The Ideal Party (Long)
Rodney Hobbs
Race, Class(es), recommended proficiencies and maximum level (in the game).
Also given are reasons why I consider these characters to be the best, and a
THAC0 table (which determines your character's chance to hit) so you can
check my results for yourselves. You are welcome to respond with your own
ideas. Note that as far as I am aware, you cannot get this party from the
standard characters in the game, so you will have to play in multiplayer
mode to do so. You can play a "fake" multiplayer game by selecting
multiplayer, then setting your connection to "serial" and choosing an unused
COM port on your computer (I use COM 2). You may need to adjust your cache
size etc to play multiplayer mode. See the manual for details if you need
help.
Base THAC0 Table (to Level 9, exp cap of 89000 will stop any character from
exceeding 8th level)
Warrior 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
Priest 20 20 20 18 18 18 16 16 16
Rogue 20 20 19 19 18 18 17 17 16
Wizard 20 20 20 19 19 19 18 18 18
This table is modified by Strength (Dexterity for ranged weapons), Weapon
bonuses, Racial Bonuses and Weapon Proficiencies.
Warrior includes Fighter, Ranger and Paladin
Priest includes Cleric and Druid
Rogue includes Thief and Bard
Wizard includes Mage and all Specialist Wizards
For multiclass characters, use the best possible THAC0. For this reason,
it's usually best to combine any character who will normally use weapons in
combat with the Warrior class. Also, try to give all Warrior type characters
you create at least 18/51 Strength, since this isn't too hard to do during
character creation and confers some real benefits to your character
(improved melee THAC0, damage and carrying capacity). However, remember that
Dexterity is far more important to characters who will normally use bows and
crossbows in combat, since the Strength bonuses don't usually apply.
The Party (numbers in brackets indicate specialization for 1st level):
1. Elf Fighter. Mx Lvl 7. WP: Large Sword (2), Bow (2).
2. Dwarf Fighter/Cleric. Mx Lvl 6/6. WP: Blunt Weapons (2), Missile Weapons
(2).
3. Elf Fighter/Thief. Mx Lvl 6/7. WP: Small Sword (2), Bow (2).
4. Gnome Fighter/Illusionist. Mx Lvl 6/6. WP: Large Sword (2), Missile
Weapons (2).
5. 1/2 Elf Bard. Mx Lvl 8. WP: Spear, Missile Weapons.
6. 1/2 Elf Fighter/Mage/Cleric. Mx Lvl 5/5/6. WP: Spiked Weapons (2),
Missile Weapons (2).
Note: All party members have natural Infravision, which reduces their
penalty to hit at night and in the dark. Also, this party contains 5
fighters (one exceptional fighter), three mages (counting the Bard), two
clerics and a thief. You may have to complete a number of subquests in order
to gain levels, but most combats shouldn't be too hard with this party. One
last point - these characters can be played with any alignment, though I
prefer Good-aligned characters.
Reasons (the number in front indicates character number):
1. Elves get +1 to hit with all Swords and Bows (the game says long swords
only, but check it out for yourself). This gives this character the best
THAC0 in the game with these weapons. They are 90% resistant to sleep and
charm spells, and can have a very high Dexterity (helping AC and chance to
hit with ranged weapons). I recommend you give this character low
intelligence (8), moderate Wisdom (8) and excellent Charisma (18) and make
this character the party leader. When the character reaches level 3, improve
either swords or bows (depending on your style of play), gaining +3 to hit
and damage with the weapon. When the character reaches level 6, I would
improve the other weapon, getting the same bonuses. If you intend to play
the expansions, and want to make your character a grand master of the
weapon, you should improve the same weapon (should be the sword, since
there's less advantage in the bow for this), but don't expect too much
difference until your character *can* get that Grand Mastery (not in this
game). This character should be your main fighter in the game, but he will
have great support from the rest of this party.
2. The fighter part allows exceptional Strength and Constitution bonuses
(important for a Dwarf), while the Cleric part gives your party many useful
spells. The character can wear any armor (except those specifically made for
thieves and mages) and still cast spells without restriction. Dwarves are
also highly resistant to poison and magic. This character makes an excellent
2nd fighter, and specializing in Blunt weapons gives him a real advantage
when using the excellent magical blunt weapons found in the game, and will
allow him to excel against skeletons. Equip this character with the +2
warhammer found in the game, and he can probably disrupt most spellcasting.
Start casting Animate Dead as soon as possible to really make things easy
for your characters.
3. The fighter part allows exceptional Strength and Constitution bonuses,
better THAC0's and allows the character to use any weapons and armor types
(armor restrictions do apply when using thief skills, so I would keep this
character in leather/shadow armor). The Elven Dexterity bonus allows this
character to be better than any other race at thieving abilities (except
halflings, who lose out on Strength). By combining the low THAC0 of this
character with the damage given by the character's Strength/weapon
specialization bonus and the ability to use powerful weapons in a Backstab,
you have one of the best character types in the game. Equip this character
with Boots of Stealth and Shadow Armor (both available early in the game),
and you won't need to improve the character's Stealth score to more than 60.
Ignore the Pick Pockets ability (if you want to do this, use the Bard). I
would recommend that later proficiency slots be spent on Large Sword
(gaining double proficiency at level 6). This character makes an excellent
scout, and is perfect for knocking out solo opponants (by using a backstab),
but should use bows when in general combat (equip with a magical bow if you
can, otherwise use a Composite Long Bow when you can afford/find one). Good
backup fighter.
4. Same reasons for choosing Fighter as above, this character should be your
main mage (the only spells he can't cast are Necromantic, so most of the
best spells are still available). Given the specialist's bonus spells, and
the Gnome's Intelligence bonus, the advantages of this combination should be
obvious. Gnomes also resist magic, and (in this combination in this game),
can use any type of weapon. Equip this character with Darts to disrupt
spellcasting, or a crossbow for damage (works well with a crossbow of speed
and magical bolts), and use as a backup figher. Also have the character
carry a set of armor to wear when the character runs out of useful combat
spells. I recommend that later proficiencies be spent on Spear, and then
give this character magical Halbards for use in melee combat (since Halbard
is a p/s weapon, it works well against any armor except studded leather and
full plate).
5. The bard is good for pickpocketing and the Bard song (very useful, IMO).
The bard can also cast some useful Mage spells at higher levels, and can
serve as your party's diplomat (make him your party leader when buying from
stores or talking with others. This isn't necessary if your party leader has
equal or better charisma). Give this character 18 Intelligence, Dexterity
and Charisma. The other scores aren't so important to this character,
although you should still try to make them ok. I recommend you equip this
character with darts (to disrupt enemy spellcasters), or a crossbow (for
damage). If forced into melee combat, use a Halbard (generally, this is the
best melee weapon, although slow, and some other weapons are better in melee
in specific situations). If you don't like the Bard class (and they do have
some problems), you may want to replace this character with an Elf
Fighter/Mage (WP: Large Sword 2, Bow 2).
6. While slow to develop, this character can become the most generally
useful in the game, but you will need to get good attribute rolls. Choose
non-combat mage spells in the beginning (I select Protection from
Petrification and Identify) and equip the character with the best armor you
can afford. This character serves best (initially) providing missile fire
and casting clerical spells. After your character gains a few levels, you
can remove the armor and start using the powerful mage spells in combat,
relying on spells and/or magical items to protect your character. This is a
good backup character for all classes except Thief. The character is
proficient with Spiked Weapons since morning stars are the most lethal
weapons a Cleric can use in the game (but there are few good magical Spiked
Weapons in the game, so this is not a good choice for your main fighting
cleric).
The above character selections will allow you to use practically every
magical item in the game (except magical axes, but magical Long Swords are
both better and more common than these, and throwing axes are way too heavy
to be practical).
rodne...@one.net.au
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please"
- Samuel Clemmens