The IWD2 Belle Sakura Saloon Themed Party

Any Barbarians around? Warriors? We need tanks. No dwarfs? I like dwarfs. Nakia can look them straight in the eye.

Hmmm... well, the Char test said I was human, so how about Barbarian/Cleric for ToN? I wouldn't suffer the stiff level adjustement of a Drow and I could tank, too.

Personally I suspect that test as being biased towards humans. TON, I think you would make a fantastic Drow bgut the choice is yours.

Cleric pure class is better for your Drow TON. Barbarian levels for XP penalty? Not much of an advantage for a Cleric who already has weapon proficiencies and armour proficiencies. Barbarian/Wizard works better (with a focus on the Wizard class).

Bear in mind that this is not 2E /Baldur's Gate, multiclassing will make your character less powerful. You get some versatility but you lose a level as a spellcaster and every level counts -especially for a race that has a high level adjustment. If you take levels in another class your Dark Elf will be levels behind other party members and that's a pain for a spellcaster.

In Normal Mode you only get to level 16 or so by the end of the game and that's something to bear in mind. It's not that a Drow will be much behind in levels at the end it's more that it will take ages for the Drow to catch up.

IMO in IWD2 it's better to take only one level in another class so you can have a few more tricks in your bag. A Wizard has no fighting feats so taking one level in a warrior class gives the character proficiency in weapons and armours (especially for human mages who only get basic weapons). Barbarian gives a little more HP and Rage so it's a pretty decent boost for a Wizard.

That's why Ranger is an interesting class if you only take one level. A Rogue with only one level of Ranger can use two weapons at the same time and get one favoured enemy. That's a pretty decent bonus for only one level.

That being said Rogues are not that powerful in IWD2. The best Rogue is a high STR character with a two handed weapon who has the support of spellcasters who can paralyze enemies. It's unfortunate but traps and locks aren't such a problem in this game. In Baldur's Gate having a Thief was a necessity, in IWD2 a Rogue is nice but not as important.

Remember that in D&D at low levels spellcasters suck but at high levels they rule. Warrior types end up playing the part of bodyguards for flame throwers. No Warrior can keep up with a high level spellcaster.

I was planning on making Carabas a Barbarian 1 or 2/Wizard X by the way. Human, Half Elf or Half Orc. Half Orc would be fun (totally against the stereotype). The only problem is lower stats to begin with as a Half Orc (pretty useless if you don't max out STR). You lose two points in starting abilities with a Half Orc and that's a lot.

Elf could work but let's face it elves are pansies. Half Elves and Dark Elves are cool though but two Drows in the party would be too much IMO...

Unless I picked a Tiefling but then the favoured class is Rogue which means XP penalties so it's a no go.

So I guess I'm stuck with plain Human which isn't that bad. More skillpoints (great for a Wizard with decent INT) and one extra feat at level one so I could pick Bullheaded and Courteous Magocracy. I have to play a Human (or a Dwarf) to be able to choose Bullheaded and I want this feat for RPing reasons.

On the subject of RPing reasons I think Tri has to take the Luck of Heroes feat.

It has been a long time since I played the game. I know that Nakia, halfling started as a rogue/fighter. I didn't do much with pickpocket. She did do locks and traps but it was her stealth ability and small size that made her so valuable. Once we reached Eye of the Dragon she had leveled up nicely. She also acted a a scout and lured enemies back to be ambushed by the party. I have a feeling that after she came alive I may have stopped leveling up the fighter and concentrated on the thief, the stealth skills.

You should consider starting as a Rogue and taking only one level as a Ranger. Rangers are scouts so it fits the character nicely. Besides if you don't waste levels on making her a Fighter her Sneak Attacks will be even better.

Right then, let's make ToN a Drow Dreadmaster or a Stormlord. I prefer Stormlord because of the CE alignment, but Dreadmaster sounds fine too, and since one test scored me as NE... I suppose it could work, LE wouldn't be that much of a stretch.
We still need a tank, though. Saber would be a good choice, but he hasn't been around for like forever.

Carabas wrote:

You should consider starting as a Rogue and taking only one level as a Ranger. Rangers are scouts so it fits the character nicely. Besides if you don't waste levels on making her a Fighter her Sneak Attacks will be even better.

Thanks, Cara, that is what I will do. It would certainly improve her fighting skills. Oh, she had a fairly high charisma.

For Triactus, my first choice would be a sorceror because I think they kick more ass, but if not, like I said before a Bard would be closer to the reality, or if you want a healer, I could be a cleric of Lathander. It all depends on what the party looks like. Nakia's right, if there's no tanks, we might be in trouble. I think a wizard/sorceror and cleric start to get really useful around level 7-8.

As for the character pic, either column 5, row 7 (the guy in robes with beard and long hair) if I'm a sorceror or cleric ; column 3, row 9 if I'm a bard.

I'd say a Bard is way cooler.

Also I'm used to playing RPing parties that could be seen as controversial.

In my opinion Carabas could tank pretty well once he had a Barbarian level and the ability to cast Mirror Image. A few pints may help too.

I don't like standard tactics. The game can be played without a meatshield if we dish out enough damage. Ranged attacks are good at lower levels and with any amount of buffing any character can be used as a decoy/tank.

I'm used to putting my mages in the front row, that's where Burning Hands come in handy.

Being a Wizard Carabas has no reason not to cast Sleep, a spell that is useless later on but does wonders against goblins.

A Cleric of Lathander and a Stormlord/Dreadmaster in the same party? This should be interesting.

Another reason why I'm in favour of a Bard. By the way I've checked and the best Bard song is available at level 11 so that means that after that the Bard can either get more Bard levels for spells or simply invest into other classes for fun.

I will try and record some lines tomorrow if I can manage. I'd like to get that game started so if you're game we can have a party of four -it works pretty well and I think we've got everything covered for vanilla Normal Mode (no Heart of Fury and no Tactics mod).

Here is a non powergaming version of my character following the results from the test:

Spoiler:

As you can see I'll have to invest a lot in INT during the game (unless I lower WIS to boost INT).

Ok guys, I'm really sorry I made a terrible mistake!

The soundset reference I've posted is actually for BG not IWD.

What we need are WAV files in the correct format: 22 khz, 16 bit mono.

They should be named like this:

Quote :

xxxx01.wav : Morale Failure 1
xxxxx02.wav : Morale Failure 2
xxxxx03.wav : Battle Cry 1
xxxxx04.wav : Battle Cry 2
xxxxx05.wav : Battle Cry 3
xxxxx06.wav : Battle Cry 4
xxxxx07.wav : Battle Cry 5
xxxxx08.wav : Becoming Leader 1
xxxxx09.wav : Becoming Leader 2
xxxxx10.wav : Tired 1
xxxxx11.wav : Tired 2
xxxxx12.wav : Bored 1
xxxxx13.wav : Bored 2
xxxxx14.wav : Hurt 1
xxxxx15.wav : Hurt 2
xxxxx16.wav : Selected Common 1
xxxxx17.wav : Selected Common 2
xxxxx18.wav : Selected Common 3
xxxxx19.wav : Selected Common 4
xxxxx20.wav : Selected Common 5
xxxxx21.wav : Selected Common 6
xxxxx22.wav : Selected Common 7
xxxxx23.wav : Selected Action 1
xxxxx24.wav : Selected Action 2
xxxxx25.wav : Selected Action 3
xxxxx26.wav : Selected Action 4
xxxxx27.wav : Selected Action 5
xxxxx28.wav : Selected Action 6
xxxxx29.wav : Selected Action 7
xxxxx30.wav : Selected Rare 1
xxxxx31.wav : Selected Rare 2
xxxxx32.wav : Selected Rare 3
xxxxx33.wav : Selected Rare 4
xxxxx34.wav : Being hit 1
xxxxx35.wav : Being hit 2
xxxxx36.wav : Being hit 3
xxxxx37.wav : Dying 1
xxxxx38.wav : Dying 2
xxxxx39.wav : Reaction to partymember dying 1
xxxxx40.wav : Reaction to partymember dying 2
xxxxx41.wav : Critical hit 1 (Optional)
xxxxx42.wav : Critical hit 2 (Optional)
xxxxx43.wav : Falling Down (Optional)

I suggest using Audacity in order to set up the right format.

The only problem is I don't have a microphone to record it...

You can get a really cheap one that will get the job done. A simple pocket mike shouldn't cost more than a few bucks or clams or whatever.

Or you could use your phone/MP3 player to record the lines and then convert them on your PC (the last part may be tricky but should be possible).

My mike is really crappy but I've managed to record my lines:

Carabas soundset.

You can test it in game by copying it to the Sounds subfolder in the Icewind Dale II folder.

I'm not much of a voice actor so this is probably the best I can do. Feel free to tell me if it sucks, it's better to be honest.

What does 'selected common' mean?

Quote :

The only problem is I don't have a microphone to record it...

Well, you have a mobile or a MP3 player, right? I use my old MP3 player with a microphone to do my recording. The voice note recorder on my CrackBerry also does wonders.

Well, not all is lost, Brother Cara, I don't have my IWD2 discs so for my part, I'll be doing a BG2 run instead.

Silvery wrote:

What does 'selected common' mean?

The sound that is played when the character is selected on a common basis (as opposed to rare).

Type O Negative wrote:

Well, not all is lost, Brother Cara, I don't have my IWD2 discs so for my part, I'll be doing a BG2 run instead.

Quite a different thing but that may be interesting to compare both. The problem is that a BG2 run with custom NPCs is not as fun (as far as I'm concerned).

Regarding the soundsets it will only be a question of changing the names of the files and dropping them in the sound folder.

So common would be 'What the Hell do you want now?' and rare would be 'Oh, so you want me now, do you?'

You've got it Sil.

A-ha! I see now.

I should be able to do some recording this weekend. I'll also do more video reviews and wrap up the WoTES run, too.
Also, I made up my mind -- Dreadmaster. Talos is all well and good, but Bane FTW!

Dreadmaster is definitely better. Plus there is the fact that you keep fighting other Dreadmasters in the game. Punishing them for betraying Bane's commands is cool like fighting evil with something even more evil...

I've been playing around with stats for a semi powergaming party (I'm using Tactics for IWD2 and the Light of Selune mod with a few cosmetic tweaks but I've decided to skip Ease of Use) so here we go:

Quote :

Skorponok (evil drow with red eyes)
Neutral Evil Dreadmaster of Bane pure class
STR 14 DEX 12 CON 12 INT 12 WIS 18 CHA 12
skills: concentration +4 intimidate +4
feats: mace **
role: debuffer and damager but also major badass thanks to his evil options will use only maces and slings for that old school D&D cleric vibe. I'm using the Evil Necromancer soundset from Dungeon Keeper for this character.

Carabas (mage drow with orange stuff)
Chaotic Neutral Wizard (later +1 Barbarian)
STR 16 DEX 14 CON 12 INT 20 WIS 10 CHA 8
skills: alchemy +4 concentration +4 diplomacy +4 knowledge arcana +4 spellcraft +4
feats: spell penetration **
role: versatile spellslinger and two hander fighter. Regular Drow soundset (for now since I've lost the soundset I had recorded).

Triactus (dark haired human with long hair and soulpatch)
Neutral Good Bard (+ Cleric of Oghma?)
STR 10 DEX 14 CON 10 INT 12 WIS 14 CHA 16
skills: alchemy +1 bluff +4 concentration +1 diplomacy +4 hide +1 knowledge arcana +1 move silently +1 spellcraft +1 use magic device +4
feats: lingering song, luck of heroes
role: support and spellcasting but also fighting (all kinds) using the mage soundset the one with the line "it is a shame that we must resort to violence"

Nakia the Rogue (halfling avatar)
Chaotic Good Rogue (later +1 level as a Ranger)
STR 10 DEX 20 CON 14 INT 12 WIS 10 CHA 10
skills: disable device +4 hide +4 move silently +4 open locks +4 search +4
feats: rapid shot (+dodge)
role: main scout, traps disabler, lockpicker, sneak attacker, ranged fighter (Weapon Finesse is a must have) soundset from the 1st female wizard.

Silvery (silver haired portrait -the one with a mace)
Chaotic Good (or Evil?) Sorceress pure class
STR 10 DEX 14 CON 16 INT 10 WIS 8 CHA 18
skills: bluff +1 concentration +4 intimidate +1
feats: spell focus enchantment **
role: specialized spellcaster spamming enchantment spells, sultry soundset (of course)

I'm considering cheating to give "Triactus" three levels as a paladin (maybe make him start as one and then use the editor to change him from LG to NG). Should I make him an Aasimar? It could help increasing some of his stats.

Feel free to comment but bear in mind that these stats are just meant to reflect the builds I'd like to play (I don't min max too much but I try not to spread points around too much).

I don't know what 6th character I may add, any suggestions? If the only Cleric is Evil I may need another healer... (perhaps a Druid instead of a Sorceress?)

Maybe I should start with only four... The problem is that with two Dark Elves it will take forever to level up.