New Campaign, Could Use Advice

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Hello all,

I have decided to try my hand at one of my old favourite games again, IWD of course! I could use some advice concerning my characters. I'm by no means an expert at these games, I think my greatest achievement is a party of approx level 12's. I *think* i reached the last chapter of IWD (the ice palace one), so while I know the basics I still find it hard, even on normal difficulty.

Here's what I'm doing (hopefully), IWD, then HoW, then TotLM.

Here's what I'm using: Lvl40 XP Cap, Ease of Use (Only the ammo belts option, no others installed), IWD Tweaks v6 (only installed some cosmetic changes and a few others like sellable clubs etc, no rule changes).

House rules:
1. No reloading except in the case of a disaster (5 or more dead in a party of 6, 3 in a party of 4)or an extremely annoying niggly bit i get stuck on.
2. On character creation, I get only 5 rolls of the ability scores per character. In an extreme case of a cruddy character I may make an exception to this, but usually I stick to my word
3. A character may not have any base stat less than 10, unless if is one for which they suffer a penalty, in which case it can go down to 8, i.e Dwarves could have a charisma of 8.

I'm going to start with one character in Easthaven, or maybe two, not sure yet. As I go through my adventure my character will meet more friends along the way and I will add them to the party. Here is where I need help!

Will it be too hard adding the characters? They will be level 1 for a start, at a part of the game where they usually would not be level 1. Should I use a saved game editor to add them at similar level to the rest of the party? I would prefer not to, but am not sure if this will make the game too difficult. Also, do you think taking a 4 man party would make this method easier, as the new characters will catch up quicker to the usual level for that part of the game?

Should I take multi class chars? As I have heard somewhere that single class can get a bit annoying if you go high lvl all the way to the end of TotLM.

Hope to hear from you, and I'll let you know how the adventure goes once I start too!

 

I've never added characters in the middle of game but I think adding character and then using save game editor to leveling char up to the party's level is cheating. Let's say you solo and then add few characters and level them up to solo character's level, you are multiplying party's gained XP. But ofcourse you can do it if you want to play like that, it just make rest of the game easier.

There are some classes that are lacking in IWD, like thief. Fighter/thief is more powerful than plain thief. Last time I played IWD was with two characters, mage/cleric and fighter/thief. It was bit easy though.

 

1.Don't use the level 40 XPCap, unless you want to play a different game with level, spell and thac0 progression of a different game from chapter2 onwards.
Even with a party of 4 you won't reach the level cap of HoW.

2.The XP difference when adding new characters during the game shouldn't be a problem on the long run since the required XP for levelling up are doubled with each level gained.
Keep in mind that newly added party members don't have equipment either so you have either to bring equipment along or get some equipment for them.
In a 4 man party the catch up won't be faster since the XP difference will be higher.

3. Yes, single class can be very annoying. Your cleric might reach level 19 and be able to cast level several level 7 spells if you keep him pure, better multiclass him so he can stay below 14 and won't gain access to those ugly high level spells and won't be too effective when turning undead or casting spells with level-dependent effects.
And don't forget to multiclass your mage too, who wants to cast level 7 or 8 spells anyway ?

Seriously, there's only one character who's much stronger when multiclassed, and that's the party thief. A F/T or F/M/T multiclass gets more than enough thieving skill points and is far more effective in combat or backstabbing.
For the other characters multiclassing has both its benefits and drawbacks.

PS: Don't take an elf as party member, it will be very painful if he dies since "raise dead" doesn't work on elves.

[ August 02, 2007, 18:28: Message edited by: kmonster ]

 

Thanks for the advice guys, good job you replied as I decided to change a couple of things after reading your posts.

I finally got around to starting my new campaign last night, hehe, finding it hard to find any quiet time to sit down and play recently!

Before starting i made a clean reinstall of the game as I couldn't figure out what to delete from the override folder to uninstall the lvl40 xp cap. I didn't install the ammo belts this time around either, so basically I'm playing unmodded, apart from bug fixes and cosmetic changes.

I've decided that I'm not going to edit my characters when I add them to the party with a save game editor, so they will all start at level 1 when they are added. But I am going to have a full party quite near the start of the game anyway. I like playing this way, I have tried it in IWD2 before. It adds more atmosphere for me, knowing who my characters are and when and how they met etc, also the fact that they are all complete strangers when they first meet, much more exciting.

I'll post a bit later to let you know how its going so far. It was good fun soloing the Orc caves at the start of the game with my first character, as I've not tried soloing anything like that before (the IWD2 first encounters just don't compare difficulty wise).

Edit:

Upon hearing rumours that there was evil stirring in the Spine of the World, he had felt it his duty to travel North to investigate. Unable to persuade any of the watcher's to accompany him, his resolve was only made stronger. This was a test of his righteousness set before him by his god, he would travel alone to the untamed lands of Icewind Dale and demonstrate to its people that the vigilant one leaves no corner of Faerun unwatched, no innocent unguarded.

So Osbearn of Neverwinter, Paladin of Helm finally arrived at Easthaven and received his warm(ish) welcome from Hrothgar at the Winter's Cradle Tavern.

My starting character:

Osbearn - Human Paladin
Str: 17
Dex: 15
Con: 14
Wis: 13
Cha: 17

Weapons: Greatswords ** Crossbows* Largeswords*

His stats all look fairly high, but I still had to decrease his wis and cha in order to get his str, dex, and con up to only just acceptabe levels for a tank. So hard to choose stats for a Paladin as I am not sure which are most important to them. He will probably use a shield most of the time as his Dex does not give him much of an AC bonus.

Osbearn took a look around town and solved a couple of problems for the town people, and got an idea of what troubles may be threatening the area. He spoke to Hrothgar and Everard about a messenger from Kuldahar and the expedition that they are organising.

Of note, he went to the Cradle one eve to hear a beautiful Half Elven bard perform. There he spoke with a young mage who was most enchanted by her song. Osbearn suspected they might be lovers, though he could get little information out of the mage concerning their reason for travelling to the Dale, he was too deep into his wine and the song of his companion.

The following morn Osbearn set out to track down a missing caravan that was headed for Easthaven, yet had failed to arrive.

Sorry for making such a long post! I did not want to double post so I edited my previous one! Hope there isn't a word limit or something that cuts me short! I've played further, but will report on that another time as I'm eager for more right now!

[ August 06, 2007, 23:23: Message edited by: Rook ]

 

Nice reading, just a little short, I hope we'll hear more about your heroes soon.

With your house rules the game will require some skill, your paladin would have been far better with only 10 in dex or con and 18 in the other stat and strength instead. You probably already know from the stat tables in the manual that there's no difference between having 7 or 14 in most stats and only extreme values make the difference.
At least you'll gain a major benefit from casting "draw upon holy might" now.
I strongly recommend buying the "cat's grace" spell from Orrick in chapter1, else you won't get it before the expansion since Orrick's shop inventory changes once you start chapter 2 by leaving for Dragon's Eye. The AC boost from this spell can be extremely useful.