GameBanshee Forums

Hey guys, am playing through again and have decided to play around with party selection a little bit and was hoping you could give some advice/oppinion if you think its required. So the party:

Ellisia Jaele
Drow Cleric of Bane/Bard
looking to make the most of enchantment magic but I'm not really sure on the best way to split levels. On the one hand I need the skill points in bluff, diplomacy, knowledge(arcana) and on the other I need clerical spell casting. Could do with some help on this one

Johanis
Ghostwise Halfling Rogue 3/Ranger 2/Barbarian
this guy is my tank, duel wilding axes at the moment. Also makes a reasonable scout, I'm pretty happy with this character, I might through in some fighter levels if additional feats are required

Sir Heinricht, Knight of the Weave
Aasimar Paladin 2/ Sorc XX
makes a reasonable tank and a pretty good spell caster, pretty happy with this guy too

Malekith Jaele
Drow Rogue 1/Wizard XX
Archer and utility spell caster, brother of character 1. Again pretty happy.

Xao Li
Human Monk 2/Druid XX
Made because I like the monk only items in the game and because wildshape is pretty hot in DnD and I'm hoping it follows that its pretty good in IWD2. Adding Wis to AC makes up for wildshapes main limitation. This also gives more divine spell casting hopefully making up for the level split on char 1.

So thats my party at the moment, my feelings are that I'm maybe light on tanks and divine casting but let me know what you think.
Thanks in advance for any input
Fingers

Ellisia Jaele
Drow Cleric of Bane/Bard
looking to make the most of enchantment magic but I'm not really sure on the best way to split levels. On the one hand I need the skill points in bluff, diplomacy, knowledge(arcana) and on the other I need clerical spell casting. Could do with some help on this one

I've often toyed with the idea of this build myself, I doubt any of the power-gamers will approve, but luckily for you I'm not one of them.

As you've discovered splitting levels is going to be a problem, as you really need a cleric, but your party lacks a dedicated diplomat. Personally I'd be tempted to make the character a bard primarily, with some cleric levels mixed in. She will make a great support caster/healer.

This of course gives you problems as regards divine magics so a solution would be to make the monk/druid a monk/cleric, or you could add another character, perhaps a dwarven Battleguad of Tempus, which would give you a full-time cleric and excellent back-up tank.

Johanis
Ghostwise Halfling Rogue 3/Ranger 2/Barbarian
this guy is my tank, duel wilding axes at the moment. Also makes a reasonable scout, I'm pretty happy with this character, I might through in some fighter levels if additional feats are required

If you were planning to add fighters levels, I would probably have been tempted not to bother with the ranger levels. So you'd end up
Rogue 3 / Fighter 4 / Barbarian X

Xao Li
Human Monk 2/Druid XX
Made because I like the monk only items in the game and because wildshape is pretty hot in DnD and I'm hoping it follows that its pretty good in IWD2. Adding Wis to AC makes up for wildshapes main limitation. This also gives more divine spell casting hopefully making up for the level split on char 1.

Two levels of monk seems a little odd, the deflect missiles feat is not really worth it, most players usually either opt for just the one level, or three for the additional speed and will save bonus.

Hope this has been some help, if you need anything clarifying just let me know.

Raven_Song wrote:I've often toyed with the idea of this build myself, I doubt any of the power-gamers will approve, but luckily for you I'm not one of them.

As you've discovered splitting levels is going to be a problem, as you really need a cleric, but your party lacks a dedicated diplomat. Personally I'd be tempted to make the character a bard primarily, with some cleric levels mixed in. She will make a great support caster/healer.

This of course gives you problems as regards divine magics so a solution would be to make the monk/druid a monk/cleric, or you could add another character, perhaps a dwarven Battleguad of Tempus, which would give you a full-time cleric and excellent back-up tank.

Ive done my fair share of power gaming in the past, and my last run through was pretty much powered up to the max, as I said something different Split levels is painful but I think I'm going to persevere and try to focus on cleric levels however much I like bards as characters, if only there were the option of dual advancing PrCs then I'd be away.

If you were planning to add fighters levels, I would probably have been tempted not to bother with the ranger levels. So you'd end up
Rogue 3 / Fighter 4 / Barbarian X

yeah I know that ranger as a whole is pretty rubbish but I wanted those few extra skill points to add into the stealth aspect. I've also now decided against fighter levels I think, partially due to the addition of another tank-esque character (see below)

Two levels of monk seems a little odd, the deflect missiles feat is not really worth it, most players usually either opt for just the one level, or three for the additional speed and will save bonus.

I play DnD 3.5 when I PnP and its been ages since I played IWD2, two levels would have given me 2 bonus feats if it worked as I thought, it doesn't, however, so I'm going to go with 3 levels.

And yeah I added a 6th character. Trusting that I'd get enough healing from Bard/Cleric and Monk/Druid I added...

Dante
Half-elf Fighter
This character is going to take advantage of the heavier armours in the game leaving Johanis in light so he can duel wield and stealth away. I'm unsure on the exact build at the moment, straight fighter always seems weak, I'm wondering about some rogue (for sneak attack) and possibly some cleric (for ability boosts). This character is far from optimal power play but I hope he'll boost my front line and it gives some more options for any tasty weapons I find.

I've played them through to about 5th level this evening and am making my way through shaerngard. Initial impressions: Split levels hurts alot early for you main casters, I'm hoping this will balance out. Johanis is immensly useful in the early game and having a returning axe (haft over head) as a ranged option with a halfling full BAB character is nice. Finally colourspray for the win, for the moment anyway

cheers
Fingers

Started again, the bard cleric split left me too weak on divine casting.

New line-up

Human Fighter 6/Cleric 2/Rogue 1 eventually going for 3 in rogue and cleric
Aasimar Paladin 8 will take bard at next level and continue with it
Dwarven Fighter 2/Cleric 7 much better divine caster, making the game so much easier (to the point that I've put the difficulty up another notch)
Aasimar Monk 1/Druid 6 I messed up and am now eating a 20% experience penalty, going to suck it up though and stick with it at least it will lower my average party level
Drow Rogue 2/Wizard 6 I'll probably take another rogue level at some point to give skills an extra top up.

This party is turning out to be much better, amazing how much of a difference those extra cleric spells are. The "main character" (the human fighter, I still think of that top spot as the protagonist, too much BG) is turning out to be pretty handy too, the multiclassing has allowed me to keep my social skills nearly maxxed out and has boosted saves. I like the paladin as well, I just wish that I could cast bard spells in armour like DnD, ahh well I guess mage armour will help a bit, its that or armoured arcana.

Fingers Boggis wrote:Started again, the bard cleric split left me too weak on divine casting.

bard / cleric will work but it has to be the right circumstance.

i usually take a bard level early for the first song and the ability to use bard items, then stay exclusively cleric for a long while, once you hit 9th level cleric spells you can either begin squatting bard levels or taking them, by the time you get to lv 30 (easier said then done) you should have access to 9th level cleric spells, and access to all bard songs. with a high enough int you can keep respectable levels in your talky skills.

trying to split levels w/ the cleric can make things very difficult as you will really miss stuff like "heal"

Aasimar Paladin 8 will take bard at next level and continue with it

I'm not sure that build is viable in an unmodded game - I thought there was a restriction on bards that they could not be lawful good. Or am I getting 22 and 3e rules mixed up?

In the unmodded game you're right. I installed the mod which removes alignment restrictions. I'm a DnD player so I know them and stick with them, paladin/bard is allowed through feat choice in 3.5 and is one of my fave builds. Unfortunately modding the game was the only way to represent it in IWD2.

Along a similar line are there any mods around which allow PrC inclusion? Or is there some software I can get hold of which will allow me to do this myself, bearing in mind I have little experience of such things?
Fingers