Advice on party composition

[LoneEagle]

I understand that this is a personal choice and everyone will have a different opinion, but I am just curious to hear input because it might help me make a better decision. I am struggling to figure out which characters to use in my party. If there is a sidequest, that is kind of an easy decision because I am forced to take the sidequest companion if I want to do the quest. But for just the main game / regular quests. What would give me the best combination of good character interaction, good story, solid / powerful combat build?

We are currently level 12 / mythic rank 4:
1. My MC (Richard Rahl) is a NG Oracle: Seeker on Angel mythic path
2. Seelah plus horse companion (Shadowfax)
3. Lann plus Smiloden companion (Canella)
4. Woljif
5. Arushalae plus Mastodon companion (Snuffleuppicus)
6. Regil / Daeran / Ember?

I was using Daeran pretty consistently throughout the game because it is nice to have 2 Oracle healer / buff / summon types, but after I got Arushalae I'm not really sure what to do at this point. The 6th slot keeps getting switched out depending on whatever companion quest I am doing. The first 5 slots are pretty much set because I feel like I have to use all of those characters, but anything is up for negotiation at this point to enhance my gaming experience. I don't really like Sosiel, Greybor, or Nenio very much but I will use them for their sidequests. Looking for Sosiel's brother at the moment and also working on Arushalae's dream stuff

The two members that I definitely will not get rid of are Woljif and Arushalae. Those are my favorite 2. Lann and Seelah are kind of boring to me, but they are way too powerful to replace (especially with that freakishly powerful horse) :)

Thanks for reading!

[Conquista]

ember gives sometimes more insight into npcs, which is great for story
you could make her into a hellfire ray user to hit touch ac on some enemies easier

[Sador]

Darean makes for a great healer / buffer. Ember makes for a great caster overall. I personally prefer her over Woljif but personal taste and all that.

[Sador]

Also, +100 points for Richard Rahl reference as well as your animal companion names.

[ricky.brooks]

Do them all. switch in and out. There's plenty of equipment to make everyone pretty powerful, and you might find combinations that work well together that you didn't expect.

[[Heretic]Rivga]

Ember could make a good Skald too, although I too have gone for the most obvious route with her being a Ray blaster.

Woljif - if your party is going melee could support this by going full in on the debilitating weakness ability he gets at lvl 4 rogue. Use quickened, spell that gives +20 hit chance, to lower the AC of the target and the party can the destroy it. Only use him a little but it should work great.

I used Seelah as a origin, 2 levels paladin for the saves, the divine herbalist nature with pet she is now a tank that can heal, and buff the pet trips too. I love the character so wanted to do something different.

Lann is amazingly flexible, hunter or inquisitor, or even a cleric, full Zen archer pumps out huge damage too. Probably make a good war Priest too but I don't know this class so well, forget loremaster though (damn you Owlcat!!!).

Reg is a little more difficult for me, I like the personality in so much as I hate him but in a way that I think he is a great character (that I hate). Build wise accepting his current path and looking for ways to boost damage with it.

Arushalae, is her pet not very under leveled? How have you done this? The statistics for her are amazing, get this character level 1 or 2 and you MC has been replaced!
Again accepting her path seems the best way

Daeran, if not interested in Seelah then the chance of 2nd mystery in nature and have him with the pet. Choose the pet option and the one that boosts all animals saving throws by your own chr mod and you have basically solved the huge weakness of pets.
Alternatively fire builds are common with him.

I want bother with options for the rest,

[Trolleur_Durden]

My experience on Core difficulty was that it wasn't mandatory to have a huge amount of healing. Don't get me wrong, it's extremely useful to be able to heal after a tough fight, but I've noticed that around lvl 5/6, I've started to almost always rest because of fatigue/exhaustion, while still having healing resources available, so it was at that point that I swapped out Daeran for someone else, and he was never missed gameplay-wise. So regarding your team, I would say that if you already play an Oracle, you should not need to have Daeran around.

Your team is pretty balanced overall I would say. Maybe a bit lacking when it comes to profane magic, because Woljif only goes to spell level 4. If you are looking for a 6th party member, I would definitely consider either Nenio or Ember. Both are profane magic users and can bring some very good spells to your party. Maybe start by giving Ember her chance because she can also heal, so the transition with Daeran won't be too rough. Regarding her build you can go burst fire damage as someone else suggested, but if you are playing turn-based, you should definitely use her as a hexer. The gist of it is to take Protective Luck, Evil Eye and Cackle, and to use each turn either Protective Luck or Evil eye, followed with a Cackle (Sleep is also a good option sometimes). This makes your party steadily stronger as long as a fight goes on, without having to spend resources like spell slots. A tank with a good AC is way more resilient with Protective luck on, believe me.

[LoneEagle]

Originally posted by Sador:

Also, +100 points for Richard Rahl reference as well as your animal companion names.

Thank you! Glad someone noticed that :)

[LoneEagle]

Thank you for all of the advice everyone. Your are giving me a lot to think about.

"Arushalae, is her pet not very under leveled? How have you done this?" I gave her a level in hunter for the companion. Good fodder and distraction for the enemy while she uses her arrows. Her and Lann sure like to fill the enemy with arrows :) I want to mostly focus her on archery skills like Lann. I gave her a divine hunter level, but I'm planning to put the rest in whatever she started with unless there is a better choice.
I gave Lann a hunter level also for a companion. They are weak fodder, but if it distracts the enemy for a round or 2 then it's worth it for me. They enemy doesn't usually last long with my team. I plan to do full Zen archer with him other than the hunter level, but if there is a cheap way to make the animal more powerful I would be interested in that also as long as it doesn't sacrifice too much with his archery skills. I think I did the wandering marksmen one.
I gave Woljif a level in demon slayer like someone else suggested for the martial weapon skill. I plan to use the rest in his rogue / sneak attack / debilitating skills. I use a combo of dual weapons or bow with him depending on the situation.
I like the ideas about Ember. When I need a fire blaster I'll switch her in-or if I am interested in her storyline and conversation. I can have her use protective luck on Seelah to enhance her survivability. Already gave her evil eye, but I haven't really ever used it.
With Regil I started giving him Hellknight levels. He has a wolf and at hellknight level 9 he gets a hellhound.

[kiloromeo]

Why Martial Weapon for Wolijif? His got Dex to Damage specific for Daggers he is already using ...

[phadin]

I see a distinct lack of Arcane power in your lineup there. Woljef can fill the role to some extent, but only up to level 6 spells. I suggest Ember or Nenio... probably Ember. Get her all the spell pen/myth spell pen and such, let her land your arcane debuffs on foes and use her evil eyes when it's not worht using a spell. She can blast with the spells she learns off her curse, and if you got that ring for spontanious casters that gives a bunch of fire spells, she can use those to. Get her the mythic power for fire element, the augmented and mythic summons with a summon spell or two in her list, and a bunch of debuff spells, and she should rock.

[LoneEagle]

Originally posted by kiloromeo:

Why Martial Weapon for Wolijif? His got Dex to Damage specific for Daggers he is already using ...

I read somewhere else that he couldn't use a certain one-handed weapon (Kukris maybe? Don't remember) and the suggestion was to give him a level in demon slayer so he could use the weapon. It sounded like a good suggestion so I figured I'd give it a try. Seems okay so far.

[Edmund Greyfox]

You're not considering Nenio? I had something of the same issue deciding who to take, and found that having her along is a serious help because of things like haste, not to mention all the other group buffs she has access to. She also gets so many skill points per level that you can make her into an expert on all the different lore checks. Spec her out with spell penetration feats and she's also a pretty good nuker.

[Trolleur_Durden]

I'm not a big fan of weak animal companions as fodder to be honest, because you have summoned creatures that are much more suited for the task. If you have a few levels in a class providing one, why not, but I wouldn't take a dip in a class simply in order to have a weak animal companion. That being said, there's a feat called Boon companion or something in this fashion that provides you +4 "virual levels" in order to determine the power of your companion. For example, a hunter 1/fighter 4 with that feat would be considered as a lvl 5 hunter for the purpose of determining how strong his animal companion is.

One very easy and straightforward way to improve ranged damage on your archers is to take 4 levels in a Fighter class, in order to take the Weapon specialization feat. +2 damage/hit is quite good, especially on archers that are able to attack a lot, but it also allows you to take the mythic version of that feat, which is much better. Otherwise, another popular and efficient way to improve ranged damage is to dip in a class with sneak attack like Rogue or Vivisesctionist.

Considering that Aru has at least 8 levels in her Ranger class, there's no really good multiclassing options for her. You can either mess around with some dips or keep her monoclassed, won't matter that much. Regarding Lann however, there's much more options available, but if you want to go full archer route, I wouldn't go past 11 or 12 levels in Zen archer. At Zen archer 11, you get your second flurry of blows attack, and there isn't much interesting stuff to get after that, because ki powers aren't that useful for a ranged monk overall.

[LoneEagle]

Originally posted by phadin:

I see a distinct lack of Arcane power in your lineup there. Woljef can fill the role to some extent, but only up to level 6 spells. I suggest Ember or Nenio... probably Ember. Get her all the spell pen/myth spell pen and such, let her land your arcane debuffs on foes and use her evil eyes when it's not worht using a spell. She can blast with the spells she learns off her curse, and if you got that ring for spontanious casters that gives a bunch of fire spells, she can use those to. Get her the mythic power for fire element, the augmented and mythic summons with a summon spell or two in her list, and a bunch of debuff spells, and she should rock.

Yeah, I agree, I haven't been using the pure arcane caster as much in this game as I have in other games. In the Baldur's gate games I usually used at least 2 of them. My guys have been doing so much damage and steam rolling the enemies so quickly that it hasn't really been necessary. But I'll definitely build up Ember's fire and spell penetration abilities like you said in case I ever use her. It's fun to have her auto casting fire spells sometimes and blasting everything.

Once I have Woljif use a haste spell, then usually the enemy dies within seconds. I enjoy reading the combat logs. Have to pause every second or it moves way too quickly. For trash mobs I usually just let it auto battle at this point. I play Rtwp only, not interested in turn based at all

[LoneEagle]

Originally posted by Edmund Greyfox:

You're not considering Nenio? I had something of the same issue deciding who to take, and found that having her along is a serious help because of things like haste, not to mention all the other group buffs she has access to. She also gets so many skill points per level that you can make her into an expert on all the different lore checks. Spec her out with spell penetration feats and she's also a pretty good nuker.

Yeah, I get that she's a powerful spellcaster. I'll use her sometimes if I have to. She is just really annoying to me so I don't really enjoy having her as part of my group. When she talks I want to cut her stupid little head off...lol :)