Fun3z

I played my game through on normal and then after I finished everything, returned back and killed the last boss on hard difficulty.. in one try. Full melee party expect my main who is ranger, just used dps potions, 3 summon items, priest crit buff and maybe 2-3 heals and the fight was over. Started new game on potd, early levels 2-4 were tough but now after level 6-7 the game is just way too easy, party is of course fully optimized and min maxed to my view of "perfection". I'm sure I will have some difficulty with big groups of shades and the few toughest fights but the rest has been just faceroll. Most of this is because the fact that you only need one tactic to beat 99% of the fights, you don't need to adapt or change strategies.. just tank and spank your way through everything.

Yeah I guess u could take druid instead of one cipher tbh or even 3rd priest haha.

Thinking about starting aswell and this is what my party would look like. Fighter - Tank Paladin - Tank (For buffs!) 2 x Priest - Ranged and for healing and SEALS! (Ultimate cheese spells, you will need these in order to beat certain fights) 2 x Cipher - Ranged

Imo paladin is far superior tank if u play single tank setup and more melee based group that needs accuracy / crit / attack speed buffs etc. Overall I think fighter is better for more balanced party with spell casters in it.

What I say is from my own experience playing the game through and having an max level rogue with the "best" gear I could get my hands on. I use dual unique/named stilettos that both have spell on crit and it seems to do the most damage. Of course my rogue is built around these weapons so there might be better combinations, just my opinion ofc.

I'm pretty sure nothing can beat rogue in single target dps if u use the right gear and build. In aoe situations my barb takes the win, my party doesn't have any spell casters expect priests so I can't say anything about ciphers, wizards or druids. You can buff the rogue so much with only a few spells including paladins attack speed buff and some priest buffs, with Azureith's Stiletto & Bleak Fang enchanted to the max the damage is just off the roof. It truely seems like everyone has a different opinion about this after reading the whole thread.

Accuracy and crit chance party wide, with on demand heal and other stuff is lacking? ok buddy. I tried both at level 12 and I would take paladin tank over fighter any day if u run an single tank party. Just my OPINION tho.

I stopped reading after "And trying to manage a party of 6 in real-time combat is patently absurd - even at slow speed. All it does is result in spamming the space bar pauses. DOS is infinitely better with its turn-based combat." You clearly haven't played these kinds of games before, if you assume u can play the game without pressing space bar. Move along.

Sure paladins arent an crazy dps class but if built right, they will do decent dmg. Paladin tanks are in my opinion the best, as they can buff the whole party with crit and accuracy, have an on demand heal etc. My main saves paladin tank has been downed like 8 times the whole game, level 12 and cleared pretty much 95% of the game, all hard bosses etc.

How can you say prebuffing isn't tactical? You guys must of played BG2 etc with easy or normal with no mods or anything if u can say that. Try fighting Firkraag in bg2 modded with scsii and insanity on and come talk to me about prebuffing after he one shots your whole party. My experience with the game has been 50~ hours, 95% playtrough with all the "hard" content done on my main save. The fighting in this game is pretty lame, to be totally honest, you pretty much abuse choke points and certain spells, on all the hard encounters, rest u just tank and spank like its nothing. Priests are just way overpowered aswell, the constant aoe heal spam and the seals are just ridicilous if used right or cheesed with. Also I pretty much only used a couple of spells, because I didn't need to use anything else. I tried buffing etc, but it wasn't worth the time or the spells, rather use them on heals and seals. I never had to worry about enemy spellcasters, they were non existant. There was only a couple of them that I actually had to watch for, that's pretty much an insult to wizards overall. Remember Semaj or Krystin from bg1 on your first playthrough? You actually feared them, you knew if u get hit by the cloud kill, you are pretty much done. There was pretty much none of that in this game. I just dont understand why make this new combat system and lore? There was SO much you could of done with forgotten realms world... shame. Maybe im too old fashioned and maybe I have played too much bg1 and bg2 to enjoy something new. Good game tho, I enjoyed it to a point, the story and lore was ok and the game was very beautiful overall.

1. Have priest or two. 2. Cast Searing and Warding Seals on desired location, preferably near a boss or other nasty. 3. Start combat and pull them in your sneaky trap. 4. Collect your loot.

Just go full dps build like the others above said and try to find Azureith's Stiletto, that weapon is a beast, in my opinion the most broken weapon i've found so far, and my party has been level 12 for a long time and i've pretty much cleared everything in the game.

Fully decked out level 12 party. Tried to kill it without cheesing many times, got her to very low hp bunch of times but in the end I just gave up and used Sealing & Warding Seals on my priest's to make a trap for her, which exploded her to below 50% hp and after that it was easy. I wouldn't recommend using this tactic as it takes the fun out of most fights. Just go do some quests and come back later when your party is higher level.