Hi there,
it's the first time i'm starting the game, and need some help for the party.
I saw that in most of the builds i've seen around there are stats that go down to 1, and some horribly mixed classes. This is called powerplaying, and from my point of view is not acceptable.
I'd like my characters to have the lower stats that possibly don't go lower that 8, but a 6 is acceptable for stats like carisma for a barbarian dwarf... Never below that.
The only races i'd like to use are humans, elves and shield dwarf. Classes that i don't want to use are the paladin and probably the monk.
I played for a couple of minutes with random characters, and i noticed that i can't really choose to speak to people in a rude way, so i think it's better if my characters are mostly good, or maybe neutral... I can't imagine a caotic evil character that says something like: "thank you for your help" or "we are here to help you"...!
Multiclassing is ok, but not too extreme... I love druids, i'd like to have it in my party, if is possible to make it not too bad.
Is it possible to play in HoF with such a party? Some help will be greatly appreciated.
Thaks a lot for all answers,
Othar
Help for roleplaying party
I'm quite sure that evil characters get different dialogue options than good ones, in IWD2 it does matter more than in the other IE games what kind of character (race, alignment, class ...) is talking.
There's no need to bother about HoF mode, it's actually easier than normal mode since high level characters have high level spells available.
I recommend a party of 6, the game is harder with less characters. Having one cleric and one sorcerer/(specialist) mage (both not multiclassed) is essential for a not too hard game. The most powerful choice for character 3 and 4 are druid and bard. I wouldn't multiclass any of those 4. Character 5 and 6 depend on your playing style.
A party suggestion:
Shield dwarf battleguard: 14-10-20-8-18-6
Human sorcerer: 10-14-18-8-8-18
Elf druid: 10-14-16-10-18-8
Human bard: 8-14-16-12-8-18
Human rogue1/diviner 10-14-18-18-8-8
Shield dwarf fighter and/or barbarian 18-16-20-8-8-6
There's no need to bother about HoF mode, it's actually easier than normal mode since high level characters have high level spells available.
I recommend a party of 6, the game is harder with less characters. Having one cleric and one sorcerer/(specialist) mage (both not multiclassed) is essential for a not too hard game. The most powerful choice for character 3 and 4 are druid and bard. I wouldn't multiclass any of those 4. Character 5 and 6 depend on your playing style.
A party suggestion:
Shield dwarf battleguard: 14-10-20-8-18-6
Human sorcerer: 10-14-18-8-8-18
Elf druid: 10-14-16-10-18-8
Human bard: 8-14-16-12-8-18
Human rogue1/diviner 10-14-18-18-8-8
Shield dwarf fighter and/or barbarian 18-16-20-8-8-6
Thanks for the help 
Can i ask why you think putting a pure druid AND a pure bard would be a good choice? The bard will of course be the group diplomat, and will sing his songs. But why should it be pure? What does it get after lvl 11?
About the druid, i fear that it will be underpowered (and using the mod might make him overpowered?). What kind of druid do you have in mind? How could it be better if i leave it pure?
Also, is the 16 DEX of the warrior only because of the better reflex saves? Because for the AC is more convenient having a full plate armor, isn't it?
What is the diviner's and sorcerer's 10 STR (instead of 8) for? Wouldn't be better to give that 2 points to something like CON?
I was thinking of making the sorcerer a wild elf. About his skills, concentration, spellcraft (10 points i think?), and do i need something else? a human with 12 INT would have another skill point/lvl, what for?
PS: sorry if my english is not always correct...
Can i ask why you think putting a pure druid AND a pure bard would be a good choice? The bard will of course be the group diplomat, and will sing his songs. But why should it be pure? What does it get after lvl 11?
About the druid, i fear that it will be underpowered (and using the mod might make him overpowered?). What kind of druid do you have in mind? How could it be better if i leave it pure?
Also, is the 16 DEX of the warrior only because of the better reflex saves? Because for the AC is more convenient having a full plate armor, isn't it?
What is the diviner's and sorcerer's 10 STR (instead of 8) for? Wouldn't be better to give that 2 points to something like CON?
I was thinking of making the sorcerer a wild elf. About his skills, concentration, spellcraft (10 points i think?), and do i need something else? a human with 12 INT would have another skill point/lvl, what for?
PS: sorry if my english is not always correct...
A bard gets level 5 spells at level 13 and level 6 spells at level 16, and bard spells are cast at the bard level. Multiclassing with another class will only yield low level spell at a casting level 11 levels lower than the party level.
A druid is best left pure since caster levels are extremely important. If you multiclass you can cast less spells and have worse spell effects all of the time.
Int and cha are useless for the tank, and even when wearing plate wis isn't more useful than dex. There are very useful feats which require having at least 13 dex.
10 str yields a better carrying capacity than 8 str. It can be annoying sometimes with very low strength characters, but if you don't mind you can lower str to 8 for your casters too.
Sorcerers don't benefit from more than 2 skillpoints/level (which humans get even with 3 int) from the powergaming point of view. Powergamers would drop the bard's int too. An elf sorc needs 12 int for 2 skillpoints/level. With 12 int you need only 9 skillpoints in spellcraft for the elemental feats.
A druid is best left pure since caster levels are extremely important. If you multiclass you can cast less spells and have worse spell effects all of the time.
Int and cha are useless for the tank, and even when wearing plate wis isn't more useful than dex. There are very useful feats which require having at least 13 dex.
10 str yields a better carrying capacity than 8 str. It can be annoying sometimes with very low strength characters, but if you don't mind you can lower str to 8 for your casters too.
Sorcerers don't benefit from more than 2 skillpoints/level (which humans get even with 3 int) from the powergaming point of view. Powergamers would drop the bard's int too. An elf sorc needs 12 int for 2 skillpoints/level. With 12 int you need only 9 skillpoints in spellcraft for the elemental feats.
Thanks again for your help, i'm considering your advices. I like most of the party you suggested, but i'd really like to make the sorcerer a wild elf, and i'm still not sure about the pure bard. Some more informations about what to make of most characters (mainly the ones that could have many different roles, like the druid, the bard, maybe the diviner) would be nice, if it doesn't bother you.
Someone else's opinion would be very appreciated, to have some other point of view...
Someone else's opinion would be very appreciated, to have some other point of view...
My party suggestion is just a suggestion, you can change a lot without changing the game difficulty too much.
Really necessary is only a pure cass arcane caster and a pure class cleric of some deity.
An elf sorcerer isn't much worse than a human, you need 12 instead of 8 int for 2 skillpoints/level, but if you take the 4 stat points from dex and/or con, you'll still have the same casting power without being too vulnerable.
A sorcerer with 6 int and without the elemental feats or less points in concentration isn't considerably weaker either.
The role of the party druid (besides standard fighting) is casting druid spells. My druid won the difficult 1:1 battles for my party. Druids can't cast spells while shapeshifted, but static charges and lightnings still remain active and shapeshift forms (the boar form is powerful, the bear form even more) can be buffed by other party members with spells like bull's strength and cat's grace.
The barksin spell alone is worth taking a druid. My favourite offensive spells were "call lightning" and "static charge", you cast as many of them before battle and during the battle every few seconds an enemy takes damage while you still can do other things with your druid. Most druid spells are transmutation spells which get better with greater spell focus transmutation, so is static charge. Scion of storms increases the damage output by 20 percent.
Druids with 10 int get 2 skillpoints per level, enough to max out concentration and to get 10 in spellcraft (for being able to take scion of storms at level 9). But like with the sorc 10 int is not essential.
I recommend starting with the rapid shot feat since you won't use a crossbow, the extra attack is extremely useful, the other feats aren't that earthshaking.
An essential feat for the bard is lingering song, it makes the bard songs three times as good.
Bard songs become so powerful that I would concentrate on buffing, healing or summoning spells (only shades and shadow conjuration) which can be cast before or after battles.
In a normal game your party will only reach level 16-17, so there are not much levels left for a second class, when you reach high bard levels in HoF mode the level depending spells shades and shadow conjuration give the most powerful summons and your bard can cast the most powerful spells in the game (wail of the banshee, powerword:blind, mass dominate).
You actually don't need many skillpoints for a bard diplomat so you can dump int to 8. Concentration isn't needed for singing and the diplomatic skills don't have to be maxed out for optimal dialogue options, especially since you have a +4 charisma modifier at the start which will improve during the game. Distributing 6 points among the skills at the start is enough to get nearly all positive dialogue options in the prologue, (for most checks even the 4 points from 18 charisma are sufficient) in the rest of the game
dialogues aren't that important any more (and the checks are not too difficult, so you could even raise concentration).
I'd start with the "lingering song" and "mercentile background" feats, having more money doesn't hurt. I'd raise cha at level up.
It's not necessary but very nice to have someone handle the identifying skills like knowledge arcana or alchemy, the same applies to thieving skills. Int is the most important stat both for thieves (the int modifier applies to "search" and "disable device" and you need skillpoints which are granted by int) and mages. A human thief with 18 int starts with 34 skillpoints, enough to max out the thieving skills. When you level up as mage afterwards you still get enough skillpoints to handle both thievery and knowledge.
It's also nice to have a backup for casting the spells your sorcerer couldn't learn. The extra spell per level for specialists does make a difference, while the sorc can learn the forbidden spells you consider important. Diviners have the least useful forbidden school, conjuration. Another good option is transmuter, especially for roleplaying since there's even a rewarding thing only transmuters with high enough alchemy, the opposing schools are necromancy and abjuration.
The more caster levels this character has, the more powerful he is. But since this is only a back-up caster you can afford to take even more rogue levels.
Important for the tank is doing so much damage that you can laugh at the monsters with 15 damage resistance. Raise strength, use a two-handed sword and a magical throwing axe. It takes some time until you get your first full plate, until then the 16 dex will help. The half plate you can buy in the prologue is only worth wearing for your 10 dex cleric.
Focus on feats which increase damage. You can take dodge, but other defensive feats aren't worth it. fighter4/barbarian is the most popular mix, but pure barbarian or barbarian 3/fighter aren't too bad either.
Really necessary is only a pure cass arcane caster and a pure class cleric of some deity.
An elf sorcerer isn't much worse than a human, you need 12 instead of 8 int for 2 skillpoints/level, but if you take the 4 stat points from dex and/or con, you'll still have the same casting power without being too vulnerable.
A sorcerer with 6 int and without the elemental feats or less points in concentration isn't considerably weaker either.
The role of the party druid (besides standard fighting) is casting druid spells. My druid won the difficult 1:1 battles for my party. Druids can't cast spells while shapeshifted, but static charges and lightnings still remain active and shapeshift forms (the boar form is powerful, the bear form even more) can be buffed by other party members with spells like bull's strength and cat's grace.
The barksin spell alone is worth taking a druid. My favourite offensive spells were "call lightning" and "static charge", you cast as many of them before battle and during the battle every few seconds an enemy takes damage while you still can do other things with your druid. Most druid spells are transmutation spells which get better with greater spell focus transmutation, so is static charge. Scion of storms increases the damage output by 20 percent.
Druids with 10 int get 2 skillpoints per level, enough to max out concentration and to get 10 in spellcraft (for being able to take scion of storms at level 9). But like with the sorc 10 int is not essential.
I recommend starting with the rapid shot feat since you won't use a crossbow, the extra attack is extremely useful, the other feats aren't that earthshaking.
An essential feat for the bard is lingering song, it makes the bard songs three times as good.
Bard songs become so powerful that I would concentrate on buffing, healing or summoning spells (only shades and shadow conjuration) which can be cast before or after battles.
In a normal game your party will only reach level 16-17, so there are not much levels left for a second class, when you reach high bard levels in HoF mode the level depending spells shades and shadow conjuration give the most powerful summons and your bard can cast the most powerful spells in the game (wail of the banshee, powerword:blind, mass dominate).
You actually don't need many skillpoints for a bard diplomat so you can dump int to 8. Concentration isn't needed for singing and the diplomatic skills don't have to be maxed out for optimal dialogue options, especially since you have a +4 charisma modifier at the start which will improve during the game. Distributing 6 points among the skills at the start is enough to get nearly all positive dialogue options in the prologue, (for most checks even the 4 points from 18 charisma are sufficient) in the rest of the game
dialogues aren't that important any more (and the checks are not too difficult, so you could even raise concentration).
I'd start with the "lingering song" and "mercentile background" feats, having more money doesn't hurt. I'd raise cha at level up.
It's not necessary but very nice to have someone handle the identifying skills like knowledge arcana or alchemy, the same applies to thieving skills. Int is the most important stat both for thieves (the int modifier applies to "search" and "disable device" and you need skillpoints which are granted by int) and mages. A human thief with 18 int starts with 34 skillpoints, enough to max out the thieving skills. When you level up as mage afterwards you still get enough skillpoints to handle both thievery and knowledge.
It's also nice to have a backup for casting the spells your sorcerer couldn't learn. The extra spell per level for specialists does make a difference, while the sorc can learn the forbidden spells you consider important. Diviners have the least useful forbidden school, conjuration. Another good option is transmuter, especially for roleplaying since there's even a rewarding thing only transmuters with high enough alchemy, the opposing schools are necromancy and abjuration.
The more caster levels this character has, the more powerful he is. But since this is only a back-up caster you can afford to take even more rogue levels.
Important for the tank is doing so much damage that you can laugh at the monsters with 15 damage resistance. Raise strength, use a two-handed sword and a magical throwing axe. It takes some time until you get your first full plate, until then the 16 dex will help. The half plate you can buy in the prologue is only worth wearing for your 10 dex cleric.
Focus on feats which increase damage. You can take dodge, but other defensive feats aren't worth it. fighter4/barbarian is the most popular mix, but pure barbarian or barbarian 3/fighter aren't too bad either.