BT2 Party Composition

[Cerec]

I would be very curious to read about which classes everyone has decided to use with BT2 to make up their party, etc. In other words, post your favorite/most effective/best BT2 Remastered party composition!

Also, it's literally been almost 30 years since last time I played BT2, so any advice with regard to party composition, which characters were "upgraded" to another class later, etc. would be great. I don't mind putting in the time to beat the game again, but I want to be efficient ...and, well, I'm afraid I not longer have my C-64 saved game to see what classes I used last time :)

[Trojanski]

I think 3 Casters and a Bard is a pretty good starting point. After that decide how many characters you want to take. Some people like 6 or less, some like 7.
I went with Paladin, fighter, Bard, Thief and 3 Mages. Bear in mind some folks love Monks. Others love Hunters, most hate Thieves.
For Bards Tale 3 you need to make one of your casters a Chronomancer. You can also turn a frontliner into a Geomancer. In the old days the top pick was the Paladin, as they don’t scale so well and can’t use stone blades etc.
Most important thing is to play however you enjoy the game most. Have fun.

[Cerec]

Excellent answer! I really appreciate you taking the time to write it out.

I really wish I remembered what I did back when I first played this game on C-64. I have a feeling I just used the stock "A Team" that was included ...then, I probably imported it from BT2 to BT3 ..haha. God what great memories this game was ..it was such an amazing thing back in those days.

[simon.marks]

Wellll

So, the last fight was really unimpressive due to my tatic during the last half of the game.
1) have an empty slot
2)Spell Bind the best monster you can find
3) Rinse and Repeat on each level.
It helps to know what creatures are worth keeping, and I had in the end the following party;

3 Wacum the wiz, all with AC-20 and over 2,000 HP and each casting Mangar's Mallet every round. My bard to sing Spell Song every fight and two casters to cast the Spell Bind, or spam Dreamspell if it's a really tough fight.

I think the last fight took 4 rounds? An Lagoth Zanta himself was dead in the secound round. In the third round, I made a mistake and the Destiny Knight was the only one left alive. A Dreamspell sorted that out, and I just spammed it to ensure it went fine.

[redandblue625]

My ideal party has always included a Monk. They hit the best and hardest, have -50 AC running around the streets buck naked. I only go with 2 casters, since three are a drain on resources at the early levels, when resources are precious. I carried over my party from BT1. I currently have:

Monk -- Hits for between 900-1500
Paladin -- Stoneblade
Warrior -- Sword of Zar
Bard -- Spectre Snare
Rouge -- Death Dagger, since they can attack from the back row with the BT3 upgrade
Destiny Knight
Archmage

I will carry this group over and play through BT3 with them too.

I am replaying BT2 from scratch. I have:

Paladin
Monk
Warrior
Hunter (sacrificing AC for Accuracy--crit hit is really useful)
Bard
Archmage
Archmage

I had some trouble with the monk repelling spells early on--kept getting killed by Red Dragons and Master Mages. But now he's bad ass.

[Cerec]

Originally posted by redandblue625:

I am replaying BT2 from scratch. I have:

Paladin
Monk
Warrior
Hunter (sacrificing AC for Accuracy--crit hit is really useful)
Bard
Archmage
Archmage

You would make one of the Archmages the Destiny Knight?

[wilson.max]

I had fun with my BT1 party imported into BT2 and played pretty far, but then I restarted a completely fresh game from level 1 with this composition:

3 monks + 1 bard + 1 paladin + 1 conjuror + 1 magician

I power-classed the conjuror into wizard ASAP (conj 3 -> sorc 3 -> wiz) and at that point I ditched all the warriors and replaced them with summons.

4 fire elementals + 1 bard + 1 magician + 1 wizard

As soon as I could, I created an archmage (wiz 3 -> archmage) and summoned some Wind Mages (archmage 2). Around this point my magician finally hit level 13 and became a conjuror instead.

I continued levelling until my crippled archmage got Brothers Kringle, and at that point I ditched the crippled archmage entirely. At this point my "real" mage was an Archmage also with 2nd level spells, and I was gaining 6 or 7 levels from every thirty-minute trip into the Maze of Dread (30K to 100K+ experience per fight, and each fight only takes a few seconds if you just Spell Song and let the Wind Mages spam MAMA and the Brothers Kringle use their breath weapons).

The biggest downside to this party composition is that in the Grey Crypt, when my Brothers Kringles get possessed, due to a bug there is no way to dispossess them, so it's very hard to progress. (I've started levelling up a "real" party instead specifically for the Grey Crypt but it is much slower going since you're splitting the XP 7 ways instead of 2. Usually only gain one or two levels you visit the Review Board instead of 6 or 7 levels.) In every other area of the game including the Destiny Stone it is quite powerful and easy.

[redandblue625]

Originally posted by Amadeus:

Originally posted by redandblue625:

I am replaying BT2 from scratch. I have:

Paladin
Monk
Warrior
Hunter (sacrificing AC for Accuracy--crit hit is really useful)
Bard
Archmage
Archmage

You would make one of the Archmages the Destiny Knight?

Yes. They're pretty even as I start the Maze of Dread. We'll see which is more powerful at the end.

[Socrates Johnson]

I use

(monster)
Paladin
Hunter
Bard
Rogue
Archmage
Archmage

Rogue I keep from BT1 to carry over to BT3, and I always keep a slot open for a summons or monster. For BT3 it will be

(monster)
Geomancer
Hunter
Bard
Rogue
Chronomancer
Archmage

[waltc]

Paladin
Monk
Hunter
Bard
ArchMage
ArchMage

I also equip my fighters--the first three--with Dragonshields or Archshields or LongBows (with either AG's Arrows or Zen or Mithril arrows) for those many encounters in which it's better to engage the enemy at 20' or more out. Shields work at 30' or 40' out; arrows work at up to 90' out. I also recommend keeping both Conjurstaffs and Mage staffs in inventory--to interchange when needed, etc.

[Gold Dragon]

Wind Dragon (This red typically has a full group down before even the rogue can get into the shadows, will likely change later for something that can resist disrupt illusion)
Paladin
Hunter
Bard
Rogue
Archmage
Archmage

[Montiness]

Paladin/Warrior
Monk
Rogue (can hide in shadows to stay safe, leaving only Low AC members to take hits)
Bard
Conjuror
Magician

Once you get GRSU get a demon lord. They're smarter than in BT1 and breathe more often than not. WIDR before that.

Paladins can use a Pureblade, one of the highest damage (and chance to hit) weapons.
Monks are just too strong to leave out. Free AC on levelling, huge attack bonuses and damage.

Hunters get one or very few attack increases, and the RNG levelling can really destroy its ability to critical hit, so forget about it. from what I've played (on the originals) they crit about 1 in 7-8 attacks at level 12, and only 1 attack still (from memory, but I certainly remember they were garbage) A paladin/warrior with 4 attacks will kill something more often than a Hunter with 1 attack and an RNG crit chance at the same level. People might argue that at higher levels their crit is strong, but by that time your warrior will constantly hit for 200+ damage anyway every time, so the point is mute. Hunters can't use armour or weapons as powerful as the Warrior/Pally either, and have less HP. The blood axe isn't that much better than Kaels anyway.

As for races I use a dwarven Pally/Warrior, Human Monk, Hobbit Rogue, Half Elven Bard, with a gnome and an elf as the casters. Generally I let the mag be the gnome.

Until you can summon your own critters pick up whatever straggler is running around. At the very least they will soak a hit or two in combat. If they do manage to live through fights, they place the bard far enough back so that the two targets (with a hidden rogue) that have decent AC are the only ones taking attacks from your actual party.

It also gets rid of the problem of who to drop when you get good summons. A dragon will kick around for a fair amount of time before it's killed, and it's breath will kill pretty much any entire group within 30' if it chooses, and later the Demon Lord is just stupid strong. Up to 255 HP, low AC and breathes a bunch more than in BT1.

[wefuntw]

Except for Bards and Spellcasters, they are quite essential.

hunter is a must , some monsters in very advanced dungeons just have way too many hit points for any non-critical hit attacks. hunter can do RANGED CRITICAL in this remake! this is a huge difference when you can one-shot anyone with any range (90). Ranged attacks seems always hit.

Rogue is a must if you want to open chest in anti-magic areas! unlike origional BT2 TRZP works in anitmagic areas, in remake, TRZP does not work in anti magic areas! do you want to skip tons of chests in some areas?

[Montiness]

how hunter is a must is beyond me. Never used one, except for once, when it was literally the reason my early parties die because it's incapable of killing things others can. Never had a pally/warrior not kill something after they have 8 attacks.

[Gold Dragon]

My Huntress (Female Hunter) has a Crit of 202 and crits about every other to every third hit, even in Mangar's Tower. Only the Rogue crits more often.

Two insta-killers in a party means two dead enemies. And since both can do so at RANGE means no enemy is safe. Warriors, Monks, Paladins can not do this. yes, they can equip bows, but they get no gaurantee that the shot will kill.

Mages may have greater killing powers, but once an enemy gets into melee range, mages get turned into soup.

[Montiness]

Since a fighter/paladin kill every time anyway at those levels, and wear better gear, I still find no reason to have a hunter. You're saying the same thing over and over. The only reason they can do so at range (20') is because they use an axe. Spoiler alert, anyone who can use Kael's Axe can do the exact same thing. Still no viable reason to use one over a fighter/paladin. Crit every 2-3 hits still isn't every hit. Crits of 202 are lower than paladins with pureblade every hit, or fighters with kaels axe. There is no reason for them, just fanboys.