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Sorry for asking something that's been asked ten thousand times before, but I want your opinion on this team I've been working on. It's designed to be able to go through normal and Heart of Fury mode...

Half-Orc Barbarian 26/Fighter 4
20 STR
16 DEX
18 CON
1 INT
18 WIS
1 CHA

Weapon of choice: Axe

Half-Orc Barbarian 26/Fighter 4
20 STR
16 DEX
18 CON
1 INT
18 WIS
1 CHA

Weapon of choice: Great Sword

Human Morninglord of Lathander (30? Not sure if I want to multi-class him or not...his focus is bombarding/healing, else I would have made a Battleguard or Painbearer)

18 STR
16 DEX
18 CON
3 INT
18 WIS
3 CHA

Tiefling Evoker (??)

8 STR
13 DEX
18 CON
20 INT
18 WIS
1 CHA

Aasimar Sorcerer (??)

8 STR
10 DEX
18 CON
12 INT
12 WIS
20 CHA

Aasimar Sorcerer (??)

8 STR
10 DEX
18 CON
12 INT
12 WIS
20 CHA

As you can see, I've still got some details to work out.

Is my tanking adequate, or should I change Half-Orc to some other class and make the characters more defensive? In any case, how much does physical attack power really help once you're in HoF mode?

Should I multiclass my spellcasters, and if so, when?

Is Tiefling really a good choice for the Evoker, or should I pick between Drow and Human instead?

Finally, is Evoker a useful specialist mage? I notice that Diviners only miss out on Conjuration, while Evokers lose Conjuration and Divination. Basically, they have fewer spells to pick from, and they can't cast anything that a Diviner cannot (not that they are missing out on much by dropping Divination spells, but still). Surely Evokers have some kind of advantage to make up for it, am I right?

Thanks for any advice you can give!

(P.S. I have read the UPP and JUPP guides to powergaming, but not much else.)

Looks like a boring party.
1 advice: Don't prepare too much for HoF mode. Any balanced party can do it without too much trouble, even the pregenerated ones. It's easier than the first chapter in normal mode.
You can't even know now if you ever finish normal mode (the game is loooooong) or if you want to replay the game with exacty the same characters in HoF mode afterwards.
So better create characters you like in the first chapter, since you'll play it.

It's a waste starting your warriors with 18 wis but only 16 dex.
Your sorcerers have at least 6 wis too much, your Evoker even 14 unless you gave them low strength (annoyingly low carrying capacity) and dex (bad AC and ranged combat) on purpose for roleplaying or masochistic reasons.

3 arcane casters (2 of them even identical) promise a really slow and boring game with lots of pausing and micromanaging (some people like it).

No need to make your half-orcs more defensive, high dex and many HP should allow them to survive combat. If playing two identical characters is more fun than variability is your decision.
In HoF mode physical power doesn't hurt, it can increase the ranged damage vastly when you'll be hiding behind your summons.

Evokers don't have any advantage over diviners. Tiefling isn't a bad choice, so is human or drow.

It doesn't hurt if you make your sorcerers lawful good to keep the option to dual to paladin.

You can play without a rogue, but it's more fun if you have someone to handle traps and locks.


I've the impression that you just put some things from the powergaming guides together to solve a task.
IWD2 is no exercise you have to work at, it's a game made for roleplaying and having fun.
Forget the powergaming guides, read the manual and think about what kind of party you would enjoy. What characters/races/classes do you want to have in your party ? How do you want to play them ? How much do you like micromanaging and spellcasting ?
Do you want to have as many options available as possible or just an easy to handle party ?

Hmmm...

I AM probably obsessing too much about HoF mode. The problem is, I've played through normal mode with a balanced, role-playish team before. It was THAT team that I got a little tired of, since my characters all rather sucked (I had a pure rogue...).

So really, the whole and entire point is to make a team that stands a chance at HoF. That requires a fun and useful team, so I didn't mean to make it "boring".

I don't mind the micromanagement, and spellcasting is my favorite skill in the game. I've played with an arcane-heavy party in practically every D&D game I've gone through.

I'm not looking for role-playing in this game. In Baldur's Gate, it made more sense to me, since I didn't really even have to sacrifice stats to do so. But it seems much less important to me in IWD II. It seemed to be mostly composed of fights to me...maybe my memory is bad, though.

As for less wisdom on my arcane spellcasters, aren't Will saves more important than strength? More dexterity I can understand, but the wizard, at least, has enough for dodge.

Thanks!

You are in fact obsessed too much about HoF mode. I'm sure your roleplayish team where the characters "all rather sucked" could do HoF without too many problems.
The monsters get stronger, but so do your summons. But now you can summon greater boneguards and rhino beetles from the beginning, monsters who woudn't stand a chance against a buffed army of them in normal mode(nearly all enemies) won't stand a chance in HOF mode either, and you get even better summoning and other spells. The first chapter was tough in normal mode, but in HoF it's just a walk in the park.

If you still have a save game with your old party there's no need for playing through the game just for HOF mode, transfer the equipment from the old party to new characters, you can keep 1 one old caster around for nursing until the new cleric can cast animate dead, you could even mix the old characters you liked with a few newly created ones or start a game with newly created characters from scratch if you don't mind a harder start. With a little level squatting you can get new characters from level 1 to level 30 in no time.

About the wisdom stat: How often was your average arcane caster in the background targeted by a spell which required a will save ? 3 times ? I guess even less. You don't have to fear charm spells since you have protection from evil and you can get immune to the other spells like "hold person" as well if you want to be sure, but your will saves will be high enough anyway since they are the casters' primary saves and there are so many standard buffs which improve saves even more so you can reach the perfect chance to save (95 percent) even with low wis.
For comparison:
+4 wis only grants +2 will saves (like 1 Iron will feat), +4 dex grants +2 AC, +2 ranged attack and +2 reflex saves (like 2 dodge,2weapon focus and 1 lightning reflex feat)
Even strength is more useful than wis.

The best races for HoF mode are deep gnome and drow. Direct damage spells or physical combat aren't very useful any more (how many fireballs do you need to kill a 800 HP monster ?) , disabling spells like symbol of hopelessness and chaos are far better, so taking a Morninglord for bombing isn't that great.
If you don't want to make your whole party good for the holy word spell (very powerful) I recommend taking Demarch (mirror image) or Dreadmaster (charm spells).
Monsters hit much harder and with better AB, so spells like mirror image and improved invisibility shine while hitpoints and AC get nearly useless.
Warriors are lousy in HoF mode since the maximum number of base attacks per round is 4 which even a cleric4/mage26 can get, so if you're only interested in HoF mode forget your half-orcs. A cleric will do more damage anyway with the right self-buffs even in normal mode.

If you want to do heavy powergaming in HoF mode I recommend starting with deep gnome cleric and druid, a LG drow sorcerer (who'll get 2 paladin levels later), a drow rogue who'll continue as wizard and if you want a bigger party add 2 extra drow sorcerers or maybe a drow bard.

If you want a powerful and spell-heavy HoF party, I'd drop one or both of the F/Barb mixes, even though there's really nothing wrong with the characters at all. A dwarven Battleguard of Tempus is almost as good physically and has the spell options to go along with it. You could also add in a druid, for spells, summons, and (with the mod) shapeshifting.

I've taken two sorcs before, and liked it. However, why make them both the same? I'd take a human (for quicker spell access) and either an aasimar or a drow. I'd tweak the stats, too.

I'd really recommend taking a couple of rogue levels with your wizard.

Hmmm, about the same advice as kmonster.

Another class combo I really like is a drow bard/wizard. You can level-squat it for a long time and still have it contribute (via the Luck song), and it can be a great caster in HoF.

Bard/Sorcerers rock too (get some synergy from your CHA!).

I had a Drow Bard, level 11, and he squatted until I could take 12 levels of Sorcerer at once!

As a Bard 11, before the Sorc levels, he was still extremely helpful.