What is your playing style?

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That's pretty much me too. I only use thiefs for PP, FT and OL, I just can't use backstabbing...

 

This is my first run through, and I'm trying out a few things, but still trying to remain relatively balanced.

My PC was a kensai until level 21, now duelled to a thief (regretting it slightly, just arrived at the Elven city after the Underdark, only level 11 so far, but that provides a challenge and he's got heaps of HP)

I'm using Viconia as my main tank(!) - she's AC-12 and wielding the Crom Feyer and wearing Boots of Speed and Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise, so she rarely takes physical damage while handing it out in spades. After the fight, she's there with the healing spells.

Imoen is on trap-finding and ranged attacks, with a custom script so she fires off spells as required (I'm a programmer by trade, so my scripts are getting quite complex).

My main arcane spellcaster is Edwin, who's also equipped with the SoM and Cloak of Non-Detection. He scouts out the area, tosses in a cloudkill from his wand and then falls back, leading the enemy into the rest of the party. He and Girdle of Hill Giant Strength to lend support up front when required (every fourth level spell slot is taken with stoneskin!)

Aerie is backup arcane spellcaster and in-fight healer, tending to stay out of the way of melee and using the Sling of Everard +5 as her main weapon, but with the Mauler's Arm for those times when someone wants to get up close and personal.

Jaheira brings up the rear, with offensive druid spells and more sling-style ranged support. She's also got all of the summoning-type items to add more front-line troops / cannon-fodder.

As I said, I'm a programmer by trade, so a lot of the micro-management of the party is handled by scripts - healing, running away, prioritising targets, etc - meaning I can concentrate on the more important aspects of the game... watching the show!

[ October 15, 2006, 12:56: Message edited by: OTG ]

 

I usually go for balance, although I tend slightly towards melee-heavy parties. My current group includes (all are currently around 300 k XP)

- me - DCed Ranger/Cleric, melee with full plate and 2 flails/hammers
- Jaheira (slightly modded version - can't use metal armor. Well I'll be) - F/D,scimitar + shield for now, maybe 2 weapons later on
- Minsc (maybe to be replaced with Keldorn) - 2-handed sword
- Nalia (to be ditched for Imoen or Jan if she's too annoying) - T/M, adventurer kit from NPCkits (no backstab, more open locks/disable traps) - tuigan bow
- Kivan (modded - ranger-archer) - +1 Composite bow: THAC0 of 1 and 4 attacks/round... wow. If I make it to ToB, though, I may get Sarevok here... Or if I get tired of prot. from missiles, Valygar.
- Aerie - C/M, sling and shield, probably will be substituted by Tashia or Haer'Dalis

Total of 3 frontliners, 1 archer, 2 supporters, 1 1/2 to 2 divine casters, and 1 1/2 arcanists.

 

I do not like scripts that much, spell-casting scripts are a big no-no for me, for some reason they choose the wrong spells always.

I use buff script though, my characters stones/iron skin themselves instantly when they are not protected by it, and they can use various buffs simultaneously via a single keyboard command:so convenient!

My current paty is:

-Big me:Wild Magi! This guy is versatile, fun, and powerful! Has SoM, (ofcourse!) Robe of Vecna, Amulet of Power, Circlet of Netheril, Cloak of Mirroring, Sorcerian Ring (combo of all memory enhancing rings plus ring of protection+1) and a mod ring which grants avoid death ability. (which is useful as I don't want him to die!)

-MP created Shapeshifter 15/Fighter 22+ (dual) This guy is very powerful. He has GM in spears and uses Throwing Impaler (+10 dmg, +1 attck/round), or Bloodbane (save vs breath at -4 or stun/poison, +1 attack/round) when improved hasted, he has 9 attacks/round. He is scary to behold, the ultimate ranged attacker, stunning/poisoning all and then switching to Impaler for massive +10 dmg bonus per hit. Enemies drop like flies. Bonus:He also has lvl 15 druid's spell casting, which means tons of lvl 7 and 6 druid spells! When melee is needed, his spears are equally powerful in melee, and he can always turn in to a Greater Were Wolf for -20 or better AC and massive regeneration when in trouble. Definitely a powerful, versatile, and tough build. I love it! He CAN actually wear a Red Flaming Suit which gives some AC bonus, immunity to fire and a fiery backslash if some one dares to hit him:he is one cool bad-a** fighter of nature!

-Jaheira Good old Jaheira, with Natural Selection she can use bows:a good bonus, she single handedly cleared entire rooms filled with Improved Mind Flayers (gasp!) via a detonation arrow and Greater Death Blow and single hit. She wears some white magical armor from a mod, which is AC perfect, grants immunity to lvl drain, can cast regeneration and summon a Bone Golem. Add her nasty scimitar Water's Talon+4:ranged, poisons, drains HP per hit, and immunity to various things including ABBDHW. She has the best natural AC, and with her scimitar constantly healing her via hits, she can not die easily. (she can regain 20 HP in a round via GWW attack with that scimitar, for instance!) She also has lvl 15 druid spells and druid HLAs:cool! Wears ring or preservation (+2 ring with regeneration) and Gaxx ring. And She is also my love interest. Cool and caring Jaheira!

-Kelsey:Sweet sorcerer. Has a very powerful spell selection thanks to me. Man, he is a sorcerer, what should I tell you more? Oh, he has a deep romance with my male PC for some reason, we are already engaged! Rejoice! He uses Elemental Mastery Staff+5 which kills elementals on hit (no save) and can summon three elementals instantly, he also wears Ring of Elemental Mastery which grants nice bonuses, plus same elemental summoning ability!

-Immy:She uses eagle bow which can produce 5 arrows per day, which stuns without save (they even stun Ascension Melissan!) and can kill outright %5. Or she has Freedom's Call longsword+5, immunity to lvl drain, and free action, and can imp. haste twice per day!

-Sarevok:Big, bad tank. Oh no, he is not that bad any more, I redeemed him to CG. He uses Volcano Blade +6, which is one heavy sword, grants immunity to fire, +4d4 fire damage, immunity to time stop! He single handedly beat Improved Demogorgon down to injured in the demon prince's own Time Stop! has regular fighter HLAs and ofcourse the nasty Death Bringer Special one hit KO thingie. Coolness!

Eh, my party is fairly powerful, and caster-heavy, you see. But what were you expecting from me?

 

Er, just what mods are you using for that kind of stuff? I thought I was pushing it...

 

Har har, I have so many mods I can not list them all, buddy, sorry! I have hardest battle mmods to compensate all those power gaming though, like tactics, improved battles, ascension, oversight etc. so don't worry!

 

That shapeshifter/fighter sounds interesting. Too bad the xp needed is too high...

 

^Indeed he is a cool build, and very very useful. IIRC he has a very high kill rate, he just does massive damage with those nasty spears and with GWW form, he can be a true, hard to kill tank as well. He also has tons of druid spells:this guy is just suitable for everything:tank, summoner, healer, excellent ranged attacker, spell disruptor, etc etc., just say whatever you need and he will do it!

You need 3M XP for lvl 15 druid, but when you dual, you actually need less XP to level up to 16 in fighter. He regained his druid abilities just before the Improved Irenicus fight in hell. (perfect timing, if I must say to myself!) He is simply COOL!

 

The thing you got to remember about Silverstar is he's got the right combination of mods to make DemoGorgon look like a kindergardner so he's always going to be carrying around a lot of powerful stuff.


Myself I tend to go with a balanced party that I picked up in BG1 and hasn't failed me. Certain things are challenging for me because I'm just nto a heavy powergamer. Part of my strategy tends to be in how I arrange my party (which was sometimes a godsend for surprise fights in BG1 honestly).

So I tend to play with 2 Tank/Fighters. A Cleric. A thief. And 2 mages. At early levels the second mage is backup and support. At high level I tend to build them to play off each other and aid each other and I save most of my big stuff for the tough fights. Sometimes some of these roles are mixed so I might end up with a third fighter or a second divine caster. I'm not the most on Buffing however. I generally like to blast through and rip down as much as possible so I take a lot of area affect spells. I can take down dragons with area affect spells to the point that I've managed to chunk every dragon in the unmodded game except Adalon at least once, which is honestly a pain because if you chunk a damned dragon whether from spells or otherwise you lose their damned scales.


In my current game I was in an odd mood so I'm trying to get the square mod to work so I have the 4 girls needed for that. A druid PC that is pretty strong in her own right being a Shape shifter and i have Chloe. It makes me magic heavy for certain but I'm about split between Divine casting and Arcane Casting but it's a bit of a learning curve for me because I'm having to use more buffs than I normally would. Leaving me less destruction to reign down on things at whim.

 

My playing style is quite similar to that of Felinoid and Harbourboy. I try to use magic more often than before though, especially arcane.
I avoid resting more than absolutely necessary (I'll have to try that save/quit/load to take away fatigue ) and try as hard as possible to use every last spell and special ability before resting.

 

In my current party, I have one tank, Jaheira. Everyone else uses ranged weapons. I only use spells during battle if I have to. Everyone in my party who can, always has stoneskin or iron skins on. If I know a tough battle is coming, I'll probably prepare for it. I know the lower-level spells a lot better than the higher-level ones - somewhere from 6th-9th level I get overwhelmed by the masses of spells that all do the same thing. I prefer to just point, click, and have things die - in my opinion, combat isn't the most fun part of the game - or at least go through battles with limited spellcasting. I hate fighting mages simply because it takes too long most of the time. I'd rather not have to rely on spells- that way, if I really need them, I have the entire selection available.

I don't really have all that many mods that add difficult battles installed - as I said, battles aren't my thing. I hate micromanaging everyone, but I do it anyway because I don't trust the AI to tell my characters to do exactly what I want them to, and I don't know how to write my own scripts.

 

@Starwalker: imo there are no pure thieves in the game... Do you make your PC a thief or do you use a multi/dualclass?

 

I'm a magic addict too...if my character cannot cast SOME spells...preferably of the arcane type, then I just cannot play that character...

This one time I was playing a duo, with my PC as a Fighter/Thief and Aerie along for romance and as a Cleric/Mage. The logic was that all 4 of the major class types would be covered...only...I ended up using Aerie for all the important fights, with my Fighter/Thief just chugging a Potion of Invisibility and staying out of the way.

I actually found keeping him alive tedious, while Aerie was a dervish of insane arcane and divine destruction!!

Heh...

 

Melee heavy, the arcane I bring to battles is there for dispelling enemy protections, crowd control and buffing my party. I pretty much keep my healers just stocked with as many heal spells as they can muster throwing in a few buffs. My PC is almost always a thief-type and I always play with a party.

I find mages, although powerful, require far too much work to bring down an enemy when a guy with a big sword you can just order to kill and he'll do it.

 

I like to arcane heavy...and it seems not to many people seem to like to do this. I usually get 2 mages & are my most used chars. I love using area of effect spell combos....so much funn!!!! The high level area of effects do very little damage to my party & kill most enemies.(My current party consists of, Me-Paladin, Keldorn, Mazzy, Jaheira, Nalia, Immy --seems to be Paladin themed ehh?)

I personally think the greatest spells in that game are - Incendary Cloud, Horrid Wilting, Wail Of the Banshee, Sphere Of Chaos, Storm Of Vengance & Dragon's Breath/Meteor when used together.

 

I like to use a lot of tank-types. My protagonist is almost always multiclassed, sometimes dualclassed.

I don't like to use too many mages, but I enjoy muti or dual classed spellchuckers in my group. Imoen is one of my favorite NPCs, for example. In my mind, she has a use when not casting a spell. I also vastly prefer Anomen to Viconia, for example.

The only single-classed mage-type I can stand is when I've played a Wild Mage or Sorcerer and surround myself with tank NPCs.

Currently, I'm playing a Gnome Cleric/Illusionist, which is very out of the ordinary for me.

 

Same here.

 

OK, I guess Faraaz and Halasz are with me so far! We should form a fellowship of arcane!

I know what you mean Faraaz, IIRC your game was as modded as mine, so keeping a non-caster PC alive is rather...tedious!

 

I don't have much patience for doing complicated set ups. As such I make limited use of thieves, basically OL and PP only. So I like Imoen as my thief.

I like to have at least two arcane casters and prefer three. I can't stand single target save or else spells, so I load them up with summons, buffs, party friendly area effect spells and breach. I couldn't be bothered to deal with enemies magic protections - I much prefer to hit protected mages with breach and area effects like glitterdust, emotion, chain lightning, ADHW and insect plague. I hardly ever use fireball and it's big brother skull trap. Favorite summons are low maintenance like skeleton warriors and Mordy's swords.

Favorite NPC for tactical reasons is Keldorn, again because he's low maintenance. Throw up a True Sight before each battle and use his dispel magic when in trouble.

Most battles I just use a couple of spells to improve the odds.

 

Much like most others, I rely on melee tanks mostly. Arcane users are generally in the back, flinging bullets or daggers at enemies. I generally dislike resting, so until my half-orc barbarian gets fatigued, those arcane casters with their pitiful constitution will just have to suck it up. Or have a PI try to get the right wish, of course.

There are only a few tough battles where I'd consider using arcane magic to win. If I can't cheese and win by trapping the area, that is. And if I do need to use magic because I've had to use Power Word: Reload a bit too often, I generally go completely batsh!t loco, summon a PI to summon a horde of Planetars and Mordies, cast a few buffs on them and laugh as the carnage commences. Still not enough? No problem, I'll just summon up to three more PI's and repeat the whole excercise. Yes, cheesy, but I love watching the ownage in action.

And that's basically my usage for mages: to cheese my way through a battle that would otherwise be aggravating to deal with (i.e. reload a lot).