Best 4 player party? (Improved Anvil)

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Heya everybody,

Right now I'm playing BGII with improved anvil, using a 4 player party (MP created) concisting of:

Cavalier
Blade
Cleric/Thief
Sorcerer

What I have noticed is that compared to my cavalier, the Blade and the C/T suck - they do less damage (both dual wielding, while the Cav is using 2h sword, so I guess it's natural), hit less often, have worse saving throws and generally suck compared to the Cav. While that is to be expected, I was wondering if I should replace the Blade and C/T with something more powerfull. So what I am asking is what your suggestion should be? I'll need clerical spells, and a thief would be nice too, so any multiclass combo (with or without kits) would work. I have no objection to SK'ing classes and such. I'm guessing I should keep the sorcerer, since that is the best arcane spell caster, yes?

TIA

 

If you want maximum damage, I would say change the blade and c/t to fighter/thief and fighter/cleric.

Boring classes, I know, but very good. The problem with the c/t is that its not a melee class - use it for spells and traps.

 

Instead of a fighter/cleric do you think a fighter/druid would work? Or will I be lacking too many defensive spells to make it worthwhile?

 

It should not be surprising your warrior class is doing more damage -- especially early in the game. Dual welding only beats out a good two-handed sword if you can actually HIT the target more often. That's not going to happen with the classes you have.

Use a straight cleric and a bounty hunter. The real strength of the cleric is the spells -- dual classing slows that process down. As a good alternative, dual a fighter (say berserker) to cleric either as soon as you start Irenicus' dungeon or at 9th level. That said, I found the cleric/thief to be an awesome character in a solo game where you level much faster.

The special traps of the bounty hunter are simply awesome. And they can be thrown. You can SK in a multiclass fighter/thief where one is a kit. Aldeth started a thread about that a few days ago.

I really like the cavalier, but I think the inquisitor would be a better fit for your four person party. The inquisitor's dispel magic would be used to take down defences and the sorcerer can focus on damage based spells.

 

It's strongly recommened to play IA with a party of at least 5 members.

However, if you insist on playing a party of 4, there are also more than one or two good compositions to try.

I will offer some good compositions for a party of 5 here, but you may also post the same question in the mod's own forum to have more answers from IA players.

Note 1: Playing a vagrant protagonist you can see the maximum number of new quests and added content. A non-evil single class mage protagonist (preferably a necromancer) or a non-vagrant ranger stand second in this respect. If seeing more new quests is not your priority, then you can replace the protagonist with any other character you wish.

Note 2: Anywhere I write "Warrior" you can replace it with any kit you like (for example, you can consider a half-orc berserker or barbarian or even a kensai or Riskbreaker). Also since you said you would want a thief, I consider it in my suggestions too.

Some possible good composiitons for a party of 5:

(I)

1- Vagrant
2- Sorcerer
3- F/M (multi)
4- Swashbuckler -> Cleric (dual, not multi)
5- Warrior

(II)

1- Vagrant
2- Necromancer
3- Swashbuckler -> Mage (dual)
4- Berserker -> Cleric (dual)
5- Warrior

(III)

1- Vagrant
2- Sorcerer
3- Swashbuckler -> Mage (dual)
4- Berserker -> Cleric (dual)
5- Warrior

(IV)

1- Necromancer
2- Sorcerer
3- Swashbuckler -> Cleric (dual)
4- Warrior
5- Warrior

(V)

1- Necromancer
2- F/M (multi)
3- Swashbuckler -> Cleric (dual)
4- Warrior
5- Auramaster

(VI)

1- Necromancer
2- Berserker -> Cleric (dual)
3- Swashbuckler
4- Sorcerer
5- Warrior

There are lots of other valid and powerful compositions.

 

The inquisitor is perhaps one of the most powerful, and maybe even overused, classes in the game.

Its dispel magic and true sight ability really do make it the bane of spellcasters.

Anyway, a solo class cleric can be useful, but your spell progression will eventually slow down, so they are good early on, but less good later. Your smaller party size might compound that effect. there is one other very good thing about solo class clerics, and that is turn undead. There are a lot of undead encounters in BGII, and turn undead can really help in them (unless tactics nerfs it).

Bounty hunters arent bad, personally I prefer fighter/thiefs because they have the proficiencies of fighters or multi class fighters (depending on whether you mod that table or not). They also get faster thaco progression than bounty hunters, while still getting enough skill points for traps etc.

you could get the best of both worlds by sk'ing a figher/bounty hunter!

 

If you are trying to decide between a fighter/druid or a fighter/cleric you should consider the ranger/cleric. Good fighting ability, two weapon proficiency and can cast all priest spells. A decent combination, well worth the slightly slower leveling on the ranger part. These guys are awesome welding Flail of Ages/Crom Faeyr. You could SK in a kit as well.

The big advantage of the Bounty Hunter is the traps. You should look at the thieves guide on SP to see what traps do at different levels. Intelligent use of traps can wipe out any enemy.

 

Remember that Bahir the Red is playing Improved Anvil. Some hints and suggestions which might be good for the vanilla game are not so helpful in this case (endorsing the Bounty Hunter is one of them).

 

Yes, I emagined that more restrictions would be put on that class (even though I've never played it myself so I can't really say how powerful they really are/were).

The thing is, on my other computer, I'm running a mega-modded game with Big Picture, with a two player party concisting of a Drow Battle Monger(fighter kit)/mage and a Sviftneblin(thief kit)/cleric... IIRC that is... (might be that mage and cleric is switched around)

In any case, for now, I think I have decided to go with replacing the blade with a multi class kensai/thief (or should I dual? The to hit, damage and attack speed bonuses won't stop after a specific level, right?), and the cleric with a ranger/cleric (even though I've played those alot lately).

Any objections or thoughs?

 

Sikret: Did you change the traps? Or the ability of Bounty Hunter traps to be thrown? The Bounty Hunter's special traps are good at isolating a single target and taking it out of the battle for a short period of time -- I'm assuming by your statement this ability is not very affective in IA.

One comment about multiclassing -- they get HLA's a lot later than the single class characters in IA.

 

Yes, traps are not much effective in IA.

This is true.

@Bahir the Red

I wrote my suggestions in my previous post. If you want to read other suggestions and comments (with more variety of opinions), send your questions in the mod's forum. Players who have a lot of experience with IA can help you there.

You also didn't say whether seeing more new quests is a priority for you or not. With a paladin protagonist you will see neither of the two major expanded strongholds.

 

I don't know much about IA, but this 4 person party kicks some serious butt:

Sorcerer
Fighter/Illusionist (Gnome)
Berserker 9 dual> Cleric (or Cleric/Ranger multiclass)
Fighter/Thief multiclass

I think taking the F/Ill out and putting a Cavalier in would be just as powerful. Again, this is for a regular game.

 

Yeah, I know. But I figured that SK'ing my party overpowers it a bit, so having four instead of 4 characters in the party will balance that out, or at least take away the advantage and then some. I know I will lose the advantage... but I just figured something out... even though I don't think the Vagrant kit looks that good at a first glance, I could re-do my party so that the ranger/cleric becomes a vagrant/cleric, and I'll make him the protagonist... that should work...

 

No, unfortunately, it won't work. The vagrant must be single class if you want to see all of his new quests.

In general, it is very strongly recommended that you don't cheat in any way if you intend to play IA; but the case of making multi-class vagrants is even more sensitive and shouldn't be done at all.

For the record, those players who cheat (any sort of cheat), will not receive any technical support from me if they encounter issues in their games.

 

Well, I guess I'll keep running the party I have then, and try a Vagrant later.

 

@ Sikret,

When you say, the case of making multi-class vagrants is even more sensitive (than cheating) and shouldn't be done at all, will there be a number of complications with the mod??

 

Yes, the mod always assumes that the player doesn't cheat and doesn't have "illegal" characters (such as kitted mutil-class characters). Some of the new quests and/or encounters will not trigger if the player cheats (this includes creating illegal characters using Shadow Keeper as well; it's also a sort of cheat). Some of the items and loots will not be found either, etc...

 

Does this mod increase the difficulty of the game? Where can I find details about it?

TIA

 

Assuming you mean Improved Anvil, then oh yes, to say that it increases the difficulty is an understatement. IIRC, you're a powergamer (as am I, more or less), and you're experienced at BG2, so you might want to give IA a shot. Not only does it substantially increase difficulty, it also adds new content, and gives the opportunity to forge new (and very powerful) new items. Basically, if you think Tactics and Ascension are too easy, then IA is definitely worth a try.

Improved Anvil forum

 

So obviously a Sk'd Fighter/Assassin isn't going to work here I'm assuming that class probably would have been a great choice too considering the difficulty concerning this mod..

Guess you'd have to do it the old fashion way and Dual ey

Also Bahir, are you concerned about missing out on all of the "normal" dialogue that occurs with the usual joinable NPC's rather than self-created ones?