Your Favorite Parties

I've run out of creative imagination. :shrug: I'm looking for interesting parties that can finish the game with only moderate difficulty (because there's no way in the 66 layers of the Abyss that I'm going with an all Bard group!) Any and all builds welcome.

 

I always thought the 5 druids build was funny. Running around with 10 bears in a big pack. :google:

But I'm currently having lots of fun with my twin halfling brothers, kodo and podo (hooray for obscure beastmaster references!). They're a monk and a ranger, not that it really matters.

How about a neutral-aligned party of 5 clerics, each with one of the five different alignments and the associated alignment domains? Can you make a holy, unholy sword? Would you want to?

5 half-orc monks was a fun play for me too.

 

Well, my favorite party:

LG Human Cleric, Law and Good domains, Scribe Scroll and WP:Greatsword as starting feats. Scribe Scroll means that he never needs to run out of spells, including gems like Holy Smite once he hits level 7. Level 7 also lets him craft Holy Axiomatic weapons for the rest of the party. Fully buffed, he'll do serious damage. An alternative is to give him Negotiator instead of Great Sword, and a slightly higher INT. Diplomacy and Sense Motive will get you through most town quests, and (imo) social skills are almost worthless for a Good party once you hit the Temple. A shield and mace is a very effective combo, even if it lacks the damage potential the Great Sword gave you.

LG Human Fighter 1/Cleric X, Strength and Destruction domains, Power Attack, Cleave, WF:Greatsword as starting feats. Even without buffs she's quite good in combat, and with buffs she's excellent. Level 3 gets her one more combat feat, Level 6 gets her Craft Item to help spread the XP costs around. The level 9 feat can be anything. The Smite and Strength feats are free actions and stack with anything, allowing for a really massive attack once per day when you need it.

NG Human Druid, starts with SF:Conjuration and Augment Summons, Scribe Scrolls at 3, Craft Item at 6, Craft Weapon at 9. Equally good is a Half Orc Druid, STR 20, Scribe Scrolls at 1, Craft Item at 3, Craft Weapon at 6, anything at 9. I find shapeshifting worthless for Druids most of the time; with a good strength, enchanted armor and an enchanted weapon, they'll do more damage in Human form. Only skimping on STR and CON makes shapeshifting worthwhile. Scribe Scroll again means an endless supply of key spells. Note that Bark Skin stacks with armor in TOEE, and it lasts a long time. Feel free to cast it on everyone. The Animal Companion is very useful at low levels, having up to 20+ HPs at 1st level (the Max HP mod won't max this, but will let you view it). With buffs (Stoneskin is vital past party level 7) the Animal will keep doing reasonable damage and sucking up enemy attacks all the way to the end of the game.

LN Human Wizard, SF and GSF Enchantment at Level 1, Spell Penetration at 3, Craft Item at 5, Greater Spell Penetration at 6, Empower Spell at 9, Craft Weapon at 10. Early on the Enchantment feats will make his Sleep spells much more effective; a stack of Sleep scrolls will allow him to take out at least one or two foes every round in the Moathouse. Enchantment spells remain useful until near the end of the game, and the character can switch to other spells if he needs to. SF and GSF Evocation work as well, but are less useful before level 5. Give this character a Raven familliar and Appraise skill, and he can take care of the party's trading needs as well. The spell penetration feats mean that his damaging spells will remain useful throughout the game. Empower Spell at 9 gives him access to Empowered Fireballs as soon as he can cast them, and finally Weapon Crafting comes in just in time to give everyone a Keen weapon.

NG Human Rogue 4/Fighter 6. 6/4 also work well. This character will be your main speaker (give her as High an INT, DEX and CHA as possible); I usually end up making her an archer, but then I use point buy. If you're using the all 18s cheat she'll do more damage as a two handed weapon fighter. Max out her OL, Search, and DD skills (you'll need them for Liv's mod), and go for a reasonably high Bluff and Sense Motive. Bluff boosts Diplomacy and Intimidate, and you'll eventually give her a Cloak of Charisma +6 and a Circlet of Persuasion. Max out Use Item as well, when you can. With Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, WF:Longbow, Rapid Shot, and WS:Longbow, she'll do good damage, and that becomes massive damage with a Holy Axiomatic Frost bow. Use Item means that she can throw down with Fireballs, Ice Storms, etc when the situation calls for it. An alternative for this character is the Rogue 1/Ranger 9. He'll hit a bit more often and get somewhat better HPs, and the extra Animal Companion can be useful, but you'll lose some Sneak Attack damage. Another alternative (if you chose to make the Cleric your speaker) is a Rogue 1/Wizard 9, for more spell power (and more Empowere Fireballs) but the loss of that very useful bow.

 

Fighter, fighter, cleric (of war, useally hextor or eythnul), ranger, monk. Thats what I use to bash my way through the game, I'm trying to get into magic but I just don't trust those trickies magic users.

 

I entered the abyss, and never returned. 6 bards and a Balor.
Now I'm playing with a druid, bard, priest, fighter, rogue and wizard.
Actually, should be getting back to it!

 

Strangely, the party I playe that had the easiest time was 4 Wizards led by a Rogue2/Bard 8. Only thing they couldn't kill was Iuz, and that's only because he ran away too quickly.

Undead were also a problem early in the game. Still, got through with no party deaths and no reloads, which is nice.

 

2 barbarians (1 focused in greatswords and one in greateaxe)
a pure rogue (archery)
a ranger 6/rogue 4 (start taking more rogue after 10 if you want)(archery)
a ranger (archery)

Pick up meleny, scorrp, and oohlgrist

Not much into magic here

Maybe exchange someone either a npc or character for a cleric (I'd personally give up the pure ranger)

 

I've noticed a couple of y'all recommending rogue 4/other 6+ builds. Can I ask why? Do you put a lot of stock into uncanny dodge? I usually do only rogue 3, to get the second damage die for sneak attack and plenty of skill points to go through the rest of the game. I avoid 5th level (for the 3rd die) because you sacrifice too many hp with those two levels, have all the skill points you need already, and you lose the +1 to BAB at level 5. Just wondering why 4 is the magic number for you.

 

For me, it's more a case of skills point management. I use Rogues as the skill monsters of the party (if the Rogue is the leader), and that extra level can be useful when keeping the key dialog skills, thieving skills, and Use Item near max. If I'm not worried about Surprise Attack damage, I prefer a Rogue 1 or 2, Ranger 9 or 8 (for the skill points and BAB). If I have a Cleric or Bard to act as the talker, I tend to use a Rogue 1/ Wizard 9, just to get the thief skills.

 

Personally, I don't multiclass my Rogues much now that I've discovered the wonders of the Cloak of Invisibility...although WS would be nice...

Edit: Book, how is your first Cleric taking WF: Greatsword?

 

I'll have to try it.

As a Human he gets two first level feats. I usually give him Scribe Scroll and Martial Weapon Familiarity: Great Sword.

Sticking with a mace works fine, but for a high STR Cleric a Greatsword is an excellent weapon.

 

Oh, I though you ment Weapon Focus..not Weapon Proficiency...

 

Argh. Jargon troubles. You are correct, in D&D they are Proficiencies, not Familiarities.

 

I personally love rogues in pnp i am always at least part rogue (part ranger if not pure rogue) and in this situation i took 4 rogue because i was willing to take 11 as a rogue if i got there with the mods that allow it

 

I haven't played pencil and paper (A)D&D in years. That's why I try to play the computer RPG's. The last time I played, only non-humans could multi-class. If this is a component of D&D 3.5, I can live with that. But as far as game play, I haven't upped a level yet, and am wondering what is the best way to play? Stick with a single class player, or multi-class a couple of characters? And if I do multi-class, what is the best strategy? It sounds like you can just about multi-class in any combination if the stats are right. So is there a guide for this, for the manual didn't get into much detail.