I was curious what other people thought of the pre-made parties (http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/IWD2/parties.php) included in IWD2. Did you use, or would you ever use, one of these parties, and why or why not? From those who have played through the game with one of these parties, I would be interested to hear what you thought of their strengths and weaknesses, and how you thought it impacted your experience of the game. This would involve not only the effectiveness of the party, but your thoughts on storyline, characterization, etc.

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This poll contains 4 question(s). 21 user(s) have voted.
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Poll Results: The Pre-Made Parties Poll (21 votes.)

Have you ever used one of the pre-made parties? (Choose 1)
* Yes - 19% (4)
* No - 81% (17)

Why or why not? (Choose 1)
* Yes; creating an entire party seemed too time-consuming - 5% (1)
* Yes; I liked the storyline and characterization - 10% (2)
* Yes; I thought it was a well-balanced party - 0% (0)
* Yes; I thought it would be a challenge, and keep me from powergaming too much - 10% (2)
* No; I wanted to design the most effective party possible for my playing style - 29% (6)
* No; I don't mind flawed characters, but I wanted to come up with my own storyline and characterization - 48% (10)
* I have no opinion - 0% (0)

Which of the pre-made parties do you prefer? (Choose 1)
* Annals of Halgren - 5% (1)
* The Hands of Fury - 5% (1)
* Lady's Lament - 14% (3)
* Sisters of the Blood Moon - 10% (2)
* The Winter Rose - 10% (2)
* I have no opinion - 57% (12)

Would using one of the pre-made parties effect how you role-play the game? (Choose 1)
* Yes - 62% (13)
* No - 24% (5)
* I have no opinion - 14% (3)

I guess the increased RPing factor is caused by the detailed backgrounds of the pre-mades.

I initially played a premade party because I had no idea what I was doing when I first played the game. I just replaced one of the characters with a monk. I got to the end of chapter one and because I thought I had the hang of the game, I started again with my own X-men themed party.

I then thought the premade parties were crap for ages, but now after having played this game so much, I think the premade parties would be interesting to try out as they are not as powergamey as a party you'd make yourself.

The premade parties are indeed roleplaying-style parties. Perhaps playing them should be a nice experience of something different for people who first min-max their characters and then complain the game is too easy.

The backgrounds are nice. I used to take time and write that for my characters, but I don't really anymore. Still, great to see someone cares.

I guess I thought of this topic, as I just started, after a long break from IWD2, a second run-through. I was planning to design my own party for this run-through (I used Annals of Halgren for the first), but found it hard not to design a powergamed party (let's see, a Cleric of Bane for the Wis bonus, and make'm LN so he can cast the heal spells and get along with the paladin, the Rogue1/Wizardx of course, and hmm, one sorcerer or two?). It's kinda hard not to powergame your party in IWD2.

I agree with Chev that it's kindof a funny tradeoff; you make a powerful party, and then have to bump difficulty to insane. With a pre-made party you can stick with core or hard. While the storyline of course doesn't change the game at all, it can contribute. For example, one of the Lost Followers was the evil ancestor mentioned in the Halgren backstory. (Strangely enough, you can find a dead cat in DK that is described as a snack for the female half-orc in one of the pre-made parties; must have been an inside joke.)

I guess it also provides characters that are a challenge to develop. Hands of Fury, which I'm using this time so I can see what happens when you use the "jerk" responses (very counter-productive, it turns out), has a 10 Str 10 Con fighter, and a 10 Dex rogue, for example. Yet both can become very effective characters. Just a bit more challenging, that's all.

In any case, it saves you from using a 3 Int sorcerer as your diplomat. (OT: And what's up with sorcerer-diplomats anyway? They're supposed to be loners; people think they're not quite human. How do they have bluff and diplomacy as class skills, when wizards, who come from schools and have guilds, etc, have none? Would you want a guy who says things like "feel the bite of my arcane winds!" to represent you? And why don't fighters, who one would assume would provide the bulk of adventurers who go into gov't, have diplomacy and bluff? /OT)

For me, flavor is everything, so I give my characters the most interesting story I can think of, or play the pre-made groups with the interesting stories. My favorite of the latter are the Lady's Lament.

Stories are important therefore I need to create my own characters rather than use premade ones.

I believe that everything starts with a name: "What's in a name?" -Everything! and I tend to give my characters the most meaningful names I can come up with [e.g. Eldritch for a sorcerer, Nightshade for a druid/monk, Lickspittle for a half orc bard/barbarian].

Once you have the right name for a character, everything falls into place.

I have always played teams and characters (in all teh baldurs gat and icewind dale games) from my Pen & Paper characters. My first charcter, elf ranger have been through all the games every time :) And as such i alays have stories and such there already backing up.

I read throught all the premade characters when i bought the game, but i dunno, i just missed my own characters to much.

On the positive side, my teams is becoming weirder and weirder... as i get some funnier and funnier characters from P&P i have to include in my teams. Last aditions was a Dwarf Wizard with int 7, and a Gnome cleric with custom based armor, and Strenght 5.

I enjoy the process of character creation -- even for IWD2. I typically make characters that I think are fun -- my Half-Orc Barbarian(1)/Cleric(the rest) was great.

The descriptions of the pre-mades just didn't thrill me.

It is kind of funny, though, how the pre-made parties demonstrate certain fantasy-guy stereotypes (not to mention all the female portraits, but that's another thread).

For example, looking at all 30 pre-made characters (from the 5 parties), there are I think 8 pure humans, and 8 elves or half-elves. Strangely enough, out of the humans, 7 are male, while only one (a bard) is female; looking at the elves and half-elves, only 1 is male (a fighter) while 7 are female. Of course, this follows BG2, with its trio of romanceable female elves. What's with the elf fixation guys?

Strangely enough, out of the humans, 7 are male, while only one (a bard) is female; looking at the elves and half-elves, only 1 is male (a fighter) while 7 are female. Of course, this follows BG2, with its trio of romanceable female elves. What's with the elf fixation guys? From the Gibberlings Three's NPC Project for BG1 Tutu:

(Note: My character's name is Trevelyn, as it usually is.)

Trevelyn: I don't have to worry about that. The only girl I'd want to marry is standing in front of me.

Imoen: What? Where? Wait, you're not talkin' to me, are ya?

Trevelyn: Well, I don't see any other women here . . .

Imoen: Oh, I do! She's an elven beauty, with raven hair and soulful eyes, just the type ya males always swoon over! *kicks Trevelyn*

Trevelyn: Ouch! My grievous wounds!


Somewhere in all that is what I think, that it's just an over-used fantasy stereotype. We should also acknowledge, though, that Amraith from the Hands of Fury is a fantasy rarity: a neutral evil elf. Most elves are noble and aloof and have a soft, melodic voice.