Would this party based on 80s DnD cartoon work?

Remove all ads!

I was thinking of trying an IWDEE party based on the 80s DnD cartoon (you can find on youtube)...

I haven't planned out stats and weapon proficiencies exactly but it's as tight as I can manage based on the cartoon with the result that it's not the typical parties you see. For example no cleric and only one spell caster. I'm wondering if it can play decent at moderate difficulty?

1 "Hank"
Ranger
kit Archer

2 "Bobby"
Fighter
kit Barbarian

3 "Presto"
Mage
kit Wild Mage

4 "Sheila"
Thief
Shadowdancer

Comment: These first four fit the cartoon well. Aside from not having their magical weapons do fancy stuff. The next two are Eric "Cavalier" and he doesn't exactly fit because he never attacks just he has a magical shield that can block stuff. And then Diana is an "Acrobat" and uses a quarterstaff. I thought monk but those can't use quarterstaffs and the central feature is acrobatics and quarterstaff. Other options I thought are Kensai and Swashbuckler and I choose Kensai

5 "Eric"
Paladin
Cavalier

6 "Diana"
Fighter
Kensai - Quarterstaffs

So will be a strange party with 3 melee 1 shadow dancer 1 Archer and 1 Wild Mage. I might try to find portraits appropriate to the DnD cartoon. And role play as 'the good guys'. Perhaps they are stuck in Ice Wind Dale and looking for a way home back to the 80s on Earth.

 

Sure, you can make this work - the lack of a cleric will sting since that locks you out of divine spells; Paladins only start getting access to it at lvl 9, and even then only ever get spell slots up to the 4th level.
Personally i like bringing two mages, but as long as you have at least one that's fine - having them be a wild mage is definitely gonna be wacky, so that fits the theme.

here's a pretty nice portrait you could use for hank :

 

That's a nice portrait. Yeah I don't know how it will play out. I played IWD long time ago and needed lots of "kill zone" tactics and never finished but that doesn't mean a melee heavy party can't play it just won't have as much stacking spell crap to do the job. As I'll be on medium difficulty or lower should be OK. Diana and Hank should become killer machines. I think the wild mage should be fun (first for me) and should be fine as I always play a party with unlimited "power word reloads"

 

So far going ok. Had a tough fight in Dragon Eye 2 because of the Talona priests casting hold person. Eventually I had mage cast protection evil on two characters (Diana and Himself) to hope for saves versus hold. Then he cast haste and we all rushed the priests first. Eric also cast prot evil on himself while Bobby raged to be immune to hold. Hank had some acid and fire arrows to help take down trolls. A couple of characters got mauled badly and 2 still were held if I recall but took down the priests and then just had to use some run away tactics for wounded characters and enough fire power to take down trolls.

Eric is level 7 Paladin(Cavalier) and wields a +3 Mace bought on the cheap in Kuldahar
Bobby is level 7 Fighter (Barbarian) and hasn't found/bought a club but dual wields bastard sword and sometimes weapons he not even proficient in.
Diana is level 7 Fighter (Kensai) and wields a mundane quarter staff or a magic bone sheaf (or something) +5 Thaco dagger.
Shiela is level 8 Thief (Shadowdancer) and wields a scimitar +2 with the luck effect
Presto is level 7 Wild Mage and wields darts/slings
Hank is level 7 Ranger (Archer) and wields a simple composite longbow

The entrance to Dragon Eye 3 was also challenging. Bobby and Diana hit hard but not a high AC.

 

As a big fan of the 80s cartoon, I tried the same thing (with exactly the same classes), and it worked out great.

The hard part is not having a cleric. But Hank (archer) and Diana (kensai) do a ton of damage, and Diana can hide in the second row since quarterstaff is a reach weapon. So with giving Bobby a shield (a slight roleplaying violation) and Eric having great AC, you can actually get by with those 2 doing mostly the tanking, and then just potion healing.