Just wondering how many spellcasters you like to use in your party. Currently in my Bard's Tale 2 party, I have 2 regular ones (one Archmage, and another who opts to keep her XP) and one special Wacum Wizard (2.4k HP, -18 AC, casts Mangar's Mallet every round; what's not to like)? I have, however, seen people play with 3 spellcasters (I even saw somebody use two Archmages in BT3, where you also need a Chronomancer).

I also have a Warrior, Paladin, Monk, and Bard in the party. (No Hunter because Stoneblade.)

I am planning on trying to transfer my party to Bard's Tale 3, but I am going to need to train a Rogue, and will need to figure out how to work one into my party, and how to level her up. (I think I may try and skip Brilhasti in BT3, and hence not get the instant level 35 that he would give when defeated.) (I have an idea that might allow me to port my characters from the 2gs version to the C64 version of BT2, allowing me to use the C64 BT3 transfer program to transfer my party, though the Wacum Wizard, if it transfers, will probably be reduced to casting Mage Flame every round.)

Any thoughts? How many mages do you use? What classes do you use in your front line? What special party members do you use? (In the BT1 remaster, can you save them at the Adventurer's Guild like in later games in the series?)

not sure what i used to use back in the day exactly, probably warrior monk thief bard magician conjuror
though at one point i do remember having 3 magic users

I just started a new run with an "unusual" party configuration: hu, mo, ro, ba, co, ma. the 2 spellcasters classchanged after lvl13 to the opposite class (ma to co, co to ma) and after spelllvl 7 i will convert both to so and wi after that. Of course I wont be able to equip a lot of armour/weapons that´ll come up in the later stages of the game, but what the heck!?

My party that just killed off Mangar was made up of the following:

1 Monk - Low natural AC and high damage, although their not needing any equipment isn't as much of an issue now that there's a shared inventory for the party.

1 Paladin - I never was one for a plain warrior.

1 Rogue - Hiding with critical hits, and saving 2 SP from Trap Zap each combat helps a lot until you get the Mage Staff in the late game. I ended up having to BEDE this character more than anyone else, because he had the worst AC of my front line characters.

1 Bard - Regenerating HP early on is a godsend. In the later dungeons, go for the song that lowers your party's AC. Fire/Frost/Flame horns can end fights rapidly.

3 spellcasters. 2 Conjurors and 1 Magician to start, then they each changed to Sorcerers (once you get MIBL x3, a lot of fights become much easier!) Wizards came next, and then finally the other "beginner" class. They get up higher levels in BT1 this way, as it takes a lot less XP to raise a Conjuror up to LVL 13 than it does a Wizard, and their levels after that cost less XP as well.

Actually, from what I hear, in the remaster every class needs only 100k per level past level 13, including Wizards. The Apple 2gs version is this way (except that the XP requirement is 200k per level).

Now, if that were the DOS version, the situation would be different; there it does make sense to end on the other "beginner" class.

(Anyone have more information on which version works which way?)

I always play games with the default party if available, so I have Paladin, Warrior, Bard, Rogue and 2 Spellcasters. Not sure if I'll even finish the first game yet, though. Maybe if they add configurable hotkeys for spells or full gamepad support.

Same party I had when I played the game back when it first came out.

Human Paladin
Dwarf Hunter
Half-Elf Bard
Hobbit Rogue
Elf Conjurer
Elf Magician
Elf Magician

Well, the second Elf Magician is new to the remaster. I wanted something to use up the seventh slot, since I have to have 4 characters exposed to melee attacks whether I like it or not, I may as well fill the back 3 ranks with casters.

This party saw me through BT3, although I used the character transfer exploit to duplicate one of my casters once the Special slot was removed.

I'm playing with a male human Bard, a paladin, a huntress, a monk a conjureress and a magician (all female). Currently considering adding either a rogue or another magic user to replace the huntress.

My spell casters are three different races.

I've noticed that Elves have more HP as decent spell casting races go; obviously a Half-Orc Magician that started with INT 3 and CON 18 would have more HP than an elf, but that's not really a good mage, now is it?

Gnomes (!!!) seem to have more Spell Points than any other race, and Half-Elves are somewhere in the middle.

They're actually all the same. High Intelligence (above 14) grants bonus spell points per level, and Gnomes start with higher Intelligence, so they get a bit of a bonus until their non-Gnome counterparts get Intelligence bonuses from leveling to catch up. But they all reach 18 Intelligence eventually, even the Half-Orc who started at 3 Intelligence. Given how many times casters level up over their careers, the vast majority of their levels should come with the full +4 spell points per level from Intelligence.

HP works the same, but with Constitution. And all casters will spend the vast majority of their careers at 18 Constitution as well.

Starting HP and SP seem completely random. I've never gotten above 29 HP with any race/class combination, and have seen 29 HP starting with even the most unfavorable race/class combos.

First Game BT1R:

Warrior
Paladin
Bard
Rogue
Spellcaster
Spellcaster

Current game:

Hunter
Warrior
Monk
Bard
Spellcaster
Spell caster

I went 3 casters, all of which hit 13th in all 4. In part, because it's sick-easy to blow through the low levels of the new casting guilds, and you're getting so much from doing it.

I found 3 casters very helpful in Mangar's, where you might need to drop an anti-magic, demon strke, and repel dead, or AM and double mind blade. Or a triple MIFI or SPTO against farther-off casters. Or....... you get the idea. :) Plenty of tactical situations that could lead to wanting 3 spells in a round.

And earlier, it meant a much larger overall pool of spell points, allowing longer runs before having to bail for healing or mana.

I'm playing through Bard's Tale 3 right now, and have opted for a 3 caster party (for now, I will add a Geomancer later). Having the extra caster is handy, but doesn't always feel necessary (in Gelidia, for example, not much (other than the bosses) can survive a Fatal Fist and a Mangar's Mallet; the second MAMA is not necessary).

I have noticed that Archmages and Chronomancers get a huge bonus to saving throws; I found that, in Arboria, my level 23 Bard had trouble hitting with her Flame Horn, while my level 1 Chronomancer could hit reasonably well with her Dragonwand. (I shoud point out that the game expects your non-casters to be level 35 at this point, which can be reached fairly quickly thanks to the Brillhasti boost that I mentioned in the other topic.)

This isn't as much of a factor in BT3 thanks to Harmonic Gems, which restore SP fully, but only to one character per gem. With Harmonic Gems and no Roscoe's (and no Garth's either), the dynamic is completely changed, and you don't leave dungeons except when you need to level up (or need the temple to cure a status, but that isn't a factor later with spells like Stone to Flesh (don't you wish you had that spell in BT1?), Heal All, and Youth (OLAY).

I remember the situation with gems, more or less...BT3 was a LONG time ago. Can't even say what system I ran it on. In the end game, IIRC, double and triple MAMAs became the rule. I do remember, tho, having to be *somewhat* judicious in how I used the gems because it was really easy to go through them VERY quickly.

My memory is, regen items by and large became pointless. Much, much too slow to be meaningful. Heck, that's almost true at the end of BT1.

Actually, MAMA is actually not that strong by the end of the game. The Chronomancer's Fatal Fast (FAFI) is almost twice as strong, and later you get a spell whose 4 letter code is NUKE, which hits all enemies for 2000+ damage, and which all spellcasters are capable of learning. By the end of the game, if there are a significant number of enemies, the strategy is to spam NUKE until they all die. (Well, there are exceptions; if you don't care about XP, you can use the Geomancer spell Earth Maw to eliminate a group of enemies, and if you are lucky enough to have a Deathhorn handy, your Bard can critically hit an entire group with it.)

Also, at the point of the game I just reached, the game gives you a bard song that, played during battle, has the same effect as Trebuchet, which is 75% the power of MAMA, and if you have infinite bard songs (by, for example, having a Bardsword in the Bard's inventory), you can just spam it. The enemies have enough HP at this point that it won't end battles quickly (unless you go back to Arboria or Skara Brae and play it there), but it does come in handy. There's also the Shadelance, which grants Warriors, Paladins, Hunters, and Geomancers infinite uses of the Fanskar's Night Lance spell.

By the end of BT1, if you equip a Mage Staff and leave a Conjurstaff in the character's inventory, you get half SP consumption *and* SP regeneration at the same time; with this combo, trips to Roscoe's are rarely, if ever, necessary, particularly since spells in BT1 are all cheap to begin with.

Now, Bard's Tale 2 is another story; there is a rather useful spell that costs 100 SP per cast (or 50 with a Conjurstaff).