Create your favorite 4 member party for BG:EE
Lateralus
Member Posts: 903
I can't help but wonder if the party I am currently using is perhaps the most versatile and fun group I've ever assembled.
My protagonist (Groeg) is a dual-classed bounty hunter(6) turned mage. His skills are focused on finding, removing, and setting traps. Wielding a frost-brand scimitar and a ring of fire resistance, he is 90% immune to all fire damage. So casting fireballs in a crowd is a fun option. His backstabbing and traps make him absolutely devastating when ambushing. So much so that he can take out entire Flaming Fist hunting parties in a couple of rounds, all by himself. The versatility of magic can have the entire party walk around Baldur's Gate unseen for weeks, open locked chests, turn his armor class into an advantage, lower store costs, and much more. With the bracers of archery equipped, he's a deadly shot with a crossbow of speed.
Vicconia is widely regarded as the most powerful cleric in the game, and in a small party her ability to tank has surprised me. With the the most powerful armor in the game, her amazing 19 dexterity, and most importantly her magic resistance, she is difficult to harm in any way shape or form. The gauntlets of ogre power and that awesome mace (the one that paraylizes-aka KILLS-25% of the time) she is not just for slinging stones anymore. She can't take a hit as well as the games traditional tanking characters, but they don't get to cast sanctuary and slip away like she can either. With a wide range of defense and crowd controlling spells, she is extremely useful, and she is one of three characters in my party that can cast dispell magic if needed.
Eldoth the bard has proven to be a great compliment to my party. Between him and Groeg I have over 6 second level spell slots available for invisibility and knock. He doesn't cast during combat because he wears the +4 mithril chain, so most of his spells are for divination only. On a hardcore run you must buy potions of genius before studying scrolls! However, all of this is a big advantage because it allows Groeg to focus more on combat spells. He's no Coran with a longbow, but the gauntlets of dexterity and the Dead Shot longbow combined with his innate ability to create poison arrows makes him a dangerous sniper. Bard song is useful, pick pockets is fun, weapon versatility is interesting (from dagger of venom to Rancor), identifying items quickly is nice, but most importantly he is another arcane spell user. Which means double the wand and scroll use!
Dorn is my favorite NPC in the game. His devastating damage output makes him the only warrior you need. He does all the heavy lifting for my party. Bashing open doors, hauling ankheg hides, taking down foes quickly, and tanking. His biggest asset is eliminating mages. Any mage that isn't properly buffed or is dispelled, is a dead mage around Dorn. He has 2 proficiency slots in darts, which means that he can apply a deadly poison to them, and then hurl 3 or 4 of them a round! Once they are poisoned, they can't cast spells, and it's just a matter of slowly walking over with that two-handed sword scrapping off the stoney ground...The only thing about Dorn is that it's wise to buff his AC with potions or spells at early levels.
Obviously this party is very evil. My reputation is usually at 1, unless I want to buy stuff then I get it up to a 4 and use a friend spell. Early on the Flaming Fist mercenaries are dangerous, but later on they become easy to avoid or kill off. This is my first run with a small party and it's way more fun than using a 6 NPCs.
Can anybody make a better 4 man group than mine? :P
My protagonist (Groeg) is a dual-classed bounty hunter(6) turned mage. His skills are focused on finding, removing, and setting traps. Wielding a frost-brand scimitar and a ring of fire resistance, he is 90% immune to all fire damage. So casting fireballs in a crowd is a fun option. His backstabbing and traps make him absolutely devastating when ambushing. So much so that he can take out entire Flaming Fist hunting parties in a couple of rounds, all by himself. The versatility of magic can have the entire party walk around Baldur's Gate unseen for weeks, open locked chests, turn his armor class into an advantage, lower store costs, and much more. With the bracers of archery equipped, he's a deadly shot with a crossbow of speed.
Vicconia is widely regarded as the most powerful cleric in the game, and in a small party her ability to tank has surprised me. With the the most powerful armor in the game, her amazing 19 dexterity, and most importantly her magic resistance, she is difficult to harm in any way shape or form. The gauntlets of ogre power and that awesome mace (the one that paraylizes-aka KILLS-25% of the time) she is not just for slinging stones anymore. She can't take a hit as well as the games traditional tanking characters, but they don't get to cast sanctuary and slip away like she can either. With a wide range of defense and crowd controlling spells, she is extremely useful, and she is one of three characters in my party that can cast dispell magic if needed.
Eldoth the bard has proven to be a great compliment to my party. Between him and Groeg I have over 6 second level spell slots available for invisibility and knock. He doesn't cast during combat because he wears the +4 mithril chain, so most of his spells are for divination only. On a hardcore run you must buy potions of genius before studying scrolls! However, all of this is a big advantage because it allows Groeg to focus more on combat spells. He's no Coran with a longbow, but the gauntlets of dexterity and the Dead Shot longbow combined with his innate ability to create poison arrows makes him a dangerous sniper. Bard song is useful, pick pockets is fun, weapon versatility is interesting (from dagger of venom to Rancor), identifying items quickly is nice, but most importantly he is another arcane spell user. Which means double the wand and scroll use!
Dorn is my favorite NPC in the game. His devastating damage output makes him the only warrior you need. He does all the heavy lifting for my party. Bashing open doors, hauling ankheg hides, taking down foes quickly, and tanking. His biggest asset is eliminating mages. Any mage that isn't properly buffed or is dispelled, is a dead mage around Dorn. He has 2 proficiency slots in darts, which means that he can apply a deadly poison to them, and then hurl 3 or 4 of them a round! Once they are poisoned, they can't cast spells, and it's just a matter of slowly walking over with that two-handed sword scrapping off the stoney ground...The only thing about Dorn is that it's wise to buff his AC with potions or spells at early levels.
Obviously this party is very evil. My reputation is usually at 1, unless I want to buy stuff then I get it up to a 4 and use a friend spell. Early on the Flaming Fist mercenaries are dangerous, but later on they become easy to avoid or kill off. This is my first run with a small party and it's way more fun than using a 6 NPCs.
Can anybody make a better 4 man group than mine? :P
7
Comments
Cavalier (2h Swords. 2h Style. Maybe also Bastard Swords with the fix to let you use them 2h as well)
Neera
Viconia
Alora (Put in early to actually use her and get some say about her development)
Fighter/Thief CHARNAME
Baeloth
Viconia
Dorn
Custom Party:
Fighter/Thief
Ranger/Cleric
Sorcerer
< NPC's for related quests >
finally someone who shares the wicked habit of mine to play with 4 characters and relishes the beauty and easy of managing only 4 characters and doing it well! Not just equip everyone with a weapon and attack and wait...when you have 4 characters in a group, you have to think on your toes, you have to use strategy! And, you can get them the best items and sell the rest. (Though, I admit I had tops 5 chars in a group on occasion (to do their quests etc))
I could not agree more on most of your choices. Get a piece of all the classes you need and rock on!
Viconia - is a hell of a cleric and when you strap a piece of ankheg mail on her, small shield +1 into hand and Ashideena/Stupifier + sling, her AC drops dangerously low. I use her on 95% of my runs. Sometimes...but only sometimes, Branwen would do. Or Yeslick later...but never Jaheira.
The fighter spot was usually occupied by Minsc or Kagain, but here comes Dorn! I can't seem to not like this guy, even when I played a Chaotic Good Ranger (due to the alignment restriction).
The mage spot is usually Imoen, dualled on lvl 6 to a mage, covering all the unlocking and the traps I need + late game magic. If thief was covered somewhere else, Edwin is the go-to guy. (Possibly Neera, but while I love her voice acting, her personality tends to be annoying.)
My most favorite party compositions that I completed the game with/played with :
Assasin + Dorn,Vicky, Imoen->mage
Swashbuckler + Kagain, Vicky, Edwin
Blade + Dorn, Vicky,
+
Fighter or Blackguard + Minsc, Branwen, Imoen->mage
Druid (Shapeshifter) + Kagain,Dorn,Imoen->mage
Mage/Sorceror + Dorn, Vicky, Imoen or Safana for a change
(Also, because pathing.)
I haven't decided on an optimal BG quartet just yet, but it'll probably be caster-heavy.
In the Black Pits, my best party was:
- Human Fighter 3 > Mage
- Human Inquisitor
- Half-Elf Avenger
- Half-Orc Cleric of Lathander
Cheers, -- N
Mine is Bhaalspawn, Dorn Il Khan, Edwin, and Imoen.
If I'm going through Cloakwood, I'd rather have Dynaheir with me than Edwin.
Kagain
Tiax
Mage/Thief
Xan
I even tried cursing Shar-teel with the belt of gender switching.
The game designers missed a golden oppertunity to make her instantly attack my main after putting that belt on her. lol
If we were talking about stupid powerful TOB parties I think we'd be taking mostly mages.
This is my party and it is possibly my favourite combination so far. I was going to have Neera but I wasn't sure of who I'd use in the fourth slot, however I decided to stick with a good aligned party. That and I couldn't travel the Sword Coast without Boo!
PC - Dwarven Fighter/Cleric - A buffing tank plus heal-bot if required
Imoen - Ranged. Everyone needs a rogue
Minsc - Face-smasher/tank. I give him twin maces to make use of the ranger pips. Surprisingly dangerous.
Dynaheir - Casting piew piew!
Because the personalities of the NPCs matters to me almost as much as their utility, this is one I think I would enjoy:
half-orc Cleric/Thief
- 19 Str (20 with tome)
- cleric buffs and spells (Command, Sanctuary, DUHM, Hold)
- backstabs with Aule's Staff and Staff of Striking
- healing plus other thieving skills than stealth (Find/Remove Traps)
Viconia
I use her pretty much as @Lateralus does. I have her tank and cast spells (Command, Hold, Miscast Magic, Dispel) as enemies swing and miss.
Coran
With his astounding 20 Dex and elven bonus with the bow, his prowess as an archer is unsurpassed. He is a fantastic sniper (at least in a vanilla game; SCS basically takes snipering away). He can take care of locks. And he can backstab in tandem with the PC.
Neera
I think she's nearly as strong an arcane caster as Edwin or Baeloth. (Tbh, I have yet to try Baeloth, but from what I've read he sounds powerful as all-get-out.) I wouldn't take her for a no-reload game. But in a regular game Neera is great. She's a generalist with one extra spell slot per level, and she can 'shape' spells higher than her level would otherwise permit her to cast. The odds of a surge with a really bad outcome is only about 1.67%. A surge producing a benign result other than the spell intended I regard as akin to a minutely higher chance (again between 1-2%) of the target saving now and then. Her Wild Magic is well worth the risk to me.
This part is a little light for the front line. Viconia or Coran could be replaced with powerful meleer such as Dorn or Kagain. But the Cleric/Thief and Viconia can more than hold their own. They will also shut the enemy down with Command and Hold.
So sure, he's great in the end-game of BG1, but that's a long slog, and he's not great during that slog.
By the time you start BG2, hell yes! Edwin is awesome!
- - -
@Lemernis - Baleoth is great, but his fixed list of spells means you lose out on situational stuff. He's fine if you take another half-caster with you (like playing a Gnome Thief/Illusionist instead of a HO Thief/Cleric).
- Charname as a Berserker or Paladin Kit (Cavalier in BG1 or Inquisitor for BG2)
- Khalid as second fighter and using bows + long swords
- Yeslick as the party Cleric& support fighter
- Imoen to fit the thief/mage role
This would be quite good ;-)
Cleris man. Can't do offense very well (they can, like with Holy Power, but not out of the gate) but make awesome backup tanks.
Annnnyway, my earlier point was that at the end of BG is when mages start pulling ahead but aren't out of sight of fighters and other martial classes yet. Things end when the game is pretty even. Mages got a lot of strength and flexibility but lack endurance in terms of spells per day and hit points. The martial component of the party is still important for the success of the group even without things like magic resistant enemies and null magic zones.
Mages can buff themselves up into powerhouses but that spends magic they could affect enemies or teammates with. Clerics are a little better in that area, they get a few really great self buffs like Holy Power and can slap one down and beat the crud out of really tough guys. Or you can have the fighter do it, and put boot to butt, while he's still relevant.
Eventually the phenomenal cosmic power of mages will win hands down. But for my money, at the end of BG, fighters are still pretty close. And by combining these classes into a reasonably balanced party you get something that works better than the sum of its parts.
2 - who the heck is "ViCConia" ?
Lol
Just had to say this, no offense ;-)