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Is it feasible to use EVERY joinable NPC in one play-through?

HeyaHeya Member Posts: 55
in Archive (General Discussion)
The female Invoker star of my current play-through is an accommodating soul, willing to give a temporary home to every one of the Sword Coast's good, bad and ugly in her revolving door of carnage. Ideally I'd like to keep each member in long enough to see out a quest or three. Will it leave me with major problems in the endgame, though, if I've not really had any long-term members who I've carefully overseen the development of?

Comments

  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
    edited December 2012
    Depends. Do you plan on letting these NPC's depart with good weapons/items?

    Edit: I misunderstood the "revolving door of carnage" bit when I wrote the above sentence.
  • DragonspearDragonspear Member Posts: 1,838
    Yes it is. Someone has a topic on this forum where they've used all but 3 or 4 and they just arrived at baldur's gate. They just dont rez a party member when they die.
  • SharGuidesMyHandSharGuidesMyHand Member Posts: 2,586
    The answer to the thread title is a resounding "Yes." In fact, on my very first playthrough of BG1 (and BG2 as well), I made it a point to give every NPC a try and complete every associated subquest, including the Skie/Eldoth blackmail scheme.
    Heya said:

    Will it leave me with major problems in the endgame, though, if I've not really had any long-term members who I've carefully overseen the development of?

    Potentially. I would suggest trying to keep at least a couple NPCs all the way through the game and using the remaining party spots for swaps. At the very least, make sure you keep at least one thief all the way through the game, to ensure that you have a thief with appropriately-distributed stats heading into the later stages of the game.

    Also, I would suggest designating a specific role for each party spot - i.e: "archer," "healer," "mage/wand-user," etc. - and only swap similar NPCs in and out of those spots, so as to not disrupt your party composition too much.

    In my experience, I actually found that my party remained stable and even improved as I swapped NPCs, until arriving at the city of Baldur's Gate. After that, I found that the last available NPCs were noticeably inadequate compared to my current party members, and trying to incorporate them would actually cause a decrease in the overall efficiency of my party.

  • SeveronSeveron Member Posts: 214
    When NPC Project comes out, this is what I'll do. I'll pick up every NPC, complete their associated quests and have them travel with me for a short time. Once I've completed their quests I'll drop them off in the next town.
    By the time I reach Baldurs Gate I will have used all the characters, at which point I'll continue the main story with the canon party.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,675
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  • RhymeRhyme Member Posts: 190
    It's much more feasible in BG2. I played a "complete" playthrough of BG2 once using mods that granted multiple romances and multiple strongholds. The rotating door of characters kept things very fresh. It was my favorite playthrough.

    I often struggle to use a lot of the BG1 characters just because I never feel right telling Imoen to get lost (she keeps insisting we're good friends... How can I say no?), and I was specifically told to go to the Friendly Arms Inn to meet Khalid & Jaheira. So that's 4 of 6 slots taken right there! And the pair I meet on the road to the FAI seem nice enough... If Xzar and Montaron don't mind being flexible enough to making a side trip to the FAI, then I feel like a jerk taking their potion and telling them to get lost! Boom, done deal, 6 of 6 slots before I even reach Beregost. If I keep Xzar and Monty through the Nashkel mines quest, that means passing right by Kagain and Garrick, ignoring the people in the southern half of the map, letting Edwin and Minsc sit there, and now, thanks to the EE added content, blowing off Dorn, Neera, and Rasaad. Not to mention poor Xan, who I don't have a spot for when I get to the end of the mine.

    I keep hoping that the Harpers and Zhents will come to blows early. Never seems to happen. Boo.

    A perfect mod for me wouldn't be one that makes all NPCs available early (the way that the NPC project does). A perfect mod for me would give NPCs a variety of different spawn positions, and randomize where they start from game to game. I think it would be enormously fun if you didn't know who you were going to run into at any given time. One playthrough, Xzar and Monty are in their normal place. In another playthrough, they're down in Nashkel. Etc...
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