Elven Chain
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Ok, I understand that elven chain is part of Dorn's quest line. He's in my party but hasn't said anything yet. What triggers the quest? Also, how early can you get the elven chain? What chapter? Playing with a good-aligned party, I'm worried my rep might get too high before I can get it. Any info is appreciated. Thanks.
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The Elven Chain drops at the end of Dorn's quest. which you won't be able to complete until after Cloakwood mines, since you need to be able to cross the bridge into the city of Baldur's Gate.
And while I like Dorn best out of the new NPCs, I do get fed up if I have to have him for a considerable length of time in every run. Sometimes, I just want a different party, even if I do play all evil or evil-neutral.
Even dropping the elven chail at the encounter with Kryll would be better than the current situation.
The problem with shield amulets is - the recharging is expensive, you have to do the mines before you can summon a familiar to boost your HP, you have other party members to equip, your mage is useless after casting the few spells and needs AC, too... So you have to invest way more gold on low levels when you can't really afford it. On higher levels - when you can spare the gold - you have the Elven Chain. It just makes no sense this way.
1 - The gem bag beeing held by Neera (Not a huge problem, but still... )
I find it a bit stupid to have to recruit her, then kick her from the group just in order to get that gem bag.
I'd have preferred to find the bag either from a quest, or bought it from someone.
No other NPC ever held an irremplaceable item that can't be found somewhere else from the get go.
2 - The fact that you are required to have the new NPCs in your group in order to visit the new zones.
3 - The fact that two of the three quests can't be completed until late in the game (Not a huge problem, but still ... )
4 - Rasaad sucking that much .. too bad they didn't implement the "Get to level 10 for all classes" rule, similar to what they did for the black pits, monks start beeing OK at level 9.
Unavailable areas are just silly.
I can see how it makes sense, rp-wise, for Neera to have the bag. (I haven't tried it, but I somehow doubt her wild surges create THAT many gems that it justifies an own container though). But there should also be one for sale or in a mini quest, like the scroll case. It's an essential item for every class, same as the other containers. Sure, I can kill her or recruit-remove, but there are a million roleplay reasons why someone wouldn't want to do that.
The inability to complete quests (and mostly to get the Elven Chain) for a long time is pretty annoying. It does mess with party planning. By the time I get to the city, I usually have my party the way I want it and invested in the NPCs - the proficiencies, the weapons, armor, possibly tomes. So I'm unlikely to switch one party member out and head back to grab an earlier NPC who may have proficiencies I dislike or not need by that time. It's the same reason why the late game NPCs are so unpopular in comparison to those you can get earlier. I have to keep an NPC to get items or see areas in a slot I would more likely fill with someone else and level according to my taste/need.
Rasaad is - to me - pretty useless; every role he could possibly fill in a group can be filled better by someone else. It doesn't feel natural to go through the hassle to somehow find a use for him if better options are all over the place. His personality isn't exactly my taste either.
Neera is also useless to me except for handing over the gem bag and a robe for Xzar. There are 3 evil casters who are all better, more entertaining or both. Her personality and voice completely annoys me.
I also think her joining doesn't match her alignment. She's supposed to be neutral, but I must fight a clearly evil group if I talk to her. (And if Edwin is in the party when that happens, he'll ask you to make a choice between him and Neera - no good NPC leaves the party because of her.) It seems she was originally meant to be a good mage - which would make perfect sense because there's only Dynaheir - and was made neutral just to have one of each alignment among the new NPCs. (And good was taken by Rasaad to also make each new NPC a class/kit not present.)
I guess it's more an issue for evil parties, but I would prefer it if Neera's intro was handled like Garrick's and I'd have the option to be good (help her), neutral (stay out of it) or evil (side with wizards) and not be able to recruit her if I took the evil option. (Would suck for the gem bag, but the wizards could give me that - empty - as a reward for catching her or something.)
Rasaad has that really good "cursed" belt, but you can get by without it. You're better off not dragging the yutz and his crummy stat line/proficiencys around.
Dorn has some awesome stuff at the end of his quest chain, but nothing that makes me want to haul him around for.
Wouldn't be so bad if you could activate their quests pretty quickly ala BG2 (swap them in, do their quest, swap them out) but the time/conversation thing is a killer.
She's got one of the most powerful caster kits (Wild Mage) and very good stats (17 dex, 17 int) even if she's lacking in CON (But for a NPC mage, it's not that uncommon)
Nahal's reckless dweomer + Chaos Shield turns your level 1 spells into whatever you need on the fly, with a ~50% success chance.
However, I play almost always evil and that offers me Xzar (not the best school, but very versatile, awesome voiceset/personality for the entertainment factor, decent strength for a mage, option to dual either to cleric - which I often do - or thief - which I never do; necromancer/cleric is a spot on roleplay way, too), Edwin (useful school, extra spells, 16 con; granted he sucks horribly with ranged or melee, but why would he ever need that; divination is something I can easily do without) and now Baeloth (borderline OP, good voiceset, robe of evil arch magi, overall quite entertaining). Neera simply can't keep up with any of them, so to me, someone who plays evil and is prone to have a bard charname or NPC, she's useless. And that's fine; there are other NPCs that are useless to me and useful to others. I'd just be way more likely to at least do her quest if I could speed it up and ditch her after that. Same with Rasaad.
Also, whilst it's true that Bards can cast Armour or Shield or use the Shield Amulet, they don't have endless level 1 spells like specialist mages with the ring of wizardry, and can get caught out in ambushes, and the Shield Amulet gets expensive if used all the time.