Can my current vanilla game party make it through HoF?

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I am playing them through, no changes. But what I want to know is will they be able to make the slog thru HoF. It's no Jukka party that is certain, just a fun party I like to play. Advice on HoF is appreciated! My current party is all level 4, we are about to enter Vrek's cave to retrieve Emma's Moonsword. I have edited their stats to refelct what I feel they would really have, I don't like the stat restrictiveness of this game engine. I was contemplating mutli-classing my Bard to Druid, but then I would have to build the classes up together or eat the XP penalty, making for a medicore character by the end of the vanilla game. What else can I do with the Bard that would be productive in HoF? I am not a normal HoF player. Never got far into it.

1 - Gor Foesmasher - Male Half-Orc F(4)/Barb(x) - Tank - Greataxe/Crossbow - Increasing Str - ST 20 DX 15 CN 16 IN 8 WS 9 CH 7 - WF Greataxe

2 - Hengin Battlecrown - Male Shield Dwarf Cle(Moradin)(x) - Secondary Tank/Healer/Buffer - Warhammer/Sling - Increasing Wis - ST 16 DX 11 CN 19 IN 12 WS 17 CH 10 - WP Warhammer

3 - Zyrian of the Light - Male Aasimar Monk(1)/Cle(Ilmater)(x) - Secondary Tank/Healer/Buffer - Unarmed Attack/Sling - Increasing Wis - ST 15 DX 18 CN 13 IN 13 WS 18 CH 16 - Dodge

4 - Vesendei Moonsong - Female Aasimar Bard - Buffer/Healer/Disabler/Speaker - Bows/Dagger - Increasing Cha - ST 11 DX 15 CN 10 IN 16 WS 16 CH 19 - Lingering Song

5 - Pounen Sand - Male Aasimar Pal(Mystra)(1)/Sorcerer(x) - Bombardment - Crossbow/Longsword - Increasing Cha - ST 14 DX 10 CN 15 IN 13 WS 15 CH 18 - SF Evocation

6 - Myren the Mischevious - Male Strongheart Halfling Rog(1)/Wizard(x) - Locks & Traps/Scout/Decoy - Bows/Shortswords - Increasing Int - ST 9 DX 19 CN 15 IN 17 WS 9 CH 14 - Rapid Shot

 

Your party will do fine in HoF mode.
Forget about multiclassing your bard with druid, high levels in one class are better than mediocre levels in two. Bards get powerful spells at high levels, but their songs alone are worth taking one, even if HoF mode.

 

Don't worry, you don't NEED a maxed party to make it through HOF. In a vast majority of cases, you can use a summon to tank for you in a pinch if you don't have a HOF-certified tank to do it for you. The remaining ones can be completed with shrewd spellcasting.

 

Your party looks varied enough anyway. Your access to spells alone will be enough to make it through.
I hope you chose some buff spells for the sorcerer & bard, because the clerics will have their hands full.

 

Effective party level is only 7 so far, I did not anticipate the busy weekend I had. Horde Fortress down, Sherincal is next. Sorcerer has Mage Armor and Bull's Strength. Bard has Mage Armor and Cat's Grace. Rog/Wiz will obviously have all the Arcane buffs as well and the Clerics the Divine buffs. I screwed up the character creation of the Monk/Cle though. I choose Aasimar as the race. Duh. What was I thinking? Now I have an XP penalty. I can either level up more often as a Monk to makle it even leveled with the leric class to eliminate the XP penalty, but that will destroy his spell casting at not much of a gain in other abilities. OR Keep on truking with the XP. penalty in place. Will the book in the Monastery even that out? Or if I choose Paladin of Ilmater as well for this character, that will give me 2 Pallys. Will I get another Holy Avenger in HoF as well?

 

Just ignore the XP penalty. 20 percent percent penalty isn't much considering that you need more XP with each level. It's only a backup cleric, so you can distribute the levels as you wish, I'd even even add a paladin level to get more weapon proficiencies and the paladin bonus in chapter 5 and go monk1/paladin1/cleric x. Unarmed works only for pure class monks, so use a big damaging weapon for melee.

 

Ignore the XP penalty, huh? I struggle with that idea, but I will give it a try. Not that I think it is wrong kmonster, as you Coin and Sir Rechet are about as good as it gets when getting advice on these board. I just hate wasting XP and usually won't make a build that does so. I feel I wasted a level with the Sorcerer then. Eh, maybe I won' feel as bad as sson as he hits level 6. Roasting my enemies with Fireballs always lightens my mood!

In HoF, is 2 slots in the Spell Penetration Feat necesary or required?

 

Neither necessary nor required, and in some cases actually a bad thing to have. Especially if your tank(s) rely on Spell Resistance as one of their layers of defense AND you like the big time nukes flying around.

20% exp penalty translates into only ~10% loss in actual level, so at max 2-3 levels behind. And if it happens to drop your party's average level by a notch, your OTHER characters will gain sizeable extra amounts of exp. So yea, don't fret it - it's not like Zyrian absolutely, positively NEEDS to get past level 21 ASAP in order to shine.

 

Ok, skipping SP then. Other feats help toughen up the Casters anyway.

I have destroyed Sherincal and fought through the Ice palace of the three sisters. Time to go back to mess with the batlesquares before I leave. Average pary level is now 10. Pounen is roasting everything in sight.

What are recommended level 4 spell selections for Sorcerers? I chose Force Missles(which I am not impressed with, never chosose them in a previous run thru) and Ice Storm. I am thinking I should of taken an AoE Enchantment instead. My Clerics & Wizard can handle Summons, so what else is effective? Stoneskin obviously, which will be my next selection. What else?

 

Emotion: Hope, of course. It's got excellent bonuses all around, but the +2 to damage stands head and shoulders above everything else. There isn't any better general purpose buff spell, regardless of spell level or whether it's divine or arcane magic, until you get to Mass Haste.

 

i would recommend stone skin improved invis and emotion hope for level 4 picks. usually because i use an AC semi tank though.

 

Made some progress. My current 3 spells at 4th level for my Sorcy are MFM, Ice Storm and Stoneskin. I already have a Bard and Wizard with Emotion:Hope. I prefer to take spells with my Sorcy that can be cast over and over again. Emotion Hope is a one time hitter that's unnecessary to recast often. Next up is the Duergar.

 

I have used the Avarine Decanter for the first ever playing IWDII, freeing the Genie. The Brazen Bands, are they End-game worthy? Looks like they stack with ANYTHING, which I am thinking is pretty AWESOME!

 

Are you kidding me? Those bracers are HUGE. They alone allow building awesome HOF-worthy tanks without resorting to all of the available bells and whistles, including the once a day, short duration buffs.

 

Cool! I was looking for confirmation is all. There are so easy to acquire and seem almost unbalanced at this poin in the game..... I know, I know, stop complaining and enjoy the loot! Items like these make for some tough decision making on who to use them on, as all characters benefit from it.

 

5 AC translate to roughly 20% higher chance to dodge attacks you bet their overpowered as heck! the same can be said for some of the loot you gain in the battsquare though. i always feel bad using them because techinically - they werent in the vanilla version of the game and are one of the key components of high AC builds.

 

Slow going but I am cgetting closer to the end of the vnilla game. Looking forward to starting HoF mode.

Current Party is now... Acs are unbuffed

1 - Gor Foesmasher - Male Half-Orc F(4)/Barb(10) - AC 32/36 with shiled - Is a Monster when dual-wielding. Thoug as I have entered the Yuan-ti temple, I think I wll use the Greataxe +4 to shop down the Guardian.

2 - Hengin Battlecrown - Male Shield Dwarf Cle(Moradin)(14) - AC 29/33 with shield - Another Axe-wielder, 2nd in kills and excellent all around character.

3 - Zyrian of the Light - Male Aasimar Paladin(2)Monk(3)/Cle(Ilmater)(7) - AC 26 - My problem child build....... see below.

4 - Vesendei Moonsong - Female Aasimar Bard(13) - AC 22/25 with shield - Sing, Cast, Shoot, repeat. Great Support character for the team.

5 - Pounen Sand - Male Aasimar Pal(Mystra)(1)/Sorcerer (12) - AC 24/28 with shield - Just got Tensers. Now the fun begins...

6 - Myren the Mischevious - Male Strongheart Halfling Rog(1)/Wizard(13) - AC 23/27 with shield - Best Archer and Utility Spell Caster.

I am not sure what the heck I am doing with Zyrian. I have changed my mind at level up too often I feel and wasted levels. I think I will just level him up as Cleric from now on. But since I already broke any great build with him, any suggestions on how to add other classes that can beef him up? Currently, I just buff and have him join Gor and Hengin in melee. He is also used as a secondary Healer. He currently dual-wields Bastard Sword and has the 2nd least amount of kills in the party, bettering the Bard only, which is no acomplishment there. My Bard has less than 40 kills for the entire game.

 

4 levels of fighter for Zyrian will give him 3 extra feats.
You could take a level of Ranger to get duel wielding feats. I wouldn't duel wield with 2 large weapons or without the feats as the penalty's are just to great. This would be a reason why he isn't doing so well. Also, did you take the Bastard Sword feat in order to use these weapons without penalty? They require their own feat no matter what class you take.

Personally, I'd just take more cleric levels and put a 2 handed weapon in his hands. There are a lot of very good 2 handed weapons in this game.

 

For the Vanilla Game, I prefer to dual wiled, as there are many foes that have DR that is high enough to make it tough on my PCs to harm them.

Yes, Zyrian has 2WF, Ambidex and EWP BS. Still is not such a great fwarrior though. It could be becuse Gor and Hengin just crush everything in their path though. that he is nto getting hte killing blows. But I ahve noticed that the Real damage comes from gor. He consistently hits for over 20 damage when buffed.

Side question. Does The Executioner's Eyes ability on the main weapon and Keen ability in the off-hand weapon stack?

 

In a way they do, but only the Keen weapon gets both bonuses.