I was pleasantly surprised to see options for playing a Warmage and a Beguiler when I last played toee. I haven't tried either of these classes before, so I thought it would be a nice change of pace. I made eight characters using standard rolls, no point buys. I rolled a few times to get solid stats, but nothing outrageous. 5 of my characters are Warmages. 1 Beguiler 1 Cleric 1 Sorcerer At level one I got the dreaded troll encounter on the world map. I figured it would be a total party wipe, but I didn't lose a single character. Thanks to what feels like endless magic missiles and the Warmage's Edge extra damage, the troll fell at the front of the second round. Dropped easily by a party of first level characters. I practically blinked through Welkwood Bog. Again, magic missiles made quick work of the enemies, and I had my Beguiler on the side using Sleep to pick up the slack. My party is currently at second level. Decent AC's. I've got them outfitted in chain shirts and carrying elven shields. Are there any class combinations you've found to be particularly effective?
I'm also looking forward to seeing my Beguiler at level 20 taking on Iuz. I'm curious how that battle will go when the character automatically overcomes SR.
I lean toward fighters, personally... less resting is necessary that way. My usual party is:: Fighter/Rogue (Face, builds to 9/11 since there's no levels past 20) Barbarian/Fighter (Melee, just enough Barbarian to get Uncanny Dodge) Fighter/Mage (builds to 12/8 to get +16 BAB) Fighter/Cleric (builds to 11/9 to craft Periapts of Wound Closure and get +17 BAB) and two Ranger/Fighters (+20 BAB by the end) Six characters let you complete all the quests, and speeds up leveling a bit.
It goes up to level 100, believe it or not. I don't see anyone actually grinding out that many levels, but that's how high it goes. Seems to crash if you mix druid and monk too high, oddly. *** My Warmages aren't as great as I thought. I've been rolling terrible for hit points, and it's hard to get a decent spread of stats. Too many important stats with the Warmage Edge ability requiring Int and the spellcasting being based on Cha. Worse, the BaB progression is weak, so I've got all these characters in armor carrying weapons and shields, but they can't really hit much, unless of course, they're casting. But I do have a lot of magic missiles, and I just got the party to 6th level, which means fireballs all around. Unfortunately, I hate hate hate these save crazy Bugbears with endless hit points, and those fireballs aren't going to do me a whole lot of good in the Water Temple.
You discovered what I did many years ago: Arcane Evocations rock! Just make a party of all Wizards (or Sors, but I chose Wizards) and blast away! Warmages are effectively Evoker Sors.
I normally go more of a fighter route myself, but wow, this combination is incredible. After hitting level six and starting to get some crafting going on from my cleric to offset the questionable stats, low hit points and weak to hit bonuses... I'm walking through everything. Earth temple, no problem. Reactive Air and Fire temples, didn't sweat a thing. Reactive Water temple, a breeze. Magic missiles wiped out the juggernaut, and ice storms destroyed the rest. Went fishing, didn't take a single point of damage. Ambushed in the house. No even one point of damage on my characters, and that was at level six. Now that I've hit level eight, I'm heavily considering going forward as Eldritch Knights in medium armor. I'm fully armored, carrying great weapons, my gear is getting crafted, and my party is pretty much unstoppable with evocation. I'm sure something is bound to surprise me and give me a hard time, but I haven't seen anything yet. Really an unbelievable combination.
Higher level Bugbears likely have rogue levels and evasion. Better to use Glitterdust, Web, Stinking Cloud, Grease, Sleet Storm, Entangle, Slow, and other area control spells. Solid Fog works well with area effect spells such as Fireballs, Cone of Cold, etc.
That's the kind of party Iuz is built for... the trick with him is you have to kill him quick, or he gets away.
