Contemplating a party for an eventual 2nd IA run through

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I'm not sure I'll actually have time to play "round 2" anytime soon (still have a bit further to go in round 1, and I have a new addition to my family happening in a few weeks). BUT, as is often the case during the TOB portion of the game, I'm tossing around ideas for my next go.

I'm assuming that this runthrough will be using IA 4.3, so I've included what little I know about that in my party decisions (e.g. Flail of Def/Wounding usable only by single class rangers, the truth/JD swords usuable only be single class fighters).

So here's the party I'm envisioning:

The Party

--MC Ranger/Cleric - @charname - Dual Wield FoA+ Storm Star +5? Or Staves (Staff of the Ram +6)?
- Imp.Ankheg Plate

--SC Stalker - Valygar - Dual Wield Katana(Corthala True blade) and Flail of Defending/Wounding
- Imp.Corthala Family Armor

--SC Berserker - Minsc - Longsword (The Truth, next--> JD)/Shield (Supreme Shelter)
- Huskar Lord's Armor, Imp Ring of Gaxx

--DC Ftr7/Cleric - Anomen - Hammer of Thor/shield (Delryn Family Legacy)
- Non Magical Full Plate, RoP +4,

--MC F/M/T - Jan - SS(Cutthroat+5)/Shield or Dagger(Grandfather of Assassins)/Shield(Sentinal)
- Jansen Adventure Wear (Enhanced)

--DC Swash10/Mage - Nalia - Sling/Buckler+3 or SotM
- Robe of Vecna, De'Arnise Signet Ring (Enhanced)


A Few Comments About the Proposed Party

I've found Anomen to be one of my most useful party members, and so I really want to have 2 clerics (more greater restoration, among other things).

Since I'm currently playing a fighter/mage protagonist, ranger seems the way to go this time (for the additional quests, etc). I don't currently have Valygar, so I really want to include him in the next run (he gets some really fantastic item upgrades, and can use Flail of Def&Wound). I also like the idea of having 2 single class fighter types (valygar and minsc(sk'd to berserker).

I always like to have an advancing rogue type, and sking Jan to F/M/T seems like it would add some nice umph to his melee contribution (while also adding a very entertaining member to the group). Based on my current experience with IA, I think I'll handle the slower mage progression just fine. He'll be the nasty backstabber with great stealth. And the only UAI member of the party.

SKing Nalia to a DC swash10/mage will give her some nice advantages as well. With the Swash class and the items I have in mind for her, she should eventually reach around -18AC. Not bad for Nalia! My goal will be to have her using the +4 sling that requires no bullets with the +3 buckler. Nalia is just a supreme mage in IA. And I'll focus on getting her detect illusion up nice and high. Very useful ability.

I'm not totally sure what weapon to give my ranger/cleric protagonist--clerics are so limited in their weapon choices. FoA seems like one obvious choice. There are a few other decent +4 flails in the game, some nice maces, and heck, perhaps a nice club would work. There are plently of nice staves, but I tend to like my rangers dual wielding.

Any comments or suggestions from others are welcome.

 

It seems like an odd combination to me, not broken though and the more I look at it more more powerful it seems.
Having a Swashbuckler/Mage in addition to a fighter/mage/thief feels a bit repetitive redundant to me but i guess the 10lvl's of swashbuckler will only restrict 1 lvl of mage at the end of the game, and Nalia will end up being mainly used as a mage...or a mage tank with stoneskin, protection from magical weapons, mirror image and -18AC (this sounds positively obscene).

The leveling will be frustratingly slow with the F/M/T (having said that you can get some pretty good spell/fighting/backstabbing strategies with them (I tanked one through vanilla SoA with a sorcerer, and then ToB with Sarevok - I only had a 2-3 member party though, so xp wasn't as much of an issue).

thats good - cos I wouldn't have a chance! This looks to me like the main point of concern to me - especially very early game when you effectively only have you F/M/T for spells.

I also don't like Stalkers - not that great a fighter imo (studded leather armor tops, no grandmastery etc), not really useful to backstab ( and you have a FMT to do that as well ) and the mage spells are really just token (I mean haste is alright, but your 2 mages should be more than capable of covering the party in this regard). Given how well you've though out the other classes, I bet theres more than a few ultimate strategic reasons for this decision though

GL for when you get around to it.

 

Yes maybe it is better if you SK Jan in a Fighter/Illusionist (even better than a plain F/M with +1 spell/level).
You will miss Timetraps and UAI, but he will be more powerful IMO.

But anyway your party is powerful enough as it is now and well balanced.

 

Thanks for the replies.

@Stu
You're right that I'll be somewhat challenged in the arcane department early on, but Nalia will quickly come into her own. I would need to figure out an appropriate XP amount for her to start with... I would hope to get her into her mage class pretty quickly.

I figure that during my second run in IA, I should be able to work around some of those early short comings without too much problem. Oh, and as I'm thinking about it more, I can probably do a little better than -18AC with Nalia, though it wouldn't be until very late game.

2AC from robe of vecna, -4 from buckler, -3 amulet of master harper, -3 cloak of prot +3, -3 from her improved ring, -3 from swash levels, -4 from dex = -18AC. Could do even better if I stack a Ring of Prot, or use other items, but I don't think I'd bother.

As far as Valygar is concerned, his improved sword and armor are very powerful items that only he can use (I can use shadow dragon armor and celestial fury until I get those). And eventually he'll be able to dual wield flail of defending and wounding, and will just be a complete damage machine. I've used Valygar several times in the past, and I quite like him. Spells are just gravy.

As far as Jan, as I mentiond I'm sort of wierd about always wanting an "advancing" theif in my party. I like thief HLAs, and Jan as a F/M/T will get them. In my current game I have Nalia and a MC fighter/mage, and during battles I let Nalia cast 80% of the spells while my F/M does a lot more melee (so you could argue that my F/M's spell casting power goes somewhat to waste). By giving Jan fighter levels I think, battle for battle, he'll prove a much more valuable team member for having decent fighting skills. And with the large XP to be had in IA (I remove the XP cap, per Sikret's recomendation), I'll be very interested to see how powerful this character gets at high levels.

Sure, there's some redundancies in abilities here and there, but I think there's also significant power to be tapped from this group.

[ June 22, 2007, 07:54: Message edited by: Marceror ]

 

Congratulations (in advance) for the new addition to your family, Marceror!

If you are going to play IA v4.3, then I definitely recommend a Vagrant protagonist (over an R/C). Vagrant is the most powerful Ranger Kit (Stalker stands second). I also second your choice to have valygar in party; he is my favourite NPC and even apart from his new items he is one of the most powerful NPCs in the game (i.e a better backstabber than a master thief as he backstabs with a fighter's THAC0; even better than a Fighter/Theif with equal XPs). If one knows how to play a stalker, it's one of the most powerful classes/kits. A while ago, I sent a post about how to play a stalker effectively in this forum.