I have played IWD and BG2
with IWD2 I am confused about creating a party with new rules
I want 6 in my party
1 cleric
1 wizard
1 fghter/thief
3 fighter classes
q)do you need a thief in this game becuase the thief skill can be covered by cross-skills?
q)is a monk too weak in this game comapared to BG2 since you start lvl1 and it wont be until end of the game that it is usefule. I like to have a heavy fighting party instead of loads of spellcasters
q) what fighter classes do best daage in this game
q) any other advice about party creation eg wearing heavy armour provides problems in this game etc....
thanks
party creation
A) A Thief (or in the case of Icewind Dale II, a Rogue) is, in my opinion, always the best choice for finding and disabling traps and picking locks. Skills like Open Lock and Search can be taken cross-class, but it will take two skill points to make up one skill modifier bonus. As such, you can have, for example, a Fighter with these roguish skills, but he can only ever be half as good as a full-on Rogue.
A) Actually, even at first level, the Monk class is the most powerful class, because of his excellent base saving throw bonuses, his Wisdom bonus to Armor Class, et cetera. I would wager that a Monk will be just as useful as any other character in your party, at any given level. And keep in mind that a Monk can still equip a number of weapons, so he has other options at his disposal when his fists don't work.
A) The Fighter class that can do the most damage in this game is the one with the highest Strength and the largest weapon, really. If you want high damage at some expense, minimal as it may be, I'd suggest a Barbarian, for his Rage ability. If you give him an 18 Strength at creation, his Rage will boost his score to 22, which provides an automatic +6 points of damage per hit. With a two-handed weapon, that goes to +9. If you give him the Power Attack feat, you can add up to an additional 5 points to that, once his Base Attack Bonus reaches a minimum of +5. So essentially, you have a character dealing a minimum of 15 points of damage per hit at fifth level, without any magical items or spell modifications. Even at first level, he'd still deal out 11 points, minimum.
On the other hand, you could give your Barbarian a weapon in each hand, but until you take the Ambidexterity and Two-Weapon Fighting feats, he'll have severe minuses to his attack rolls. But accuracy aside, with two weapons your Barbarian would deal a minimum of 16 points of damage at first level. Granted, he'd have a ridiculously difficult time actually connecting with anything.
A) Heavy armor only really affects stealth and spellcasting, much like Baldur's Gate II and other previous games. Bear in mind that shields affect these abilities as well. I'm not sure if they do so in the other games.
A) Actually, even at first level, the Monk class is the most powerful class, because of his excellent base saving throw bonuses, his Wisdom bonus to Armor Class, et cetera. I would wager that a Monk will be just as useful as any other character in your party, at any given level. And keep in mind that a Monk can still equip a number of weapons, so he has other options at his disposal when his fists don't work.
A) The Fighter class that can do the most damage in this game is the one with the highest Strength and the largest weapon, really. If you want high damage at some expense, minimal as it may be, I'd suggest a Barbarian, for his Rage ability. If you give him an 18 Strength at creation, his Rage will boost his score to 22, which provides an automatic +6 points of damage per hit. With a two-handed weapon, that goes to +9. If you give him the Power Attack feat, you can add up to an additional 5 points to that, once his Base Attack Bonus reaches a minimum of +5. So essentially, you have a character dealing a minimum of 15 points of damage per hit at fifth level, without any magical items or spell modifications. Even at first level, he'd still deal out 11 points, minimum.
On the other hand, you could give your Barbarian a weapon in each hand, but until you take the Ambidexterity and Two-Weapon Fighting feats, he'll have severe minuses to his attack rolls. But accuracy aside, with two weapons your Barbarian would deal a minimum of 16 points of damage at first level. Granted, he'd have a ridiculously difficult time actually connecting with anything.
A) Heavy armor only really affects stealth and spellcasting, much like Baldur's Gate II and other previous games. Bear in mind that shields affect these abilities as well. I'm not sure if they do so in the other games.
A: The thief isn't really mandatory. A fighter or wizard with a couple of thief levels is enough as long as he has high intelligence.
A: The monk is most useful (IMO) at levels 1 or 20. Adding one level monk to a cleric, for example, eliminates the need to look for armors. 20 levels gives high resistance to non magic weapons. So I'd go single class monk or just 1-4 levels.
A: The fighter class that does the most damage is sorcerer, with buffs plus tensor's transformation. For the true fighters, mix and match. A 20+ str half orc barbarian with 4 levels of fighters thrown in is a force to be reckoned with.
A: The only reason to wear heavy armor is for the effects (damage resist, attribute modification etc). A combination of spells and attributes offers a better armor class than most armor found in game. The one armor exception (name removed to not spoil) comes very late in the game.
General advice:
The game is much easier with more spell casters. In my two winning games, I didn't even have any fighters with more than 4 levels in my parties.
A: The monk is most useful (IMO) at levels 1 or 20. Adding one level monk to a cleric, for example, eliminates the need to look for armors. 20 levels gives high resistance to non magic weapons. So I'd go single class monk or just 1-4 levels.
A: The fighter class that does the most damage is sorcerer, with buffs plus tensor's transformation. For the true fighters, mix and match. A 20+ str half orc barbarian with 4 levels of fighters thrown in is a force to be reckoned with.
A: The only reason to wear heavy armor is for the effects (damage resist, attribute modification etc). A combination of spells and attributes offers a better armor class than most armor found in game. The one armor exception (name removed to not spoil) comes very late in the game.
General advice:
The game is much easier with more spell casters. In my two winning games, I didn't even have any fighters with more than 4 levels in my parties.
Hagar, if you want 6person party - I suggest clear classes. For example: Paladin, Fighter, Cleric, Thief, Wizard Enchanter, Wizard Evocation. With the 2 wizards there is nothing that can stop you. As for a 4person party - a tank fighter (because a fighter can choose many feats from), cleric, Rogue (thiefling), Wizard (human or tiefling, with two spell focus enchantment - you can charm the enemy healers and they buff your army). I played the game with a single charakter - drow fighter, very hard, but not impossible.
There are many variations - for example fighter 15/wiz 5 can use mirror immage, and other simple buffs, and it can beat a 20 lvl figter. In IWD II the fighter is a very good class for dualing, because of the many extra feats, especially if a human. So - you can combine a few lvl fighter - to take more and more wiz feats, and then - continue as a wizard.
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silverdragon72
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[QUOTE=hagar]I am confused about multi-classing, I prefer single classes as I prefer it.
Is there a huge benefit to have every class multilcass
eg what benefit is ther from being fighter/barbarian or ranger/fighter over single classes[/QUOTE]
There's a whole thread above about multiclassing. I'll use your example for a better class.
A level 11 Barbarian has BAB of +11/+6/+1 (first/second/third attack per round), saves: fort 7/reflex 3/will 3 and rage and damage reduction of 1
A level 7 Barbarian/ level 4 fighter has the same BAB and saves. He also has 2 rages instead of 3. He has no damage reduction, but DR 1 never saves anyone. He also has access to the feat weapon specialization, which gives an extra +2 damage. He also has a couple of extra "bonus" feats, so the extra feats cost nothing extra.
Most classes can be used as "mix ins," or having 1-4 levels to make for a much improved character.
Is there a huge benefit to have every class multilcass
eg what benefit is ther from being fighter/barbarian or ranger/fighter over single classes[/QUOTE]
There's a whole thread above about multiclassing. I'll use your example for a better class.
A level 11 Barbarian has BAB of +11/+6/+1 (first/second/third attack per round), saves: fort 7/reflex 3/will 3 and rage and damage reduction of 1
A level 7 Barbarian/ level 4 fighter has the same BAB and saves. He also has 2 rages instead of 3. He has no damage reduction, but DR 1 never saves anyone. He also has access to the feat weapon specialization, which gives an extra +2 damage. He also has a couple of extra "bonus" feats, so the extra feats cost nothing extra.
Most classes can be used as "mix ins," or having 1-4 levels to make for a much improved character.
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silverdragon72
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[QUOTE=hagar]q)with 6 people in party what levels are you expected to reach in normal mode
I want
fighter/barbarian
thief/fighter
cleric
wizard
fighter
monk
q)what is powergamer
q) do magic items in this game really change the power of chars eg Bard becomes really strong[/QUOTE]
1. depends on how you play
with level-squatting you can reach up to level 22 without I would guess 15 to 17
2. building a very powerfull party (races, stats, MC) -> no elven SC rangers, human SC paladins nor tiefling SC rogues that's more roleplaying
3. don't understand your question - please clarify!
.
I want
fighter/barbarian
thief/fighter
cleric
wizard
fighter
monk
q)what is powergamer
q) do magic items in this game really change the power of chars eg Bard becomes really strong[/QUOTE]
1. depends on how you play
with level-squatting you can reach up to level 22 without I would guess 15 to 172. building a very powerfull party (races, stats, MC) -> no elven SC rangers, human SC paladins nor tiefling SC rogues that's more roleplaying
3. don't understand your question - please clarify!
.
If you only get to around 15-17 level with 6 chars in normal mode then a lot of beneifts of classes like monk, never get used and higher spells
eg if you had a fighter/barbarian becuase i want to rage for big battles only, that means you only get 8 level barb.......is it worth it a s you might as well have 15 lvl fighter.
q)to clarify the other question
with magic items in the game does this change say AC on weak chars or Rangers can find good magic light armour to make them better or Bards good magic items to make them better?
eg if you had a fighter/barbarian becuase i want to rage for big battles only, that means you only get 8 level barb.......is it worth it a s you might as well have 15 lvl fighter.
q)to clarify the other question
with magic items in the game does this change say AC on weak chars or Rangers can find good magic light armour to make them better or Bards good magic items to make them better?
help
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silverdragon72
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- Joined: Wed Jan 28, 2004 4:53 am
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.
If you just want to play the "normal" game I would focus on barb or monk levels - more then 2 or 4 fighter levels are just useless!
there are good class specific items for almost every class available, but one level of this class is enough to use them (another reason why MC-builds are more powerfull!)
especially for pal & monk there are some quite good items!
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If you just want to play the "normal" game I would focus on barb or monk levels - more then 2 or 4 fighter levels are just useless!
there are good class specific items for almost every class available, but one level of this class is enough to use them (another reason why MC-builds are more powerfull!)
especially for pal & monk there are some quite good items!
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[QUOTE=hagar]q)do you need a thief in this game becuase the thief skill can be covered by cross-skills?[/quote]
Defnititely not. You can add all of the traps' dmg in the game, take it at once and still you'd survive In IWD2 there are simply not enough traps/locks to pick to justify the presence of a rogue (unless you like that class from a RP pov, of course).
Defnititely not. You can add all of the traps' dmg in the game, take it at once and still you'd survive
In IWD2 there are simply not enough traps/locks to pick to justify the presence of a rogue (unless you like that class from a RP pov, of course).Up the IRONS!
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silverdragon72
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[QUOTE=hagar]how about some tips I need to fight big guys, like high AC for fighters or protection for mage or MC wizard/fighter maybe
what do I need[/QUOTE]
I will post this more detailed later in the guide...
...arcane caster are the best fighters later in the game!
try a drow - rogue 3 - fighter 4 - barb 3 - wiz 20
fully buffed (MI, blur, tensers, Exec.-eyes, M-sword or BBD and what other party members could support) this is *the* melee-killer!
AC isn't that important in IWD2 even in the normal game...
...you need a high AC (30+, 40+ later in the game) or have use buffs like MI and stoneskin!
.
what do I need[/QUOTE]
I will post this more detailed later in the guide...
...arcane caster are the best fighters later in the game!
try a drow - rogue 3 - fighter 4 - barb 3 - wiz 20
fully buffed (MI, blur, tensers, Exec.-eyes, M-sword or BBD and what other party members could support) this is *the* melee-killer!
AC isn't that important in IWD2 even in the normal game...
...you need a high AC (30+, 40+ later in the game) or have use buffs like MI and stoneskin!
.
a) Mirror Image and Stoneskin do not raise your AC at all.
Mirror image makes about 5 copies of yourself that have to be hit before you take any damage. This is perfect for confronting enenies will really big hits or spells, protecting your mages, or sending in a decoy and nuking your own player.
Stoneskin lowers the damage from each hit you take (by 10 I think). This allows your players to fight longer without needing healing and gives your party a big advantage. It is perfect against enemies with a lot of little hits .(like monks)
b) The other ELC races give you special abilities, stat increases and resistances. These can give you a big advantage in the right classes. They are also fun to play.
Mirror image makes about 5 copies of yourself that have to be hit before you take any damage. This is perfect for confronting enenies will really big hits or spells, protecting your mages, or sending in a decoy and nuking your own player.
Stoneskin lowers the damage from each hit you take (by 10 I think). This allows your players to fight longer without needing healing and gives your party a big advantage. It is perfect against enemies with a lot of little hits .(like monks)
b) The other ELC races give you special abilities, stat increases and resistances. These can give you a big advantage in the right classes. They are also fun to play.