I would concur that in the Dark Sun games, buff spells and crowd control (CC) spells are far superior to standard heal/damage ones. I would still recommend keeping a Preserver around for Fireball/Ice Storm/Cone of Cold/Cloudkill for situations when lots of low-health enemies (hello, Drajian Guards!) cluster together, but my goto strategy is basically buff my party to the gills before a big fight (mainly consisting of Bless/Prayer/Haste, and then defensive spells/powers like Barkskin, Inertial Barrier, Biofeedback, Displacement), then just tear through enemies like a wrecking ball with 4-6 attacks per character. A dual-wielding Half-Giant is especially potent in this role.

Ego Whip stops an enemy from attacking and casting spells, but Id Insinuation actually paralyses them (which means that any attacks on the paralysed foe deal double damage). Again, you can combo this with my above strategy for absolutely ludicrous amounts of damage on your unfortunate target.

Aside from the usual big blaster spells like Fireball, Cone of Cold etc., Haste is a MUST PICK. Acid Arrow is also awesome (as bismuthdrummer mentions) for keeping an enemy spellcaster locked down (although once you acquire Phrain's Bow in SL, you can pretty much do this on request), but in general I tend to give my Preserver various Wall spells. One thing about the Dark Sun games is that if enemies can't see you because their line of sight is blocked by a Wall, combat drops. You can therefore exploit this by dropping the Wall on a narrow chokepoint and forcing enemies to come to you one at a time through the wall, whereupon you instantly tear the poor creature apart with Hasted attacks, and then wait for the next victim to come through. This was how I beat the final battle in SL with zero casualties; I placed a Wall of Force along one axis anchored against a wall, then placed a Wall of Fire across the other axis anchored against another wall, forcing enemies to come to me through the wall of fire (and taking damage in the process), and then instantly ripping them apart as they trickled in in ones and twos.

Questions, it's been a looooong time since I played This game or Ravager so I've forgotten.

What advantage is there to leveling up a Psionic Power? I've been making my Thri-Kree specialize in Animal Affinity but I've no clue if I've just been wasting points.

Also, whats the strategy with Gladiator, Take 5 Levels with a Human and then dual class out of it so you get the AC Bonus and other stuff? Whats the advantage over Fighter, because it seems the disadvantage is you cant multiclass Gladiator.

Where do I check my THACO?

It means you get a +1 bonus on the power check. In other words, it means the chance of the power working when you try to use it increases by 5%.

Note that there is no point in raising the power check rating past 19, which gives you a 95% chance. (The game does have natural 1 and 20 rules, so the chance can't increase any higher than that.)

Note, also, that this won't help with getting past enemy's saving throws, and won't make the power any more powerful when it is successfully used.

(Incidentally, the psionics rules are actually based on the non-weapon proficiency rules, which have never been incorparatee into an AD&D CRPG to my knowledge; on the other hand, 3e games, including the strange hybrid that is Icewind Dale 2, implemented the skill system right from the start.)

In any case, it's not usually worth it.

The advantage of Gladiator over Fighter is the AC bonus, but there's no drawback other than needing more XP to level. Usually, if your build is possible with Gladiator, you take it, and only do Fighter if Gladiator isn't an option (for example, if you're multi-classing). In the tabletop rules, I believe they get proficiency with all weapons for free, but this game does not implement weapon proficiencies (and I actually prefer it that way), so that benefit is irrelevant.

For dual-classing from Gladiator, the levels to consider are as follows:
5: For the AC bonus
7: For the extra 1/2 attack
8: Level cap in SS is 9, and you need to surpass your previous level to regain your powers, so this is as high as it makes sense to go
9 (WotR only): Roll dice for HP up to this level (any further only give you 3 HP per level), plus the end of XP requirements increasing exponentially, so you will likely only lose one level in the long run (and that's only if you don't cap out after dual-classing). (I believe that, if you change into Thief or Preserver at this level, you can get to roll ofr
13 (WotR only): Get the final 1/2 attack, but it will be a long time before you can actually benefit from this after class changing
14 (WotR only): Cap is 15 in WotR, so if you want to max your characters out, this is the level that you choose. You *might* have to farm XP to benefit from this (note that I haven't played the game, so I don't know if this is actually the case).

There are reasons to consider dual-classing before level 5, but for those set-ups you may want to use Fighter instead to reach these levels faster, or Ranger if you're planning on going Cleric (for the extra domain). Changing to Preserver early can be good if you don't like the starting spells and would rather choose different ones when reaching levels 2 and 3. Changing to Psionic early means you have the wild talent powers of the discipline you chose, but can also select powers at 2nd Psionic level.

Thanks for the explanations!

Ok, so only increase the level of a Psionic power if you can't afford for it to fail, then? I guess that means that no buff should ever be increased over initial level, since you can buff out of combat. For save or Stink/Die powers, you similarly are good to keep them at their lowest level, because the saving throw wont increase (Disintigrate 17 have the same saving throw as 19). That just leaves healing and direct damage as candidates for "Cant afford to fail" treatment?

Even then, healing isn't worth raising.

Cell Adjustment heals only 2 HP, which is rather worthless in combat.

Lend Health uses the caster's HP, so it's not useful for characters who don't have high HP (who will likely not have high Con), and the power check is as easy as it's going to get if the character has high Con.

Attack powers aren't that strong, and are mostly useful to prevent enemies from using their magic (where the power check does matter) or for an extra snipe if you can't quite reach the enemy (where it's not critical if the power fails).

Mass Dominate would probably be a better power to level up; yes, it allows a save, but it gets multiple attempts to work if the power check succeeds, and it's a more difficult power check. (Note, however, that some players consider this particular power to be gamebreaking and don't use it; also, if you dominate every surviving enemy, the battle will end and you won't get any XP for the surviving dominated enemies.)

Thanks for the explanation. I played around with it and came out with this, I am wondering if you think its a sound way to go.

Start as Thief - take to level 5 for 3x Backstab. Switch to Gladiator - Take to 7 for AC bonus and extra half attack. Switch to either Cleric/Druid/Preserver - I am thinking preserver to take advantage of scroll learning and fill out the spellbook.

The idea is to end up with a character that can utilize Haste to move about the board backstabbing opononent that the rest of the team lines up for them....

One limitation of this setup is that you'll get Thief HP for the first 5 levels, so you'll have lower HP than someone who started as Gladiator and went to Thief.

Also, with heavily dual-classed set-ups, you might consider going the multi-class route instead. You would miss out on the -1 AC (that's 5% difference in chance to dodge attacks), but you wouldn't need to worry about losing your abilities for a while and would eventually be able to master your previous classes (and would end up with a +2 bonus to hit, or 10% chance). I hear that in Shattered Lands, it's not that hard to reach max level with triple-class characters. (Wake of the Ravager, on the other hand, is a different story from what I've heard.)

I do not know if there are issues with dual class preservers and casting in armor; you should probably test that. (There is a cheat code that allows you to gain levels instantly which can be handy for this sort of set-up; in Wake of the Ravager, it even allows you to get 8th and 9th level spells, which range from working well (Meteor Swarm) to potential soft-locks (Time Stop gives you infinite turns, but your movement doesn't recover between them) or outright crashing the game (Prismatic Sphere).)

Ok, beat the game in normal with a substandard team. Retrying on Hideous for better understanding. Here is what I've learned so far:

Thir-kree - Make a Ranger/Psionicist (Cleric optional). At low levels, you can hold a shield and fight barehanded for an AC -1 (at max dex) with 5 attacks and with animal affinity that is like holding 4 greatswords and a shield!. At high levels, you get 2 attacks per hand, so switch to magic weapons if you can find them, or use graft weapon if not (or if fire cleric, you get a flame weapon if you want).

Preserver Class - You need at least one, and you should not triple class this one. Haste is game-breaking, the Thri-Kree mentioned above gets 10 attacks per round under haste, two of which paralyze opponents even if the opponent is immune to the damage of the attack.

Ranger does add back cosmos to Fighters, but that's for Ravager, and this is shattered lands.

Ranger/Thief is a very potent combination because unlike the description, backstab can hit more than once (I tripled 100s in one round).

Speaking of Thief, if you can make 2, backstab is insanely powerful in this game (and give the thief the best +x weapons you find).

One more, if you make a halfling Ranger/Thief, add psionicist because enhanced Strength is a very good thing to have on a character with backstab. For my final team (the one im testing right now) I went with Mul Druid/Fighter/Thief - not as good because it misses the offhand attacks, but it has a str of 22 and that really helps with the backstab damage.

My Final Team

Half-Elf Druid (air) / Preserver - He stands in the back and casts Haste, Stinking Clouds, and Remove Paralysis mostly
Mul - Fighter/Druid (Fire)/ Thief - Sneaks behing the marked enemy and delivers the killing blow
Half-Giant - Ranger/Cleric (earth) - Outlasts opponents and gives monsters a thing to hit
Thri-Kree - Ranger/Cleric (water)/Psion - Hasted, runs around the battlefield cleaning out the mooks

Preserver spells - Stinking Cloud, Acid Arrow, Haste, Slow, Ice Storm (thats as far as I've gotten in progression with new team)

If I were to start again, I'd replace the Half-Giant with a Halfling Ranger/Thief/Psion as described above. Or Perhaps a Human Psion 4 Thief 5 Gladiator (x).

Ranger/Cleric is inferior to Fighter/Druid so there's no other Thri-Kreen as powerful as Fighter/Druid/Psionic.
Rangers don't get any benefits (except low level spells) compared to fighters so your Mul Druid/Fighter/Thief doesn't miss any offhand attacks.

I do recommend triple-classing preservers as well as druids since there's more than enough in XP in the game to reach the level cap nevertheless. A fighter/druid/preserver will be far more powerful late in the game than a druid/preserver who suffers from the lack of extra attacks, less hitpoints and equipment restrictions.

Worth noting that this is only true for multi-class characters.

For dual-class humans, Ranger/Cleric has the ability to cast spells from 2 elemental spheres. Choose one as a Ranger, then when you change to Cleric you can choose another; once you regain your Ranger abilities, you will be able to cast spells from both Spheres, regardless of your level. (One example: In WotR, if you choose Water as a Ranger, you'll have access to a nearly full heal spell once your Cleric level is at least 11 and higher than your Ranger level.)

Cosmos spells are more useful than a second elemental sphere. For dual-class humans ranger/cleric doesn't make sense either if you want to have a powerful character.

I would loved to have read this thread before, I started playing shattered lands back in December and beat it in a weak or so. My staring party was:

Ulf the Mul Gladiator (still my main muscle on the party)
A Trip Kree fighter/ psi that I forgot his name
Snu snu a half giant fighter/ ranger
And Bozark a priest for a few levels them turn Rogue (Thief)

For starters the thing about multiple saves, I just didn't do it, mostly because I was rolling with what I got, and I usually reserve those slots other parties ideas. I usually start all RPGs as Survivor contest, which the party I keep is the one that get me far in the early game before dying)

At the beginning I didn't knew that Druid was the main healing class in Dark Sun, and cleric was more of a buffer warrior, so naturally I end up droping both the Kreen and the Half Giant, because they died, I though it was impossible to revive PCs. (Then I meet the NPC that can revive them... And I struck my head).

Ar' Anda an Elf Preserver/ Psion / Thief (why thief... I though it would be advantageous, and I only found use for her thievering skills until I got to WotR)

Yillballa Elf Ranger (just an Elf Ranger)

With that party I manage to beat the game and I really needed that preserver to do so in the final battle.

Wake of the Ravager has being a weird experience for me, I being playing it on and off since January, I didn't like the new graphics I thong the ones from the previous game looks better and clearer, the transfering of character is so wanky, and I didn't know my characters would have the same HP as they had in SL and neither that WotR started with a fight. So I did the thing to start with a premade character them replace them all with my SL Party and end up having two of the swords that you get by beating SL. (Don't judge me I could resist the temptation). But the thing about WotR that drives me crazy are the bugs...

Bozark at some point got charmed and after that all the times enemies trigger a fight they just clutter around my party without starting the combat... (I exploited this a couple of time, by tossing a wall of fire, toss as many fireballs as I can) I stop using it because it was broking some story beats of the game and I end up sacrificing the poor bastard.

And made her into a lady Borketta instead of a thief I made her a priest from the start... Now I'm at the undermines, and I get a wired bug where my revived PCs get invisible not to the NPCs though... For me.

However at this point I started saving on multiple slots and I was wondering who had this many bugs too but I think everyone has some weird experience with WotR someway or another.

Aren't the thri-kreen bugs?

By the way, if you think the game is buggy without cheats, try using cheats to get access to 8th and 9th level spells; they range from fully functional (Meteor Swarm) to partially functional (Time Stop, which can cause a softlock if you are out of movement and have no way to attack) to completely broken (Prismatic Spheie, which crashes the game).

I've been playing WofR once in a while since 1996. My party always goes:
1 half-giant gladiator
1 fighter/preserver (most of the times an elf)
2 fighter/clerics (halflings, dwarves or any other)

Reading to this topic really made me think of some new strategies:
-thri kreen ranger
-human gladiator 9/priest
-a spellcaster only (not fighter), because I aways put everyone to punch monsters in some point of the fight, but it must be fun to tatic more and beserk less.