Planning your party in advance

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Having only played the game all the way through a few times I was wondering about creating a party with each character in mind for a specific point in the game. A monk for example has no trouble in the 8 chambers of the black raven monastery, A priest comes in very handy when dealing with the undead in Fell wood and Kuldahar area's. A pure fighter is good for miximum progressing in the battle squares in the Ice temple. What is your ideal party creation (barring multiclassing) and state the reason for including said member in the party. Min of 4 members in the party.

 

After playing through a few times, I find myself going back to some simple sets: two clerics for max sommon undead. One may MC, I have been experimenting with some unusual options: cleric/bard or cleric rogue. I like having at least a part rogue, because some of the traps are tough to just set off. I use to go with the tried and true drow rogue2/wizX.
Use to always have that big tank, either ftr or pal, but cleric can tank early until undead arrive. Now I go for all spell caster, 2 clerics, druid, wiz and soc. Sometimes MCing in there.

 

I think a "normal" party pretty much covers all the bases in ID2 (1-2 tanks, full cleric, rogue or rogue MC, SC arcane caster, plus utility or other choice) with the possible exception of the monk trials and even there you can always choose the best character for each test or a druid is usually capable of doing all of them as well as a monk.

I find it more interesting to make "theme" parties or even parties that DO NOT necessarily have all the components of a "normal" party.

A "nature party" of druid and ranger types.

A "short people" party dwarves, halflings, gnomes.

An "underdark" party of drow duergar and deep gnomes.

Single race parties.

Multi-national coalition party with a representative of each race.

A cadre of clerics?

A posse of Paladins?

An assembly of arcane casters? (or Aasimars)

A wedge of warriors?

A cornucopia of cheese? (all cheesy builds )

 

Wanderon, I think that it's kinda OK to include Barbarians in that "nature" party. They do, after all, get Wilderness Lore as an in-class skill.

 

I agree completely altho I'm not sure the barbarian class represents the same level of "protecting" nature that the ranger or druids do if one were looking for a reason to exclude them one might go for a "nature police" party...

 

@Wanderon
I really like theme parties. The underdark party was one of the best parties I've ever played with and I have for some time planned on playing a "short people" party. I've also played some with many different single-race parties and a Banite-MC party (in the last one I of course chose the evil alternatives to the storyline).
You missed out one funny themed party: the sneaky party were everyone has good dex, move silent and hide (later on they also have invisibility) and try to sneak through the game.

 

@Mudde

I did try an all rogue party but did not try to sneak through that does sound kind of interesting.

 

Wanderon,

my thought about including the barbs in a nature themed party was more along the lines of barbs living out in the wild along with the rangers and druids. But yes, if you're looking for a "nature police" party, then it'd probably be just rangers and druids.


Regarding the concept of an underdark party, from a RP perspective, I thought that drow, duergar, and deep gnomes didn't like each other much. (But I could be wrong.)

 

@crucis
Party members don't have to like each other. Often in my parties they just tag along to get rid of a common enemy.

 

I always plan my parties in advance, and still end up restarting quite often.

 

I always re-arrange my party as I go along (rather than restarting). I think of it like the NPCs in other games. I usually drop some party members when they get too high in level and start new ones at various points along the game. It can be quite interesting trying to protect a new level one character when you're somewhere advanced like Kuldahar. That way I get to try out new character types AND I get to finish the game.