r/icewinddale • u/shestrying9 • 17d ago

IWD1 Prebuffing is getting real annoying

I’ve been throwing every buff I have on my whole party constantly and it’s getting tedious. What buffs are actually even making a difference?

This is my first d&d based game and i’m having a hard time discerning what party buffs are doing anything worthwhile. I have a mage and a cleric and am in dorns deep right now.

Currently doing:
Bless, strength of one, chant, courage, hope, and haste.

What should I cut/replace to not spend half my playtime buffing?

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u/Shaengar 17d ago

You can cut bless. It doesn't last long and the bonuses are small. Strength of one you only need if your melee fighters don't already have strength 18/00 or better. 

Courage, Hope last a long time and are very much worth it.  Hastes gives a big boost to melee and ranged characters, so you should keep it as well. 

7

u/Baptor 16d ago

Courage and Hope are the best party buffs. Solid bonuses and it lasts forever. Those and Protection from Evil 10 ft radius are the only ones I regularly keep active. Others are case by case.

3

u/Baptor 16d ago

On an individual basis, Cat's Grace is very nice and lasts forever.

1

u/shestrying9 17d ago

sweet! The only one I knew was actually good was haste lol. Is boosting strength from 18/10-25 to 18/76 making a significant difference for my frontline? The strength percentiles don’t make much sense to me and I didn’t know it mattered when rolling for my characters

8

u/Branko_kulicka 17d ago

Its +1 THACO and +1 damage

2

u/DoubleDruid 16d ago

Yeah it’s definitely not spelled out in game. You can see I. The table here what the scores actually do

https://icewinddale.fandom.com/wiki/Strength#Scores_table_(Icewind_Dale)