3rd party spot help

kaja8

I'm planning a new run with 3 characters and I would like to get your opinion on something.
I decided to make a fighter/druid and swashbuckler>mage but I'm not sure about the 3rd spot. It's probably going to be a paladin but I can't decide on the kit.
The inquisitor would arguably be the best kit, but an other kit would fill the missing cleric hole with turn undead, defensive harmony, protection from evil 10r, etc. What I'm asking is if a druid is enough divine or if I need an other in the shape of a cavalier/UH?

LelandGaunt

Hmm, Defensive Harmony is nice, but your druid can do it too, just like some other cleric classics like Death Ward or Chaotic Commands. Protection from evil 10 sure is good, but I guess you can go without. Two in my opinion vital cleric spells you'd miss are Remove Fear and Restoration, but the former can be done by your mage too and for the latter you could go for your druid's Negative Plane Protection and/or collect the Level Drain protection items (Amulet of Power and Mace of Disruption) before you start fighting vampires...
So if you want to go with the Inquisitor I guess you can make up for most of the lacking cleric stuff in some way or another.
But as all the paladin kits are pretty strong there's of course nothing wrong with Cavalier or Undead Hunter either if you prefer their combo of immunities + thaco/damage bonuses + a little bit cleric support.
Or heck, what about maybe a Fighter/Cleric? Not quite a paladin, but then you can be sure to have all the divine spellpower you'll ever need^^

kaja8

Oh, i totally forgot all divine casters get defensive harmony.
As you said, my mage can take care of remove fear and with a 3man party i will have enough money for plenty of restoration scrolls.
I don't think i will be going with a F/C this time as I would like to be able to use carsomyr and have more frontline power without too much prebuffing.

LelandGaunt

Oh, and I totally forgot that there's scrolls of restoration too, d'oh! But they're rare as loot and can rather be bought I guess? On the few occasions so far when I got level-drained by some early "nighttime in Athkatla" vampires and didn't have someone with memorized restoration I usually just ran to the nearest temple...
Fair enough, Carsomyr might really be a strong competition for DuhM, so Inquisitor might work of course. Or go for Cavalier or Undead Hunter, rely on your mage's counter spells and your druid's insects when it comes to enemy mages and have a paladin with Carsomyr AND DuhM, whichever you prefer.

jmerry

There are enough scrolls of restoration out there that you don't need cleric casting to deal with level drain. Especially if you're willing to shoplift. You don't find them as loot, though; they're all in shops.

Note that the scrolls are much cheaper than the temple service of restoration, and anyone other than a wizard slayer can use them with 9+ Int.

In the long run, once your mage hits epic levels, a planetar can cast restoration too. Unlike the other options, this doesn't fatigue any of your party members.

Parties don't have to be tightly balanced to work well. There's a lot of leeway in how you approach encounters; with all of the key roles covered already, you should be able to handle anything no matter what you do with that last slot.

Incidentally, I had a paladin in my latest full run (Isra, a mod Cavalier). She chose to dual-wield Crom Faeyr with various options rather than use Carsomyr for more than the occasional dispelling tap. CF is just that good. Even if it didn't grant 25 strength, it would be on par with most of the ToB upgraded weapons, only available significantly earlier. And with the other two members of your party unable to use it at all ...

kaja8

The paladin will probably have TOO MUCH options, the only big one he won't use is belm as it goes to the f/d.
I still have to figure out what too choese besides carsomyr. CF, purifier, FoA, defender of easthaven...
Should I even worry about short swords and kundane? Or should i plan for defender of easthaven and CF as OH weapon?

jsaving

If you are determined to place a paladin in the third slot then inquisitor would definitely be the way to go. Clerics and bards are the only casters in the game who can reliably dispel magic and you won't have either one of those. I would personally solve that problem with a fighter dualed to cleric but you do not want a fighter/cleric in the party so your only alternative is to go inquisitor and use his double-caster-level dispel magic ability as a replacement. Carsomyr doesn't hurt but it isn't the main reason to carry a paladin and as @jmerry says probably isn't even the weapon you would want to be using in an undersized party.

kaja8

The idea was to use the paladin for turn undead, protection from evil 10 and a few other occasional party and self buffs. I would use carsomyr for dispel on hit and switch to two weapons after that. My mage could also dispel to some degree if needed.
I understand that the inquisitor would be the obvious choice but I think I have to change at least something, or else it's just a party of jaheira, imoen and keldorn.

Now when i think about it, i might even eekeeper the f/d and add the totemic kit.

Thank you all for your input.