Warning: You may use this file for your own personal use, but to
claim that you wrote it...well just kind of sad that that's your life,
and you want recognition so badly that you have to steal FAQs from
other people and claim it as your own. Anyhoo....
This FAQ is designed for people who want ideas on party creation and a
usefulness breakdown of each character. The choice of race for each class is
purely my own opinion.
Also, the first two parts of this guide does not take into account transferring
your characters to other games! It's only meant to recommend for this one. Ok,
here goes:
PART I: RACES
There are 6 Races in Gateway to the Savage Frontier. I will go through each
one with a fine toothed comb, and we will decide if we have a deal or no deal.
Human:
Rating: A
Recommended Classes: Any except Fighter. (See note in fighter below)
Humans do not get a cap on the levels they can attain in Gateway to the savage
Frontier, and they can choose any class. This is wonderful, since many races
have caps on the classes they choose. The Adventurer's journal has a table for
it so I'm not going to get into detail here on it. They also get the highest
strength modifier that fighter types can attain! This means a human paladin or
ranger can start with a great THAC0 score. The only problem with the
human is that he cannot multi class. There's something called human dual
classing but quite frankly I found that to be quite useless and would only
bother with single classes in these games.
Elf:
Rating: D
Recommended Classes: Magic-user/Thief, Cleric/Magic User,
Well Elves get an extra point to dexterity. This is good to get their
armor class down an extra point more than most other characters. If I remember
correctly as well they have a slight resistance to magic spells. They can also
choose any class except paladin which means they can multi class very well.
But, and this is a BIG but, if they die......you're screwed. Elves cannot be
brought back from the dead. If you don't save extremely frequently, this can be
very frustrating. In my opinion their abilities do not justify the risk you take
making an elf character.
Dwarf:
Rating: B-
Recommended Classes: Fighter, Fighter/Thief
Dwarves are stocky little dudes. Next to humans, they get the highest strength
modifier available to fighter types. Also, they are resistant to poison and
when attacking large enemies like hill giants they get bonuses to hit. They
get an extra point to constitution as well. What's so bad about them? Well
First off they get a -2 to charisma (and since I'm still not sure what that
does, doesn't make a difference) but more importantly a -1 to dexterity. This
means a slighter higher AC (higher = worse). Also, they can only choose 2
classes, Fighter or thief. I'll let you figure out which one to choose....
Gnome:
Rating: C
Recommended Classes: Fighter, Thief, Fighter/Thief
Gnome are almost exactly like dwarves. They have better dexterity than
Dwarves, but less constitution than they do. Pretty much all other important
stats between the two are the same. The gnome has a slightly less strength
modifier than a dwarf, but not enough to make a huge difference to THAC0. If
you want a fighter type with less hit points but a slightly better AC, (at
least compared to dwarves) then take a gnome. I personally like the dwarf
better.
Halfling:
Rating: F (Is there a rating lower than F?)
Recommended Classes: None
I'll get straight to the point. -1 to Strength for males, (meaning no
strength modifiers for fighter types) -4 for females (Are you serious???).
They get one bonus point to constitution. Yipee. Add in the fact that they
can only be Thieves or Fighters, and you have an absolutely useless race.
Half-Elf:
Rating: A
Recommended Classes: Magic-User/Thief, Cleric/Magic-User, Cleric/Ranger,
Cleric/Fighter, Fighter/Magic-User
And here we come to my favorite race. I'll start with the cons this time.
Which is that females gets a -1 to strength. Ok now let's go with the
pros. DIVERSITY. A half Elf can be any class except paladin, which means
they are the best choice for multi-classing. They get a better strength
modifier for fighter types than elves, (though not as good as dwarves or
Humans). Still, it's not enough to make a big difference to THAC0. And more
importantly, UNLIKE their elf counterparts, they CAN be raised from the dead.
Why would anyone take an elf over a half elf??? Not sure.....
PART II: Classes
In this game, every class is important to success. I'm not gonna rate the
class, but I will let you know which classes can be mixed with which etc.
Paladin
Races Allowed: Human
Can Mulitclass with: N/A
Paladins are excellent fighters. They also have protection from evil '10
constantly, which means any evil characters attacking them are less
effective. This is just great. They can't travel with any evil characters
though, and they must be Lawful/Good aligned. That's a small price to pay
for their abilities. Take one.
Ranger
Races Allowed: Human, Elf, Half-Elf
Can Multiclass with: Cleric
Ranger too are excellent fighters. They get a bonus when attacking large
enemies like hill giants and such. They must be of good alignment however,
and they can only multiclass with clerics. Their experience requirements are
a little higher though, so you may not want to multi class with them anyway.
Fighter:
Races Allowed: All
Can Multiclass with: Cleric, Magic-User, Thief
The fighter is your standard fighter. He has no special abilities like the
Ranger or Paladin. So why bother then? First of all, he has less expereince
requirements than either of those classes. Second, in this game he's able to
attain higher levels than the paladin. And third, if you take a dwarf fighter,
the extra constitution gives him higher hit points, but also allows him to get
bonuses to THAC0 when fighting larger enemies, thereby making him a mini
(mini???? GET IT??? HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA) ranger with less experience requirements
and similar abilities.
Thief:
Races Allowed: All
Can multiclass with: Fighter, Magic-User
I honestly have no idea if taking a thief makes any kind of difference in this
game but everyone seems to say so so I guess they do. Thieves can use any
weapon and they can backstab, which means if they attack from the opposite
direction of the last attack, they can do heavy damage. This is interesting in
combination with a fighter. By himself however, the thief is not impressive.
He can only wear leather armor, and no shields. Multi class him with a magic
user or a fighter.
Cleric:
Races allowed: Human, Elf, Half-Elf
Can Multiclass with: Ranger, Fighter, Magic-User
Definitely need one or two of these guys. Cure light wounds gets more
impressive as they get higher in levels, and they are decent fighters to boot.
They are able to use all armors except plate and they can use shields too. They
can only use crushing weapons though (Maces, staff sling), and they don't get
as many hp as fighter types. They can use all the cleric spells, my favorite
being Hold Person. (SO INCREDIBLY USEFUL) Prayer too. Also, if they are
aligned to good, they can turn undead.
Magic-User:
Races allowed: Human, Elf, Half-Elf
Can Multiclass with: Fighter, Thief, Cleric
If you don't take two of these, take at least one. Without a magic user
in your party, you may as well just put down the game, or at least be ready
for some VERY frustrating battles. These will be your guys for area of effect
spells. Stinking Cloud, Sleep, Fireball, Lightning Bolt, all spells that any
adventurer will find extremely useful. For me personally however, I tend to
multiclass these guys for a couple of reasons. First of they can use no armor
or shields. Not as big of a deal as my next point, considering you wanna keep
em away from the fray anyway. Second point is that when they run out of
spells, they are utterly useless. You'll just continue to press end when it
comes to their turn in battle. If you multi-class with a thief, you can
shoot arrows from the back with none the wiser. If you multiclass with a
cleric, you get the better armor and weapons of the cleric, plus the ability
to use all spells. Also, since clerics max their armor out at banded mail,
they'll have better movement than a multi-class with a fighter. A fighter I
don't recommend because you're gonna want them on the front line, which
means if they get hit they lose any spell they were casting. Kind of
defeats the purpose.
PART III: Party Creration
I'm gonna give you some sample parties with an explanation of why I think
they're good, or bad.
Party 1:
Recommended Party by Adventurer's Journal
1 Human Paladin
1 Half-Elf Ranger
1 Dwarf Fighter/Thief
2 Human Clerics
1 Elf Magic User
This is a pretty good party for beginners. It packs in all the necessary
classes and they will go up in level reasonably fast. This is pretty much
as balanced and vanilla as you're going to get. The elf magic user in my
opinion is quite unneccesary as is the half elf Ranger. Due to racial
constrictions, if you're ever gonna take a single class, the human is the
best race to take (with the exception of the fighter.) Everyone here should
be human except obviously the Fighter/Thief. Otherwise, it's not a bad
party. I myself like to pack in a little more heat.
Party 2: My recommended Party 1
1 Human Paladin
1 Human Ranger
1 Dwarf fighter
1 Human Cleric
1 Half-Elf Cleric/Magic-User
1 Half Elf Magic User/Thief
You have your three Fighter types, two Clerics, two mages, and your staple
thief. The mages will advance slowly due to multiclassing but you don't
really NEED the level 3 Mage spells until much later in the game when you
have enough experience for them. Your dwarf fighter will have lots of HP,
and you'll find your human cleric can jump in as a fourth mini fighter.
You can keep the two magic users in the back firing off staff slings and
bows when not casting spells.
Party 3: My recommended Party 2
1 Human Paladin
1 Human Ranger
1 Dwarf Fighter/Thief
1 Human cleric
1 Half-Elf Cleric/Magic-User
1 Human Magic-User
I actually like the first party better for a couple of reasons.
Fighter/Thieves tend to have much less hit points than pure fighters,
meaning keeping them on the front line where they belong can be a liability.
You'll find them being rendered unconcious (or worse, killed) more often
than you're gonna like. Also, while your single class magic user may level
quicker then if he were multiclassed, he's gonna be quite useless when he's
not casting spells. Darts don't do much damage. But if you want a pure
magic user, this is a good option for a party.
Party 4: Long term party 1 (Transferring to Treasures of the
savage frontier)
1 Human Paladin
1 Human Ranger
1 Dwarf Fighter/Thief
2 Human Clerics
1 Human Magic-User
This is a spin-off of the first party. In fact it's the same party except
almost everyone is a human, due to the racial constrictions. It's pretty
vanilla, but you'll want your guys to achieve as high of a level as they can.
A spinoff of this party is this one:
Party 5: Long term party 2 (Transferring to Treasures of the savage frontier)
1 Human Paladin
1 Human Ranger
2 Human Clerics
1 Elf Magic-User/Thief
1 Human Magic-User
I know, I know, I said never take an elf. Well in this case, I would. Elves
have a higher racial limitation for magic-users than Half-Elves do. I actually
like this party better than the previous one. The extra magic User will make
fights a lot easier. The two clerics can be enough of a tank that you can do
without a third fighter type.
Hope you enjoyed this! Any further questions, email me at DannyAIC@aol.com.
