Storm of Zehir "Everyman" Party

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I've recently considered purchasing Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir, having enjoyed both the original game and the Mask of the Betrayer expansion immensely.

The thing is, I've been wondering just how to set up a solid party that, for lack of a better term, can do EVERYTHING the game has to offer in a single playthrough. I know this technically isn't possible, given mutually exclusive alignments and storylines, but regardless, I prefer being able to see everything I can the first time so I feel like I played a "perfect" game.

I know that in Storm of Zehir, you make an entire party, one character avatar who is the nominal leader and 4 supporting NPCs. I also know that all the skills come into play at some point in the storyline so I'm wondering how I can build a party who effectively has all skills covered, as well as being able to survive in combat.

I also know that the traditional party setup of a "warrior," "thief," "mage," and "healer" is probably the most secure route, but I feel that a party of just Fighter, Rogue, Wizard and Cleric is kind of blah. I'm also wondering what races do well.

What is, in your opinion, the "perfect" party? The party who can overcome everything the game has to offer (barring alignment related and storyline related divergences)? I generally like to play good aligned, just to make sure that's taken into consideration. I'm rather reluctant to look at parties that require an assassin or blackguard, or any other class that MUST be evil. Neutrality is fine though.

Thank you all!:smallsmile:

[Tekar]

Actualy you make a party of 4 PCs and during the game you can pick up one NPC, 2 if one of your characters has the leadership feat. The only thing you'll really need is a ranger or a druid I think, but you can find those as NPCs in the first town you get to. For the rest just make sure you heve one character proficient in each skill. (BTW, playing 'perfect' isn't really the goal of an RPG, you should play the way your characters would play)

[Altima]

The most important member of your party is the overland map person, who needs hide/move silently and spot/listen. Other skills are also useful, as they help you find gold or trade items (which are useful in the beginning of the game as you'll need some heavy enchantments to deal with some of the OM encounters early on).

Rangers makes a lot of sense, at first, as they get the primary skills as class skills and have decent skill points, high BAB, and so on. Unfortunately, I'd think you need something a bit more...serious in your warrior role.

I happily use a dual-wielding rogue/swashbuckler. She's human for the favored class. Using Kaedrin's mod, I went rogue3/swashbuckler x, planning on moving her off to Invisible Blade. With Daring Outlaw, swashbuckler and rogue levels stack for things like sneak attack damage. The swashie also has good skill points, good feats (weapon finesse), and high BAB. Oh, and at third level, a swashie adds intelligence to your attacks--and doesn't half it on the off-hand, so I started the game with 16 intelligence and 10 strength. She's a good backup warrior, and can deal out good damage between two handed weapon attacks, sneak attack, and elemental damage.

For your healer, it's basically between cleric, favored soul, and druid. A cleric, of course, is still king, and the doomguide PrC makes them even better. Undead portions of the game as well as undead OM encounters are easy peasy. My cleric had the sun domain, too. On the other hand, for a more offensive minded cleric, the stormlord PrC is still a great choice. If you're playing a 'good' party, a cleric should be your default choice. The spontaneous casting on healing spells is great.

Druids are a bit of a different matter. They're still good, possibly even more so. However, taking a druid will also net you another back-up warrior in the animal companion. The new raptor animal companion is really, really good, compared to your other companions.

Favored Souls should be your choice for an evil healer, really. The way they cast spells is great, and they're almost required to go stormlord.

For your mage, there's still plenty of choices. In my first game, I went wizard. She made the first battle incredibly easy (sleep). She's very useful...when I'm allowed to use her. Because of the way the OM and resting works, I can't always have enough magic to go around. Sadly, she mostly just hangs in the background, pelting enemies with her cold damaging longbow. The sorcerer might be a better choice. You certainly can nuke easier. However, I think the Warlock would be the best choice. The warlock gets some great buffs (haste), some great crowd controls (tentacles), and never runs out of spells.

For your fighter, almost anything is useful. A dwarven fighter/defender would be a good choice, or even the typical fighter/bard/RDD/berserker build.

Musings on SoZ:
-You now get XP from opening locks and disarming traps. The traps, however, have abnormally high DC (it's not uncommon to see DC38 traps). And yes, you can set them off if you score more than five points off, and you cannot take 20. The cleric spell, Find Traps, also does not work. And the traps are almost all very dangerous. With this in mind, you'll almost require taking someone with rogue levels.

-The new crafting system is great. It really does make things a lot easier. You should abuse it, and abuse it bad. Keep in mind, though, that the designers went lazy again and many of the mobs are 'neutral' with regards to weapon damage (such as the holy property adding 2d6 damage against evil). You can add sonic damage to your weapons, too. Pretty much nothing resists it. Also, you can put your armor enchantments on any piece of equipment you own (which you should) that can be equipped.

-Some of the conversation skills have very practical uses. Against intelligent OM encounters, bluff can lower defence. Intimidate can give you an extra round at the beginning of an encounter as well. The 'best' conversation skills are bluff, diplomacy, intimidate, and appraise. Taunt appears occaisionally, but is mostly used to be an ass.

-You'll definitely want to get into trading. You'll, quite literally, have more gold than you'll know what to do with. Heck, I had over 700,000 gold and had nothing to spend it on.

-Appraise is a nice skill. Just be sure to talk to the merchant with the character with the highest appraise value. Also, the epithet feats required for the Shadow Thief and Neverwinter Nine class have been removed, so anyone can be them.

-The UMD values have changed. If you're not going to max it out at every level, don't bother putting points in it.

-Weapon enchantment values are capped at +3, while armor enchantment values are capped at +4. SoZ is a mid-magic-ish campaign. Magic items are plentiful, but expensive, and nowhere near as powerful as in the OC/MotB. I think there's something like only one regenerating item, and it's a high level, late game reward.

-Moving from module to module and enterting or leaving the Overland Map will strip your buffs. All of them. Your bard inspirations will turn off, your 24 hour warlock buffs leave, everything. As such, the magic you'll want to use for those encounters should be that which is plentiful or can be used repeatedly. Bard inspirations (especially regenerating aura for post battle healing) and warlock invocations are good investments. Other than that, by the time you reach your destination, you'll run low on your good spells.

-Save or suck spells are more useful now than in previous incarnations. The enemies aren't all carrying concealment, evasion, resistances, or god-like saves. As said before, sleep makes the beginning of the game quite easy. Grease and web really do help for the overland map encounters that include a lot of hard-hitting mobs, like dire wolves and worgs.

-Stay close to the areas you need to go. If you venture too far off, you will meet things that can smack you around with ease. I saw ECL12 earth elementals at level 6. I ran like a baby. A hungry, angry baby.

-Don't send rare resources to your keep. There's a bug with the UI that causes them not to display.

[Zen Monkey]

I understand the need to see and do everything in a game. (OCD makes final fantasy games pretty rough) What I did was make a list of all of the skills and make sure that they were all covered by someone in the party. A diverse group can easily cover all but one or two. You'll just have to play the game twice to do both sides of the alignment axis.

First Party (Good)
1. Dwarf Cleric (healing domain is almost too good)
2. Human Warrior (improved knockdown)
3. Elf Rogue/Wizard/ArcaneTrickster
4. Human Wizard/ArcaneScholar

Second Party (Evil)
1. Human Ranger/Rogue (dual wield with 1 lvl assassin)
2. Elf Monk
3. Human Favored Soul
4. Human Sorcerer/Arcane Scholar

I didn't get every race of course(had specific character concepts in mind) but both parties had high ranks of every skill except perform. I just can't make myself like a bard no matter what their stats are. How does your flute help someone fight better?!

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I've been thinking of maybe having a paladin/sorcerer/eldritch knight/arcane scholar for the leader. Would that cover both the tank and mage roles? And I also found a build that has an amazing amount of skill points, but is really meant for solo play.

(I am very OCD when it comes to video games.:smallamused:)

[Archpaladin Zousha]

How does a party with this kind of setup look?

"Thief": SoZ Solo Stealthy Skilled Stabber (http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/SoZ_Solo_Stealthy_Skilled_Stabber_-_Ro%2824%29%2CRa%282%29%2CSB%283%29%2CSD%281%29)

"Mage": Chosen of Velsharoon (http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Chosen_of_Velsharoon_-_Clr%281%29%2CSor%2812%29%2CASC%2810%29%2CPM%287%2 9)

"Warrior": Divine Dragon (http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Divine_Dragon_Pal%289%29%2CSor%281%29%2CRDD%2810%2 9%2CDC%2810%29)

"Healer": Beginner's Cleric (http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Beginner%27s_Cleric_-_Ro%282%29%2CF%282%29%2CClr%2816%29%2CSL%2810%29)

What do you think? Would that cover everything? Would I be able to get as many Teamwork benefits as possible? Would I be able to solve all skill challenges? Would they survive combat? What cohorts should I use? Anything I forgot to ask?

If you have spoilers, please don't hesitate to tell me. I love spoilers.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Anybody?:smallfrown:

[Tekar]

Rangers makes a lot of sense, at first, as they get the primary skills as class skills and have decent skill points, high BAB, and so on. Unfortunately, I'd think you need something a bit more...serious in your warrior role.

Hmm, my Arcane Archer ranger had the highest damage output of my entire party. With multishot a magic bow and the arcane archer enchantment bonuses he was a real killing machine.

[Tom_Violence]

(BTW, playing 'perfect' isn't really the goal of an RPG, you should play the way your characters would play)

Otherwise the Old Gods of RPGland will smite you!

Seriously, the point of playing an RPG is to have fun, and if 'playing perfect' is someone's goal of fun then so be it. Also, a lot of us don't have that much free time to play a game through a thousand times 'as our characters', so we want to get the most bang for our buck on the first run.

[Tekar]

Otherwise the Old Gods of RPGland will smite you!

Seriously, the point of playing an RPG is to have fun, and if 'playing perfect' is someone's goal of fun then so be it. Also, a lot of us don't have that much free time to play a game through a thousand times 'as our characters', so we want to get the most bang for our buck on the first run.
Sure, you play the game like you want to play it. All I'm saying is that IMHO RPG games should not cater to people that want to do everything in one play through, because then you get Oblivion and that's not good. So if it's not possible to do everything in one play through that is not a sign of a bad game.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

You've got it in one, Tom Violence. I like to see as much as I can on the first playthrough so I can take it easier on subsequent ones. I get this burning curiosity to see everything the game has to offer my first time, then the second time, I know what to expect, and I can feel a little more laid back and focus more on a cinematic experience. Was the same way with my first playthrough of the OC. My drow paladin went everywhere, did everything and was generally a BAMF, but the female half-orc paladin I'm playing now feels much more fulfilling.

[Zen Monkey]

I think the Oblivion problem comes up when 'you can do everything well' refers to 'you' the character, not 'you' the player. It hurt Bioshock as well, being good at everything makes the game less scary or challenging. Specialization tends to offer weaknesses, and the parts of the game that focus on your weakness present a new and interesting challenge (if they're not overdone). When 'you can do everything' means that you as a player can participate in every part of the game with a well-balanced party, then I don't think it detracts. Much like in tabletop games, when every character has a unique and necessary role, then everyone gets a chance to be the rock star for a while.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

So...any advice or suggestions about the party line-up I've proposed?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

How does a party with this kind of setup look?

"Thief": SoZ Solo Stealthy Skilled Stabber (http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/SoZ_Solo_Stealthy_Skilled_Stabber_-_Ro%2824%29%2CRa%282%29%2CSB%283%29%2CSD%281%29)

"Mage": Chosen of Velsharoon (http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Chosen_of_Velsharoon_-_Clr%281%29%2CSor%2812%29%2CASC%2810%29%2CPM%287%2 9)

"Warrior": Divine Dragon (http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Divine_Dragon_Pal%289%29%2CSor%281%29%2CRDD%2810%2 9%2CDC%2810%29)

"Healer": Beginner's Cleric (http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Beginner%27s_Cleric_-_Ro%282%29%2CF%282%29%2CClr%2816%29%2CSL%2810%29)

What do you think? Would that cover everything? Would I be able to get as many Teamwork benefits as possible? Would I be able to solve all skill challenges? Would they survive combat? What cohorts should I use? Anything I forgot to ask?

If you have spoilers, please don't hesitate to tell me. I love spoilers.

Will this be effective, or too munchkiny?

[Flickerdart]

A Ranger makes an excellent Overworld Map guy because of Survival as a class skill, letting him move quickly, Hide/Move Silently that avoid encounters and Listen/Spot that find hidden goodies and make sure enemy encounters spawn far away instead of close. Those are probably all your skill points so you'll want a Rogue (Pure, unless you want to PrC, as those traps are killer) and maybe a party face Bard. Since you start at level 4, a Tiefling makes a good rogue despite the LA.

Wildshape is rather underwhelming until you get the Plant version, so skip on Druid. Since you can pretty much grind, it doesn't require a twinked out party (the only exception being a few challenging areas such as the Yuan-ti temple, Crystal Cave and mage research thing with the genie...I had to hide inside the room and cap the guy on round 1 or else he paralyzed everyone and I wiped.)

The Beginner Cleric build is unnecessary and odd. Just go Cleric/Doomguide and you'll be fine. Don't take the Animal domain, because the Dinosaur Companion feat doesn't work with it or the Ranger's companion.
The Divine Dragon only really starts kicking at 21 with Epic Divine Power, you don't want that.
The Chosen of Velsharoon doesn't get into his hijinks until Epic either, but until then he is still a reasonable Sorcerer/Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep. I would still use a Wizard instead.
The Solo rogue build doesn't have enough Rogue at the beginning and will suck at everything a Rogue needs to do.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Okay, so I'm clearly overthinking this.

How's this for a paladin build? I found it on GameFAQs.


B. Inspiring Holy Swordsman (Paladin 6/Fighter 14/Divine Champion 10)

Again, you can change the Weapon Focus/Specialization to taste.

Leveling up with Fighter and DC levels in Epic gets pretty tricky. Unlike
the bonus feats from staying pure class, the Fighter and DC bonus feats
ARE restricted. Epic feats that can be selected using the normal Fighter
and DC feats are Epic Prowess, Epic Toughness, Epic Weapon Focus (must
have Greater Weapon Focus, Ftr 8 to take) and Epic Weapon Specialization
(must have Greater Weapon Specialization, Ftr 12 to take).

The 30th-level build gets all of Epic Divine Might, Epic Resilience, and
Last Stand.

Race: Aasimar

Starting Stats:

STR 16
DEX 10
CON 12
INT 12
WIS 12
CHA 18

Skills: Diplomacy (up to a point), Heal, Intimidate

Background: Devout

Level progression:

1) Pal 1 - Luck of Heroes
2) Ftr 1 - Weapon Focus (Longsword)
3) Pal 2 - Power Attack
4) Ftr 2 - Cleave, STR +1 (17)
5) Pal 3
6) Pal 4 - Divine Might
7) Ftr 3
8) Ftr 4 - Weapon Specialization (Longsword), STR +1 (18)
9) DC 1 - Great Cleave
10) DC 2 - Blind-Fight
11) Ftr 5
12) DC 3 - Toughness, STR +1 (19)
13) DC 4 - Improved Critical (Longsword)
14) Ftr 6 - Power Critical (Longsword)
15) Pal 5 - Divine Shield
16) Ftr 7 - STR +1 (20)
17) Ftr 8 - Greater Weapon Focus (Longsword)
18) DC 5 - Great Fortitude
19) Ftr 9
20) DC 6 - Extra Turning, STR +1, (21)

21) Ftr 10 - Great Charisma (19), Epic Toughness (bonus)
22) DC 7
23) DC 8 - Epic Resilience, Epic Weapon Focus (Longsword) (bonus)
24) Ftr 11 - CHA +1 (20)
25) Ftr 12 - Greater Weapon Specialization (Longsword) (bonus),
Epic Fortitude
26) DC 9
27) DC 10 - Epic Prowess (bonus), Last Stand
28) Ftr 13 - CHA +1 (21)
29) Ftr 14 - Epic Weapon Specialization (Longsword) (bonus),
Epic Divine Might
30) Pal 6

Final stats (no gear/buffs):

STR 21
DEX 10
CON 12
INT 12
WIS 12
CHA 21

Saves (no gear/buffs): F 37, R 20, W 22

AB (w/ non-enchanted longsword, no buffs): 40/35/30/25/20/15

HP (no gear/buffs): 390

[Archpaladin Zousha]

You know what bugs me about Storm of Zehir? That there seems to be next to no information about it. I've checked my one-stop-shop for NWN2 walkthroughs, GameBanshee, and they haven't even started a Storm of Zehir section yet! I checked GameFAQs, and they're only just starting to get walkthroughs and FAQs on it, and they aren't as clear as they could be. And of course, I can't seem to find a Prima or Brady guidebook for it. How am I supposed to get 100% completion without some sort of guide! Why is it that this game is getting practically ignored?!:smallannoyed:

[Zen Monkey]

A ranger does make a great map character, maxing survival while using stealth skills to pick his random encounters and spot/listen/etc to find the hidden bonuses.

For bonus points, have a ranger for overland travel with a monk in the party and the team rush (forget the specific name, no book here) party benefit. Everyone moves at the speed of the fastest member (great in combat) so your ranger moves at monk speed plus the survival bonus when navigating the world map. You can actually use swamp and jungle to your advantage and outpace the faster encounters that chase you.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Aren't monks a little on the flimsy side though?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Given the advice I've recieved here and elsewhere, I believe I have a rough idea of what I want:

Ranger/Rogue, with maybe a level or two of Shadowdancer to serve as the Overland Map guide and skillmonkey.

Sorcerer/Paladin/Eldritch Knight/Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep to serve as the party's leader, tank and secondary arcanist.

Warlock with possible levels in Hellfire Warlock as the party's primary caster and crafter

Cleric with either levels of Doomguide or Stormlord or something, to serve as the party's healer and a secondary tank.

Does this look feasable?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Okay, after getting some advice from the good folks over at Thieves-Guild.Net and the official NWN2 forums, I have revised my lineup for when I get Storm of Zehir:

Tiefling Rogue/Ranger/Shadowdancer

Strongheart Halfling Warlock

Aasimar Paladin/Sorcerer/Red Dragon Disciple

Gray Orc Cleric/Stormlord

[Lord of the Helms]

A Ranger makes an excellent Overworld Map guy because of Survival as a class skill, letting him move quickly, Hide/Move Silently that avoid encounters and Listen/Spot that find hidden goodies and make sure enemy encounters spawn far away instead of close. Those are probably all your skill points so you'll want a Rogue (Pure, unless you want to PrC, as those traps are killer) and maybe a party face Bard. Since you start at level 4, a Tiefling makes a good rogue despite the LA.

Wildshape is rather underwhelming until you get the Plant version, so skip on Druid. Since you can pretty much grind, it doesn't require a twinked out party (the only exception being a few challenging areas such as the Yuan-ti temple, Crystal Cave and mage research thing with the genie...I had to hide inside the room and cap the guy on round 1 or else he paralyzed everyone and I wiped.).

Have to disagree here, at least from my OC experience. Elephant Hide plus Dire Bear is a very valid melee shape at least for the mid-levels. You get decent AC (especially with a party mage casting mage armor on you regularly, since at least for me it stacks completely) and an obscene strength bonus, which can be further enhanced by Bull's Strength and greater magic fang. The only disadvantage is the lower number of attacks per round (oh deary me, silly munchkin idea: Does monk flurry work with wildshape? ); however, the attacks you do have an AB that the party fighters yould only dream of, and your damage per hit is up there with a Two-Weapon Power Attack Fighter.

While we're on to builds: Since I find the concept of the Monk inherently cool and have already learned that he makes a decent all-around melee fighter in NWN2, I'm thinking of going Sacred Fist when I get Mask of the Betrayer to get some extra use out of my Wisdom and double Meleer with Healer. Thus, a few questions:

Levels: Just one level dip in Cleric so I can have imrpoved Evasion? If I take less than 9 levels of monk, I do get a +1 advantage to BAB and extra caster levels at the expense of base unarmed damage, so 7th or 6th level could also be a good cutoff point. I'd max out Sacred Fist.

Abilities: Sacred Fist stacks with Monk Unarmed Damage and movement speed explicitly, and Stunning FIst DC is afaik based on character rather than Monk level (otherwise, well, that'd kinda blow goats, but usually th no-save, unlimited-usage improved Knockdown is of more use to me anyway). What about Flurry of Blows progression, and how does it work with the Sacred Fist's high BAB?

Domains: I'm thinking Healing (to allow for pre-epic use of Heal, and because due to lower caster level I'd generally rather use him as a support and self-buffing than an offensive caster) and War (Domain power sounds useful even if I only have 10 Cha, and Tenser's Transformation would be very attractive once I hit the epic levels); however, the Domain power for Good and the domain spell advantages for Strength also sound very attractive. Suggestions?

[Zen Monkey]

I would think that a monk doesn't need improved evasion. You'll already have good saves, and that's only even necessary if your spell resistance fails.

Monks get a bad reputation in regular d&d, but they may be the most powerful class in NWN2. Your offense is better than most, with flurry of blows at no penalty to hit, damage that scales bettet than just about any weapon, and stunning fist or knockdown to make people helpless. Then on defense you've got high spell resistance, good saves, and your armor class can benefit from four different sources (wis, dex, +ac, class ac bonus). Taking one from 1-30 in the base campaign and MotB, there were times that it felt a little too strong for the encounter, especially against spellcasters.

Their only drawback is that they need multiple good stats, but the game is really well itemized for them. Boots of AC and Con, Wis items, Str items (the +12 belt is great for them), and gloves for extra damage (I like the +1d6 fire +1d6 cold pair). You can put 16 or so into str/dex/con/wis from starting stats and leveling bonuses, which is good but not great, and then use items to raise them all into the 20's. Have your arcane caster throw a haste and stoneskin on him, and the monk is a war machine.

[Lord of the Helms]

Well, I'm going to max out Sacred Fist for a taste of a Monk/Divine Spellcaster Hybrid, so no SR for me. Still, not sure if Improved Evasion is all that neccessary. I would like to know if my Flurry of Blows keeps improving, though.

And yeah, Monks are badass in this game. Really hard to hit because of their double-attribute bonus to AC, and they can dish out with the best of them due to their 3 attacks with maximum AB plus those lovely lovely gloves of AB and elemental damage. My monk could probably punch his way through most of the game, but I really would like to add a little more flavor to him via Sacred Fist, and hey, a lot of the higher-level abilities are a bit useless anyway (Quivering palm and DR 10/magic are really quite pathetic).

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Okay, my party's undergone some more revisions. How does this look?

Wood Elf Rogue/Ranger/Shadowdancer

Strongheart Halfling Warlock

Aasimar Paladin/Sorcerer/Eldritch Knight

Gray Orc Cleric/Stormlord

[Altima]

Lords of Helms: There are some bugs with the druids, specifically involving the wild shapes. First, I don't believe creature weapons count as unarmed (meaning monk flurry and such do not work with them). Secondly, the XP bug is still in effect. If you don't know what it is, basically, it resets your race to 'animal' instead of 'elf', 'human', etc. This means that if you have more than one base class, you will receive the XP penalty. If you have more than two base classes, it gets even worse.

Monk/Druid/SFs are a powerful combination, especially with the druid spell that adds half your spellcasting level of wisdom to your character, which increases both your AC as well as your spell DC.

Zousha: The only problem with that party may be that it lacks a dedicated tank. Depending on how you build, though, each character won't be especially squishy. Just be careful in the beginning of the game as until you reach about level 8, most creatures will be able to make your characters go splat rather easily. Be sure to keep at least one heal kit on each of your characters.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I had previously established the tank as the paladin, taking Red Dragon Disciple instead of Eldritch Knight, but that was criticised as not having a dedicated caster. Apparently the Warlock can't cover the arcanist role on its own.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Okay, new plan.

Wood Elf Ranger/Rogue/Shadowdancer

Aasimar Paladin/Fighter/Divine Champion

Human? Sorcerer/Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep

Gray Orc Cleric/Stormlord

How does this look? Will I be able to craft EVERYTHING the game has to offer with just this group?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

No questions? Concerns? Complaints at me annoying everyone by constantly asking about this?

[Lord of the Helms]

It looks mostly solid. Sorc/Arcane Scholar is a very good obvious pure caster choice and sorcerers benefit much more from the metamagic bonuses than wizards. Cleric/Stormlord is nice, though maybe a few levels of Warpriest for extra martial prowess are an option since Stormlords are explicitly CoD-zilla-esque meleers. Ranger/Rogue makes for a good skill monkey explorer with sneaky combat skills, but I'm not sure about Shadow Dancer - most of his abilities, Rogues and Rangers get anyway, so I'm not sure if Hide in Plain Sight and Shadow Evade are worth the levels. Paladin/Fighter/Divine Champion - well, I'm not sure if you even need the Fighter levels, Divine Champion synergizes better with Paladin.

I'm still sticking to OC so far, trying finishing as a pure Monk (being nigh invulnerable AND dishing out tons of Lawful Adamantine Magic damage is rather awesome) and will revise him as a Sacred Fist in Mask of the Betrayer. I did notice that the loss of Adamantine Ki Strike and Greater Flurry is a bit of a bummer. I'll probably revisit the OC with an evil caster type (Sorc/Arcane Scholar looks very pretty, but maybe a Red WIzard or even a Combat Caster type, too). I notice that Grobnar is often one of the best companions to have around for his buffing plus casting plus survivability, much more useful than blaster-sorceress Qara.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Yeah, Grobnar's a great companion. And fun too. Qara's always irritated me but that's probably because every character I've played the OC with has had more than a few paladin levels.

[Hida Reju]

Yeah, Grobnar's a great companion. And fun too. Qara's always irritated me but that's probably because every character I've played the OC with has had more than a few paladin levels.

Qara is almost a must in most of my parties, Once she gets up there in strength being able to empower her attack spells makes them almost stupid in NWN2. Her Charisma can shoot over 20 fast and the DC's on her spells can rise to almost redonkulus heights I think I had her lvl 3 spells hitting over DC 20 by lvl 9 and as the higher lvl spells came on line it got worse. Hell with the amount of damage she dishes out any more nothing lives for more than a hit or two from the rest of the party.

I usually run with Main Monk/Cleric/Sarcred Fist (Magic domain was fun since I can get mage armor on my spell list as a monk by lvl 2), Neeshka, Qara, and the dwarf (still a fighter) or the Druid for her free fighter pet and lots of buff spells.

As long as you buff up your defenses a tad on Qara she does fine with her Improved Mage Armor spell and Shield.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I've always felt Sand has more variety though, by virtue of his wizardness, and he's infinitely more entertaining in conversation. Qara's chaotic selfish attitude always grates on my nerves, since I tend to Lawful Good types.

My parties seem to mainly consist of:

Myself (at the moment a female half-orc paladin/sorcerer/red dragon disciple/divine champion of Torm)

Neeshka

Sand

Grobnar

Elanee

Occasionally I have Casavir if I feel I don't need one of them, since I like his character and I wanna max influence with him.

Characters I don't like include:

Qara, for the afformentioned reasons.

Bishop, for similar reasons and because our alignments are exact opposites.

Zhaeve, not that she's not crazy awesome in terms of spells, but everyone KNOWS that that verbal tic of hers gets kind of irritating.

[Toastkart]

I just got Storm of Zehir today and am enjoying it so far. My party consists of:

human favoured soul- frontline fighter, buffer, and backup healer

human warlock- ranged blaster/crafter

Human druid- healer/support w/ deinonychus

tiefling rogue/ranger- damage dealer/skill person

we'll see how it works out.