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IWD party

CvijetaCvijeta Member Posts: 417
in Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
Half-elf female bard,
druid
Human paladin
dwarf cleric of tempus
Hafling rogue - chaotic evil
half-orc barbarian or human vanilla mage

What are your thoughts and suggestion?

Comments

  • CvijetaCvijeta Member Posts: 417
    I would like to achieve roleplay optimization, meaning having party members who can have all dialogue options that have tangible reward (xp mostly), while having a balanced party.
  • SomeSortSomeSort Member Posts: 859
    IWD is different than BG in that it's much more of a marathon than a sprint. You might be facing four times as many mid-level enemies, and places to rest safely are rarer and further apart. Ideally, you want a party that can push through large sums of enemies without burning up all of their resources to reach the next rest point.

    As a result, I think it's really important to have multiple "fighter-types". Their damage output is a totally renewable resource that never needs to be replenished-- as long as they're alive, they're dealing the exact same damage. Spellcasters are diminished in comparison as their spells dwindle down.

    I'd also say having two "healer-types" (pureclass druid, pureclass cleric) is overkill, especially because after level 11 Vanilla Bards become the single best healer in the game. (They have a song that gives everyone regeneration, which lets them heal the entire party up to full whenever they want, and unlike divine spells it's a perfectly renewable resource, which is better for reasons already mentioned.)

    You could switch the Cleric to a Fighter/Cleric and the Druid to a Fighter/Druid, which costs you the kits, (though Vanilla Druid is arguably better than any of the kits in IWD, anyway). That'll give you three "fighter-types". You could make your halfling rogue a Fighter/Thief, which will give you four. No, I don't think this is overkill, especially if you have the halfling focus on archery. (Alternately, you could do the Fighter/Cleric and the Fighter/Thief and leave the Druid as a pureclass to get faster progression to levels 14/15.)

    I'd also go with the mage over the barbarian, because while fighters will carry you through most of the long slogs between rest points, it's really nice to have a high-level arcane caster to help out with the tougher parts. The bard can cover some of your arcane needs, and high-level bards actually get up to level 8 spells in IWD (instead of capping out at level 6 like in BG), but that's a long way off and your bard is probably going to want to keep singing through most of combat instead of switching to casting.

    So maybe something like:
    Bard
    Paladin
    Fighter/Cleric
    Fighter/Thief
    Druid or Fighter/Druid
    Mage
  • CvijetaCvijeta Member Posts: 417
    Would fighter/druid count as druid in conversations? Would I get xp and opportunity for bestowing a nature blessing in Kuldahar?
  • SomeSortSomeSort Member Posts: 859
    Cvijeta said:

    Would fighter/druid count as druid in conversations? Would I get xp and opportunity for bestowing a nature blessing in Kuldahar?

    Yes.

    If you want to see these interactions from the standpoint of "this is content and I want to see it", then that's fine, but if you're trying to powergame and you're worried about missing out on something important, I'll say that pretty much all the class/race/alignment rewards amount to a big fat nothingburger in the grand scheme of things. You'll get a couple thousand extra XP (out of the millions you'll finish with) and a couple hundred extra GP (out of the hundreds of thousands you'll finish with).

    But I totally get that "Fear of Missing Out" is a real thing, it's neat that the developers built so much reactivity into the game, and it's nice to see it if all else is equal.
  • SloaneRangerSloaneRanger Member Posts: 17
    Cvijeta said:

    Half-elf female bard,
    druid
    Human paladin
    dwarf cleric of tempus
    Hafling rogue - chaotic evil
    half-orc barbarian or human vanilla mage

    What are your thoughts and suggestion?

    The party is light on fighters. This is a very combat intense game. I have found that anything less than 3 fighter types will have a hard time slugging it through many of the very long battles. The game likes to throw a zillion low level monsters at your party rather than a few high level monsters for most battles. A spellcaster heavy party will run out of spells quickly but swords never break in this game. Consider making the cleric, a fighter/cleric.

    I would have a mage/thief or even a fighter/thief instead to get an extra fighter. The game is strictly linear and the locks and traps difficulty seem to be set for a multiclass thief so the quicker advancement of a single class thief is not needed. This allows for the half-orc barbarian if you go with the mage/thief. Half-orcs make great fighter types because of their 19 strength and constitution.
  • PetrolPetrol Member Posts: 34
    edited May 2017
    Like others i think you need much more fighter, 3 a least.

    - dwarf dwarven defender with shield
    - half-orc berzerker or human paladin undead hunter with the 2 handed weapon style
    - gnome fighter/mage or elf swashbuckler, maybe half elf blade with the dual weapon style
    - fighter thief mage or fighter thief or (if you take the swash) half elf bard with crossbow
    - half elf fighter druid or half orc fighter cleric with sling
    - halfling fighter (with a longbow) or elf archer with longbow

    With this party you can complete the game and even do heart of fury level 1.
  • WesboiWesboi Member Posts: 403
    With party creation it always depends how far your taking the party and if u plan on starting HoF from 1 or after a couple of run throughs.

    When you start a HoF run from level 1 u soon get used to it and all other modes are pointless.
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