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Maxing out Skills Party

Discussion in 'Icewind Dale 2' started by Ishad Nha, Aug 27, 2011.

  1. Ishad Nha Gems: 7/31
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    Here is a party line-up meant to enable the maxing out of most skills:

    Aasimar Paladin (H)
    Human Cleric (L)
    Human Rogue/Ranger
    Half - Elf Cleric (S)
    Moon Elf Wizard
    Wild Elf Sorceror

    Rogue/Ranger alternates between taking levels as a Rogue and as a Ranger. He starts with 14+ Int so he gets the right number of skill points. You could have a Rogue/Barbarian instead, but the skills would suffer.

    In the table below, R means Ranger and T means Rogue.
    Skill PC
    Alchemy W
    Animal Empathy ?
    Bluff ?
    Concentration CCSW
    Diplomacy C,P
    Disable Device T
    Hide RT
    Intimidate ?
    Knowledge (Arcana) W
    Move Silently RT
    Open Lock T
    Pick Pocket -
    Search RT
    Spellcraft W
    Use Magic Device -
    Wilderness Lore R
     
  2. kmonster Gems: 24/31
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    You only need a party of 3 characters to max out all skills, a rogue, a bard(or wizard) and a druid(or ranger).
     
  3. Ishad Nha Gems: 7/31
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    There are 16 skills, some more useful than others. A Rogue gets 4 points per level. Everyone else gets 1 or 2.
    A Bard excels at nothing much. A Druid is not as good a healer as a Cleric.
    Rogue, Wizard, Ranger is at least halfway viable. But your party would only get a total of 8 skill points per level.
     
  4. kmonster Gems: 24/31
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    If you take humans with 18 int you get a total of 9(rogue)+7(bard)+7(druid)=26 skill points per level. You only need 16 of those 26 for maxing all skills. So even other races and less int will do.

    Bards and druids are powerful classes and definitely more useful than a secondary sorcerer/wizard, secondary cleric or any warrior build, they'll be the 3rd and 4th most useful characters in your party.
    Bards excel at singing, they improve damage output and the defense a lot.
    The barkskin spell alone is worth taking a druid, the whole party can get +5 AC, but they also get extremely powerful offensive spells like static charge, they get good hitpoints and can fight quite well. My druid did both the battle squares and the monk chambers for the party, I didn't even save between battles for her to win all ranks.
     
  5. Ishad Nha Gems: 7/31
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    Bard songs do +2 improvements. Golden Rule of 3E is that bonuses don't stack if they are of the same kind, would that include bonuses from Bard song?
    Static Charge I have never used. Call Lightning is once per turn and cannot be aimed.
    Insect Plague affects everyone, unlike BG2.
     
  6. kmonster Gems: 24/31
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    Stat bonuses and AC bonuses except generic don't stack, bard songs stack with everything.
    Static charge and call lightning stack with themselves, so if you cast them several times in a row you'll can do high electric damage once or twice every round for almost 100 rounds while still being able to do other things with your druid.
     
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