whats the best class for RttToEE

[Sir Whiskers]

Our original party was:

Paladin/Cleric (mostly cleric)
Fighter/Barbarian (mostly barbarian)
Rogue (NPC)
Wizard
Sorcerer (NPC)

We also picked up another fighter (archer), a cleric/rogue, and a monk during the campaign, as well as a few bit players.

If I had it to do over, I'd drop the paladin levels and go straight cleric with the Luck domain. Losing a couple spellcasting levels wasn't worth it to gain the few paladin abilities (the most useful of which were immunity to fear and the Cha boost to all saves). The Luck domain is almost a must, given the number of save or die effects in the module. Elemental domains are also useful, as is Healing.

The rogue was useful in places, but not vital. I'd probably suggest taking a rogue to 7th level, with maxed out tumble and UMD (with 10 ranks, taking 10 can automatically use any wand), then multiclass into something with more oomph (fighter probably).

I'd suggest the wizard take a few item creation feats. Treasure in the module is plentiful, but too often it's the same items over and over. Without any large cities in the module to shop for stuff, we needed to make our own (I can't remember how many cure light wounds wands the cleric made...) Also, if the rogue has UMD, the cleric and wiz/sor can make wands and/or scrolls for him to use when needed.

In general, follow the suggestions above: a couple tanks, at least one dedicated healer, one dedicated arcane caster, some rogue ability. In fact, far more important than individual character concept is party cohesion - we suffered the most deaths when a couple characters died, to be replaced by different characters with different classes. Suddenly we didn't have all the bases covered (specifically cleric and fighter) and were losing a character in every session. Once we got our party reorganized properly, we had better results.

I didn't notice that race mattered much, one way or the other.

Good luck!

 

[Zarrock God of Evil]

Someone who can talk! Diplomacy, Bluff, Intimidate, etc. can all be of great use in this module. While you *can* approach it as a huge dungeon to be cleared out, you can also get a frightening amount done by generous application of BS.

Yeah - it does go some way. In many campaigns though - especially with strongly good-aligned groups it can only take you that far (and eventually confrontation with the Temples is almost inevitable - especially given their strongly chaotic and insane natures).

***spoilers****












My group allied with the Water Temple for a while having easily overpowered the Main Gate and the Earth Temple. It took some doing (especially since the monk has vowed never to speak falsehood). The also managed to plant a mole in the Fire Temple for a weeks time while they worked with the Water Temple to turn the tide of power.
Also, these battles against the Temple forces are LOOONG - we have to run through the module in 6 months tops, so we've had to rush some parts.
Finally, I guess we can all agree that finishing the adventure takes A LOT of strength. Groups without many of the abovementioned combat-specialists will have a much harder time "winning" the adventure.

-Zarrock

 

[Philip]

Our group is doing reasonably well, the three death's we've had were the results of a critical hits inflicted near the end of the battle.

We are currently

Ranger1/Rogue7 (scout & archer, combat support)
Fighter8 (duelist type, frontline combat)
Cleric8 of Ak'Akbar (a something of everything cleric, combat and spellcasting support)
Monk8 (straight monk, frontline combat)
Monk1/Paladin1/Sorcerer6 (spellcasting support)

I agree with a previous poster that party cohesion, and not getting overconfident after some easier battles are the key to success.

 

[d12]

I'm trying very hard to think of a BAD class for this adventure. I can't do it. I think there's something here for everyone.

 

[the_mighty_agrippa]

best party build? all clerics, maybe a rogue in there too.

i'm playing in a highly modified version where my party has some solid strengths and some definite weaknesses.

the cleric and the paladin are matched in alignment but not in outlook or approach. the rely mainly on diplomacy, followed by divinations, culminating in overwhelming force doctrines. the fighter/rogue specializes in the sneak attacks, with the monk supporting him. our archer lays down on-demand firepower. our biggest hurdle is our less-than-optimized sorceror (no metamagic feats, no spell focus feats), who is balanced - somewhat - by another cleric and an incantatrix wizard.

 

[maddman75]

*******Spoilers************


















For the curious , here's what my group did. FIrst they had taken the Earth temple. They had a bit of a clue as to how things worked, so they dressed as Air Temple priests and went into Water territory. They were going to claim they wanted passage on their way back home.

Well, I picked up on this and decided to use the warring temples subplot. The water cleric would permit this, if the PC's agreed to help in her raid on Fire. The PC's agreed, and they were to rest up - attacking in a few hours.

Well, the fast-as-hell psychic warrior slipped out and made a made dash, solo, through the CRM. He barely made it past the Destrachians by himself. He got to the Fire temple and tipped them off as to the Water's plan. He was imprisioned, but bribed a guard and continued his mad dash. He found a ledge, took a potion of fly, and got back to the Water Temple.

During the attack, the PCs held back the first round to let the groups hit. The entire Fire temple was out in force, and the disintigrate was wasted when it hit a wall of force. Most of the Water temple's heavy hitters were wiped out, and Fire weakened. The PCs took down the rest of the fire temple pretty easily.

Then, the hightailed it back to the water temple and killed off its remaining defenders.

And that is how my party destroyed three temples four days after first entering the Crater Ridge Mines.