Power Party - How to Improve?

I wish to emphasize killing things, especially groups, as quickly as possible, yet want to have a blend of classes. While having 8 Sorcerers with fireball is one fun way, I want to try something that requires less rest. Note that I am at least 7 PCs for this and want no experience penalties. I will use 8 PCs if it is safe to do so, but I have heard that some NPCs forcibly join. I will either roll stats or use a cheating point buy to get the stats I want.

As of now, I have a face man and skill money, Solaris, two arcanists, Uljajon and Bellus, a primary and secondary healer, Iniaais and Ythiel, and two heavy hitters, Soria and Hallis. How can this be improved? I want my group to be effective throughout every level. Note that I use patches 1 and 2, Co8 3.0.4, Livonya 1.5.1, and moebius's newest stuff.

Solaris: TN Male Elf Rogue1/Wizard1/RogueX
Skill Focus (Appraise)
Raven Familiar
Imp Init
Weapon Focus (Longbow or Longsword)
Weapon Finesse

10/20/16/18/10/18

Skills to Max: Spot, Search, Bluff, Intimidate, Diplomacy, Sense Motive, Tumble, Appraise, Concentration, Spellcraft

The role of Sularis is to make me as much money possible from item sales. Perhaps I will be able to level him to 2 to partake in the Acid Splash Fundraiser. You may wonder what this is. The ASF involves someone scribing scrolls of a cantrip then selling them at profit to Burne or Calmert. Use Magic Device is not a skill because I have a Cleric and Druid and, should I want to use anything arcane, his Wizard level and 18 INT will suffice.

Uljajon: TN Male Human SorcererX
Imp Init
Diehard
School Focus (Evocation)
Heighten Spell
Empower
Greater School Focus (Evocation)

10/18/16/10/10/18

Skills to Max: Conc, Tumble, Heal

Uljajon likes to cook cajon style in a way only a sorcerer can; with lots of burning hands and fireballs. (Wizards can, but not as often.) His role is keeping enemy groups at bay as well as using magic missile and the aforementioned fire spells to much delight.

Bellus Melochias: TN Human EvokerX - Ban Necro and Enchant
Imp Init
Diehard
Evocation Focus
Craft Wand
Greater Evo Focus

10/18/16/18/10/10

Skills to Max: Spellcraft, Conc, Tumble, Heal

Uljajon and she are, in short, jealous of each other. BM can cast a greater breadth of spells which is why she is on the team, but still prefers to blow stuff up. Like Uljajon, fireball is her favorite spell.

Iniaais Felowen: TN Male Elf ClericX - Magic & Trickery
Imp Init
CWI
CA&A
Diehard

12/18/14/12/18/10

Skills to Max: Conc, Tumble, Heal

Having been forced into the clergy by his father, Iniaais (inn-ee-AY-iss) has been resentful ever since. When given the choice of deity, Mr. Felowen chose Boccob over traditional Elven deities because of Boccob's love for blending arcane magic into His teachings. That and he can lie without feeling guilty.

Soria: TN Female Half-Orc Barbarian1/FighterX
Imp Init
Weapon Focus (Greatsword)
Power Attack
Cleave
Combat Reflexes
Improved Crit
Weapon Specialization

20/18/16/8/11/10

Skills: Tumble, Heal

Named "Soria" or "wimp" for being the childhood weakling, Soria learned the ways of her clan and got revenge by beating her bullies within an inch of their lives, waiting for them to plead, and decapitating them. Sparing her family, she fled into the forest to find a new life, but never forgot her martial training nor declined to use it at the appropriate time.

Hallis Hilo: TN Human Barbarian1/FighterX
Imp Init
Spiked Chain Proficiency
Weapon Focus (Spiked Chain)
Combat Reflexes

18/18/16/16/10/10

Skills: Tumble, Heal, Listen

Hallis is Soria's partner and best friend. Together, they have raided numerous villages of orcs, kobolds, goblins, and bugbears, the 'unwanted' races as they put it. Right now, they work for Ythiel, the local druid.

Ythiel: TN Female Elf DruidX
Imp Init
Conjuration Focus
Natural Spell
Augment Summoning
Diehard

10/20/16/12/18/10

Skills: Concentration, Heal, Survival

After being ordered by Jaroo to scout the moathouse for signs of activity, Ythiel was grieved to learn that she could not handle the situation, even with her trusty wolf companion, Thalay. Having barely escaped death, she found and rallied Soria and Hallis as well as the rest of the party to her cause.

-EE

 

what a stupid combination.. newsflash: in most fights magic is USELESS!

a mixed party is best. and paladins smite evil is very useful.

 

Pre personal moding but using console to import items and maxed stats, Often used...
Human female fighter, weapon focus bastard sword, TWF, power attack
Human male fighter, weapon focus great axe, power attack, cleave
Human male monk, weapon focus improved unarmed strike, power attack
Human female ranger, weapon focus longbow, weapon focus greatsword
Human male cleric, weapon focus longsword, TWF

I tryed a paladin but I didn't like when he fell so I replaced him with the monk who i gave amulet of mighty fist straight off.

now my monk looks like a werewolf and my male fighter is now a giant (used Scorpps model) with weapon focus great club and Hill giant tetsubo which is 2d8. I use a rogue and a socerer in stead of female fighter and ranger now. Because my tanks are so strong its let me play around with the other 3 characters and try using magic for once.

What are some really effective combat spell?

 

would you belive, Magic Missile?! at least it damages the bosses ;P other than that the best offense is a good defence, use buffs.

 

An extremely nice party is:

Humans - All (Bonus feat, extra skill point - I do not cheat, so I use every advantage I can get.) Since the game does not implement range that well... (If you want range and the ability to attack adjacent targets in actual D&D, you are limited to a Spiked Chain, which requires a bonus feat.)

Main - Human Fighter with Wpn Focus Ranseur, Combat Reflexes. Then go the cleave route (Pwr atck, cleave, great). With Great Cleave you will be able to cleave through massive number of enemies. On average this fighter will kill 5-6 enemies with just cleave.

Secondary - Human Fighter, same as first but with focus on Guisarme.

Why have these and not use Whirlwind? Yes, ww with a reach weapon is phenomenal, and you get a nice to hit since you are using your bab, but if you miss you do not get a redo. With Great cleave, if you miss, you still get a redo at a lower to hit, and then again at a lower one, etc. Since the game goes on till level 20 now, you get a lot of retries, where as with WW you do not.

Third - Human fighter - The damage dealer. Focusing on Scimitars and Two weapon fighting. Then go the cleave route. The damage this fighter can achieve is insane, and with improved crit and keen weapons (for some reason the game stacks them) you will be getting a critical hit every few hits. Extremely deadly.

Fourth - Cleric - Heavy Mace and shield. You want this person to have the highest AC possible. They are just there to heal. That’s it. Heal whore.

Fifth - Druid - Backup cleric with fighting abilities and damage spells. Free Scimitar focus + Wild shape. Give her a shield as well.

Sixth - Rouge - Rapier + two weapon fighting + Weapon Finesse = nasty. Make sure they can disarm traps and you’re fine. Roll on the sneak attacks! Feats are your choice. I usually go with cleave. 3 sneak attacks on 3 different people is just funny.

Seventh - Sorc. Spell penat, Greater, Focus Evoc, with Greater focus. Arm him with a dagger. Why not a crossbow you ask? So he doesn’t provoke every time he fires.

For skills, its your choice, but I usually give everyone tumble. Its a phenomenal skill.


This party has no problem with the game (or real D&D for that matter, if you replace reach weapons with spiked chain.)


At char creation:
Fighters - STR and CON focus. Dex of 12 is enough, with 16 for the ones with Two weapon fighting.
Rouge - Dex and Int.
Cleric & Druid - Wis and Str are the ones you need to worry about.
Sorc - Cha and Dex.

Have fun!!


Edit - If you want to cheat, give everyone 24 in the stats I mentioned in the char creation notes and watch them go!

 

the best mage spells are the mass disablers:

grease
web
stinking cloud <-- have fun taking your time using crossbows to kill the enemies while they're trapped in the cloud.


and of course there's always fireball.

 

Fireball cast by 5 arcanists can win a fight faster than just about anything.

-EE

 

I go for a more diverse team myself, I use the following combination in most games and I will only give feats and skill to a character that I find appropriate IMO at least. Makes the game more interesting, even more because I never have a cleric in my team.

Half Orc - Barbarian
Scale armour, Axe, Glaive

Weapon focus (greataxe or polerarm wepon like glaive if its available)
Power attack
Cleave and Greater Cleave
Iron Will

Skills: Intimidate, Survival

Human - Paladin
Plate, Longsword, shield

Weapon focus (Longsword)
Improved turning
Luck of heroes
Improved Critical (longsword)

Skills: Diplomacy, Sense Motive

Dwarf - Fighter/Rogue
Warhammer, shield, heavy croosbow, chain armour

Weapon Focus (Heavy Crossbow)
Skill Focus (Open lock)
Rapid Reload
Improved Trip
Weapon Specialization (Heavy Crossbow)
Weapon Focus (Warhammer)

Skills: Open lock, Disarm traps, Search, Appraise, Use magic device

Human - Sorcerer
Spear, darts, daggers

Spell Penetration
Focus (Evocation)
Dodge
Empower Spell

Skills: Gather Information, Concentration, Spellcraft, Tumble

Elf - Druid
Scimitar, sheild, Longbow

Spell Penetration
Improved Initiative
Natural Spell
Precise Shot

Skills: Listen, Spot, Concentration, Tumble

Looking forward to comments

 

What is Luck of heroes?
Anyway, for me the best 5 members PP party is compsed by:
half orc warrior4/barbarianX with power attack, combat mastery, greater cleave, improved critical and weapon specialization for scather but NO exotic weapon competence on it, so that he will hold it with 2 hands and will deal an HUGE ammount of damage with power attack at the maximum, will have +5 to AC with combat mastery and a buckler may be added ignoring the -1 penality to attack rolls, since Scather NEVER misses
More, a sorcerer with maximized and empowered spells is devasting. He will deal really a lot of damage with spells.
A cleric is always needed and there are many good combinations. If you take a druid instead, you MUST take the agument summoning feat, that will make all summoned animals stronger than ever.
Then an helf or human that is fighter 4 and rogue X is a good deal: you'll sacrifice some skill points for weapon finesse, focus, specialization, improved critical, combat reflexed and improved trip with spiked chain so that you'll have somebody that will deal ranged sneak attacks, a lot of ranged AOO and will trip opponents.
Then anyother party member is up to you. Certainly a bard is not somebody that kills opponents quickly and a mage is not powerful in battle as a sorcerer. A ranger with 4 fighter levels for w.focus, specialization and i.critical for the same weapon helded in both hands is a very good thing (or directly a fighter with no ranger levels) but it is up to you.

 

always take a wizard

Wizards get scribe scroll at first level and additional creation/meta magic feats every four levels. In ToEE casting from scrolls is not subject to AoO. Get a Wizard, get some XP, scribe scrolls for every situation. I think wizards are much better than sorcerers because of the feats and additional breadth of spells available. Sorcerers only get new spells at level up. Wizards get new spells at level up and also can copy spells from found scrolls. Along with the enhanced item creation capability, wizards are much more valuable than sorcerers. In fact, if you can, take two wizards as PCs. That way you still have space for a tank (fighter, barbian, ranger?, monk?), a healer (druid or cleric), and a stealth and diplomacy person (bard, monk or rogue.) And you have the scope to create items to enhance all of the party's abilities. Also, with two wizards you can trade off XP expenses so that neither is too slow in gaining levels. There is more that I could say here but since I have been awake for 36 hrs now I will leave it for another post.

Darmagon

 

yeah taking 2 wizards is an awesome idea. due to scroll creating capabilities alone, wizards are incredibly powered in this game. i mean, Magic Missile scrolls are essentially FREE and they keep gaining in power as you gain levels!

 

Magic makes most battles TOO easy. About level six or seven my wizard stops casting spells in most battles and starts smacking people with his staff.

 

noone mentioned the rogue archer!
This game gives rogues sneak attack with bows...

A high level rogue archer, with greater bracers of archery, with a composite longbow of +3 (str) enchanted to +3 and belt of +6 str and gloves of +6 dex and ... you get the idea. That character can hit anyone, does a ton of damage, fires often, and is extremely deadly in the begining of the battle.

It should be able to down trolls in a single round by level 6 or so.

 

I mixed...

...Ranger/Wizard (Elf) to get a missile & spell casting guy with archery skills. Quite powerful. Also did this with Ranger/Rogue (Halfling). Both were awesome, but the key is to get the right archery feats with max dex, magical bows, and magic item boosters. Very tough; made a world of difference to have sniper support in many of the battles. The Hobbit was very hard on the Balor.

 

Don't underestimate the value of Scribe Scrolls for any spellcaster. At the very least, it gives you unlimited first and second level spells early in the game when you really need them. Later, it will let you cast almost unlimited fireballs. Also remember that Scribe Scrolls is much cheaper per charge than Create Wand for everything except Identify, and your Wizard starts with it for free.

Sorcerers are mainly useful if you don't want to spend time planning out your spell (and metaspell) use ahead of time; if you do take a sorc, give her Scribe Scrolls as well.

Druids are probably the best all-purpose characters in the game. Fair fighters, OK healers, and solid attack and disabling magic. When using point buy Druids become very attractive, as wildshape will take care of lower physical stats eventually. Druids also make great item and weapon crafters.