Right now I'm thinking to have a more magic-heavy party. Right now it conceptually looks like this-Human Lord
Human Samurai
Felpur Rogue (switching between rogue and ranger every other level)
Three Bishops
In a previous pary I played a gadgeteer up to lvl 20 and was disappointed with her throughout despite merging tons of gadgets, as I was with my psionicist. I played a game with 2 bishops and that played far superior to a bishop and psionicist. Despite enemy resistances I always found the bishops to be my most favorite (and most powerful ranged) characters, considering the combined magical mayhem they wrought. It seems that replacing the gadgeteer with another bishop would allow even greater spell diversity. My samurai did fine specializing in swords and magery. Unfortunately, I gimped the lord by concentrating too much on piety (but he had LOTS of stamina). My ninja wasn't very powerful, but the more-than-occasional critical hit was pleasant to witness.
The question is, should I have a fighter instead of lord, or have that character periodically switch between the two classes? I want him to be able to tank up loads of damage but be able to dish it out as well. I also want him to have some potent magic reserve just in case. Also, in developing my samurai, should I develop DEX with speed to get reflextion (for poor armor) as well as the needed snake speed?
I played this game through up to where I got stuck in rapax rift and found only a boomerang shuriken, ebony helm and mantis gloves with plate+3 for any good treasure, but they did very well despite no excalibur, muramasa blade, or all the other goodies that should've been standard. But I leave out the staff of doom and diamond eyes. Is it possible to get two of the diamond eyes in this game?
Help appreciated, thanks.
Actually, I did bumble around an Ascention Peak on an earlier game before the rapax blocked the path, even without full powercasting. I simply had my bishops rotate spells to accomodate the enemy's greatest weaknesses... or cast some major buffs on the party. I know it's expensive in mana, but my entire party would take 50% damage in addition to some nasty status effects every round, so it was often difficult to just run up to an enemy and whack them. At that point I had my gadgeteer/bard using the regenerateing stone every round while my casters dealt lots of damage (or cured that insidious poison... 40 damage per round on a 100 VIT character?). Despite the thrown criticals, my ninja's, lord's and samurai's ranged attacks just weren't damaging enough. Still, it does seem like a good suggestion to have a fighter in place of a bishop (especially when surrounded...). Maybe what I could do would be to have one of the bishops switch between bishop and some other fighting class if not the fighter himself.
To tell the truth, I just started a game with the party I had described and I'll see how that works. But now I'm thinking on having my rogue/ranger instead be a rogue/ranger/bard, making sure that she can learn all alcemy spells, be able to use instruments and have a coveted 100 stealth, and ending up as ranger. That would mean 18 bard levels, at least 22 ranger levels, and leftovers for rogue. What I'm hoping to get is a good melee/ranged fighter. I thought that this might be better than a ninja because the ranger gives incentive to develop eagle eye for accuracy and (hopefully) penetration. I figure that a high AC from stealth and reflextion combined with some decent light-medium armor will make up for the lack of hit points when enemies close in. Rangers also have longrange as opposed to thrown criticals and they can use some semi-decent melee weaponry too.
All that is assuming my characters reach level 50, but it's ok if they reach the mid-twenties. The way I've been playing, I usually had Vi or some other fighter be the fourth melee combatant to close ranks. I'll see how my group develops, and maybe, probably have a bishop change classes eventually.