Advice needed for chronic restarter

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So I started a new game since I missed out on a lot of things last time. I'm now at the Icetemple trying to beat the Battle Squares (I didn't last time). All tips on this subject focus on getting to rank 6 so you can get the Club of Disruption. Well I did just that and it doesn't really help me. I'm now on rank 7 and the damn club has yet to impress me. No creature has ever been destroyed by it. It's basicly a matter of waiting for big guys (frost giants or others) and the Greater Feyr (hard to hit but deals almost no damage) in order to get by. Demons and elementals will kill you in no time. I thought the club would help me deal with those guys but so far no luck.

 

Honestly, the club o' disruption is the uttermost piece of garbage in the whole game. It's completely useless in HoF and even in normal most enemies beat the DC20 with ease. The only thing - at least on normal - is praying that it does work! (in Kuldahar later on, it does work well on skeletons and archers..but wights are a bit tricky, yet you'll get lucky...sometimes and forgot to try it on bone-skeletons & higher...they would rather dismantle themselves and give you their bones while still laughing at you ^^)

In case you have 'Light of sêlune' installed there is one pretty nasty weapon right in the shopping mall in Targos (and only if yer actually 'love' bastard swords). That pretty thingie does 5d6 acid damage and even got sure-striking. (honestly...the author of the mod complained about the IWD fix-pack specially the bastard-sword fix, but putted such an OP sword right in the beginning ...*eg*)
On a sidenote...if you have either one of these mods (and 'light o sêlune is pretty awesome) you might want to stick with at least one character to bastard swords...specially if you are planning to beat HoF as well. There is one (holy ****-) b.sword in the yuan-ti temple in case you are evil? Though I doubt it according your comments.
(you can take at least a look into the 2 mods..the other is iwd-ease, though it made bastard swords or some of them *uhm* very strong, e.g. Cold-Fire adds 3d6 fire & 3d6 cold damage and Bastard's Son is just a freaking weapon ^^)

*darn*

Anyway, the only way to beat it without any modifications (?) is power word:reload in case you got some nasty enemy. But on the other side, un-modded IWD2 gives you nearly all the time useless stuff.
Can't really remember the first time I beat it (~un-modded *fg*), but I put all my value stuff on a character who can dish out the most damage, casting stuff is nearly impossible as you don't have a char who can spam finger o' death or disintegrate (on normal) though no 'normal' human would stick to 'transmutation' feats so there is only one spell at all. Usually a 2-handed-wpn char does fine, with the option to give him shield/club in case there are mummies and sh*t, so you'll get the bonus damage. Don't count on that f*cking club ^^ or you are into reload more than I thought ^^

Besides, the only real good item to reach for is the short-sword at rank 10. It does ignore all immunities/DR and so on. 8&9 as far as I can remember gives you garbage or better merchandise

What char are yer trying to beat the square with?

edit: I'm wondering how my monk will perform in HoF/square then, yet he is starting to become my most damaging character (uhm and he is my 2nd tank!) Too bad, I just re-started NWN:motb :O

 

The club of disruption kills only if the target fails a fortitude save, high level monsters have high save bonuses so the fail chance can get down to only 5 percent. But if you save/reload often enough you'll be successful some time, especially if you have a character who attacks and hits several times per round.

The battle squares aren't too difficult, just wait until you've gained a few levels and good weapons in chapter 3-4 before returning. My druid won all ranks even without saving between battles.

HoF mode is more difficult but still beatable, save or die items like the club of disruption can be useful there if happen to get opponents with too many HP to kill within a minute.

 

the lowly club of disruption basically lets you clear the highest exp and difficulty area in the game(a certain favor returned near the end of ch5) with ease and makes short work of undead.

if anything the club is overpowered and makes undead way too weak in this game. Obviously this is from a normal mode playthrough.

 

I finally beat the squares - my F(1)/Barbarian 10 went through 250 fights... I finally got the club to work but it was a lot of reloads. I wanted to finish it right away and not come back later so I spent many hours trying to complete the squares. Elementals are the worst - only 1 of about 25 were destroyed by that club (I reloaded a lot of times). Basicly, at higher levels I just reloaded right away if I saw elementals or boneguards. Strangly enough, on two separate occasions a demon panicked after casting fear (or something like that) on my partymember. One of the times I had to chase him since he started running all over the room.

 

I never did finish IWD2, this is my party line-up:
Aasimar, Paladin (Helm)
Human, Cleric (Lathander)
Shield Dwarf, Rogue/Barbarian
Half - Elf, Cleric (Selune)
Moon Elf, Wizard
Wild Elf, Sorceror

Rogue/Barbarian alternates between taking levels as a Rogue and taking levels as a Barbarian.
The four spellcasters can take a few levels in some other Warrior type class to boost their weapon skills.

To achieve access to all spell levels as they become available due to increase in level, the PC must start with at least this score in the relevant spellcasting ability:
Druid, Mage, Priest, Sorceror: minimum score of 15
Paladin and Ranger: minimum score of 11
Bard Spell Access: minimum score of 12
Further: all increases in ability scores must go only to the spellcasting ability.

I was going to have the Paladin become a Fighter, but the gain from that is a collection of Feats that are good but not game winning. The Paladin remains a pure Paladin for now, he won't boost his spellcasting and undead turning with increases in Wisdom and Charisma. Paladin is basically a fighter, so he needs to concentrate on melee abilities like Strength and Constitution.
Paladin spellcasting is not worth the effort. You spend scarce points on Wisdom, exactly the same as for a Cleric, you get nothing much to show for it. When you eventually hit level 6 spells you don't even get Heal! Below is a list of the spells, drawn up by using the Console to promote him to Level 30.

1 Bless
1 Cure Light Wounds
1 Protection From Evil
2 Bull’s Strength
2 Delay Poison
2 Draw Upon Holy Might
2 Minor Elemental Barrier
2 Remove Paralysis
3 Cure Moderate Wounds
3 Dispel Magic
3 Magic Circle Against Evil
3 Prayer
3 Strength of One
4 Cure Serious Wounds
4 Death Ward
4 Defensive Harmony
4 Freedom of Movement
4 Holy Power
4 Neutralize Poison
4 Recitation
5 Champion’s Strength
5 Lower Resistance
5 Spell Resistance
5 Undead Ward
6 Circle of Blades
6 Divine Shell
6 Spiritual Wrath

 

ive never taken paladins level above 2 in all my time playing iwd2.

though there are some goodies in that spell casting list particularly:

2 Draw Upon Holy Might

4 Holy Power

5 Champion’s Strength

6 Divine Shell

which allows you vastly outshine a fighter even if youre stretched thin for stats. holy power alone is +4 dmg, while a weapon specialization is only +2 dmg, +1 attack. add in DUHM and or champions strength and you have yourself a glorified cleric with better BAB

 

Casting level is the level at which the spells are cast for purposes of damage or duration. In the pen and paper rules, for Paladins and Rangers, it is only half of their class level. By contrast, for serious spellcasters (Cleric, Druid, Sorceror and Wizard) it is their entire class level.
Generally the 3E rule is that bonuses of the same sort don't stack.
For spellcasting purposes you would get much better benefit from 11 or 12 levels of Cleric. Though your BAB would suffer.

 

to the OP: a fighter named "Gregory Durant" ? wtf ?

 

Casting level for paladins is half the paladin level rounded down in IWD2.
"Draw Upon Holy Might" is therefore almost useless, you only get +2 to stats and which doesn't stack with other stat boosters."Holy Power" is only available near the end and only lasts 7-8 rounds. Level 5-6 spells aren't even available in a normal game.
So in a normal party game the improvements you get with the special abilities "smite evil" and "lay hands" are more useful than the extra spells you get when leveling up.

 

talk about gimped!

i knew paladins were bad as it is but to introduce a half level reduction on spell power why BI why.

 

I dont think it was BI, I think its just 3E D&D rules.

I've been thinking about the problem of caster classes vs non caster classes in IWD2 as far as powergaming goes, and I've come to this conclusion:

I dont use caster classes as the main class for my characters because of the buffs they can cast on themselves, but because of the buffs they can cast on the party. I mean, its not often that I use Holy Power or DUHM, simply because the duration is too short for me. But having two clerics mean I can have one cast prayer and the other cast recitation, at the same time. Having two sorcerers and two clerics means my pre battle buffs can be done twice as quickly, plus I can go longer between resting.

The only exception perhaps is my decoy, who will need Shield and tensor's transformation to do his job well. And Mordenkainen's sword, well, completely owns.

So.... I dont think the extra hitpoints and greater BAB is worth it late game, compared to the extra buffing power.

 

The reduced caster level is an official pen and paper 3E rule. Black Isle are just following the rules.
You get more spellcasting power from a PC who takes a Paladin level on odd character evels and a Cleric level on even character levels.

 

I suppose it would be too much to ask for them to add the caster levels together?

Eg - if I have a Paladin 10/Cleric 10, I would hope that the caster level would be 10 + 5 (from the paladin's level, halved). Pretty sure that wont be the case though.

 

In 3E, Paladin spells are officially a separate spell list, just like Bard or Ranger, hence there would be no reason for joining of Cleric and Paladin casting levels.

If you are going to spend 6 scarce points on Wisdom for Paladin spell casting you would do better to have the PC alternate between taking Paladin levels and Cleric of Ilmater levels.
You get:
Full slate of Cleric spells.
Proper casting level
Earlier access to each spell level
Spontaneous casting
Better Will saves.

You will lose a bit in attack values, attacks per round and hp.

 

What in the world is the logic behind alternating between paladin and cleric? Why not just get one level of Paladin and proceed as a cleric afterwards????

 

paladins get more BAB/hp per level , though both is potentially nullified by the insane buffs clerics get. which is the reason most power gaming divine builds are cleric and paladin based.

 

A Paladin of Ilmater can go take a few more Paladin levels around level 20 anyway.