[NO SPOILERS] First time party planning

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Could you guys please use PMs? I'm avoiding most threads in this forum because I've asked for no spoilers. THANK YOU!

 

You keep bouncing around the party I had the most fun with:

Paladin
Bard (half-elf)
Fighter/Thief (elf)
Fighter/Cleric (dwarf)
Fighter/Mage (dual at 9th)
Fighter/Druid (dual at 7th)

In the early stages of the game you don't need a mage or druid -- just bash everything. The druid has fighting ability back by the time the mage duals.

 

Right now, I'm playing with a 3-member party. They are:

Dwarf F/C (tank)
Half-elf F/M/T (archer)
Human dual F(3)/D (spell support)

It's a lot of fun. My tank is untouchable, my archer is deadly and druid spells are unbelievably awesome. Almost no need for a mage! (I said "almost").

 

I know I sound like a broken record here, constantly bumping my own thread and restarting, but here's a party I've been having a lot of fun with:

Paladin -- Awesome tank, great party leader
Gnome Fighter -- Another great tank, and with *** in Bow he stops a lot of baddies before they even get close
Dwarf Fighter/Cleric -- based on my favorite P&P character, she's great too!
Half Elf Fighter/Druid -- I'm just starting to really get into shapeshifting. It's too bad there aren't many good weapons for this one, but the spells are nice!
Half Elf Bard -- After I hit level 11, this game became a whole lot easier. Good enough spellcasting for me too!
Elf Fighter/Mage/Thief -- I don't like thieves, but I know I need one. I've tried dual-classing a thief after level 6 or 7, but the time waiting for my abilities to reactivate just isn't fun for me. I have tried multiclassed mages before as well, but even then I had empty slots in my higher level spell slots, and trying out this F/M/T has helped eliminate both problems. He also has ** in Bow, when combined with his racial bonus and 19 DEX makes him a great archer.

 

Yeah, Paladins rock. And the avenger is NOT the reason for it.

Gnome Fighter! What does he get that a Dwarf can't beat?

And an F/M/T ... That guy will never get enough XP in a full 6 member party.

 

An 18 dexterity?

@Klorox - You aren't the only chronic restarter on these boards!

 

Them Gnomes get a cool helmet too!

How much is "enough XP" for my F/M/T? He seems to be doing fine right now!

 

The main reason for taking a Mage over a Bard is the ability to cast L8 & L9 spells.

Bard gets to L30 at 4,400,000 XP. At that time, the F/M/T would be 14/14/16 (assuming 1,500,000XP for each class). Typically your charecters would end up with only half that much XP at the end of IWD + HoW. As you can see the mage side has been weakened.

Its not as if your party can't beat the game. But the F/M/T just won't be really useful in a full party. It is best to have triple-classes in parties of 3 or less.

 

Well, the only other party I've had a lot of fun with (heck, I think I'm going to just keep both saves and switch back and forth) is one I refer to as "multiclass madness." Since I play the first two chapters on Insane, the advancement isn't too bad.

Paladin
Fighter/Illusionist
Fighter/Druid
Fighter/Cleric
Fighter/Thief
Bard

The lack of anybody going over Specialized in any weapon worries me, but in practice hasn't hurt me yet.

 

I had lots of fun with a "1 of each" party, which consisted of just about 1 of every major class -- all pure classes, no multi-classing. Multi just gets messy and complicated and I felt like it would be fun to keep things simple -- and it was!

Pure cleric dwarf as the tank -- he did what tanks are supposed to do: have really low AC, really good hit points, great saves and resistances. Most fights he'd get through with a loss of about 10 hit points. Almost never needed to heal the guy.

Behind him: pure fighter with 2-handed sword. This guy was the damage dealer.

I also had a bard, conjurer, druid and (yes) a gnome pure thief. Sure multi theives are better and make more sense, but he held his own and was lots of fun to play.

 

Not a problem, weapons compensate for this mostly.

 

Well alrighty then!

 

I like your party a lot though I personally would have gone with a ranger/cleric but you cant do that and use the dwarf and since you want a dwarven fighter/cleric use him. Specialization isnt that big a deal. It is awesome but your party makes that up easily with your access to spells and thief skills with warrior capabilities for all (well except for the bard but his 11th lv song is SO good).