Looking for feedback on new party

[Otiluke's Son]

Hi everyone,

I just started playing Icewind Dale 2. I have a new party and was wondering if people can provide feedback?

One thing I know is that the party has no cleric. The party does have three druids, so it will have good healing capability (Heal, Mass Heal) eventually although it won't be strong on buffs.

Here's the description --

• Min-maxed party; every character’s main class is a caster
• Focuses on area of effect spells with decent melee capability
• Four characters will be in the front line, two characters hanging back in the rear
• No multi-class experience penalties
• One ECL character (a tiefling rogue/wizard)
• Plan to also use this party in Heart of Fury mode
• Most of Ease-of-Use mods installed (but not druid mods)

Three slots filled by this build:
Human Monk 1/Druid 26
(later with Rogue 1-2 and Dreadmaster of Bane 1 mixed in)
STR: 18
DEX: 18
CON: 16
INT: 3
WIS: 18 (to be boosted)
CHA: 3

Level Progression:
1: Druid
2: Monk
3-10: Druid
11: Dreadmaster of Bane (at level 11 or whenever Bane quest occurs)
12-16: Druid
17-18: Rogue 1-2 to get evasion [can anyone confirm that monk evasion and rogue evasion stack, i.e. that having both monk and rogue evasion gives you two chances to evade area of effect damage?]

Feats:
1: Spell Focus Transmutation, Lightning Reflexes
2: Evasion [from Monk level]
3: Spell Focus Evocation
6: Greater Spell Focus Evocation
9: Spirit of Flame
12: Scion of Storms
15: Greater Spell Focus Transmutation
18: Subvocal Casting
21: Spell Focus Necromancy
24: Greater Spell Focus Necromancy
27: Dodge
30: TBD

Features:
• High strength (with Bull’s Strength buff from fellow party members) to take advantage of two-handed weapons as greataxe or spears [Axe proficiency from monk level and Polearm proficiency from druid levels]
• AC gets boost from monk wisdom bonus, Barkskin druid spell, Mage Armor buff from fellow party members, dexterity bonus (with boost from Cat’s Grace buff from fellow party members) – and also Ghost Armor buff from fellow party members for tough fights  together with high strength gives three decent front-line melee warriors
• Evasion allows fellow party members to blast away with area of effect spells without too much worry
• Offensive druid spells such as Call Lightning, Static Charge, Thornspray, Smashing Wave, Flame Strike, Firestorm take advantage of spell focus feats (evocation and transmutation feats), as well as Spirit of Flame and Scion of Storms feats, but also allow the three monk/druids to avoid harm because their saves are reflex-based

Two slots filled by this build:
Wild Elf Sorcerer 29
(later with one level of Paladin mixed in)
STR: 6
DEX: 20
CON: 18
INT: 1
WIS: 13
CHA: 18 (to be boosted)

Level Progression:
1-12: Sorcerer
13: Paladin (or whenever Paladin quest occurs)
14-29: Sorcerer

Feats:
1: Rapid Shot
3: Spell Focus Evocation
6: Greater Spell Focus Evocation
9: Aegis of Rime
12: Spirit of Flame
15: Scion of Storms
18: Subvocal Casting
21: Spell Focus Necromancy
24: Greater Spell Focus Necromancy
27: TBD
30: TBD

Spells:
1: Mage Armor, Ice Dagger, Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Ray of Enfeeblement
2: Snilloc’s Snowball Swarm, Cat’s Grace, Bull’s Strength
3: Fireball, Ghost Armor, Dispel Magic, Lightning Bolt, Skull Trap
4: Mordenkainen’s Force Missiles, Stoneskin, Malison, Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere
5: Animate Dead, Ball Lightning
6: Chain Lightning, Freezing Sphere
7: Delayed Blast Fireball, Finger of Death
8: Power Word Blind, Flaying, Horrid Wilting
9: Meteor Swarm, Wail of Banshee

Features:
• Many castings of area of effect spells that allow for reflex saves (so the monk/druids can evade), and that also take advantage of spell focus evocation feats as well as Aegis of Rime, Spirit of Flame and Scion of Storms
• Many castings of low-level buff spells such as Mage Armor, Cat’s Grace, Bull’s Strength, Ghost Armor and Stoneskin
• Eventually will also take spell focus necromancy feats so that party can better utilize instakill spells (Finger of Death, Wail of Banshee), as well as Skull Trap
• Paladin level will provide boost to saves
• Gets bow proficiency from being an elf, and will have two passable back-row archers due to high dexterity and rapid shot feat

One slot filled by this build:
Tiefling Rogue 3/Transmuter 27
STR: 4
DEX: 20
CON: 14
INT: 20 (to be boosted)
WIS: 10
CHA: 10

Level Progression:
1: Rogue
2: Transmuter
3: Rogue
4-11: Transmuter
12: Rogue
13-30: Transmuter

Feats:
1: Spell Focus Enchantment
2: Armored Arcana
3: Weapon Finesse
6: Dodge, Greater Spell Focus Enchantment
9: Spell Focus Evocation
12: Greater Spell Focus Evocation, Spell Focus Transmutation
15: Greater Spell Focus Transmutation
17: Expertise
18: Subvocal Casting
21: Spirit of Flame
22: Lightning Reflexes
24: Combat Casting
27: Great Fortitude, Discipline
30: TBD

Spells:
1: Charm Person, Sleep, Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile
2: Mirror Image
3: Hold Person, Dire Charm, Lance of Disruption, Slow, Invisibility Sphere
4: Confusion, Improved Invisibility
5: Chaos, Sunfire
6: Mass Haste, Tensor’s Transformation, Disintegrate
7: Malavon’s Rage, Prismatic Spray
8: Great Shout, Iron Body
9: Mass Dominate, Black Blade of Disaster

Features:
• Provide rogue and diplomacy skills, as well as Knowledge, Alchemy and Spellcraft skills
• Casts spells that disable enemies (Charm Person, Sleep, Hold Person, Confusion, Chaos, Mass Dominate, Slow) which take advantage of spell focus enchantment and transmutation feats, as well as one instakill spell (Disintegrate) that takes advantage of spell focus transmutation feat
• Also casts caster-centered area of effect spells such as Lance of Disruption, Sunfire, Malavon’s Rage, Prismatic Spray and Great Shout that take advantage of spell focus evocation feats
• Fights in front ranks as a decoy using Mirror Image and Improved Invisibility, while taking advantage of Mage Armor, Cat’s Grace and Barkskin buffs from fellow party members; still has passable BAB and damage due to high dexterity, weapon finesse feat and Emma Moonblade’s sword; uses evasion ability to avoid area of effect damage

[kmonster]

The monk and dreadmaster level slow down your druids, they'll be missing two casting levels and 1.75 BAB average, which affects both the chance to hit and number of attacks, so don't be surprised if you won't be able to cast as powerful spells or do as much physical damage as pure druids can.
I wouldn't add rogue levels.
Since you emphasise boosting AC over spellcasting and offensive combat power I'm surprised that you take the dodge feat so late.
With 3 int you need 14 skillpoints in spellcraft in order to take the elemental feats, so "Spirit of Flame" won't be available before level 12.


With 1 int your sorcerers will need 15 skillpoints in spellcraft in order to take the elemental feats, so "Aegis of Rime" won't be available for them at level 9 either. To take it at level 12 you'll have to put all skillpoints into spellcraft until then.
Low str is painful while wis is useless for those characters. 13 instead of 3 wis are just 10 wasted stat points.
I would choose different spells for them, if only one sorc gets bull's strength and the other gets cat's grace each of them can select another level 2 spell for example. I'd take spirit armor and improved invisibility instead of the useless malison spell.

Your rogue/transmuter has also wasted 7 points too many into wis. Better boost str (4 is extremely painful) and con. Don't bother about diplomacy, the 18 cha sorcerers already have a +4 charisma modifier to all this skills from the start which will even improve with the stat boosts and eagle's splendor spell later (+7 for 24 cha will be possible at level 4), you'd have to put a lot of points in all those skills to be that good. It's better dump cha to 1.
Armored Arcana is crap, weapon finesse is even worse. How useful is hitting a little bit more often with a 1d6 short sword and a -3 strength penalty to damage ? Even with -4 penalty to hit a 2-handed sword would be more efficient. And I doubt you want to draw enemies close with short range weapons.

I wouldn't take the second rogue level before taking 5-7 mage levels.

You'll want someone to cast eagle's splendor and emotion:hope in the party, those are very useful spells.

[Eldakar666]

Do not go with low str and int.. it's pure madness I tell you! Also I would make last character a pure rogue who will be backstabbing and decoying with group of summons.. and give him high int, lot of dialogue skills and thief skills. Dual wield short swords.. but it's up to you. And human is better choice than wild elf but again it's up to you.

And for last.. how are you going to beat final fight in HoF mode with pure arcane party? I might not be expert but i had a lot of trouble with that fight and i had 2 meat grinders and 2 arcane charaters.. It was tuff fight.. even with all the summons I made..

[roller1234]

Human Monk 1/Druid 26
(later with Rogue 1-2 and Dreadmaster of Bane 1 mixed in)

I dont see a point of having a druid here. Make a Bane27 cleric out of it. It has better spells, both damage and AC helping. Duhm, divine shell, to name a few. But you do need a druid class somewhere, thats true. Druidic healing spells are more expensive than clerical.(one level higher)

Wild Elf Sorcerer 29... INT: 1, CHA: 18

A human will have same charisma, no exp penalty as well, but one extra skill point/lvl, which you need for damage boosting feats, to meet spellcraft 10 req, that is. And one extra feat, which you could spend on boosting the enchantment school.

Tiefling Rogue 3/Transmuter 27

I dont see a point in going rogue lvl3 either. It also weakens the mage part.

still has passable BAB and damage due to high dexterity

High dexterity is 40 and good AB is nothing without an appropriate damage output. Which will be very sad with str 4. And also be the cause for that char being unable to carry anything of importance. (including armor and weapons)

having both monk and rogue evasion gives you two chances to evade area of effect damage

Its one feat, these both classes have assess to. It does not stack.