How about this for a party?

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Hello, I am kinda new to this forum...

dont know if this is a stale topic...
but just wanna discuss character creation

sorry if i have accidentalyy "ripped off" any of your ideas...

i think character creation is the most fun and essential part of the game. Basically a good party will make this game well... kinda easy.

although this game is not half as good as baldurs gate (but then again few games are) i enjoyed tinkering with the different characters.
well here goes.

fornt man
this guy is the party leader. He isgoing to take up a lot of hits and nasty spells so he would better be good
for this person i find that there is only one choice, a deep gnome monk. I don't like the typical heavy hitter as he is very prone to damage. A monk gets his armour class from dex AND wisdom. These are the strengths of the deep gnome. To further pump up his densive skills,natural deep gnome evasion spells and abilities make him a natural frontman to take (and deflect) damage.

Also at level 13 he gains spell resistance. This complements the already significant natural deep gnome spell resistance. To round off the spellcaster's nightmare, he can make a great reflex save when he gets improved evasion.

There are two main weaknesses with this: firstly the low stregth. Deep gnomes dont have much of it. Monks' fists aren't the "deadly weapons" the game triesto sell them to be. However i view my front man as the damage taker rather than the damage giver. I noticed they go for your frontman a lot.

Second is that monks tend to be level intensive characters, meaning they get very strong only at the higher levels. The deep gnome's char adj +3 is very bad news at the beginning. However.. all is not lost.. with an AC of 20+(i forgot exactly what) at the beginning of the game... the monk is untouchable. the monk did not take damage until after the prolougue.

Strategically the deep gnome monk adds dimensions to a party's plans.. this i will go about later

stats
throw everything into wisdom and dex i guess this has the added bonus of high will and reflex saves
share the rest between stregnth and fortitude. screw the rest of the stats.. this stupid ugly monk wont need them.

[ December 17, 2002, 20:29: Message edited by: powerofone ]

 

Just one observation, if this stupid, ugly monk is your front man, you won't get the dialogues you want when you play the game. Number one, being a monk, he will refuse all monetary rewards. This won't be a problem later in the game when you can sell items to get major money, but in the beginning you might wish you had more money. Number two, being stupid and ugly you won't get the interaction from NPC's that an intelligent and charismatic personality will get. In other words, if you want this monk in your party, make someone else with better people skills your leader.

 

the second front man has to be just as tough to hit, or more importantly charmed (that happens a lot with weaker will characters. I throw in a paladin. I hate paladins cos they have many attribute points to distribute among. I only have a paladin cos of the holy avenger. With so many points needed i guess an aasimar is pretty much the only choice.

on the plus side paladins do have this aura and are pretty good against the countless demons the game throws at you.

also get four levels of fighter.. Paladins are not really level intensive so you can afford it.

stats.
stregth and constitution is a must. You want her to back up your rather puny monk ASAP. Then wisdom and then charisma... for resisting spells. Keep dex at 13 if you can afford. The most decent armour mithral dont give a much leeway dex wise.

Third man
This has to be the cleric. Although the front two has their own instant healing capabilities.. you need a cleric to back them up. I treat my cleric more like a fighter than a healer so i think it is best if you go for the ugly (-2 char) dwarf or my 2nd fav race the halforc. I am not sure which Order is the best, i chose tempus for the reason above. However, the orders with executioner's eyes should not be discounted.

Also with the paladin take four levels of fighter. I dont see the cleric as that level intensive--- just buy a lot of ressurrect scrolls for her. On another note, later in the game i found my cleric relegated to fourth man cos i found a damn big throwing axe.

stats
same as paladin, but reduce int AND char... turn undead really is useless... put all into sth con and wis and whatever is left into dex.

The fourth is the real heavy hitter of the team, the fighter half orc. Wielding a mean pole arm he cuts through any opponent. i prefer fighter to barbarian bcos of the versatility that many feats give a fighter... more selection of weapons. cos some creatures are more resistant to some weapons. As the damage dealer, i want him to do lotsa damage every time. basically this rule of multi weapon specialisation applies to everyone.

greatsword fists--monk
longsword mace-- paladin
axe flail-- cleric
polearm greatsword hammer--- fighter

stats
same as cleric high wisdom---good... irritating charm spells---many

 

final two

the rougue

this guy has to be human...need skill points i consider this guy a non combatant... in fact the only reason he is even in the game is cos there are a lot of nasty traps in the game. especially in the unsavable yuan ti place. The rougue is so disposable that i multi class him into eiter a) a fighter so he can actually do damage with crossbow turning him effectively into my ranged attacker
or these next two i never tried
b) a bard... songs worth a try... also non combatant class and some cool bard items..
c) a wizard a transmuter namely... only cos to this point i dont have much in the form of magic offensive... also cos i want to know what happens in the "Sanguis anna" quest if you imbue the potion into a party member. i think only alchemy proficient transmuters can do this...

stats depends i guess
fighter thief--- dex, sth, con,int (watch out for traps), wis and no chr

thief bard dex, int chr average everything else

mage thief (in retrospection probably the best option) dex, int, average everything else with no charisma.

the last is the soceress... personally with the soceress i don't know why people bother with wizards. I feel you dont really need many types of spells.. just many of the most useful ones..
namely
magic missle
mirror image
snowball
fireball
buffs
hope or any other emotions
mass haste
i. invisibility (if you want to REALLY unbalance the game cast one on your undetectable monk)
some summoning spells (though never really needed them)
banish type spells
the ever useful disintegrate and middle finger of death
and my personal favourite, the sphere.
helps a lot if you put your enemy bosses in spheres before initiating combat with her minions
this soceress has to be human so she can play a vital non combat role of talking, buying, identifying items and most importantly identifying spells.. most people underrate this ability.
btw she is the real leader of the group so give her the boots of speed and let her talk to everyone.

drow is also a good option but i dont as the soceress is one of the more level intensive players, she is actually quite weak at lower levels. get mirror image ASAP

 

I would definitely go with the mage/rogue. Don't concern yourself with too many rogue levls. You can find most traps with your find traps spell. I have played many games without a rogue and have had no problem. I agree with the sorceress. She should be your leader, do the talking. You might not want to give her the boots of speed. She might find herself too far ahead of her bodyguards and take major damage before help arrives. Overall, it sounds like a decent party and should be fun to play.

 

general strategy

well the thing i like about my party is the sum of its whole is greater than its parts...

you have the non combat elements, especially the soceress, who can hold their own in combat. I think this party is geared solely for the game, cos it's rather unbalanced on the fighter side, but i feel that that is exactly what the game requires, a lot of kickass fighters.

also this party enables maximum flexibility
the monk acts as scout and an excellent first combat contact man. He is the guy you want your enemies to concentrate on. with his speed, he can get away if the going gets too hot. Not only that, he is an excellent wizard killer, a reinvention of the really dumb baldur's gate version of the fighter wizard killer. Most parties will defend their wizard, with his hide skills, he can bypass most denses and improved evasion bypasses traps.

in most combat situations where there are many many many enemies, the hook horrors come to mind, i usually send my monk alone to fight them. Like the rougue he easily avoids soceress fireball support, but unlike the rougue he can stand toe to toe with most foes. Also he is invaluable in bottle neck situations, combat wise, most of my tactics are based on him. I wish there was a lure type spell which encourages enemies to focus only on him. Keep pumping dex on him and with the +5 dex slippers, the +4 bracers and the +2 wis stone not to mention generic monk armour bonus and you will have a 42 AC 50 spell resistant frontliner with many other racial benefits. And this is not in HOF mode at level 15

not only that but the avenger wielding paladin supplement the dynamic front duo. A main irritation of fighters are spells, these kids are really spell resitant. Finally you got the real heavy hitter standing behind. Although it may seem funny taht the fourth man does the lions share of the damge and my monk ended up with only 9% of the expierience value of kills, remember that in a team, some players defend the goal and some players attack the opponents goal.
one last thing, quest wise the monk makes the black raven chambers a breeze.

thats it for now... share stuff with me ok?

 

This is my personal rant. Please don't be offended, just punch me in the....

You actually want a paladin because of that joke sword? One word, mud backwards.

But I fully agree with your cool deepgnome. How did he go for you? Fun?

 

why should i be offended... fill me in here cos i am a stupid ugly monk

i wonder why everyone calls the holy avenger a joke sword though...

of course he was ... still have to complete it in the insane hof mode though...

 

Some people just can't take other people's opinions. Anyway you cool

I just found that sword to be so hard to get for such a crap sword. The investment just does not pay off. As I said elsewhere Carsomyr in BG2 does pay off and it is good and worth it, even if your own main PC is not a Paladin, because others can use it (even my assassin-fighter with UAI).

I found the process of getting Cera Sumat far too lame for words. Unless you actually worked it out and fought for it, your paladin is most likely to actually have a much better weapon by the time you can get it...

Anyway, can you email me you deepgnome char file? Just to get some tips from it...

 

I also have a deep gnome monk and simply to say, he is a rock. Often group of monsters attacked him without any harm. He starts with 24 AC which is out of reach limit of many monsters of Prologue unless rolling 20. Also with non-detection and high hide and move silently, he makes an excellent mage-killer. 3 level gap is not that important because he really justifies it. I think you made real fun with that group...

 

I've gone for a more suicidal party in having a bard, a fighter, a rogue and a sorcerer.
I liked BG's system of character creation better, I hate point based, it's too restricting, but with rolls you can keep rolling until you get something you want and make each character different.

 

well have you received it?

have fun.