How would you build a 3 person party of:
1 Battle cleric
1 Fighterish mage
and 1 Sorcerer?
Need help on small party running through normal and hof
With what I've seen on XP for kills and the interaction of spells vs. opponents, I wouldn't. 
(..if you just want that 3 party grouping then I'd still pull from from the characters already provided, not much has changed on that issue IMO. Even spell selection should be about the same.)
Once I've thought about this more I'll start a new thread, but the gist of it is this:
You'll get more XP throughout the game by level-squatting AND introducing new characters in a staggered arrangement.
Once I determined that the party was sufficient to handle chapter 2's Battle Squares - I stopped leveling, and instead just inserted new characters at different points (though leveling-up those new characters as the game progressed).
The "kicker" to this is that once you get to about the middle of chapter 5 that you can level-up all those levels on *1* character and still get rather excellent XP for kills.
To give you a better idea (with some "harder" numbers):
A party of 6 started at the beginning with continued level-ups can achieve characters somewhere between level 16 & 17 at the very end.
I'm in the 2nd level of Dragon's Eye (chapter 5) and I've got:
one character that could be leveled to 21, one character that could be leveled to 20, two characters that could be leveled to 19, one character that could be leveled to 13, and one character that is level 7.. and I use them ALL.
They are actually:
One level 19 Cleric/Monk, one level 11 Wizard/Fighter/Barbarian, two level 10 Sorcerers, one level 10 Druid/Cleric, and one level 7 Paladin/Fighter/Rogue.
I should note that where I stopped on the leveling process, wasn't optimum for party effectiveness. (..and it's something I'll discuss in more detail in a that new thread.)
(..if you just want that 3 party grouping then I'd still pull from from the characters already provided, not much has changed on that issue IMO. Even spell selection should be about the same.)
Once I've thought about this more I'll start a new thread, but the gist of it is this:
You'll get more XP throughout the game by level-squatting AND introducing new characters in a staggered arrangement.
Once I determined that the party was sufficient to handle chapter 2's Battle Squares - I stopped leveling, and instead just inserted new characters at different points (though leveling-up those new characters as the game progressed).
The "kicker" to this is that once you get to about the middle of chapter 5 that you can level-up all those levels on *1* character and still get rather excellent XP for kills.
To give you a better idea (with some "harder" numbers):
A party of 6 started at the beginning with continued level-ups can achieve characters somewhere between level 16 & 17 at the very end.
I'm in the 2nd level of Dragon's Eye (chapter 5) and I've got:
one character that could be leveled to 21, one character that could be leveled to 20, two characters that could be leveled to 19, one character that could be leveled to 13, and one character that is level 7.. and I use them ALL.
They are actually:
One level 19 Cleric/Monk, one level 11 Wizard/Fighter/Barbarian, two level 10 Sorcerers, one level 10 Druid/Cleric, and one level 7 Paladin/Fighter/Rogue.
I should note that where I stopped on the leveling process, wasn't optimum for party effectiveness. (..and it's something I'll discuss in more detail in a that new thread.)
How did you build and utilize the Druid/Cleric, scott?
Right Speech has four aspects: 1. Not lying, but speaking the truth, 2. Avoiding rude and coarse words, but using gentle speech beneficial to the listener, 3. Not slandering, but promoting friendliness and unity, 4. Avoiding frivolous speech, but saying only what is appropriate and beneficial.
Claudius wrote:How did you build and utilize the Druid/Cleric, scott?
Druid for 9 levels over to Cleric of Bane just in time for Banemaster "quest".
A few reasons for inserting this character (beyond lowering party level to increase XP from kills):
1. Leveraging the Banemaster quest.
2. Barkskin at +4 Natural AC bonus and with enough 2nd level spell slots for all 6 characters (..and good duration).
3. Transmutation focus x2 + Entangle, Spike Growth, & Spike Stones.
4. Some access to the 5th level spells as well (..2 of them).
5. Also a nice swap on the Spike Growth spell level for Call Lightening + a couple of Static Charges.
6. Fast access to Wilderness Lore for the 3rd chapter.
The 30th level is planned for Monk.. (to avoid XP penalty). This character, and all characters are Drow. And *female* for this character for the Cleric favored class. Attributes: 9/20/14/5/18/14 (..and always level-up Wisdom). Skills: Wilderness lore 8, the rest Concentration. Crossbow use for tough fights with Hellbolter, but most of the time bow use with an everlast arrow. At 9th level I also added-in the Shambling Mound form for something a bit different, though I almost never use it.
The other options are 12 Druid (barkskin +5) or 11 Druid (access to 6th level spells) but that drops the Cleric class by 2 or 3 levels. 20 levels of Cleric nets a full four spells to cast for 8th level cleric spells (..symbol of Hopelessness) + Wisdom modifier bonus. Even at 17 Cleric that still nets one 9th level spell per day + bonus and 2 8th level. Then there is spell penetration to figure-in based on class level: the higher, the better. And finally there is Turn Undead which is also class level dependent.
I'm still "mulling over" which is best. I was thinking 20 levels Cleric, but after looking over spells per day, 11 Druid/18 Cleric might be the "sweet spot". That would net me an extra 4th, 5th, and access to 6th level Druid spells and cost me one 8th & two 9th level spells per day from the Cleric class. The 8th level spell slot hurts, but strangely the 9th doesn't (..it's a summon - and a Cleric isn't exactly deprived of good summons + I've got another Cleric as well).
Spell progression for the Cleric and Druid is the same as NWN2:
http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Spell_progression