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No cheating, no mods. You can either create a party with Bioware (only!) NPCs or create up to six party members of your own (or a combo of the two). No 3rd party NPCs please.

BTW, maybe something is wrong with my computer or the site, but I'm having trouble using the search. I do think this topic has probably been posted in the past, and I know this site prefers that we bump old threads rather than start new ones. So if this thread is destined to be closed, please leave a link to a thread on this same topic and I'll gladly bump it up and add to it.

Try this

This setup made all encounters really easy for me:

Swashbuckler.
Stick him in the front and make him the top character so he gets targetted the most. At high levels his awesome AC and thief abilites means you can just plow through maps without sending up a thief to look for traps, setup ambushes etc. Who cares whats ahead, no one can hit him.

Berserker.
Also in the front. Can be a plain fighter, but berserking can be fun Needs a tower shield and a one handed weapon of some sort. Suggest a longsword or bastard sword. You rely on your first two characters to cope alot of damage. So get there AC as low as you can. You may need to swap these two over in order a few times until you get up in the levels as a swashbuckler has poor hit points.

Cavalier.
Best weapon in SOA is the two handed pali only sword. So get a pali who likes two handed swords!

Someone who can use a halberd or spear (I think i had a fighter using halberds).
These two characters have two handed weapons so they can stand over your front line guys and hit stuff. These four characters are the meat and bones of your outfit, the last two are more like backup.

Two cleric/mages.
Ah yes the meanest dual class. At high levels these guys are insane. You use them in two roles. The first is in an assist role, healing the party and disrupting casters and ranged attackers with the various mage and cleric spells. At higher levels they become insane superkiller juggernaughts. Draw upon holy might, armour of faith, the mantles, stoneskin, the various protections etc. Suggest a flail and a warhammer.


Thats it.

This is not the best possible party, most of the time i had two characters that do little to nothing in an encounter, the problem with this games magic system is the whole wait till a more desperate situation before i use my mages thing.

If you want a true uber killer destructo force of doom i would suggest running only magic light dependant characters, and at least two characters that are specialists in killing casters (such as wizard slayers, inquisitors, or maybe assassins).

Difficult to say since optimal powergaming varies depending on what period of the game one's in. For instance, I'm tempted to say (only having thought of it on a theoretical level): Sorcerer/Kensai-Thief/and 4 bards (But this really only pays off at ToB levels).

As far as using standard NPCs (snickering over the memory of giving the Valen mod a spin and seeing the game turn into Pac-Man), I think I've had the most success with: PC-Sorc, Korgan (w/crom&best axes available), Viconia (pumped up via items to +100%MR), Edwin, Jan (going nuts with spike traps and Carsomyr), and Haer'dalis (cheesing his way through with singing clones). I would certainly have like Aerie over Edwin, but I assume the happy patches are out.

For my games everyone in the party should be able to cast arcane magic so something like this:

1: Fighter/Mage
2: Haer'Dalis
3: Aerie
4: Imoen or Nalia (possibly Jan but I'd prefer more mage levels quicker)
5: Edwin if needed.

The Fighter/Mage and Haer'Dalis are the main tanks and I have all the divine power I need plus the rogue-skills.

Hmm, I'd go with a horde of spellcasters since I just like magic carnage.

1: Kensai/mage
Once they start using triggers and contingencies these guys are so buffed they're unstoppable. Tenser trans, stoneskin, immunity magical weapons, imp. haste, need I go on?

2: Monk
Well, I would like to use the oversight mod for it's unique monk HLA's but even with the standard warrior pool the monk is bloody awesome. Innate MR, fast, innate +4 weapon, constantly dropping AC and so on.

3: Cleric/Mage
As stated the strongest multi by far. Can be healer and spell backup on lower levels and when the XP comes rolling in they can use their spellcombo for soem real fireworks. Righteous Magic is pretty obvious in combination with any offensive spell (max damage Abi Dhalsims woot! ).

4 and 5: Sorc's and more sorc's.
God I love this class. One is enough but why settle for that? Two of them is just overkill, especially with a Cleric/Mage already in the party.

6: Some sort of char with thievery abilites. Probably a multi or dual class since single class thieves is a waste. Kensai/thief is tempting and for a pure powerplay party it would be my pick. Otherwise I kinda like assassin/fighters.

Reply

The steady choice seems to be the following:

Kensai/Mage and Sorcerer

Monk too seems to a good addition.

Building on 3 more classes that either match/ (unlikely exceeds) these classes will be difficult.

But the 3 which spring to mind are a Shapeshifter, Cleric/Mage and a Wizard Slayer/Thief with a high dual class level for the wizard slayer to maximize that magic resistance and disruption.

All PC Party

Inquisitor or Cavalier to lead a Good-aligned party, Blade if Evil-aligned
Barbarian or Monk, depending on preference
Ranger/Cleric (dual-class) if Good-aligned, Berserker/Cleric if Evil-aligned
Kensai/Mage
Kensai/Thief
Sorceror or Illusionist/Thief multi-class, depending on preference

All dual-classing should be done at level 12 or 13. If you want to use 5 PCs to be able to pick up NPCs for quests, then drop either the Sorceror or Illusionist/Thief. Then take Imoen once the quests are done.

NPC Party

Imoen is a must-have for any party. She's also fine in an Evil party since she won't ever leave. Sarevok is another must-have and also works in both Good and Evil-aligned parties. Also, I don't like changing NPCs for others, so I only ever pick up unwanted NPCs for their quests. So, three more NPCs are required. We need a healer and also a thief, which can also be done through the PC. For our PC we want to pick a great class that we can't get through the NPCs, such as a Kensai/Mage, Kensai/Thief or Monk. That also means that it's probably best to not play a Cleric, as I'd choose a Ranger/Cleric, which isn't THAT different from Jaheira, Anomen or Viconia anyway. So, the next NPC choice is one of them three healers (Jaheira, Anomen, Viconia). Keldorn is a must-have for a Good-aligned party, as Paladins are vital. Korgan is a must-have for the Evil party. That leaves one more space; Jan, if I don't want to play a Thief, Haer'Dalis (Good-aligned) or Edwin (Evil-aligned) if I do.

1. Monk, Kensai/Mage, Kensai/Thief
2. Sarevok
3. Keldorn (Good-aligned) or Korgan (Evil-aligned)
4. Anomen, Jaheira or Viconia (Evil-aligned only)
5. Jan (if I play Monk or Kensai/Mage), or Haer'Dalis (Good-aligned) or Edwin (Evil-aligned) if I play Kensai/Thief.
6. Imoen


..Either of them's the best.

I'm confused. Aren't kensai/mage and kensai/thief cheats if you can't dual-class to kits? Maybe it's been a while...

Ieo wrote:I'm confused. Aren't kensai/mage and kensai/thief cheats if you can't dual-class to kits? Maybe it's been a while...

You can dual-class them.