IAv6 party composition, This was bound to come up Options

[lroumen]

With regard to the new adventures into the realm of Improved Anvil I was thinking about a new party composition that would give good results and new challenges for me. Of course there is a standard layout of each IA party that is almost necessary if you want to have a relatively relaxed time throughout the majority of the challenges. So if you do not have this layout you may be destined to have a tough time.

General layout:
1-2 single class warriors for high damage output. Recommended is one going dual-wield (rangers are nice) and one going two-handed weapons (paladins are nice).
1-2 dual-class warriors or characters capable of melee fighting such that they can perform a secondary task like buffing, debuffing, thieving, healing, summoning (R/C, F/C, F/M, F/T, swashbuckler or blades are examples dualled or multi'd)
1-2 clerics or druids for healing, buffing, summoning (use shields)
1-2 mages for dispelling, disabling, damage (three is better)
Anyway.... something like this.


There are going to be a few new developments in v6 and I am tempted to try those out. Here is a grasp of what I found interesting. There is a lot more to be read here of course.
1. Expanded mage stronghold for good-aligned necromancers.
2. Valygar the Protector
3. Improved Riskbreaker bonuses
4. Nerfed Bard spells
5. Improved Swashbuckler HLAs
6. Nerfed small people saves


My own thoughts for a party.
- I did not play protagonist mage properly since v2, so I am tempted to go with the necromancer.
- I have not yet played well with an Auramaster so I was tempted to try that out this time too.
- I'm intrigued by the Protector kit for Valygar (whom I normally just slay).
- Riskbreaker I'm playing right now so I will not be doing that this time
- Swashbucklers never floated for me since I like the backstab too much
- Bards... never really played much with them. I have HD in my party right now but all he does is cast minor spells and sing which he cannot even do properly.

So... as for my party thoughts
1. Goodaligned Necromancer Protagonist (dart staff), spells
2. Valygar (flail, katana), protection and healing
3. Nalia or Jan (dagger, bow or crossbow), thieving, secondary arcane
4. Cernd (staff), summoning, buffing
5. Jaheira (club, scimitar, longsword, dualwield), buffing, melee
6. Minsc/Keldorn (2-handed sword, halberds)

I'm a bit worried about the fact that I only have 3 real fighters and I don't even like the Minsc/Keldorn slot. I will probably make this a custom bezerker, barbarian or kensai instead. I prefer something with AC so it would be a bezerker... in which case I would take Korgan if he had two-handed weapons as profs (though level1NPCs may help me there).
I could probably kick the jan/nalia slot for a F/M instead too, but I am still undecided because these NPCs come with upgrades.
I could also change Cernd but I wanted to try out Auramasters so that will not be likely unless I don't like him anymore.

I am also hoping in this party that Valygar gets some good party healing spells because that is something I may be lacking mid-game until both druids level up. No greater restoration.... I could just take Anomen instead of Jaheira but I just prefer the latter. That will be a problem, I'm sure.

I was wondering what kind of ideas other people had. Any thoughts on nice combinations?

[lroumen]

Ah, thank you for the clarifications.

I thought the dualing system was similar to the multiclass system where you are stuck with up to 2 stars into proficiencies maximally. The multi-class grandmstery from EOU does allow 5 stars, but I never have that installed so I thought that if dualing equals multi, then you would not be allowed to put additional points past 2.

So if I understood it correctly, if you have 4 stars into a weapon and dual, after you have regained your fighter levels you can place a 5th into the slot. I thought that you were stuck with the 4 and would be unable to place additional stars. I have not played dualclassed fighters in a while (I never take anomen for instance) so I could not remember how it worked.

Best practice would be like this.
- I guess you start with 6 proficiencies.
--- It could be good to put staves to 5 and two-weapon style to 1 (you get a staff+1 in the dungeon).
--- It could also be okay to put staves to 4, style to 1, 2-handed sword to 1 (as you also get the sword of chaos in the dungeon).
- From there on, the next point for me would definately be to max staff or to put 1 into twohanded swords.
- You can then dual or level up to get another star which you can put into sword, style or halberd.
- When in mage, it's probably dagger, darts, slings until you get your fighter levels back since putting anything in staves will just be lost.
- Then once you are a full F/M again you can bump 2-handed swords and halberds to 2 stars each and maybe style to 1.
- Later on increase maybe spears to 2 or increase either 2-handed sword or halberd to 5.


True grand mastery I have installed as it is suggested, so the discussion about additional attacks is important.


I will think on this some more, but I find that I am already convinced to take along a fighterkit -> mage. Whether that is berserker, kensai (no rage, but more damage) or barbarian (no GM but different rage) is another matter.