Party creation suggestion

So, I've decided to do a 2nd play through since I've got my crash problems fixed. This time with evil party and with 6 members. Last time I played Toee one year ago so can't really remember all of the little details in party creation. Just some quick questions:

- What's the best way to pick your tank types? Pure fighters or multiclasses? I thought I'd go for atleast one fighter/barbarian, I think it was 4 levels of fighter for weapon spec. Any suggestions of weapons?

- Cleric as a pure cleric? And what about archers, straight up rogues? Looking for an archer that can dish out some nice ranged damage.

- Is there any way to fit bard in the party so that it isn't completely useless?

- Thinking of going with 2 spellcasters, wiz and sorceror. Might also want to do something else since I've almost always in every party based cRPG used combo of two spellcasters.

Hopefully this wasn't too confusing, I've played it through once and did fine but I've forgot some of the nuances. Tried searching but thought that it's better to make a new thread about it.

 

Well, if you want your rogue to be an archer, he'll be glad to have the support of a bard & his pouches full of Glitterdust Also, if you give the bard 1 lvl of fighter, a reach weapon & Improved trip, he'll be a true asset to your party.

Anyhow, for your fighter, reach weapons are nice - but if you want to go for major damage, try the Scythe. Also, I find multiclassing a fighter with Barb, Rnger or Rogue quite beneficial.

 

With 6 characters, you could afford to have a pure bard who doesn't fight, or fights very little. His song buffs are always useful, and he can carry scrolls and summoning items, and be a potion medic. Bards with Enchantment Focus can really take out enemies with charm, hideous laughter, and confusion.

If you have to have a bard who fights, the best bet is a CG bard who can wield Scather one-handed with a single feat (Exotic Weapon, Bastard Sword) or two-handed without any feat at all.

If you don't appreciate how powerful the bard's Courage song is, it gives every character in range +1 TH, which increases to +2 at 8th lvl and +3 at 14th lvl. It also stacks with Bull's Strength, and unlike Bull's Strength it will stack with belts and gauntlets of strength, as well as all magic weapon bonuses. (Though it does not stack with Bless or Prayer.) And this buff can be kept in effect virtually all the time when you're in a dangerous area.

 

Just offering my thoughts on this- for an evil party I would go like this:

1. Fighter with Weapon Focus/Specialization in great sword, great hammer, great axe or spike chain (there are evil versions of the last tree weapons in the game)

2. Ranger or barbarian 2/fighter x- ranger for species enemies (of which there are a lot of humans and goblinoid types) and the Barbarian/fighter hybrid to get Uncanny Dodge

3. Bard with a focus on Enchantment if you want to control the enemy or a rogue if you want to do serious damage with a bow (Crippling Strike works with shortbows as well as melee)

4. Evil clerics can cause a problem if they have too large of commanded undead under their control; be sure to get them Evil as one of their Domains so you can cast/craft unholy spells and items, the other depends on which deity you want them to follow

5. A wizard for all around spells and...

6. A sorcerer specialized in your favorite spell school (I usually give them Spell Focus Evocation and Spell Penetration if human as starting feats)


As an alternate to either the ranger, barbarian/fighter hybrid or cleric, you could use a druid- it will make some of the battles against undead difficult but they make decent fighters (elf druids have their elven weapon proficiencies so they aren't restricted in that regard) and the summoned help will come in handy during some of the tougher battles...

 

Thanks for the info . I haven't even thought of a fighting bard, always imagined him to be in non-melee support role. Guess that'll work.

Gehennis, that sounds decent combo. Few Q's:

- Rogue-stuff, who handles that? Bard?
- Who does the healing in that party? I've never actually played evil chars so my cleric has always healed.
- Would a pure fighter and fighter 4/barb x work?

Soooo... For the final party, I'd go like this then:
1. Pure fighter
2. Fighter 4/Barb X
3. Evil cleric
4. Bard
5. Wiz
6. Sorc

The only thing I'm concerned about is healing and traps. Other than that, this would be bit of a change of base since in every D&D game my party has been good and consisted of 2 melee, cleric, rogue and two spellcasters.

 

Something to remember, in TOEE there aren't any traps on the ground and every chest probably has a key in someone's pocket.......... probably

 

Huh, really? I remember that I used my fighter to open chests. Wasn't there some nasty traps in the temple though, or am I just remembering stuff incorrectly?

 

There is one trap in the Temple, (or below the Temple) that might prove challenging if you haven't explored ALL of your options.

High-lite the hidden text below for a better explanation.

Spoiler

Like beating the snot out of a troll until he tells you a secret to turning off the trap.

 

Ah, yeah, now I remember that. Seems that it's been too long a while since I last played

 

For the bard part, as i love the versaility of the bard, let me suggest you a multiclass: barb/fighter/bard, lvls mainly in the bard so that u have access to all the bard spells, 2 to 4 lvls of fighter for weapon specialization if u want it and 1 lvl in barb for rage or more if u want unother goodies... but remember bard needs most lvls for spells.

This kind of bard does not give a dam about traps and can totally go by most of them with high survivability thx to barb and fighter splash and selfbuffs. You can put points in open lock if u want or u can just use a scroll of knock (make sure u put points in use magic device in this case) to bypass locks with no keys.

This bard is very forgiving stats wise. All you need is high strength since this bard is most useful with a reach weapon for amplified 2handed strength damage.

Offensively, this bard will cut down foes through melee reach weapons and not spells. His fighter feats, barbarian rage, self-haste and bull strength, good hope, song of courage self buff will guarantee that he hits as hard as any typical warrior, if not more.

Defensively, this bard will protect himself with a plethora of selfbuffs such as mirror image, blur, displacement, bears endurance, owls wisdom, good hope and more as she advances in use magic device: u basically have access to all the wizard/sorcerer arsenal once UMD reaches a threshold level. This bard will boasts stronger damage mitigation than any lonely typical warrior, HE DOES NOT GIVE A DAM ABOUT DEXTERITY AND AC!

And now is where the fun begins: you can SPECIALIZE your bard the way you see fit with the rest of the stats since your only true prerequisite is high STRENGTH.

If you want your bard to be able to switch his role to a more crowd control type in particularly tough fights, you can put more points into CHARISMA and have him use Fascinate and other control spells like tashas hideous laughter.

If you want your bard to be able to also rain death from afar, you can emphasize on DEXTERITY instead. The fighter feats will also allow u to pick up ranged feats.

If you want your bard to bolster even more his tanky abilities, you can put points into CONSTITUTION to withstand more blows which also synergizes with his defensive selfbuffs.

The possiblities are so great with the bard, this is why any party should consider a multiclass bard. He is the most adaptative person in a team and can cover way more areas such as faceman, weaponmaster, roguework, buffs than a pure wizard although a rogue/wizard is quite the adaptative monkey as well, but isntead does damage through spells and if run out of spells, is inferior to the bard/fighter/barb!

 

The bard is fairly good ay opening locks with a high Dex and points in Open Locks- his Disarm traps will be fair to poor but there are few traps that are deadly enough to kill a character outright (unless their HP are really low). If you switch out the cleric for a druid then the druid and bard can handle the healing but just remember that druids have no second level healing spells while the bard won't get them until at least 3rd level IIRC. However, if you craft a Helm of Reading Magic with your 4th level wizard then you won't have to pay to have all those wonderful little blue potion bottles identified . As far as the fighter 4/barbarian x I'd switch it around- unless you really have your heart set on playing a barbarian their skills and feat set are the most poorly implemented of any character class in this game- it's a viable combo but you may not get the results you were expecting.

 

I wonder how well a PC that depends on buffs would do when caught unprepared?

I guess he could just stay in the back and spend his turns buffing until he is ready.

Myself, I try not to build my party based on my knowledge of what is to come, but rather attempt to play as the characters see things and have them react to what presents itself.

I do admit that I have been known to take a certain incessantly singing NPC along in my travels.

 

No real need for that, you can use "read magic" as much as you want with your bard (well, sortof )

 

They won't be caught unprepared . I know that there will come a situation (or situations...) where that will happen but I could manage those in my first playthrough. Think I had a fighter and pure barbarian...

I might actually try true neutral party instead, I know that I won't get Scather/Fragarach but I think I can do without them. Taking a cleric that can heal, I just can't play without it . I think I'll try the fighter/ranger as my second melee pc, and bard as the jack-of-all-trades. I guess shortbow is the way to go if I want to use ranged with the bard? Is there any sense to multiclass him?

 

If your bard was an elf he would already be proficient with the longbow and longsword, but you miss out on the extra feat at char creation that a human gets.