This is a short guide based on general tips about making a functional and a well-versed effective party in IA, followed by two examples of such parties. It is according to the current version of the mod.General tips
It is great to have a candidate able to wear the robe of Vecna (or Memory of the Apprenti) as it gives a tremendous advantage with improved alacrity. Neera, the superior choice for a non protagonist sorcerer, is likely to enjoy wearing her own upgraded robe, except perhaps during the Demogorgon fight in which she might prefer the robe of Vecna for crucial casting times. Because of that, the candidate for the robe of Vecna will mostly end up being a Necromancer, a Berseker-Mage dual or a Wild Mage. Furthermore, it is a good feeling to have a secondary arcane caster in a party, ideally someone that has some fighting capabilities as well. This character can provide key spells that complement the main arcane caster, as well as being a good asset that you can send sometimes to fight under protection from magical weapons. If the oasis battle in ToB proves too overwhelming, you could for example run with this kind of character to attract a good portion of the aggro a little further away from your party, relieving a lot of pressure, giving you the time to set up properly and win. I find a Berseker-Mage dual to be a good complement to Neera, and an elven Fighter/Mage or Gnomish Fighter/Illusionist to work well with a Necromancer protagonist.
A few greater whirlwind picks even on a dual wielder are usually worth it : against some opponents, like a skeleton grandlord, using your most damaging one handed weapon with greater whirlwind will deal a quite better damage than pounding at it with the same weapon and water’s edge offhand, even though critical strike means no natural 1 misses. A dual wielder should still mostly lean towards critical strikes, and a two handed weapon guy should lean towards greater whirlwinds while still having critical strikes. Another reason to have a few greater whirlwinds available on a dual wielder is that if for some reason you lose your improved haste (or just didn’t have it yet), you can still activate a greater whirlwind and have good results to show for the round as your mages react.
It is good and highly functional to have someone wielding Water's Edge + 4 and another character wielding Belm +2. These attack-increasing off hand weapons work very well, because they usually allow you to wear your most damaging weapon, have with it as many attacks as you would with dual wielding two weapons, and then add on top of it the potential damage of the scimitar’s 2 attacks. Thus having a core of two dual wielding warrior types is more often than not a good practice. In the case of Belm, if the creature is immune to +2 weapons, you are *still* at least using your most damaging weapon for as many attacks as you would have with two weapons. This is the way to get 10 attacks per round under improved haste, which the likes of kensai and riskbreaker enjoy in order to apply their bonuses or proc melee effects as many times as possible during a round.
Speaking of dual wielding, there is often an early game tension regarding crushing weapons. For a character that is not a ranger (or druid), clubs will not deliver and maces just do not deliver in general. It is not easy to find a +3 warhammer without using a Permanency scroll (unless you do the Alhoon pre-spellhold or you have a dwarven character using the dwarven thrower in melee) and forging phosphorus early game takes a lot more resources than it does in ToB. You do get the flail of ages though. With all that considered, I usually prioritize giving clubs to my ranger characters such as the ranger/cleric and the Vagrant. Then I like having some dwarven character that wields the dwarven thrower (Kensai, but could be Berseker, Dwarven Defender, Barbarian or even Fighter/Cleric). After that, the flail of ages goes to whichever other character didn’t get a proper one handed crushing damage weapon, for example a Riskbreaker or Fighter/Mage kind of character. Careful proficiency planning is important ! This tension continues as the need for +4 crushing weapons arises against Skeleton Grandlords. You cannot realistically pretend to have more than one character using warhammers before ToB if you want them all to be able to hit such opponents. The character that has been using the dwarven thrower can claim Crom Fayer (Thor), the club character can use Treefolk’s fury or even Rimed club and the flail using character can use the flail of ages +4. This allows me to skip Phosphorus in the early game usually, although forging Phosphorus at that time is very nice and feels good !
Two handed weapon specialization is nice and alleviates the crushing weapon tension, but is not actually truly mandatory in IA. Getting less attacks per round is often a liability, although the range is good and the impact of some weapons, such as the Dragon Lord halberd, is spectacular. Greater whirlwinds solve the matter *somewhat*, but do not feel great to use in mundane battles. A kensai-thief dual will mostly always be your best bet for such a character because in the current state of the game they can make use of many fantastic items and end up with a lot of attacks per round, proficiency points, bonus to tach0 and damage as well as great protections from the forbidden items they wear. I wouldn’t count on such characters to exist forever though
Realistically, a Kensai or Barbarian is a good candidate for a two handed weapon specialist as well as Keldorn. Paladins get a pair of bracers for an extra half attack, may wear Carsomyr and get an extra half attack from Demogorgon. I personally simply enjoy when the two handed weapon wielding is partially handled by a Berseker-Mage, Fighter/Mage, Fighter/Mage/Thief or Avenger character.It is a fine and cozy way to play to have a front tank in your party. Someone able to wear full plate and that without thinking too much you can just send first in battle, preventing many attacks due to maximized armor class and ideally stoneskin or ironskin. Such a character should wield a shield in many encounters or dual wield anyway, depending on the needs for tanking in that particular engagement. Candidates of my liking for this role are a ranger cleric multi or dual class as well as a fighter-mage-cleric. Be mindful of the specific AC modifiers, for example AC vs blunt weapons, which adds armor class on top of your character sheet cap. If you meet a group of 4 elemental golems and 2 greater bone golems and they begin the fight by targeting your iron skinned ranger/cleric who is at -26 armor class with -8 vs crushing (-4 due to a girdle, -4 due to shield of the archons), for a total of -34 vs golems, you will surely be setting up the stage for a smooth battle.
Do you want to include a thief or not ? Thieving business in IA is mostly about locks and traps, as well as situational, minor and sometimes hard to set up combat advantages with backstabs. You definitely don’t need a thief to complete the game, but I have to admit the gaming experience feels more complete if you make one. If making your party is a puzzle, my suggestion would be to just skip the thief aspect of the game instead of forcefully including a character you could just swap for one that suits your party’s real needs better.
Missile weapons are not utterly useless, although they should not be prioritized. Still, it is not bad to think ahead of what kind of missile weapon each of your characters could wield. This is relevant for several enemies, but more importantly coin golems. Their resistance to missile damage is the same as their resistance to piercing, so I more often than not enjoy throwing them missile weapons instead of focusing on piercing weapon proficiencies at all costs. Typically, I enjoy it when my vagrant, who already grand mastered axes, uses a returning throwing axe and when my kensai, who already grand mastered war hammers, uses the dwarven thrower. Piercing weapons are truly relevant against a golem maker in the supreme leader fight, sendai’s pet, the lesser force and maybe one other very specific situation. This makes it so that your characters can invest faster and better into proficiencies that will make them stronger during the entire game, for example the scimitar of the off hand.
A last important tip is that even though this guide is about making a highly functional (and typical) IA party, creativity is and feels good at all times. It can get boring to play such a “vanilla” party everytime. Feel free to use your imagination and enjoy the game
Why not make a Necromancer, Fighter-Mage-Cleric and Fighter-Mage-Thief party with three Skalds that remain dead most of the early game to maximize the experience of the three other characters. With the improved bard songs, you would end up with the two multi class characters having bonuses that rival a level 40 kensai, backed up by a full-fledged Necromancer !What follows is two examples of parties following the above guidelines, one for a Necromancer protagonist and one for a Vagrant protagonist :
Example of a Necro party :
Human necromancer : *sling *quarterstaff *dagger *dart
Half-Elf Ranger/Cleric multi (golems) : **club *two weapon style **mace **sling **flail **warhammer *single weapon style
Elven Fighter/Mage multi : **katana *** two weapon style **quarterstaff *two handed weapon style **short sword **halberd *two handed weapon style
Jaheira half elf avenger (On top of existing pre-selected proficiencies) : *Quarterstaff * Spear * *Dagger ** Scimitar **Club
Human riskbreaker : ****flail **two weapon style *flail ***scimitar *two weapon style *****bastard sword *scimitar
Dwarven kensai : ****warhammer **two weapon style *warhammer ***scimitar *two weapon style *****long sword *scimitar
Example of a Vagrant party :
Half-elf vagrant (golems) : ****Axe *Two weapon style *Club *Axe *Club **Scimitar **Flail **Long sword **Short sword *Single weapon style
Half-elf fighter/mage/cleric multi : **Flail ***Two weapon style **Sling **Warhammer **Mace
Human Berseker9-Mage dual : ****Katana **Two weapon style *Katana *Quarterstaff *Two weapon style *Quarterstaff *Two handed weapon style ***Quarterstaff
Dwarven kensai : ****warhammer **two weapon style *warhammer ***scimitar *two weapon style *****long sword *scimitar
Cernd human auramaster (On top of existing pre-selected proficiencies) : *Two handed weapon style, *Spear, *Two weapon style, *Club, *Single Weapon style, *Dart, *Sword and Shield style
Neera half-elf sorcerer (On top of existing pre-selected proficiencies) : *Sling, *Dagger, *Dart
1: Nahal’s reckless dweomer, magic missile, chromatic orb, shield, armor
2: Melf’s acid arrow, Mirror image, Blur, Luck, Resist Fear
3: Flame arrow, Protection from fire, Vampiric touch, Remove magic, Lightning bolt
4: Emotion, Stoneskin, Greater malison, Spirit armor, Improved invisibility
5: Animate dead, Breach, Spell immunity, Lower resistance, Cone of cold
6: Summon monster IV, Improved haste, Giant strength, Protection from magical weapons, Protection from magic energy
7: Summon monster V, Ruby ray of reversal, Limited wish, Spell turning, Protection from the elements
8: Summon monster VI, Abi-Dalzim’s horrid wilting, Foreknowledge, Protection from energy, Pierce shield
9: Wish, Recast vital energy, Chain contingency, Time stop, Summon monster VII
