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The sole exception is for scout or scout/mage killer builds where, because of the character's Intelligence, she is getting exactly the number of skill points she needs each level to increase the skills she is pursuing, and so doesn't need the skill point bonus for being a human.  Under those conditions, the anti- sleep capability, saving throw bonuses, and +1 Search bonus might make a half- elf a good idea, as taken together these bonuses are worth ever so slightly more than a feat.

Because the clearly favorable circumstances for using half elves are limited, this guide does mention them very often.  But, keep in mind that half elves do have the same flexible favored class as pure humans, so in cases where favored classes are being discussed and I refer to humans that is understood to include half elves.

15) Half Orc

The only reason to select half orc is for the Strength bonus, which lets you start a character with a Strength as high as 20.  For tank-type builds this can be a great boon: the +5 to hit and damage bonus, when combined with the Cleave feat, allows such a character single-handedly to mow through encounters with weaker foes during the early stages of the game.  In addition to warrior-based careers, a half orc can also make a great pure cleric (of Tempus or Helm, say): bring Cha and Int down to one (yes, one), and put everything else in the other abilities.  Such a character makes a stellar tank/spell sword (the
"MALE_FIGHTER_3" voice that never speaks but only grunts is ideal for this build).


VII) Class Basics

This section gives advice on each of the classes in turn, including strategies for building strong representatives of that class and a discussion of the pros and cons of that class as compared to other classes.

A) Fighter

With the addition of feats, the fighter class really comes into its own in 3rd
Edition D&D, and IWD2 goes a long way to capturing the variety that is now available when building a fighter.  Even with pure fighters there are many choices and trade-offs that are possible.  Three obvious roles for fighters-- tank, sniper, and mage killer--have already been mentioned above, and if you decide to mix in a few levels of some supporting class you have a wide range of options.  What follows are some hints about building specific variants of fighter.

1) The Strength-Based Fighter

The most straightforward way to build a fighter is to maximize their Strength when they are created and continue to add to it as they level.  Strength increases their chances to hit in melee, improves their damage, and allows them to wear heavier armor and wield heavier weapons without being heavily encumbered, so this a pretty obvious character design strategy.

In general, the Strength-based fighter doesn't need much Dexterity, because the heavier armors tend to reduce the benefits of high Dex.  Constitution, on the other hand, is key, particularly for a tank-style fighter.  Unless you are multiclassing, Intelligence and Charisma can also be reduced to as low as you like without fear of repercussion.  Wisdom, however, is best left at 10 or even increased, because fighters already have trouble with Will saving throws.

Feats like Power Attack and Cleave are particularly well-suited to the Strength- based fighter.

2) The Dex-Based fighter

With an appropriate choice of feats, equipment, and mix in classes, it is possible to build perfectly lethal warrior-type characters with relatively low
Strength.  This is done by maximizing Dexterity to improve your AC and using feats like Weapon Finesse (so you use your Dex bonus instead of your Str bonus to hit when using a small blade), Expertise (swap to hit bonus for extra AC), and Power Attack (swap to hit bonus for extra damage).  Ambidexterity and Two
Weapon Fighting are also good choices, particularly if you use Weapon Finesse, since that feat does not combine well with shields and so you might as well use a small blade in your off hand.

Most Dex-based fighters will want to multiclass to either a rogue or a spellcaster.  This is partly for flexibility and partly to take advantage of their high Dex and--if they want to use Expertise which has an Int requirement of 13+--high Intelligence.

As might be expected, a fighter build intended to excel in the role of sniper will also be a Dex-based build, but will use feats like Rapid Shot, Precise
Shot, and multiple ranks of Martial Weapon, Bow proficiency.

In general, most spell sword builds that use the fighter class will be a Dex- based build, because spell swords won't be able to wear much armor (if any).

B) Paladin

Most of what has been stated for fighter applies to paladins as well.  However, it must be said that if you are just looking for a tank, for most parties a carefully built fighter is likely to be more useful than a paladin.  Still, that is not to say that paladins don't have their place.  In particular, they make good mage killers or quasi- mage killers because of their generally high saving throws and immunities.

********* Spoiler *********
About three fourths of the way into the game there is a subquest that gives you
a Holy Avenger sword, which can only be used by paladins.
***************************

C) Ranger

Rangers are solid spell swords and scouts.  However, as an exercise in exploring the trade-offs involved in choosing a single class build as opposed to multiclassing, it is worth comparing a level 10 fighter/level 5 wizard with a level 15 ranger.  At level 15, the pure ranger will have better hit points and base attack bonuses and can use up to level four spells in small numbers.  She will also have three favored enemies (although those tend to be useful only during limited sections of the game).   The fighter/wizard, however, will have five additional feats above and beyond the six feats that the ranger will receive (and this is even assuming the fighter/wizard allocates a feat each to
Ambidexterity and Two Weapon Fighting).  Moreover, the fighter/wizard has access to Weapon Specialization (and thus Maximize Attacks).  And, as a wizard, the character will have a far superior set of spells to choose from and can cast them more often (true, only level three spells are available, although a wizard's level three spells are in many cases equal or superior to a ranger's level four spells).  In short, it is easily called into question as to whether the capabilities of the pure ranger surpass those of the fighter/wizard (similar arguments can be made about paladins as compared to multiclass spell sword builds).

All that being said, as a mix-in for rogues, wizards, or sorcerers the ranger class has much to recommend it; this is discussed in the section on multiclassing.

D) Barbarian

Because of their extra high hit points, barbarians make good tanks, and, in general, most of what is written above for fighters applies to barbarians.
However, it is worth noting that the barbarian's better special abilities
(Greater Rage, damage resistance) are not available until the character is fairly high level.  This means that if you are multiclassing a barbarian-based build, it is best to either invest significant numbers of levels in the barbarian class or very few and treat it as a mix in.

E) Rogue

Rogues are fun, especially during the early parts of the game when their sneak attacks can be quite effective.  But, if you want to have a character pursue a career that consists mostly or entirely of rogue levels, keep in mind that during the later parts of the game you will need to manage your rogue carefully in combat in order to take best advantage of their abilities.  So, if you don't like to "micromanage" your characters, building high-level rogues may not be a good idea.

Moreover, it is more than possible to finish IWD2 without a rogue.  Characters of other classes with high Int or Dex can take on the key thief skills well enough to get by, and there are even spells that duplicate or augment the Open
Locks and Search skills (the Knock and Find Traps spells, respectively).  Nor do the special benefits of high-level rogues (Improved Evasion, Crippling Strike,
Slippery Mind) necessarily seem worth the investment of ten levels when comparable or even superior effects can be achieved through judicious multiclassing and using magical alternatives.

That being said, even if you don't plan to have dedicated rogues, the rogue class makes an excellent mix in, both to give a character a boost to the thief skills and to garner highly useful abilities like Evasion.  (It really can't be emphasized enough how wonderful Evasion is for a character with high Reflex saving throws.) If you are going to mix rogue in to a build that emphasizes some other class, you may still want to start the character as a level one rogue so that they get the rogue's large number of starting character skill points and can thus get a good head start on all the thief and/or scout skills.

F) Bard

Bards provide useful and powerful "play-and-forget" benefits to the party, are competent spellcasters, and can serve quite well as diplomats and loremasters and tolerably well as healers, thieves, or scouts.  This makes them a solid choice for either a dedicated slot in your party or as a mix in class for a multiclass build.

G) Monk

Let's not mince words: low-level monks are weak and need a fair amount of coddling.  However, once they have reached level six or so, they begin to come into their own, and at very high levels they are quite solid and their abilities as scouts, mage killers and general pummeling machines truly begin to shine.
This implies that you will get the most out of your monk if you don't multiclass her, so you can devote all the character's levels to the monk class.  On the other hand, there are some interesting possibilities for multiclassing monks, which are discussed below.  In short, the monk class offers lots of trade offs and design decisions to ponder.

H) Wizard

Of the two magic-user classes (wizard and sorcerer), wizards are the more flexible of the two and also tend to be a bit more accomplished, both because they tend to have more skill points (from high Int) and because they gain extra feats.  The fact that wizards can learn a wide variety of spells can be key, because for difficult battles you can pick and choose your spell selection to meet specific tactical goals.  Thus, although it is perfectly possible to survive IWD2 without a wizard, having a wizard of at least mid-level (7-9) can be very helpful for the more difficult battles during the final chapters, fights for which a tailored spell selection may prove the key to success.

Also, wizards are probably better suited for the summoner role than sorcerers.
The reason is that a wizard can use (for example) Summon Monster III quite effectively during Chapter 2, and then discard it for a superior summoning spell later on, whereas a sorcerer is stuck with that spell forever, even when the monsters conjured by that spell have become vastly outclassed and barely serve as a speed bump.

I) Sorcerer

It cannot be denied that sorcerers make the best bombardiers and are a blast to play (pun intended).  Even a level six sorcerer with high Charisma can single- handedly win many encounters with only a modicum of support from scouts, tanks, healers, and snipers.  Sorcerers also makes a great mix in class for spell swords, giving your character a plentiful supply of useful combat-related spells like Shield, Mirror Image, Haste, or Stoneskin.  However, as a mix in class, sorcerer does suffer from the fact that you get the higher level spells more slowly than does a wizard (e.g., level two spells become available at level four for sorcerers and level three for wizards), so that is a trade-off to keep in mind if you are working with races like drow who are already penalized in terms of their level acquisition.

J) Cleric

A staple for any band of adventurers.  Pure clerics become quite powerful at higher levels and in addition to their healer responsibilities can serve as capable tanks, summoners, mage killers, and even bombardiers, depending on their spell selection and other attributes.  The cleric class also provides some interesting multiclassing options.

Also, take a good look at the different clerical orders (e.g., Stormlord of
Talos) and the special spells and benefits they provide.  Different orders are better at different things, particularly when you are considering multiclassing your cleric.  Lathander and Talos clerics make decent bombardiers, and the followers of Selune are superior summoners at higher levels.  These three orders are well-suited for pure or near-pure cleric builds in order to take advantage of their powerful high-level spells.  Follows of Ilmater are more healer oriented and also have the most flexible multiclassing capabilities, being able to multiclass freely with the appropriate paladin or monk orders.  Oghma clerics are natural loremasters, whereas being a Demarch of Mask can provide useful scout and thief enhancements.  Finally, Tempus and Helm clerics make good tank/spell swords, and Banites can serve as skilled (if grim) diplomats.


K) Druid

A solid class, much like the cleric, with more emphasis on offensive capability and less on healing.  A spell sword build using druid as the spellcasting class can be quite strong, as spells like Beast Claw and Star Metal Cudgel can be very effective for certain kinds of combat situations (even the lowly level one spell
Shillelagh can be devastating during the game's early encounters when wielded by a tank-oriented druid).

If you are planning on taking advantage of shapeshifting, you will want to get your druid high enough level to at least get shapes like Polar Bear etc.  For offensive tanking, shapeshifting works best during the middle chapters; at those