From the IWDII boards:Tex Yang (Bloodlust)Stat raising spells
Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace and Eagle's Splendor are the only 3 temporary stat raising spells in the game. They raise stats by 1d4+1, and will change any bonus that high charisma gives (DC, store prices, number of spells, etc).
As with most things in this game, these stats will not stack, so that if you have a +1 from an item and a +3 from the spell, only the +3 from the spell will be active, and the +1 will be disregarded until it wears off. Also, the extra spells given will be unmemorized (if you have 2/3, meaning two spells left out of 3 total, it would become 2/4), so if you're casting it for that reason, I'd recommend doing it before resting. From past experiences, I'd usually want it active at all times for better store prices and DCs, so what I'd do is, if you have a dispel magic to toss around, cast it to dispell the first one, and do ES again so that you get the full duration for it before resting.
Mores spells with Eagle's Splendor for bard and sorcerers?
You don't 'memorize' them, but you can only cast spells a certain number of times per day, so if you had a total of 4 level 1 spells per day, you would end up with 5 level 1 spells per day while the spell is active, but that extra spell would not be available to cast until the party rests.
It's targetable, so that I whenever I have a paladin and a wizard, but not a sorcerer, I'd cast it on my paladin so that they get better store prices and saves.
Rogues
Bards have bluff and diplomacy, paladins and clerics get diplomacy, fighters get intimidation and sorcerers get diplomacy and bluff for class skills., etc, so you don't really *need* to have a rogue, it's just more convinient to do so.
Advantage of monks speed
They move faster so that they can get into fights and out of jams easier, but it's more of a convinience type of thing.. it's not terribly unbalancing.
Power Attack
You can select power attack increments from 1 to 5 - but only up to your maximum BAB.
A story
Well folks, sorry it took a little longer than expected for this, something always seems to creep up at the last minute... so without further ado, this one takes place in Targos, with no spoilers:
Helga - Human Fighter
Satoro - Aasimar Monk
Shadow - Tiefling Rogue
Tamara - Drow Cleric of Selune
Lester - Human Bard
Elyse - Wild Elf Sorcerer
As the party opened the door to the darkened house, they could see a figure draped in rag-tag robes inside - they approached slowly, and all the while, Elyse could sense an aura of magic about this person, which she promptly informed Lester, who was group's embassator, so to speak.
As the parley started with the figure, Lester remembered the item which they acquired earlier in the Docks - and pulled it from his pack, inquiring about it. The figure eyed the item in Lester's hand, and a question regarding where the group ran into it was the only retort given. The bard answered the question, only to draw an angered demeanor from the figure, as a chanting of arcane muterrings from a scroll he produced from his pocket began.
Sensing the hostility, Helga and Satoro sprang forth to rush the figure, as Shadow slipped to the side, Tamara started casting a buff, Lester fell behind to sing a song, and Elyse moved to cast a spell. No sooner had Helga and Satoro reached halfway of the distance between them and the figure, however, the chanting had been finished, and 5 goblins appeared out of thin air, blocking the path between them and the figure. Charging forth, Helga and Satoro made for the goblins, having no choice but to cut a clear path towards the enemy mage. As this was happening, Shadow slipped through the table and chair in the middle of the room, unnoticed, toward the mage's flank. Tamara finished her bless spell, Lester starts the "Ballad of Three Heroes", inspiring the group and hopefully giving an edge to the coming battle, and Elyse starts her sleep spell.
No sooner had Helga and Satoro started towards the goblins, however, they were caught in a sleep spell by the mage - Helga falls into a deep slumber, but Satoro keeps his wits and covers his comrade, unwilling to leave her helpless while the goblins closed in. Elyse recognized the blur spell that the mage fired off next, with a slight worry in her mind - hopefully this is the highest spell this mage can cast. Tamara started a bane spell, which she hoped would help lower the goblin's effectiveness in the battle. Lester, meanwhile, was busy away with the song he was singing.
With a stroke of good fortune, the enemy mage, so intent he was at getting to the object in Lester's pack, fired a burning hands spell at Satoro and Helga - while the goblins were in the way. Two of them fell to the floor, charred to their bones, while another two were burned badly, but the biggest one merely brushed off the fire. Satoro managed to dodge the spell easily and suffer only minor burns, but Helga, sleeping, did not have such luck - she was hit with the full force of the spell, waking her up in a shocking surprise. Tamara finished her bane spell at the goblins, and, luckily, was able to catch the mage with it as well.
It was obvious at this point that the mage had little use for the goblins except fodder - he promptly cast a color spray spell, hoping to put the enemies to sleep again, and as it turns out, all targets in the way fell this time - Helga, Satoro, 2 goblins, and 1 goblin leader, at the same time Elyse's sleep spell was fired off. Shadow could see his party was in trouble - if he could just sneak around a bit more without alerting the mage, he'd have a clear shot at him. Just a few more steps, and he'd be in striking range.
With Tamara approaching Helga for a spell, Elyse recognized, with her spellcraft skill, the Ray of Enfeeblement spell that was coming next, to keep her from reaching her intended target. Fortunately, as the mage was busy chanting, Shadow managed to sneak to his side and get his sneak attack in, disrupting the spell. With an angry snarl, the mage fired off another burning hands spell at Satoro, Helga, and Tamara's direction, which this time he was careful enough not to target the goblins - he could see charring two more would prove a momentum shift he did not care to initiate. Helga was hit again, now within a few hit points from death, as was Satoro and Tamara.
Tamara, seeing Helga's poor condition, spontaneously cast her other bless spell into a cure light wounds to alleviate the damage. Lester realized that they would need more firepower, and took up his bow, hoping his lingering song's two rounds would be time enough to finish off the mage. As the goblins woke up, Elyse fired off a magic missile, killing one of them, as Lester hit another one right between the eyes - only the mage and the goblin leader to go.
Seeing the party starting to get the upper hand, the mage fired off another spell at Helga, sensing she would be easiest and most useful person to affect with his next spell - the dire charm spell that Elyse recognized. At this point, she clearly became worried - the party was fighting a mage who could cast level 3 spells - and wondered how long before the mage would finally run out of them. She let go of another magic missile spell and thankfully it was enough to disrupt the dire charm spell as well.
Shadow kept the mage busy while Tamara healed Helga, and the rest of the party worked on the goblin leader. With a clear sense of the tide turning, the mage cast his last spell - Blink - and all of a sudden, Shadow had a much harder time hitting the mage.
The rest of the party were close to bringing the goblin leader down, and with a mighty swing of her battleaxe, Helga took its head off, which landed in the mage's feet as a reminder of what was happening to the tide of this battle. With no spells left in his memory, his blur and blink spells kept almost all of the party's physical attacks at bay, but neither of them saved him from the magic missile which Elyse finished him off with.
The group looted the bodies, and headed for the nearest temple to tend to their wounds, but realized the item in Lester's pack was still a mystery. Asking around town about it would renew once again, when they were done with their business at the temple...
Multiclassed monk
Well, a good generalization for the the way multiclassing works in IWD2 is that a pure class will pack more punch than their multiclassed counterparts - a high level, pure monk, in this case, would do more damage than a multiclassed one, but will not have access to possible healing spells and buffs that a multiclassed monk would be able to - mostly a personal preference type of thing, usually I decide on whether or not to multiclass depending on the roles that other members of the party might be playing - if I need someone that packs more of a punch, I'll keep them single classed, otherwise I'll multiclass them.
Damien Foletto (Puuk)Barbarian rage in heavy armor
In IWD2 they can, and mine often do. The only penalty is they lose their speed benefit when wearing heavy armor.
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