[Help] Is this party any good?

[ryou]

Hi everyone! I hope there's still people in this forums

I had this game since 2004 but since I wasn't familiar with the D&D rules system at that moment didn't give it a try (bit mystake hehe).
Anyway, since now I'm a bit older, with some time to spare and with a better yet horrible knowledge of the english languaje (not my mother languaje) decided to install and play this game.

After read this forums a lot, the manual, the GameBanshee Icewind Dale II section and some other sites and get a bit more used to D&D system I made a party. I'm planning beat the game in Normal Mode and then export to play Heart of Winter Mode with the same party.

Here's the party:

First Character:

• Gender: Male
• Race: Human
• Class: Paladin (2) / Fighter (x)
• Alignment: Lawful Good
• Abilities: 18/14/18/4/4/18
• Skills: Irrelevant?
• Feats: Power Attack / Cleave
• Notes: This will be the meat shield. He'll use Heavy / Medium Armor, Shield and prolly Large Sword.

Second Character:

• Gender: Male
• Race: Shield Dwarf
• Class: Fighter (4) / Ranger (1) / Barbarian (x)
• Alignment: Neutral Good
• Abilities: 18/14/20/4/18/2
• Skills: Irrelevant?
• Feats: Power Attack / Cleave
• Notes: This guy is intended to be the melee damage dealer. The ranger level is because I want to dual wield with this char (unless theres an extremly good reason to don't do it).

Third Character:

• Gender: Male
• Race: Aasimar
• Class: Fighter (4) / Cleric (x)
• Alignment: Neutral Good
• Abilities: 14/14/16/8/18/10
• Skills: Concentration
• Feats: Improved Initiative
• Notes: This would be the Cleric of the party. The idea is that he can tank and attack.

Fourth Character:

• Gender: Female
• Race: Human
• Class: Rogue (1) / Ranger (1) / Rogue (x)
• Alignment: Lawful Evil
• Abilities: 10/18/12/16/16/4
• Skills: Disable Device / Hide / Move Silently / Open Lock / Pickpocket / Search
• Feats: Precise Shot / Rapid Shot
• Notes: This is the thief-class of the party. I want her be able to do some dual-welding for Sneak Attack and ranged attacks as well.

Fifth Character:

• Gender: Male
• Race: Human
• Class: Sorcerer (x)
• Alignment: Neutral Evil
• Abilities: 6/18/12/12/10/18
• Skills: Concentration / Diplomacy / Spellcraft
• Feats: Combat Casting / Spell Focus, Evocation
• Notes: I guess this guy will be the spam-spells boy of the party.

Sixth Character:

• Gender: Male
• Race: Human
• Class: Wizard (x)
• Alignment: True Neutral
• Abilities: 8/18/18/18/10/4
• Skills: Alchemy / Concentration / Knowledge Arcana / Spellcraft
• Feats: Combat Casting / Spell Focus, Necromancy
• Notes: The support caster.

So the big and main question would be: is this party any good?

Please, if anyone reply to the thread do not post spoilers! I'm not that kind of player.
I do not pretend a "step-to-step how to build an extremly powerful party" but just a simple advice if I made something really wrong or if I should correct anything

Thanks for reading so far!!


PS: Sorry for my lousy english.

[Klorox]

The party is fine for normal mode.

I'd drop the ranger level from your dwarf because the abilities only work in light or no armor, and you'll have a 20% XP penalty for the Barbarian and Ranger levels being more than 1 apart. With 4 Fighter levels, you have enough bonus feats to take Ambidexterity and two weapon fighting if you want them that bad (personally, a high STR character benefits more from a big two handed weapon, but that's just my opinion). If you still want to dual weild, you need a 15 DEX to get Ambidexterity.

I'm concerned that you only have 1 cleric, and that he's got 4 levels of Fighter, an ECL race, and you're not playing into her favored class (Aasimar has Paladin).

Try a Paladin 2/Cleric X instead.

Your last character (the Wizard) would probably benefit from 1 level of Rogue (since your INT is so high and rogues get so many skills), but even if you don't go that road, I'd make him a Drow. You'll be able to use a bow, you'll start with a 20 INT, and the ECL penalty won't matter much at all because it's hard to get good scrolls for a single classed Wizard really early anyway.

[ryou]

Tanks for your quick reply!

I'd drop the ranger level from your dwarf because the abilities only work in light or no armor, and you'll have a 20% XP penalty for the Barbarian and Ranger levels being more than 1 apart. With 4 Fighter levels, you have enough bonus feats to take Ambidexterity and two weapon fighting if you want them that bad (personally, a high STR character benefits more from a big two handed weapon, but that's just my opinion). If you still want to dual weild, you need a 15 DEX to get Ambidexterity.

You have good points here. I didn't realize that.
So a Fighter (4) / Barbarian (x) would be better... I wanted to dual weild because I think a Barbarian with two axes looks really cool :$

I'm concerned that you only have 1 cleric, and that he's got 4 levels of Fighter, an ECL race, and you're not playing into her favored class (Aasimar has Paladin).

Try a Paladin 2/Cleric X instead.

Paladin (2) / Cleric (x) as Aasimar as well, or sould I change the race to Human?

Your last character (the Wizard) would probably benefit from 1 level of Rogue (since your INT is so high and rogues get so many skills), but even if you don't go that road, I'd make him a Drow. You'll be able to use a bow, you'll start with a 20 INT, and the ECL penalty won't matter much at all because it's hard to get good scrolls for a single classed Wizard really early anyway.

May I ask you why? It seems that with this char I have more skill points than I need, what would I want even more? (trully I don't get it, don't flame me :$)

On a side note, I didn't pick up Drow because I had an Dwarf in my party. I know, that sounds really silly when I have Good and Evil characters in the same party but... oh well, that's me

Thanks again for your quick and informative replay! I'll consider your points of view and I'll star over once again!

[Klorox]

Well, I usually play combining my Rogue and Wizard, so that's why I like starting as a Rogue, and then going with a Wizard. If you're happy with the skills, stay single classed, but I still suggest an ECL race with a bonus to INT... how about a Tiefling Wizard?

As for the Cleric, I'd still play an Aasimar.

I'm a fan of ECL races. In my opinion, the benefits outweigh the negatives.

BTW, I'd also suggest changing your Ftr/Pal into an Aasimar, and your Rng/Rog into an Aasimar (or Halfling)/

Just the way I'd play it though.

You might also want to play a really cool character instead of Character #2. I'd suggest a Dwarf Cleric of Tempus. They get Weapon Focus: Axe for free, and a slightly smaller BAB with a few less HP but spells will give you a much more powerful character. And if you're concerned with having 2 Clerics... don't be. They're awesome.

It's too bad you didn't mix a Druid or Bard into your party. The game can be completed just fine without them, but they're fun to have around.

[kmonster]

Essential for a good party are a fast levelling arcane caster and a fast levelling cleric, the rest is optional.

I disagree with Klorox about the ECL-races. In my opinion you'll have most fun with only 1 aasimar or tiefling as the only ECL-character.

It's very important to gain high level cleric spells fast, multiclassing your cleric will cripple him. A pure cleric can fight very well like Klorox wrote, I had a dwarf battleguard of Tempus in my party and he was very deadly in combat.
I also don't think that it's good if the cleric is a slower levelling aasimar. Better give this race to your paladin/figher. He doesn't really benefit from the human bonusses, skill points are not needed and with all the fighter bonus feats you don't need another one for being human.


About abilities:
8 int isn't better than 3 int, so for character 3 I'd rather raise useful stats like str or con.
Your rogue doesn't need wis that high, str increases backstab damage and con helps surviving.
The sorc and wizard don't benefit from wisdom, you can dump it.
For the sorc I'd lower wis down to 4, increase str to 8 (with 6 str he'll have trouble wearing his own equipment) and con to 16.
For the wizard I'd shift at least 2 points from wis to str. One sorc with painful inventory management because of low strength is bad enough.

About skills:
Since character1 already has 18 cha I'd take diplomacy when levelling as paladin and intimidate when levelling as fighter. Just don't send a paladin for collecting quest rewards, you won't get anything.
For character2 you could take "wilderness lore", it's a nice roleplaying feat. If you use it you can get a nice description of the area.
Another option for your fighters is increasing concentration to 4 which is neccessary for the "maximized attacks" feat.
For the sorc I'd max out "bluff" and "diplomacy" at creation since you'll have to talk a lot in the prologue. conccentration and spellcraft can be increased at the level ups. If he has put 9 points into spellcraft at level 9 he can take the "spirit of flame" feat. More spellcraft is useless for him.

Feats:
I personally would take dash for everyone since I like faster moving parties.
The wizard and sorc should take feats to improve their spell effects, greater spell focusses and the 4 elemental feats. I don't think that combat casting is worth it, background casters don't get hurt often while casting and with high enough concentration skill their spells don't get interupted anyway.
Dodge grants very useful +1 AC.
Rapid shot is as good as ambidexterity and 2-weapon fighting combined.
Cleave is nice but greater cleave isn't worth it.
Improved critical is also very useful.
Improved iniative doesn't work, if you benefit from the precise shot feat you do something wrong. Don't take extra rage either.
Dualwielding does less damage than using two-handed weapons btw.

[ryou]

Thanks for the replies!

The tips and advices from both of you were very useful to me!

Thanks again!!

[Philos]

There's a lot of good advice here and as it has been said, you a have party that should be fun and successful. I too think that your cleric is very important and I concur with all above in having a cleric rise in level quickly. Personally, I prefer to keep my cleric single class (I like Klorox's suggestion of Paladin 2/Cleric x too and may try that in my next party)

The only suggestion I would offer in addition is also regarding your cleric. One very important consideration is which of the Forgotten Realms deities will be the one they represent. Each one (I think you have 9 to choose from) has good points and it will depend on your tastes and play style. Each has different "domain" spells they can cast in addition to normal cleric spells. Your character's alignment of course will limit your choices, (a good cleric would not be able to choose Mask for example). My favorite is Lathander (good aligned clerics). Clerics of Lathander receive excellent domain spells that lean toward sun/fire (Aganazzer's Scorcher for example). The real killer spell that they receive is Firestorm. For them, it is only a 6th level domain spell. This is sooner than anyone else. It is 2 character levels before a druid gets it (7th level druid spell) and 4 character levels before any other cleric (8th level spell for everyone else). It is a devastating spell. Hordes of opponents literally went down in flames. It made some potentially tough fights in the game go much easier. My cleric of Lathander ended the game as the party leader in number of kills. :laugh:
But more importantly read the descriptions and check them all out. Pick the one you like.