Hello! I just picked up this and IWD II and I would like to know what would be a good combination of companions for my adventures? I've never played this game before so I would like something that can get me through the game but not something that makes the game super easy if that's even possible.

Basically, you want to cover the four major roles: warrior, thief, mage, healer.

For IWD1, this means a melee fighter type (Fighter or Paladin are good choices, Ranger to a lesser extent), a Thief (although my personal opinion is a multiclass Fighter/Thief is far superior to pure Thief), a Wizard, and a Cleric or Druid.

For a six-member party, I tend to favor something like:

Dwarf Fighter or Human Paladin
Gnome Fighter/Thief multiclass
Elf Wizard (you could make him a specialist, but for a first timer, I'd go generalist)
Human Cleric (or possibly Fighter dual classed to Cleric at level 3)
Human Fighter dual classed to Druid at level 3 (this is a very difficult one to pull off, since you need such high scores in multiple attributes, but Druids have some great spells) Failing the dual class option, go for pure Druid.
1/2 Elf Bard (this guy acts as a secondary mage, the party 'face' whom you use to interact with the NPCs, and a secondary healer once he gets his healing song).

For IWD2, you have a different rule set, so be sure you're familiar with how it works. A party composition that I like for this game is:

1/2 Orc Fighter - pure Fighter all the way. He's your tank and melee specialist
Dwarf Fighter 1/Cleric X (I take the one Fighter level for an extra feat and for proficiencies) He's your healer/buffer/secondary tank
Elf Fighter/Rogue - this is your main Rogue who takes care of locks, traps, and scouting and he also takes Fighter for feats and Base Attack Bonus. He specializes in ranged weapons.
Aasimar Bard - because I love Bards and Aasimar get a boost to CHA.
Human Wizard - specialize this guy.
Human or Aasimar Sorcerer. This is the party 'face', whom you should load with Diplomacy and Bluff.

This group works great for me, although is by no means the optimal powergaming group.

Thanks for the response.

Can you explain to me a bit about dual classing Fighter/Druid? Like what stats should I have for it? I've never dual classed before in so I don't really know much about it.

Yeah, you need to have a minimum of 15 in the prime ability (or abilities) in the original class and 17 in the prime stat(s) of the new class. This means, if you're dualling from Fighter to Druid, that your character will need a minimum of 15 in STR and 17 in both WIS and CHA. Consider also that you want high DEX for AC and a decent CON (16 for non-melee classes), and you're looking at a very lucky roll for the character ability scores.

Keep in mind as well that only Humans can dual class.

I should note that there's no pressing need to dual class the Druid though. You can easily just go pure Druid and use him as a caster/healer/ranged combatant and leave it at that. I personally just like him to have some of the extras a FTR gets (HPs and 3 pips in a weapon).

Shape changing into somehting that is ferocious in melee is also part of the druid experience, at least in IWD1 (not sure about IWD2).

The best Pure Class Party I ran is:


Dwarf Paladin/1/2 Orc Fighter(Your Tank, Primarily Constitution, and Wisdom)

Human Fighter/Elf Fighter(Your DPS Fighter, mostly Strength, and dexterity, back up with Constitution)

Elf Wizard(Your Mage, Intelligence and Wisdom)

Elf Cleric(Your Healer, Charisma, Wisdom and Constitution)

Gnome Thief (Dexterity, Wisdom and Intelligence. Your Rogue/Thief)

Elf Bard(Your Party 'Face', Charisma, Wisdom and Intelligence. Will also double as a buffer)

This was the last party I ran, and I did pretty good through the game. I used the Dwarf, but I always thought the Half Orc would be a good replacement.

Oh, bloody hell. I read the OP three times and didn't catch that he'd specified IWD2. I thought he'd posted IWD1.

You gave a party for both at least xD

Actually, I think he's talking about about both: " I just picked up this and IWD II" (Key word there being and).

Both games - try to get 18 in your primary attributes. In IWD1, fighters should have maxed out strength, dexterity, and constitution. In IWD2, armored melee fighters don't need as much dexterity (12-14 is good). Lightly-armored and ranged fighters should still max it out, though. In IWD1 you can completely ignore intelligence, wisdom, and charisma. In IWD2 you cannot completely ignore it, and wisdom in particular can be dangerous if it's too low (since a wisdom penalty will make you more vulnerable to mind-affecting spells. And believe me, that's the last kind of spell you want to be vulnerable to). Wizards should have 18 intelligence, clerics and druids 18 wisdom, and sorcerers (IWD2 only) 18 charisma.

For weapons, missile weapons like bows and slings are your top weapons in IWD1. They attack quickly, deal a lot of damage, and shred enemies before they get into range. For melee combat, a sword-and-shield combo is your most reliable, although two-handed weapons remain a good pick. In IWD2 this is very different. Missile weapons are great at the 1st level, but get progressively weaker at higher levels. Either specialize fully in ranged weapons, or discard them altogether after a few levels. In melee, two-handed weapons are the best in IWD2.

As for spells, they generally fall into three categories: spells that help your allies (buffing), spells that hinder your enemies (debuffing), and spells that damage your enemies (blasting). In IWD1, your best approach is to use a mix of the three. Against swarms of weaker enemies, blasting tends to be preferable, while bosses tend to resist your magic so buffing is preferable there. In IWD2 this changes substantially and blasting spells are much weaker. They still function, but you need to specialize in them to get (pardon the pun) bang for your buck. I find you should either go all-in with a Sorcerer, or else go with a Conjuror or Enchanter specialist wizard and eschew them entirely.


My IWD1 party was a Human Fighter, a Halfling Fighter/Rogue, an Elf Fighter/Wizard, a Human Fighter/Cleric, and a Human Mage (generalist). I was very happy with this party.

My IWD2 party was a Human Paladin 1 / Sorcerer, a Half-Orc Fighter 4 / Barbarian, an Elf Fighter (archery specialist), a Human Ranger 1 / Rogue, a Human Cleric, and a Human Wizard (Conjuror). I was unhappy with the Ranger/Rogue and would go with a bard instead if I could remake the party. I could go either way on the 1-level Paladin dip for my Sorcerer. It wasn't that great, but it wasn't terrible either.

Yeah I said I picked up both but was mostly talking about the first game.

Last time I played IWD I used 6 of the 8 pregenerated characters (paladin, cleric, druid, mage, bard, thief) and it worked quite well, I guess the game was balanced for such a party.

I recently finished my first play through of IWD 1 and I recommend using a Bard. The bard song, War Chant of the Sith is great. Having the Lore skill to immediately identify items while still in the dungeon means you can equip that new shiny sword or armor. I used the bard as a backup spellcaster for buffing the party and de-buffing the enemy.

Chromatic Orb is a really useful level 1 spell.

I also really like a Druid, some interesting spells a bit different from the Cleric.

I think it was mentioned, but using a Fighter/ Thief instead of just a plain thief is also much more useful. I used a Gnome (thank you Coelocanth), still got plenty of points for the thief skills and had an awesome archer as well.

If one wants to get 'reasonable' but good stats, a good way I've found is to allow as many rerolls as one likes, but not reassigning points within the rolls between stats. That also means you put some thought into whether or not to store something: is 18 wisdom and 14 constitution better than 17 wisdom and 16 constitution for your cleric? Especially good for the other IE games (or at least, BG1 and 2, I believe PS:T has a completely different method of stat generation anyway), where it puts you on about the same scale stat wise as a (good) npc. Of course, in BG you do have a legitamate reason for being rather stronger than most...

IWD NPC mod is a prime example of a balanced party. Your paladin will only have a 10 or 11 dexterity and it shows but you have to accommodate for that, dump all the good AC gear you can on him and buff his dex with spells. Same goes for your other chars who have a 15/16 strength. POTIONS MATTER!

I use to powergame and its no fun steamrolling everything! Try to make it a challenge! :D