Vuki's experience with IA V5.0, Using a special party composition Options

[Vuki]

I started a new party because I was a little bit tired and bored with the previous one. My previous party was a usual IA party: sorcerer protagonist + barbarian + blade + ranger->cleric (dual) + cleric/mage (multi) + monk. I will surely continue my old game later on but at the moment I concentrate on the new party. Ok, so this is the new party composation (and their current statistics):

Protagonist: Lothar, a half-elf Vagrant: Chaotic Good; lvl 9th; Axe++, Flail++, Club++, two-weapon style+++
Barbie, the half-ork barbarian (he is a male! ): Chaotic Good; lvl 9th; 2H Sword++, Spear+, Quater Staff++, 2H weapon style++
Ince, the Inquisitor: Lawful Good; lvl 9th; 2H Sword++, Halberd++, Quater Staff+, 2H weapon style++
Rancle, the Ranger->Cleric (dual class): Neutral Good; lvl 7/9th; War Hammer++, Club++, Flail++, Mace++, Quater Staff+, two-weapon style+++
Berti, the Berserker->Thief (dual): Chaotic Neutral; lvl 9/10th; Long Sword++, Scimitar+, Short Sword+, Dagger+, Club++, Dart+, two-weapon style+++
Cernd, the Auramaster: True Neutral; lvl 11th; Scimitar+, Dagger+, Quater Staff+, Sling+

Yes, there is no arcane caster at all! And there will be no arcane caster in the future as well. I will replace sometimes Cernd with other NPCs to trigger their quest but not arcane caster NPC. That was my intention from the beginning and it is a concept and not an accident.

I think in a lot of cases it will make my life harder but some battles will be easier. Also I do not have to prebuff as much because I am not able to do as much prebuff as with an arcane caster. Life is good.

I will write here my experience with this party as I advance in the game. I will update my second post here (so, not this one). I will write it from the viewpoint of Lothar. Btw, I have no idea how I was able to find such a name. Lothar. In the other cases I think the naming logic is clear.

Ps. Sorry for my not so good English! I hope it would be still enjoyable.

Update:
Part 1 is finished
Part 2 is finished
Part 3 is finished
Part 4 is partially entered

This post has been edited by Vuki: Sep 1 2008, 09:33 AM

[lroumen]

I always tried to take 3 casters with arcane abilities. 1 pureclass and 2 dual or 1 pureclass, 1 dual and 1 bard.
At the moment I'm toning that down to get more melee capabilities just as your current setup possesses. I find that you only really need the casting of ruby ray, improved haste, breach, lower resistance and wish. No need for two high level casters for that. For the rest you can handle battles quite well with malison/chaos/emotion type disablers and sequencers filled with direct damage such as fire arrow, melf's, magic missiles and the occasional casting of true sight/remove magic/secret word/etc, so a dual class or blade would be fine for that.

Currely I have for my 3rd v5 game the following party: Riskbreaker (prot), R/C, F/T, Undeadhunter, Sorc (to Imoen) and I'll have probably Jan, Haer'Dalis or Cernd. To my estimation, such a party would be fine as is yours.