Party idea, please look and comment (spoilers in here!)

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Notes: I have Tales of the Luremaster installed on top of the Heart of Winter add on. I am trying to powergame here. This is the way to go with this game, and I plan on trying my best. That being said, here's my party:

1. Human Paladin. He will use axes and eventually long swords (axes are good ranged weapons, especially that +2 one, and I can still use a shield with the best longsword in the game!).

2. HalfElf Bard. I like the songs here. The bard will act as my mage for a long time in this game.

3. HalfElf Fighter/Druid multi-class. Great multi-class combination here. I also wanted a multiclassed character in my game, so that I would have healing spells from the beginning.

4. Human Fighter 13 > Illusionist. I think Illusionist is the best mage specialty (by default, since the 9th level spells will be castable, and the bard can handle any spells restricted by this school). ***** in Greatsword *** in Longbow.

5. Human Thief 8 > Fighter. While this dual-class will suffer in the Hit Point department, he will be the guy used as my archer. The way I play this game, I only use theives for trap detection and handling locks. This will be my first dual-class to come into his own. As an archer, the lesser hit-points aren't a large concern for me. My style of play is to kill bad guys before they get close enough to hurt me. This character is the best at it in my game. *** Longbow *** Crossbow, and I will choose a melee weapon shortly after that (probably longsword, so I can flank if I have to).

6. Human Ranger 13 > Cleric. OR Fighter 13 > Cleric. I'm on the fence with this one. Do I want a more powerful combatant (the fighter, with more than ** in weapons), or a more versatile warrior (the ranger - more weapons to "only" specialize in) who will be able to cast some druid spells, have a favored enemy, can scout and charm animals. If I go with a F>C, I will max out slings then maces. If I go with a R>C, dual-classing at level 13 will allow me to specialize in Maces, Slings, Flails and Hammers.

If I go with the F>C, the dual will happen at the same time as the F>M. If I go R>C, I will be mixing it up a bit, and might be better equipped to handle some situations.

I will be exploiting the game engine in this game, using every trick I know of. I'll be playing in Heart of Fury mode often, because I enjoy the added challenge and will need the experience points.

[ October 29, 2005, 18:02: Message edited by: krunchyfrogg ]

 

Comments to your party members:

1.)You will do far more ranged damage if you use a normal sling with normal missiles because you won't get a damage bonus for high strength while using the throwing axe +2. The throwing axe's benefit is that you can get 5 stars in axes, but this isn't possible with paladins.

The best longswords in the game are the longswords of action +4. You can obtain two of them. Pale Justice just pales in comparison.

You could take a pure fighter instead. 3.5 instead of 2.5 attacks/round, +2 thac0, +3 damage are a big difference.
Paladins get a near pemanent protection from evil +2 AC bonus, but halflings and gnomes can get +3 AC from the "helm of the trusted defender". If you use a dwarf you get +9 HP, low dex isn't that bad because "Cat's Grace" lasts very long.
It's also nearly impossible for paladins to roll 18/00 STR without neglecting DEX or CON.
I don't know if you'll ever get enough XP to benefit from the priest spells.

2.)good choice

3.)a fighter dualed to druid at level 13 would be much stronger, but his stats are harder to roll and you might want to have druid spells from the beginning. Scimitar profiency affects thac0 and damage dealt as polar bear.

4.)good choice

5.)horrible

A fighter 13 > thief would be stroger during the whole game. If you enable 3E sneak attack you get immense damage bonusses and the crippling strike ability which improve until level 28. This should also work for ranged attacks if I remember it correctly.
A multiclass F/T could also beat your character any time. I'd choose halfling F/T instead.
And are you sure your t>f can get more than two points in a weapon ?

6.)A ranger/cleric multiclass will nearly always be better during the game than the dualclassed version.
The druid would benefit far more from dualclassing.


7)Although your party is far weaker than the best possible, you shouldn't have many problems beating the game with it since it is even possible to solo HoF mode with a single cleric/mage. So if you like your party than use it.

 

I would drop the Ranger dualled to a Cleric, and use a Fighter dualled to a Cleric. The benefits of the Fighter are much better (*****) than Tracking and a few Charm Animal spells.

kmonsters point about the axe being best utilized on a guy with ***** in axes is a good one. My suggestion is to stick that axe on your Fighter/Mage dual classed guy, so he can use a shield as a Mage later on. You can also dualclass earlier if you'd like.

@kmonster: I have tried a Thief dualclassed to a Fighter before and achieved *** in Longbows. I gave up after that, though.

I'm, curious, why is a F>T better than a T>F? IMHO, the Thief class is useless after level 7 or 8 if you just want a guy who can open locks and traps.

[ October 30, 2005, 06:24: Message edited by: Klorox ]

 

The fighter's attack doesn't get much better after level 13, he only gains THAC0 bonusses which are useless versus nearly all enemies.
But the thief's sneak attack damage increases.
Read the section about thieves in the HoW manual if you want the details.

Let's compare the different combinations
18/00 STR,18 CON,19 DEX, normal bolts, 3E sneak attack activated

fighter13/thief30:
172 HP
THAC0 with longsword+4: -4
Damage: 16-23 + 7-42 + crippling strike -7 if from behind or invisible(average 19.5/44)
THAC0 with crossbow+5: -5
Damage: 14-23 + 7-42 + cs -7 (av 18.5/43)

thief8/fighter30:
141 HP
THAC0 with longsword+4: -19
Damage: 16-23 + 3-18 + crippling strike -3 if from behind or invisible(average 19.5/30)
THAC0 with crossbow+5: -20
Damage: 14-23 + 7-42 + cs -3 (av 18.5/29)

The difference in THAC0 between -4 and -19 doesn't affect gameplay much.

-4 THAC0 means: all enemies AC -6 and worse are always hit save a critical miss.
THACO improvement would only affect monsters with AC -6 or below. Nearly no monsters have this. Since you will use recitation and other spells the limit will go down even further.

Sneak attacks appear pretty often and the additional damage dealt is immense.

[ October 31, 2005, 12:09: Message edited by: kmonster ]

 

I just want to throw 2 cents in here:

I personally can't stand dual classed characters. I'm way too impatient. I have a game going now and am doing well in Lower Dorn's Deep with a team chock full of multiclassed characters:

I've got:
Paladin
Bard
F/M/T
C/R
F/D
F/Ill

They're kicking butt and takin' names! I confess to playing on Insane most of the game, and even did some of the prologue on Heart of Fury mode.

 

@Klorox: Aren't you afraid to unbalance the game since you get far more XP on insane ?

 

kmonster: thats the fun of it.