2 man multiplayer party.

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My nephew and I are going to spend a week or so hard core finishing IWD2 as a multiplayer game with a single character each.

What do you make a suggestion for the 2 characters. We are a little clueless and still can't make a decision. We don't want to use JUPP or UPP faq character because it requires too much thought.

2 characters that will work all the way to the twins in normal mode.

Suggestions...?

 

Wow, how do you manage to find a spare week to play multiplayer IWD2 with your nephew?

It really depends on what sort of gameplay you want to employ and how much micromanagement you want to have to do. I would usually find that fiddling around with too many spells and special abilities takes too long in multiplayer so you definitely need a good tank who can get stuck into the mix of battle, backed up by some sort of spellcaster.

If it was me, I would go for:

Tank - Paladin (straight paladin so you get the benefit of saving throw bonuses, aura of courage, special paladin-only items, and access to some divine abilities as I wouldn't take a cleric)

Spellcaster - Sorcerer (sorcerer is less fuss than a wizard and better for softening up large groups of enemies. Take one or two key buffs for you and the Paladin, some good summons for big fights, and the usual mass destruction spells)

Both characters will be charisma based so dialogue shouldn't be an issue, but better to get the Sorcerer to speak to avoid missing out on any goodies that the Paladin would refuse.

 

Alternative Allaround group:

Fighter 4, Cleric X

Rogue 2, Sorcerer X

Just to have all the basic classes listed, and still go spellcasting.

 

Harborboy, I'm pretty sure that every [Class]-"only" item can be used by any character that has at least one level in that class. I know that my sorc was able to use the holy avenger and the monk bracers with only a single level in their required classes.

To answer the original question, there are a lot of different ways to complete normal mode. In fact pretty much any class can do it solo. So you should go with whatever will be the most fun for you two. Be sure that one character isn't going to dominate the game at the expense of the other one. For example, if you were playing unpatched, the guy with a fighter wold feel pretty useless if the cleric used Animate Dead at the time. In fact, you should be sure to apply the patch regardless.

I do suggest at least one cleric or druid to cast Heal.

 

Thanks raptor for the suggestions.

@Harbourboy, we will be on holidays together so the best way to spend the time will be on IWD2, naturally.

I'm tossing over the idea of a monk in my mind though again and again, but I wan't chunky weapons too.

 

That is right, I only put that in as a reason why I chose Paladin as my tank as opposed to Barbarian or Fighter. I suggested going pure Paladin so as to access the divine abilities which you only really get at higher Paladin levels and would be useful in the absence of a cleric.

But I agree that you can solo with any character so that means you can also dual with any two characters.

 

For normal mode and in a small party a cleric or a druid as one of them is both very effective and fun to play with. With one lvl in any fighter class you can use the best weapons you pick up so they become very good in both fighting and spellcasting. Since they arn't the best at any of these (but fully buffed in higher levels match the pure fighters in fighting abilities) it won't dominate in the other chars area. In a cleric + fightertype char party the fighter will get more kills and in a cleric + sorc party the sorc will be the best caster.
Even in HOF-mode clerics and druids remain good but can't really match heavy arcane casters. I would suggest you to use one of them and then one of your choice depending on your playing style.

 

Deep Gnome Rogue[2]/Ranger[1]/Fighter[2]/Monk[1]/Paladin[2]/Painbearer of Ilmater[1]/Illusionist[x]
Drow female Bard[11]/Dreadmaster of Bane[x]

or

Aasimar Paladin[3]/Monk[3]/Fighter[4]/Morninglord of Lathander[x]
Aasimar Paladin[2]/Sorcerer[x]

 

1. Dwarf Battleguard of Tempus (3 int,1 cha) for tanking and casting.

2. Human thief who will add mage levels later. Stats:
12-18-18-18-6-4
Don't add too many thief levels. (3 should be sufficient.)

If you don't mind having a slightly harder start, then this team will be far stronger at the end:

1.Deep gnome Battleguard of tempus
Stats: 16-16-18-3-20-1

2.Male drow thief who will add mage levels later.
Stats: 12-20-16-20-6-6

Don't take more than 2-3 thief levels, increase only int when levelling up the drow.


Another racial option for your thief/mage is tiefling.
A dwarf battleguard combined with a tiefling thief3/mage x is also a good option.

[ January 11, 2006, 18:28: Message edited by: kmonster ]

 

I like these suggestions. We will probably go with a Tempusite, but which flavour?

We already thought of a wizard that gets the rogue skills minus the rogue levels.

 

I would go with Paladin 3 or 4 (For resist fear)/ Rogue [x] as you will be able to, when Rogue lvls hit 10, to wade into battle whilst the caster throw blasting spells with just a small chance of getting hit, and there is a cloak later that makes you immune to Skull Trap.

Just finished a game using that class and some other classes.

And maybe you can start cleric levels once your Rogue lvl hits 10!!

Just my thoughts anyways! Good luck on the game either way.

 

Before you go with the tempus you should search for a list with the different domain-spells and see which type of cleric that fits you! The Tempus seems to be really good since the ability to use axes is very good to have, but one level of any fighter class gives the ability to use any weapon and the difference between 2 points in a weapon and just one is very small (+1 to hit).
The morninglord and the stormlord have good attack-spells and the dreadmaster gets a "bonus" later on in the game so I would suggest you to consider them since the battleguards domain spell list is one of the weaker (this depends of course on the playing style)

 

Take a pure cleric of Tempus. You won't need any other weapons except axes and throwing axes, there are so many of them.
Since you probably won't reach more than level 17 without cheese (like level-squatting), any level given to another class will weaken him.
There are many powerful cleric spells you'd like to get as fast as possible.
If you want another deity (like Mask for mirror image) make sure your cleric isn't evil or you won't be able to cast instant healing spells.

Adding one or two rogue levels won't hurt since you won't find scrolls fast enough for about 75 percent of the game. A level 11 wizard who cannot cast level 6 spells due to missing scrolls is annoying.

If you choose tiefling,human or male drow you won't get an XP penalty.

If you start as wizard, you know a few level 1 spells at the start, but if you start as rogue, you'll get more skill points which are useful during the whole game.


If you don't mind having to trigger all traps you can choose a human (15-18-18-3-4-18), aasimar (12-10-18-14-6-20) or drow sorcerer instead. Add a paladin level for better saving throws,hitpoints and weapon choices.
Locks can be bashed or opened using the knock spell. You might get better shop prices and charisma based NPC reactions, but you'll
be low on skill points and int-based skills or int-based dialogue options.
You can even try a human (rogue 1 or 2 ,paladin1 ,sorcerer x)
with stats like (12-12-16-14-4-18).


If both characters are good aligned, your cleric can cast the very powerful holy word spell without stunning the other party member.


If you want to level up fast at the beginning then start with a dwarven battleguard of tempus and a tiefling rogue (12-20-18-20-6-2) who will become a mage. You can decide if you add more rogue levels later. The tiefling's 1 level ECL penalty isn't bad since the average party level is rounded down when the fighting XP gain is calculated.

The deep gnome/drow combination will level slower at the start, especially the deep gnome cleric will take far longer to get important spells like animate dead.
Because of the dynamic XP gain the difference will shrink to less than a quarter level while the racial benefits remain, so they'll be stronger at the end.
But since the start might require too many reloads I wouldn't recommend this for a multiplayer game unless you are very experienced.

 

??? I usually reach lvl 19-23 with very little level-squatting in a 6-person team. A 2-person team will reach 20 far before the final battle assuming they complete only some extra quests. It's good to have someone that can use the best weapon at every time. (The 2-hand-sword you get before the Ice-palace is a good example)

 

My no level spuatting party ended with an average level lower than 17.

A 2 person party won't gain many extra levels compared to a 6 person party because of the dynamic XP calculation.

You can use nearly any weapon without having points in it. You only get a -4 attack penalty, but the number of attacks or damage per hit remains the same.

But axes are the best weapons for most of the game anyway, you get even an extra attack when using throwing axe with the rapid shot feat.
It's not worth wasting a level for fighter before you reach level 17-20.

If you don't choose a battleguard it's better to take an aasimar and add a paladin level instead of a fighter level (if you can be lawful good), but you'll find enough cleric weapons to take you through the game anyway.

[ January 14, 2006, 14:23: Message edited by: kmonster ]

 

-4 to hit in normal mode makes a BIG difference to the weapon. I always think that exchanging 9 not so useful spells and one level (which gives some spells) for 9 better spells (morninglord or stormlord) or a special bonus (dreadmaster) + the ability to use any weapon and an extra feat is worth it, but some people feel different. The Battleguards domain spells may fit some peoples playing style, but certainly not me.

A 2-p-party will still get the same amount of xp for quests, which will give them a higher level at the end of the game. My first party (or more correct: the first party I played past the first 3 chapters) reached lvl 20 in the beginning of the last chapter and that was before I knew about lvl-squatting. But I did most of the extra quests and used some ECL-races.

 

I liked my battleguard very much. He did more fighting damage during the first third of the game than my fighter/paladin.
Every domain level has a useful spell.

The question is when to add fighter levels.

Especially in a small party you'd like to get animate dead as fast as possible, and if you get an extra one from your domain it's great.

You'll also want to get level5 spells like iron skins, raise dead and champion's strength as fast as possible.

You'll also want that your time or level depending buffing or protection spells last as long as possible.

A little extra offensive abilities don't hurt, but clerics do far more damage with summons or spells anyway.

So adding a fighter or paladin level before level9 will really slow down getting the important spells, afterwards you might consider it but I wouldn't add other levels before level 20 because of the fast spell progression.

I'm currently trying a banite in my HoF party and I'm pretty dissapointed because of the lower level domain spells.
She might get powerful spells later, but I'm missing my battleguard.
A drawback with many other cleric domains is that you can't be good aligned and use holy word.

Do you mean one non-ECL character level 20 or average party level 20 ?
Seems impossible to reach for me without level squatting or adding a decoy character even with a walkthrough. I thought my party was levelling fast since I got hardly any XP for fighting.

Would you mind sharing your special tactics ?

 

All of them reached lvl 20 in chapter 6. I think that the non-ECL races reached it in the end of chapter 5! I did every quest I could find and killed every enemy I met. It took some time to pass through the forrest without a guide so maybe I encountered more enemies than a usual party??

The fighter lvl should be taken early since in the beginning fighting is much more effective than magic. I don't like summoning: My Party is on a quest to kill the bad guys, not my party and their undead army. If you like summoning the Battleguard can be OK. I usually play with a High-AC decoy or cast my fireballs in the beginning of the fights. 2 of those level 5 spells can easily be replaced by stoneskin on the sorc and bulls strength. I usually avoid to get killed so I can wait an extra level for raise dead.

The dreadmaster don't have the best domain spells in normal mode but they get an extra bonus later on in the game with the banite quest. And their bonus to enchantment spells and the extrem levels of wis they can reach makes their mind-controlling spells really useful later on.

 

Update.

We did it! Actually it was fun, much more than we expected.

My nephew stuck with a drow wizard and we did level squat him from around level 7 which he got in the goblin warrens from memory (or there abouts).

I had to do even levels between ranger and cleric and I managed to end up with the heal spell and split level 12 cleric/level 12 ranger. The character could tank quite well and was able to get the whole of battlesquares finished. (First time ever done!)

I did notice some crazy xp differences. Whenever his character killed a monster it awarded double the xp that my character would get.

We got 4500xp for Sherincal and measly 250 for the Chult dragon when the wizard stopped the level squatting to hit level 20 so we added a mule.

Mule was a lame 1st level barbarian, bag carrier and could have been level 13 if levelled up after whacking the twins.

So it was mad fun and I'd do it again, and despite the "shame" of it I would recommend a mule. Totally unrealistic, but then the way that the game calculates xp is just wrong IMHO.

We massacred and murdered the entire planet and got complete warm fuzzies as a result. Ah the feeling of dropping a meteor swarm on Conlan and Sheemish is almost erotic....

Maybe we might eventually do HOF, but I doubt it. We won't get much xp anyway (unless we mule it!)

One cool tactic the the wizard developed accidentally but absolutely saved the day many a time we the following.

Wizard preps with stoneskin and/or mirror image, then casts fireshield red or blue or death armour (still not sure if all can be cast at once) and once all the monsters have locked on to the wizard the wizard leaps inside a resilient sphere. The lame monsters are so bloddy minded that they commit self immolation suicide. Much corpses and xp.Rinse and repeat for much hilarity.