Triple class-mania!

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DaRock, Your triple class guy (F4/W10/C10) has the same BAB as a level Fighter 16, so toss in some buffs and a good weapon and he will be able to hit monsters, though I'm not sure how he gets 40% of kills unless the other three characters are standing around watching him fight. Is he a high-AC tank, and if not do you have to rest after every fight to rememorize all your Mirror Image spells?

Anyway what you basically have there is a level 16 Fighter who foolishly likes to cast his own buffs rather accept them from other party members. So his buffs are generally going to be much weaker than those from dedicated casters would be, since his buffs are at caster level 10 instead of C.L. 24. For a few buffs this doesn't matter, but most of them are highly dependant on C.L.

He would be badly outclassed in melee by a Fighter 24, Cleric 24, or even a Sorc 24 (seven Mord. Sword castings per day). If you don't have any such characters in your party, that's fine. Have fun.

 

Figher will benefit your MC build more than Ranger, even with low strength, weapon finesse and dualwielding you'll do more damage with a greatsword if you decide to melee.

But with this party you can easily afford to create a proper 2E style F/M/C with even levels. The only real drawback compared to the same version with only 1 fighter level is that you won't be able to cast "emotion hope" at the end of the game. But you can read it from scrolls or use items if you want.
I'd use only cleric weapons like in 2e, the "club of disruption" is a great weapon, you can even take "armored arcana" and use a shield.
With slings or throwing hammers you can do more damage than with bows, you have the same number of attacks and get a strength bonus to damage thanks to spells like "bull's strength".


Your party doesn't look weak to me, it looks nearly like a powergaming party, far too easy for you. Some comments:

1) Yes, take all GSFs, even enchantment ! So even the spells you can't cast will be harder to resist.

2) If you want the perfect assassin then make him strong and don't use little weapons. Dex isn't needed much. The max dex modifier for leather armor can even be reached with 17 dex and a lucky "cat's grace" and you don't even need that much.
For maximum sneak attack damage set strength as high as possible and use the "massive halberd of hate".
I'd rather add a barbarian than a ranger level for faster backstabbing and running away.

3)Should work fine.

4)The less fighter levels, the stronger the character. Mask seems a good choice because of "blur" and "mirror image" if you want to tank.

5)Make sure you can take the "scion of storms" feat.

6)I'd start with 14-16-16-14-13-3.

 

@JT

The tank's sole purpose is/was to get Tensor's Transformation - hence the wizard levels. The cleric levels (particularly in Stormlord) were for 2 reasons: 1) the only electricty caster (main caster deals all the other types)
2) the +2 AB feat (Talos Destruvtive blow)
He gets so many kills, because my dedicated spellcaster tends to soften the enemies up, before this dwarf goes in for the kill.

I know the AB is low - he is a dwarf with maxed strength (18), with all but 1 of the points going into STR (currently at 23), coupled with Champion's Strength. With that, he also has a Ring of the Warrior, Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise, Tymora's Loop (at last I get one!) and Ned's Lucky Knucky - and he seems to do all right.
Before buffs, his AB is 30+.

I don't know if any of you have noticed, but in HoF mode, all enemies get huge to hit bonus and high hit points - but few of them actually have big AC boosts. The AB becomes less important for all but "bosses". Maybe it is just my game, where the designers created a single IWD2 version that is kind to me!

This is wrong - almost EVERY spell he has is self-cast only (DUHM, Holy Power, Mirror Image, etc) - I specifically designed it this way. It is true his buffs are not as powerful, but he manages fine.

I do not rest after every fight - I always clear an area out before then. This dwarf currently has 10 Spirit Essences and 17 Potions of Extra Healing! (coupled with the party's use of Death's Bane). He also wears the Black Goat Girdle...
He also only uses MI when his hit points are low - my decoy then casts a quick heal spell...

He is not a high AC character (25 without buffs), because I already have a high AC character. Funnily enough, this is a Watcher of Helm 12 / Diviner 11 build (same aim, to get Tensor's - which she has, but also the main healer). Fully buffed, she can currently reach an AC of 61-64 (depending on TT DEX boost) - and adding a Monk level (20% MCP from then on) would raise it to 68-71.

Anyway, this post is not about the topic, but simply a retort (just trying to defend my party decision). Apologises to all for digressing...

2) As kmonster says, you can make your assassin strong but not dextrous - the Weapon Finesse feat then becomes pointless. Oh, and you can add a ranger level to an elf, but you'll get that 20% MCP.

4) A lot of people will say Tempus for a tank, but as kmonster (again) says, go with a Demarch of Mask (the fact they are my favourite is beside the point!)

5) ... and (G)SF: Transmutation...

 

DaRock,

Yes, I had noticed that HoF monsters don't seem to get any AC boost, so it is pretty easy for high level characters to hit in HoF mode.

If IWD2 follows the 3.0 rules, +16 BAB means you get four attacks per round, at +16/+11/+6/+1, plus bonuses. So those last couple attacks could benefit from more BAB. However, I suspect IWD2 gives the four attacks at +16/+16/+16/+16 (bug!). All the same, extra BAB is not wasted; you can dump it into Power Attack.

The Talos domain ability is only minor: +2 to hit and damage for only 10 rounds. Compare it to gaining +4 BAB and putting half that into Power Attack -- +2 to hit and damage all the time.

Electicity spells: As I see it, you get a single 10d6 Lighting Bolt, and a single casting of Static Charge for 10d8 (fires 10 times but with 10 round pauses between, and you can't choose the target, and how many battles last 90 rounds?), and a single casting of Ball Lightning for 5x 2d6. This is not a meaningful amount of damage in HOF.

Remember that stat boosters don't stack; only the best one applies. For STR, this will be Champion's Strength (which could be cast on you by another cleric), making STR increases from items, Bull's Strength, DUHM, and Tenser's Transformation useless.

DUHM is pathetic when cast by a Cleric 10: +3 to STR, DEX, and CON for 10 rounds. Cleric 24, on the other hand, gets +8 to those stats for 10 rounds, making the spell the biggest STR booster available.

Tener's Transformation: STR boost is less than that from Champion's Strength. BAB boost the same as if you had taken Fighter levels instead of Wizard levels. Temporary HP the same as if you had taken Fighter levels instead of Wizard levels. Various other defensive improvements are not important, because this isn't the high-AC guy.

Holy Power: Can't argue with +4 damage straight up, self-cast only. But it lasts longer with higher caster levels...

Mirror Image: Best defensive spell in the game, self-cast only. But you will only get 4-7 images; a level 21+ caster gets 8 images every time. Also, a deep gnome cleric of Mask (you are right, best tank cleric choice) gets two Mirror Images per day, which is decent, though much less than the nine a Sorc 24 gets.

Anyway, my original statement still seems correct: Despite putting only 4 levels into Fighter, your character is equivalent to a level 16 Fighter who can cast Holy Power and Mirror Image on himself. Your Cleric and Wizard levels are not contributing much else to the party, because a level 10 caster has almost nothing to contribute in HoF mode. The weakest link seems to be the wizard levels, because they aren't boosting melee damage, and the only meaningful defensive spell they give is Mirror Image. The character could be improved by trading some or all of those levels in for Cleric or Fighter levels.

Silverstar, the moral is this: If you try to make a 2E-style triple class character, you had better find him a nice weapon to use, because that's all he'll be good for.

 

Excuse me...AC of 61? Cough..cough...just..how...do you manage to get that AC? Oh please please explain me in detail! I never manage to build high AC characters!

Err, can't evokers cast Enchantment spells? They can not cast enchantment in BG2, but I thought their banned school(s) was different in IWD2? IIRC it was Divination (no big loss) and Conjuration? (druid and cleric can summon anyway) I may be wrong though.

Other points noted. Thank you!

Lastly, which weapon combo do you reccomend for my F/M/C?

 

According to the manual evokers can't cast enchantment spells, but the manual has many errors ...

As for weapons for your FMC, just use whatever weapons you find and like. Greatswords,axes and halberds do the most damage, but for a 2E proper FMC I'd use the club of disruption +5 which can be obtained early from the battle squares, a shield and a throwing hammer.
At the beginning just take whatever you find, many weapons are random. You don't have to spend profiency points first (like in 2e) to avoid a penalties, so you are flexible and don't have to make plans at the beginning.

 

@Silverstar.

My AC decoy (61). Right, this is one of those "taking advantage of the engine" characters. Unbuffed, she has AC 38:
Base = 10
Dodge = 1
Expertise = 5
Chain of Drakkas = 7
Large Shield +2 = 4
Indomitable Bands = 5
Flamedance Talisman = 1
DEX: 20 (15+Chimandraes Slippers) = 5

Add in Haste (4), Barkskin (currently 4), Helm's Watch (2), Bard Song (2), Divine Shell (6), TT (4+1-4) = 23-26.

23+38 = 61.

However, I rarely reach that, because I usually use Ghost Armour instead and rarely use Helm's Watch.

@kmonster:
TT DOES stack with items. If it didn't, then JUPPs "maximum AC" character would be "83, 79 with the Tenser's Transformation spell", rather than "89, 79 etc...". Perhaps someone could clarify whether it stacks with other spells.

Back to my tank. On planning of my party, I worked out that at level 30, my dwarf can reach a maximum AB of +58 (5 attacks with Haste and NO Mordy's Sword!), and 38-59 damage with a vanilla 2-handed axe (without criticals and using Power Attack, which would lower the maximum AB). This would also mean that my decoy would lose +2 AC due a different bard song, but there you go.
He was designed to be able to hit the Guardian in melee with a modicum of success (AC in normal mode = 46, with Shield cast), because I wanted to try the "suicidal" way of beating it, rather the predictable way I normally use. But I doubt he will reach level 30 by then (which is a shame).
Now I don't think a level 30 fighter would quite as powerful - although I haven't made any investigation and comparison into this.

As I said before, he usually uses touch spells - they do little in HoF mode, but I find them fun to use! And there are 3 areas where electricity damage/resistance is useful - guess which character does the work in these places!