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Which is better a fighter heavy party or a mage heavy party? My current party is an archer, Valygar, Sarevok, Jaheria and Imoen. That's three and a half fighters and one mage. I'm rolling through things right now. Beat demogorgon in a few rounds on my first effort. I was wondering if mage heavy parties or fighter heavy parties are stronger. Mage heavy parties I would imagine would be punished by the incredible magic resistance of many enemies. I think you can deal damage as quickly through melee as magic and since they don't resist melee that's my vote.

IMHO so is the mage heavy better than the fighter...cause

1. Mages are greater, everyone states that sorcerer is the most overpowered class and with a second mage, edwin, aerie, imoen, so is there no really big problems with the game.

But ofcourse in ToB so is everything so much more fighting based and i must confess that my sorcerer did'nt so that much...instead it was Sarevok and Keldorn who made the fighting, but still many mages are better than many fighters...

I disagree Dios, party's with more fighter's make the game MUCH easier then a game with more mages.
with magic you have to reload the game a lot more often and stuff like save throws plus magic resistance can make stuff have different outcomes. also let's not forget how that some spells can betray their caster, what if something like stinking gas makes your guys unable to move? or if web makes your mages unable to run away from the enemy? mages have no physical power and are easily destroyed most of the time once a fighter gets close to them so if you don't have a fighter to save the mage your gonna lose.
also in TOB a lot of enemies have magic resistance so high that spells have a harder time working on them.
in my last game where I didn't solo I had 3 fighters, 1 cleric, (those four were close up fighters), 1 mage/thief (jan from the thief problems), and 1 pure mage.
I NEVER needed the mage's magical power. I only used it in fight's that were more of a challenge, like to make protection spells on my party that I could of easily done without. I also used "pierce shield" on dragons to make them easier to kill and that's it. the one spell that made fireballs for you to throw was useful but my mages were absolutly useless in that game.

It all depends how you plan your chaaracter.

A mage can be a huge factor in any battle (summon planetar,sunfire,horrid wrilthing, banshee, dragon breath etc..)

The planetar deals sometjhing like 25 in damage each hit and uses a vorpal sword, has loads of great spells like symbol death, heal and others. Sunfire bypasses MR, horridwrilthing does about 30-40 in dmg, banshee kills easely most lower level creatures, and dragon breath is truly amazing.

The fact that you can entangle your self and stuff like that is not a factor if you play your mage as supposed. I'm currently breezing through the underdark with my solo sorc. Here all drow are immune to magic through a very high MR, I only say hello sunfire and planetar bye drow.

Most of these things can be done wih a fighter as well though. A good fighter deals about 25-35 dmg each hit. But this is where things get tricky you cannot hit someone with stoneskin or prot. from magical weapons on him. This makeing the ***hter so much slower to kill with but sinse you can stand quite a lot damage you eventually get the job done.

Have any of you trued to put one of your best fighters to fight against edwin (lvl 31) in a friendly match? Is there any doubt at all who will win? yes there is ,but I would bet all my money on edwin solely through the fact that a spell trigger with 3 sunfires wil bring thefighter down about 90 hp and then there is the planeter adn improved invisibility on edwin. A nice little death finger or maybe an imprisonment bye bye fighter

My vote is for fighter heavy. I have tried mage heavy and didn't care for it. Here are some reasons:

Fighters are best for most situations. You don't need to plan for the majority of fights. But for the challenging fights, you need a strategy. That's where the mages come in. Protections, summon fodder for the baddie to use his spells on, sommon but-kicking creatures, enhancements, disabling spells, and even a little damage. While your mage is doing this, the fighters are still in there slugging it out.

To put this into perspective, a party with 4 goons and 2 mages would be pretty well balanced for almost any situation. The goons take on most situations with the mages using their slings, if they even bother. Big fights you can only summon up to 5 beasties, and 2 mages have more than enough spells to get the job done, in all areas of magic.

On the other hand, 4 mages and 2 goons means you have some gaps in your defence when attacked unprepared. A mage in hand to hand is usually a dead mage. Furthermore you have a ton of spells. While interesting to have that much fire power, too much maintenance for me.

Lastly, mages need more control. Too many mages means too much work for me. I don't trust the AI not to fry my own party. The AI's not bad for the warrior's. Yes, they turn away from the almost dead demon because a skeleton hit him, but two clicks and he is back on track. With mages you need to pick every spell.

Definitely fighter heavy. One idea I have been meaning to try is thief heavy. We all sneak in and backstab, and lead them back into our awaiting traps.

Fighter heavy, I just like it better.

Besides that, a good high level fighter deals 30-100+ dmg per round, no saving throw, but has very good saving throws himself. Mages depend too much on the situation and the enemy's weaknesses - so without reload, the fighter is often better off, unless the mage goes heavily for summons.

Of course, mages offer more flexibility than fighters and certain spells (eg imprisonment) are almost impossible to counter. But in melee-heavy ToB a melee-heavy party works perfectly well.

I'm kind of surprised that so many pick fighter-heavy. Not used to having people agree with me...

I find that the only time I use mages effectively is when I'm soloing. Otherwise I tend to just use them to take protections off the enemy and one or two mages are usually sufficient for this.

A high level mage can cast 3 Horrid Wiltings through a chain contingency. This is usually sufficient to kill anything, once magic resistance is neutralized. Having 9-12 of these things going off is not going to be much of an improvement, especially if the mages are being targetted by the enemy. As Screaming Johnny says "too much maintenance".

Fighter heavy is the way to go. Once you have one mage that's all you need, plus, it's gets to be a real hassle to control more than one or two mages. All you really absolutely need a mage for is to get protections off of other mages and really powerful enemies and then let your fighters take them out no sweat once the protections are gone.

about taking protections off of enemies like some of you guys are saying is the only use of a mage..... usually my fighters can last long enough on my first try against a mage to wait for the protection spells to wear off. also some weapons of fighter's can break through mage's protection spells and give them some damage (not enough to kill them really fast but enough to interupt their spells).

another reason that fighter's are better then mages.
for your own mages it's too easy for the enemies to interrupt their spells (just the slightest tap on you will mess it up).

Originally posted by MasterDarkNinja
another reason that fighter's are better then mages.
for your own mages it's too easy for the enemies to interrupt their spells (just the slightest tap on you will mess it up).

The same is true with a fighter. If hit you dont finish your attack. Besides try hitting a mage with imroved mantle or prot against magic weapons cast on it. Not likely at all

Ok, sorry, I am lazy, I don't wanna read this whole thread.. but I WILL say that my 100% non-cheated non-hacked solo sorcerer made it through SoA with no problems whatsoever, and picked up just Sarevok for those virtually mage-immune enemies (Demogorgon and Mellisan come to mind), and I kicked butt throughout the game, I didn't get stuck once... 'cept the aforementioned mage-immune enemies for about oh, 7 tries each, but hey, I'm only human, and without cheesy spike traps, she IS pretty tough. BTW, Sarevok is argueably the best fighter in the game, IMO.... sure, Keldorn gets that whoop-ass Paly sword, but he doesn't get quite as high an over-all whoopasness with his fighter skills. Just my opinion tho...

well...i always use a mage heavy party, since i like cheese...a mage heavy party can really load up on cheese...

its true, 4 mages casting dragon breath on imp acuity can really blast anything...even had a mage heavy party live thru ascention and eclipse...project image and planetar abuse, and regen kept party alive in eclipse until enough stacked dragons killed them all....

a mage heavy party has little or no staying power, but for those nasty wes mods, and battles, you really want all the spell power you can afford..mages can decisivly win in less than 3 rounds...

two sorcs, though is equal to 4 mages...or 6 mages....

for my next run thru the imoen mod, i plan on a fighter heavy party just to see what its like, also lord m suggested a config for fun dialogs, and its fighter heavy....

Well, fighter-heavy is easier to play, more relaxing, and a good tactical choice for TOB...

Mage-heavy requires planning, thinking, trickery, is slower but potentially more fun and more satisfying...

(Ahem... sorry but... why "a well-balanced party" is not an option in this poll?)

My vote goes with mages anyway, if the question can be worded as "who is stronger assuming that you play all characters to the best of their potential".

The fighter-heavy party is easier but the mage-heavy party is more powerful. The most powerful party in ToB consists of 5 bards and multiclassed cleric/thief or maybe a f/m/t.
I played through with 5 blades and a gnome cleric/thief. SoA was a little bit tough at times but once the bards got enhanced bard song it was a breeze. My cleric/thief became the most unstoppable character you have ever seen.

Originally posted by Bruce Lee
The fighter-heavy party is easier but the mage-heavy party is more powerful. The most powerful party in ToB consists of 5 bards and multiclassed cleric/thief or maybe a f/m/t.
I played through with 5 blades and a gnome cleric/thief. SoA was a little bit tough at times but once the bards got enhanced bard song it was a breeze. My cleric/thief became the most unstoppable character you have ever seen.

I'll have to disagree with you there. IMHO a sorcerer party with just one other chat (this char is not even needed) could beat any other group of people. you would have to use pause alot, to organize all the spells you let loose but in the end all bards just have sung their last tune.

First of all: the object of this game is to beat the game, not to beat another party. Secondly: enhanced bard song works over the whole map so the bards are somewhere safe.

Originally posted by Bruce Lee
First of all: the object of this game is to beat the game, not to beat another party.

But the game is soo easy. ANd in order to compare parties don't we have to put parties against each other.

Secondly: enhanced bard song works over the whole map so the bards are somewhere safe.

you have a point there, next time I use a bard I'll try it out

Well no in order to compare parties you have to compare how they can handle the game. We all know that if it was down to just one fight a mage/sorceror is superior.
The party I suggested is rather boring because all you have to do is sing and let the non bard mow through the enemies.

What would you say a well balanced party is? I'd give it two mages, a cleric then 3 fighters, that is for a full party. For less than that two fighters a mage and a cleric. For even less, it gets flaky. So if I had a party of 6 and three mages it would be mage heavy. If you had 4 fighters it would be fighter heavy. But I guess it depends on how you play it, and the ratio of mages to fighters. I have found it's fun to be able to have some incredible stuff happen every once in a while, crazy mage spells like time stop and spell triggers and horrid wilting. But micromanagment takes the fun out of it. If you have more fighters you pause less and to me it's more fun most of the time.

To call it a well balanced party I would include a thief...
Sorceror
Cavalier
F/T multi
F/M multi
R/C multi
Blade
This to me would be a well balanced party on the fighter heavy side.