@Alsn *Sees intelligent post* *Sees that you only have 20 posts*
You are off to a good start here my friend. Good to have you here.
Heh, thanks for the compliment, I guess. :P
It just always really annoyed me how stats work in the two games. I never played pnp AD&D, but I reckon a DM could easily make the "midlevel" values matter quite a lot, so it's probably never been as big of a problem there.
But for the two games(and by extension, IWD 1, PS:T takes a lot of liberties with how stats work, so it works a lot better than the other games) the stats can be infuriating at times. Khalid looks really sweet on paper, but is actually a terrible fighter. His physical stats, while in total being among the highest in the game, give him absolutely pathetic bonuses. No bonus from strength at all and only -2 AC. His one saving grace is that he actually has a respectable constitution with +3 hp per level.
In the second game the developers realised a lot of this(I think) and adjusted stats to make some NPC's be a lot less useless in conjunction with the items boosting strength. In particular Jaheira getting 17 dex as she is even worse off than Khalid in the first game, but being a druid she has other uses.
Meh. I think Khalid's a passable fighter, and then you get Gauntlets of Ogre Power and he's a total badass. I've had good experiences with him, really.
Meh. I think Khalid's a passable fighter, and then you get Gauntlets of Ogre Power and he's a total badass. I've had good experiences with him, really.
I've used him several times as well and it's not like he's bad or anything. I mean, he's still a fighter, he'll be able to equip plate mail and put more than one pip in his chosen weapons just like every other fighter. It's just that while his stats seem really good at a glance they're very deceiving in that 15 strength is "high" yet still gives +0/+0.
Sure, if you give him the gauntlets of ogre power he actually becomes very good, but the same case could be made for a lot of NPCs. Just give kagain/minsc the dex gauntlets, or shar-teel the dex book and kit her with fortitude potions, et.c. but that's not really the point. It was more of an illustration how a relatively small difference of a few points make a massive difference(those last few points leading up to the max) while going from 7 to 14 doesn't make one lick of a difference. My point was merely to point out that Khalid, while definitely not the worst fighter in the game, has a deceivingly high "stat total" compared to say, Shar-Teel who imho is a much better fighter. At least if you consider them before any equipment is added. As such, using that alone to argue for Rasaad was somewhat misleading.
Edit: Jaheira is probably the worst offender though and I should've used her as an example instead. She has 15 strength, which is exactly the highest strength you can have while receiving no benefit whatsoever to combat ability while at the same time having 14 dex which is again the highest possible dex with no benefit. She basically has 29 points in those two stats for a whopping +0 hit, +0 damage, -0 AC. Yet her stats seem "pretty good" and well rounded. She might as well have 8 strength and 7 dex and it would make no difference other than carry weight.
Edit2: I realised that I said Khalid was "terrible" which isn't really what I meant to say. Compared to the other NPCs that you can find he's alright. It's just that compared to the "optimal"(18/00,18,18) and how "close" to that optimum he is, he's really underwhelming.
Personality-wise I find Khalid to be as endearing as Minsc. He's a good egg, and the type of adventuring companion I would want to have around if I was actually there. Back in vanilla BG1 he could achieve Grandmastery with Long Swords. Not sure what is the case with BG:EE, re: grandmastery, though. He's always acquitted himself fine with Sword and Shield. Although I may now be tempted to try having him dual wield bastard swords and scimitars or something a little funkier.
At the end of the day, it really isn't going to matter a whole helluva lot which tanks are on your frontline. Dorn, Kagain, Minsc, Ajantis, and Shar-Teel are all top tier--and Kivan too, if you want to put him in heavy armor using a halberd (it's almost a travesty to deny him the bow, though). The multi-class fighters Khalid, Jaheira, and Yeslick all do a fine job as well. Monty can tank fine also but in heavier armor he can't use his thieving skills, so I never do that to him.
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Sure, if you give him the gauntlets of ogre power he actually becomes very good, but the same case could be made for a lot of NPCs. Just give kagain/minsc the dex gauntlets, or shar-teel the dex book and kit her with fortitude potions, et.c. but that's not really the point. It was more of an illustration how a relatively small difference of a few points make a massive difference(those last few points leading up to the max) while going from 7 to 14 doesn't make one lick of a difference. My point was merely to point out that Khalid, while definitely not the worst fighter in the game, has a deceivingly high "stat total" compared to say, Shar-Teel who imho is a much better fighter. At least if you consider them before any equipment is added. As such, using that alone to argue for Rasaad was somewhat misleading.
Edit: Jaheira is probably the worst offender though and I should've used her as an example instead. She has 15 strength, which is exactly the highest strength you can have while receiving no benefit whatsoever to combat ability while at the same time having 14 dex which is again the highest possible dex with no benefit. She basically has 29 points in those two stats for a whopping +0 hit, +0 damage, -0 AC. Yet her stats seem "pretty good" and well rounded. She might as well have 8 strength and 7 dex and it would make no difference other than carry weight.
Edit2: I realised that I said Khalid was "terrible" which isn't really what I meant to say. Compared to the other NPCs that you can find he's alright. It's just that compared to the "optimal"(18/00,18,18) and how "close" to that optimum he is, he's really underwhelming.
Personality-wise I find Khalid to be as endearing as Minsc. He's a good egg, and the type of adventuring companion I would want to have around if I was actually there. Back in vanilla BG1 he could achieve Grandmastery with Long Swords. Not sure what is the case with BG:EE, re: grandmastery, though. He's always acquitted himself fine with Sword and Shield. Although I may now be tempted to try having him dual wield bastard swords and scimitars or something a little funkier.
At the end of the day, it really isn't going to matter a whole helluva lot which tanks are on your frontline. Dorn, Kagain, Minsc, Ajantis, and Shar-Teel are all top tier--and Kivan too, if you want to put him in heavy armor using a halberd (it's almost a travesty to deny him the bow, though). The multi-class fighters Khalid, Jaheira, and Yeslick all do a fine job as well. Monty can tank fine also but in heavier armor he can't use his thieving skills, so I never do that to him.