Thoughts on best parties for hof?

Hermetics

Curious to hear what kind of diversity People have come up with as I'm not a particularly creative person. My own view of the game is you shouldn't be thinking about late game builds because by the time most of your party is over level 15 the challenge should be gone unless you are doing a challenge with like monks or no arcane casters or other such memes. The challenge is that lvl 1 start where you have nothing and need to get your power spikes as early as possible when they matter and especially dealing with those orc packs in the cave.

My current party:

Sorcerer human

Barbarian orc

Blackguard human

Cleric/thief gnome

Skald helf

Bard helf

It's pretty self explanatory for the most part. Berserker I think better than barbarian for the early game but I really like barbarians more of a personal taste, just a neater kit overall. Blackguard for the aura of decay which I think makes it the best paladin kit for this game over undead hunter since aoe enemy debuff with no save and no enemy type restriction>single self buff. think it makes a huge difference in the early game. Cleric/thief Imo being the best multiclass option out of the bunch since unlike fighter and mage who are both hungry for their mid levels, getting its exp in half barely impedes its power scaling since you're only really looking for the spell slots you get between lvl 7-11 then after that it's just bonus slots and longer spells, and completely free to use every action on casting and not like fighter/cleric who has a tight action economy or fighter/thief who just stands there being a weaker fighter. Pure fighter vs multi fighter has felt pretty noticeable to me with how fast the pure fighter gets its thaco spikes, and even with cleric levels you're still eating spell slots and actions doing self buffs as well as behind on base thaco. Feel like because of how much role consolidation it does on its own cleric/thief is the heart of the party. Skald+bard goes hand in hand imo with double song being pretty insane, and they can both learn simulacrum+tenser later on and just leave the songs up to the clones and use apr bows to do some pretty serious damage fully buffed. No need to use spell slots on healing thanks to the songs and party wide buffs for everyone including summons stacking even further with your cleric and mage buffs, as well as opening up the sorcerer to use other spells like malison and melfs(which does really high damage after you pile on all those buffs).

But yea interested to hear what kind of stuff other people like to run. Particularly druids cuz I personally don't think they're that good. They have the earliest available lockdown+aoe with avenger but maybe there's something I'm not seeing cuz their later spell levels just don't seem that strong. They level the fastest but I feel like they fall off too fast and don't really compare to clerics who have multiple party wide buffs.

Also shoutout to ineth for introducing me to all those quest mods. Really great additions to the game, thank you.

Yigor

I'd suggest to add a Shaman or Totemic Druid (instead of Bard), who can summon Spirit Animals starting from level 1.

Hermetics

Yigor wrote: »

I'd suggest to add a Shaman or Totemic Druid (instead of Bard), who can summon Spirit Animals starting from level 1.

That seems kind of unnecessary imo like you don't really seem to need summons from the get go unless you're gonna solo with it. and forces you to keep healing spells slotted. Shaman's spontaneous casting would fix the healing problem for sure. That's definitely a good idea though, probably the best slot to replace with a shaman and I've been wanting to run one, and he can use the seth bow on top of it. Will definitely have to try it just to change things up.

What value do they have to the party past the first stage though? Still kinda confused there cuz unless I'm missing something on spell picks, I'm not seeing what druids and shamans get to stand out over the other casters. Everyone can summon eventually and the cleric has skeletons available for kuldahar path, clerics can heal too, but arcane and cleric spells provide party buffs unique to their classes that I'm not seeing from a druid's spellbook.

Yigor

Well, the advantage of druids in IWD is probably summoning of all kind of elementals and few nifty aoe spells like Spike Growth. In my gameplays on HoF, druids performed better than clerics, but it might depend on tactics. 😎

Hermetics

early elementals does sound nice but ultimately superfluous unless running a weaker party, I forget how fast druid can get lvl 6 slots in a 6 man party on hof but after the second stage I don't think it really matters anymore, and mages can summon elementals eventually anyway so it's not a unique access they have so much as quicker access. I think in a world without sorcerers or bards druid definitely shoots up in value immensely. Just in a world with both+cleric you are able to get fighters into negative ac pretty much out the gate with cheap armor, and even weaker summons can hit consistently when you are adding +10 or more to their thaco and damage. Is entangle as good as web? I feel like web is bugged or maybe just coded op cuz it seems like touching the edge is a no save hold. if entangle had a similar mechanic where you could lock up entire encounters plus spike growth even in the first map then yea that would definitely take the cake. I'm not a fan of abusing web+aoe myself, or over reliance on summons for that matter. Guess my chosen form of cheese tactics is stacking buffs. It's kind of ridiculous cuz past level 10 or so the cleric/thief has almost no reason to cast chants anymore, just don't need the thaco to your side or the nerf to their side, nor the +1 damage. Maybe hof would be a little better balanced by cutting the exp gain in half or so, that would definitely make druids feel like a much higher priority.

The irony that druid probably the most early game spiking class which I said is best but I'm sitting here "but what does it do in the late game" lmao.

Balrog99

After level 10, Totemic Druid spirit animals are immune to normal weapons. There aren't a whole lot of enemies that even use magic weapons in IWD so that can be a huge advantage in most fights. Also, bombardier beetles from the summon insects spell (level 4 druid spell) can stun opponents. That can be handy at times too.