For my next party I need some suggestions on possible builds. I will try classes and races which I never experienced before. Here is the list of my questions:

1-Single class rogue:
I am trying to figure out race, stats and such for a single rogue.Being a powergamer more than a roleplayer (in IWD2), all opportunities such as min/max characters are welcome.

2-Sorcerer:
I think that will be easy because there are so many sorcerer-lovers around.

3-Ranger:
Although many players start their D&D advanture as a ranger, they are not that popular in 3E as far as I see. I am not an exception.

4-Bard:
What should I say? All I know is that they can sing and cast spell based on charisma. :D

5-Single class Fighter:
Although, I always add 4 levels of fighter to my warriors, I don't know much about these guys, too.

Please detail your suggestions as much as you can. Don't be shy with your suggestions. Any help will be appreciated.

1-Single class rogue: Best rogues in my opinion are tieflings or Strongheart Halflings...I go with the halfling, personally.

2-Sorcerer: Aasimar sorcerer is a good pick because of the added charisma...start with a level or two of paladin..for the extra goodies ;)

3-Ranger: Rangers seem pretty weak, but then again, I've always preferred a paladin to a ranger. You're almost better off making a druid and adding a few levels of ranger or fighter.

4-Bard: Never played a bard...I think they are weak. Not a strong fighter, or spellcaster, and the bardic music isn't a huge help either...Make a cleric instead...At least you get healing spells!

5-Single class Fighter: I love straight fighters!!! Either a half-orc or dwarven tank! Add one level of barbarian, and you get added speed and a little rage!

By the way, here's the party I'm currently using in IWD2, and I'me not have much trouble so far...

Belisarius - Aasimar paladin of Helm 8

Azog Skullcleaver - Half Orc Barb 1/Fighter 7

Thorfin Skulsplitter - Dwarf Fighter 4 / Cleric of Tempus 4...Cleirc with decent melee/axe skill

Nimbul Alewine - Strongheart Halfling Rogue 8 (may add a few levels of fighter after level 10)

Eowyn - Human Druid 8...Never played a druid before...Some great offensive spells!!! Spike Stones Rock!

Circe Anthalas - Assimar Sorceress 8. My first sorcerer...I like them much better than wizards for this game, since scrolls are at such a premium!

Well...That's my two cents worth o' wisdom. Good luck!

I have finished the game twice and playing HoF now. Here is my party:

Aasimar - Paladin of Helm 16/Fighter 4
Shield Dwarf - Barbarian 17/Fighter 4
Drow - Diviner 20
Tiefling - Rogue 10/Wizard 10
Aasimar - Stormlord of Talos 20
Human - Monk 21

The one before this had a druid instead of monk; there was some other minor changes too.
So, for my next party I especially prefer classes mentioned in my original post.

Thanks for your help, though.

my current party, up to chapter 3.

Half-Orc - Barb XX/Fighter 4 (tank)
Aasimar - Paladin XX/Fighter 4 (2nd tank)
Moon Elf - Cleric of Helm XX (healer)
Human - Druid XX (offensive spells)
Drow - Rogue XX/Fighter 4 (bow dude) :cool:
Human - Wizard XX

:rolleyes: :yot:
Please stick with the topic. I don't want your parties. I want suggestions on the builds mentioned in my original post.

It really depends on how you are going to use them, but for generic mods:

rogue= tiefling= intelligence AND dex means you have more skills and youre better at them.

sorcerer= aasimir= only race that has increased charisma

ranger= any= depending on how you use her, nearly any race can make a good ranger. sorry no way to generalize this one.

bard= human= bards need high scores in everything exept wisdom, so the neutrality of a human (plus the extra feat) make them the best choice

fighter= Half-orc= Ive played nearly every race as a fighter, and the added strength makes the halforc the best

Disclaimer: these are my opinions for GENERIC characters, if you disagree with me, please post.

lordvan526:
Thanks for your input.
However, there is a little mistake. Aasimar is not the only race with increased CHA, drow is also have +2 CHA.
Needless to say, other info is quite useful.

The ranger will be melee tank. Fighter will probably dual wield long swords. Rogue may get 4 levels of fighter for weapon specialization, extra HP and extra feats, as well as ranger.
Is there a cap for sneak attack?

For a Rogue, I usually use a Half-elf, but really any elf, or halfling will work. Tielfing's ain't too bad either. As far as I know, there isn't a cap for sneak attacks. I've got a lvl 13 Rogue and she does 6 or 7d6 damage on sneak attacks. Man, that's fun.

Rangers... I've used one once, and he was a half-elf, but maybe a full elf would be better. He's supposed to be woodlandish, so a Wild Elf may be a good choice. But really anything except a halfling would be fine for a ranger. I'd suggest someone with a dex bonus so you can wear light or no armor for the dual wield bonus if he has to fight in close, and keep him off fighting with a bow or something.

Haven't tried a bard yet, so no clue, but Drow would be good with the charisma and dex bonus'.

Single Class Fighters... human or half-orc, or dwarf. Fighter is favored class for like all dwarves, so there ya go.

Hm IMO if you really want +2 CHA you better go with Aasimar,sure drow has many kick@$$ abilities but level adjustment is important for sorc,as i remember sorc can cast lvl 2 spells on lvl 4..so this would take a lvl 6 drow...

Thanks for the correction Anakha. I agree w/ Khelben, though. Overall an aasamir is better than a drow for a sorcerer.

For a tank Ranger w/ 4 levels of fighter, I suggest eithe human or half-orc, depending on whether you want strength or feats and skills.

I actually Play Rangers on ocassion. *Gasps!* :) One of the best set ups i've done was a Wild Elf Ranger/Fighter. Right now she's a lvl 12 Ranger lvl 4 Fighter, Which get's some Excellent damage. I have an Aasimar Paladin of Helm/Fighter that managed to get a Mithral Bow in HoF Mode, so i handed that over to Laella (My Ranger) When she first started, So Leveling her up was No biggie.

By starting a Ranger as a race of Elf, you get a Proficiency with Bows and large swords to starts, which helps. And the 4 levels of fighter allows the weapons specialization.

IE: You get a Ranger/Fighter with 3 Bow skill, and Animal Empathy (Has it's Perks..) Good Luck to you. :D

Yeah; I have a Ghostwise halfling ranger with one level of barbarian for the abilities/feats. He has (or at least had, last time I checked) the most kills in my current party and is an excellent all round warrior and scout. HINT: Make the most of the favoured enemy system by picking powerful enemies first so the bonus builds up by the time you meet them (this may seem obvious, but I've never seen anyone mention it before; Everyone seems so keen on slagging rangers off that they don't consider the possiblities). Trolls are a particularly good first choice as they are tough and you meet plenty of them througout the game.

1-Ranger x/Fighter x-Human-Archer,Scout,Two-wpon
2-Barbarian x/Fighter 4-HalfOrc-Tank
3-Rogue x/Ranger 1-Halfling-Thief,Scout
4-Cleric x-Asimar-Healer
5-Sorcer x-Wildelf-Bombarder
6-Wizard x-Moonelf-Loremaster

This party really works!!!!! :D

Thanks all but I need to know more on bards, rangers and sorcerers.
BTW, I have another question. I have a Tiefling rogue/wizard and I can not decide how to split levels. Right now he is Rogue 10/Wizard 11. Playing HoF, he will reach level 30. I suppose he will be Wizard 17/Rogue 13 but not sure. Maybe Wizard 20/Rogue 10. He has 9th level spells memorized and getting less than 17 levels of wizard is not an option for me.
I really do not know what to do those 3 levels. :(
HELP ME!

If you want more skills for thief, sneak attack, and extra rogue abilities choose more rogue lvl, but if you want more spell level choose wizard.
For me, if you have another spellcaster choose rogue, but if you don´t choos wizard.

This is a good ranger: Drow-Ranger +x/fighter 4/barbarian -x (more ranger than barbariansa levels, for the favorite enemies)
A ranger gains one favorite enemie every 5 lvls.

Table

ranger
lvl Bonus vs. favorite enemy
01- 1st:+1
05- 1st:+2, 2nd:+1
10- 1st:+3, 2nd:+2, 3th:+1
15- 1st:+4, 2nd:+3, 3th:+2, 4th:+1
20- 1st:+5, 2nd:+4, 3th:+3, 4th:+2, 5th:+1

I hope this help you ;)

[ January 23, 2003, 23:00: Message edited by: Rekiller ]

Bard:
Human
STR:12 DEX:14 CON:10 INT:16 WIS:8 CHA:16
Feats: Courteous Magocracy, Lingering Song
Skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Knowledge:Arcana, Spellcraft, Concentration, Alchemy
At level 3 take Spell Focus:Enchantment and at level 6 upgrade to Greater Spell Focus:Enchantment.

Ranger:
Tiefling
STR:14 DEX:16 CON:14 INT:12 WIS:12 CHA:8
Feats: Weapon Finesse
Skills: Hide, Move Silently, Wildnerness Lore

Any race works well for a Ranger, though. The key is good physical skills, and a bit of Intelligence and some Wisdom is good to have. Humans are excellent as they get an extra feat and skill point, so you can leave the INT at 10 and raise STR, DEX or CON, or leave INT alone and take another skill (like Search).

Rekiller:
Your ranger sucks. :p He will be penalized so hard that he will probably reach level 12 at most in normal.

Gaius:
Thank you for your suggestions.

I created a party last night. Here is what I get:

Aasimar - Sorcerer X/Paladin of Helm 1
STR 10 DEX 10 CON 16 INT 14 WIS 10 CHA 20

Half Orc - Ranger X
STR 20 DEX 18 CON 18 INT 1 WIS 16 CHA 1

Drow - Fighter X
STR 18 DEX 15 CON 16 INT 13 WIS 10 CHA 8

Tiefling - Rogue X
STR 10 DEX 20 CON 10 INT 18 WIS 10 CHA 10

Human - Bard X/Fighter 4
STR 10 DEX 10 CON 10 INT 18 WIS 10 CHA 18

Svirfneblin - Monk of the Dark Moon
STR 16 DEX 20 CON 14 INT 3 WIS 20 CHA 1

I am still playing HoF with my another party and I won't start to play with this party till I finish HoF. So, I can always recreate them.

For that Half Orc Ranger.. With an INT of 1, you'll be getting one skill point, which seems kind of pointless. The main benefit of the Ranger is that it's a warrior class with good recon skills; it can scout ahead and take care of solitary or small groups of enemies, performing guerilla warfare and ambushes. With a low INT, you might as well just take a Fighter because you won't be taking advantage of the Ranger's full compliment of abilities. Yes, you'll have Wilderness Lore which is nice, but you can give that to anyone cross class (you don't need huge ranks for it to be effective).
I don't understand the Fighter levels for the Bard. With no phyisical stats, what's the point in the Fighter levels? Yes, you'll get more feats that you can put into Spell Focus, Spell Penetration and such, but you'll lose a lot of spell levels which would be more effective than some extra feats. A Bard/Fighter is a good build if you've got the physical stats to back it up. Something like:
STR:12 DEX:14 CON:12 INT:14 WIS:8 CHA:16
Go with Bard until you get second level spells (Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace) and then alternate with Fighter levels.
Other than that, looks good. Will the Tiefling have some dialogue skills? If not, I'd drop the CHA back down to 8 take 2 points off INT to raise STR to 14. A strong Rogue is very, very effective.

Thanks for comments.
Rogue will be the leader and spokesman covering all talking skills.
Ranger will only develop wilderness lore and animal emphaty, neither will be maxed. So 1 skill point is enough.