The Ultimate Low Maintenance Party

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I'm really lazy and I hate micro-management. To that end I am trying to work out what the ultimate low maintenance party would be. So, I admit that Sorcerers and Ranger / Clerics are potentially really powerful but you have to cast loads of buffs and things in order to get that effect. Examples of my idea of high maintenance include:
- casting buffs is higher maintenance than wearing good armour
- summoning is higher maintenance than fighting yourself
- setting traps is higher maintenance than using your sword
- casting Detect Traps and walking around traps and casting Knock is higher maintenance than having a thief
- backstabbing is higher maintenance than charging straight in
- juggling and protecting 6 party members is higher maintenance than managing one
- BUT trying to fit everything into one person's inventory is higher maintenance than being able to chuck stuff into 6 people's packs
- managing ammunition is higher maintenance than using a sword.

So, I figure a workable low maintenance party might be:
PC Undead Hunter (no need to keep casting Negative Plane Protection plus simple melee fighter)
Sarevok (no special abilities to stuff around with)
Anomen (can handle healing and any buffs that are required, otherwise can jump in and fight without buffs)
Imoen (can deal with traps and locks, can cast the anti-mage spells when really required)

 

If you really want the ultima no-maintenance "party", I'd go with a solo Undead Hunter or a solo Inquisitor. Not a party, but it works. The Inquisitor seems like an even better choice actually: just bash anything that isn't a spellcaster, and whenever you run into a mage cast Dispel Magic and THEN bash to death. Not to mention that you can simply walk through most traps and drink a potion to heal, which is less maintenance than detecting a trap and disarming it

 

Actually you dont have to buff up a Sorcerer too much. A Stoneskin and Mage Armor, once he gets out of bed and thats it. He wont be seeing any action on the frontlines anyways.
Barbarian, Fighter, Beserker, Kensai, all Paladin Kits, Ranger, Archer all definately fit into your definition of low maintenance.

If you think you can leave for spellhold really early, keep Imoen. Else replace Imoen with Jan to have a progressively impoving thief through-out the game.

 

Sarevok has a chance to stun and deathbringer assault target each hit

A lv18 mage will have a breeze with almost battle, just timestop, improved iclarity, then unleash all spells he got, quite boring

 

You can walk through most traps, but is it really a good idea to do it every time? I distinctly remember getting hit by a Disintegrate tripwire in the Planar Sphere.

 

"The Low Maintenance Party" is a good idea!

Here is my suggestion:
Fighter/Thief
Keldorn
Mazzy
Valygar

Comments:
All fighter party is low maintenance.
Don't sell the good healing potions and stock up on protective scrolls just in case.

Fighter/Thief.
The protagonist handles locks and traps with ease and can also fight.

Keldorn.
I'd take an Inquisitor any day over an Undead Hunter! Instant almighty Dispel Magic, how "low maintenance" can you get? Instant True Sight is nothing to sneeze at either.

Give him the Amulet of Power and you have protection from level drain.
Keldorn is the only one in the party with less than 18 dexterity so the Gauntlets of Dexterity goes to him.

Mazzy.
Neat special abilities and can either give excellent fire support with her bow or engage in melee.

Valygar.
Both missile support as well as melee.
Anomen is a good alternative, but since he has dual classed from a fighter at level 7 he isn't as good as Valygar at fighting. Anomen is also a spellcaster which is both good and bad. The bad is naturally that spellcasters are high maintenance and the good is that his spells help far more than Valygar's spells.

[ February 14, 2005, 13:27: Message edited by: Earl Grey ]

 

You could try my party of Truth, Steel and Justice:

PC - Cavalier
Keldorn
Minsc
Mazzy
Anomen
Imoen

I usually kit Imoen out with some good leather armour and a buckler, and give her a proficiency in long swords and sword and shield style. Keldorn doth wield the greatswords, Minsc uses either greatswords, spears or halberds, Mazzy is armed with her short sword and shield, Anomen carries a mace or flail with shield, and my Cavalier uses bastard swords with either a shield or another bastard sword. Fill up Anomen's spell slots with healing spells of that level, ie use up all his level 5 slots with heal, with maybe the odd Restoration thrown in, and off you go.

 

In effect you're disabling her mage class and using her as a 7th level thief. How can that be good?

If you mean taking only healing spells in all spell slots then that's pretty horrible advice.

Heal is a 6th level spell.

 

Well, Imoen is not supposed to be first into battle, she is there for support, and because I like her, the same reason I chose all the other characters in the party. The reason all Anomen's spell slots are healing spells is because I cannot be bothered with spending time before a battle casting spells on people to make them better, I prefer to use a potion, or simply charge into the fray. The point of this party is that it takes very little in terms of looking after, you may occasionally have to drag Imoen out of a fight with a big nasty thing, but other than that, it can look after itself. Of course, I forgot to add: hoard as many protection from magic/ undead scrolls as you can. As to heal being a sixth level spell, oh well, I forgot, as I haven't played this game since November.

 

Still, if you aren't using Imoen for her spellcasting then she is the worst possible NPC one can have. That's hardly low maintenance.

I can see how one might conceive of using only healing spells for a cleric. IMO it's not low maintenance, it's a waste of potential since you'd do better with a dedicated fighter instead of the cleric and then just use healing potions.
At least stick in a few of these spells: Remove Fear, Animate Dead (if the cleric has reached level 15), Holy Smite and Protection from Evil 10' Radius.

 

Ah, well I do occasionally use Holy Smite, but the major thing with this party is that I built it based upon which characters I liked, and hence would select for my party. I built it with the idea of a group of characters fighting for good, and chose the ones that, to me at least, epitomised this. I took Imoen because she is my little sister, and even though I rarely use mage spells, she usually gets a place in my party, hence my giving her armour.

 

multiclass Fighter/Thief
Anomen
Korgan
Keldorn
Valygar

is pretty good. With Anomen,
1) Armor of Faith/Resist Fear
2) Holy Might
3) Holy Smite or whatever
4) Free Action/Death Ward
5) Chaotic Commands
6) Heal
7) Powerful stuff - your choice

And no Imoen this way.

 

@Kulyok
Korgan is a great character, but there is just no way I'd put him in a party with a paladin. Paladins should flat out refuse any association with evil characters.

 

Surprisingly enough, I think Keldorn and Korgan seem to do ok together... I don't even think Korgan goes in one of his insult streaks with him, unlike with practically everyone else.
Strange, really - a paladin and a chaotic evil battlerager, and they do ok together??? Plus, it's the same paladin that comes to blows with the 2 other evil NPCs in SoA. Does he have a certain fondness for CE fighters, I wonder

 

@Earl Grey
Sarevok wouldn't fit with an Undead Hunter, either !
Only with a very special Undead Hunter
The same for Anomen.

But I got your point, as Harbourboy is roleplaying, there's no chance of such composition. They seem to get along in the game, though.

 

I guess low maintanence has something to do with playing style.

My nomination would be a solo F/M/T, or perhaps, just for giggles, a solo C/T.

The last time I played, I tried using the most pathetic possible solo character: a human cleric with the stats S03 D03 C03 I03 W09 Ch03 (stat total: 24; SKed of course, as the game won't let you roll lower than 75). I kindof stopped playing once the character had a full set of stat enhancing gear (+FoA, shield of cheese, etc), as he had become your standard superpowered guy by that point. But the Irenicus dungeon, where basically a solo goblin could take him out, was kindof interesting. He could carry 5 lbs of gear, and was too weak to use any weapon other than a sling, so he just ended up going weaponless. While DUHM would let him equip leather armor and a staff, his damage and ac was still abysmal. Strength of one would have actually allowed him to fight for a turn, but it seemed like a better option to use summons when necessary, and otherwise, to devote all first level slots to Sanctuary and avoid anything dangerous.

To my surprise, you can do all sorts of things Sanctuaried, including opening chests and taking things (not sure about picking locks or disarming traps), and casting non-offensive non-summoning spells (haven't completely tested the limits of this). BTW, can someone give a decent comparison of what you can and can't do without breaking the spell for Sanctuary, Invisibility, and Improved Invisibility? If you can disable traps and open locks without losing Sanctuary, then C/T's are more powerful than I had thought...

Which brings me to my point: the ultimate low maintenance tactic is to run by unnecessary battles undetected. Lots of the BG2 enemies are filler, and whether you kill them or not has no bearing on the plot. My super-weak character actually turned out to be rather low maintanence; not only did he skip alot of battles while still cherry-picking the best gear, but as a solo character, you didn't have to spend so much time on inventory, taking the essential gear and selling the rest.

There were two major annoyances to this character; first, traps and locks were a major pain, and second, even with FoA and a decent girdle, he still couldn't deliver the sometimes necessary quick kills. So a F/M/T, who has a fighter THAC0, thief skills, and improved invisibility, non-detection, and even immunity:divination, might be the way to go. Then again, a C/T with backstab, sanctuary, and righteous magic etc when necessary might also do the trick.

It seems to me like it would be alot more work to do this with a party (tho it could be interesting with a say 3 person party). Summons, however, can make a great party when you need one, and they disappear when you don't. Of course, if you're looking for NPC interaction, this wouldn't be the way to go.

 

On the subject of 3 person parties, in Icewind Dale I had success with the following party:

• Elven F/M
• Half-elven Ranger/Cleric
• Halfling F/T

Although Harbourboy mentioned R/C's specifically as requiring lots of buffs, that isn't necessarily how they'd fight. The point, really, is that everyone has fighter skills to use when needed, and spells to call upon when the going gets tough. Mages giving you trouble? Cast Insect Swarm. Traps can be easily disarmed, buffs if stuck, etc. It's not optimal, I suppose, but you do cover all the bases, and if everyone in the party can tank (theoretically) it does save some headaches. Never tried this in BG2, though, because I like to take the NPCs more than powergame.

I think this party would be more effective if micro-managed, but it doesn't require it. It's more for contingency plans.

Of course, for really low maintenance, you could take a monk, as is being discussed in another thread. By late game, they're immune to practically everything, so it becomes almost a case of just "point-click-kill" for most battles. If you keep running out of inventory space, take Imoen along as a mule. She'd only need to cast spells as a time-saver, really. Whether it's that much fun, though, seems to vary from person-to-person... Some people find the sense of invulnerability dull.

[ February 17, 2005, 10:38: Message edited by: The Magpie ]

 

Sorcerer is a very good protagonist that really doesn't have to be micro-managed. Just pick spells you really like when you level up. Aside from those times, you either have a spell or you do not.

 

I'd have to agree with Klorox - a sorcerer requires a lot less micro-managemant than a mage. My sorceress (Tashia) has only died once in my current game and I'm in the last level of Watchers keep at the moment (just before the Demogorgon) and she hasn't cast Stoneskin once!

 

Earl Grey spoke about putting the Amulet of Power on Keldorn. He cannot use the AoP as its use is restricted to certain classes.

My current PC, a fighter/Thief, can use it. Perhaps that is due to selecting the 'use any item' as one of my HLA's.