The Silverymoon Six Commence

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First I want to thank all of you for your help thus far, especially motub, who veritably pushed me off the diving board and into the water

I've finally started playing
I just made it to Chapter 1, with the following party:

Oriseus Zora
Paladin 2 -- Aasimar Fighter 4/Paladin X
STR 18 DEX 10 CON 18 INT 8 WIS 10 CHA 16
Skills: Intimidate
Feats: Luck of Heroes

Dili
Barbarian 2/Fighter 1 -- Shield Dwarf Fighter 4/Barbarian X
STR 18 DEX 16 CON 20 INT 6 WIS 12 CHA 4
Skills: Concentration
Feats: Axes 2, Hammers 2, Dodge

Numestra Zora
Cleric 3 -- Human Morninglord
STR 14 DEX 10 CON 16 INT 8 WIS 18 CHA 10
Skills: Concentration, Spellcraft
Feats: Combat Casting, Discipline, Maces 2

Murithi Sepret
Ranger 1/Rogue 1 -- Tiefling Ranger 5/Rogue X
STR 14 DEX 20 CON 14 INT 14 WIS 10 CHA 6
Skills: Disable Device, Disarm Trap, Open Lock, Search
Feats: Rapid Shot

Mourn Hune
Bard 2 -- Drow Bard
STR 12 DEX 16 CON 14 INT 12 WIS 10 CHA 16
Skills: Alchemy, Concentration, Knowledge
Feats: Lingering Song

Sandrue Stamaraster
Sorcerer 3 -- Human Sorcerer
STR 8 DEX 12 CON 12 INT 16 WIS 10 CHA 18
Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Diplomacy, Spellcraft
Feats: Spell Focus (Evocation) 2, Combat Casting

I'm very appreciative for all the help you guys have given me, but I'm not out of the woods yet

Trying to decide on the Favored Enemies for Murithi.

Mourn, the Drow Bard, is a mixed bag. RP wise he’s wonderful, but is starting to feel a bit like EverQuest (constantly having to switch between song and attack reminds me of twisting bard songs in EQ). I love having a walking ID spell, and the whole alchemist/loremaster vibe about him is really cool. However, with 16 INT Sandrue, the Sorcerer, has enough skill points for Diplomacy, Bluff, Concentration, and Spellcraft, with 1 extra skill point left, which I could use to fill up Alchemy or Knowledge if I replaced Mourn with a Druid. In which case I would most likely have to give up Knowledge. Obviously if I went with a Wizard I would still have these skills covered.

So there is still a conflict between who to take along for the whole ride as the 6th member of my party. The current Bard, a Druid or a Wizard (possibly Fighter 4/Wizard X).

I read in a walkthrough (I don't usually read them unless I'm stuck or after an area to see if I missed anything) that the final battle at the Palisade lead by Caballus and his Goblins and Goblin Archers will make or break you and test the full potential of the party you are adventuring with. This final battle was the easiest of the three for me, no one in my party took a single scratch, and it ended almost as quickly as it began.

[ November 19, 2003, 00:05: Message edited by: Jatsu ]

 

Good luck to you! I just finished the game and now it is time to move on. That Caballus fight can be hard as hell, or just as easy as you described. I've had both. Usually the first fight is the hard one. It always goes like this: In the end a bunch of goblins and worgs lie dead on the ground and their leader chases my mage/rogue while others are firing him with ranged weapons, or running behind him and trying to hit him.

 

I think your party is a little lite on spellcasters.

Your Sorcerer will probably be an Evoker (Fireball et al rule) so you might consider a Conjurer. But Fighter is not the way to go. Barbarian, may be. After all you wont be wearing splint or be at the frontlines and 4 levels is too much XP.

Why have you given your Rouge 5 Ranger levels? Does he get some special abilities at that point?

 

Well I have 3 of them, so technically half of my party is made of up spellcasters, that is, if you count the Bard.

I was indeed considering a Conjuerer. The idea behind the 4 levels of Fighter is for the extra feats for archery, to make this character a sniper. I don't see the use of taking levels in Barbarian for such a build. If I did go pure I was still unsure of whether to go with a Wizard or a Druid. I could replicate most of what I like about Mourn (my bard) with the Wizard, being a loremaster/alchemist and all, infact I could make him a Drow, although the ELC would hurt. I couldn't stand having another Human mage in the party however, I already have one. Perhaps Moon Elf. Some people prefer 2 priests to 2 mages however, and I really don't have a grip on my playing style yet so I dunno.

 

1. You're welcome . But now I have a confession to make.

I do understand why everyone (including me) says that the Palisades is the acid test, since at that point, it pretty much is. But I've gotta tell you that it's not really true, because while the Palisades is an acid test, it's not a very good one. The battles are well-designed to pick out gross weaknesses in the party. However, they're too spread out from each other, and with the addition of NPCs that you must try not to harm (or else they'll beat you down too), there's not a lot of choices as to strategy, so the Palisades is no real test of party strategy at all-- and that's an essential component of the game.

The actual acid test is the middle to the end of Chapter 1 (with some mini-tests scattered throughout, such as re-acquiring the Moonblade of Selune). The battle to get to the final battle of Chapter 1, not to mention that final area itself, is where your party comes together or does not. I think, though, that if you then find that there's something not "jell-ing", it's a real PITA to change members around at that point (except via DaleKeeper2, and it's even then still pretty tedious), which is why we stick with the Palisades as the dividing line.

2. I see what Shrikanth means. Both of your mages are Sorceror-type, so neither of them will have access to the full range of Arcane spells as a Wizard would. And neither Paladins nor Clerics are known for their offensive spell capabilities. I can see how a Druid might really be useful, but I can also see how it might not be worth the bother.

Even though you said that you haven't really defined your playing style, this is very much your chance, because it could go either way. Since you have 3 tanks, you don't really have a desperate need for offensive spellcasting. You could just as easily choose your limited spell selection very carefully, to either help buff/protect your tanks, support them with summonses, or take out one chosen enemy-- or a combination of all three of these strategies-- as you could add an agressively offensive spellcaster.

3. Wizard or Druid? I love Druids a lot, but I've gotta go with Wizard on this one. Area-effect spells rule. Yes, I know Entangle and Spike Growth are area-effect spells, but if forced to choose, I'd rather wipe the enemies out with a Fireball or Cloud Kill than trap them with an Entangle and force my tanks in there to actually kill them.

Of course, I don't choose-- I have both a Druid to entangle the enemy, and a Wizard to then wipe them out-- but then I'd probably shoot ducks in a barrel, too . But if I was going to lose one of them, I'd lose the Druid over the Wizard.

I could go on forever (and usually do ), but I think I'll shut up now .

 

I don't have a problem changing my party around with Dalekeeper 2. Actually, in creating my Wizard to test out at Lower Shaengarne, where I am now, I loaded up back in Targos, and ran around checking out all the scrolls available. I wrote all of them down, and their prices, and then I loaded up Dalekeeper 2 with my saved game in Shaengarne, gave all of the appropriate spells and deducted the necessary amount of gold from my share. I kinda made that complicated but ah well

Who is the 3rd tank? The Morninglord?

Actually my idea for this character as a Wizard was a Drow Conjurer (No Evocation). My Sorcerer will have plenty of Fireballs to cast, and since Morninglords make great Bombardiers too, I have 2 solid Bombardiers already. I don't think I need another offensive spellcaster, I was planning on focusing on back-up spellcasting/summoning with this build. At this stage in the game, the Conjurer can Web/Sleep a group of enemies, and then the Sorcerer can lay waste to them, along with my archers (who for some reason have a tendency to walk right up to the webbed enemies and shoot them point blank.

 

Hey Jatsu

I hadn't considered Archer types. Im a melee oriented guy and hence my preference for Barbarian. Actually my party has been going around wacking everyone mano-a-mano for a long time now (Saablic Tan is kaput ) and even the so called weak chars too can stand their ground in such a fight.

You already have a Sniper/Archer in your Rouge/Ranger so another would really be a waste.
Druids and Wizards both bring really different capabilities to the table. A shape shifted Druid can be devastating in melee while a properly planned Wizard can rain hell at range.
Since you alredy have 3 melee chars (Yes, the Morninglord too) AND the cleric domain covered I think it would be better for you to take the Conjurer.

For a Wizard class, Drow is the race to go with. However the ECL does hurt and how. I myself have a Drow Rouge[3]/Conjurer[x] in my party and rue even those 3 levels. It's no fun seeing a full book of spells which you still can't cast.

Finally it's your game. Create a party you are comfortable with. Even if you make some mistakes you can always start over. Or you can decide to stick with it and see them shine through later on.

 

Well I'm starting to develop a playing style, and I'm having a lot of fun. For now I've decided to go with a Drow Conjurer in my 6th slot and it’s working out fantastically. I just made it to the Upper Highlands and each character in the party has a strong presence and value to the group.

Vrek Vileclaw
First I positioned Dili up with the 2 lone guards at the entrance to Vrek’s chamber. Then I had Sandrue talk to Vrek, and then back up back to the group in the antechamber before the orcs or Vrek attacked. Next Dili threw his new Haft Over Head, while at the same time, Mourn cast web on the main chamber. I had Oriseus and Numestra at the bottleneck. Dili threw his axe, one throw, one kill, and battle was joined. All the orcs and Vrek rushed for the bottleneck, where all but a few of them were caught in the web. Those that did make it past the web were either sniped by Murithi, or quickly dispatched by Oriseus and Numestra.

At this point in the game Sandrue didn't have much to do aside from being the talker, but now that he has Mirror Image, my new favorite tactic is to have all of my party asside from Mourn and Sandrue parked behind or within a bottleneck. Mourn and Sandrue will approach a large group of enemies. Mourn will stand back, and Sandrue, will cast Mirror Image and attract the horde to him. Once they all group up on him he casts Burning Hands to soften em up while at the same time Mourn does crowd control with Web, Sleep, or Horror, Depending on the situation. They then retreat through the bottleneck, behind the party, where the mobs can't reach them through the rest of my party. Now at this point all of the mobs are softened up and split in half, perhaps more. If I do it right then only one or two at a time approach the group, where Oriseus and Dili have no problem disposing of them, with back-up from range by the remainder of the group, including the previously retreated Mourn and Sandrue.

Just as fun is when I'm facing a a single powerful foe. Oriseus and Dili get the mob's attention, while Murithi flanks it to Sneak Attack.

I couldn't be happier with this party, and Mourn is an excellent back-up spellcaster, handling crowd control while Sandrue lays the smack down.

 

Yeah, you're getting it.

Vrek is one of the "mini-tests" I mentioned above. Because of the layout of the two rooms and surrounding hallways (not to mention that he's your first troll and a rather tough enemy), this is really a pretty difficult battle that requires a good strategy to survive-- as you have learned.

Funny, I've learned something too. I never knew you could talk to Vrek. I usually get attacked immediately by the Orc guards (because I attacked them first, completely ignoring the "talk" icon they had since I didn't trust it), and then Vrek sneaks around behind the swarm of Orcs and usually kills a party member in the back. Took me forever to find a strategy that even let us survive this, so it's interesting to know that there's a whole 'nother way to go about it.

But you see what I mean now, how playing is an essential part of knowing whether your party has been well-created, and how the battles you're fighting now force you to either find a strategy that works for your party as it exists at that moment, or shows you that there is none, and some member needs to be changed-- as the Palisades battle did not.

If you think you're having fun now, wait till you get out the big gate behind the hostages and get to the next two areas (Shengarne Dam and Shengarne Bridge). This section is my favorite of all so far , and I think you will have a great time with it.

 

The bigger test will be when you have to fight the goblins and Ice trolls in the invasion of the Golin Fortress.