A good reason to start with fresh party members

[Zarathustra]

When I began the game, just because of the way I am, I decided to create new party members. BUt you'll notice that the ones provided are already at level 2 while your new members start off at Level 1. Here's one good reason to create your own: at some point your character is likely to die at a point when you don't have enough gold to revive them. The game is so tight that having 3 level 2 characters and then creating a new level 1 character is going to hurt. What do to? Pick one of the pre-designed characters of the appropriate class. Of course this only works to a point, since at some point you'll be at much higher levels, but this is what I'm doing now and it really comes in handy. I could just have reset my DS but I had fought hard for about 125 EP's, and these don't come easy. Just sharing a thought.

[Gen Eric Gui]

What? I don't fully understand what you are suggesting here.

IMHO, if you want to use your own party members, create your team first thing, send them on the Training Grounds quest, and then use the pre-made team in the actual tower to grind up some gold. Use the gold to buy equipment for your created team, and now you've got decent Lv. 1 party members with a backstock of gold for healing/revival.

[ORLOFT]

The first thing I did was delete those characters. INTRUDERS I SAY! To get some starting gold I sold all of the healing potions I started with. You find more in the dungeon and as long as you have a priest this isn't that big of a deal. It will quickly become a big deal if you aren't careful though. Keep your baddest dude out front and everyone else behind. I don't think anyone on the first floor can really hurt your back row.

In the beginning the real money is on the second floor where you can gamble on dice. You can make some real bucks there. My guys are only lvl 3 and at the moment I have everyone equipped with the best stuff you can buy at the store.

Oh and much to my surprise, the Katana is ONE HANDED!

[ProtheonX]

Oh and much to my surprise, the Katana is ONE HANDED!

That is great news! I wasn't going to buy it because I like my shield. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Chained to Fate]

oops, the first thing I did was to delete all the premade characters. Call me masochistic :devil:

So far though I have all my party members up to level 7, and I haven't lost anyone. I save a lot, but I haven't lost any one. ;)

-C2F

[dungeon_man]

I'd suggest fighter, fighter, thief, mage for your starting party.

Once the thief has enough HP to take a couple hits, go with aggressive formation. This lets you kill enemies faster and splits the damage up evenly among your front three. If somebody is hurt badly, switch to tactical or heroic, keep the injured people in the back row, and get out of the dungeon to rest at the inn. (medium room) You'll quickly get enough gold to buy decent gear for your team.

After reaching level 2 or 3, have one of your fighters multiclass into priest (be sure you made one with non-neutral alignment and 11+ int) so you can get healing spells. Get him a flail because most of the other weapons penalize the priest.


At least, that's how I started out and it's been working quite well.

[Gen Eric Gui]

By floor 4 having more than one Warrior is going to bite you in the ass. You want one guy in the front row with very, very low AC absorbing and dodging all the blows, a Priest to heal him, a Thief to pick locks, and a Mage to blow groups away. The Warrior's only real purpose after Floor 2 is to absorb hits and kill Cloud Giants, which is why you dual-class him to Samurai so he can at least cast Extinctio and that Ice spell while tanking.

[King Frost]

^ I pretty much agree, except that the dual Warrior setup will still be useful on floor 3.

The rules start to change on floor 4, larger groups of ennemies and some formations you simply can't let live more than one round or else your party will be wiped out with mass damaging spells.

By floor 5, the same pattern accelerates, even more larger number of ennemies and even more formations you must wipe out ASAP. You only want one guy in front in heroic formation with very low AC to stop heavy hitters while the rest of your party cast mass kill Arcane spells.

I have yet to see floor 6.

[Gen Eric Gui]

Well, let's just say that with the types and numbers of melee monsters that show up on floor 6, having more than one front-line character is absolute suicide. Especially since the single-target AC-down spells are a necessity since -11 AC is the best natural number you can possibly hope for, and that's not even cloe to enough given how high THAC0 values get on that floor.

I didn't mention it before, but you ABSOLUTELY need a pure Priest on-hand at all times due to the Silence spell. Giving up your Priest for another Warrior is absolutely not an option. I would say take two Priests and no Warrior before taking two Warriors and no Priest.

[dungeon_man]

I didn't mention it before, but you ABSOLUTELY need a pure Priest on-hand at all times due to the Silence spell. Giving up your Priest for another Warrior is absolutely not an option. I would say take two Priests and no Warrior before taking two Warriors and no Priest.

I don't have a pure priest, and I had the silence spell before I ever needed it. Obviously, I'll adapt my party to keep up with the changing challenges in the dungeon.

I'm happy right now, and I intend to finish the game with my starting party if possible. I also intend to read the instructions someday.

[King Frost]

It is also important to know that on floor 5, you can do quite early the last quest needed to unlock the prestige classes so your team is going to get a lot more versatile. From that point, it's a lot easier to have 2-3 characters with castable Holy and Arcane spells at all time while still being able to survive the melee line and open treasure chests safely.

[Fuyukaze]

I recomend a fighter, thief, priest, and mage party. Put the fighter up front and only worry about getting the best gear for the fighter first. After that, get your thief a long bow and equip the thief as $$ allows. The mage and priest dont need armor or weapons beyond a robe as they will be dual classing all too soon. Using the brave formation with your fighter in the lead spot is also great as he/she will have the best armor available and makes for one heck of a target instead of 2-4 targets. By the time you reach a high enough floor to worry about stuff hitting your back row, your back charcters should have spells good enough to target entire groups and should have found enough accesories that they have atleast some kind of defense that doesnt prevent them from casting both groups of spells. Also, I wouldnt recomend anyone worrying too much over the starting stats. The party I'm running had some of the worst stats possible and yet still they keep chuging along. Sure, having the best stats posible may make the game sound more easy but anyone who's played games like wizardry or AD&D know, stats dont always make a charcter.

[Gen Eric Gui]

Stats are VERY important if you plan to move anyone into Prestige classes, as they all have stat requirements. And if you don't meet them, you have to pay a very steep cost to boost the stats up at the Guild. It's better to just start out with the stats you need and be done with it.

[dungeon_man]

^ I pretty much agree, except that the dual Warrior setup will still be useful on floor 3.

The rules start to change on floor 4, larger groups of ennemies and some formations you simply can't let live more than one round or else your party will be wiped out with mass damaging spells.

By floor 5, the same pattern accelerates, even more larger number of ennemies and even more formations you must wipe out ASAP. You only want one guy in front in heroic formation with very low AC to stop heavy hitters while the rest of your party cast mass kill Arcane spells.

I have yet to see floor 6.



I've explored parts of the 4th floor and gone up the stairs to the fifth floor. I still disagree with the notion that I must have only one character in the front row.

My Party:

Lv 11 Warrior (front)
Samurai sword, metal helmet, metal shield, fine platemail, choker necklace

Lv 9 Thief (front)
Kris, buckler, tricorne hat, fine leather, mirage mantle

Lv 5 Warrior / Lv 10 Priest (front)
Flail, wooden shield, silver chainmail, frilly codpiece

Lv 10 Mage / Lv 2 Priest (back)
quarterstaff, tricorne hat, robe, bracelet (protects against sleep)


I typically survive the strong melee encounters with sleep, defensive buffs/debuffs, and silence spells. I also hurl fireballs and lightning bolts when necessary. I got the mage to level 2 (or is it 3?) priest so I have a backup who can use the un-paralyze spell. It's working rather well and is more interesting (IMO) than having just one guy in front.