Tell me about your group

[koz-ivan]

trying a new group now, inspired by the isle of misfit toys.

drow (female) battle guard of tempus (axe is a bit dodgy for an elf, but my other choice of lathander was equally suspect) she's the talker, buffer, healer, fire support.

1/2 orc ftr (male) tank. gonna stick w/ two handed weapons, sword & staff.

aasimar pal 1 sor x (female) spells and more spells. a powergamer's dream.

ghostwise halfling barbarian & rogue (male) little guy, sneaky, mean.

only 4 this time, i suspect i'll miss having a backup wizard and the bard & druid. we'll see how the smaller party + ecl's can hold up.

[Tharan]

This my party, I beat the normal with them and now taking them through HoF. First time for me to play HoF too, fun stuff.
Sry I dont remember their stats very well.

Rhen (Pally Aasimar) < Lvl 19 Lay on hands 72 hp!!!! High Charisma/ Long Swords and Shields current weps: Golden Heart of Rhen and Mooncalf's Shield

Aladon ( Human Cleric of Lathander) < He Good with all them heals/Maces or Flails and Shields current weps:Monkeys paw of discipline and Blessed Flank of Virgins

Rotgar (Gold Dwarf Fighter) Dual Wielder 2 hammers or even axes or mixing it! current weps: Brutal Impact and Slow an' Steady

Tey (Human Fighter) Weapon Finesse and high dex and dual wield daggers or short swords and bowsalso good int can talk through a lot of stuff/ current weps: Goblin Slayer and Shame of Thung Dyan (sry spelling) the bow is The Golden Arc ( you can buy it on normal from Riki in Severed Hand, hoping to see the buffed version of it ofcourse later on in HoF)

Sand (Wizard halfling, strongheart) Staffs cause he looks cool bein miniature thing with a 6' staff! High int, has bunch of skills and stuff, pretty good support caster.

Moonlight ( Human Sorceror) Good Charisma and Int, also nice for buff skills. Really good caster, chose spells very carfully. Together with Sand and couple of Delayed fireballs and Chain Lit can reduce hitpoints in HoF pretty well

Sorry no Elfs in party, heheh I forget =)

[lompo]

Originally posted by Tharan
This my party, I beat the normal with them and now taking them through HoF. First time for me to play HoF too, fun stuff.
Sry I dont remember their stats very well.
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Sorry no Elfs in party, heheh I forget =)

It seems you don't have a rogue too; how did you manage without it?

[1-800-DOCTORB]

Actually, because of the skill-based system in IWD2, Rogues are not crucial party members. They are very useful because of their high skill potential, but you can really make in through the game quite comfortably without one. In my game, I had 2 levels of Rogue only and I had no trouble at all.

[lompo]

Originally posted by 1-800-DOCTORB
Actually, because of the skill-based system in IWD2, Rogues are not crucial party members. They are very useful because of their high skill potential, but you can really make in through the game quite comfortably without one. In my game, I had 2 levels of Rogue only and I had no trouble at all.

For thief-only skills (open locks, disable device) how do you cope with the cross-class penalty?
Do you still reach a lvl high enough to have them effective?

[1-800-DOCTORB]

What I meant was that thief skills are not necessary to finish the game. Traps are nothing, just open everything with your strongest character; I've never found one trap potent enough to outright kill any of my characters so I just pretty much ignore traps. Lockpicking can easily be replaced by bashing with a high strengthed party member enchanted with strength buffing spells. Hiding and Moving Silently don't need to be too high anyway to be effective, sure it helps, but it's not the end of the world. This is the beauty of Icewind Dale 2, as long as you have an arcane spellcaster, a devine spellcaster, and a tank, you could make it through the game with any combonation of characters. Don't get me wrong, Rogues can make things alot easier, but they aren't necessarily "required."

[Tharan]

Yup, Doc is right. Most of the time you can just bash the lock open but if you dont want to, there is allways that nice "Knock" spell that opens anything you want =). Thats how you can get through without a rougue heheh. And the traps..... lol just have your mage Mirror Image himself and open the stuff he just 'knocked'. Horrid Whilting, will take away 1 little image all the damage stuff takes away 1 little image.... so basically rougues dont even exist in my parties anymore =)

[Underdog77]

Leader
Female Human Bard, Eryn Flynn

Male Half Elf Ranger, Johan the Wanderer

Male Dwarf Barbarian, Farin Baradur

Female Wilf Elf Druid, Gwaen

Male Stoutheart Halfling Rogue, Tolma

Male Gnome Wizard, Muto the Mystical

[nuther]

I made a new party designed to optimze my playstyle based on what I experienced up through the Chapter one Troll.

Leader
The Wild Fire - Wild Elf Sorcerer (Bombardier) Bow & Long Sword

The Shambling Mound - Wild Elf Druid (Bombardier) Bow & Scimi

The Iron Bull - Human Fighter (Defensive Tank) Sword & Shield

The Scout - 1/2 Orc Ranger/Barbarian (Scout) Two Axes

The Small Sword - Rock Gnome Thief/Illusionist (Thief & Backstabber) Small Swords

The Healing Dawn - Human Cleric of Lathander (Healer & Bombardier) Mace right now

[jim0525]

i finished the game last night so i decided to start a new group (this one will be evil). i upped the difficulty level to change things up a bit.

Jhargen-human-male-monk (of the old order)-LE
Lomax-drow elf-male-fighter-NE-will be dualing short swords
Syndra-human-wizard-NE
Bodac-human-cleric of Talos-CE (leader)

they are all picking up some theif skill to compensate for the lack of a true rogue.

[nuther]

I made a new party designed to optimze my playstyle based on what I experienced up through the Chapter one Troll.

Leader
The Wild Fire - Wild Elf Sorcerer (Bombardier) Bow & Long Sword

The Shambling Mound - Wild Elf Druid (Bombardier) Bow & Scimi

The Iron Bull - Human Fighter (Defensive Tank) Sword & Shield

The Scout - 1/2 Orc Ranger/Barbarian (Scout) Two Axes

The Small Sword - Rock Gnome Thief/Illusionist (Thief & Backstabber) Small Swords

The Healing Dawn - Human Cleric of Lathander (Healer & Bombardier) Mace right now

[Tharan]

Well I started a new party, just cause I guess I didnt like how my other turned out in the HoF mode. So this party went through normal pretty good and now is in HoF.

Sir Nathan of Selina (human paladin of helm) - Great Swords, Uses Bull's Strength and hacks stuff into chunks

Flare of the Petals ( aasimar fighter/paladin of helm)- Got the fighter to lvl 6 so he can have 3 points in Long and Bastard Swords. Too bad for his constitution is not good, but stands up really good in a fight

Hotgar Whirlwind Axe ( Human Barbarian) - Two-Handed axe, really powerfull

Lana Helf-Elven (Half-Elf Fighter) - She is the bow of the party and uses shortswords if someone gets too close

Tanya Silvermoon (Human Cleric of Selune) - Good heal, uses x.bows from distance, in close a mace or something, that Elemental Legion comes in handy really good.

Moonlight (Moon Elf Wizard)- This is my war wizard, he dumps things like chaos and confusion and buffs the party and then does wail of banshee and stuff like so.

All in all the party is really good I think.

[Skooter327]

When I first started playing Black Isle games, I would quick toss together a band of misfits just to get into the game; in IwD I, I made it to Kuldahar before switching and restarting. In IwD II had good intentions to plan a thoroughly interesting and versatile party. In my haste, I therw together a party without foresight, whose salvation came only from the ability to multi-class after creation:

Wild Elf Paladin of Helm, L.17-an odd combo, no? Oh well, it works.
Half-Orc Barbarian, L.17-Grunt! grunt!
Drow Ranger, L.15-inspired by that helpful Drow fellow in BG II
Wild Elf Druid, L.17-pretty logical class for a Wild Elf, I thought. Are Wild Elves also called Sylvan Elves?

Deep Gnome Rogue/Necromancer L.7/7-Multi-classed @ L.4 or so when I realised I didn't have an effective spellcaster. Fortunately, I gave him Int. 18 at creation for some reason. Anyway the rogue levels were a waste.

Human Fighter/Sorcerer L.8/9-My worst mistake. I had planned on a Fighter/Wizard, but forgot to add wizard until L.3 or so, then added Sorcerer classes instead. Played for quite a while until I realized why I couldn't cast spells--Her base Cha. of 10! oops.

For HoF, I'm trying to decide who to keep, as I plan on adding a Monk (whats a good monk race?), and maybe a Dwarven Fighter/Cleric, a real spellcaster, and possibly a Bard. Any suggestions on whom to keep & whom to cull?


For the record, I loved BGII's Shapeshifter Druid kit, but I think Lycanthrope should be a separate class/race. I also loved Arcanum's classless system.

[Tharan]

Hmm good monk race, I duno really, I have a monk aasimar but he not very good in HoF, maybe I havent given him much thought though. But in HoF the enemies pound you and pound you and then you die. I have a 400 hp barbarian and it takes few hits to take him out, I had a guy do 100+ damage to me per hit, it was sick, thank god for the mass heal. So basically tanks and a good healer and a 1 or if you think you have good tanks, 2 spell casters for that wail of banshee >=)

Oh yea that party that I mentioned above, actually went through HoF! Oh well started a new game on normal with an all evil party! WooT!

[Sojourner]

After several false starts and cursing at my computer, I'm currently playing through with this party:

Male aasimar paladin of helm
Female lightfoot halfling ranger-rogue
Male gold dwarf fighter-cleric
Female half-elf ranger-druid
Male wild elf fighter-sorceror
Female human monk