If I had to do it again...

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I just finished IWD:HOW for the first time. (WHOO HOO!!! ) I chose from the start to have only four PCs in the party which was great for level progression. I finished with a level 18 Paladin, a 14/15 lvl fighter/cleric, a 14/17 fighter/thief and a 15/14 cleric/mage. But the last half of the game I kept thinking about what I'd change in my party if I were to play through again.

One disavantage to having only four characters is I found myself running out of inventory slots constantly, I had to either run to town to sell stuff off or chose what to leave behind.

So in hindsight I would've added a bard to my party. I didn't read about how souped up the bard was in HOW until my party was well into the game, or else I would've had one from the start. The new bard songs would've been fun to play with plus there's some interesting bard only items throughout the game. Also the bard would've helped greatly in item identification. Because, while my cleric/mage with 18 INT/18 WIS (actually that had gone up to 18 INT/20 WIS by the end of the game) had a decent lore rating, I still found myself having to pay for a lot of items to be identified, or having to down potions to raise INT to get some of the items identified, or worse, having to waste a 1st level spell slot on Identify instead of Magic Missle.

Also, the big mistake I made with my party was I figured my cleric/mage was going to stay in the back and cast spells so I wouldn't have to worry about Strength. BIG MISTAKE. With only 8 in STR she could only carry 50 pounds of stuff, and by the end of the game she was equipped with around 40 lbs. on her body, leaving only 10 or so lbs. to play with for the other slots. This is not a good thing to have when you're short on inv. slots.

Otherwise, I was happy with this party and now think I get when and where to use certain spells and when not to. Hopefully this knowledge will be benifical as I move back to that town in the Sword Coast who's name eludes me at the moment... what was it again? Bald-something-something?

 

Don't bother going back to Baldurs Gate, go even further south to Amn (BG2) and really warm yourself up after all that wandering around in the snow of Icewind Dale.

 

But that would be a waste of the $30 I spent on BG and TotSC!!

Actually, I want to play a character from the start of BG:TotSC and carry it over to BG2:SoA and ToB. I have played a bit with BG2, though, with both a monk and a fighter/thief, but I never got either of them past chapter two. But, I do have a fighter in Chapter 3 of BG that's waiting to be high enough level to be dual-classed into a cleric though- I wouldn't want to keep him waiting.

 

It's worth playing BG I and TOSC again. Just to see the progression of the design as well as the TOMES. The Tomes will give you an additional +1 Str,Dex,Const,Char,Int and +3 Wisdom (2 in BG game, 1 in TOSC). I'm all for that!

Then you can have a legit imported character for BG II and BG II's expansion -The Throne of Bhaal!

 

I actually prefered BG1 to BG2. BG2 was more polished and had some nice new features and the NPC interactions but I thought BG1 had better roleplaying, story, main villain, sense of adventure, etc. To my surprise it looks like I wasn't the only one who felt like this as you can see by looking at:
http://www.sorcerers.net/ubb/Forum2/HTML/001760.html

 

I agree. I'm on BG2 right now after BG1/TOSC and IWD/HOW. BG1 is the king. There was something about it that gave the gaming experience a bit more sense of adventure. Maybe because it was the first of a dynasty, I don't know. I used to plan my day around playing it (I'm a geek). With BG2, I just play when I have time. BG1 was so immense and roving, and somany areas without any discreet plot around them you could just walk through. That was cool. I do like BG2, though. I'm not knocking it at all, I just think BG1 had more magic about it. IWD was incredible, too. When I finish BG2, sometime in the nmext century, I'm going for Planescape.

 

i have finished bg2, iwd, planescape........
right now i'm playing how

my team -
1 fighter
1 ranger
1 druid (it's fun to transform into elemental heeheee..........they are cute)
1 thief
1 cleric
1 conjurer (cant use evocation spell.....too bad)

i want to play bg1 (it's out of stock).....(i live in hong kong).........any suggestion for where i can buy it?????

 

Well, I downloaded the patch and took a small break from BG1 by rolling a new party for IWD.

There's the Bard (of course{see above}), he was already useful in the prologue for a bit of extra XP.
A plain fighter (no DC/MC or kits)- I've never played just a plain fighter so it should be fun to get a high mastery in axes and crossbows when two stars was all the further my Paladin could get from my first go around.
A druid- because I've never played one before.
A cleric/ranger with spectral undead as the racal enemy. Wailing Virgins here I come.
And a necromancer and mage/thief to cover the spells and thievery.

I made it throught the prologue with little problem, though I'm wishing for a bit more AC on my druid. Let's see, where did I find those rings of protection... Anyway, this party should be a nice diversion when I get tired of wondering the wilderness aimlessly in BG1.