Optimum Party Size for Power Gaming

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Mykra

Well, I think it has to be one as that's as optimum as you get, but I like running with myself and three other NPC's - just cover the tank, healer, mage, rogue archetypes.

Deucetipher

The last option amused, so I clicked it, but seriously, I think an optimum from a powergaming perspective is to slowly escalate the party count. Definitely solo through Beregost and Nashkel, then pick up an npc that compliments your own abilities, pick up third circa Cloakwood, and top out at 4 whenever you like. If you've run solo for a bit, you've effectively outleveled the content anyway. You can just drop extra npcs on the top for a bit of extra pop. Eventually, you hit the cap anyway, so you might as well grab other npcs.

As far as efficiency is concerned, 4 is about as much as I can handle with minimal pausing, personally. I favor grabbing multiclasses like Coran or Yeslick.

DinsdalePiranha

in BGEE, all six, with two tanks - the game hands out "proper" equipment for two melee chars, so it only only makes sense. plus, archery is really badass here.
in BG2, four: one tank/melee char, along with 3 mages (who also cover thieving and cleric duties) - because blowing pretty damn near everything to pieces the moment you see 'em makes for awesomeness, and more than one "optimized" (say, FMT, or for the less trickiness inclined, ranger/cleric) tank is a waste

Freche

Something like @Deucetipher said.
6 characters at max level will obviously be more powerful together then one solo at max level.

For BG1 most companions are recruited at their highest possible level when the PC is level 5 or more (a few reaches that max when the PC is lvl 4).

So my guess, solo up to lvl 4-5 then recruit 2 characters. Get 1-2 levels then recruit 3 more.

Edit: also depends on play style. You could get 1 recruit much earlier if you want to easier kite + range kill some enemies.

DinsdalePiranha said:

in BGEE, all six, with two tanks - the game hands out "proper" equipment for two melee chars, so it only only makes sense. plus, archery is really badass here.
in BG2, four: one tank/melee char, along with 3 mages (who also cover thieving and cleric duties) - because blowing pretty damn near everything to pieces the moment you see 'em makes for awesomeness.

That reminded me of when a friend and I duoed BG2, both having Chain Contingency with triple Abi-Dalzim's. Stuff died.

Howie

Paladin/Blackguard front to tank all the saving throws and engage archers, Thief/Mage of some type to dismantle traps and break boxes (you can replace it with knock and find trap combo), Cleric to cover priest spell list, wizard to cover wizard spell list.

Southpaw

Played with power-game parties and best number I came with in the end was a party of 4. CHARNAME + 3 others filling roles that the protagonist can't. To cover all needed classes/roles, and because there is multiclassing and dualclassing, usual setups of 4 are: +(possible good candidates for each role from NPC ranks)

- warrior, combat oriented thief, cleric, mage. - the oldest and best working archetype for whole BG sage (Kagain, Montaron, Viconia, Edwin)
- warrior, warrior, thief, cleric/mage - works very good in BG1, not so much in BG2, where magic is more important. (Minsc, Ajantis, Imoen, Quayle)
- warrior, warrior, cleric, mage/thief.- similar to #1, less thieving abilities. (Shar-teel, Kivan, Branwen, Imoen)
...

One of my best BG1 play throughs were with a Swashbuckler + Kagain, Vicky, Edwin. Or Barbarian/Kensai, Imoen, Vicky, Shar-teel. (Yes, they are evil, but if you're a do-gooder, choose their good equivalents)

ZanathKariashi

1 Bard

moopy

@ZanathKariashi

But if we're power gaming what about starting a multiplayer game to make all 6 characters and make... SIX bards!?

Quartz

Definitely four. I used to have a real hard time with BG1 when I was a kid, and I finally beat it when I made a Cleric charname (who, looking back, I should've made a fighter/cleric but whatever), Kagain, Imoen, and Edwin. AKA the most powerful of their respective classes ... Cleric Fighter Thief Mage. All the main classes represented. Easy stuff and no Experience Point woes.

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Anaximander

Six if the XP cap is in place, probably three to four otherwise...

IkMarc

4:
Tank
Cleric/multi?
Mage
Thief/fighter (archer)

This

JTM

Six...

It's just a matter of simple math. More of you against them. Armies win battles. Bigger armies win bigger battles. More soldiers=more bullets. More soldiers trained unique=more unique options. You bring maximum personnel to maximum effect upon the enemy. Maximum damage/round vs. the enemy.

I regularly chunk just about everything in my path when power gaming with a full party of six. Of course it's not solely about numbers... you always apply the best strategy to your party when powergaming. Maximize your own effect and minimize the enemies effect... Experience gain, spell use, damage/round, equipment, etc. They are all factors, but when applied to best effect with a full party then I think it is the most devastating power show to see.

Tinter

If you are really powergaming then obviously you do easy content to level then add characters later, which can be worth substantial Exp gains.

Even with SCS Sarevok is fairly easy but for parts of Durlag and the Werewolf island you can really see the difficult spike for solo. BG2 is probably easiest with 6, though some say 4/5 for more HLAs which is reasonable. TOB-Ascenscion is soloed but its much, much easier with a party; you don't really gain any power from soloing.

Being solo or in small parties can make large parts of the game trivial, as you are overlevelled, but these parts aren't normally that difficult anyway. Endgame, a 6 person party will have the best power balance.

Wilbur

If there were no exp cap I'd probably play with 3-4 chars, but since there is I always end up with a party of 6 sooner or later.

Djimmy

If optimal means "speed", I'd go for 6 in BG1 and solo in BG2.

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Mikkel

If we're talking unmodded BG:EE (ie, xp-cap in place) then six, since you're going to hit the cap anyway, and there's plenty of gear to go around - certainly enough that another body more than makes up for any slight disadvantage you have from sharing said gear. Hell, even if you keep all the same items you would in a solo run on Charname, any leftovers on any NPCs will increase your damage output in the vast majority of cases.

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BGEE_loverz

In bg1 or bgee you'll reach the exp cap very fast anyways, so six people for maximal carnage me says har har har...........

Aasimar069

Because game is designed for 6 characters, whatever you can say.

That's also why this game is so superior to Dragon Age, because there are more possibilities.

JuliusBorisov

Well, for me a multiclass Mage/Thief is enough and it's very convenient both in BG1 and BG2. With 18/00 or 19 Str (from items) he's a good backstabber (though it is not multiplied) and boots of speed help a lot this way. His magic buffs (and potions) help when the battle takes place in small areas. AND he can use wands.
If you're soloing, CLUA a bag of holding - this will help with some gold.

Lythunyl

Purely from a power gaming perspective, the obvious answer is that since there's a lvl cap, there's no justification for having anything less than 6 maxed out characters as your end game, especially since you can just grind down kobolds ad infinitum. Of course, this is not the most practical, so it's probably advisable to consider playing with less characters until your party nears lvl cap.

Kaltzor

While any amount works really, I personally prefer a party of six, nobody in the party needs to do everything so they can just focus on doing one thing well.

Chow

Most of the time I managed with just my fighter/thief running around with boots of speed, backstabbing something, running away, hiding in the shadows, and repeating. Only sometimes did I need a cleric or a mage to buff up against a very occasional fight where that didn't work (like the demon at the end of the ToSC... I think that was actually the only one), and another thief to deal with locked doors and traps. I also like to have a bard around to identify things, and maybe a tank to beat stuff up, but I guess those aren't absolutely necessary in the powergaming sense.

DinsdalePiranha

Freche said:

DinsdalePiranha said:

in BGEE, all six, with two tanks - the game hands out "proper" equipment for two melee chars, so it only only makes sense. plus, archery is really badass here.
in BG2, four: one tank/melee char, along with 3 mages (who also cover thieving and cleric duties) - because blowing pretty damn near everything to pieces the moment you see 'em makes for awesomeness.

That reminded me of when a friend and I duoed BG2, both having Chain Contingency with triple Abi-Dalzim's. Stuff died.

ahhaha, that's a bit of an overkill, isn't it?

but yeah, playing with many mages in BG2 can lead to... interesting things. stuff dies. very fast. even the most hardcore enemies - there aren't a lot of things that that can survive three mages shooting skull traps/DBFBs/horrid wiltings/dragon breaths at them at the same time... and if they can, that's what 3 x skull traps in a spell sequencer are for. [diabolical laughter]

leeho730

Level cap removed, 4 - Warrior, Magic User, Priest, Thief.
With level cap, 6.

ZanathKariashi

@Bhaaldog Dual-speed weapons (Just avoid the +3 and above enemies till you get UAI and SN, for the +4 and above enemies, just use whatever +4 you have, + a speed weapon)...they have no weaknesses in BG2 (not to mention a suit of +3 Bard only elven chain, ridiculously easy to get, and at the same time you pick up Kuudane and boots of speed)...BG1 is when they're at their weakest and still kick ass. Not to mention all the easily acquired wands you can get your grubby mitts on.

And I don't mean just a Blade...while OS does allow them to hit 10 attack (which it shouldn't as OS is a haste effect), their PP sucks. And while having no main-hand penalty while dual-wielding is nice, when you're dealing 9 attacks per round under IH, with Tenser's Up, it no longer matters...though you don't even need IH...just playing with dual-speed weapons makes it blatantly clear that high thac0 isn't really necessary, it's the extra base attacks that really make warrior types awesome in Melee (well..and starting with higher bonuses for 18 str then a bard would, but 19+ removes any advantage there), and tenser's basically gives you specialization, so they only really deal +2 more damage then a Tenser'd Bard would.