IWD2 New party

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Thoughts on:
Drow bard with hight cha and int, and alchemy skill
duergar dreadmaster of bane
Aasimar paladin of ilmater/sorcerer
halfling rogue/trasmuter
half-orc barbarian/fighter with hight con and str
Human monk/druid or Deep gnome pure monk...

I want to finish all quest...

 

A svirfneblin monk is actually pretty good.
I'm not so sure about the grey dwarf cleric, although any race can do fine as a cleric, you might want to swap the half-orc and the duergar so that the barbarian/fighter is the one with the ECL and the half-orc cleric is not ECL. Although the drow bard is a tossup. The ECL hurts, but the charamia is nice.

 

Drow bard can be good if you have some other non-ECL character as your primary arcane caster/s. As long as your wizard keeps that rogue level at 1 then your wizard, sorcerer and bard should work together nicely.

I don't think transmuter is a good idea. No necromancy is already pretty painful, but no abjuration (Stoneskin and protection spells) to go with it is too much. I'd go with diviner since you already have at least three other people who can summon stuff.

I agree with the above, if that dreadmaster is your primary divine caster then you'll definitely want him to be non-ECL though ECL cleric could work if the druid was a pureclass non-ECL.

Too many melees to add a Deep Gnome monk IMO though with tactics you can make it work. Personally I'd go some ranged attack specialist (bows, crossbows, throwing weapons) on that last slot.

 

I only saw two melee characters, the paladin/sorcerer I assumed was only a 1 or 2 level dip for the saving throw bonuses and the rest pure sorcerer.
Although I just noticed something I missed. Why he would choose Ilmater instead of Mystra and incur multi-classing penalties I do not know.
G3 Fixpack or Tweakpack allows multi-classing to sorcerer if you choose Mystra.

 

I a it possible to cleanse the graveyard with paladin of ilmater /sorcerer... That is why I chose him.

 

Any paladin will do. Isn't the aasimar favored class also paladin in IWD2? The problem though will be that if he/she takes sorcerer then the character will no longer be able to advance as a paladin of Ilmater. Picking Mystra fixes that.

I guessed that he/she was going for Cera Sumat, which means that paladin is supposed to be some sort of spellsword.

 

I think a follower of ilmater (monk or paladin) could get some bonus xp cleaning the shrine in the graveyard.

I like the pure deep gnome monk

 

Drow bards are amazing, the way I play anyway.

Bards are swamped with options and limitations from your choices. I decided that my bard would not do any melee combat whatsoever, and focus solely on casting and singing. I gave her some defensive equips and kept her in the back.
I have full casters who frequently engage in frontline melee: two battleclerics, a paladin1/sorcererX, rogue2/illusionistX, monk1/DruidX. All full casters for all intents and purposes, swinging weapons on the frontline with buffs and healing. The bard stays in the back to boost everyone with luck, cast vital spells not in the others' spellbooks, and occasionally run around as decoy to draw fire.

Her kill count was double digit while everyone else's was in the thousands, but that didn't do justice to how useful she was in a full party. My tip: step away from narrative conventions. Let casters try their hand at combat, and their buffed performance will not disappoint. For Bards: Let the jack-of-all-trades step away from one of those trades (combat), and you'll see that she no longer has a shortage of feat allocation, and she can be built effectively as a high-INT, max-CHA caster instead.

 

Last time I played, I had a deep gnome Ranger 1/Monk X. I am up to around the battle squares area, I think. Been a while. I used this character partly for level squatting as he'll be behind in levels due to multiclass XP penalties and being 3 levels behind as a deep gnome. He sucks at combat early on, so I give him a level of Ranger so he can dual-wield daggers and short swords. He has a high AC, saves and MR, so his defences are good. He will be low on HP until he gains a few levels. I use him to draw enemy attacks away from everyone else.

 

Quick questions, I did give my monk two weapon fighting because I though he uses both bare hands to fight - does two weapon fighting has influence on fists...

 

Two-weapon fighting does not affect the monk's unarmed attacks.

 

Oh, well...

In POE it does, so I though maybe..., but it seems not...

 

I would think a level of rogue for sneak attacks would have synergized better with a monk.
The monk gets "hide in the shadows" as a class skill.
TWF is nice, but the monk does that with unarmed strike.

 

I primarily use my ranger/monk as a tank to draw attacks due to his high AC and saves. He is also the fastest, so he is primarily the first character enemies target. His mirror image and blur abilities also help him avoid hits that get past his high AC.

I have never ever used sneak attack in IWD2 before. It seems rather cumbersome to set up. Just not my style of play with Infinity Engine games. I normally just rush in with my party. The ranger/monk gets there first and draws the attacks which don't hit often. Then my barbarian/fighter comes in does massive damage with the 2H sword. My paladin and cleric come in for support. My rogue/wizard and sorcerer stay back and fire arrows or bolts. If I need to use magic, my arcane casters will cast spells in the back while the 4 melee characters protect them.

My monk maximises Dex and Wis for high AC. I have a fairly low strength. I use the weapon finesse feat and small blades, so he hits much more often than with fists. I pump Dex when levelling up, so his AC and his attack bonus with small blades increase. As he cannot use shields, the TWF allows him to use a second weapon for an extra attack. I find that with the weapons I find, my ranger/monk does more damage with 2 weapons than with fists. I don't think I will get to a high enough level for most of the game where fists deal more damage.

 

It isn't hard to set up, no harder than backstabbing in IWD1 or any of the other Infinity Engine games.
In fact, it is easier, since you don't necessarily need to be hidden in the shadows to get the sneak attack damage. If the enemies are already in melee, just come in behind them and you get sneak attack damage for flanking.

 

I guess it's just not my style. I never did that in IWD1 either. I just go mostly straight up melee with my front line guys. With my back row guys, I go archery or blast them with spells. Most battles involve a lot of enemies, so the board is rather crowded. I find it is enough trouble just getting my characters to not get in the way of each other let alone try to go through enemies to get behind someone. I never really tried to develop that technique of sneak attacking.

 

In IWD1, I'd use a thief, typically a fighter/thief to scout, then have him backstab when he joins the battle. Generally only one backstab per skirmish. Take the orc caverns right outside Easthaven. You have a lot of clusters of orcs, so there would be multiple backstabs, but only one backstab per cluster of orc.

In contrast, with the goblins waiting on the outskirts of Easthaven I generally only get to stab a single one in the back.

Of course, missile weapons were nearly as useful in IWD1 as they were in BG1, so I did not always backstab, sometimes my thief would be firing his shortbow at the same time the fighters were firing their crossbows or [composite] longbows and the clerics using their slings. If the mages and druids were not casting spells like grease and entangle, they would join in the fun with slings and darts.

 

I think I remember in BG1, I used missile weapons a lot. In IWD1, I think I went half and half. I didn't finish either of these games.

I did finish IWD2 once before using 3 melee characters and 3 ranged characters. I'm trying to finish it with 4 melee and 2 ranged this time. Managing the ammo was tedious at times. Right now, the crossbows seem to be the better ranged weapons.

 

If you haven't installed G3 tweaks, I strongly suggest you do so. The infinite ammo stacking and the ammo belts really helps with managing the ammo, along with purchasing stacks of 100 ordinary missiles.
In fact, if you use those two tweaks, you will probably never have to buy any ammo except possibly your first 100 bullets for your sling or some darts at the start before you get the returning frost dart (forget if it was the Horde Fortress or the Ice Temple). Especially once you get the target arrow for your bowmen.
Just use ordinary arrows/bolts/bullets against foes with no special resistances, and save the masterwork or magic projectiles for the foes with damage reduction or really tough bosses.
You just have to make sure to kill and loot all the mooks and you won't run into any ammo problems for your bowmen once you get out of Targos. You can [battlefield] requisition all you need from Torak's orcs.

 

As I currently only have 2 characters using ranged weapons, I don't have a big issue managing the ammo for them. Both currently use crossbows. I have found enough bolts to last for quite a while and I don't recall when I last had to buy ammo. I have the unlimited arrows, in the event I decide to switch one of them to use the bow. Right now, the crossbows I am using are the most effective ranged weapons I have. The hit and damage bonus is just better than anything else. One of them also fires twice per round.