Finished and ready to start again

I have now finished the game, and plan to make another start just for fun. I played 7.4.1 and will be installing 7.50 soon.

I went through the entire game with my origiinal party of five. They all maxed out in level during the WotGS. After that I got huge XP for killing Z, for Monster Mash and for following through with the quest of the lady.

I'm thinking of expanding my party. Two reasons -- so that I don't max out as soon and for a little bit more flexibility.

The party I had was all human except for my halfling rogue. All were various flavors of good except for one TN. All kept pure to their class all the way through. In addition to the rogue, I had a fighter, a cleric, a wizard and a sourcerer.

Next time I am contemplating tossing in a ranger and maybe a druid.

Here are my questions:
Is there any reason for me not to carry seven generated characters? I know that there are a few places where one needs to have an NPC join while you provide escort duty. But there is only one place I can think of where I might need two slots.

Along with that is it possible to dismiss a PC for a short while and have him join back in after the escort duty is over?

I notice that Rogues and Rangers get a LOT more skill points on start up. What do folks think about starting everyone out as one of those two classes and then putting them into another class on next level up? OTOH, most of the skill points for my fighter seem to be wasted anyhow -- there was not much he could really use.

FWIW, my style of play is focused on magic, ranged attacks and summoning. I let the summoned creatures be my front line "tanks" to absorb blows while my other characters sock it to them with magic and ranged weapons.

It is difficult to say whether I would want to turn my wizard into a sourcerer. She was able to craft better items because of her larger knowledge of spells -- but was not as effective in battle as the sourcerer. The sourcerer had the most kills of the entire group.

I believe that a rogue is essential (and this time I will not neglect her spot skill).

How do the races and classes differ when it comes to assigning feats? It looks like fighters get more feats, but are there any other differences? How about the ability score increases -- are they at the same rate for all races and classes?

I'm going to be searching for threads that discuss the best feats to choose, but would appreciate links to any threads that people think are really good.

 

Nah, there is nothing stopping you from using seven members other than a few escort quests.

I remember discussing this recently. In theory you should be able to boot someone out, and then recruit him through the guestbooks in the various inns. Using the console to get his XP back up to speed.

You don't use debilitating spells like Web or Stinking Cloud? I find those spells to be crucial for a magic heavy party, since it can halt the enemy's advance and keep the enemy is a nice area for blasting them with Fireball, Cone of Cold, Cloudkill... etc.

 

For some reason I have not used web or cloudkill in this game -- I used them a lot in previous games. I mostly just start blasting away with fireballs, sometimes chain lightning and occasionally horrid wilting on the far away mobs.

 

I *think* that when you dismiss a PC you can't then replace them in the Inn the same game. One possibility is to recruit an NPC who will return to his/her start point and be recruitable again. I'm using Ronald in this fashion at present, and also picked up Zaxis by mistake and am keeping hold of him as I've not used him before (always met him late on when he'd be a liability). I can't think of a situation where you need to rescue two people at once (tho' I haven't done all the latest NC).

 

Keep the wizard for versatility, but give the sorcerer the Craft Wands feat. Whatever spells you used in battles effectively, make some wands of that spell and pass them to the wizard, Or give one to the rogue (with a good UMD skill).

 

If you are going strictly human that's fine but keep in mind that for the other races- except half-elves- at least one of the classes needs to be their favored class, otherwise you start to run into XP penalties. I like to use the ranger/druid mix myself for elves but unless you keep the levels within one of each other penalties apply as neither of these classes is the favored class of elves- wizard. For fighters I always point points into Tumble and give them elven armor- helps to keep your front line folks healthy if they aren't hit a lot while moving during combat...

 

Many of the questions asked have answers in the SRD, which is searchable and has links to various specific information as to races, feats and such.

Give it a look, or even save it to favorites and become your own expert.

And as always, yellow text in my posts represent a link for clicky clicky.

 

We are probably thinking of the same quest -- one I had a lot of trouble with. If I don't have two slots for them, can I take them one at a time -- or will they just find their way on their own?

 

Thanks. I've saved a shortcut to that page into my "help" folder.

 

Yeah, I love that reference, it even has a good old fashioned DnD look to it.

 

Thanks to all for comments and suggestions.

I tried to start with a party of seven, intending them to become Fighter, Cleric, Rogue, Druid, Ranger, Wizard and Sourcerer. I started them as either Rogue or Ranger to get the extra skill points at the beginning. Then did a levelup command in the console to get them all to level 2 and change into their intended roles.

I was not thrilled with the results. Turns out that the extra skill points did not do all that much good -- ended up going into skills that were not really relevant for the intended character, plus lost a relevant feat level for them.

SO, I started over and created the same cast of seven, but with all being pure class. Now doing some of the FedEx things in Hommitt.

I will be interested to see how the new (to me) classes of druid and ranger develop in this game. Based on my previous run through, I don't expect any trouble getting them all up to level 20 before I get done.

 

Expect to go thru a lot of animal companions for both of them . Druids can craft some cool items and have surprised me with their spell selection- Spike Growth and Stone Spikes are devastating AoE spells, as is Ice Storm and Heat Metal/Chill Metal works great for indirect damage. For your ranger just keep in mind the monsters that are most commonly found when choosing your Favorite enemies- you should have humans, goblinoids, giants and maybe outsiders included...

 

And don't forget monstrous humanoids, isn't that what a bugbear is classified as?