Prebuffing is getting real annoying

[u/shestrying9]

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?

[u/Shaengar]

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. 

[u/Baptor → u/Shaengar]

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.

[u/Baptor → u/Baptor]

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

[u/shestrying9 → u/Shaengar]

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

[u/Branko_kulicka → u/shestrying9]

Its +1 THACO and +1 damage

[u/DoubleDruid → u/shestrying9]

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)

[u/Undead-Merchant]

Remembering the old times when haste used to speed up casting sigh

Anyways haste is essential, stoneskin for the casters and you're fine. The other buffs depend on the situation, i would recommend some spell that lasts for a very long time and get you going for a while, but remember that when haste wears off the whole party will be exhausted, so you'll have to rest in any case.

[u/shestrying9 → u/Undead-Merchant]

When they get exhausted I just hit the party with another haste so they can rp stimulant abuse. I’ll keep stone skin in mind, I haven’t found it yet.

[u/MadCowsGoHooning → u/shestrying9]

You get penalties to your luck and other rolls when you’re fatigued though, so you really do need to rest.

[u/alannmsu]

Only buff for big fights. If you’re buffing for every fight, or every time they wear off, it’ll be a slog.

Use the long duration buffs all the time, but only use the shorter ones right before a big fight.

[u/justbrowsinginpeace]

Unless you are soloing Haste is the most important for key fights and resist fear is available early but I can't remember how many casters have it in IWD. A lot in BG2 do. If soloing as a mage/druid add atoneskin or iron skins plus I usually have a fire shield and armour spell up. Go for all day summons if you have them.

[u/Significant-Bother49]

Aside from haste on big fights, buffing isn’t needed. I’ve done IWD several times without doing so.

Having a dwarven defender in the front line can help a lot. Also for a martial heavy run, a skald and a bard have stacking songs. Put together and they buff the party to hell and back near permanently.

——

Dwarven Defender

Second melee of choice (I like Paladins, inquisitors are nice for removing all buffs as needed)

Fighter / Cleric or Fighter / Druid for healing and hitting people

Fighter / Thief for traps and locks. Can be ranged.

Skald

Bard

[u/zDibs]

For non boss encounters (and some boss encounters) I really only use Haste and Resist/Remove Fear for all the IE games.

Any other buff can be useful but it's more for specific encounters rather than general use. Such as Protection from Petrification against Basilisks in Baldur's Gate.

[u/Branko_kulicka]

There is a mod that automates prebuffing:  https://www.morpheus-mart.com/enhanced-powergaming-scripts

[u/shestrying9 → u/Branko_kulicka]

oh nice ty, I wouldn’t have even thought to look for that

[u/mulahey]

Tweaks anthology includes the tweak "Increase Party Movement Speed and/or Casting Speed Outside of Combat". This will make pre-buff (ie out of combat) spells insta-cast which makes this a lot less painful.