First time play through help with party composition & reputation management

Qbert

Hi first let me say thanks to Beamdog crew for this awesome game. I'm totally immersed and can't wait for my hour or so a night i get to play it.

I find that the hardest thing about this game so far is managing my party and reputation and was looking for some tips from veterans.

I'm playing a good party and am in the bandit camp about to go to cloakwood and pick up Coran and Yeslick.

My current party:

PC - Elven Archer
Ajantis
Minsc
Imoen (dual classed to mage)
Neera
Edwin


I want Coran to pick up theiving skills until Imoen gets skills back. will drop Neera since i want to keep edwin.

I want Yeslick for Cleric skills. Don't know who to drop here prob. Minsc although i love his damage 47 some times on crits!

Questions :

1- I have Imoen at 60 lockpick and 100 detect traps. is that enough for her to be the only thief the rest of the way or do i need to keep Coran as well?

2- If i need Coran I want to keep Ajantis and Minsc but need an extra spot for Yeslick and am wondering if either will end up killing Edwin eventually. Since i want to keep Edwin that would make the choice easy.

3- Reputation has been tough for me to manage so far. I went down from 11 to 6 or so in the early game for some reason but now am up at 18. I don't want Edwin to leave. What are some tips for lowering your reputation or preventing it from going over 18? Is the only way to kill an innocent and get a (i think) 10 point loss?

4- Will any of these party members leave permanently if i kick them out?

thanks in advance for your help

secretmantra

One quick solution to lower reputation is to recruit a certain elf ...

Viconia, a Drow, who is being chased by a Flaming Fist soldier in the territory east of the Friendly Arm Inn. Recruiting her drops your rep by 2 pts. I'm not sure if the drop in rep stays with you if you immediately boot her, however.

Be cautious when looking for ways to drop rep. I think if it goes below 8 Ajantis leaves your party. If it drops below 6(?), your Archer downgrades to a gimped Fighter with no opportunity to regain their previous status. Edwin should be OK as long as your rep stays below 20.

I would aim for a higher lockpick than 60, but that should get you through most of the plot-pivotal stuff. Perhaps you could work around it with a Knock spell when needed.

Coran is great for his excellent archery and thieving ability. Be sure to quickly resolve his quest if you get him, though. I had him leave me right before a random encounter last time I used him, because I hadn't resolved his quest quickly enough.

KidCarnival

Ajantis and Minsc will both fight Edwin. 3 arcane casters are also a bit overkill and you need a cleric more than another archer/thief. 100 in traps will work and 60 for locks is ok if you keep potions or knock spells as backup. With Imoen as thief/mage and a PC archer, you need neither Coran nor Edwin; you need a cleric. I'd keep the party as it is and drop Edwin for Yeslick.

atcDave

Boot Edwin. You don't need him and he doesn't play well with the others.

Qbert

Thanks for the replies.

i didn't realize i could go up to 19 before evil characters left. I heard about the "certain elf" secretmantra, but i think the rep. goes back up when you boot her, so it's not a perm. solution since i don't want her.

Man booting Edwin would make things easier but i drool every time i look at all those spells he gets with his evermemory ring (or whatever it's called) and his amulet. My other mages just sit around and don't contribute anything after they have cast all their spells but he can hang through multiple battles.

So it looks like the consensus so far is to make my party:

PC - Elven Archer
Ajantis
Minsc
Imoen (dual classed to mage)
Neera
Yeslick (for Edwin)

Rather than:

PC - Elven Archer
Ajantis
Minsc
Imoen (dual classed to mage)
Yeslick (for Neera)
Edwin

OR:

PC - Elven Archer
Ajantis
Yeslick (for Minsc)
Imoen (dual classed to mage)
Coran (for Neera)
Edwin

KidCarnival

Give Neera the Evermemory. She gets the extra spell from being specialized. Edwin gets yet another extra spell from his amulet, but he can't cast Divination spells. Neera can, because Wild Mages have no forbidden school. That makes up for the "lost" spell, imo.

The first option

PC - Elven Archer
Ajantis
Minsc
Imoen (dual classed to mage)
Neera
Yeslick (for Edwin)

is the only one that makes long term sense to me. The others still have Ajantis and/or Minsc with Edwin, and they are scripted to fight. Ajantis has this with all evil aligned NPCs, Minsc only with Edwin. And if one of them fights him, do you want to place your bets who comes out as the winner in a one on one? Right, Edwin will die, regardless if a Ranger or Paladin goes berzerk on him, and there go all the neat spells.