So I'm kinda terrible at character creation and that's kinda prevented me from playing this, from what I've heard, amazing game. So I'm looking for 5 MAYBE 6 (I plan to make at least one myself) characters to take with me on my journey. Basically I'm looking to recruit your, yes your, character! It doesn't mater if it's your go to character or just something you think would work well for someone who is playing the game for the first time. All you nee to do is leave as much info about the character as possible (I can probably fill in some of the gaps if necessary, ie. name stats and alignment) and I'll do my best to not get them dead!

I really appreciate anyone who helps me out here. I just thought this would be more fun than using some of the default characters included with the game.

Halfling Fighter/Thief
Specialize in Slings and Short Swords.
Favourite pastimes: pantry raids and backstabbing.

IWD 1 or 2? There's a big difference.

For Icewind Dale 1, this is the party I ran and I was very happy with it:

Human Fighter
Elf Fighter/Mage
Human Fighter/Cleric (dual-classed into cleric immediately upon reaching fighter 2)
Halfling Fighter/Thief
Human Mage

Character creation is fairly simple; just make sure the mages have maxed out intelligence, the cleric has maxed out wisdom, and the fighters have maxed out strength. High dexterity and constitution for all, to the limit of your patience for re-rolling.


For Icewind Dale 2 character creation has more nuances. I'd avoid the rogue class completely in that game (they suck in combat, any class can disarm traps now [rogues are just better at it], and there aren't enough skill checks for their skill advantage to matter)

Here's 6 characters that would make a good party. You could probably drop either the Paladin or Sorcerer from this lineup without issue.

Half-Orc Barbarian / Fighter
STR - 20
DEX - 14
CON - 16
INT - 6
WIS - 12
CHA - 6

level 1 - Barbarian - power attack
level 2 - Fighter - cleave
level 3 - Fighter - weapon focus (second point in proficiency) in a two-handed melee weapon, iron will
level 4 - Fighter
level 5 - Fighter - weapon specialization (third point in proficiency) in your two-handed weapon of choice
level 6 - Barbarian - heroic inspiration
level 7 - Barbarian
level 8 - Barbarian
level 9 - Barbarian - improved critical

Stay barbarian past this point, place every attribute increase to strength, and pick feats that look good to you (you've got all the important ones at this point).

Human Paladin
STR - 16
DEX - 12
CON - 12
INT - 6
WIS - 14
CHA - 16

Hard to screw this one up. No really mandatory feats (improved critical once you can qualify, extra smiting if you don't like resting often, that's about it) and just put your attribute increases to strength and charisma.

Human Cleric
STR - 16
DEX - 12
CON - 14
INT - 6
WIS - 18
CHA - 10

Single-class Cleric; actually kinda hard to screw up. Pick "combat casting" as your 1st level feat, and aside from maybe go for the "spirit of flame" feat later (there are some decent fire-damage cleric spells).

Elf Fighter
STR - 14
DEX - 20
CON - 14
INT - 10
WIS - 10
CHA - 8

level 1 - Rapid Shot, Weapon Focus (second level of proficiency) bows
level 2 - Precise Shot
level 3 - Weapon Finesse
level 4 - Weapon Specialization (third level of proficiency) bows, iron will
level 6 - Weapon Focus + Specialization in a light melee weapon of choice
level 8 - improved critical
level 9 - maximized attack

And nothing really matters after that; pick what you want. Single-class fighter the whole way, all attribute improvements to dexterity. Note you will need to add to the concentration skill to qualify for maximized attacks.

Human Wizard
Specialization: this depends on your style of play. If you like to rest between every encounter so you're always at full strength, go with a generalist. If you avoid resting and like to push the limits of what you can do in one adventuring day, go with a conjuror specialist. The other specializations kinda suck by comparison to these options.

STR - 8
DEX - 16
CON - 18
INT - 18
WIS - 8
CHA - 8

Only feats that really matter are Spell Focus and Spell Penetration. Max out spell focus with one school (probably enchantment) early, then max out spell penetration, then max out spell focus for another school. All attribute increases go to intelligence. This character will be the stand-in rogue, disarming traps and unlocking doors for you. The skill penalty for cross-class skills is mostly cancelled out by his high intelligence bonus. If you choose to go generalist, you might want to consider one of the elemental damage feats, but otherwise don't bother.

Human Sorcerer
STR - 8
DEX - 14
CON - 16
INT - 12
WIS - 8
CHA - 18

The complement to your wizard is the Sorcerer. This guy needs to pick his spells very carefully: focus on a balance between buffing fellow party members, disrupting enemies, and damaging enemies. Max out Spell Focus (evocation), Spell Penetration, and get one of the elemental damage feats so this guy can become an artillery later on. Be sure to have some good defensive and buffing spells for situations where enemies are highly resistant or outright immune to magic. Even something as simple as the haste or emotion (hope) spell can be a life-saver.

Hope that helps!

Yeah I probably should have mentioned I'm just talking about Icewind Dale 1 at the moment.

I'm just looking from a group of characters created by other people as a sort of fun challenge while playing through the game. Also, i'm not looking to power game so I just want random band of adventurers to play through the game with. If the game ends up getting too hard then I'll just have to get better or get dead.

The group I mentioned earlier should work fine for you then.

Human Fighter
Human Mage
Human Fighter/Cleric
Elf Fighter/Mage
Halfling Fighter/Thief

You don't have to min-max, but ensure that your primary attribute is at least 18. That means people who fight in melee should have 18 strength, people who use bows should have 18 dexterity, mages should have 18 intelligence, and clerics should have 18 wisdom. The 2nd edition rules have an "18 or bust" mentality; either max out an attribute, or deduct points so you can max out other things.

I'm just looking for single characters from different people. If you would select one of the classes you suggested, preferably not the Fighter/Thief, I already have one of those, I would definitely put it in my party.

I'm not looking for an optimal party or even a working one, I just want to try a party where each character was created by a different person.

Basically it was my original plan to use premade characters from the game, then I had this idea and figured it would be more fun.

Ok a friend of mine just threw in a Barbarian.

I have 2 slots left and whatever I decide to create. Sweet, a Bard, my personal favorite class in all RPGs. There's just something about singing songs of encouragement... Because I lack creativity, I will be giving him your GoG name. Hope you don't mind!

My current Druid (human male):

STR 13
DEX 16
CON 16
INT 10
WIS 17
CHA 15

Edit: If you are stuck for a name, how about Kian Mallory?

Sounds good. And the name works for me.

Okay, now I get you. There I was proposing balanced teams when you wanted an intentionally hodge-podge assembly :-P

Alright then, allow me to add

Aceric
Elf Fighter/Mage
STR 18
DEX 19
CON 17
INT 18
WIS 7
CHA 10

Feel free to reduce some of those stats if that feels a bit too min-maxy for you.

Thanks everyone for the character suggestions! The party has been doing fairly well so far. We have only been horribly murdered 6 or 7 times.