1: Conjuration hold all the nasty crippling stuff (web, grease, glitterdust, stinking cloud, cloudkill) that can end an encounter in one spell and qualifys for Augment Summoning
As for Metamagic, Quicken is good at latter levels to pair with True Strike or (as a battle Cleric) Divine Favor
2: There's no real support for caster clerics in ToEE, so a Wizard/Sorc will always be better if you're making a caster. Battle Cleric has far better support and options
For Cleric you'll want the good domain so you can make Holy weapons.
3: No. Sneak Attack is always finky to work with and will be out-damaged by a good fighter. The most fun option is likely Rogue 3/Wizard 5/Arcane Trickster or Assassin, which can semi-reliably start Sneak Attack with in-class invisibility.
Trying to focus on slings or a small weapon attacker is a recipe for failure.
4: I remember there were a bunch of doors and chests with no key in the original game and a rogue is mandatory if you don't want to miss a bunch of treasure latter on.
5: No. I'm not sure how ToEE handles Druid/Monk multiclasses, but if it does favorably that's the only way to make them viable
6: I'd go with 1 Wizard focused on crafting, utility and versatility and 1 sorcerer focused on raw blasting and shutdown or 1 pure wizard and 1 eldritch knight/1 arcane trickster before 2 pure wizards.
My party last play was Rogue 3/Wizard 5/Arcane Trickster, Paladin 2/Sorcerer 6/Eldritch Knight, pure wizard, pure battle cleric (should be CG for a special item latter on, though if you have Elmo and aren't exploting you don't need to bother), Fighter 4/Ranger X archer, and Elmo with an NPC sorcerer added late. 3 of these were things I've never used before (Archer and prestige classes) but it worked pretty well. Wouldn't take both caster hybrids at once though (way too back ended, you're only OK at either for 8 levels) and would make the Rogue an Assassin instead now that lax rules are in.
3: No. Sneak Attack is always finky to work with and will be out-damaged by a good fighter. The most fun option is likely Rogue 3/Wizard 5/Arcane Trickster or Assassin, which can semi-reliably start Sneak Attack with in-class invisibility.
Personally, I found out that the Sneak Attack of rogue was quite powerful when dual wielding although no as powerful as an enlarged two-handed fighter. With the help of wizard’s glitter dust and grease, sneak attack is not so hard to come by. Don’t forget flank can trigger sneak attack too.
If you want the invisibility ability, I would recommend an invisibility scroll scribed by wizard. I fail to see the usefulness of arcane trickster, since all buffing spell could be scribed by the wizard in your party. And I don’t believe you would use an arcane trickster to damage and de-buff enemies by spell, due to the low INT modifies.
----------------------------------------------------------------
My party last play was
Rogue 3/Wizard 5/Arcane Trickster,
Paladin 2/Sorcerer 6/Eldritch Knight, pure wizard, pure battle cleric (should be CG for a special item latter on, though if you have Elmo and aren't exploting you don't need to bother),
Fighter 4/Ranger X archer, and Elmo with an NPC sorcerer added late.
Paladin 2/Sorcerer 6/Eldritch Knight
This build is quite interesting and comes near the Kensai/Wizard in BG II.
The thing is that buffing spells, such as stone skin and spirit armor is nerf or deleted in 3.5. And buffing spells can always come from scrolls scribed by wizards in your party, which feature is unavailable in BG II. There is no need to sacrifice BAB for buff spell.
In BG II, you need only a belt to increase your strength to be on par with a fighter. In DND 3.5, an Eldritch Knight would struggle between STR and INT. I notice that you use a sorcerer and paladin combination. Then you character would struggle between STR and CHA. Smite Evil and Divine Might are daily based abilities, which means if you relies on CHA mainly, then your character would have limited number of use as an melee fighter.
Fighter 4/Ranger X archer
What about Arcane Archer? I have very good experience with AA build in nwn, since the damage and attack bonus from the enchant arrow ability of AA stacks with the enchantment of arrow itself. This leads to a very deadly damage output. I don’t know it this is still the case in TOEE. I believe bonus from AA don’t stack with bonus from arrow in nwn 2, which is why people don’t play AA in nwn2.
Optimally get your main melee fighter 13 intelligence then Improved Trip, as Trip is pretty useful in ToEE, especially with T+ letting you do it on AoEs.
(ice cone in water domain, lightning bolt in destruction). Is it good idea or should i take defense spells instead? (invisiblity, barkskin)?
