New party ideas

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I’m going to create a new party there are some pre-conditions to this party
1. NO mods are installed and none will be installed I’m not ready to start playing with mods yet.
2. NO arcane magic-users

I will be creating 4 characters as below
1. Wizard-slayer; possibly a Dwarf dual-wielding Axes and Maces
2. Wizard-slayer; possibly an Elf dual-wielding long and short swords
3. Ranger/Cleric: Half-Elf dual-wielding hammers and flails
4. Thief or fighter/thief: don’t know haven’t played one before

Slot 5 will be Jaheira as a fighter/druid she gives me the other divine spells.
Slot 6 will probably end up with Mazzy

So with the thief do I play pure and if so which race and kit? If fighter/thief which race? If human do I dual to a fighter or start fighter and dual to thief?

Any comments or suggestions gladly received as long as they observe my pre-conditions.

 

Um, your R/C will have everything, including all druidic spells; you don't really need Jaheira for that. She's still good to take, though.

A Kensai->Thief dual is pretty awesome once you get UAI, but you'd be short a thief until he duals. You could always take Yoshimo instead of Jaheira to make up for that and do Spellhold late, but then you're down to five characters, only one of which banters and won't have anyone aside from the PC to banter with. If that's not a problem, then you can wait until ToB to get Sarevok to finish out the party.

Otherwise, I'd go with an MC F/T, mostly for the additional HLAs and the increased backstabbing power. Or, you could go with a thief (or swashbuckler, or assassin) dualled to a fighter, but again you're missing out on a thief until you get your levels back, and in the middle too, instead of the beginning.

And there's always the straight thief route. But if you do that you had better get a kit, because skill points will be in abundance by the end of the game with a straight thief, so you don't really have to worry about the penalties that a kit gets. If your thief isn't planning to backstab you could get a swashie and do some serious damage from afar with a near-uber AC, or you could get a bounty hunter for the traps you can throw (can we say replacement Yoshimo?), or you could get an assassin for the big backstabs.

Hmm, that isn't a straight answer, is it? Well, I suppose it really just depends on how you want to play it. If you want him to be kicking a$$ after the backstab, pick an F/T. If you want him to backstab and slink away to re-stealth and go again, pick an assassin. If you want him not to be backstabbing, pick a swashie. If you want him to be a master of traps (or even a pretend Yoshimo who won't betray you), pick a bounty hunter.

Oh BTW, who's going to be your PC?

 

Well, the ultimate fighter / thief is the Human Kensai dualled to Wizard. That character is super-powerful. But it depends on whether you want super-powerful or not. And you'd have to dual class to thief straight away otherwise you won't have a thief at the start of the game.

 

One of the wizard-slayers will be the protagonist?

I'm leaning towards a Assassin, how do you backstab (told you I hadn't played a thief)?

EDIT: if it's 2e surely a ranger only gets up to level 3 spells don't they

 

First you stealth (or invis. via a ring or spell), then you get behind your enemy and attack them from stealth. The stealth will drop, and you'll get a backstab attack; you may not hit, though, depending on your THAC0 (though it gets a 4 point bonus).

Well, yes they should only get up to 3rd level, but there's a teeny bug that simply allows an R/C to select every spell, whether it be druidic or clerical, from every level. Being a ranger allows them access to "druidic" spells, and the cleric's progression gets them the levels and spell slots.

 

That's a nice bug

 

My 2 shillings/cents:

I would keep Jaheira, for nothing other than extra healing. She shouldn't poach much into the weapons of your other characters.

A F/T for certain. I was going to suggest a halforc for more strength and backstabbing fun. Halfings are good, though stereotypical.

 

I'll toss my vote in for fighter/thief too. Mage/thief is also very powerful, but requires much more micromanagement.

 

Well taking on board your comments and suggestions and adding my own capricious nature I'm going to make 2 parties common to both are:-

Protagonist - Elven Wizard Slayer dual wielding long and short swords
Slot 2 - Dwarven Wizard Slayer dual wielding axes and maces
Slot 3 - Half-Elf Ranger/Cleric dual wielding hammers and flails
Slot 4 - Jaheira
Slot 5 - various characters to get their quests (ie XP) and ending up with Mazzy

Party 1 Slot 6 Fighter/Thief possibly Half-Orc (I do like that idea kuemp)
Party 2 Slot 6 Elven Assassin (cue Marillion)

Thanks for your help
DS

 

This is your 'No mages are allowed' party huh? Well I think it will be interesting. Keep giving us feedback!

Definitely get a F/T, be a half-orc, get 19 STR and 19 CON, these really help! Backstabbing with 19 STR is very deadly! Try it and you will see blasted bodies of enemies in no time!

Assasins get so few skill points I think they suck. x7 backstab is nice though, this guy won'T hav enough skills to be the only thief in the party.

 

Skill points still won't be a problem. I love MC F/T, and their skill progression is even slower than an Assassin (as they are splitting experience points). For every one level a MC F/T earns he gets 25 skill points, but in that time an assassin will earn two levels, and effectively earn 30 skill points.

Given that you will probably start with a high dexterity (at least 18) you'll already have quite a bit of points to work with. I've found the best strategy is to get FT and PL first, which you can basically do at the very beginning of the game. You have enough skill points to get both of them very high from the outset. There is the Ring of Lockpicks and the Ring of Danger Sense that add about 20 to each ability, so you really are looking for about 80 in each skill. Then I work on Hide in Shadows and Move Silently. Don't forget the Boots of Stealth and Mae'Var's Shadow Armor to help you out in the beginning. Next is set traps. Usually, I don't put anything into pickpockets or detect illusion until very late in the game.

 

Characters created
1. Kirth Gersen Elven level 7 Wizardslayer Str 18/75 Dex 19 Con 17 Int 11 Wis 10 Cha 10 HP 101 Long Sword ++ Short Sword + Two Weapon +++

2. Howard Alan Treesong Dwarf level 7Wizardslayer Str 18/77 Dex 17 Con 19 Int 12 Wis 10 Cha 10 HP 115 Axe ++ Mace + Two Weapon +++

3. Maurel Gersen Half-Elf level 6/6 Ranger/Cleric Str 18/10 Dex 18 Con 18 Int 13 Wis 18 Cha 13 HP 87 Warhammer ++ Flail ++ Sling ++ Two Weapon ++

4. Scylla Adrienne Elf level 7 Assassin Str 18 Dex 19 Con 17 Int 11 Wis 10 Cha 10 HP 70 Long Sword + Short Sword + Dagger + Single Weapon +

5. Ordan Skullcrusher Half-Orc level 6/7 Fighter/Thief Str 19 Dex 18 Con 19 Int 10 Wis 10 Cha 10 HP 91 Short Sword ++ Dagger ++ Two Weapon ++

Kirth and Maurel have the same mother, but different fathers.

Bonus points for telling me where two of the charcters come from.

Cheers
DS

[ February 10, 2006, 09:41: Message edited by: DarkStrider ]

 

Kirth Gersen is from Jack Vance's The Demon Princes and Howard Alan Treesong is from his The Book of Dreams.

Man, I love Wikipedia...

 

No bonus points if you cheated

 

Well you never set down the rules, so...

 

I have another question for this party if I don't take Nalia into the Keep when I'm slaughtering trolls etc does she still offer the Keep to you?

 

Yea, she does. Never thought about it, tho I've only played once with Nalia, but've always gotten the Keep.

 

Oh yeah. I positively loathe Nalia, so I don't ever take her after that first time. I always get the keep anyway, and I leave Nalia there to look after it while I'm doing more important things.

EDIT:
No, she's a b****, and I never take her, not even in the Keep. The only time I will ever take her again is when (and if) I try out her romance.

[ February 10, 2006, 20:32: Message edited by: Felinoid ]

 

^No, Nalia is a little cutie, and she has a golden heart.

Seriously though, I always take her with me when doing her quest, even if I don't want to keep her; not that I hate her though. So I don'T know if she still offers you the stronghold but I think she SHOULD.