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What's the best way to handle the stats to make the characters "tougher"? The only limitation is that I don't want to let go of the characters' race/class combo. The first line is what I have atm, and it seems that they are on the "weaker" side. The second line is what I think can remedy this. Any advice?

Human Monk - what will be the best starting stats from the get go? I would like a possibility to DC her into a priest as well.

Drow Fighter - the best stats to make a tough front-line fighter out of a drow?

Dwarven Cleric - which stats do I need to worry about 9apart from Wisdom) for a Dwarven LG Cleric?

-(Neutral Evil, Male, Moon Elf, Druid): STR: 10, DEX: 15, CON: 84, INT: 13, WIS: 18, CHA: 12
-Take away from Diriel's WIS or DEX and add to CON? STR: 14, DEX: 14, CON: 10, INT: 12, WIS: 15, CHA: 11

-(True Neutral, Male, Lightfoot Halfling, Rogue): STR: 10, DEX: 17, CON: 12, INT: 14, WIS: 11, CHA: 12
-adjust his stats so he can DC into a wizard? I myself played with a pure rogue and liked it. Did not know most were not fond of it. STR: 10, DEX: 16, CON: 12, INT: 16, WIS: 11, CHA: 11

-(Lawful Good, Male, Human, Paladin of Helm): STR: 12, DEX: 10, CON: 16, INT: 10, WIS: 16, CHA: 12
-Nord needs more STR/DEX at the expence of WIS/CON? Ie: STR: 14, DEX: 14, CON: 14, INT: 10, WIS: 12, CHA: 12

The problem with your party is that you don't have an arcane caster.
You'll need someone who can cast the important mage spells like stoneskin and mass haste later.
A sorcerer, (specialist) mage or at least a bard.


Optimal stats for

Human Monk: 18-18-16-3-18-3
Dualclassed monks are crippled monks.

Drow Fighter: 18-16-18-5-18-5

Dwarf Cleric: 18-16-20-3-18-1

Moon Elf Druid: 11-16-18-10-18-3

Halfling Rogue: 15-18-16-16-8-3
Pure rogues are great in IWD2.

Human Paladin: 18-8-16-3-13-18

The problem with your party is that you don't have an arcane caster.

They're not a party as such they are NPC's as part of a mod Domi_Ash is working on.

Actually you might not only need do a little tweaking after all, I'm heading over to G3 now so I'll update you with my progress.

What RS said I am looking at your stats and the problem is that there are 3's and lower stats when I think anything below 8 makes the characters that cannot function as individuals.

So, will you be able to point the stats that will be a priority to "drain" for each of them to "pump" others to at least 8? Or just bleed them evenly?

Suggested stats for

Human Monk: 10-18-14-8-18-8

Drow Fighter: 18-14-16-8-16-8

Dwarf Cleric: 14-14-14-8-18-8

Moon Elf Druid: 12-16-12-10-18-8
2 skill points per level should be enough, with cat's grace you already get the maximal dex modifier allowed with studded leather.

Halfling Rogue: 14-16-14-16-8-8

Human Paladin: 18-8-10-8-14-18
There is the cat's grace spell and more than 12 dex is useless while wearing heavy armor. 14 wis so you can cast level4 spells without having to raise another stat than str. More wis is wasted. Powergamers would set wis lower and wear a ring which raises it enough, but it feels wrong to me if a level 15 paladin can't cast level4 spells without magical equipment.
18-13-10-8-13-14 fits more to my playing style since I usually send only summons into melee while using missile weapons with rapid shot.

I emphasized strength more than con since I usually use summons as meatshields, limited carrying capacity doesn't matter in a powergaming sense but isn't fun.
I took 14 or more dex often since 13 dex is needed for the ultra powerful rapid shot.
Since I don't know exactly what you want to do with those characters I can't give perfect advice.

If you are creating modded characters there's no need to limit their stats to 74-80 like with characters you can create yourself, else everyone can create better characters on his own, especially since you didn't always choose the powergaming races.

Thank you! I think I went with almost similar builds to what you've suggested, but I will double-check if any of them will still be too weak.

I am considering giving a free extra point in INT or fit to some of them. They are modded characters, and my goal is to make the NPCs that can survive IWD2, which is a pretty tough game, but on the other hand, they will be interesting characters, talk and comment on the game a lot, romance etc.

Ie, I am trying to replicate BG/KOTOR-style interactions for the niche of players who give up on IWD2 because it does not have original joinable NPCs.

A nice option to give individuality and power to your joinable characters is giving them equipment only they can use (if this is possible).

You could create your drow fighter with 18-20-16-8-10-8 and give an armor to him which doesn't limit the dex modifier for example.

I wouldn't hesitate adding aditional skills or feats a powergamer wouldn't take for free if you want them for roleplaying.
You could place some hints how they were gained in the biography.

Well, it's a thin ice to trod unfortunately. Both too-powerful items and too high stats (even perfectly legitimate) are the easiest way to subject a mod to a huge wave of critisism in IE modding communities. Almost nothing hurts an NPC mod more than the attached "overpowered NPC" label.

I don't know if that will extend to IWD2, because unlike BG, the game pushes you to power-play or die. I am assuming that the mod will most probably be geared towards a BG player, who normally tries to have stats that often remain "useless" but make for a character that makes sense and is wary of any item that has "power" feel about it.

Another problem is with restricting items. The restrictions are usually handled by tuning them to a character's class, race and stats. Which opens the item to being stripped and given over to someone esle (usually the protagonist) - and if stats are nothing to write home about and are flexible the probability of PC eventually aquiring the item are much higher than in BG.

Or the item can be made unremovable, which is a bad idea; or scripting can be done to make NPC unhappy about removing item. In the first case it is a bad descision all around, because it can potentially prevent substituting it for an item player wants on the NPC, and the second is pretty powerless in IWD2 where a character cannot leave the party.

Domi_Ash wrote:What's the best way to handle the stats to make the characters "tougher"? The only limitation is that I don't want to let go of the characters' race/class combo. The first line is what I have atm, and it seems that they are on the "weaker" side. The second line is what I think can remedy this. Any advice?

my first bit of advice is focus on what you want them to do, boost the one or two stats that help accomplish that, lessen the stats that don't.

Human Monk - what will be the best starting stats from the get go? I would like a possibility to DC her into a priest as well.

i'm not really down w/ the monks as "powerful" no matter what their stats are.

16-18-10-8-16-8

this is not a very tough monk, but should be "ok" at dealing damage, still has enough wisdom for cleric levels later on. not the brighest bulb.

Drow Fighter - the best stats to make a tough front-line fighter out of a drow?

18-14-16-14-10-8

you will be able to add some minor mage levels at some point, even simple spells like mirror image really help.

i don't understand kmonster's high wisdom build, drow mr + mage levels will help protect vs those will saves.

Dwarven Cleric - which stats do I need to worry about apart from Wisdom) for a Dwarven LG Cleric?

kmonster's Dwarf Cleric: 14-14-14-8-18-8 is ok. you could also go with a slightly more specialzed for melee: 18-12-12-8-18-8 giving you more melee punch at the expense of some toughness. could even take cha down to 6 to boost int to 10, if the god of choice were something like tempus...

alt - emphasis on toughness & staying upright. (more of a combat medic / support build)

12-14-16-8-18-8, tougher, won't hit quite so hard, can use rapid shot however should normally avoid direct combat, instead cast or use missles.

-(Neutral Evil, Male, Moon Elf, Druid): STR: 10, DEX: 15, CON: 84, INT: 13, WIS: 18, CHA: 12
-Take away from Diriel's WIS or DEX and add to CON? STR: 14, DEX: 14, CON: 10, INT: 12, WIS: 15, CHA: 11

i'd be tempted to round off some of those stats, even dex, even int. i also wouldn't be afraid to treat this npc as a bruce banner type, scrawny and brainy - in combat either use spells / missles or shapeshift. (similar to bg2's cernd)

-(True Neutral, Male, Lightfoot Halfling, Rogue): STR: 10, DEX: 17, CON: 12, INT: 14, WIS: 11, CHA: 12
-adjust his stats so he can DC into a wizard? I myself played with a pure rogue and liked it. Did not know most were not fond of it. STR: 10, DEX: 16, CON: 12, INT: 16, WIS: 11, CHA: 11

this is pretty good. STR: 10, DEX: 16, CON: 12, INT: 16, WIS: 11, CHA: 11, does allow for mage multis which is good. maybe even... 10-16-12-18-10-10 to make it even more obvious. plus rest of these npcs don't have much int someone should have skills. could go w/ 12-16-12-16-10-10

-(Lawful Good, Male, Human, Paladin of Helm): STR: 12, DEX: 10, CON: 16, INT: 10, WIS: 16, CHA: 12
-Nord needs more STR/DEX at the expence of WIS/CON? Ie: STR: 14, DEX: 14, CON: 14, INT: 10, WIS: 12, CHA: 12

dex you pretty much need to take on the chin considering the requirements...

16-8-16-10-12-14 (keep in mind cat's grace as a buff should give you enough dex for heavy armour) cha & wis could be flip-flopped or balanced to 13-13. or even 11-15.

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in regards to the "morality" of making npc's that don't follow pc creation rules, imho that human monk could really use a few extras, and that should not unbalance it. the others can be tweaked within the rules and hold their own.

Thank you We are play-testing now, trying a few different builds. Feats is what we've moved to discussing atm, so I think we'll be getting agood bunch there. Again, INT is the stat that causes the problem - because NPCs have tons of dialogues, they have to have the INT that allows them to convey the thoughts they convey. That is the sole reason I was thinking about giving a couple of them a 1-2 point cheat in stats - on INT score.

plus rest of these npcs don't have much int someone should have skills.

That's because the Sorcerer and the Bard NPC seem to fare much better than fighters, what with holding the rear

Aasimar as your Paladin?

I looked through the posts and I realize I may a little late to this party but didn't see a mention of using an Aasimar as the Paladin. When you say human are referring to regular human or the Aasimar sub class?
Although they are a sub class of humans, Aasimar give some extra ability points (and lose none as most other races do) and I "believe" have more than any other race.
IIRC 2 of my paladins, from 2 different parties, having starting
abilities points that totaled 80. I believe they had the following stats at the beginning:
18-10-16-10-12-14
16-12-16-10-14-12

No, the paladin is a plain vanilla Human, due to his background. We have an aasimar character and he is our sorcerer.