 2 special ones in IWD, one being in chapter 2 and one being in chapter 6, but there is way more selection and interesting axes to be had instead if you desire, so it is really up to you

nothing much to say about the archer, although if you are lucky you might be able to find the repeater in chapter 6 which will at that point no doubt set your APR to 5, so have plenty of arrows, the location can be found here;

in chapter 6 in the first area there is a guard tower thingy where upon entering there are 4 archers and a boss archer guy, that boss archer guy has a "random bow treasure" for his main weapon, and there is an option of 2 or 3 bows it can be, one of which being the repeater, so if you want to make sure you get that bow, quick save outside the tower, then go inside, kill all the baddies and if he doesnt drop the bow, reload, rinse, lather, repeat until he finally drops it, that is, if you wish to do that

one thing to note about your illusionist/thief is that he will not be able to use the helm of the trusted defender, but that is okay, because you will be able to wear the rogue's cowl which still gives a +2 AC bonus, so thats still pretty good

but all in all, your team will be pretty solid, the main thing to watch out for is what level you plan to dual class some of your characters at

Sweron_Dern

Thank you very much good sir for your explanation and insight into the game knowledge
Never thought Sarevok could actually be a cool guy ^^

1. Paladin ye, probably Pale justice + longsword of action+4, seems brutal ^^
2. Fighter/cleric, can't wait to get my hands on those powerful morningstars and some warhammers vs golems when needed.
3. eh, got to disappoint you I kinda cheated early already putting it on HoF mode while clearing cellar of bugs, wolf, and those early goblins near river who stole kid's fish. Rest of the playthrough I'm playing on insane leaving extra damage on , but also leaving extra xp on. I can split my personality and enjoy both slow and fast leveling with min-max and group or more roleplaying stuff, but this time I'm going for the faster xp, min-maxing stuff and doing probably one more clear in HoF mode when I finish all the expansions.
Oh and, I'll probably dual to Druid at lvl 13 too, ye its late and tedious, but extra xp from insane diff will help. Might go with daggers as suggested together with scimitars.
4. I might wait a bit longer with Kensai until I have grandmastery in 2 type of weapons and 3 in dual wield.
5. oh Archer is such a juicy char for me, yes last time I played I had fighter with large bow proficiency and I recall picking Messenger of Sseth and thinking ok, very strong bow early in the game until i got 3 attacks per round on my own. When I realized that it is 3 attacks per round + your proficiencies, levels(7/13) and stuff like haste 0.0 damn It was amazing!!!
And then I stumbled upon Repeater whom I got from those nasty human achers, damn son, I felt so OP!
From then on I was wondering jesus, how good would Archer actually be with this weapon, and recently I figured out by reading online that there is even stronger bow in the expansion 0.0
Sadly haste won't make me that much stronger as it caps at 10 attacks per round ? while I could have something like 12/13 ? dunno really, but just imagining it feels nice. If you played Arcanum it would felt like archery in that game ^^
6. o ye, i f-ed up a bit with that, I wanted so much to wear that helmet but misread, mages can't use it. still need a mage and don't want to restart this party now, I'll figure a thief/fighter halfling or something for some other time ^^

Thank you one more time for your response

Rawrbarian

How long did it take to roll 18/00 for each of them?

Sweron_Dern

Rawrbarian wrote: »

How long did it take to roll 18/00 for each of them?

not much if you cheat with EE Keeper, believe me, I've done my share of rolling manually, then switched to EE autoroller, and then... well what the hell, just make instantly the chars you want and cut the time.

sarevok57

if you have the cheat console enabled crtl+8 is much faster than using EE keeper, the only thing that i don't like about it though is that it sets your STR to 18/00 regardless of class

jsaving

If you're willing to cheat then yes it only takes minutes to have an OP party. How much fun that is, and how much of a sense of accomplishment that gives you, will depend on your personality and playstyle though.

Djasko_Amsterdam

Pure Kensai dude.. trust me. Max out physical stats... No need to go for swords or any other weapon for the extra attack, just make sure you get the ring which gives an extra attack from Malavon's throne. Whether you go dual wield, single weapon or 2-handed weapon, youre doing so much damage as opposed to most others in your party, that it hardly makes a difference. No other melee type compares to the kensai, you just need to show him love and take care of him.

That being said, a single weapon style fighter might profit from a weapon that adds an attack IF it stacks with the ring, never tried it. 5 attacks + increased crit chance sounds very interesting, sadly i'm on Android and cant check this easily.

Axes are a fine choice if you want to Dual Wield, putting all your pips into 2weapon fighting, but having the option of equipping a 2hander as well for the reach it offers. If you make an Orc or Dwarf, you can equip the Axe that ads a point of stamina, making it 20. I'd suggest taking dwarf with 18/00 strength and for the extra savingthrows, you don't want your big d Kensai getting confused and destroying your party singlehandedly.

Edit: sorry been playing other games, with stamina i obviously meant constitution.

StummvonBordwehr

I will second Sarevok57s insight. But will add that clubs are the way to go for your druid. Crushing damage rules supreme.

Clubs are (a bit) lacklustre in all the IE games, but at least IWD has 2 quite good ones:
1) Svians club (+5 weapon) and
2) sceptre of tyranny (+4 weapon and added immunity to fear). None of these are random drops IIRC, so no need for item fishing.

I would go for dual wielding as well. A shield in the off hand could do in the beginning - until you get two good clubs.

A level 13 dual is pretty hardcore. So perhaps a multi class is better.

I have played a Fighter Druid in BG1 with SCS and no level cap. I paired spike growth and entangle - both cast off screen - and the combo made most encounters a walk in the park (all bounty hunters, Daveorn, Bandit camp and basically all before the fight at the palace). Charname could melee and cast.

Low level Druid spells in IWD are truly something different from the ridiculously poor BG counter parts. So take a Druid and make them cast from the get go.

Sweron_Dern

listened to your advice, I'm not leveling my druid atm until she's ready to return her fighter(berserker) XP, and hopefully she's have 5 stars in clubs too.

ok, here's my group at the start of HoW (done just quests with girl at the well)



Weapons: Pale Justice+4, Restored Blade of Aihonen+5
Heavy Crossbow of Speed+2
Armor: Bathed-In-Blood+4



Weapons:Morning Star of the Gods+3, Redemption+4
Armor: The Glory of Suffering+6



Weapons: The Celebrant's Blade+4, Benorg's Truth+3



Weapons: Scimitar+3 Frostbrand, Valiant+2
Edley's Sling+3
Armor: Umber Hulk Plate (while still only druid)



Weapons: Longbow+3: Repeater, Static Short Sword+3
Armor: Studded Leather of Resistance+3



Weapons: Jamison's Sling+4, The Salamander's Tongue+3/Mage Dagger+3
Armor: Robe of the Watcher

jsaving

Definitely a maximally twinked party, if that is your cup of tea then you should be really happy with your party design!

Sweron_Dern

jsaving wrote: »

Definitely a maximally twinked party, if that is your cup of tea then you should be really happy with your party design!

o yes, I enjoy it, can't wait for my Druid to reach 14 lvl and return his fighter abilities
But even better than that will be when my Kensai starts mage class and returns his fighter abilities which will be waaaay later in HoF mode.