Just finished. My thoughts...

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Finally took the time to get my group thru the game. I'll only include general comments, and what I learned during the game.

Classes
Pure classes aren't very good, with the exception of the specialist mages and paladins or rangers. Pure clerics or pure druids aren't very combat effective, and the game is mostly about combat. Besides, with ~ 1 million experience points you're only talking a difference of 1 or 2 levels for pure classes vs. multiclassed characters. I think for a first trip thru a bard comes in very handy for item identification purposes. My general recommendation for a 1st party would be Paladin, Fighter/Druid, Cleric/Ranger, Halfling Fighter/Thief, Bard, and a specialist mage(I picked a Conjurer).

I also learned by rereading the manual that you need 2 points in proficiencies for extra damage. I think the Paladin would make the best use of longswords and crossbows at 2 points right from the start. The Fighter/Druid gets missile weapons at 2 points at the start. The Cleric/Ranger can put in 2 point in Hammer/Flails. The Halfling gets 2 in Axes, and Shortswords.

 

Yeah, for Icewind (with HoW installed), multiclass is definately the way to go. Go with a party of 10 instead of 6. Bards are nice for the combat bonuses at the higher levels, when you have trouble just hitting things; not to mention damage. Pickpocket can also score some very useful stuff, a chapter or two ahead of schedule.

 

I'd rather get pure classes, except for my fighter/cleric dwarf (my party is in the post below..). I wanted a balanced party and I didn't feel like having all my party halved in twelve different classes; I prefer the "specialist" commando-type party .

Ah, and Toro Sinful rocks.

 

I really don't see the point in having a Fighter/Druid AND a Cleric/Ranger in the same party since C/R gets both druidic and cleric spells.

 

The main reason for my choice of Fighter/Druid are the Dagger and Missile weapon proficiencies. Another reason is that they get the good summoning abilities much sooner than the Cleric/Ranger can. Cleric/Rangers are there for the numerous skeletal undead. With the Fighter/Druid better as a summoner, this frees the Cleric/Ranger to focus on the clerical party spells. A Fighter/Cleric would work a bit better and not duplicate the Druid spells. It worked well for my group to focus this way, but my initial comments are for a general 1st time party. It's not meant to be an "ultimate" or "mandatory" party, but just my minor opinion on what works well for the 1st time through the game. I'm sure the regular posters here can make a better group.

 

I prefer specialists too. I played with a party of 5: a paladin(xbow+2h+halberd), mage, cleric/thief,fighter, ranger. I can't recollect what others did, but having only 5 characters and only one multi-class, I gained a lot more experience. And more proficiencies, so I used all sorts of weapons(the best possible, of course). IMHO ID has the best weapon set of all FRPs I played!

 

You don't gain so much experience, you finish at the same level if you play with 5 than with 6. I did that, first time I played with only 5 characters and the second time with a full party of 6, and the levels were equal or almost.

And another thing, having one character with two professions is worse (in my opinion) than having two separate characters. Instead of a cleric/thief, take one cleric AND one thief .

 

I've passed the game with two solos Half-elven fighter/cleric (a grizly till the end and thoughout the whole game) and Halflingish fighter/thief (moderate grizly and a good backstabber)...

After that i passed the game with pure Dwarven Fighter, Paladin and Mage/thief for the sake of multiclassing one... I even began to think that there isn't much point in pure mage also, after all...

My later atempts were to make all the characters till level 30 even, those who are solos... So now I have one group of all-level 30 epic-godlike characters. In the game there are few increase/decrease potions, which are very handy for a fighter or mage... So it was another challenge to pass the game so many times with different characters...

My latest band is to try something absolutely different that I've never played before that so I started the game with a Half-elven Fighter/Druid, Human Bard, Elven Ranger and Gnomish Illuzionist/Thief. At the moment I am right at the Kresselack Tomb...