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Wouldnt it be cool if you made a party from scratch and did 6 mages? I think im gonna try that. I just found out how to make my whole party without npcs. hehe, what do you guys think? What other combos would be nice? Maybe 6 barbarians...or bards...

WEll, the good thing is you could cover a bunch of the spell schools if you went with specialist mages... maybe add in a Sorceror or a Wild Mage just to make it fun!

oh yeah, i'd have to have a thief though. HOw about this - thief, cleric, mage, bard, archer, fighter? Or six of any kind. all dwarfs! magic resistance!

It would be neat, but you would have to spend so many slots on lower resist for killing things it wouldn't even be funny, I mean, the summons can get swamped really easy, or one death spell or Power Word, Kill and *poof*, game over for you.

Actually I think it would be more effective if you had a party of all spellcasters, not just mages. I'm thinking:

Mage (generalist)
Cleric (healing, plus some combat ability)
Druid (healing, and great druid-only spells)
Sorceror (offensive demon)
Conjuror (another 'generalist', more spells)
Sorceror (back up)

You could even have a ranger/druid instead of a normal druid, or a kensai/mage in place of your single-class mage. In facct, I might want to run through the game with something like this myself...

An interesting idea, @L. I suppose dual-classing them would really defeat the purpose, though putting a dual-class kensai/mage in the group could be neat.

I can also see a party of six druids, all flavors; or six priests might be a real challenge.

[ 07-19-2001: Message edited by: fable ]

I think going at it with six mages (or mage sub-classes) would be suicide (though certainly not much tougher than soloing with a mage or sorcerer).

Here's why: a number of the bad guys you run into are brutal HTH combat adversaries. Spellcasters require two things to be effective: time and distance. That's why everyone has one or two bricks in their party, to absorb punishment and at least fight holding actions until the Comets, Dragon's Breaths, and Fireballs come raining down.

Mages have high AC, low HP, and virtually no weapon selection. Without cheating, how many low AC bracers are you going to find? Answer: 2, one Bracers AC 3 and one Bracers AC 4. Sure there are Robes of the Archmagi, but they have base ACs of 5. Same for the Robe of Venca, and there's only one of those. Summoned monsters can provide a temporary shield against a pack of trolls, but with the new (read: 5 at a time) summoning rules, they won't last long.

Don't get me wrong, I love playing mages; high level wizards are the most powerful class in AD&D, but even Khelben, Malchor, Elminster and Raistlin had adventuring partners who covered their backs for years until they became powerful archmagi. If you're going to run a party from the beginning of SoA, I'd be sure to have a few multi-classed mages because you've also got to find/disarm traps, open locked doors and heal yourselves.

If I were running a party of six mages, here's how I'd go:

Half-elf fighter/mage (brick, no CON penalty, high HP)
Gnome illusionist/thief (point-man/trapspringer)
Elf sorcerer (offensive power)
Elf cleric/mage (healer, second-string brick)
Elf invoker (offensive power)
Elf wild mage (for fun)

If you try this, let us know how thing go; I would love to see it work for you, but I see a lot of reloads in your future . . .

I thought elves could only be Enchanters, Diviners, or Sorcerers.

Mr. Sprinkles,

You're absolutely right, although elves can also be wild mages. I usually to not play specialist mages of any race; I usually play either a multi-class, thus eliminating the possibility of specialising, or dual-class from a fighter or cleric (for the extra hit dice) which also excludes specialist mages. When I do pick a magical specialty, I abhor being an enchanter because it deprives me of my favourite spell: fireball.

Since being an elven invoker is out, you could either play a human invoker (a Dynaheir-clone, perhaps) or take another specialty.

Being a specialist mage in a CRPG is a little different than in a PnP game, because the specailist mage's extra spell is supposed to be from their chosen school only; a CRPG gives you an extra spell regardless of the nature of its magic. So if you choose divination as your chosen school, you could still use the extra spell to load up on fireballs instead of how it was intended to be used.

Heh, it would be cool if there was a party consisting of halflings...
The classes would be; fighter(leader), fighter/thief, cleric (or fighter/cleric), and druid.
My gaming group once had a party which consisted entirely of halflings.

The most fun (wierd) combos i have played were as follows:

6 Wild mages was very funny, constant random events made things very interesting.

3 clerics, one of each faith. I role-played each like if i saw a beggar first the lethander priest would give him a coin, then the helm priest would do nothing and then the talos priest would crush his skull in.

Also try editing characters with SK, I do it all the time. Just pre-make whatever class you want (ex: cleric of talos) then give those stats to an NPC. That way you have a party made up of the characters you want but they have personality still.

It's too bad BG2 is in the Forgotten Realms, not Krynn . . . can you imagine a party of Kender (plus Fizban the Fabulous)!?!?!

heh a kender party would end up in jail.

6 mages would be too easy - not suicide.

Everything would die. 6 skull traps, 6 minor spell triggers with magic missile (60 magic missiles) and thats just the beginning.

3 lover res + 1 greater mali + 2 finger of death etc. etc. etc....

you will never beat ToB with 6 mage

I havnt played tob

but if i played a bit cheesy (jarlsberger medium) i bet i could.

Heheheh party of 6 kenders that would be exellent. You know that each one would have like lockpick and pickpocket of 500+ or so? eheheheh kenders

Excuse my ignorance, but what's a kender?

If you try this, let us know how thing go; I would love to see it work for you, but I see a lot of reloads in your future . . .[/QB]

HLD... You just described my normal gaming routine anyway! I am the king of the reload!

Originally posted by Tom:
<STRONG>6 mages would be too easy - not suicide.</STRONG>

I second that. Soon Kevin Dorner will update Elmonster's Journal, thereby no doubt demonstrating that even a solo Mage can do it.

For those that think soloing is easier than playing with a party of six: let all your party members die and forget to raise them. You are now, in effect, solo, yet help is only a Rod of Resurrection charge away.