What do you think of this first party I've made?

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Party spokesman:

LG Aasimar Paladin of Helm multi-classed to fighter.

Remainder of party;

CN Half-Orc Barbarian multi-classed to Druid.
CE Drow Necromancer multi-classed to Cleric of Talos.
LE Tiefling Monk of the Dark Moon multi-classed to Sorceror.
NG Svirfneblin Cleric of Lathander multi-classed to Bard.
NE Duergar Rogue multi-classed to Ranger.

How should I divide the multi-classes?
Does it matter at all if the whole party is female?
Will the conflicting alignments hurt me?
I'm planning to multi-class the characters as soon as they get their first level up. Is that wise?

 

Firstly, it seems as if you just want to multi-class for the sake of multi-classing. Multi-classing certain characters may weaken them instead of strengthening them. If you want to bring in Fighter as a base, start as a Fighter for 4 levels, so that you can at least specialise in weapons and then multi-class to Paladin, like your leader for example. The same goes for a Cleric that you would like to use as a tank - 4 Lvls Fighter / Max Lvls Cleric. If a character is not intended to go toe-to-toe try to keep her "pure", unless you want to splash a Wizzard with 1 or 2 levels of Rogue for the sake of decent lock-picking, ets. If there is no actual gain in multi-classing - DON'T DO IT!

 

First you must decide, what kind of characters you want. Do you want character that is a good warrior and average spellcaster or vice versa. Also, remember that races have Favored Classes and you may get experience penalty, if you
have classes, that are two or more levels apart each other.

For paladins of Helm, Fighter 4/Paladin # is the most popular multiclass. At fighter level 4 you get Weapon specialization and 3 bonus feats (at levels 1, 2 and 4). Your paladin won't get good spells until in the end of game, but you have clerics to cast spells.

For Half-Orc I'd take only few levels of barbarian, because spellcasters should concentrate in their main spellcaster class.

And your Drow Necromancer... does she really need cleric levels? You have already druid and another cleric, so do you really need third divine spellcaster? I'd make pure Necromancer or take only few levels of another class.

If you want Monk/Sorcerer your levels must be nearly same or you get 20% experience penalty (Monk 3/Sorcerer 2 doesn't give penalty, but Monk 5/Sorcerer 2 does)

Your Swirfneblin and Duergar both have the same problem as your tiefling.

No, that doesn't matter. You can complete the game with any combination of characters.

And finally, welcome to Boards of Magick!

[ May 07, 2003, 17:57: Message edited by: Harkle ]

 

Ditto on the welcome.

If I were you, unless you want to be poor, I wouldn't ever have a monk or paladin as the party spokesman. They will always refuse any kind of reward for a quest.

What's the point of dual-classing a monk and a sorcerer? Monks take several levels before they're very effective in melee, and the two classes don't favor the same stats. You should match up dual classes to their important stats. A monk and a cleric would make more sense, as they both depend on WIS. With a monk/sorcerer, you'll have to pump up both Charisma and Wisdom at the expense of all other stats. I have a human sorcerer solo class who has specialization with long bow, and she rules as a backrow bombarder.

Don't multiclass just because you can. Make sure it makes sense for the ultimate outcome you see for your character.

 

No, it shouldn't matter

 

I echo the previous comments...

it looks as if your party will be severely lacking in spellcasting power due to all of the multiclassing...

i.e. the result will be a bunch of characters that can cast lower level spells with a decreased chance for success rather than a few characters who can cast higher level spells with a better chance of success...

as a general rule, multiclassing spellcasters is a bad idea (unless it is just 1-2 levels of something else) because it will hinder their progression to higher level spells, more spells, etc... especially on normal difficulty.

 

Welcome.

Here's my thoughts in no certain order:

All females is cool. Differing alignments is cool too, just be aware of the spell effects for spells like Holy Smite, Unholy Blight, Holy Word, and Spiritual Wrath.

I would not multiclass every single char in your party.

Female Aasimar, Paladin of Helm is great, I would know, I have one too.

I used to think mc sorcerer/monks would be good, but I'm glad I never followed through with that as Death Rabbit pointed out. A monk/cleric sounds more promising. I might try that someday.

A rogue ranger? As much as I love rangers, and oh how I love them, they seem only useful in IWD to me if you keep them as straight rangers or mc to cleric. But if you already do that with your monk, you don't need to do it again. Also if you do have the ranger, you might as well take advantage of the dual wielding. Now rogues on the other hand, have never really been my style. I like to find ways to do without them. Barbarian or fighter bashing locked doors and absorbing trap damage, sorcerers or bards casting 2nd level spell "Knock", anybody can hide if they wear the right armor, anybody can hide with Improved Invisibility spell, etc. It's not imperative that you have a rogue. And the best reason I could see to have one would be to take advantage of sneak attacks and those few feats that only level 10 rogues get. Meh, I prefer a bard up to level 11, mc with sorcerer for the rest of the ride, rather than a thief. Speaking of bards, their high charisma and potential bluff skills make them a good party spokesman when the paladin just won't do.

I feel a straight druid and a straight sorcerer are the way to go. (But didn't I just say bard lvl 11 and then mc to a sorcerer? Yes, that's a back up sorcerer. I'm talking about a straight sorcerer in addition to that.) I wondered about mcing my druid. After all, druid/cleric, druid/ranger, or even druid/barbarian sound cool, but I see that IWD II has made druids SO cool, they are best left to a single class. Need to melee? Here's your answer: shapeshift.

So here's my current party and I just have to brag about them .

Paladin of Helm with four levels of fighter
Cleric of Helm with four levels of fighter
Barbarian with four levels of fighter (not sure why I did that, but I'm happy with results)
Straight Druid
Straight Sorcerer
Bard lvl 11, then Sorcerer
And they are currently rocking the HoF house.

 

I guess I really should have put some kind of strategy and where I was going with my party, though I've had a realization that might fix some problems without messing up any of my goals.

First, I'm going to switch the Drow and the Svirfneblin; that is, I'm going the make the Svirfneblin an Illusionist and cleric of Lathander as a secondary class, and make the Drow primarily a cleric of Talos. That fixes the experience problem for the gnome, and the Drow will be able to use her built in proficiency in bows with the better cleric attack bonuses.

Anyway, the aasimar paladin seems to have everyone's approval, so no explanation seems necessary. My theory for multi-classing is "never put more than twenty levels in one class". As far as I can tell, 21st and higher
levels don't give anything worth having. This theory could be wrong, if I'm missing something, so feel free to challenge it.

So, basically, if I had enough experience to get the aasimar to 30th level (I won't, I know), then
I'd do Paladin 20 and Fighter 10.

As for the Tiefling, my goal is Monk 20 with anything else I can achieve in Sorceror. This is not meant to be an "artillery sorceror", but just
using the sorceror's spells to power themselves up before battles (the sorceror's massive repetition of spells comes in handy here). I don't like Monk/Clerics because I'm too geared to thinking Clerics are supposed to wear armor, and thinking that that is one of the points of being a cleric. I think the Tiefling's special abilities are worth the experience loss anyway.

I think the others are pretty much self-explanatory, but I have multi-classed for the sake
of multi-classing, and tried to get at least one member of every class in there. I am not, by any
means, a "power-gamer".

Thanks.

 

Half-orc Barbarian2x/Fighter1x
Shield Dwarf Fighter2x/Battleguard of Tempus1x
Strongheart Halfling Rogue1x/Demarch of Mask1x
Drow Sorcerer - fu*kin' bad

 

I think everything has been sais, but CE, NE in the same party of a PALADIN leader?! Anyway I suggest you take human and 1/2-elf for multiclassig since they have no favored class. oh another thing when you multiclass someone think before of the ower first and then the role play hey is a Hack 'n slah game, sigh... but in the real Perchment and Ink game think a Role play before!

oh and Welcome into the Board 'o Magik!

 

Unless you play HoF you won't get to more than lvl 16 - 17

 

Okay, I've rethought things, and think maybe this is a better party;

Spokesperson;

NE Drow Cleric of Talos multi-classed to Bard (20 Charisma). Does NE or being Drow hurt them as spokesperson? Some people seem to question her for being a Drow, but will it have a substantial effect?


LG Aasimar Paladin of Helm multi-classed to fighter.

CN Half-Orc Barbarian multi-classed to Druid.

NG Svirfneblin Illusionist multi-classed to Ranger.

LE Duergar Monk.

CE Tiefling Rogue multi-classed to sorceror.

I still get all the classes with this version, and get all the fun races and stuff, but no experience penalties for unfavored classes, and the monk (who probably needs to stay single-classed most) stays single-classed.

The Tiefling starts as a rogue, but once she's got a decent ability there, say four or five levels, everything else goes into sorceror, for mid to late game firepower.

The Half-Orc is primarily a barbarian with a few levels of druid, because, if I can get that high, I'd rather have damage reduction than shape-changing. Understand, psychologically, if I can have every class, then I MUST have every class, so keep that in mind before recommending I drop the druid levels.

The Svirfneblin is mainly getting emergency fighting ability and sniper ability from becoming a ranger. She's primarily a mage. I prefer to refer to Svirfneblins as Smurfs. That's irrelevant to the discussion, but I wonder if anyone else does this?

The Duergar is just a monk.

The aasimar paladin is familiar to most IWD2 players, from the faqs I've read.

The Drow is primarily my cleric, with a little bard stuck on (Maybe I'm nuts, but the bard's enhancing songs seems to go well with the cleric's healing and enhancing magic. In theory),
and gets to be the spokesperson because of the charisma bonus of being a Drow, and the need for charisma of being a bard.

Is Cleric of Talos the best choice? Some of the faqs I've seen seem to like Mask, but the consensus also seems to be that one thief is too many for this game. Wouldn't one and a half be overkill? I'm fond of Talos just because of the electrical resistance and the firepower.

 

Hey that party is far too multi-classed, I mean every character doenst have to be multi-classed to be good or cool. I mean my conjurer is cool...

this is my party

Half ORc Rogue/Barbarian( primary rogue)
HUman paladin of helm
half orc Cleric( thinking multi-fighter)
HE- Ranger
HUman - Wizard
Dwarf Fighter

This party does great,the only person that cannot melee is the wizard and hes got baddies to summon to do his dirty work.

 

I suspect my playing style differs greatly from yours (not to say that mine is any better; just different). I have a borderline-obsessive Swiss Army Party philosophy, where I try to work in every possible ability and role (You should see my Baldur's Gate party).

As a side note, how does a Barbarian/Rogue work? Wouldn't they have way too many ability score needs? Strength and constitution for the barbarian half, and intelligence and possibly dexterity for the rogue half...

 

Lupinal: I guess they have 2 wis, and 3 chr. LoL.

Anyways, i tend to solo char it. And it is quite possible.

(Solo: Aasimar Paladin of Helm 4fight/PalyX)
(Solo: Drow Sorcerer 32ecl. ^_^)

And when you solo, if you do it Right, you can get fairly high up as far as levels go.


And as far as a Paladin making a Poor Leader, cause you get "Quite Poor" NO Such Thing!!

If you find all the magic weapons/items and stow them away in the Bag of Holding, or Mercenary Sack, and sell all the coo toys..

You will be Very much so Rich..

AS far as your actual Party goes, I've heard the suggestion of Pal 3/Sor X So you get the disease immunity, divine Grace, Etc.

(Note: Both use the Chr!!))

So, if you aren't afraid of the penalties.. (or wanna try human)

Paly3,Bard 11, Sor 16. I know this is pretty stretched out, But, here are the points.

Holy Avenger Usage, Divine Grace, Bard spells, Sor Spells, Pally spells, Descent fighting, etc.

 

I have to admit that that would be a pretty powerful character, but honestly, how often would they actually use their abilities?

If you have a character who's unstoppable in melee, for example, why would you ever learn to use a bow with them.

What I mean is, with all that characters divergent abilities, you're going to end up using him one way or another, and everything else just sits there.

It's like...who ever casts spells with a pure paladin? Honestly? Or a ranger for that matter?

I know I'm obsessive about multi-classing and completeness, but I just don't see how a combination of melee warrior and combat mage can work. This may explain why I never made fighter/mages back in the old days. I always felt one subtracted to much from the other.

 

Barbarian/Rogue works great

My half orc has 21 str..18 dex( 19 with ring) 16 con and low other stats you dont REALLY need int ot be a rogue, i just wanted sneak attack

I was thinkin of making a crazy mulit-class party

 

it may be better to have 1 male character because some NPCs only talk to men.. but that mite just be my game.......