Dark Sun Shattered Lands. Party setup

[Zerth]

So, I'm going to start Dark Sun SL and after reading the manual I'll go with a party set like this:


Jaguar- (Mul Thief/fighter) psi meta

This Mul's portrait looks like a tanned Nosferatu. But his stat bonuses are neat for a dexterous melee fighter.

The another option was to go full gladi on him, but I thought that, by adding backstabbing, It would make this primarily melee character more lethal and fun to play with.

As far as I understood. In order to trigger backstabbing, the enemy has to attack you first so in next turn you can hit it in the opposite side you were attacked, so I suppose this character has to look forward achieving lowest AC possible, therefore, I gave him figther for the armor and level up speed bonuses(according to manual). I didn't add another multiclass for further HP penalty. Maximum initial HP: 28.

Lion - (Half-Giant gladiator) psi telepathy

Pure raw stats.Not much else versatility besides PSI, but I like the idea of having a juggernaut around. The HP's difference in comparison to others is obscene Max init HP: 54.

Glaive - (Thri Keen Druid/Fighter/psionistic) cleric sphere earth.

Coolest looking portrait and sprite.
Expecting to control her as a ranged fighter and support spellcaster, thus I don't mind much the HP penalty. Druid has access to all cosmo spells as you prolly already know therefore the choice, psionistic for CC and survivavility, and fighter for weapon access.Thri Keen extra attacks also apply to ranged weapons?

Bene Gesserit-

(Elf Preserver/Psionistic/cleric) cleric sphere fire
or
(Half Elf Druid/Preserver/Psionistic) cleric sphere fire
or
(Human Druid->Psionistics->Preserver) cleric sphere fire.

Typical spellcaster. Anyways, I'm deciding between these three setups.

-Elven look like woodstock hippies, and cleric exclusive access to turn Undead doesn't sound very compelling compared to cosmo spell restriction. But +Int is sexy for a character focused on preserver.

-Half elf has access to druid. Not INT bonuses though.

-The only advantage of dual classing is that since you're leveling up one by one, multiclass penalties don't apply. However, the character is returned to lvl 1 after every class swap so pretty much the HP gain is also at odds, and it seems you practically can't reach max lvl with previous classes, since in the Manual is stated skills and bonuses are inherited only after surpass the former class's level. It practically means level 8 is the max reachable level for the former classes. It can be translated into lesser fifth level spells in exchange of a not guaranteed higher HP growth.

I think I'll go for half elf.
Anyways, any thoughts?

 

[Safav Hamon]

It has been a long time since I played, but I think that's a good party. Three magic classes on the last character might be redundant though.

 

[Cael]

If you are planning to use the same party in Wake of the Ravager, then I'd suggest:

Half-Elf Fighter/Preserver/Druid (Fire)
Elf Fighter/Preserver/Thief (or Ranger/Preserver/Thief, I can't recall if this one is possible)
Half-Giant Fighter/Cleric (Water)
Thri-Kreen Fighter/Druid (Earth) (Halfling also works if you want, but the Strength penalty is a pain for a front-liner)

One of each kind makes it easy to tell who is who in battle. Psi should be all Metabolism. Use the powers that give bonuses to physical abilities and defenses to help beat the opponents to death with dual-wielded weapons. Use magic sparingly and only as required. This party should be able to last a while before requiring rest, despite the relatively low average HP.

 

[Tiospo]

I will start saying that if it's your first time playing darksun shattered lands, go ahead and multiclass, the main reason is that I think some party composition are extremly hard (but still possible) to win with. If you multiclass you greatly diminish your chances of that happening.
Multi-class is supposedly balanced around that you get half the XP or a third XP than you should. But since the cap is low that is not a big deal. And having a wizard with the HP and armor restrictions of a fighter (which means none) is just too good. For that reason I don't use multiclassing
(except maybe for the thief class, more on that later). I think Multi-classing is slightly too good in darksun but I know a lot of people love to multi class and i don't think it's so OP as to not use it if you think its fun. Also you can make an exception for the thief and the cleric (because a pure cleric and pure thiefs sucks imo) However I think human dual classing may be ok (not sure).

 

[Sinatar]

Thri-Kreen make amazing gladiators, they get like 5 attacks per round.

 

[Zerth]

It has been a long time since I played, but I think that's a good party. Three magic classes on the last character might be redundant though.

This game only allows to gain a few spells per level isn't it? If that's true, then I'm definitely spreading it too thin on this char.

If you are planning to use the same party in Wake of the Ravager, then I'd suggest:

Half-Elf Fighter/Preserver/Druid (Fire)
Elf Fighter/Preserver/Thief (or Ranger/Preserver/Thief, I can't recall if this one is possible)
Half-Giant Fighter/Cleric (Water)
Thri-Kreen Fighter/Druid (Earth) (Halfling also works if you want, but the Strength penalty is a pain for a front-liner)

One of each kind makes it easy to tell who is who in battle. Psi should be all Metabolism. Use the powers that give bonuses to physical abilities and defenses to help beat the opponents to death with dual-wielded weapons. Use magic sparingly and only as required. This party should be able to last a while before requiring rest, despite the relatively low average HP.

Thx, this suggestion looks quite straightforward. BTW, Do stat penalties really matter? Stats rolls are pretty high so any character can have decent scores on everything.

I will start saying that if it's your first time playing darksun shattered lands, go ahead and multiclass, the main reason is that I think some party composition are extremly hard (but still possible) to win with. If you multiclass you greatly diminish your chances of that happening.
Multi-class is supposedly balanced around that you get half the XP or a third XP than you should. But since the cap is low that is not a big deal. And having a wizard with the HP and armor restrictions of a fighter (which means none) is just too good. For that reason I don't use multiclassing
(except maybe for the thief class, more on that later). I think Multi-classing is slightly too good in darksun but I know a lot of people love to multi class and i don't think it's so OP as to not use it if you think its fun. Also you can make an exception for the thief and the cleric (because a pure cleric and pure thiefs sucks imo) However I think human dual classing may be ok (not sure).

I believe is due that this game is pretty generous with the hefty stat rolls, so seems you can make any guy good at everything. Multi classing has no drawbacks besides the HP gain penalty. And It seems like that's not much of an issue all things considering.

Thri-Kreen make amazing gladiators, they get like 5 attacks per round.

Right, but Thri-Kreen extra attack bonus also applies to ranged?

 

[Saduj]

Very mild spoilers:

Spoiler

From what I remember there are few occasions (maybe even just one) where you really need a thief and they come pretty early in the game. I would say definitely go fighter/preserver/thief on your "thief".

Also, something to keep in mind is that at a certain point your party starts seeming invincible with all the powerful weapons the game throws you. But the final battle is a big difficulty jump. The first time I played, I had single classed characters and only one preserver and one cleric (no dedicated psionisist). Didn't have much trouble with any late game battles. But I didn't have enough spells to win the last fight. Even if you don't want to multiclass everyone into armored spell casters you'll want to make sure that you bring enough spells into that final battle.

 

[Cael]

Thx, this suggestion looks quite straightforward. BTW, Do stat penalties really matter? Stats rolls are pretty high so any character can have decent scores on everything.
Right, but Thri-Kreen extra attack bonus also applies to ranged?

Stats matter for melee people more in the lower levels. Since you start pretty low, it cuts down on the frustration in the first part of the game. Later on, it matters less as you start getting magic weapons to compensate and your native THAC0 drops to a point you can reliably hit things.

Thri-Kreen's 5 attacks only applies when it is unarmed. It is basically 4 unarmed attacks plus bite. The second you put a weapon on it, it drops to what is normal for other characters.

 

[Zerth]

I ended up with the following team:

- The same Mul. fighter/thief PSI metabolism
- A Thri-Kreen. Gladiator PSI metabolism
- Half-elf. Preserver/Druid/Fighter PSI telepathy cleric sphere fire
- Halfling. Druid/Psionistics cleric sphere earth

So far so good, reached lvl 6-7 on each of them. The Mul and Thri-Kreen obliterate everything within melee range while the others provide some spellcasting support (buff/healing/CC). I'm mostly taking utility/CC preserver and psionicist spells such as mass domination, slow, enlarge, etc. each gain spell level up.

I've managed to free gedron village from Wyrmias and made the first alliance, didn't have to barter my magical stuffs for the statues as it turns out the seemingly tough fights were not even a match for this party.

 

[FeelTheRads]

There's really only one actually tough fight in this game, unfortunately.

 

[Sacred82]

So, I'm going to start Dark Sun SL and after reading the manual I'll go with a party set like this:


Jaguar- (Mul Thief/fighter) psi meta

This Mul's portrait looks like a tanned Nosferatu. But his stat bonuses are neat for a dexterous melee fighter.

The another option was to go full gladi on him, but I thought that, by adding backstabbing, It would make this primarily melee character more lethal and fun to play with.

As far as I understood. In order to trigger backstabbing, the enemy has to attack you first so in next turn you can hit it in the opposite side you were attacked, so I suppose this character has to look forward achieving lowest AC possible, therefore, I gave him figther for the armor and level up speed bonuses(according to manual). I didn't add another multiclass for further HP penalty. Maximum initial HP: 28.

Just going by the damage numbers, I'd say backstab is triggered on any character with thief levels who attacks an enemy who is facing away from them. I don't know how accurately opposite the enemy you've got to be positioned, but if your line of sight lines up with the enemy's who is facing away from you, you should be on the safe side.

What I don't know is if backstab multipliers go up with levels. My thief was usually a squishy who stayed away from melee on higher levels.

 

[Zerth]

Got a pretty annoying bug and I don't know what to do.

I unwillingly reached endgame (since I was doing the alchemist quest in order, ended up recruiting help from both cedrilte and Gedron then returned to teaquetzl, and I can tell this is gonna be endgame because I met the requirements, didn't expect to trigger it like this). Soon after I talked with Cedrilte leader and sent her warriors to Teaquetzl, my team now gets stuck into endless battle phase after engaging an enemy: regardless I beat them or not, my team doesn't return to exploration mode unless I speak with a NPC during battle.

I managed to avoid encounters and reach teaquetzl, got LLod rod and into another dungeon. But I'm pretty much can't do much progress since after every battle have to backtrack and find a friendly NPC to talk with in order to return exploration mode.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

There's really only one actually tough fight in this game, unfortunately.

Spoiler

Is this through the portal from the sewers? You can open a portal with a staff that leads to a secret area. Leaving requires quite the fight,. Ut the loot is good.

For the Op:

Spoiler

Avoid abuse of charm or dominate person as they are overpowered and make most combat cheesable.

 

[FeelTheRads]

There's really only one actually tough fight in this game, unfortunately.

Spoiler

Is this through the portal from the sewers? You can open a portal with a staff that leads to a secret area. Leaving requires quite the fight,. Ut the loot is good.

Hah, I don't think I found that one. I meant the final fight.

 

[Zerth]

It sucks, but I can't advance further. Wasn't able to fix that script bug, so I had to put down my current game.
Also I realized that "enhancing" psi abilities doesn't increase power or anything. So practically speaking, the points I invested on enhancing psionic abilities went to waste.

For the Op:

Spoiler

Avoid abuse of charm or dominate person as they are overpowered and make most combat cheesable.

I had it on my psionicist but I didn't use it much. Enemies under domination don't leave loot after battle Most stuff I use for CC was paralysis, curtains of ice/smoke, slowdowns and overall weakening.

 

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Mul Fighter/Fire Druid - psi:kinetics
Half-Giant Fighter/Water Cleric. - psi:metabolic
Dwarf Figthter/Thief - psi:metabolic
Half-Elf Preserver/Earth Druid - psi:telepathy