I've reformatted my computer and so now hopefully can give IA a go (FINALLY!)

I would like to do this with a 4 character party. I have some ideas about what to pick, but thought I'd ask the veteran players for advice first.

So what is the optimum 4 character party in terms of class, race, and proficiencies?

Keep in mind that I am more than willing to use all 4 custom multiplayer-created PCs, I do not need to have any of the normal NPCs in my game.

I'm not a "veteran" in the sense of being particularly skilled, but here goes...

If you are happy to have several characters with the same class, a particularly powerful party would be 3x Fighter-Mage + 1x Ranger-Cleric.

If you want 4 different classes, I'd suggest:

Fighter-Mage
Ranger-Cleric
Sorceror
Swashbuckler

If you went with Bioware NPCs, I'd suggest:

PC (Fighter-Mage)
Keldorn (for the uber dispel magic + true sight)
Valygar (for his powerful IA items)
Anomen or Jaheira (for cleric/druid spells+fighter abilities. Anomen gets the lovely Delryn Family Shield upgrade in IA, but Jaheira gets access to fighter HLAs being a multi-class - personally I would take Jaheira as you also get romance bonuses - extra encounters+XP)

Hi, nataben!

Keeping one open slot for Imoen, Minsk, Jaheira (to let them join in the first dungeon and kick them out immediately one after another), and with 4 MP NPCs plus your Protagonist, you will have a party of 5 members if I understood your plan correctly.

If you are willing to wait for v4.3 (= about a week), then I strongly recommend a vagrant as your protagonist, but if you want to start right now, then don't pick a vagrant (as you will need to start a new game after v4.3 is released *if* your protagonist is a vagrant).

As for your other party members, there are plenty of posts and comments here in the forum which you can read. I have only one recommendation: If you want to create an MP NPC with a class or kit which there already is one such NPC in the game, it's better to use that existent NPC rather than creating an MP one. For example, if you need an inquisitor, don't make a new one; go and pick Keldorn; if you need a stalker don't make a new one, go and pick valygar; or if you want an Auramaster don't make an MP one but go and pick Cernd. This is because all those NPCs have item upgrades for their personal equipments.

Cheers

I'm a veteran of about 1 complete IA run-through. (So, I'm not really a veteran). The fighter-mage types are indisputably the most powerful class in IA, and the triple classes can be the most powerful if the party size is small, you remove the XP cap, and add a mod that makes the best HLA choices available. The "optimum" party also depends on what you want. I want the most powerful group for most of the adventure (rather than just the end). I personally had more trouble in the beginning of the game than at any other time. Another consideration is the artifacts available through IA upgrades. These artifacts tend to be very restrictive to an NPC or a particular class - and Use Any Item usually does not defeat this restriction. A third consideration is that you need to play a ranger-type or mage-type if you want to experience the expanded strongholds - unless you use the multiple strongholds mod. My second run through will be mostly using 5 characters, but I'm already thinking about a third run through using 4 characters.

I suggest that a FMC (protagonist), FMT, R7-cleric, and sorcerer would be a powerful 4 member team.

The RC multiclass would be a more powerful character in the end game than the R7-cleric because of access to the fighter's critical strike HLA (which basically negates THAC0 differences between characters - you always hit when using this HLA). However, the R7-cleric (who can still fight through Holy Power and other buffs) and the sorcerer mean that I will be getting high level spells sooner and more spell power (ruby rays, greater restoration, etc.).

This team will not be able to use 3 of the most powerful weapons in the game (Judgment Day sword, Flail of Defending and Wounding, and Holy Avenger) if Sikret imposes the changes in 4.3 that he suggested. I still think that this is probably the most powerful 4 member crew, but would like to hear the opinions of the true veteran players.

To see the new quests added to the strongholds your protagonist needs to be of the right class. Multiple Stronghold mod will only allow you to have all of the strongholds and to see the vanilla game's quests for them, but it will not help you see the new quests added by IA.

I almost finished Imp Anv SoA with my first 'exploratory' six-man team before my computer got fried. Now that I have a pretty good idea of where the modified encounters are and what they involve, I too plan to start a smaller party run.

I generally dislike six person parties due to the micromanagement involved, and much prefer the simplicity and focus of a smaller party. However, going with fewer NPCs (already in-game or MP created)will substantially reduce your dmg potential, especially early game. It seems IA is pretty much balanced around a six person party. A smaller party will also go easier on your pocketbook, but you will have less cannon fodder.

Therefore, in creating my 3 person party, I plan on taking some liberties in givng them substantially better stats, (Sk-ed ability scores in the 18-20 range) as if they had obtained extremely good rolls and had just come from BGI where they used all the tomes. That 'may' help make up for the fewer team members, but I dont think it will be overpowered, at least not for IA.

Because I like banter, I plan on using Viconia and Korgan as templates for my two additional team-mates. (Viconia for her 65 natural magic resistance, and Korgan for his uber saving throws). However, Viconia will be transformed into a Cleric-Ranger, with 20 wisdom and 19 str, and Korgan will be transformed into a Beserker-Mage, with 20 str and 19 int. Both will have 18 in all other stats. This would be hard to justify in a full six person team, but with a small 3 person team, I personally feel ok with it. The Protagonist will be a Fighter-Mage with stats similar to Korgan. All will be multiclass.

In vanilla SoA the joinable NPC's (with the exception of Jaheria, Minsc, and Yoshimo) can have up to 1.2 million xp when they first join, provided the Protagonist has sufficient xp. Thus, the Protagonist will attempt to solo as much as possible prior to picking up Viconia and Korgan, and then transforming them to their new classes. However, Im not exactly sure what the Protagonist's minimum xp needs to be before the NPCs will upgrade to 1.2 million xp upon joining. Anyone know?

An early and pretty much unavoidable challenge for a solo Protagonist is the Suna Seni encounter, which will trigger after your first visit (or two) to the govt, bridge, or temple districts. The key to surviving and overcoming this challenge for a Protagonist with arcane casting abilities is to buff up prior to travel and have the spell 'emotion' memorized. Usually 3/4s of the mobs in that particular encounter fail their saves and fall unconscious, which makes it much easier. This holds true for most of the early random traveling encounters.

The random encounters while traveling outside the city can also be a decent source of cash because they often carry some +1 weapons and armours as well as scrolls. If you can handle them, these encounters are prolly the best place to farm for cash and xp early on. Its tedious, but it can be lucrative if you persist.

A fairly large portion of SoA, including the outlying areas, can be done solo if you initially skip the IA improved encounters. The thieves guild and trademeet quest lines are particularly good in this regard because they give decent xp and lots of early cash.

Tip: Do NOT talk to the djinn outside of tradement before venturing to the Druid grove, because then Intafeer will have lots of nice potions to sell (same inventory as Ms Craigmoon I believe). Most notably, 10 power potions and 10 invisibility potions.

All in all, Im thoroughly enjoying IA. Depending upon how I do with my 3 person party, I may even consider a solo attempt some day...but that would require knowing the mod inside out and having a well-thought out game strategy and encounter sequence.

May I ask, Sikret, what about the new Vagrant class makes it so desirable for 4.3?

Also, is that the only major change for 4.3 that will require me to start a new game to utilize it?

I think it also requires a new game if you want to be an inquisitor. Otherwise I would guess you could just start 4.2 and when 4.3 hits the market uninstall 4.2 and install 4.3

Regards

What's about this party and weapon choices?
1. F/M, long sword+?
2. R/C, hammer+mace (staff)
3. Berserker, long sword (and flail)+shield
4. have gnawing doubts
a. F/M/T, short sword+club (scimitar)
b. swashbuckler (same profs)
c. or even Keldorn?

w/o XP cap, with true grandmastery patch

Cavalier.

1. M/C (Staff)
- Aerie or main
- Wish spell
2. F/M (FoA & Longsword)
-Solaufein or main
3. F/M/T (Scimitar & Club & 2weapon style)
-Sked Nalia or Imoen
-the bard armor with UAI
-scarlet ninja to and belm mean 5 attacks very early
4. Fighter dude
- Valygar / Keldorn / Jaheira

Don't think so You need 3 million exp for ninja to and there are quite powerful guards in this tower where belm is

okok^^,.. not really early but the F/M/T was my first guy with 5 attacks.

And keep in mind that in order to have Nalia or Imoen classed as a F/M/T you'll have to also change their race.

umm... this is the point in the post where my "statement" morphs into a question. Because, come to think of it, I've never tried to change a human into a multiclass character in SK. Does it actually work out?

For me, playing Nalia or Imoen as anything other than a human would be just too dramatic a change. And even Nalia or Imoen as a fighter is a bit out there, but hey, we're not talking about my game here, are we?

There are no restrictions in SK for multiclass human characters. However, bear in mind that this doesn't work if they are already dual class. So, for example, it isn't possible to simply change Nalia to a multi-class mage/thief in SK, as she is already a dual-class m/t. However, you can change her to any other combination, so f/m, f/m/t, c/t or any other combination except m/t are perfectly viable.
It is possible to remove her dual-class status, but you will need another application such as NearInfinity for that. With NearInfinity, for example, her dual-class status is listed as a flag (in this case, former class: thief). Remove this, and she is now a multi-class m/t.

what about:

1. Vagrant
2. F/M
3. F/Illusionist
4. R/C

All four can melee, two arcane casters, a cleric for greater restoration, lots of good summons, etc. etc.

If this is a good choice, what sorts of proficiencies might you guys recommend, keeping in mind that my goal is to have good weapons available throughout the game (so no proficiencies that totally suck except one uberweapon that's only available in late ToB, please).

Ok, first off that party will be amazingly powerful by the end game, could be a little frustrating to begin with as you wait for your mages to get some key spells. However with only 4 memebers it shouldn't take to long and your more than powerful enough to cope without them for awhile.
For weapons I'd go:

Vagrant: Flails(Defending and wounding)and longswords(Truth/Judgement Day)

F/M: Halberds(Dragon Lord, Poseidons Wrath)

F/I:Short Swords, Scimitars (This is your APR guy with Belm, then the new Cutthroat)Axes later( to put some big damage in your main hand)

R/C: Hammers/Flails( Hammer of Thor and Flail of Ages perhaps Runehammer later)

Don't forget about golems

Had that covered the R/C and Vagrant go after the gem golems (mostly vulnerbale to crushing) and the F/M and F/I go after the Coin Golems(mostly vulnerable to piercing, crushing isn't actually that effective against these guys)

Gem and coin golem are equally vunerable to crushing.

Gems are weakest to slashing.

Yes, both types of Gem and Coin golems take damage from blunt weapons (though not exactly "equally" ). Coin golems are a bit more resistant to crushing damage.

Yep as I tried to explain, Coin are most vulnerable to piercing or missile attacks while gem are most vulnerable to crushing(Though slashing do work). This is as of 4.2 if leonidas is using 4.3 perhaps things have changed.

No, it's the same in v4.3. The only changes in v4.3 (respecting golems) are that "Supreme golems" have now 100% resistance to magic damage (they had 95% in v4.2) and "Ultra golems" have a little bit stronger fists to hit you. Other golems have not changed.

Oh I understood, I was just under the impression gem golems were most vunerable to slashing damage.

Apologies.