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Greetings, I installed IWD:EE and slowly started planning my party. First thing I did was to check the stat count of pregenerated party.

Garris: 88
Baern: 90
Cadriel: 92
Cirika: 84
Ilaura: 88
Felicia: 91

Those numbers are pretty high so I decided to create a party considering those numbers. However, my memory with the rules is rusty so I wanted to ask to you guys if I made an error planning those adventurers. (Created them all)

ROBAR: Orc Fighter-Cleric

STR: 19
DEX: 18
CON: 19
INT: 9
WIS: 18
CHA: 9
TOTAL: 92

Warhammer 2, Sling 2

VEGA: Elf Mage

STR: 11
DEX: 19
CON: 16
INT: 18
WIS: 10
CHA: 18 (will be the leader while talking)
TOTAL: 92

Sling +1

GARRETT- Human Thief (Swashbuckler)

STR: 18
DEX: 18
CON: 18 (i know i know)
INT: 10
WIS: 10
CHA: 11
TOTAL: 85

Thinking about crossbow and short sword

ARAGORN: Half-Elf Ranger

STR: 18/82
DEX: 18
CON: 18
INT: 10
WIS: 18
CHA: 10
TOTAL: 92

Will be dual-wielding long swords and +2 with longbows

LEGOLAS: Elf - Ranger (Archer)

STR: 18/87
DEX: 19
CON: 17
INT: 10
WIS: 18
CHA: 10
TOTAL: 92

+1 Longsword, +1 Shortsword and +2 Longbow (did not let me go 3)

CASSANDRA: Half-Elf Cleric-Mage

STR: 13
DEX: 18
CON: 16
INT: 18
WIS: 18
CHA: 8
TOTAL: 91

Inspired from the TV Show Librarians, Cassandra will be wielding a flail and a sling.

That's it. That is the party I want to play with so I probably wont be changing any class or race. My only concern is if I remember the stats correctly like does a mage need CHA or does a thief need INT?

Thank you all in advance.
Engin.

EIT
Post edited January 26, 2017 by Engerek01
There are two concerns regarding your choice of classes:

1. There are two mages in your party. Unfortunately, scrolls are rather scarce, and you may find only one scroll for many critical spells, so you will need to carefully spread your scrolls. It also doesn't help that mages don't get any spell picks at level up (why didn't they implement this?), which really hinders mages in environments where scrolls are scarce such as IWD. Furthermore, a single class mage could easily outpace scroll availability; you could gain access to a new level of spells but not have any spells to memorize in your new higher level slot!

2. No single-class cleric, as clerics are the best class in IWD (for various reasons, including the large numbers of undead). A single class cleric would allow you to more easily turn the unded you encounter and might even allow you to outright destroy them. Also, the alignments of your two clerics are very important; for example, evil clerics never get any powerful healing spells and should be considered a different class entirely.

3. No Bard. Bards are actually useful this time around, especially with some of the really nice bard songs available (including the one that makes your party regenerate). (Be aware that bards do need scrolls to learn their spells, so they do compete with mages for them; if you choose to get one, replace one of your mages.)
Your party will work. I don't think thieves can use the powerful magical crossbows so short bow should be the better choice but you'll get plenty of proficiency points for him during the game.
I created them all. I have a question tho. How does turn undead work? Does CHARISMA effect its strength? I am planning to use the friends spell if such a situation arise and I am surrounded by undead.
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Engerek01: I created them all. I have a question tho. How does turn undead work? Does CHARISMA effect its strength? I am planning to use the friends spell if such a situation arise and I am surrounded by undead.
No. The only thing that affects turn undead is the character's Cleric level (or Paladin level - 2, but that only applies for Paladins). Stronger enemies are harder to turn, and destroying undead requires reaching a level greater than what is required to turn them reliably.

Note that turn undead works differently for evil clerics: You get to gain control of enemy undead instead. (You really should mention the alignments of your Clerics; it has a major impact on what spells they can learn, to the point where evil Clerics should be considered a different class for purposes of class balance.)
IWD:EE is 3e rules, right? The original was 2e.

I would also recommend taking only 1 mage due to the paucity of scrolls. You will get much more mileage from having 2 clerics or a cleric and a druid, since they auto-learn their full spell inventory on level-up. If you are playing iron-man mode (no reloads) this is even more important, since you have to factor in that learning some MU spells will fail and the scroll is wasted.

Clerics definitely rock in IWD, but MU have their uses too, shining much more in the mid- and late-game as well as vs certain bosses. For this reason, dual-class F/MU is a viable choice. Start as a fighter and switch over to MU once you get weapon proficiency (either lvl 4 or 8 iirc). Check the dual-class rules, I think you will need both 15+ Str and 17+ Int to be able to do this.

Another reason to take a bard (with high CHA) is there is a magic sword mission reward that is only available if you have a bard in your party. The sword is a pretty good one. Also, there are hardly any useful MU spells in the game above lvl 7, so a HL bard has you covered. Really, the lvl 8 and lvl 9 spell scrolls available pretty much suck.

I would switch over one of your rangers to either a druid or a bard, and change one of your multi-class clerics (probably Cassandra) to pure cleric. And I would dual-class Vega as a F4-MU or maybe F6-MU, but you will need to move some points into Str to do so.

Another strategy for playing the game is to start with only 1 or 2 characters (maybe pure C and Bard) and by the time they get to Shadowvale they will both be lvl 4 or 5. Then add the other PCs into the party as lvl 1 and grind for exp a bit in Shadowvale hunting yeti and shadows, but now you can explore Kresslak's Tomb with a lvl 5+ cleric.
Post edited January 26, 2017 by Dreamteam67
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Dreamteam67: IWD:EE is 3e rules, right? The original was 2e.
IWD:EE follows 2nd edition rules.

Thanks for all the advice you have given guys.
I know it's a bit late, but you might want to check out this old thread with some useful character creation tips.
There was some feedback that my recommendation for Int for MU was too low, so you might disregard that and bump it up a bit, although I still maintain you don't need 18 Int to have a completely viable MU.

Also, since I don't have IWD:EE, I forgot there is no in-game way in SP to add new characters to your party. But I think someone covers how to create new characters and add them directly into the game folder in a different thread.

Also (it's been a while since I played the game) the sword reward I mentioned above does not require a bard to be in your party. However there is another special easter-egg reward you can only get if you have a bard. Sorry for the misinfo.
Post edited January 26, 2017 by Dreamteam67
I just learned that Wisdom is totally useless for Rangers. It doesn't give bonus spells or effect the spell power. :(
But there is still a minimum Wis required to be able to cast each level of clerical spell, so iirc a Ranger needs 14 Wis to be able to access all level spells available to him.
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Dreamteam67: But there is still a minimum Wis required to be able to cast each level of clerical spell, so iirc a Ranger needs 14 Wis to be able to access all level spells available to him.
Actually, in 2nd edition, that rule doesn't exist unless you are looking for 6th and 7th level spells. Furthermore, that rule isn't implemented by the Infinity Engine games (except IWD2, but the rules are different there). Even the Gold Box games were inconsistent about whether the rule is implemented (it's implemented in Dark Queen of Krynn, but not in its predecessor Death Knights of Krynn).

(Also, it is worth noting that Rangers *do* get access to 6th level spells in IWD1 eventually, but there is no minimum Wisdom required, and this doesn't come into play until 29th level anyway.)
It doesnt really matter because the system takes care of it by setting 14 WIS as minimum for a ranger. So there is no such thing as a bad WISDOM ability point. I wrote that because in many reviews/build tips, they are recommending 17 WIS for a ranger to get bonus spells which is not true.
Post edited February 05, 2017 by Engerek01
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dtgreene: (Also, it is worth noting that Rangers *do* get access to 6th level spells in IWD1 eventually, but there is no minimum Wisdom required, and this doesn't come into play until 29th level anyway.)
When I took on the final boss in IWD1, I had a dual-class F6/MU30 and dual F9/C24 (who I created and added to the party in Upper Dorns Deep). Granted I did grind a bit for exp at several places, and I was playing the difficulty setting were you get 2x exp for mobs. But it is still very possible to reach 29th level by the end of IWD1.
After Seven and a half months later, my party finally triumphs. Here are my thoughts.

* I played IWD:EE V 1.4.0. It worked pretty well despite some minor bugs (and some not bugs but things willingly implemented in IWD:EE)

* I played the game on impossible and soon noticed that this was actually the EASY version since you get double experience. At the end, each party member had 1.5 Million exp.

* I agree that mages are not very effective. Not because there are few spells but there are few places they actually make sense to use. Casting fire protection on my tank and then raining fireballs from afar was fun but magic is almost useless against most bosses including the final boss.

* I did not see any reason to use turn-undead. I killed undead a lot faster myself and they never pose any threat.

* That game is pure hack and slash. There were a few mages that I had trouble with but it seems all you need to do was keep hacking and slashing and their defenses eventually go down. I do not know why but dispel, remove magic, spell thrust or Secret Word did not work on them.

* Very few side quests and half of them are badly implemented. 3 times I could not deliver the quest because I finished things in different order. I am not sure if things were like that in original but it seems BEAMDOG wants you to finish the game even more linear. Even in the end, (I'll try to say that without giving spoiler as much as possible) you get an object which is supposed to give you major experience. However, I just kept going down the "dungeon" and then I was teleported to the final fight, without any option to go back. So 3 quest because I did in different order and 2 quests because I thought I could do them later, total of 5 got wasted. I believe the TOTAL game has like 15 side quests.

* The game is linear. Even at times you don't think it is, the path is actually the same. I loaded and played the different route and saw nothing changed.

* There are total of 21 books, notes, quest item books etc. That's whole of it in the entire game. I kept everything that I could read in my scroll case and that's the total.

* Why the hell there are 9th level or 8th level spells in this game? To be able to use them only once?

* The final boss was disappointing. I expected a challenging fight after all that hype but nothing. Except for the need of +3 weapons to be able to hit, there is no tactic. I did not even need to buff. Mage spells were useless so I gave my mage his good old +3 quarter staff so he won't get bored between summoning monsters to stall 4 other monsters. I only used Haste. I am not saying to brag, I completely suck at BG series even tho I finished BG1 5 times.

* Fun fact (I think that is what it is called). I did not need to use a single potion in the game. Not even healing potions.

* My Grandmaster Archer Legolas finished the game with 45% kill ratio :)

* Other than that, archery is completely useless in boss fights.

Conclusion: IWD:EE was a fun, (very) linear AD&D game with (very) little story and lots of fight. It certainly teaches you how to play D&D games.