This is a common topic in many threads of many forums. Although the topic is not original, it is of obvious concern to the players. I was inspired to ask the opinion of everyone’s ultimate party, because I notice someone saying “my ultimate party would kick your ultimate party’s axx” and by the number of submissions concerning an entire party in my query concerning the best mage. Furthermore, sometimes a person’s opinion of the ultimate party changes with his playing experience. So, you may answer differently in this thread than you may have in a previous one.

The ultimate (most powerful) parties should have SIX characters. I believe that a six member party is superior in power to a party of fewer members because ability advancement is curtailed at higher levels and because diverse high level abilities can be useful. You may present your argument if you disagree, but please do NOT submit parties with less than six characters.

Second these six characters should not be NPCs, and one MUST BE able to create the character using the unmodified TOB game. No hacked characters please!

If you feel that you have strategy (employing specific weapons or spells) which makes your submission the ultimate party, please mention the strategy.

DO NOT mention the stats of the character. I have noticed players say, “And these stats are legit. I spent two hours getting them.” :rolleyes: That’s no more legit than using a character editor, and the person that uses the character editor will have more time to play the game. Maybe next time Bioware will institute a system similar to the RPGA... (Note: It's OK with me if you choose to spend hours on the stats or use a character editor - I have. It's just everyone knows already that a party with characters whose stats are 25 are more powerful than characters whose stats are 16.)

That’s it. Thanks for the submissions.

[This message has been edited by Kull (edited May 31, 2002).]

My main Padine the human cavalier.Equiped with the full collection of the armour and sword of glory:angel::evil:.(read my comment about abazigal and youb willrealise that he is a grant master at everything and he is immune to everything.He also has25 in every stat and has 670 hp)
Aeris:elf sorceres with some mean spells which i've created.(Padine's wife to be
Rumina:the same as aeris.(exept the wife to be part.)
Cocilius: Padines brother and a lawfull good cleric:angel: with some mean spells i created.(I expecially like Holy wrath.)
Aala:a Half-elf thief/mage with the mean spells.(she is the sister of Aeris and Rumy.Their also sisters.I forgot.)
Caesarius:an elf archer(the son of padine:angel:.)He is a master of archery and dual wielding.(bad comment here!!!)

As you can see kull,even if you kill my other five members,my main is immortal and will kick anybodys ultimate partys a**!!!:evil:



[This message has been edited by Padine the Paladin (edited May 31, 2002).]

Padine, please follow the instructions of my poll.:nono: Those are hacked characters.

On another subject, I can't believe you have fun playing with that group :confused:

I hope the administrators will remove that post...

Thy are not.As i said before:check my comment about"trouble with abazigal.Big problem"and you will understand.Also:I have completed the game 5 times now.It got boring the 4th time.

[This message has been edited by Padine the Paladin (edited May 31, 2002).]

hehe, oh well .... :D

My suggestion is to have a party with well ballanced abilities, actually I now prefer using pure, single class chars instead of dual- or multiclassed chars ... IWD-2 will certainly change that ;)

However, a good party I have used consisted of:
-Cavalier (my one was halfling, anyway ...)
-Archer (I like the cooperation between the ranged fighter archer and the melee only cavalier ....)
-Mazzy Fentan
-Keldorn
-Minsc, later Sarevok
-Jan Jansen, later Imoen

Only drawback of this party: The fights were definitely too short to really enjoy them.

Padine,
But as Kull said; you should only post here with a legal party, no hacked characters.
My Ultimate Party:
--------------------------------
This is btw my real party.
--------------------------------
Lailyn: Half-Elven Blade,(CG) lev 34. Wielding Dakkon's Zerth Blade and Katana +3.
(from BG1)

Lavelyn: Female Half-Elven Ranger/Cleric. (CG) Lev 27/28. Wielding a Quarterstaff +3.
(from BG1)

Kelendil: Elven Assassin (NG) lev 29.
Wielding the Tasheron's Bow and Short Sword of Backstabbing.

Arlend: Elven Sorcerer (LN) lev 30.
Staff of the Magi, obviously.

Graumsh: Half-Orc Barbarian (CN). Lev 33.
Dualwielding Azuredge and Axe+3.

----------------------------------

For me that party works pretty ok, having taken Lailyn and Lavelyn through BG1,2 and on Abazigal now in ToB. Ok so it's not six character but if it was i'd have:

Gruamsh (brother of Graumsh): Half-Orc Barbarian (CN) level ??.
Two Handed Weaponing with Two Handed Sword +3.

That's about it, im confident in that it could give most parties a fair fight. I'm a bit worried about Magical Support but with a Sorcerer and a support Bard, with Cleric/Druid spells in further support, it shouldnt have too much of a challenge.

I went through BG2:SoA with only the first two characters. Travelling with Jan only for the Staff Of Magi and the Stronghold quests, then kicked him out, went to spellhold, held onto imoen and kicked her out in the underdark.

Im sure it could give you a fair run for your money :money:

[This message has been edited by Gopher (edited May 31, 2002).]

Human Cavalier - Dualwielding Scimitars
Dwarven Barbarian - Dualwielding Axes
Dwarven Fighter/Cleric - Dualwielding Hammers
Elven Cleric/Mage - Staff of Magi
Elven Archer - Some bow
Elven or Halfelven iirc Mage/Thief - Your typical thieving arsenal.

Cavalier and Barbarian always up front, my F/C somewhere in between, to catch up any foes that come through. My archer, M/T and C/M bombard the enemies with ranged attack. The M/T is my main scout.

Before I begin, let me say that the ultimate party would depend on the player's fighting style. :p

Also, its been a while since I played this party, so I do not remember their weapons.

Bateluer - Half-Elf - Ranger - Dual wielding
Aerie - Elven - Mage/Cleric
Minsc - Human - Ranger
Valygar - Human - Stalker - Dual wielding Celestial Fury and some other katana.
Nalia - Human - Mage/thief - Tuigan Bow with +3 arrows standard
Imoen - Human - Mage/thief - Gesen Bow or Shortbow +3

I've always preferred the sword or fist to a mage's spell book. But Horrid Wilting and the summoning Devas/Planetars are very potent. :)

Tarin L'Kor - Drow (Just an elf with appropiate facial and hair colors; not hacked. :)) Lvl 27 Wild Mage
Anomen - Lvl 32/7 weilding Crom Faeyr with appropiate Grandmastery
Sarevok - Lvl 29 - Sword of Chaos +4 (I love Ascension :))
Keldorn - Lvl 27 - What do you think I'd equip him with?
Imoen - Lvl 30 - Shadowkeeper'd her back to a thief and gave her her old voice set and picture. :) And with Use any Item and Greater Evasion I was able to get her AC down to -24, making her a great decoy.

With this group, the game was cake.

Only two fights were even remotely difficult: the Improved Abazigal and the final one under Ascension, which is almost infinetly more difficult than the original. In fact, when I got there, so much was the ass whooping (on me, that is) I had to add Valygar at the last second and hack his experience up to the group average just to remotely even up the odds. (I even had Balthazar too.)

However, most of the time, my main character (the Wild Mage) was able to sit back and almost never cast a spell, except during major boss battles. His memorized spells included, almost exclusively, time stops, improved alacrities, and fast casting damage spells... 3 Dragon's Breaths, 5 Abi-Dalzhims, 6 Chain Lightnings, 5 Cloud Kills, 7 Fire Arrows, 7 Acid Arrows, and 7 Magic Missles... precede that with a spell trigger loaded with 3 Lower Resistances and you can kill anything... even Padine's Cavalier I'll bet. :):roll::spin:



[This message has been edited by Alex (edited June 01, 2002).]

Elaellur: Half-Elven Cleric/Ranger, wielding Crom and Flail of Ages. Yes, he's powerful.
Lady Mellina: Cavalier, duals Belm and Yamato.
Lady Hillessa: Inquisitor. Carsomyr, Firetooth and Wave.
Lyhde: Half-Elven Cleric/Mage. She wields the staff of Magi, a nice sling and some maces.
Seremna: Half-Elven Mage/Thief. Darts and duals short swords. Some longswords too.
Glaelwyn: Elven Archer. She's very good with the Heartseeker and a lot of arrows.

Needless to say: This is powergaming

So.. Padine's paladin was granted "Divine Intervention" from the gods of goodness? Sounds to me like he swore fealty to a little program called ShadowKeeper.. then renounced his loyalty and worship to this all-powerful and omnipotent Lord of Editing. And in becoming so powerful as a result of many hours of "worship," Padine eventually slayed ShadowKeeper's avatar and now claims he doesn't know him? :shame: Shame on you...

If you must flame Padine, please do it in someone else's thread. Please stick to the topic. Thank you.

[Thanks for moderating instead of us. Just to emphasize that if anyone has any remarks on Paladine they can PM or mail him. I don't want to see any more posts targeted at him.] -Tal

[This message has been edited by Taluntain (edited June 04, 2002).]

All right, I was in the wrong, and I realize this. Thought I'd take a moment to be a man about things and admit my mistake.

Also, I'd like to apologize. I certainly wouldn't want to invoke the wrath of Taluntain... he kind of scares me. :eek:

Well here is the best party in my opinion:

1:fighter/Mage: Don't teach him/her a lot of spells but concentrate on the fighting (With powerfull swords!) give him a good armour and shield. The mage part is to let him wield some staffs and scrolls, that you can use if you really need them (2 times in the entire game :) ) [This could best be your main caracter!]

2:Mage/Thief: Make sure he/she is good in lock picking and detecting traps. Give him/her some real good spells, stuff that protects her (Rings, gloves, amulets, cloaks) and let her wield 2 katana's/scimitars of grate power. And of course:Monster summoning (Deva/fallen deva)!

3:Clerk. Give this one the best hammer (The one that gives str 25!) and a perfect armour. No load her/him with healing/raise dead spells and powerfull creature summonig. Also give her/him a wand of the heavens. Try to keep this one alive! She must heal/raise your party aftyer every fight!

4:Fighter (Or ranger or Paladin) equip this one with the best axes you can find. Give him a shield and armour. (A bow could be handy too!)

5:Fighter (Or ranger or Paladin) equip this one with the best 2 handed sword you can find. Give him a bow/crosbow and armour.

6:A Bard, give him the use all item ability as soon as you can. From that moment he rocks! Before that moment, let him guart your mage and let him play battle songs!

This party will come in handy in every situation, believe me!



[This message has been edited by SleepleSS (edited June 05, 2002).]

The number of posters - veterans at that! - that failed to follow the instructions for this poll astound me. He said no NPC's!

A nitpick: this is not the "ultimate party", because to me that implies having fun. "Most powerful" would have been a better phrase. Assembling a party this way makes it too powerful to be much fun IMHO.

* Here is my suggestion: *

Inquisitor
Sorcerer
mc Fighter/Mage (Elf)
mc Fighter/Thief (Elf)
mc Fighter/Thief (Dwarf)
mc Cleric/Ranger (Halfelf)

Comments:
Inquisitor is very strong with his special abilities.
Sorcerer as the main spellcaster who gets access to high level spells faster than a multiclass.
The rest are multiclass and one good reason for that is that they get HLA's from both class pools and they do that quickly.
Two Fighter/Thief characters because that's a very powerful ToB fighting combo and because of the incredible HLA's of those two classes.

(edit: corrected a couple of words)

[This message has been edited by Earl Grey (edited June 05, 2002).]

Indeed, that party can do the maximum of 20 attacks per round with negative THACO and use most of cool 1-handed items:

I: Dualwield Purifier +5 and Foebane
F/M: Dual Kundane and Angurvadal
F/T Elf: Dual Spectral Brand (or Sw. of the Mask) and Belm
F/T Dwarf: Dual Crom and Scarlet Ninja-to
R/C: Dual FoA and Club of Detonations (or Storm Star).

They will also have a Sorc for casting.

[This message has been edited by Modjahed (edited June 05, 2002).]

How about:
1. Sorcerer (the best mage class)
2. Fighter-mage (a wonderful mix for a front-line fighter with some diverse abilities)
3. Inquisitor (best paladin, contributing dispel magic and true seeing)
4. Barbarian (the best pure warrior, stip the magic defenses from the enemy and turn him loose!)
5. Kensai 16/thief (superior to the multi-class fighter-thief in my opinion, provides scouting/thief abilities and a wicked fighter)
6. Mage-cleric (more magic!, wicked spell combos, cleric ability)

@Modjahed
I'm not such a big fan of dual wielding weapons as you are. Still, those aren't bad weapons those. Just need to take into consideration when any specific weapon is available.

@Kull
About your recommendation of dc Kensai/Thief.
- Your K/T need 2,000,000 xp as a pure Kensai and the 1,540,000 xp as a pure - and not very useful - thief before finally becoming a full fledged Kensai/Thief.
- Unless I'm mistaken, a K/T needs 5,000,000 xp (K-16/T-23) before getting the first HLA, which btw can only come from the Thief HLA pool. By then a mc alternative would be F-18/T-21 and already have a whopping 10 HLA's.
- No Fighter HLA for the Kensai/Thief means no Greater WW's!

Earl Grey,
I presented the opposing view point on why a dual class thief can be better than the multi-class thief under the thread "dual class rocks." Your pointing out the vast difference in HLA throughout the game has caused me to reconsider my position. In short, I believe you may be right that the multi-class thief is better in TOB...

[This message has been edited by Kull (edited June 06, 2002).]