Earlier I looked for threads on this and didn't see any, surprisingly.
A couple basic topics:
I have a minotaur warrior frontline - what are good guidelines between armor, athletics, and weapon? (likely sword). (While I'm at it, is higher faster or slower for weapon speed?)
I have a lizard rogue frontline with a dagger - what are good guidelines between dodge, daggers, and assassination? (Assassination seems dependant on backstab). (And does an off-hand dagger help melee?)
(One of my criticisms of this excellent game is the inability to re-allocate points).
Builds
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Disasterrific
- Posts: 212
- Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:47 pm
Re: Builds
I'd go for either 50 in sword then the rest in armor, or 16 in armor and then however much you can afford for special sword attacks for the minotaur (more interesting). Maybe spend some other points to increase vitality and willpower if possible.
For the Lizard, get dodge up to double evasion from clothes, and get some dagger skills. Assassination is more for back row dagger rogues.
For the Lizard, get dodge up to double evasion from clothes, and get some dagger skills. Assassination is more for back row dagger rogues.
Last edited by Disasterrific on Fri May 25, 2012 4:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Builds
Assassination is more efficient if you have a mage who can freeze enemies. If you're not going to invest skill points in Ice Magic, I would entirely ignore Assassination for a first row rogue and go with the skills choice suggested by Disasterrific.
I would advice Athletics for a minotaur fighter only if you have more then one minotaur in your party (for example very popular back row Missile/Throwing rogue). 10 points in Athletics will limits your food consumption with more then one minotaur in a party. Apart from that I'd say 16 points in Armours and rest in Swords, as suggested by Disasterrific, is a good choice.
I would advice Athletics for a minotaur fighter only if you have more then one minotaur in your party (for example very popular back row Missile/Throwing rogue). 10 points in Athletics will limits your food consumption with more then one minotaur in a party. Apart from that I'd say 16 points in Armours and rest in Swords, as suggested by Disasterrific, is a good choice.
Re: Builds
So, with only one Minotaur, zero in athletics, 16 in armor and the rest in swords (though I have now found an axe and mace by level 4/5)... why does one or more minotaurs matter on athletics?
I won't need the HP and defense from athletics that much?
On my rogue, I do have two mages in the back, air and ice, both good for backstab - but I'm not sure I like backstab either for being tricky to do, or that you lose attacks trying to move behind monsters.
So that's part of the question, but backstabs are an option.
I won't need the HP and defense from athletics that much?
On my rogue, I do have two mages in the back, air and ice, both good for backstab - but I'm not sure I like backstab either for being tricky to do, or that you lose attacks trying to move behind monsters.
So that's part of the question, but backstabs are an option.
Re: Builds
Just an off-topic note. You should already have found three swords if you're on level 5. So if you haven't it's worth backtracking if you've invested Skill Points in Swords.Craig234 wrote:(...)(though I have now found an axe and mace by level 4/5)(...)
SpoilerShow
Machete, first sword, can be found on level two.
Longsword, the second sword can be found in level 3 (in spiders caves).
Cutlass, the third sword (best out of those three) can be found in level 5 (in spiders caves as well - coincidence?).
Longsword, the second sword can be found in level 3 (in spiders caves).
Cutlass, the third sword (best out of those three) can be found in level 5 (in spiders caves as well - coincidence?).
Re: Builds
There are more swords than axes and maces in the game. Also, while all three have a nice endgame weapon, swords have a weapon that's almost on par with endgame weapons, so it's possible to go swords twice, while going axes or maces twice is screwing yourself over.
As for build, it seems like the best build is to just go 50 points in one of the damage skill trees, and if you have any points left over, put them in one of your defensive trees.
Mages are an exception. You might want to spend at least 10 points on Spellcraft to cast the Spellcraft spells and be able to wield all staves and orbs.
As for picking up Vitality and Willpower in the skill trees, these are actually rather poor. They don't work retroactively, so they only apply on all future levels. So if you take +2 Vitality at level 2 (in athletics for example), it nets you a total of 12 Health by the time you reached level 14.
It's a lot better if you can pick it up at level 1, granting you a total of 18 Health, as +2 Vitality grants an additional +5 Health at level 1.
Overall it doesn't matter too much. I went Armor 16 with both my front fighters so I could pick up all the nice armor that I found everywhere, instead of having to discard it, since none of my characters could use it.
As for build, it seems like the best build is to just go 50 points in one of the damage skill trees, and if you have any points left over, put them in one of your defensive trees.
Mages are an exception. You might want to spend at least 10 points on Spellcraft to cast the Spellcraft spells and be able to wield all staves and orbs.
As for picking up Vitality and Willpower in the skill trees, these are actually rather poor. They don't work retroactively, so they only apply on all future levels. So if you take +2 Vitality at level 2 (in athletics for example), it nets you a total of 12 Health by the time you reached level 14.
It's a lot better if you can pick it up at level 1, granting you a total of 18 Health, as +2 Vitality grants an additional +5 Health at level 1.
Overall it doesn't matter too much. I went Armor 16 with both my front fighters so I could pick up all the nice armor that I found everywhere, instead of having to discard it, since none of my characters could use it.
Re: Builds
I played around with those trees and this is what I've found:
- The more you split up your skills, the weaker and more inaccurate your attacks will be. Every point you put into your primary weapon skill increases Attack Power and Accuracy. There are few items in the game that increase your base stats (Stength, Vitality, etc) and the bonuses are small, so pumping weapon skills is really your only way of increasing your damage every level. This makes trees like Athletics and Assassination much less attractive (I'd only take Assassination if you're dead set on Backstab, because you like that playstyle).
- If you wear heavy armor, go Axes. The tree is packed with Stength and Vitality bonuses, which synergizes well with a character with high Protection and low Evasion.
- Heavy armor is, well, heavy. Make sure you're you're stacking enough Strength on that charcter so they can wear it and retain the ability to carry more in their backpack than a single potion.
- Arguably, Protection is the worst stat in the game, because while you're strafing around monsters doing the old "dungeon two-step," it does nothing for you. The only times Protection comes into play is when you screw up. It also does nothing to mitigate magic attacks later in the game. The counter argument here is that, well, wearing cool looking plate is fun & it always sucks to come across great stuff nobody in your party can use.
- Swords and Daggers syngeryze well too -- they've got similar attack speeds, so you'll be able to rapidly double strike monsters & interrupt their swings. Axes less so. After playing Swords, I found the speed on Axes to be just too slow. Loved the damage, though.
- For weapon skills, you want to get to your special abilities as quickly as possible. These are in the point ranges in the low teens, early thirties, and at fifty. Swords and Daggers get a multi-attack ability at ~33 which will do wonders at killing groups and tougher monsters.
- Minotaurs start with low Dexterity, which translates into an Accuracy penalty for melee based Fighters. Give your guy a starting Dexterity of 10, max out his Strength, and dump the rest into Vitality. (Having a hard hitting character is great, but nothing sucks more than that guy missing his swings multiple times in tough fights. Gear & the Swords tree give small Dexterity bonuses, so for those to mean something later on, you've got to have a base of 10 to start.) If you want to have a chance of getting 50 points in a weapon skill by the end of the game, take the Skilled trait. Otherwise, take Aggressive for a little more Attack Power for the bulk of the game. Always take Head Hunter if this guy is the only Minotaur in your group.
- I love Dagger rogues. The Armor Piercing skill and multiple attacks are amazing. Ignore strength, max Dexterity, and throw the rest into Vitality. Put two points into Dodge for +5 Evasion, and then put every other point into Daggers. I always take the Agile trait for the extra +2 Dexterity, giving me a 30 Evasion to start. With the right gear, by mid game your Daggers rogue will never miss and rarely get hit.
- The more you split up your skills, the weaker and more inaccurate your attacks will be. Every point you put into your primary weapon skill increases Attack Power and Accuracy. There are few items in the game that increase your base stats (Stength, Vitality, etc) and the bonuses are small, so pumping weapon skills is really your only way of increasing your damage every level. This makes trees like Athletics and Assassination much less attractive (I'd only take Assassination if you're dead set on Backstab, because you like that playstyle).
- If you wear heavy armor, go Axes. The tree is packed with Stength and Vitality bonuses, which synergizes well with a character with high Protection and low Evasion.
- Heavy armor is, well, heavy. Make sure you're you're stacking enough Strength on that charcter so they can wear it and retain the ability to carry more in their backpack than a single potion.
- Arguably, Protection is the worst stat in the game, because while you're strafing around monsters doing the old "dungeon two-step," it does nothing for you. The only times Protection comes into play is when you screw up. It also does nothing to mitigate magic attacks later in the game. The counter argument here is that, well, wearing cool looking plate is fun & it always sucks to come across great stuff nobody in your party can use.
- Swords and Daggers syngeryze well too -- they've got similar attack speeds, so you'll be able to rapidly double strike monsters & interrupt their swings. Axes less so. After playing Swords, I found the speed on Axes to be just too slow. Loved the damage, though.
- For weapon skills, you want to get to your special abilities as quickly as possible. These are in the point ranges in the low teens, early thirties, and at fifty. Swords and Daggers get a multi-attack ability at ~33 which will do wonders at killing groups and tougher monsters.
- Minotaurs start with low Dexterity, which translates into an Accuracy penalty for melee based Fighters. Give your guy a starting Dexterity of 10, max out his Strength, and dump the rest into Vitality. (Having a hard hitting character is great, but nothing sucks more than that guy missing his swings multiple times in tough fights. Gear & the Swords tree give small Dexterity bonuses, so for those to mean something later on, you've got to have a base of 10 to start.) If you want to have a chance of getting 50 points in a weapon skill by the end of the game, take the Skilled trait. Otherwise, take Aggressive for a little more Attack Power for the bulk of the game. Always take Head Hunter if this guy is the only Minotaur in your group.
- I love Dagger rogues. The Armor Piercing skill and multiple attacks are amazing. Ignore strength, max Dexterity, and throw the rest into Vitality. Put two points into Dodge for +5 Evasion, and then put every other point into Daggers. I always take the Agile trait for the extra +2 Dexterity, giving me a 30 Evasion to start. With the right gear, by mid game your Daggers rogue will never miss and rarely get hit.
Goromorgs freak me out.
Re: Builds
Good points there, Brude. 
Daniel.
Daniel.
A gently fried snail slice is absolutely delicious with a pat of butter...
Re: Builds
Protection is worthless stat regardless of your situation. My rogue would get hit only a little bit harder than my fighter, and my fighter was maxed out for protection. I wish protection would do more since DPS and evasion are so much betterBrude wrote: - Arguably, Protection is the worst stat in the game, because while you're strafing around monsters doing the old "dungeon two-step," it does nothing for you. The only times Protection comes into play is when you screw up. It also does nothing to mitigate magic attacks later in the game. The counter argument here is that, well, wearing cool looking plate is fun & it always sucks to come across great stuff nobody in your party can use.
Re: Builds
So, I've been obsessively making and running parties since I got this game, and here are some things I've discovered. Massive tl;dr breakdown under that spoiler.
So now, with all that madness out of the way, here's my general strategy: since I know I'm going to put most if not all of my skill points in offensive skills, and I know those skills are going to boost my Attack and Accuracy so much that any base Attack and Accuracy bonuses from starting stats and traits are damn near negligible, I'm actually going to go with defense-oriented stats and traits for my front row people, and defense-oriented stats and offense-oriented traits for my back row people. My possible setups are described in detail under the spoiler.
Here's a stupid setup: two Missle Rogues in the front and two Mages in the back, covering all four elements. I call it Team FPS.
SpoilerShow
-Strength blows. It only increases your attack by 1 point for every two points of strength. In comparison, Dexterity increases Accuracy and Evasion on a 1-for-1 basis AND boosts some elemental resistances, and Vitality and Willpower increase HP and Energy a really good amount. Unless 1 point of attack is worth more than I think in this game, I don't find that spending time gaining strength is really worth much. Of course you don't want it to be TOO low, or else you can hardly carry anything. But if you're worrying about damage, Strength isn't where you want to look. You mostly just want to worry about boosting your weapon skills. If you put all points into a weapon skill, you not only get 2 attack per level, but you also get new special attacks which just gives you even more damage ability. And this is also on top of accuracy bonuses. That's way better than boosting strength.
-Continuing on from that thought, at least in the case of Accuracy, Dexterity isn't worth too much either, since if you just dump all points into a weapon skill your Accuracy is going to get boosted so high that it won't matter if your Dexterity is average. Unfortunately, you have to put points into defensive skills to get more Evasion (with the exception of Parry from the Sword skill, Fast as Lightning from the Unarmed skill, and anything that boosts Dexterity), which you're often not going to do a whole lot of since offensive skills are blatantly better in this game. So Dexterity is worth something there. Also, Dexterity boosts some elemental resistances, so that's always good. It's up to you to decide if these things are important to you or not.
-Vitality, to me, is worth a lot. It not only gives you more HP to start with, it also continues to give you more HP as you level up. On top of that, it increases some elemental resistances. Of course, like somebody else already said, gaining Vitality later doesn't retroactively give you more HP for previous levels, which is unfortunate. This makes Vitality boosts from skills worth less than simply starting with a lot of Vitality. So if you're making a damage-soaking character, don't skimp on this in character generation, maxing it out and also tacking on the Healthy trait which gives you 2 more points. Then just raise whatever skills you want, not worrying about whether or not they boost vitality.
-Willpower. It's like Vitality for mages, though offensive rather than defensive. Just like Vitality, max it out and get the Sharp Mind trait if you're making a mage, so you can just throw spells all day. Then don't worry about whether or not skills boost it.
-As has been mentioned earlier in this thread, swords rock. Easily the best melee weapons in the game. They're fast and powerful, and get even faster once you get the Flurry ability, and again when you get Sword Master. Even if you don't get the absolute most Attack out of swords, quantity of attacks wins over quality by far. Basically, swords DPS pretty hard. Also swords have the nice Parry ability, which give you 5 extra Evasion. Also, as somebody mentioned already, you can run two sword users because the second best sword (The Sword of Nex) is just about as good as The Dismantler. It does a bit less damage, but is faster and gives a nice accuracy boost. So it'll hit more often, which makes up for the damage loss.
-You know what else rocks? Bows. While Missile and Throw skills both basically give you the same sets of abilities, Bows tend to win out since you get better attack boosts, and you can enchant the ammo if you feel like messing with magic. Furthermore, just like swords, you can run two bow users pretty easy. Give one person a regular bow and another a crossbow, and you're good to go, especially since they both use unique ammo. They don't have to share like throwers would. Also, the Missile skill nets you 4 extra points of Dexterity total, wheras the Throw skill gets you 4 strength. It's pretty clear which boost is more useful. Once you get the skills that reduce the attack cooldown and the Volley skill, you basically have a machine gun nest in the back of your party.
-Daggers are cool, but to me just feel like a poor man's sword. I just recently ran a 100% melee team by giving two rogues 12 points in Assassination for the Reach ability, and gave them both daggers, and put them in the back. It was fun because I didn't have to keep track of ammo or Energy, heh. Also procing multiple Flurries at once was always cool. I gave them all speed potions and took down the Undying One so fast in the end that he could barely talk. Aside from that scenario, or the scenario where I really want a backstabber, I can't really say I'd go out of my way for them. In front a sword fighter is better, and in the back a bow rogue is better.
-Axes and Maces. Both are slow and powerful. Axes boost your strength by up to 4 points, and Maces your vitality. The vitality is silightly more useful since it gets you more HP and also boosts some elemental resistances. Plus the Icefall Hammer is way cooler (pun not intended) than the Ancient Axe if you ask me, since it can randomly freeze enemies. The only real point of contention is their two final abilities. Axes get 20 extra Attack when you reach skill level 50, and Maces get the ability to completely ignore armor. The final axe ability is probably better since honestly I don't know how much enemy Protection is really helping them. Still, swords are better than both since they just hit more often. Maces fail in the face of Unarmed when it comes to an offensive skills that also boosts defensive abilities. So really, Axes and Maces are both pretty much worthless.
-Unarmed! It's so dumb but kinda fun at the same time. The major drawback is that if you're going to go unarmed, you probably want to get the Fist Fighter trait for that extra 6 attack, which of course eats of a trait. The only other non-skill boost in attack will later come from the Pit Fighter gloves, which gives you 7 attack (6 for unarmed, 1 more from the 2 strength it gives). This is a total of 13 Attack, which is only about as good as the Fist Dagger. As for the Unarmed skill itself, It's actually pretty interesting. It boosts your Strength a decent amount (though you know how I feel about strength by now), it boosts your HP by 40 overall, and boosts the crap out of your Evasion, since it boosts your Dexterity by 10 overal AND gives you 20 Evasion at one point. Unarmed is probably the most Evasion-boosting skill aside from Dodge itself, and also the most HP boosting skill aside from Armor. You could make a pretty boss front-row Evasion-based character with it, and even a pretty good damage-soaking tank due to the extra HP. They're probably going to get out-damaged by everyone else though. You'd think Unarmed would have "Flurry of Blows" as an ability, or an ability that makes the attacks cooldown shorter. Disappointing.
-Defensive skills. Dodge Dodge Dodge all day. Not only do you get tons of extra Evasion which is worth SO much more than Protection, but it causes you to get double from your cloak and the Lurker set of clothing. A rogue with those bonus-doubling abilities, a Scale Cloak and all four pieces of the Lurker set is downright untouchable by melee. This blows Armor out of the water. A fully defensive Rogue is a better tank than a fully defensive Fighter, hands-down. Of course, you're probably going to be investing mostly in offensive skills, so...
-I have to talk about magic of course. I tend to prefer brute force physical methods, but magic is still plenty fun. Fire is hands-down the best element for damage. Once you have the Greater Fireball ability AND Zhandul's Orb, a fire mage is simply going to blow away the opposition. Unless, of course, we're talking about Uggardians. I actually ran a team with just a pure fire mage, and every Uggardian made him utterly useless. Because of this, a lone mage should probably actually look into using two elements, not just one. One element will always be Fire, and you'll spend 10 points in spellcraft to get the casting cooldown reduction ability, and 24 points in Fire to get Greater Fireball. The second element is up to you, really. One thing to keep in mind is that the second best magic weapon in the game is the Shaman Staff, which boosts Earth magic like Zhandul's Orb boosts Fire magic. So Earth is a consideration since it'll be powerful. Improved Poison Bolt requires 23 points. You'll probably be throwing tomes of infinite wisdom at your mage to get all this crap. Of course, you can also get the Tome of Fire for the mage, which gives him 3 skill points in fire, freeing them up for something else. Greater Frostbolt requires 24 points, and Greater Lightning Bolt requires 27 points for some reason. Probably because that Invisibility spell gets in the way. So I guess only go Air if you really like lightning and invisibility, and only go Ice if you really like freezing enemies. Defensively, the Fire and Poison shields are probably the most useful, since most elemental damage you'll face will probably either be Fire (Uggardians) or Poison (Herders and various traps).
-Continuing on from that thought, at least in the case of Accuracy, Dexterity isn't worth too much either, since if you just dump all points into a weapon skill your Accuracy is going to get boosted so high that it won't matter if your Dexterity is average. Unfortunately, you have to put points into defensive skills to get more Evasion (with the exception of Parry from the Sword skill, Fast as Lightning from the Unarmed skill, and anything that boosts Dexterity), which you're often not going to do a whole lot of since offensive skills are blatantly better in this game. So Dexterity is worth something there. Also, Dexterity boosts some elemental resistances, so that's always good. It's up to you to decide if these things are important to you or not.
-Vitality, to me, is worth a lot. It not only gives you more HP to start with, it also continues to give you more HP as you level up. On top of that, it increases some elemental resistances. Of course, like somebody else already said, gaining Vitality later doesn't retroactively give you more HP for previous levels, which is unfortunate. This makes Vitality boosts from skills worth less than simply starting with a lot of Vitality. So if you're making a damage-soaking character, don't skimp on this in character generation, maxing it out and also tacking on the Healthy trait which gives you 2 more points. Then just raise whatever skills you want, not worrying about whether or not they boost vitality.
-Willpower. It's like Vitality for mages, though offensive rather than defensive. Just like Vitality, max it out and get the Sharp Mind trait if you're making a mage, so you can just throw spells all day. Then don't worry about whether or not skills boost it.
-As has been mentioned earlier in this thread, swords rock. Easily the best melee weapons in the game. They're fast and powerful, and get even faster once you get the Flurry ability, and again when you get Sword Master. Even if you don't get the absolute most Attack out of swords, quantity of attacks wins over quality by far. Basically, swords DPS pretty hard. Also swords have the nice Parry ability, which give you 5 extra Evasion. Also, as somebody mentioned already, you can run two sword users because the second best sword (The Sword of Nex) is just about as good as The Dismantler. It does a bit less damage, but is faster and gives a nice accuracy boost. So it'll hit more often, which makes up for the damage loss.
-You know what else rocks? Bows. While Missile and Throw skills both basically give you the same sets of abilities, Bows tend to win out since you get better attack boosts, and you can enchant the ammo if you feel like messing with magic. Furthermore, just like swords, you can run two bow users pretty easy. Give one person a regular bow and another a crossbow, and you're good to go, especially since they both use unique ammo. They don't have to share like throwers would. Also, the Missile skill nets you 4 extra points of Dexterity total, wheras the Throw skill gets you 4 strength. It's pretty clear which boost is more useful. Once you get the skills that reduce the attack cooldown and the Volley skill, you basically have a machine gun nest in the back of your party.
-Daggers are cool, but to me just feel like a poor man's sword. I just recently ran a 100% melee team by giving two rogues 12 points in Assassination for the Reach ability, and gave them both daggers, and put them in the back. It was fun because I didn't have to keep track of ammo or Energy, heh. Also procing multiple Flurries at once was always cool. I gave them all speed potions and took down the Undying One so fast in the end that he could barely talk. Aside from that scenario, or the scenario where I really want a backstabber, I can't really say I'd go out of my way for them. In front a sword fighter is better, and in the back a bow rogue is better.
-Axes and Maces. Both are slow and powerful. Axes boost your strength by up to 4 points, and Maces your vitality. The vitality is silightly more useful since it gets you more HP and also boosts some elemental resistances. Plus the Icefall Hammer is way cooler (pun not intended) than the Ancient Axe if you ask me, since it can randomly freeze enemies. The only real point of contention is their two final abilities. Axes get 20 extra Attack when you reach skill level 50, and Maces get the ability to completely ignore armor. The final axe ability is probably better since honestly I don't know how much enemy Protection is really helping them. Still, swords are better than both since they just hit more often. Maces fail in the face of Unarmed when it comes to an offensive skills that also boosts defensive abilities. So really, Axes and Maces are both pretty much worthless.
-Unarmed! It's so dumb but kinda fun at the same time. The major drawback is that if you're going to go unarmed, you probably want to get the Fist Fighter trait for that extra 6 attack, which of course eats of a trait. The only other non-skill boost in attack will later come from the Pit Fighter gloves, which gives you 7 attack (6 for unarmed, 1 more from the 2 strength it gives). This is a total of 13 Attack, which is only about as good as the Fist Dagger. As for the Unarmed skill itself, It's actually pretty interesting. It boosts your Strength a decent amount (though you know how I feel about strength by now), it boosts your HP by 40 overall, and boosts the crap out of your Evasion, since it boosts your Dexterity by 10 overal AND gives you 20 Evasion at one point. Unarmed is probably the most Evasion-boosting skill aside from Dodge itself, and also the most HP boosting skill aside from Armor. You could make a pretty boss front-row Evasion-based character with it, and even a pretty good damage-soaking tank due to the extra HP. They're probably going to get out-damaged by everyone else though. You'd think Unarmed would have "Flurry of Blows" as an ability, or an ability that makes the attacks cooldown shorter. Disappointing.
-Defensive skills. Dodge Dodge Dodge all day. Not only do you get tons of extra Evasion which is worth SO much more than Protection, but it causes you to get double from your cloak and the Lurker set of clothing. A rogue with those bonus-doubling abilities, a Scale Cloak and all four pieces of the Lurker set is downright untouchable by melee. This blows Armor out of the water. A fully defensive Rogue is a better tank than a fully defensive Fighter, hands-down. Of course, you're probably going to be investing mostly in offensive skills, so...
-I have to talk about magic of course. I tend to prefer brute force physical methods, but magic is still plenty fun. Fire is hands-down the best element for damage. Once you have the Greater Fireball ability AND Zhandul's Orb, a fire mage is simply going to blow away the opposition. Unless, of course, we're talking about Uggardians. I actually ran a team with just a pure fire mage, and every Uggardian made him utterly useless. Because of this, a lone mage should probably actually look into using two elements, not just one. One element will always be Fire, and you'll spend 10 points in spellcraft to get the casting cooldown reduction ability, and 24 points in Fire to get Greater Fireball. The second element is up to you, really. One thing to keep in mind is that the second best magic weapon in the game is the Shaman Staff, which boosts Earth magic like Zhandul's Orb boosts Fire magic. So Earth is a consideration since it'll be powerful. Improved Poison Bolt requires 23 points. You'll probably be throwing tomes of infinite wisdom at your mage to get all this crap. Of course, you can also get the Tome of Fire for the mage, which gives him 3 skill points in fire, freeing them up for something else. Greater Frostbolt requires 24 points, and Greater Lightning Bolt requires 27 points for some reason. Probably because that Invisibility spell gets in the way. So I guess only go Air if you really like lightning and invisibility, and only go Ice if you really like freezing enemies. Defensively, the Fire and Poison shields are probably the most useful, since most elemental damage you'll face will probably either be Fire (Uggardians) or Poison (Herders and various traps).
SpoilerShow
Front row: Two Sword Fighters. One would be a Lizard Man with max Dexterity and the rest of the points in Vitality, and the traits Agile and Evasive. Through the game I'd put all points in the Sword skill, and give him all the Lurker equipment, and also the Pit Fighter's gloves for lack of anything better to put on his hands. The second would be a Minotaur with max Vitality and the rest of the points in Dexterity, and the traits Healthy and Tough. I'd also put all points in the Sword skill, and give him all the best heavy armor. Yes, that means the character would take a massive Evasion hit since he'd have no armor proficiency, but I don't care. He'll be able to take the hits. As for weapons, the Lizard Man would eventually get the Dismantler, and the Minotaur would get the Sword of Nex, since it's Accuracy boost balances out his middling Dexterity. Alternately, I could make one of them into an Unarmed Fighter or Rogue for the better HP and Evasion they'd have, but that would dial back my damage, which I don't like. Especially if I still chose the defensive traits over the Fist Fighter trait. I probably wouldn't use an unarmed character, unless I just wanted to spice things up.
Back row: This offers up more variety. I'd go with two Missile Rogues, a Missile Rogue and a Fire/Earth Mage, or two Mages of some combination of all four elements. A Missle Rogue would be a Minotaur with either max Strength and the rest of the points in Vitality, or vice versa. I'd probably go with the max Vitality since two points of Strength isn't really missing much besides some carrying capacity that I can do without. I'd give him the traits Aggressive and Head Hunter, for max damage boosting. I'd put all points in the Missile skill, and give him all the hand-me-down best armor from the front row Minotaur. If I have just one Missle Rogue, he just gets whatever is the best bow at the time. If I have two, one gets an arrow-shooting bow and the other gets a crossbow. A Mage would be an Insectoid with max Willpower and the rest of the points in Vitality, and the traits Aura and Sharp Mind. They'd get 10 points in Spellcraft, and then all the rest of the points in whatever elements they're focusing on. They'd get all the Tomes of Infinite Wisdom, and whoever is using Fire would get the Tome of Fire. I'd throw either light armor or just clothing on him, though I'd always give him the Conjurer's Hat and the Diviner's Cloak in either case. A single Mage would get both Zhandul's Orb and the Shaman Staff. With two, they'd each go to whoever is using Fire and Earth, respctively, and then the Whitewood Wand and the Orb of Radiance would be distributed between them however I see fit. I'd probably never use two mages though, since it'd be really hard to get all of their Greater/Improved abilities without grinding snails/skeletons/crabs/uggardians/ice lizards, which isn't a fun prospect. With a Missile Rogue and a Mage, I'd have the Mage always enchanting arrows/quarrels with either Fire or Poison as I deemed useful at the time.
Alternately, you can have a Reach rogue or two in the back row. I'd set them up like Missile Rogues race-, stat-, and trait-wise, though an Unarmed one would get Fist Fighter rather than Aggressive. Ultimately though, I'd say a dagger rogue would be better since they can get a bit more Attack for their trouble. And overall, a Missile Rogue is just flat-out better. Especially since they can synergize nicely with a Mage if you have one, and a Melee rogue can't.
Back row: This offers up more variety. I'd go with two Missile Rogues, a Missile Rogue and a Fire/Earth Mage, or two Mages of some combination of all four elements. A Missle Rogue would be a Minotaur with either max Strength and the rest of the points in Vitality, or vice versa. I'd probably go with the max Vitality since two points of Strength isn't really missing much besides some carrying capacity that I can do without. I'd give him the traits Aggressive and Head Hunter, for max damage boosting. I'd put all points in the Missile skill, and give him all the hand-me-down best armor from the front row Minotaur. If I have just one Missle Rogue, he just gets whatever is the best bow at the time. If I have two, one gets an arrow-shooting bow and the other gets a crossbow. A Mage would be an Insectoid with max Willpower and the rest of the points in Vitality, and the traits Aura and Sharp Mind. They'd get 10 points in Spellcraft, and then all the rest of the points in whatever elements they're focusing on. They'd get all the Tomes of Infinite Wisdom, and whoever is using Fire would get the Tome of Fire. I'd throw either light armor or just clothing on him, though I'd always give him the Conjurer's Hat and the Diviner's Cloak in either case. A single Mage would get both Zhandul's Orb and the Shaman Staff. With two, they'd each go to whoever is using Fire and Earth, respctively, and then the Whitewood Wand and the Orb of Radiance would be distributed between them however I see fit. I'd probably never use two mages though, since it'd be really hard to get all of their Greater/Improved abilities without grinding snails/skeletons/crabs/uggardians/ice lizards, which isn't a fun prospect. With a Missile Rogue and a Mage, I'd have the Mage always enchanting arrows/quarrels with either Fire or Poison as I deemed useful at the time.
Alternately, you can have a Reach rogue or two in the back row. I'd set them up like Missile Rogues race-, stat-, and trait-wise, though an Unarmed one would get Fist Fighter rather than Aggressive. Ultimately though, I'd say a dagger rogue would be better since they can get a bit more Attack for their trouble. And overall, a Missile Rogue is just flat-out better. Especially since they can synergize nicely with a Mage if you have one, and a Melee rogue can't.