My custom party... Yea or Nay?

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*Minor spoilers*

PC - Human - LG - Paladin, all characters around level 10? i think

No kit 2h Sword & 2h Weapon Style, added 1 point of flail & using flail of ages at the moment, i haven't found a good 2h sword yet (no spoilers plz)

2 - Human - LG - Ranger - racial enemy Dragons.

No kit, planning on dual classing to druid at some point. War Hammer++, Mace++, Long Bow++, & 2 Weapon Style+++. He currently has heart seeker +3 bow & a +2 short sword, because i haven't found a decent WH or mace yet *sigh*

3 - Human - LG - Monk

No kit (if they have one). He is probably going to be unarmed all game, but i do have a sling & some +2 ammo for him, in case his +1 fists won't work.

4 - Half-Elf - CG - F/M/T

So yeah, i wanted to detect traps & open locks, but i don't typically have much use for a thief, so i added mage to the mix for DPS in combat. she has long sword++ & long bow++, but isn't great at either, with that dragon sword/helm/shield from the tomb in spearhills she's "okay" at melee.

5 - Human - LG - Paladin - Cavalier.

Long sword++, Bastard Sword++, Sword & Shield Style++

I figured since he is unable to use ranged weapons, i'd give him SSS for extra defense & make him a dedicated melee fighter. If i had known about Flail of the Ages (1st play through), i might have given him Flail/Bastard Sword.

Sort of ironic that the one amazing weapon that i have, nobody is really geared towards using it

6 - Elf - CG - F/M/C

Sling++, Club++. I thought maybe 2 mages would be overpowered, but, it seems about right, their fighter MC keeps them from having extremely low hp, & their 3rd class gives them other uses in & out of combat.

Without giving spoilers (if possible), what do you think?

PS - you could always say, blah blah blah will be important *later*

**Several Spoilers**


So far i've cleared the keep of trolls, rescued the boy from hillspear, attempted to fight Firkraag (sp?).... lost horribly & gave up, did some lesser quests in the city slavers/murder investigations/etc., went after the ranger, killed the shade lord, killed the Shadow Dragon (woohoo!), opened & completed the sphere.... that's it so far. haven't rescued imoen or faced jon innecus or whatever, yet. Anything else, i haven't gotten to it yet, & don't know about it.


------edit/update------

It is quite a bit later now....

Paladins are 23s, R/C is 25, Monk is 28, and the multis are 14-15ish

 

*facepalm*

yes.... i think so, i wanted access to druid & cleric spells..... maybe i got them confused. lol, thank you for the correction.

 

I recommend dualclassing the ranger immediately. The only really useful thing you'll get for taking more ranger levels is an extra half attack per round for ranger level 13. It will take a long time to reach level 13 and even longer until dualclassing is complete, additional XP spent for ranger levels also delays getting high level spells and HLAs.
So switch to cleric now and take the weapon proficiencies you didn't take as ranger (like sling and flail).

 

i'm not overly concerned with the 1/2 attack per round at level 13, but shouldn't i keep him a little while longer to gain more druid spells? or is this wasted effort?

i'm not really in a rush to have a 2nd cleric, my F/M/C is doing amazingly well at keeping the group healthy, and my 2 paladins have lay on hands for emergencies.... i dunno... you still think so?

i also don't really care if it takes him awhile to get to cleric 14, not a big deal for me... all of a sudden when you mentioned slings, i am worried... will he not be allowed to use his long bow anymore? he's the only decent archer i have

and if i wasted 2 weapon profs on long bow, that is really annoying

 

You can't dual a ranger to a druid; you can only dual to a cleric. And once you do, and regain the ranger abilities, you get access to all priest spells (cleric and druid), so dualling right away makes sense. The points you put into bows will be wasted, though, since clerics can't use bows.

The triple classes a going to be very slow to level up. With the R/C dual, you don't need another cleric, so I would replace the FMC with a FM. The FMT might be OK as a backup mage, though. Why do you want two paladins? You could ditch the second one, replace it with a FT, and replace the FMT with a FM.

Of course, in unmodded BG2, pretty much any party will work.

 

alright, i guess i'll go ahead & dual class him, *edit* damn... that sucks about his bow......... very lame a ranger with no bow, that almost makes me not want to dual him to a cleric :/ geez... what a waste

so other than dual classing the ranger, any other thoughts on the party?

i prefer a paladin to a fighter in most cases, and it felt good from a story/roleplay perspective...

i was willing to trade off weapon mastery for healing abilities & anti-evil abilities.

---------- Added 9 hours, 17 minutes and 7 seconds later... ----------

BLEH! the more i think about it, the more i hate the idea of losing the use of his bow from being an archer, and having wasted 2 points in Long Bow...

would it be crazy to dual into a fighter, beef up his sling, hammer, & flail maybe, THEN dual to a cleric later on?

A - is that possible?
B - would that be a complete waste of time?

C - *sniff sniff* i'll miss you long bow *sniff*

 

since you already started on this path, then continue, you can always play another game after this one. you can't do anything else with the rest of the group unless you drop one char and add another (then you've waste all the experiecne points so far). you can't dual a paladin or a monk.

So if you decide to exchange for a new char, I would definitely add much more magic power to the team such as cleric mage, mages, wild mage, or sorcerers. You have too much fighting power right now, which helps in the begining, but later in the game, its gonna get alot tougher. Magic will make those encounters a lot easier. besides, magic will make the game more fun to play and much more strategies to be employed. a common powergaming team would be 1 fighter(including paladin), 1 thief (many make it fighter/thief), 1 cleric (also fighter/clerics or ranger/clerics, driuds also), and the rest are mages (or a dual/multi with other classes)

 

Okay if you really want to use a bow with your ranger/cleric, use Item Revisions mod's component to enable multi/dual classed clerics to use piercing/slashing weapons appropriate to their second class. Because a ranger without a bow sucks. Geez, I have reccomended this mod in another thread already today. Dear moderators, you know me, I assure you that I am not advertising! (or being paid or whatever )

 

You can only dual-class a character once in BGII unless you're cheating (I mean save-game editing, I don't think there are any mods that allow it).

My main concern with your party is the lack of single-class casters. The Ranger(2)/Cleric(x) will be nice, but aside from that one, you may find yourself missing high level spells and some of the really nice HLAs. Don't get me wrong, tripple-classes rock, especially a F/M/C (I once soloed the whole game with one of those), but you won't get level 7/9 spells for a while, maybe not ever if you don't increase the XP cap (I'm not sure), and you definately want those spells. Well, I mean, they aren't critical, but TimeStop? Heal? Energy Blades? Anyway, just be prepared for a very magic-light party.

 

Yeah, i dunno, i wasn't sure what to expect on a first play through... i started a "dry run" in BG 1 TuTu with a Paladin PC, & i picked up uh... what's his face north of the Friendly Arms Inn, anyway the paladin. Early on that made was a HUGE help, the only other fighter was Jaheira's husband, (kahlied? sp?) & he was HORRIBLE. Both those evil characters were craptastic & I didn't want evil characters..... only went up to like level 4 ish.

So ANYWAY, when i was doing my first real run, i decided early on i wanted 2 paladins, i figured their fighter/cleric mold would be good & i'd be fighting almost all evil aligned enemies, since my PC was a pally.

I am now on Chapter 9, doing a side-adventure in Watcher's Keep & i'm freshly on level 3. My paladins are 22s, Monk is 26, & "ranger" is now a 22 cleric..... he FAR overshadows my FMC who is 13/13/14.

*Sigh* i eventually got over the bow-less Ranger, but, that was a tough one to swallow... i will have to think of his as a "sling" ranger from the start if i do that again.

Neither mage has level 7s yet, but they are close now. I definitely see you point about the slowed down power casting. *Still* all of my characters are basically fighters with spell capabilities.

I use mostly anti-invis, secret word, & breach, while my PC pommels with the Holy Avenger. Ranger has Crom Feyr & Flail of Ages.


All in all, it's not a bad 1st run through, I may continue with my PC on to NWN, or I may do a re-do & try some of the "advanced" builds here with Ken/Mage & such. It also took me ages to master the combat system... i think i would have been overwhelmed if i was trying to play a single class mage early on... it would have been *bad* :/

-PS sorry for the wall...

 

you cannot export your character into nwn despite what the hint page says

 

well that's lame... misinformation

i actually got really excited when it said that, b/c i was going to play NWN next on my list anyway

 

ToB was the last game to use 2e rules. NWN uses 3e rules and a completely different engine, it would have been too difficult to convert BG2 characters for NWN even if it was their initial intention to implement.

 

I hope you picked up the other holy avenger in Watcher's Keep (it's only +4 but still ... it's a holy avenger).

You just need to protect your single class mage early on -- by your level that mage would be able to cast improved alacrity, timestop, and a bunch of horrid wiltings. Combine those with the ability to call a planetar, no other character compares in power.

You want to start a level one character in NWN anyway (unless you go straight to Hordes of the Underdark).

 

i am still in Watcher's Keep, last night i went to bed before moving on to the fourth level. i haven't wondered aimlessly through the maze, and i'm considering doing that before i exit level 3, i only took the direct path out after curing the mad elf.

i'll probably check a guide & make sure i didn't miss anything just before i attempt the Watcher Keep finale....

seems like too many times in BG I, II, & TOB i've checked a guide after i left an area i can't return to & i missed an item or two, usually small, but i've missed a few big items along the way :/

i'm not sure a 2nd holy avenger will help much, my #2 pally is a S/S fighter, and HA is a 2h sword, we'll see...

 

Except that so many of the really powerful bosses, the ones you would love to use so many of those nasty spells against, are effectively immune to all the nice spells one way or another. Horrid Wilting is wonderful high-level crowd control, but bosses usually end up with so many shields/wards/mantles/high saves that my mages are often not so useful. They spend most of their time breaching and buffing and the like.

Of course, that may be due to some of the mods I usually play with.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with a melee-heavy party, just so long as you can break Protection from Magical Weapons, Mantle, and Improved Mantle. Stoneskin is a good thing to be able to dispel, too, but not as critical.

 

The other holy avenger is a bastard sword (Purifier +4). One handed and works well with a shield. You should also have Foebane, which is a great +3 bastard sword that can be upgraded to +5 and is one of the best weapons in the game.

Spoiler

Purifier is on level three in a tall stone/pillar, just touch the stone with a paladin (or any LG character). Foebane was on level one. I hope your monk found the gauntlets of crushing (adds +4 to hit and damage) and you brought the sling of seeking from SoA (it's only +1 but adds strength bonuses). Your ranger/cleric should be quite formidable with dual wielding the Flail of Ages and Crom Faeyr. Bows are not as potent in Throne of Bhaal.

 

i have the sling of seeking, the sling with +str bonus on it... but i must have missed those gauntlets of crushing, i don't have them...

i do have foebane & now it is +5 & i saved it before i exited level 3, thank god, i double checked game banshee's guide & saw that i missed the purifier... i went back for it.

Yes, he has foebane in his hand right now, with purifier as back-up, and the equalizer (b/c of immunity to charm/dominate) as 3rd string sword.

With all the extra-planar enemies in the Watcher's Keep so far, i figured foebane was a good call for #1.

Since both Carsomyr & Purifier require the eye of Tyr gem & i'm going to assume there's only 1 gem, i'll probably make Carsomyr +6... after all, any of my party can die, except my PC pally.