Starting a new game, would appreciate suggestions Options

[rbeverjr]

Hey, Mongerman

Would have to say as Sikret has said that the wildmage is probably not a good idea in IA. With the extremely tactical nature of the mod the extra unpredictability could cause real problems and the various unhelpful wild surges will just ramp up your re-load count. Personally I would give the second pure arcane caster a miss, one pureclass is suffecient. Instead I would suggest the use of a blade or other bard variant, post underdark they become the best buffer/de-buffer class in the game, and offer the enormously useful imp. bard song. Throughout the game they also offer good back-up casting and solid tanking ability. I would also put the true class cleric back in but give them a few levels of fighter then dual class, this character combined with the cleric buffs willl be a capable damage dealer for the majority of the game as well as in the long run only advancing very slightly slower than a pure-class cleric so you get early greater restoration and plenty of spell slots.

I concede (as I have elsewhere) that unpredictability of the wildmage can be problematic early on. I would never play a wildmage if that was my only arcane. However, before he gets his first HLA, the wildmage will be more powerful than the sorcerer when used correctly.

I played a kensai hero through IA 4.2. It wasn't easy. He had to hide during the Twisted Rune. The offensive power of the kensai is appealing, but he does require a little extra attention to keep alive.

You might want to consider the party that Sikret is using. Then if you have problems, the hints that Sikret provides for battles could be particularly useful. My own party is similar enough to Sikret's that I expect that information to be valuable if I run into a roadblock. (Thanks for those posts, Sikret!)

This post has been edited by rbeverjr: Jan 25 2008, 02:49 PM

[Sikret]

Man I was so engrossed in creating a well balanced party that I totally forgot about thieving skills! What level would you dual your swashie at? Or perhaps even a f/m/t to replace the bard?

f/m/t will proceed too slowly. If you want to pick a mutti-class thief, go for F/T.

Alternatively, if you want a swashbuckler dualled to mage, so what Ryel said: Either dual him to mage immediately after starting the game or dual at level 10.

Since the best armor etc etc is going to my main tank, the kensai might as well be naked. As I recall, for AC, it was either going to the highest, or just ignoring it, since enemies are going to hit you at -10 ac anyway

Well, if AC is no concern here, I would suggest a half-orc barbarian:

(1) Better hp (Barbarians roll d12 for their hp)
(2) Resistance to physical damage
(3) Much better AC than Kensai
(4) Barbarian Rage

@rbeverjr

The main problems with Wild Mage in IA are two things:

(1) You may suddenly lose all of your money near the end of a hard battle. Since money is a big concern in IA; you will either have to reload and do that hard battle again or will have to live with the fact that you have no golds.

(2) Someof the battle in IA are similar to chess matches where every step is calculated. A sudden wild surge (even a generally useful one) may lead to disaster if the exact spell which you intend to cast at that time is replaced with something else.

[rbeverjr]

@rbeverjr

The main problems with Wild Mage in IA are two things:

(1) You may suddenly lose all of your money near the end of a hard battle. Since money is a big concern in IA; you will either have to reload and do that hard battle again or will have to live with the fact that you have no golds.

(2) Someof the battle in IA are similar to chess matches where every step is calculated. A sudden wild surge (even a generally useful one) may lead to disaster if the exact spell which you intend to cast at that time is replaced with something else.

I have had the money loss thing happen to me before. It's one of the worst outcomes possible. However, I honestly am not such a good player as to be able to do IA without reloads. So, a reload in such a situation does not bother me. Improved Chaos Shield + high level = very (not always) consistent results. In my opinion, at high level the advantages of the wild mage make it worthwhile to play even in IA. Heh, everyone is allowed their opinion. But as I previously stated, I wouldn't bother having a wild mage if it was my only spell caster. Even at low level, you need a spell slinger that you can depend on.

[Vardaman]

Thanks for all the help and feedback guys. I think I'll go with this party

Vagrant.

Start with flails for FOA, and FOD&W endgame. Prob belm or kundane in offhand, to be replaced with either axe or longsword endgame

Kundane doesn't grant an extra attack in v.5.0 so you probably don't want to waste any pips on SS. I was really disappointed too. I guess Sikret felt like changing the item to match the description instead of changing the description to match the item. It does grant +1 Dex now but that sucks compared to the +1 APR.

This post has been edited by Vardaman: Jan 25 2008, 06:20 PM

[Mongerman]

Thanks for the warning Vardaman. Would have been mighty irritated to put points into swort sword and then realise I wont end up using kundane