Largest Party You've Played the Game With and a Few Other Questions...

And I mean a good game most of the way through, not just up to the moat house and quit.

I'm thinking of making a 7-8 man party that covers all the bases. It would be modeled after one of my first D&D parties (back in the day) on PC's that I eventually evolved into the ruling NPC's of my own realm. I'm not sure how well it will work, especially since I don't have access to the feats that make their builds truly function, but I think it'll be fun regardless. Other than the main question, I had a few other queries.

I'd like to have a fighter that dual wields Bastard Swords. Is this possible in game? I assume it will take Exotic Weapon Proficiency, Two Weapon Fighting, and ALOT of Strength to offset penalties, especially since I can't have Oversized Weapon Fighting Feat in TOEE.

Is it possible to make a Tank character? Normally, I'd have a long sword, shield, and the Goad feat. But without it, does it make sense to have a frontliner with a shield and expect opponents to attack him / her instead of the dual wielding fighter?

And at what level can I expect my party to be running through all content if I have 8 members?

 

I find large parties (>5) to be kind of tedious. If you do a large party I highly recommend letting anyone who dies stay dead. Natural selection.

Yes, once you have the exotic weapon prof [bastard sword] feat, it's a one-handed weapon, so you can wield one in each hand. You'll take a -6 & -10 to hit [-4,-4 with the two-weapon fighting feat], but it is possible. If you are thinking of dual wielding Fragarach and Scather, I don't recommend it. It caused my game to crash repeatedly the last time I tried that.

It sort of makes sense. I think with an 8-person party, things are going to get congested.

 

First time I played (out of the box, as far as I recall; certainly no New Content) I played with 7-8 PCs all the way through: recruited Spugnoir first thing and Elmo as soon as I could afford him, then Otis/ Burne through the temple. I got to 10th level sometime during the 3rd elemental node I did, iirc.
Apart from the NPCs I had a paladin, a ranger, a wizard, a cleric and a rogue (who took a level of wizard at some point, the better to use wands of fireball and chain lightning). Ended up with an effective if samey tactic of fireballing first, then mopping up survivors. I think with larger parties you struggle to have something for everyone to do- if you have a lot of primary casters you make your mundanes pretty redundant , while a party of mainly warrior/ rogue types can struggle do deploy all its members to good effect in narrow tunnels.
It's worth pointing out that several quests requirw you to add someone as an NPC (however briefly), which you can't do if you are set to 8 PCs. If you do want to run a full roster, having a couple of NPCs long term gets round this as most will return to their start point if you as them to leave, and will readily rejoin once you've done escorting people around.

 

I get frustrated with large parties because I have to keep going back and find that one character that was day dreaming when I told the group to move somewhere.

 

If you are thinking of adding some NPCs as quasi-permanent members to your party, you might like to check out this thread: http://www.co8.org/forum/showthread.php?t=11420

 

Sounds like you have been playing D&D Online
thee heavy dual weapons feat

I would recommend choosing taking weapon focus and weapon specialize along with
Dual weapon fighting to concer the -4 -4 issue for the Basterd swords.

weapon finess will not apply there, so better have some caster's in party
to create wonderous items for Giant strength.

Having beaten TOEE and all the NODEs I have some knowledge about what character you will need to win.


2 or 1 Cleric's or a Cleric and a Druide will definately need to be in party.
full time Rogue is a must
full Time Wizard is a must

TANKS in TOEE are usually fighters or multi class Fighter/Rogue
but MONKS are for shure good tanks

Having a full time Ranger in a party is optional, sometimes successful
with a partnered TANK for protection.

there is alot of fights where the caster with damaging area type (ie fireball)
Casting Dismisal on giants, etans, and alot of other extra planer must have

you need to have enchantments, acid attacks, force attacks, greese,web,
entangle exetra.
You need to use everything to your advantage.

you must use your enemies as meat shields, by charming or suggestion, or
Dominations. Send your enimies at your enemies to hit the Fans or Sh*

usually you need to take a disadvantage and turn it into a blood bath.

having the feat Combat reflex with a reach weapon and great cleave
is a very good thing to have.

---------------------------------------------------------
things you should do with options

turn off End turns after default actions,
turn off End turns with 5 feet step


you need to use every possible action sometimes to get away from
harm

free actions, move actions, attacks

having knowledge about the rules of D&D is crucial to successful and smooth
games.

5 foot steps, full attacks, trip attacks
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cleric, fighter, rogue, wizard, monk

cleric, fighter, rogue, wizard, druid

cleric, fighter/rogue, ranger/rogue, wizard, Druid

-----------------------------------
Uploaded 7 PC characters inside ZIP
for Normal game

(not iron man)

 

Paladin, Wizard, Cleric, Ranger, Sorcerer, Barbarian, and picked up Meleny as a Druid along the way. I think I also picked up Zaxis too, but let him go later.

Sometimes I would take a similar mix but leave off the Barbarian and keep Zaxis.

That left 1 slot for most tag-a-long quests and where 2 was necessary, you can leave Meleny at home and then go get her afterwards and she still has all her levels and gear.

 

As has been mentioned, many of the quests require at least one free NPC. If you make 7-8 PCs there will be some quests you cannot complete. You can bring along some NPCs and tell them to leave the party while you complete these quests, but note that several of the recruit-able NPCs in this game will disappear forever when they leave your party.

In my personal opinion the game is less enjoyable with that many party members, for several reasons (difficulty/micromanagement/pathfinding/etc).

Sure. It's not like you can give him any "extra" strength beyond a regular fighter, though, so you'll never offset the heavy penalties you incur. I definitely like themed parties myself so I'm not telling you that it's a bad idea, but it's not a particularly effective character in this game.

Basically, yes. You can't force them to attack him, but with correct positioning it's usually possible to have the harder hitting foes attack him. I've used high AC party members with great success in this game, but it's more about moving the weaker characters out of danger rather than a "taunt and have everyone attack the tank"-situation.

 

I usually run 6 PCs. Anymore than 6 will slow down leveling, and tbh, I can't really think of any members I'd want beyond my universal six.

Half my party will usually contain a caster trio. Normally a Sorcerer, Druid and Cleric. Sorcerer generally focuses on mass AoE destruction and certain buffs, grabbing 2 Paladin levels to send her saving throws through the roof. Cleric doubles as a melee combatant, usually grabbing a Monk level at some point for some delicious AC bonuses along with Evasion. Druid sticks to being ranged, and generally ends up being a pure class.

Incidentally my Sorcerer is usually the party spokesperson. So that gets that out of the way as well.

The remaining half generally changes around often. The most comfy group I usually play with though has a Fighter, a Rogue and a Wizard. The Wizard generally focuses on spells my Sorcerer isn't able to use. Normally I bar Necromancy and Evocation, though recently I find myself preferring to bar Illusion instead of Evocation. Fighter is always a given, but changes secondary class depending on my mood. Finally the Rogue does his sneaky thing and also contributes to damage.

That said, the last run I did had:
Sorcerer18/Paladin2
Cleric17/Monk3
Druid20
Wizard20
Rogue14/Ranger6
Fighter4/Barbarian16

If I had to run 5 though, I'd probably drop the Wizard. My Cleric generally has crafting covered.

 

I almost always run 6 PCs. Mine are a fighter18/barbarian2; wizard20; fighter1/druid19; fighter9/rogue11; fighter1/cleric19, and lately playing around with a bard who concentrates on enchantments fighter4/bard16. Sometimes the bard gets replaced by a fighter4/paladin16.