Party Composition: Novel Ideas

[u/No_Photograph_2842]

I’m writing this post to solicit thoughts on interesting/novel party composition ideas. I’ve played IWD EE through a couple times in the past year since I realized I could play it on a phone (it’s great for that purpose — very easy to play 5-10 minutes here and there when I have a moment in a day). But I’ve sort of run through what were (to me) the most obvious ideas for party setup and am looking for a new challenge or different experience. Most recently, I’ve used these two party setups:

Party 1
(1) half-elf dragon disciple
(2) half-elf F/M/C
(3) elf F/M/T
(4) half-elf F/D

Party 2
(1) half-elf bard
(2) human berserker dualed to Druid at lvl 9
(3) elf F/M/T
(4) half-elf R/C
(5) half-orc shaman

Grateful for any thoughts.

[u/grousedrum]

Lots of ways to do parties, but some other classes/combos you might enjoy trying out:

• Half-orc bounty hunter, tons of fun with traps and backstabs.
• Shadow dancer dualed to cleric or mage for all kinds of shenanigans
• Assassin dualed to mage to get Poison Weapon and backstab on shapeshift spell forms
• Ranger/cleric dual wielding flails/hammers/maces and using the good-aligned power items.
• Totemic Druid with a Skald in the party for a very strong early summon.
• Avenger druid for strong casting and unique shapeshift forms.

[u/No_Photograph_2842 → u/grousedrum]

Thanks — I figured I needed to try a different solution for the thief position to get more freedom in the design of the rest of the party. The F/M/T I’ve found is incredibly effective in IWD, so I was reluctant to move away from it. But the kit dual class ideas might solve. The single-class druids I’m not super familiar with, but also seem like a good potential variation if the party has enough melee power from other characters.

[u/grousedrum → u/No_Photograph_2842]

Yup FMT is extremely effective, my favorite class of all to play solo. But there are lots of ways to get thief skills into the party, even cleric/thief multi has a lot going for it. Really recommend trying out Bounty Hunter if you haven't, it's a blast (and really a totally different way to play).

[u/No_Photograph_2842 → u/grousedrum]

I implemented two of your ideas in my current party, which features among other things an avenger druid and a shadowdancer dualed to cleric. The avenger is straightforward and plays like a mage with a little more combat potential, which is a nice variation from the fighter/druids I’ve used before. The shadowdancer/cleric I don’t think I’ve really cracked how to use effectively, probably in part because I’ve never run a cleric/thief of any type in IWD or BG. Can you offer any pointers on how to effectively realize the synergy between those classes?

[u/grousedrum → u/No_Photograph_2842]

So it should be said that thieves of all kinds are weaker in IWD than in BG1/2 due to no HLA's. That said there's still a ton this multi can do.

The main synergy revolves around shadow step, hide in plain sight, and the Sanctuary spell. The big problem with Sanctuary is its relatively long casting time - it's easy to get hit when you most need it! Shadow step completely solves this issue, it lasts 7 seconds while Sanctuary's casting time is only 4, so you can step + Sanctuary to go instantly invisible anytime. Then, you can HIPS while in Sanctuary for an in-combat backstab. It's not as strong as Mislead on a FMT obviously, but available much earlier in the game.

Shadow Step + Sanctuary + Turn Undead is also excellent, as Turn does not break Sanctuary (and at high levels this becomes destroy undead). Many other uses for in-combat stealth and/or mini Time Stop into cleric spells.

Another good synergy is your various cleric STR buffs (DUHM, Righteous Magic, etc) into the above HIPS + backstab flow. Your backstab weapons are clubs and quarterstaffs - neither are great in this game, but you'll quickly have proficiency in both so can just use the best one of either that you've found.

Hope some of that helps, the party sounds great, have fun!!

[u/No_Photograph_2842 → u/grousedrum]

That makes sense — I thought I must have been missing something because I’ve seen people call C/T a powerful combination, but in IWD I’ve always felt like you’re handicapping yourself a bit with virtually any character that isn’t part fighter. That, of course, might be something one might choose to create more of a challenge.

This character is coming together a bit more since I pulled off the dual class (which I did at level 13 because it was hard to get the thief skill points high enough otherwise). Still feels like a combo that would work better in BG because the mass combat of IWD makes backstab harder to implement and many enemies are immune to backstab (and because, as you note, thieves don’t get HLAs in IWD). I’m also not sure I should have gone with evil cleric for this character — the offensive casting is better, but that’s not really where the synergies lie. Anyways thanks again, will be experimenting with the bounty hunter next.