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Faraaz,

It sounds like you are using the earlier JUPP arcane party. Do you know about his updated one? JUPP's current arcane party consists of:

Decoy: DG, Lawful Evil (to avoid Blasphemy), Rogue 1, Monk 1, Dreadmaster 1 (quest bonuses to WIS increases AC making it easier to hit AC 72), Illusionist 27.

Tank: DG, LN or NE, Dreadmaster 16, Druid 14. This character needs to keep the levels in the two classes equal to avoid XP penalties. I, personally, have found that this makes this character too weak, so I am inclined to go with a Drow female and take Cleric at least to level 13 before adding any Druid levels.

Blaster: Drow, Sorcerer 30.

The latest JUPP arcane does not have a mandatory 4th character. Either run just the three, or create a 4th character that suits your fancy; I like a Paladin/Sorcerer, but YMMV.

 

Where do I get this from then? I had a look at GameFAQS and they don't have it!

SP should keep it methinks...unless they've already got it and I didnt search properly...

Edit: I looked...SP has the same older version I've got...although its in a spiffy PDF version.

Note to Tal if he's reading...the formatting in the TXT version of the JUPP is really stuffed up!

[ August 12, 2005, 15:18: Message edited by: Faraaz ]

 

Ah...that explains it.

Well...can't wait to micro-analyze the latest Arcane party!

Edit: I had a look and the old guide is still up...can you give me a link to the new one??

[ August 13, 2005, 13:28: Message edited by: Faraaz ]

 

Jukkas new decoy looks a bit like my first decoy but I prefer the other with pal-lvls. A high spellresistance is better than one more point of AC and immunity to one spell. The last fight isn't the toughest in my opinion so i prefer giving him som extra power in the other fights (like the Xvim-knights).

 

The reason I prefer the newer decoy is that I would much rather the decoy carry the Golden Heart of <CHARNAME> than the Holy Avenger. The permanent haste feature of Golden Heart alone is worth its weight in gold (sorry). Meanwhile, with his pitiful strength, the decoy is not exactly a melee animal, regardless of what weapon he is given. As far as his SR goes, give him the two SR increasing potions from Sherincal (one from normal and one from HOF). Combined with his natural SR the decoy should have few problems with SR.

The best thing I like about the new decoy is that, with all the proper equipment and feats, including the Golden Heart, I only need to keep three (3) spells active on him to give him AC 72: Shield, Ghost Armor and Barkskin. Now that is the kind of minimum micromanagement that I just adore. Furthermore, by carrying that defensive dagger (the one that gives +3 deflection) in his off hand, I can maintain AC 70 with just two spells; or still have AC 58 when he arrives on a new map after a long hike with no buff spells.

When I want to use the Holy Avenger for combat, I use a fourth character like the DG Paladin 3 / Fighter 4 / Rogue 3 / Illusionist 20 with max strength and minimum WIS. This type of character can afford to take the combat feats which the decoy, who is primarily a blaster, cannot afford to take, thus creating a better tank.

Finally, for my own ease of use, I like to keep powerful weapons away from the decoy so that I do not become tempted to think that the decoy is some kind of fighter; he is a blaster and so I want to avoid anything that would make me forget that. But, as always, YMMV.

 

I usually give my decoy some of the best weapons. My other chars gets the best ranged weapons (2 uses throwingaxes/hammers and the other has bows/xbows) and they have 2-h-weapons if they should rush in to battle and hammers and maces against golems. There's no one else who uses the good 1h-swords so my decoy gets them. The extra strenght (6 instead of 2) makes him able to carry the best boots and cloaks i find along the way even when the bull's strenght has been dispelled. I already have 5 almost pure casters so the decoy don't need more than 20 lvls illusionist. The immunity to fear from pal-lvl 2 is good so i don't have to wear the necklace found in targos-battle. It's bad that you can't change alignment due to your actions like in NWN, 'cause a fallen paladin worshiping bane would be quite fun...

 

NWN would be good for that...

Well...I started up my game again in HoF mode with my lvl 21 party...and got my butt handed to me by three goblins.

Admittedly, I hadn't buffed my decoy because I couldn't be bothered prepping for a fight with GOBLINS for crying out loud!

So...I'm reconsidering the wisdom of playing HoF...just thinking about those Slayer Knights of Xvim in the Severed Hand makes me wince...

 

I know the feeling. That's exactly why I HATE HoF.

 

The Slayer Knights of Xvim have the highest BAB of any "standard" monster at +52 -- they are the reason the JUPP sets its goal at AC 72. The Targos goblins have a BAB of +26, so an AC of 46 should keep you safe and you should have an AC 46 with your decoy which you should have by now with nothing more than a Mage Armor spell.

The hardest part about HoF is making sure that every enemy concentrates on the decoy and nobody gets around the flanks to attack the rest of the party. Undead summons can be useful for keeping the flanks safe.

Keep at it, you'll get the swing of it.

 

Yeah...I know...its just that by the time I finished the Targos Palisade battle, I was tearing my hair out.

Is it just me or is the AI in HoF upgraded as well to only go for the character with the least AC? My Rogue/Wizard is getting NAILED by all these goblins while the decoy is running after them yelling "YO! Over here! Pick on someone your own size you lil *****!"

 

I don't like squatting anymore, I squatted 9 levels and now i'm in chapter 5 with a level 17 party, its real easy and i'm getting no XP

 

Thats when you add another charecter. When my current party (with almost no level squatting mind) got to the Wandering Village it consisted of:
Human Battlegaurd of Tempus[8]/Barbarian[9]
DeepGnome[14] (Even I can't remember all his classes offhand)
Drow Bard[10] (Added when Oswald's ship crashed.)

Since I was not getting any XP for kills I added a Human Sorceress Pairi to my party. Now I am getting decent XP.

Only levelup if you have attained required number of levels in a particular class or are getting whipped in a fight. When you are level squatting it is best NOT to level up everyone at the same time. Try to manage with taking levels for only one or two at any time.