help me build a party

Maverique · Post by **Maverique** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 6:24 am

Okay, so I should have listened to gamespot's warnings of how this can be a confusing game for beginners since it assumes you already know the different skills and classes in AD&D. Which I don't.

I need someone to help me make a powerplay party of say, 4 members total, based on melee fighting, if possible, and whatever support classes you need to help you out. Keep in mind I'm a compulsive powerplayer and I ALWAYS play for TeH bEsT wEaPoN iN tEh GaMe. Sad, but true. I've restarted games because of this.

If you could post the party in a zip file or something, that would be even greater

In any case, I intend to give out my Team Fortress 2 Guest Pass to whomevever helps me, as a reward, since I know I've been pushing my luck on these forums

and thanks in advance

PS: I also got IWD2, so if you could help me get a powerplay party for it too, that would be awesome

DaveO · Post by **DaveO** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:13 am

I created a four party crew a while ago, but never finished them. I stopped in Severed Hand, but the party was quite good in holding their own in battles.

My crew consisted of:
1. Halfling fighter/thief
2. Bard
3. Fighter/Mage
4. Ranger/Cleric

I don't know how many more responses you'll get, but everyone has a specific preference for a party. The second choice in the above party is flexible, but I recommend thief, cleric, and mage for three of your members. The fourth choice is up to you, although Paladins get some good stuff in this game.

Maverique · Post by **Maverique** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 10:33 am

Yeah but stats are still a problem. I don't really know AD&D stat descriptions and don't know how dialogue-heavy the game is, and what exact number of stat points are good for whom. Also, could you explain the reasoning of those races, please?

DaveO · Post by **DaveO** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 9:23 pm

Ok, I'm not sure how much is giving away too much but I can safely say that BOTH the Paladin and Bard get extra dialogue options although the Bard has far many more and levels quite quickly.

As far as stats go, you can point buy from one stat to another although certain stats are fixed. Strength for one character can be low since there are other ways to make it up. Halflings are stuck with a low strength score, but get an added benefit from a specific item made just for them. That character can get outrageously low AC scores, and from my dim recollection I think my mini-minx had below -10 Armor class which made her a serious tank.

You should be able to get 18/75 strength or higher for every other character although I'm not certain if Humans or Bards can get higher than 18. Basically maximize your Intelligence scores for mages and bards, wisdom for priests, dexterity for the thief. It should not be too difficult to create a fairly good party with characters that have dump stats(Charisma and Intelligence/Wisdom are common dumped stats) and still have all the other stats maxed.

Position #2 is flexible, although a Bard offers more spells which can come in handy in several areas(I'm thinking of one boss in particular). And you get three chances at Elven armor which allows spells to be cast without taking the armor off.

Maverique · Post by **Maverique** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:44 am

Alright thanks

you want a TF2 guest pass?

DaveO · Post by **DaveO** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 5:17 am

I don't know if you've started yet, but I just reread your first post. Pick Paladin for slot #2. Trust me that they do get the best weapon in the game.

P.S. - As far as the TF2 guest pass, save it for somebody interested in First Person shooter games. I play RPGs for the most part.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 12:35 pm

I'd go something like this:

1: Half-Elf Fighter/Mage/Thief
2: Half- Elf Bard
3: Dwarf Fighter/Cleric
4: Human Paladin

As for stats: get everybody's STR up to 18/51+, except for the Bard. STR doesn't matter for him.
Get everybody's DEX up to 17 or 18, depending or race.
CON should be 18 for the Paladin and F/M/T, 19 for the F/C and 16 for the Bard.
INT should be as high as possible (18) for Bard and F/M/T.
WIS should be 18 for the F/C.
Stats that aren't mentioned can be dropped to the minimum.
Specialize your Paladin in Large Swords, and your F/M/T in Bows and Spear/Halberd/Greatswords. The Bard should be going for ranged weapons, and the Cleric either Hammers or Maces or Flails.
Bards are really good for their early spell access and songs later on.

Maverique · Post by **Maverique** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 5:47 am

Thanks. What's up with that 18/51 though? I was making a paladin and he had 18/29 STR, I don't know what that means. This is frustrating as hell, I've NEVER not gone further than the character creation screen, but this game is ridiculous. It doesn't explain anything at the beginning and while I want to trust you guys I can't even seem to make my characters the way you do.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 6:08 am

Reading your manual can help, though. The tables explain why 18/51 is important: it's an extra +1 to hit. Each little bit helps.
Another thing the manual explains: You can reroll your stats and redistribute the points with the + and - buttons, like DaveO explained. It takes about half an hour to come up with decent stats for 4 characters.

DaveO · Post by **DaveO** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 8:31 am

Odd, it should not take *that* long to roll good stats. Just increase STR to its max, and if it is not 18/51 or higher do a reroll. 30-60 minutes tops to get decent stats, but don't attempt to get high scores on everything. Some stats can be safely reduced as I mentioned before. By the way, make sure you have the latest patch of the game.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 10:42 am

DaveO wrote:Odd, it should not take *that* long to roll good stats. Just increase STR to its max, and if it is not 18/51 or higher do a reroll. 30-60 minutes tops to get decent stats, but don't attempt to get high scores on everything. Some stats can be safely reduced as I mentioned before. By the way, make sure you have the latest patch of the game.

Isn't half an hour 30 minutes?

Pushing for 18 DEX and CON (or 16 CON in the case of the Bard) is worth it, since generally, a stat of 10 or one of 15 is the same in effect.
But DaveO is right, only for the Cleric or Druid (and there multiclasses) WIS needs to be 18, and only Wizards and Bard (and their multiclasses) need high (17-18) INT. Reduce the "unused" ability scores to the lowest possible.

Maverique · Post by **Maverique** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 6:55 pm

Thanks guys, the party started out very weak in the first two levels but is now mopping up monsters pretty easily, with good AC and stats, these boys and girl are deadly and not to be messed with

. I do have one final question, technical, if I may. I'm running the game on Windows XP, but it seems to run at an abnormally fast speed. I can't aim the monsters manually if they're moving towards me for instance, because they're just too fast. It kinda plays like those old silent movies that run at twice the speed they should, you know? Is the game like this or is there a fix to it? I'm playing with the 1.4.2 patch, the one with the web expansion.

DaveO · Post by **DaveO** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 8:21 pm

If you hit the space bar, it should pause the game IIRC. Then you can take your time giving orders and unpause. Not the optimal solution, but it's what I tend to do. I don't recall the game being excessively fast, but I'm running on an old P4 3.2 Gigahertz machine that is likely on its last legs as a gaming machine.

P.S. - What was your party by the way?

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 3:22 am

If you start up the IWD Config tool, there's a tab with "AI updates per second" or something like that. Normally it's 30. Trying reducing that, or check it's at 30?
That config tool might be exclusive for HoW, but since you have the web-expansion, I think you've also got HoW.

Maverique · Post by **Maverique** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 8:31 am

I slapped my party on rapidshare. It's a 150k file so I couldn't upload it to here, but here goes anyway. It's a paladin tank, a 2hander fighter for melee damage (I always rely on melee over magic), a fighter/mage dual and a pure cleric. If there's any recommendations you guys have to improve the party further, I don't mind editing the characters to make them better, my only restriction is that I don't "cheat". In other words, give myself items I can't have, stats I can't have, etc. All the stats there were gotten fair and square. Now as for the places they are assigned... I wasn't fully aware of the best possible party configuration, so what the hell.

http://rapidshare.com/files/145762406/0 ... 3.rar.html

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 8:35 am

You can switch places later. Just Click & drag.
I would definitly add some sort of thief. There are a lot of traps in the game, and a lot of locks. For this party, maybe start that Fighter out as a Thief and dualclass into Fighter after 4-5 levels? Add all Thief skill points to Traps & Open Locks.

Maverique · Post by **Maverique** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 8:49 am

What's the difference between bashing a door open and unlocking it? Besides, from what I've seen the traps are usually puny and do like 1 damage to my main tanker.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 9:08 am

Bashing things open only works in the beginning. There are also some very, very nasty traps later on. Besides, even little amount of damage keep adding up.

Maverique · Post by **Maverique** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 9:35 am

I'll see about it. To be honest I dislike my mage character a lot. Wow, he can launch 4 magic missiles which amount to like 10 seconds of combat. He's weak as hell, can't take damage or cast spells with armor, which was the only reason I made him a dual fighter/mage, I dunno. Oh and as for switching that fighter to a thief/fighter, I can do that, sure, but I'd need some guidance as to how many points I'd have to spend on each characteristic so it wouldn't "technically" be cheating, if possible:laugh:

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 9:41 am

Fighter/Mages are amongst the best characters in IWD. Just wait untill he gets an Elven Chainmail, so he can cast in armour. For the meantime, use him as an archer, or take off his armour, cast your buffs, and then don the armour again.