Wow. Just wow. Questions from a new player, The game is beating the crap out of me, but I'm starting to like i Options

[ksshan]

What a week it has been. Bumped into a friend whom I have not contacted for a decade. We were gaming buddies, and those were the days of counter-strike, diablo 2, and BG2 (has it really been 10 years? Kinda scary thinking about it. Seems like yesterday). Anyway, this dude is still playing BG2 with IA5, and he could'nt stop raving about it, so I decided to fire up my old BG2 discs (very scratched, but surprisingly still playable).

Well, I started off thinking, how hard could it be? After all, I did play tactics. All those guys complaining about difficulty must be 12-16 yr olds who have never played contra or ninja gaiden etc etc. Buncha wimps. So imagine my pleasant surprise when the suna seni encounter, ordinarily a walk over, decimated my entire party. Thats when I started browsing SP and BWL forums for more info, and boy have I learned alot, but still, I fear, not enough.

Well, armed with my meager new knowledge, I'm starting a new game that will hopefully make the game easier, and this time I'm sticking like glue to the suggested quest order. My usual play style is melee heavy, which seems to fit well with the play style of IA5 from what I've read, so thats cool.

So, what party would you guys recommand for the easiest time for a first time IA player? It doesnt have to be bioware NPCs since the dialogue has gotten old years ago. And since weapons have been revamped, and many weapons made inaccessible early game (I'm gonna miss celestial fury), who should use what weapons?

Thanks a million for whatever help you guys can give. This is the hardest game I've played since Godhand, though its a action game

[Sikret]

Here I quote from Clown's latest report while play-testing IA v6. For those who may not know, Clown is one of the very competent IA-testers.

The swanmays have also proven very useful especially against enemies that employ a lot of death magic. The, some would say, unbalancing utility of swanmays in v5 however is now greatly reduced by the fact that other powerful summons are now available. It is no longer the case that non-swanmay/item upgrade summons lag behind the summons available otherwise, swanmays one main advantage now is the immunity to death spell. As for weaknesses for the Vagrant, he is probably now my most vulnerable frontliner in melee. Both Valygar and the riskbreaker [are] better and the riskbreaker can achieve slightly better physical resistances through chain breaker stance. Due to his poor AC [the vagrant] can sometimes suffer very badly if his hardiness is breached. Overall however he is still hugely powerful.

[My sorcerer] spends far less time wishing than previous casters I have used in IA5 as one now needs to time your wishing as its only really safe to rest once. In addition with all the new spells there is usually something more productive that he could be doing.

Just to let everyone (matti and others) know that we are addressing the balance issues properly and the worries about overuse of the wish spell and relative power of swanmays and vagrants have been also addressed to in v6.