Help with party ideas!

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by PaladinKing, Apr 9, 2004.

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  1. PaladinKing

    PaladinKing Member

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    Hello everyone. I'm new here, and I haven't been playing TOEE for a long time, but I now I have a problem. I am trying to build a party. However, I can't decide on who to use. Here are the ones that I made (I'm the type of person who doesn't like to use premade characters.):
    Male human fighter (His stats are between 18 and 16)
    Female half-orc barbarian
    Male dwarf cleric of Moradin
    Male human paladin of St. Cuthbert
    Female human fighter (stats between 16 and 14)
    Female half-elf sorceress
    Male half-orc barbarian
    Female halfling rogue
    Male elf wizard
    Female elf druid
    Male gnome wizard
    Female gnome cleric of Garl Glittergold
    Female paladin of Heironeous
    Female human barbarian (thinking of multiclassing to a fighter)
    Female human monk
    Male gnome monk (just for laughs)

    That's it. Which ones should I use and which ones should I not use?
     
  2. Lord Plothos

    Lord Plothos Established Member

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    Well, I'm no expert either, but I have a balanced party, and if you're looking for the best (i.e. easiest, most uber, most badass) party to have, that's the way to go. I prefer the following combination: 2 front-liners (I personally have a fighter and a paladin, but any combination of those with barbarian is good), 1 cleric (not a fan of the druid, really), 1 wizard or sorcerer, 1 rogue or bard. You could always sub in a monk or ranger for the warrior type too. I also wound up throwing in a couple of fighter levels in with my rogue (for the feats and HP, so now he's a sneak-attack machine!). If you plan on doing the town quests, you'll want a rogue or bard, because they get so many skill points and conversation skills as class skills: this is your mouthpiece. Always select them (give them a good CHA) before talking to anyone in town (and give them appraise, then only buy and sell with them). If you're not bothering much with the quests, then you don't need all those skill points, and you could throw in another spell dude instead of the rogue (or concentrate the rogue's skill points in trap disarming and open locks and such, then multiclass with wizard or something). Halflings make good roques, but do a bit less damage, having to use smaller weapons (longsword is two-handed for them). I just sneak attack with a crossbow.
    Anyway, the idea is there are various things you'll encounter, and you want people well-suited to those tasks. The rogue can serve as mouthpiece and trap dude, while providing sneak attack and missile support in combat. Wizards can soften up the baddies with fireballs, and you'll need at least one healer. I like two fighters, because they can plant themselves in front of everybody else (cleric can help with this), block doors, and proceed to bounce heads across the floor.
    One final tip: give your wizard a high dex and a crossbow. When he runs out of spells, or wants to save them, he can do some serious damage, especially early, and he needs the dex to stay alive anyway. (My wizard killed the first six brigands in the moathouse single-handed, because they popped up one at a time, let him shoot first, and promptly paid for it).
    There. Hopefully somewhere in that ramble is some useful advice. Cheers!
     
  3. PaladinKing

    PaladinKing Member

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    Thank you. That helps a lot.
     
  4. Grey

    Grey Member

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    I go with a few options.

    4 fighters, each specializing in a particular weapon, and a wizard

    A paladin, ranger, barbarian, and fighter, with a wizard

    A fighter, a cleric, a rogue, and a wizard

    I keep 'em all human, have one take all the dialogue skills (my spokesperson), have one take all the thief/stealth skills, my mage takes mage-oriented skills and in some cases also handles the stealth and lockpicking, and the rest take various survival, spotting, listening, and such. Everyone gets tumble, I almost always give everyone use magical device, and one or two take healing.
     
  5. psiekier

    psiekier Member

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    The party I won the game with consisted of:
    • Neutral Good Human Cleric
    • Neutral Dwarf Fighter
    • Chaotic Good Half-Elf Rogue
    • Neutral Good Half-Elf Ranger
    • Neutral Good Elf Wizard
    If I could do it again, I'd make the Dwarf Chaotic Good so that he can make use of a special weapon you may find at one point in the game.

    As it were, the only other change I would make is to get my Cleric the "Craft Magic Arms and Armour" feat so he could lend some of his spell abilities to making magic weapons more potent.

    Once you find yourself deep within the Temple proper, you'll find that many of the foes you face will be immune to or have damage reductions vs. certain kind of attacks. I can't explain to you enough the benefit of being able to enchant a magic sword to do both fire damage and frost damage!
     
  6. mussetassen

    mussetassen Member

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    Im opinion the most necessary PC is a Cleric. Otherwise you will have to rest forever to heal. It is also a good bit safer for your PCs when they are passing out due to wounds. If you are playing for effectiveness you should take a good or neutral cleric to get spontaneous healing (just press shift when choosing spells and they will get transformed to healing spells).

    I multiclassed my rogue to a level 1 wizard which means she can use scrolls and scribe them too! You could use the skill "Use magic device" but that way you will fail a lot until you get to level 10 or so. Remember that you can scribe high level spells you have learnt, even if you are too low level to cast them!

    It is good to have one PC with a high level of survival. That way you will often get a choice if you want to meet the random encounters you have when travelling on the map. It is sweet to be able to chicken out when you are crawling back to the inn halfdead and out of spells...
     
  7. taltamir

    taltamir Established Member

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    my party that so far is going strong, has both min maxing and story elements...

    I didnt get ALL the characters with crazy high stats, and I am doing fine, in fact I am doing very well, I can kill anything with ease...

    The trick?

    1. classes, I got a wizard with the ability to craft everything but wands and potions, a warrior with a sword, an elf rouge (auto search) with bow and bow feats, a cleric (a must) with craft wonderous items and craft arms and armour, and a monk...
    what you really need is 2 front line melee people, an archer (rouge can double for one, especially with its awesome backstab and later crippling strike abilities), a healer, and a WIZARD
    2. no multiclassing, you need the power
    3. druids are useless, they are nerfed clerics, they are identical to clerics except they cannot spontanously cast healing and have less healing period, and have a few special animal related abilities that dont really count for anything in this game, they also have alot of limitations
    4. Sorcs are useless also, the most needed thing in the game is powerful magic items, which you MUST craft yourself, however you need to know the spells, while a wizard can just learn from a scroll a sorc cant, so with a sorc you will never be able to craft the much needed items...
    5. apraise, apraise dramatically increases the money you get for stuff, allowing you to save the 18000 needed for crafting a +6 item much more easily, you should have every character with gloves of strength +6 or dex+6 based on if they are melee or ranged fighters (ranged dex melee str), you should have bracers of armour +5 for all armourless classes like monks and wizards, and bracers of greater archery for your archer.
    You should have headband of intelligence +6 for your character who has appraise and for your wizard, and amulet of +6 wisdom to your cleric and your monk...

    Exception: you can use a sorc if you have your cleric/druid take all the craft feats... they still woudlnt be able to craft certain items... but if you can live with it its your choice...
     
  8. Barbarossa_Rotbart

    Barbarossa_Rotbart Member

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    You do not need to max your group to be the best monster killers. If you are doing it right you can win with minimal combat. All you need are stealthy chars. I had a cleric of Farlaghn (Travel Domain), a ranger (two weapon fighting), a wizard (Enchanter), a rogue (spokesperson) and a fighter (greatsword) and I did avoid some of the nastiest fights.
     
  9. Huntsman

    Huntsman Member

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    My current party:

    Human Paladin (Mouthpiece, Bluff, Intimidate, Sense Motive, Diplomacy, uses Greatsword, Persuasive feat, Improved Initiative, Focus at 3rd, Power Attack at 6th, either Cleave or Imp Crits at 9th)

    Half-Orc Fighter (Tank, dual wields Bastard sword (Scather) and Light Mace (Rod of Smiting). Most feats go into proficiency/specialization/focus with weapons, but still gets Improved Initiative at 1st level)

    Human Cleric of Hieroneous (Good domain for Holy crafting, War domain for Longsword focus & proficiency free...makes a good back up frontliner. Starts with Improved Initiative and Combat Reflexes, Combat Casting at 3rd to heal during battle, Craft Wonder and Craft Arms at 6th and 9th)

    Human Fighter 4/Rogue 6 (Dual weilds shortswords, weapon finesse, acrobatics, specialization and focus with short swords, dodge, Improved Initiative (suprise!), all the thief skills and appraise)

    Human Druid (Spell Focus Conjuration, Augment Summoning, Spell Penetration and GSP, Improved Initiative. Good fodder producer and Druid has some decent combat spells as well as extra healing. Long spear means she can assist frontliners in melee)

    Spugnoir for my Wizard. I edit the tab files to give him useful feats, though (Spell penetration and GSP, Imp Initiative, and all the craft skills except potions).

    Just my way of things, but I use a rule of thumb guide to make a balanced party: 40% Fighter types, 25% or 30% Cleric types, 20% or 25% Wizard types, and 10% Thief. Works pretty well, and gives a good solid party. Fighters are the tanks, Clerics are decent tanks as well as healers, Wizard types for long range support, and the thief for utility. Some classes don't fit real well, the Bard is sort of a mage/priest/rogue type, and the Druid is more like a cleric/mage (not as good at fighting or healing as the cleric, but better combat spells). But you can work with this template, adjust and alter, and get a good party.

    Of course, some of the most fun comes from unusual concepts (all-halfling party, all spellcasters, the group of monks from the monastary, bandit group (all rogues), Half-orc barbarian horde, etc).
     
  10. taltamir

    taltamir Established Member

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    mmmm.... Male Wizard with your name and all the rest hot women XD

    Cause yous be a player. or if you a more realistic party.... you can be a bard... charming the babes into following your every whim and traveling with you. I mean you already share all worldly possesions as if you are married....
     
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