Starting IWD2

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So could people just give somekind of " good " 6 man partys for a "newbie" like me


( Meaning with " good " = easy to play )

 

CHR 1 - Fighter 4 Barbarian X/Paladin X
CHR 2 - Dreadmaster of Bane X
CHR 3 - Morninglord of Lathander X
CHR 4 - Rogue 2 Wizard X
CHR 5 - Sorcerer X
CHR 6 - Sorcerer X

That's like the Newbies' guide to the perfect party...if you actually need help with THAT party...go read the manual...

 

I Think that i can handle that.. I never have played the norm game ( and of course then not hof ) completily to the end but a billion times the first 2 chapters :/

 

Well...I assumed you wanted an idiot's guide to IWD2...as you asked for a newbie party.

If you know your way around the game...ditch the first and last characters, and play a 4 man party.

Also...with the Morninglord...stop at lvl 13 and switch over to Druid.

With the Rogue/Wizard...make him/her Deep Gnome, take just one level of Rogue, one of Monk, one of Cleric, then Illusionist levels all the way...this way, you get an EXCELLENT DECOY character.

Note...all these character concepts are from the JUPP guide, which is EXCELLENT!! I highly recommend you read it for more details.

Will you believe that I have played the Arcane party of the JUPP all the way through normal mode and HOF mode, and NEVER had my decoy character hit even ONCE!! (After I was past the Palisade battle ofc...)

Try it out...its looks very complicated at first...but as you work through it...you'll find that the whole idea really works...

I managed to get my decoy's AC up to the 50's once I was in the Wandering Village...nothing can touch you at those AC levels in normal mode.

 

Hmmm..Sounds good to me ;] i'll give it a try ..

 

About the jupp-guide: Read it and see if it fits your play-style. Its a really good guide but he uses different gaming-tactics than most people. Especially by his way of using high-AC tanks. I love his playing style, but for normal mode first time through its easier with normal parties and summons in the hard fights.
High-AC decoys makes it possible to beat HOF without summons! That's not easy with a normal party.

Minimize cha and int on your fighter, cleric and druid unless you play a paladin. With paladin just minimize int.
That makes your cleric and druid almost as effective in melee as the pure tank (even better when buffed)

I would suggest using one at least almost-pure cleric and one almost-pure druid. You might add a fighter-type level (barb, fighter, paladin or ranger) for weapon proficiencies but thats not neccesary. Clerics are a bit better than druids, but druids have some really good spells and aren't far behind.

This would be the party:
1: char of your choice (can be a high-AC decoy)
2: Cleric of Bane (can take 1 lvl barb or fighter)
3: Druid (can take 1 lvl barb or fighter)
4: rogue1/wiz (takes all neccesary skills)
5: Sorc (bombardier and talker)
6: Char of your choice

Char 2-5 makes normal mode an easy match and gives you all spell-types.

 

Fighter types and melee power are essentail for the starting chapters. But in HoF everything falls pale in comparison to freakingly powerful level 9 mage spells such as Wail of The Banshee, poor fighters or so called tanks stand little chance against horribly strong and numerous enemies.

Then again I never knew JUPP guide. Is it that good? Might take a look as well. Can you give a link or should I search it?

 

@Silverstar
It's here on SP:
http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/dl.php?s=IWD2&f=IWD2/icewind_dale_ii_jupp.zip
the text-file has his new version and the pdf-file has the older version.

A high-AC char can stand the pain of being in the middle of hof-enemies. But they must have really high AC. There is no "almost good enough" AC. You must have high-enough AC so that the enemies only hit on 20:s and maybe 1st hit 19:s. Otherwise you'll get killed fast.
Mirror images help against the 20:s

 

I wouldn't get too into those UPP's (i.e. ultimate power party guides). They're not for beginners.

OGZ, I'd suggest sticking with much more simple party compositions that worked in the other BG and IWD1 games as a beginner looking for a 6 person party.

2 melee tanks (fighter, paladin, barbarian)
1 medic (cleric)
1 nuker (sorceror)
1 rogue (pure class or rogue/ftr or rogue/ranger)
and 1 utility character.

The utility character can be pretty much anything. A bard, a druid, a ranger, a wizard. Any of those would fit the role of utility character. A "utility" character shouldn't be critical to the party mix, but should complement existing abilities. A druid would bring additional healing, offensive spellcasting, and some backup tanking. A ranger would be a good archer, backup tank, and scout. A bard would be good for backup spellcasting, pretty much a jack of all trades, master of none. And a wizzy, perhaps a wizzy multiclass in the utility role is a secondary arcane spellcaster.

(Typically, wizzies backing up sorcs as secondary spellcasters seem best concentrating on spells that are different from those taken by the sorc. They fill in the holes in the sorc's spellbook. The backup wizzy might focus more on buffing and summoning spells, while the sorc is the nuker, plain and simple.)


Also, I wouldn't suggest going overboard with multiclassing. Maybe some, but unless you are fully familiar with 3e DnD multiclassing, I'd keep most characters pureclass.

 

If you are a beginner choose a wizard (specialist with one level of pally or cleric) rather than a sorcerer since you won't know beforehand which spell fit your gaming strategy or search the boards for advice on the best spells to pick with your sorcerer.
With a wizard nothing can go wrong. This is not like NWN you can't change your sorcerer's spell book when you level up.

 

The complexity of the JUPP is exaggerated in this thread if you ask me...

Yes, it is a high maintenance party as you have to buff the decoy at all times...but look at the advantages! Isair and Madae cannot touch you in melee! Slayer Knights of Xvim cannot touch you! Think about it...you've got three characters who can chuck spells of mass destruction around all day long! And another character who just sits there and laughs at Slayer Knights of Xvim who can't touch him! Try it once...you will be floored as I was!

 

For a beginner's party I'd make the utility character in crucis's party a Bard. Bards get War Chant of Sith at level 11, which makes the game MUCH easier and virtually eliminates the need for a healer. It's a bit more annoying in IWD2 since you can only have the song active during combat (in IWD1 you could have it on at any time), but it heals 2 hit points per round, and that's not something to laugh at, even later in the game.

 

I don'T know WC of Sith will be as useful in IWD2, once the big tanks have 200+ HP, trying to heal them in combat with the song, for a measly 2 HP per round, will be useless IMHO. They will take more than 2 HP damage per round in combat, I can tell.

Though I hope it will be useful in IWD, I am playing a level 10 bard in IWD right now, in DEye, on insane, it is fun! I do believe it will be far more useful in IWD than IWD2 as:

1-Bard can play it even when there is no battle going on, as you said, I DID NOT know that, way-hey!

2-And thanks to more realistic rules of good old 2E, even the biggest tanks can NEVER have 200-300 HPs.

YAY!

 

Ahhh yes the more realistic rules of 2e where the fighter immediately forgets everything he knows about weapons and fighting when he decides to study arcane magic and then wondrously remembers it all again later on...

 

@wanderon: An excerpt from the 2e PHB, p.62 (bolded for emphasis):

So . 2e treats classes as a "way of doing things" or a profession, while in 3e they are nothing more than a new trick to be learned, like how to whittle or wield a sword. Both systems make sense in their own way.

 

@Felinoid...

Ahhh well perhaps thats the case in PnP but in all the 2e based CRPGs I have played that information is NOT at his fingertips to use as needed to survive and it is indeed as if he suddenly forgot it while the 3e concept seems much more realistic as it has been implented in CRPGs...

 

The golden advice for a newbie is a simple combination, really. That's what worked for me in my first runs in the IE games. The enjoyment of having a normal party that works can't be beaten by the enjoyment of having an uber party which pwns through sheer micromanaging.

This would mean having at least one tank, at least one priest (cleric or druid), at least one mage (wizard or sorcerer), at least one rogue -- not like you need more. Two more characters as you like. And you don't need a pure class rogue in IWD2.

 

My advice would be: it doesn't matter. This game can be finished solo so it doesn't matter who you have in your party. If you want to make it a bit easier, then make sure you have some arcane and divine magic somewhere in your party, along with someone tough who has plenty of hit points.

The simplest easy party would therefore be:
Fighter 4 / Barbarian X
Cleric X
Sorcerer X

Done.

Felinoid, your defence of 2e is fanatical and unflagging and should be commended. But, I'm not even sure why you reading a thread for an evil 3e based game!

 

@wanderon:
Do you want to do the coding necessary to implement it when you could simply cut off the abilities and not worry about it? Especially after you've been working 40 hours straight debugging and are looking forward to a good eight hours sleep before doing it all over again?

Sure 3e is easier to implement in a computer game, because that's where most of the rules came from: already existing computer games! I'm not saying that's necessarily bad (give the public what it wants and all), but...meh.

@HB:
wanderon's comment caught my eye when I looked through Today's Active Topics. And now the thread is highlighted like any other one I've visited.

As to the topic, I'd say go with the classic: a Fighter, a Wizard, a Cleric, and a Thief. (No multi-classing. ) Others can be added as you find you need them for your playing style.

 

Truly, a little multi-classing for bonus feats, saving throws, and other useful things are great ways to boost a character! You are a specialist mage? Bad, since you lose two schools! Get a cleric level, you will have a fortitude save bonus, higher HP, bonus weapon/armor proficiencies, a level 1 cleric spell, (well always useful ) and most importantly, the ability to learn your banned schools! This may be a bug or glitch but why not abuse it?

@Felinoid

Thanks for defending good old 2E. It makes me happy that we are allies in this most noble cause!

@Wanderon

Now now don't turn this into a 2E VS 3E war, I have had enough of thse in another sites, and I, for myself, would not want to pollute this beautiful place of sorcery with such flames of hatred and bigotry! Let us both shake hands and play the game/version we prefer OK?