4 man party for a first timer

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- damage: 1d8+5
- attack bonus: +5
- enchantment: +5
- +2d6 against evil creatures
- +15 spell resistance
- cast 'dispel magic' with no limit

 

Here's a link to it's stats:

http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/IWD2/Walkthrough/lists/items/holy_avenger_sword.php

 

The Spell Resistance and "Dispel Magic", along with the CHA bonus to saving throws makes it worthwhile IMO.

 

Since you like MC:ing you could change your cleric of tempus to a fighter or barbarian1 / lathander or bane X. Then you can use any weapon and you get much better domain spells (lathander) or a "bonus" later on (bane). Weapon focus as battlemaster only gives a +1 to hit bonus over a proficiency and in only 1 weapon (although axes are good weapons). A fighter-type level gives proficiency with all weapons except exotic. Then you can just use the best weapon you come across.

 

I had a battleguard myself and he was really great.
Taking one fighter or barbarian level for your cleric like suggested in the previous post will weaken your party.

 

To an extent, yes. You'll get to high levels faster than a 6 man party, and the advantage of even just a few levels earlier into the game are in fact enough to make a drastic effect in gameplay. However, there are some MC's which simply cannot be redeemed even by cutting party members down to just 4.

Add one. Two is too many - you'll get the most out of only 1 paladin level.

Unless you're going for the ultimate AC of 72 and really need the Barksin, don't MC the Bard - though it's ok if you decide to take 1 level of fighter to get an extra feat and free proficiencies. The Bard is actually a very powerful class in the game on its own.

Like kmonster posted, Bards have just as good BABs as clerics so they have the potential to become powerful fighters. They can use a variety of very powerful summoning and enchantment spells along with Bard Songs and they they can cast one of the most powerful nukes in the game - Wail of the Banshee, at high levels.
To put it bluntly, in endgame the Bard is simply a sorcerer who has focused more on Enchantment and Summoning spells, with good fighting capabilities and with the ability to use Bard Songs to enchance the fighting capabilities of his allies - both party members and summons alike.

The last 4 levels of Cleric aren't that important unless you like your spells to last an addtional 4x more rounds so if you plan to play until endgame I suggest you take 4 levels of fighter/monk/barbarian, depending on which class you like better.

 

Unlimited dispel magic is without a doubt a powerful advantage.

Spell resistance is powerful as well, but it should be pointed out that spell resistance:15 in 3.0 rules does not work anything like magic resistance:15 would have in AD&D 2E rules (where you subract 15 from any magic damage taken).

What spell resistance:15 means, is that anytime a spell caster wants to affect you with a spell, he/she needs to roll a caster check (1d20 + caster level + relevant feats (e.g. spell penetration)) to do so. If the caster achieves a 15 or better, the spell "gets through" your spell resistance, and you are affected normally by the spell, rolling any saves the spell may allow for. So by the time you get this sword (level 10ish, if I remember correctly) you'll find that your SR is getting breached most of the time, since a level 10 caster need only roll a 5 or better to beat a 15, less with spell penetration feats. Oh, and there are a select group of spells that ignore spell resistance altogether. Most of these are higher level spells, but there are some lower level ones as well, such as Melf's Acid Arrow.

This still has value, mind you, but I wanted to make sure you understand the difference between 3E spell resistance v.s 2E magic resistance.

 

@kmonster
How much the loss of a level weakens the whole party depends on how much you like the domain spells. I think the high-lvl (6-9) battleguard domain spells are almost always a loss of a spell slot while stormlords and morninglords get good domain spells at all levels. It's worth a level for some useful domain spells and proficiency with all weapons.
The barb-level gives some extra HP + rage and the fighter gives +2HP and a feat, both making the char a slightly better tank.
The dreadmaster is the choice if you plan on playing HOF since the "bonus" makes them slightly more powerful than the others.
Therefore I don't think that the level taken as fighter-type class will weaken the party at all.

 

How much another level weakens your party depends on all spells you loose, not only the the domain spells and the disadvantages you get for weaker effects of level dependent spells.

A fighter or barbarian1/cleric X-1 is less useful than a cleric X at any level you'll reach in a normal game, maybe except at level 1-2.(depends on your playing style)
Comparing level by level will show you this, you won't find an example pointing in the other direction.

At odd levels the pure cleric will be able to cast at least one spell of a level a multiclassed can't, at even levels the pure cleric will at least have an additional spell at the highest level. Usually you gain more lower level spells too.
If you also consider that most spells have level dependent effects or duration the pure cleric's superiority becomes obvious.

Battleguard isn't the powergamer's choice, but it's great because it's the most fun IMHO. You don't get to cast that many mage spells as with the other deities, but one domain spell was always useful for me at each level and throwing axes are great.
I played a bit with a dreadmaster later and she wasn't that fun.
Even with stormlords and morninglords you get only one domain spell per level, not enough for spending feats and skillpoints to make those spells really powerful.