Going through it again

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Well, for the first time in I don't know how many years, I reinstalled IWD + HoW on my computer and I'm going to go through the game again. I've only completed the game once, and seeing as how it was so long ago, I probably forgot a whole lot of stuff, including what constitutes a good party. I made up only the party last night, but didn't get around to playing. Here's what I made up, let me know if there are some major deficiencies here:

Paladin
Ranger/Cleric
Fighter/Druid
Fighter/Thief
Fighter/Mage
Bard

Two healers, two spell casters, 2 really good tanks, two really good archers, two characters that can tank when needed or stay back. Am I missing something?

 

You shouldn't have problems playing the game with your party, so just have fun !

I personally would prefer a dualclassed mage and druid since I'd like to be able to cast the highest level spells in the game.
I'd also prefer a fighter over a paladin because of the extra APR and other specialisation bonusses.
It's advantageous if your fighter/thief is a gnome or halfling.

2 archers are good, six archers are better, so give a missile weapon to anyone.

 

This is almost the same party I last played with just 4 months ago (I had a Fighter/Cleric instead of a R/C, but that's not such a big deal). Having HoW means all your multiclasses should be able to cast the highest spell levels (including the F/M). The Paladin is fun to have around because he gets some unique dialog options (you can have a very interesting discussion on necromancy with the skeleton boss that attacks you in Kresselack's tomb), and gets to use the most powerful (though not necessarily the best) weapon in the game.

The only problem you may encounter is with having a Bard and a multiclassed Mage at the same time. I sometimes had a hard time deciding who got the spell scrolls, because the Bard will be get fewer spell slots but will be casting spells at a higher level than the F/M.

Do you plan on installing TotL? Even if you don't want to do the extra dungeon installing it might still be a good idea just to get the latest version of the game.

 

Is it downloadable?

It's a halfling, and yes, although I didn't directly say so, they are all MC, not DC characters.

 

I disagree.
In a normal game your party members will only get about 2,500,000 XP each (including TotL).
If you play very easy mode (or very hard) you'll still get only twice as many XP.

A fighter/mage needs 6,000,000 XP for casting level 9 spells.
A fighter/druid needs 3,000,000 XP for level 7 spells, 3,600,000 XP for shapeshift water elemental.

His dialogues are a disadvantage, you won't be able to buy the second flame arrow scroll if he is in your party since he prefers attacking evil guys.

 

I started playing IWD again last week, after a two year break. I just finished the Vale on Insane, and it wasn't too tough except in the beginning with the caravan . . . getting rushed by four ogres is not fun!

Dwarven Fighter
Human Fighter -> Druid
Gnomish Fighter/Thief
Human Cleric -> Mage (Specialist?)
Half-Elven Bard

I plan to dual the humans at lvl 9 for max HP. The cleric will get there first so I will briefly be without a healer. Druids level up faster than anyone else at low levels, which is the nice part of dualing to them.

Can you pick a Specialist mage when dual classing? Any recommendations? I've heard good things about Illusionists, but why pick them if you're not a gnome and what makes them better than Conjurers? Well I've got a bard so any specialist class is fine I guess.

Ooops sorry for hijacking your thread Aldeth . What difficulty are you playing on?

 

I'm in the severed hand now and taking a complete butt-whupping. I don't remember it being this hard. After a relatively easy go of it through the Vale of Shadows, and the seemingly never-ending Yuan-Ti dungeon, I've been getting it taken to me in the Severed Hand. It's not so much that I cna't handle the enemies, it just seems like they just keep coming. I'd actually like to rest every once in a while without getting interrupted.

 

Maybe you should use buffing spells more. Protection from evil and defensive harmony helps. And spells like entangle and web are useful. Bard and F/M must use mirror image, then they last longer. And summons of course.

 

An excellent idea until you run out of said spells. Remember, my party isn't that high of a level. The single classes are level 8-9, and the dual classes are in the range of 7-8. I don't have access to that many spells. And whenever I attempt to rest, I get interrupted. Fortunately, I don't have my bard and F/M anywhere near the front lines - they both use missile weapons, so they aren't the ones getting their butts kicked - it's my frontliners.

 

Maybe you shouldn't use frontliners.
Summon skeletons or other monsters to keep the enemies busy while you shoot holes into them.

If you didn't set dexterity too low you shouldn't have problems getting your paladin's AC so low that your enemies need a critical hit to hit him.

You can always save before trying to sleep if you are desperate.
You can also have some skeletons guard your rest.

 

You could also go outside to rest, or head upward until you find a safe spot to rest. My last time there i could get to the "rest place" up on some 3rd or 4th level in 15 minutes with a consentrated effort.

 

OK after a few days of mulling my options but not actually playing the game, an easier solution presented it self to me. My bard is currently level 9, and only about 30,000 XP away from level 10, where I believe you get the new bard song (Sith) that allows you to regenerate your party's hitpoints. Even if I get really messed up in a battle, playing of the bard song for a couple of minutes should help me out significantly. Am I right that you get this at 10?

 

Sorry Aldeth, but you get the War Chant of Sith at level 11. So you'll have to wait a bit more before you do get it.

You might want to consider dropping down the difficulty level a notch or two. You'll be amazed at how easy things become. Plus you get more experience at lower difficulty, so if you do that for just a short time (say, until your Bard hits level 11) then you can put the difficulty back to where it was (I'm assuming Core - is this the case?) and you should have an easier time.

 

Really? WTF? They don't penalize you for making things easier by giving you fewer XPs? They actually give you more? And yes, I'm currently playing on core difficulty.

 

Your get only penalized like in BG1 if you don't have HoW installed.

With HoW you get

XP +50 percent at easy or hard
XP +100 percent at very easy or very hard

 

I started over. Boy, did I screw that first party up. I had forgotten that there were many items that were unusable by good characters, and since all but one of my characters qualified as such, I had some problems. I also forgot about the inherent worth of having a single-classed fighter, another major oversight with the first party. So the "Going Through It Again" Party v2.0 was started last night consisting of:

Human Paladin (LG)
Dwarven Fighter (CE)
Gnomish F/C (LN)
Half-Elf F/D (TN)
Elven M/T (NG)
Human Bard (CN)

I got particularly lucky in rolling last night so that the Paladin, Fighter, and F/D all have exceptional strength scores of 18(00) Woohoo! The reason the F/C is a gnome, despite the fact that they get a penalty of -1 on their wisdom score is I want to use the helm that's only useable by gnomes and halflings. I suppose I could have made a halfling F/C, but I would prefer the exceptional strength over an extra 3rd level cleric spell.

Also one question. In Dan Simpson's Walkthrough, he says you can kill the elf in the Inn in Easthaven to get his +2 Broadsword, if you don't mind taking the -4 rep hit. He warns that the townspeople will become hostile to you. Not caring about the rep hit, and further not caring whether or not the townspeople would get ticked, I killed him. What Simpson fails to mention is that you get the rep hit and EVERYONE goes hostile, including Hrothgar, who promptly laid a beat down on my entire party.

Is there a way to kill him, keep the sword and continue to story line? I mean, how the heck do you get out of Easthaven even if your party manages to kill Hrothgar - or is he unkillable like some of the people in BG2 (example: attacking Arran after accepting to work with the Shadow Thieves). Or is it just done in such a way that your aren't allowed to have a +2 weapon before you even leave Easthaven?

 

The only method to keep the bastard sword is imho exporting, reloading and reimporting.

It's not very difficult to kill Hrothgar, but you get a "game over" afterwards.

Your game will be easier if you do more dualclassing instead of multiclassing with your spellcasters. You'll be able to cast important spell earlier, more often and at higher levels

 

The only one that I may regret (I think) is the mage/thief. The only thing I REALLY need a mage thief to do is find traps and pick locks, and he can be good in those two regards pretty quickly (level 6 or so). Add in the extra items you get to improve thief skills, and if you can go without a thief for a bit, you'll be OK. The problem is, with a trap-heavy game like this, I'm not sure if you can go without a without a thief for a bit.

That having been said, I am more than satisfied with my cleric/fighter and druid/fighter. I still like the MC route there, because I don't REALLY need high level divine spells, and fighters keep getting better as they level up.

 

Multiclased F/C and F/D can become true powerhouses if you use the self-buffing spells often (things like DUHM come to mind).

I do think that the M/T was probably a waste. IMO you do need a thief in the game, unless you enjoy triggering every trap in the game (and there are many), but a F/T would have been a much better combination, especially since your Arcane needs can be effectively covered by the Bard alone (unlike in, say, BG2)