My Party Post-Game Report Card

OK, after running the game, here's how I think my party did. I'd really like some feedback on some of the lower grade ones, mostly what I was doing wrong or how I could have used them better.

Also, I probably did something wrong off top: all of these characters got level 10 on their primary class, and THEN I started building their secondary task. In all cases the primary was preferred class, but I still think this catch up method didnt do me any favors.

Here goes...

1. Sir Leoric (Human Paladin 10/Cleric 5) -- Steady and reliable, he had decent damage output. Adding the cleric levels really didn't do much for him, just gave me another healer who couldn't heal much (given our level). Solid B.

2. Korgath (Half-Orc Barbarian 10) - A Johnny come lately, I decided to ditch Otis when he missed once too often. He had pretty decent damage output, was a tough sucker, and the rage was helpful. Good front line damage sponge and hurt purveyor, but thats about all. B+.

3. Chinta Kari (Elf Ranger 10/Mage 4) - Ok clearly I went the wrong route with my ranger. I relegated her to an archer, but she just didn't hit very much, and when she did, it didnt hurt. Towards the later levels she did better and I decided to make her a spellflinger to supplement her missile role, but my game ended before I could get any decent spells to make it worthwhile in the new class. She just wasn't effective enough. C-

4. Roustabout (Halfling Thief 10/Fighter 4) - I had him arching, which didn't help much at all. Putting some fighter levels on him, and making an effort to flank and backstab did go a long way to make him a pretty decent fight support role. Plus his thief skills came in super handy throughout. Next time I think I'll build the fighter and thief classes up concurrently. A-

5. Swanmay (Human Cleric 15) - A straight cleric. Her turning skills came in handy, her healing skills of course served me very well, but there really wasn't much else in her considerably repertoire I found super handy other than Flamestrike and Destruction. But by the time you are dealing with demonic characters with huge MRs and only-fail-on-1 saving throws, the (literal) killer spells don't do jack anyway. A-.

6. Dracandros (Human Magic-User 15) - The pure mage and probably my most reliable power puncher. Fireball and Cone of Cold was so effective throughout. Although naturally fragile, any time it was his turn there definitely would be a big heaping level of hurt (if he didn't miscast). Plus with 21 int he had a big wad of spells. A+ all the way.

And for the NPCs I used

Otis - He worked exactly as designed. A crutch character for the low levels, and a pretty fair fighter. But as I leveled him up, he really got worse and worse. Especially the whole "I'm not going to drop my own items" thing so giving him better armor means he had to lug around his chainmail and constantly be weighed down. I ditched him around level 8 when he KEPT missing and just performing horribly. Korgath was his replacement and did much better, even at low levels.

Pitark - Reasonbly tough fighter, did the job. Decent damage, decent hitpoints, but really not much else. He was all right, but just.

Zaxis - Stunk. But I probably didn't play him the best way. Most of the time I used him as an archer and throwing a few Charm Monsters. He really didn't add much more than that, his bard songs didn't seem to help me much.

 

Since I almost never use Otis, I mix a few (usually 4) fighter levels with a barbarian. Access to specialization with say Enlarge+Rage+stat boosting items with whirlwind can result in a lot of damage.

With the ranger, did you make sure to take Precise Shot early? Getting rid of that -4 penalty is sometimes overlooked on the ranger.

 

precise shot, bracers of archery, gloves of dexterity, and sharp shooting all help your archers to hit more often.

 

Also masterwork composite longbows for extra damage