Naturally, being me denotes that without a doubt once an idea gets in my head, I’m probably going to see it through until I get demotivated. In this case, the idea was using a better version of the party I had in mind since the last one worked fine but needed more tuning. I think for the early game I managed to find a decent starting party that had a few nice surprises while creating.
Prior to my current group, I ended up with the following party:
- Male Dracon Fighter
- Female Human Valkyrie
- Female Elf Valkyrie
- Female Elf Ranger
- Male Felpurr Bard
- Male Dwarf Priest
The party was doing okay but when I started thinking about later stages of the game as well as flubbing a few leveling rolls, I began to realize I would not be able to execute my plan. Part of the problem was simply having too low bonus rolls from the start. The other problem is that while the Dracon Fight was doing decently, I knew that it would be very difficult transitioning him to a Bishop with my grand scheme. The reason that went south was that I was looking at the picture from the 10k’ view rather than seeing the clear issue of a Dracon which is a low starting intelligence and piety. Obviously, down the line you can eventually pick up all the points to make him into any class you desire. But the purpose behind using a vanilla Fighter is to quickly transition into a prestige class.
In addition, as I was starting to plan various stages of the party, one common issue that kept returning was what the end game party would look like. Having two Valkyries from the start means that I had a kind of dead spot where a class swap felt awkward. Again, you can do anything with this game but I wanted a clear path to my end game goals. In the end, I simply concluded that having two Valkyries initially hurt more than helped the setup. Also, I found that because of having the same class, they would level at the same time, which means that it would be harder to control good increases to their attributes and skill points.
Then there was the Ranger for which I simply could not figure out a good solution. I liked the concept but I couldn’t exactly pick out a better class to use in that position. The Ninjitsu is simply too useful and having a character with that skill in the back rows means that I can fluidly hide in shadows while my tanks soak up damage. Developing Ninjitsu early in the game means that I can swap her to a Monk and not deal with leveling Ninjitsu, thus focusing on Theosophy and Kirijitsu while already starting with a higher AC.
Given those issues, I realized I had to modify the party one more time to get into a better spot. I think I managed to pull off a satisfying team that has worked quite well. Without further ado, here’s the latest party:
- Male Dwarf Fighter
- Female Elf Valkyrie
- Male Dracon Ninja
- Female Elf Ranger
- Male Felpurr Bard
- Male Rawulf Priest (with 26 bonus points!)
Right now, I’m really happy with this party. First, when I saw the Rawulf score 26 points, I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t realize you could exceed 18 bonus points for a new character. While I could have simply created a prestige class from the get-go, I realized that there wouldn’t have been that much of an upside with my current goals in the game. Yet having those bonus points meant starting out with a high strength and vitality which are great for survival and limited melee. I didn’t try to put more points into piety and gave him more intelligence as Rawulfs start with a low IQ. However, at this stage, it’ll be very easy to transition the Priest into a Bishop which can last until near the end game. Even at level 5, I already have managed to acquire level 3 spells and with some effort, I’m sure I can get level 4 spells after I level again. Then when level 9-10 comes around, it’ll be easy to convert this character into a Bishop and have him focus on Thaumaturgy.
The Dwarf scored a nice 18 bonus points and is doing very well. I would say that the Dwarf is the highest damage dealer in the party and quite reliable. Since I changed the direction of my party, I can easily swap the Dwarf to a Lord without sacrificing any gear around level 9 or 10. And as I had been leveling up his Sword skill, I should have more skill points per level once I swap classes. Until then, I’ll continue to train up his Sword skill actively and passively and any bonus points will eventually go into Mace & Flails because of the prestigious Vulcan Hammer weapon you can acquire from Smitty mid-game.
In ditching the Human Valkyrie, I grabbed my reliable Dracon Ninja. Yes, leveling will be a bigger pain but there’s no real downside in having one of these around. I don’t have to worry about gear and I can put spare points into Alchemy, Kirijitsu and Skulduggery especially after I switch my Bard into a Samurai. In all honesty, I probably could’ve used a Faerie Ninja instead. The great thing about Faerie Ninjas is that you don’t have to worry about gear restrictions in addition to gaining some bonus AC and spell regeneration. I am planning to swap the Ninja into a Bishop later in the game. In that scenario, a Faerie would still work while gaining bonus AC. But if you set your Bishop up right, you shouldn’t really need to bother with armor by that time in the game as you should be able to hide in the shadows 99.9% of the time. Also, you’d lose out a bit on Carrying Capacity so I don’t think the benefits outweigh the penalties. And while a Dracon does have the inherent Breath attack, I have not used it thus far as a Ninja. It seems best served as an emergency.
I kept the Ranger because I want to have her eventually becoming a Valkyrie. I could have the Ranger change to a Monk in the early late game or a Samurai. A Samurai would be more problematic as I think the Felpurr will claim the Samurai spot for the rest of the game, which means not being able to access the really high end gear. Also, I ended up settling on having two Alchemists this early. Sadly, neither the Ranger nor Ninja get many skill points at this stage of the game as the excess skill points end up going to their specialties for their classes. As a result, it is going to be a slog obtaining Alchemy spells. The good thing is that there isn’t really one spell that stands out as a must-have and you don’t need to develop Oratory skills to be effective. But I am seeing very low spell pools and limited number of spells at this stage for both. Lastly, despite thinking that my Ninja would be the primary lock picker, it turns out my Bard got the job. In an irritating fashion, the Ranger continues to spend too many unnecessary points into Scouting which does me no good.
The Bard has quickly developed his Music skill and that’s freeing up skill points during leveling. Also, in having a high speed score, he’s able to belt out Sleep spells early enough for my melee to start attacking after the fact. Pretty much that Sleep spell guarantees more hits and double damage. With my Fighter doing high damage and hitting frequently early on and my Valkyrie now hitting multiple attacks during a hit,the Sleep spell pretty much is guaranteeing the success of most fights. I do need to acquire the Harmonium next but I used up most of my Iron Keys and can’t access the Jail Key.
Something I did uncover as I started looking at the low level parts of the game a lot closer: Queequeg does indeed sell both a Katana and Wakizashi periodically. So you can equip a lower level Samurai. I did find a Tosei-Do in the later game off one of those higher level samurai fights but I’m guessing it’s quite a rare piece. With that said, I feel comfortable switching my Bard to a Samurai around the mid-game. I feel that around that period, Music and the freebie Sleep spell become less relevant. There are a few other instruments but not ones that are game changing even at the late game to make it really worth keeping the Bard class too long.
Lastly, I plotted out the potential class changes where I’ve broken the changes down from mid-game to end-game.
Levels 9 – 11
- Male Dwarf Lord (formerly fighter)
- Male Felpurr Samurai (formerly bard)
- Male Dracon Ninja (no change)
- Female Elf Valkrie (no change)
- Female Elf Ranger (no change)
- Male Rawulf Bishop (formerly Priest)
Here, I swap my Fighter to a Lord and probably begin to use the Vulcan Hammer. By this point, I feel that the former Dwarf Fighter ought to have maxed out his Sword skills, which prevents the system to automatically use skill points during level ups to be assigned to Sword. Beforehand, if I manage to hit level 100 in Sword, I’ll begin upgrading his Mace & Flail skill as a Fighter to prepare for the switch. Then once he starts leveling as a Lord, I dump everything into Theology and hope for good Piety rolls to begin building up his spell points.
At this stage, the Felpurr Bard already has enough stats to convert to a Samurai but there’s no real value at this early stage while I’m still utilizing him Loot and free Sleep spell. By the time we hit the Mines though, I think Sleep becomes less valuable and I’ll get more value in changing him to a Samurai to pick up the invaluable Kirijitsu skill (which mixes very well with Ninjitsu) and can dump more points into Thaumaturgy. The main issue of the Bard compared to the Lord is that his entire focus ahead of time has been on Music and has not improved his Sword skill which will be upgraded automatically as a Samurai via the computer, which means I may not receive as many skill points early on. I could return to a spot like a Belfry to engage in lower level combat to help train up his new Sword skill and level up slower so I can control the catch up process and focus more on Thaumaturgy, which has been a deficiency in this group. Gear shouldn’t be an issue because you can buy most from Queequeg that aren’t that different than what a Samurai starts off with or better. Also, once the Felpurr swaps classes, I’ll probably end up using the Ninja as our Skulduggery expert or Ranger.
The Ninja, Valkyrie and Ranger retain their classes at this stage. We do move the Valkyrie and Ranger back two positions as the Felpurr takes over the #2 slot in the party. The Priest also swaps to a Bishop and dumps all points into Thaumaturgy. By this time, I suspect that his Theology will be sufficiently high enough to where the system won’t automatically assign skill points into Theology, which will allow met to spend them freely in other spots. The gear shouldn’t change either. The Felpurr won’t have to push as hard into Thaumaturgy early on compared to the Bishop and whatever non-essential Priest spells can be picked up during the catch up phase for the new Bishop.
Levels 15 – 17+
- Male Felpurr Samurai (no change)
- Female Elf Monk (formerly Ranger)
- Male Dwarf Ninja (formerly Lord)
- Female Elf Ranger (formerly Valkyrie)
- Male Rawulf Bishop (no change)
- Male Dracon Bishop (formerly Ninja)
At this stage, we arrive at the start of the end game. I’m guessing that the Samurai and Bishop will still develop their Mage spells but here’s where the other classes will begin swapping. Most probably won’t swap at the same time (you really want to avoid this) except if you convert melee classes. In that case, you should maintain three dedicated melee classes and be prepared for a simultaneous swap of roles.
The OG Valkyrie should have acquired most major Priest spells and can change into a Ranger at this stage. This should be easy since Rangers don’t have good armor and the only weapon worth getting is an end game weapon. The only items worth using that can be found as random drops are arrows. Early levels will be frustrating due to the Scouting skill but we primarily focus on training Ninjitsu during combat and putting all points into Alchemy as we level. This will be this character’s final class change.
The Dwarf Lord will probably be in a similar situation as the Valkyrie with regards to spells. Since we could dump more skill points into Theology as a result of the mid-game class change, it should not be difficult to obtain the same spells. However, the Lord class does level slower than a Valkyrie so I’m guessing that the change to a Ninja may come a little later. When that happens we may want to change classes around the same time as the Ninja becoming a Bishop
The OG Ranger switches to a Monk. This will happen later due to the Ninja requiring a lot of experience points and being slower at acquiring skills than other classes. But the upside is that by training Ninjitsu from the start and having low gear requirements, we can almost dump everything into Theosophy and Kirijitsu. Hands & Feet skills should be trained up before leveling as much as possible to avoid the auto selection by the system.
End Game Party
- Male Felpurr Samurai
- Male Rawulf Monk
- Male Dwarf Ninja
- Female Elf Valkyrie
- Female Elf Ranger
- Male Dracon Bishop
This party matches closely to my original party. The main difference is that we use an Elf Ranger as part of this group to get some end game Ranger goodies. For the last few class changes, we convert the Bishop into a Monk once all the remaining major Priest/Mage spells are acquired, the Elf Ranger/Monk becomes a Valkyrie where we save all the original Valkyrie gear and go for the end game Valkyrie gear. There could be more changes but I think this is a very good end game party. The only real downside is that the Female Elf Ranger does not acquire Kirijitsu. We could change the OG Valkyrie into a Samurai beforehand and the Felpurr Samurai into a Lord. But it really depends on how much time you want to devote into more class swapping. But if you’re goal is to finish up the game with a strong party, this is it.