Revenge of the Drow

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So I decided to try a new party with all of its members being drow. Hmm... sounded strange but also fun. So in order for this to work (for me) I had to put in a little "roleplayingperspective". So my six members are not only drow, not only evil but also family. The story being that all six are siblings from a minor house and were fortunate enough to escape the destruction of their matron mother and house. Now they are trying to find their place among the surfacers.

Saretha Dehaar (LE) - Dreadmaster of Bane 18-18-16-5-18-5 (Female)
The oldest of the siblings and by birthright leader of the group. Saretha however, is wise enough to realise that her knowledge of the world outside to drowcommunity, is very limited. She is content with letting her younger siblings lead be the spokespersons while she bides her time...

Darkhan Dehaar (LE) - Sorcerer 10-16-10-20-4-20 (Male)
Born of minor house, Darkhan would never became a powerful figure in the magic community. Which of course he would never willingly accept. Years before he had looked for an alternative and was the one who suggesting leaving the underdark.

Viserna Dehaar (NE) - Stormlord of Talos 18-13-16-10-18-5 (Female)
Much more aggressive and impatience than her older sister, Viserna prefered Talos over Bane. She is not one to hide her motives - what Viserna wants she takes. The strong will always prevail.

Dineral Dehaar (NE) - Druid 13-18-16-10-18-5 (Male)
The loner of the group. Dineral is not particulary interested in schemes, wars of powerstruggles. He simply endures and survives. Just as he has done before so will it be again. And being the only one that understands and commands nature, Dineral likes his chances...

Keyran Dehaar (CE) - Barbarian 18-20-16-6-10-10 (Male)
Thrown out of the fighters academy for being too savage, few expected Keyran to survive in the drow society. Unfortunately for those who thought that Keyran was vulnerable, they soon found out that skill sometimes isn't enough when your opponent doesn't care.

Sirena Dehaar (NE) - Bard 12-16-12-16-4-20 (Female)
Youngest of the group but partyleader never the less. Sirena manipulates with the skill of a much older and wiser drow. Let her older sister believes that she is only a figurhead - eventually all will understand who the most powerful drow is...

There will be no multiclassing for this group. I expect that there will be some problems (since I'm not used to play drow) and their low con worries me. Still - it is fun so far (just killed the first orcs at Shaen... whatever it's name is). As always suggestions and hints are welcome! And yes - I know that my spellcasters are gonna suck for a while (being ECL) but I don't care since I spend a lot of time coming up with a good backgroundstory. Of we go again...

 

Not much on the Tank front.
Which you will need given the ECL.

I too played a Drow outcasts party. ( never finished though )
And they can be powerful if done right. But difficult all the same.

I recommend that you drop the Druid in favor of fighter with some dual-wield for extra tanking

 

Thanks for the input Darion but I will not start over. And I'm not really worried about the lack of a tank - don't really need one in IWD II. Summons will work just fine. That's the real problem right now (since I'm at the horde fortress). Not having access to Fireball is not a problem (there a potions that work just fine) but the clerics have to manage without Animate Dead (which is annoying). Still - it works. I probably have to rest more than usual (since I'm getting hurt a lot) but that's ok.

 

Tharlok should be fine on the "tanking" front with just one Barbarian.

My best parties, once they get to HoF mode, are composed of 1 sorceror, 1 wizard/rogue-type, 1 "pure" cleric, and 2 multi-classed clerics, with just a single dedicated tank.

 

Horde Fortress down! Which was painful since I didn't have access to the right spells. I didn't miss Fireball - Command and Dire Charm worked great! Casting Dire Charm on some of the Worg Riders was great fun. Unfortunately "Team Darkside" is very vulnerable when the spells run out... Dekanter Goblins, Fire Trolls and Gutma & co killed my guys about 10 times (which usually never happens). In the end having one drow run while the others used their missile weapons, won me those battles. Not looking forward to Battlesquares but then again - I never like that part of the game.

 

Well, the Fortress is the actual party build 'test chamber'...so to speak. If your guys breeze tru the Fortress then they will relatively easy master the game.

But if the fortress is a grindstone, then you better brace yourself.

Anyway...keep us posted so we can follow your progress.

I never made it into the fortress when I was playing with my Drow outcasts (chronic restarter syndrome) so I never actually tested how well or bad they would master the it.

 

Just entered the Ice Palace. It's been a struggle but a fun one. Drow in melee combat - not a good idea. But since the clerics can use Animate Dead it's been a little easier. It's a much more defensive game - grease, web, entangle slows down monsters while the undead provides cover. Then it's a lot of missiles... Remoraz and Crystal Golems was not fun... But Sherincal was as easy as she always is. Web + Bone Golem and a lot of arrows = dead half-dragon. When I killed that undead lord (Rengal?) my mighty drow-party reached level 7.

 

There's nothing wrong with the frontline there: 2 clerics with maxed CON, a Barbarian, and the Druid might prove to be useful too.

Perhaps people are forgetting how important spellcasting is in this game? This party has a very good mix of spells and melee. Ranged is also very useful, but with decent DEX (and most of them have it) units should be able to keep that option without compromising the build. The beauty of Drow is that they are elves, and as a result are all proficient in Longsword and Bow.

It's too bad you won't consider multiclassing, because you'll find it very tempting at times. But kudos for the roleplaying.
Powergame first, then roleplay is my preferred order.

 

Well they're not a bad group coin - it's just that I'm not used to playing an all ECL-crew (and not really an experienced IWD II player). But I wanted a different experience so I came up with the backstory and decided that they wouldn't multiclass. Not sure if that is a powergaming choice - multiclassing a group of drow when you don't plan to go beyond the normal game? Anyway - the fact that they are all evil is a small problem - no converting spells into healing is not something that I'm used to. And I tend to forget to use spells sometimes...

Cleared out most of the Ice Temple and is stuck with the horrible Battle Squares (I hate it but the XP and items are to hard to resist). The group worked well when we arrived at the temple - some of the drawbacks of ECL-2 is starting to even out (Oooohhhhh - Fireball......). It is nice to use some other clerics than "The almighty" Battleguard of Tempes (who is usually a dwarf). So far the Dreadmaster feels slightly more powerful than the Stormlord.

 

All ECL is only a hinder in the very early game, ie. before the Horde Fortress. Since you're past it by now, it should be smooth sailing from now on.

At the end, you'll get to (or at least very close to) the same level as a corresponding party of zero ECL characters would. The only thing missing (in terms of exp advantage) is at least someone with even worse ECL penalty so the rest of them get "a free level-up", kind-a, sort-a.

 

sounds great- i'd always loved my drow sorcerer. +1 for magic res.

 

FINALLY! Just beat the Battle Squares - took forever but still... Just entered Wandering Village (and all members have just reached lvl 10). Time for a walk in the forest... And obviously I didn't give away the Ring of the Ram... But it's great fun (apart from the Ice disaster) and I'm really liking this team now. Playing an "All-evil" group has it's downsides but if I remember correctly, it will mean that Blasphemy won't work.

 

...and there the game ended with six siblings destroying the evil twins (and half of the world in the process). It was fun (and only the second time I was able to finish this game. Two things worried me when I started this game:

1). No spontaneous healing (all partymember was evil). Not a problem - there were enough potions so I didn't have to worry. An "all-evil" group meant that Blasphemy wasn't a problem.

2). All ECL-team. Annoying in the beginning (think Horde Fortress and Ice Palace) since I was lacking spells that I usually rely on (Fireball for instance). Battle Squares was a pain (lower level than usual and lower Con with a drow...). I felt this team was working great when I completed the Ice Palace and the Drows spell resistance were very handy at times.

In the end all partymembers reached level 16 (all except the sorcerer in the final battle) and that was what I expected. The two toughest battles was against the guardian in Chult (which usually is a problem for me) and the final one against Isair and Madae. Last battle took 6 or 7 tries and was annoying as hell. If Isair cast Improved Invisibility my guys were dead (since I had no ways of handling that). Funniest battle of the game were agains Saeblic Tan and his minions. Protection from Evil + Gate resulted in a very angry demon tearing up those puny spellcasters in the back row... In the end I was happy with my team and how the ended up:

Keyran (Barbarian) - Started to shine when he got The Massive Halbeard of Hate. Had about 36-38% of all kills but then he went through all the battles in the Battle Squares so...

Sirena (Bard) - Great archer, talker, singer and buffer. The bard is a great support character and she was no exception.

Viserna (Stormlord of Talos) - As a cleric she was a solid as... clerics are. Didn't really care about the domainspells so I can't really say that the Stormlord is better or worse than other options.

Dineral (Druid) - The druid is always a sore spot for me. It isn't a favorite but I recognize that some spells are great. Spike Growth + Grease (bard) + Web (sorcerer) usually worked well...

Saretha (Dreadmaster of Bane) - Clerics are great and Dreadmasters have some benefits that even I can't ignore.

Darkhaan (Sorcerer) - Focused on evocation spells and a few other fun spells (Malison, Chaos, Lower Resistance). Didn't take any summoning spells until very late in the game but I wasn't lacking in that department. Was the one who got ahead by using a special book...

So that's it for those guys - perhaps an all dwarf team now? Or all gnomes? Or...

 

Disintegrate worked on the Guardian.

 

Yeah, I've personally been able to do it a couple of times (generally with lots of reloading; it's really just been an experiment to see how well it works as a possibility). But usually my party takes the Guardian down in a few rounds of melee, so it makes little difference.