Party of lesser-used classes and kits Options

[blastermaster]

I've enjoyed the interesting aspects of this mod relative to vanilla BG2 and other difficulty mods. After a few run-throughs though, using a standard or semi-standard party isn't too much of a challenge. With this mod, a low-level challenge, no-reload challenge, and/or poverty challenge are all out of the question. So the only other challenges I can think of are a "no arcane magic challenge" (which frankly I think is quite do-able thanks to Iron Skins and Greater Restoration and Auramasters), or perhaps a party entirely composed of the types of classes and kits that people tend not to use (at least from what I can see in the journals here).

Some classes I am considering:

Archer
The major issue here is that so many monsters have extra resistance to missiles, relative to other damage types (or outright immunity). So this leaves you with essentially the Bow of Gesen's flat 2 piercing damage, or using Arrows of Piercing whenever you have some. Also, I think Tuigan isn't available until somewhere in Watcher's Keep (unless it's randomized?), which hurts the archer in the early game. The lack of Strength bonus to damage, and the Dexterity bonus to Thac0 actually not scaling like it does with Strength (and, to add insult to injury, it is of course much harder to raise Dexterity in this game as compared to Strength). Called Shot is intriguing, but there are only a few encounters in which you're facing just one enemy hitting you, so the Thac0 penalty from it would just impact one of them. Unfortunately the STR loss per hit is too short-lasting to be relied upon to kill something by getting them down to 0 STR, though perhaps in multiples this is more readily achievable?

Wild Mage
Potentially using high-level spells early in the game is nice, but a Wild Surge on 1 out of 20 spells means you're likely to really get hurt by this in perhaps the majority of battles. I suppose you could reload until at least your pre-buffing goes correctly, and then take fights from there, but that's no fun.

Blade
Can't cast the all-important level 7 Ruby Ray spell, so he's stuck using scrolls for this. Same with Limited Wish for undead protection. No Alacrity, meaning you're just getting one spell per turn out of him. Use Any Item is still pretty nice and you could make quite a tank out of a Blade, but the offensive capability is really lacking. And without the classical fast leveling of a bard, or the usefulness of the HLA traps, it seems like a Figher/Mage multi is almost entirely dominant over this class.

Inquisitor
No higher than Specialization really hurts, especially if you're using two-handed weapons - he will max out at 5 attacks under Improved Haste. Would be a nice tweak if paladins could get grandmastery in 2H swords, given it's their signature weapon style and it is so important in games in which the un-nerfed grandmastery is used.

Swashbuckler
The weapon and armor for this class are underwhelming and very expensive. Lack of Use Any Item hurts a ton, and the HLA of Acrobatic Combat is extremely underwhelming. Still, the possibility for a very low AC could make him a good tank, but why not use a Ranger Cleric for this purpose and get more offensive output and more defensive capabilities?

Thief dualed to a Cleric
Level a thief to 23 to get Use Any Item, then dual him to a Cleric. I believe he can then get 105% physical resistance (40% hardiness from Wish, 25% from Jan's armor, 10% from Defender of Easthaven or Warblade upgrade, 5% from Master of Disciplines, 10% from Armor of Faith, 15% from Scarlet Ioun Stone if PC is a necro). And he could use Scarlet Ninja-to in offhand to get 6 attacks under Improved Haste, and cast spells from scrolls. Not great, but pretty useful. Alternatively, I think you could take a Cleric and dual immediately to thief. Armor of Faith gives you the 10% resistance right from level 1, and likewise the 15 round duration. You lose out on higher-level cleric spells, but it would be an interesting character for sure. Without the Scarlet Ioun Stone, he loses a lot of appeal as a tank, and I think would be forced to aim for low AC route for damage prevention.

Viconia
The 65% magic resistance is very tempting, especially with the Human Flesh armor being available pretty early. But from a weapons perspective, she's just no help in combat with a poor Thac0 and limited weapon selection that maxes out at 4 APR. Still, Greater Restoration is pretty awesome.

Monk
A better Viconia in some ways, ending up with more magic resist in the mid to late game. But maxing out at 5 attacks per round is still a bummer here, not to mention the inability to really do piercing or slashing damage. I am also curious why their Thac0 doesn't get better than 5. If I remember correctly, they used the fighter Thac0 progression in vanilla.

Wizardslayer
Again, intriguing for the magic resist. It appears they use the 1% per level growth up until level 20 or so (as defined by the manual, though in the actual original ToB game it was 2% per level until level 20). At least, unlike every other character here, they can attain the all important grandmastery. But lack of magic rings and cloaks is going to make for some terrible saves when spells do sneak through. There's basically severe penalties to this class throughout the entire first half of the game; 20% magic resist at level 20 means you're still going to get chunked 80% of the time when you fail your saves.

Beastmaster
Clubs and Quarterstaves are pretty good in this mod, so the weapon restrictions aren't as bad as they'd be in a typical BG2 difficulty mod. And the extra HP from Find Familiar would be pretty nice. Relative to most of the above kits, this actually wouldn't be too bad. But it feels a lot like a subpar ranger, rather than an entirely new kit or class decision.

Any cool strategy ideas for the characters above that I am missing? Curious to hear people's thoughts.

This post has been edited by blastermaster: Apr 7 2015, 12:34 PM

[chaser]

Hi,all.I`m a Chinese player who began to play IA half a year ago.I read almost all the post from BWL,G3 and some other Chinese forum that talk about IA v6(especially Nicoper`s run,which was translated into Chinese,I learned a lot),after that I finished my necro and vargrant run,both on insane.Now I`d like to share my experience to you and give some suggestion(don`t blame my poor English):

1.The vargrant quest is not as hard as you thought,even the drowned soul battle.As Krell said,potion of free action and clarity will not be dispelled by spiders and the drowned soul,besides,the mirror whisper spider has only 90 fire resistant,so your mage can kill most of them with fire ball,sun flame and dragon breath in 2 rounds.The mirrior master battle is realitive hard,however,fire attacks still work here.

2.An archer protag can win the anti-ranger battle if he has 100% physical resistant and can summon a swanmay.He can`t shoot effectively but can melee attack with the weapon”gnasher club”.The gnasher club is the best weapon against anti-ranger and anti-inquisitor.

3.Most minor golem can be petrified,even amber golem,hardwood golem and web golem.I don`t know if Sikret mean to leave this flaw to us,however,it`s a technical work to petrify a golem(reduce resistant*3 first,then doom and gm,then you may get 55% chance to petrify it),more tactical than melee attack a 95% slashing resistance monster(the web golem),which is really really boring.

4.Use Foebane,Purifier and Equilibrium off-hand can increase the damage main-hand(depend on enemy type)(EE fixed it)

Here are some party and some class I suggest,hope can inspire you:

A six fighter party
In my last vargrant run I use vargrant,kensai(dual wielder——yes,a dual wielder,which is a far better fighter than RB or a 2H wielder kensai,he can use JD sword to protect himself and hammer of thor,which is also 2H range),B/M dual,R/C dual,FI multi and K/T dual.My party has 6 fighter，can not wish for rest and wish for double-time IA+TS.This party is really really crazy,can kill a supergolem or a ultragolem in less than 3 rounds,can kill a great elemental golem before he cast the second dm,can make raksha prince badly injured in 1 round.
The K/T dual is the most interesting class in my party,I dualed at kensai lv13.He can use many item when has UAI,beside Jan`s cloth,Cernd cloak,necklace of Discipline and so on,he can also use Noble staff of air/fire,which can be forged after defeat Supremeleader.The staff give K/T tensen transformation 20 rounds a day，set thac0 to 1,undispellable,so most enemy may face a 300-400HP,30-50 physical resistance(with wish for hardness is 70-90) monster for 20 rounds,which make the game much easy even on insane.

A six mage party
There is another Chinese player finished Necro run on insane,his party is Nec,Sor,Cernd,FI multi,B/M dual,R/C dual.This party has 3 character cast IA,4 cast CCC,6 cast stoneskin,also has 2 char use fighter HLA,so his party don`t only own a very strong arcane power but also some melee ability.The 6 sor party you metioned is much harder than his,so if you do want to play a six mage party,change 2 sor to FI or FM or some other class.

Archer
Archer is not a good fighter even he has Gesen bow,the damage is too low,however,the called shot is so powerful that no one immue.An archer+a lv10 mage(or a M/F dual at lv10) can pertrify golem well,first called shot,then use colorful ball(lv1 spell,don`t know how to say in English···）,he can also help a high level mage pertrify lich.In addition,mage+archer+R/C multi can play like that:mage cast IA,spellstrike, spelltrigger 3*Reduce resistance,archer called shot,then R/C use harm+CS.If my guess is right,even antient dragon will fall in no more than 5 rounds.So I may try the party next time:Nec,archer,C/M（lothandar dual at lv14）,RC,K/T,RB.It must be fun.

Swashbulcker and Bard
Their APR are too low,in my point of view,bring one of them is OK,both of them will make the play through very unpleasant.

Shapeshifter
A Shapeshifter can dual to fighter at lv13, after get giant werewolf.He can cast stoneskin before each battle,then shapshift,another mage read dm scroll(considered as lv10,will not dispel ss most of the time),disper the claw,then he can use any durid weapon,has 5 APR,50 elemental resistant and 40 magic resistant.Of course,if party has a M9F,the dispel problem will be much effective.

Wildmage
In my version of IA CCC 3*improved chaos shield can add up,Sikret announced IA fixed it so I don`t know why.If can add up,choose wildmage as a protag must be a funny choice(some of you can test that),otherwise he is a risk-maker.However,BG2EE fixed this bug.

Inquisitor
His dm is useful in some circumstance,Dracolich is a lv 25 mage,so a lv 17 inquisitor has 20% chance to dm it,Kurin is lv 25 too,his ii can be dispelled effectively.Also,If you want to challenge the hardest spellhold,a high level inquisitor may have chance to dm Jon`s ii as well(at least lv 20,has 10% chance).Kill Jon without killing 15 golems,that must be funny.