help picking my char/party

Theldrin85

I am going to give this another shot and (hopefully) finish it this time. first play i made a thief focused on backstabbing....this never really worked and i got frustrated because i usually died and had to reload rinse repeat....i know this game is brutal and thats great!
so im thinking of doing another thief (or assassin) (provided i can get some tips on stealth/successful backstabs) or.....something else. im thinking maybe archer to stay at range and pew pew.

-now that leaves the rest of the party...
i plan on using neera because wild magic is....useful at times
-imoen - if i wont be great at traps
-the paladin: if alignments allow
- im not too fond of khaleed, but jaheira is decent
-the cleric is a must, but i dont know where to get her (the good one pref)

thanks in advance for advice/help/tips

nano

It's hard to backstab until you put a few points in stealth. If you want a stabby thief a fighter/thief is a good choice and they can fight well even outside of stealth. Assassin is another option but you can't get high enough in BGEE to take advantage of the multiplier.

Jaheira can do a lot of cleric duties and you might not even need another cleric, but if you want the Good cleric look around near Nashkel for a woman in need of magical help.

Theldrin85

well i had intended to backstab -> stealth rinse repeat. so assuming i focus on stealth how many points would i need to dump into move silently...and/or the other one (to be effective) . and would this hinder my disarm/detect trap alot to the point of needing imoen? or not really?
also what about archer?
granted different playstyles, but im looking for damage potential but more importantly having a well rounded group and not needing 2 of the same class type if possible (i.e me a thief with imoen tagging along if i need traps disarmed)

nano

The game goes by the average of your move silently/hide in shadows so you can spend points in either. Even with a pretty low score like 40 (averaged) you can keep trying to stealth before a battle until it works, then run up quickly and backstab but if you want to restealth reliably during a fight you will probably need closer to 80. There are items as well, stealth boots for example give you 17 (averaged). But more is always better and it'll help you stealth when the conditions aren't ideal, like if you don't have any shadows to hide in or you're in broad daylight. Also, keep in mind you have to run out of line of sight to stealth unless you're a shadowdancer who can hide in plain sight. If you can't hide you can always drink an invisibility potion.

I would probably bring Imoen because you want to be focusing on stealth right from the beginning so you can backstab as soon as possible. If you find that you have enough points in stealth later on you can start increasing traps and ditch her once it gets high enough but I would keep her until then.

Fighter/thief can be a great archer (Coran is probably the best archer in the game) but if you're talking about the Archer kit it's very strong. Bows are great in BGEE so the kit is one of the strongest you can pick. It doesn't require much management either, you just point him at whatever you want dead and he makes it so. But even if you don't take Archer, make sure everyone can use a ranged weapon as there will be times you need to snipe a mage or similar.

When picking thief I find it useful to pick up other thieves so you can play a stealth-based party. Otherwise you just end up with the rest of your party camping outside because they can't sneak, while one character does all the work. With multiple thieves you can have one of them backstabbing while the other one makes a getaway after his backstab and stuff like that. It takes a lot of micromanagement and pausing but I think it's a fun way to play.

Theldrin85

cool thanks for the help, if i did go archer what would i focus on STR ? for bow damage or does dex factor in as well?
edit* also asking because of the....compostie longbow? (or whatever bow has the high STR req.) or is there another version of the bow thats "best" for the archer kit

nano

Composite longbow needs 18 str but str doesn't affect bow damage otherwise (only slings/thrown daggers/thrown axes in BGEE). And max dex of course - dex is really important and you should max it on every character but archers especially. Composite is the best one; there is a high accuracy longbow that trades a bit of damage for more accuracy, but as an archer your accuracy will be good enough that I would rather have the damage. Small spoiler - you can get the best bow in the game (composite +1) very early on if you just earn enough money, and it's not even that much money.

zur312

poison bow assasin
make an assasin with bow/short sword poison arrow -> pew pew
party for assasin
imoen dualed to mage @ lvl3 all into find traps
neera
jaheira without khalid
kagain
kivan
you have 2 mages 2 archers 3 fighting pretty decent characters

backstaber
fighter/thief or shadowdancer dwarf/elf 2x long sword or short swords str dex conc int/cha depends on who will be the "merchant" or will you play bg2
neera cc like horror blind sleep coz of all fighter party + sling/darts/throwing daggers
jaheira staff or scimitars
minsc 2handers
kivan bows
kagain
you have all fighters + neera

Corvino

I'll second @nano's suggestion of a fighter/thief multi. Their playstyle is a lot more like the modern implementation of rogues in MMOs and D&D in that they can actually do decent damage in melee apart from their initial backstab.

For a fighter thief you want at least 18/51 Strength, 18 Dex and 18 Con (or 19 Dex, 17 Con for an Elf). Getting the boots of stealth from the map just south of Beregost and the Shadow Armor from the Beregost smithy when you can afford it will help a lot with hiding.

Don't get too ahead of your party when backstabbing, or wait until mid-combat to do it. Your thief is not a tank if he's wearing studded leather and won't survive long alone. You can use boots of speed or the haste spell to run around a corner and restealth if you need to, or if you want to backstab multiple times.

For race there's a lot to consider. Elves get to-hit bonuses with swords which will help you to hit early on and also get stealth bonuses and naturally high Dexterity. Dwarves and Gnomes get very nice save-throw bonuses that can help to avoid the nastier save-or-suck spells that enemy mages love so much and good general thief-skill bonuses. Halflings get great thief-skill bonuses but their strength penalty can handicap their backstabbing early on. Go with what you prefer.

Weapon choice is the eternal debate. Some people swear by staves. Dual wielding is arguably a better choice if you plan to stick around for the melee that follows the backstab though. If you plan on dual-wielding then 2 proficiency points in it is likely enough in BG:EE, allowing you to specialise in 2 weapons. Longswords and Scimitars are very solid choices in BG1 and BG2 as well. The Dagger of Venom is worth mentioning too - if you don't kill a mage you'll interrupt their casting for a couple of rounds, dagger proficiency will let you use throwing daggers too. Short swords are decent but unexceptional in BG1, but have a +Attacks per Round weapon in BG2 which is very useful.

Theldrin85

i decided to go the archer route (at least for my first playthrough)
still having trouble picking a party tho....currently im thinking
-imoen(until i can find better?)
-ajantis
-khaleed( until i can get a suitable replacement...i cant stand him lol)
-jaheera (meh i could keep her and kill of khaleed or just dismiss both...either way)
-branwen(heals/raise dead)
-neera (wild mage fun)
any tweaks/ suggestions? i realize i listed six....neera will (most likely) be in my party early on....but again tweaks and suggestions are appreciated.
i would like a well rounded group and not really have to worry about some situation i cant handle due to party comp.

thanks in advance

nano

You can ditch Khalid and Jaheira, Khalid is pretty mediocre and you already have a cleric in Branwen. I'd get another front liner if you don't want to rely on kiting. I'm guessing you don't want any Evil characters but as far as Good characters go, there's always Minsc (and Boo!). Or Kivan, he's traditionally an archer but also capable in melee. Give him some long sword points and go to town. Or Rasaad... haha, just kidding.

Theldrin85

yeah i love minsc, but he went nuts when i failed to rescue dynaheir in time, and had to reload (last playthrough) isnt there some way to still have him in the party without dyna (after you rescue her?)
what about yeslick? (the dwarf from the mines...forget his alignment tho)
edit* i would rather not intentionally kill off chars....due to possible bad stuff in bg 2

nano

Yeah, if you want to split a pair just send one into a house and then remove from party. It's sort of an exploit but not a very big one. And as far as Dynaheir goes it's probably safer for her to be resting in a house than going on dangerous adventures, so Minsc should be happy about it.

Yeslick is great too, I only didn't mention him because the mines are pretty far into the game. And he's a cleric, which means you probably want to replace your other cleric. More than one cleric is unnecessary in my opinion.

Theldrin85

cool ty

Corvino

Yeslick is a very good NPC indeed, but he does need the gauntlets of dexterity really. With those he becomes a very solid tank while also being able to meet all your clerical needs.

zur312

Theldrin85 said:

i decided to go the archer route (at least for my first playthrough)
still having trouble picking a party tho....currently im thinking
-imoen(until i can find better?)
-ajantis
-khaleed( until i can get a suitable replacement...i cant stand him lol)
-jaheera (meh i could keep her and kill of khaleed or just dismiss both...either way)
-branwen(heals/raise dead)
-neera (wild mage fun)
any tweaks/ suggestions? i realize i listed six....neera will (most likely) be in my party early on....but again tweaks and suggestions are appreciated.
i would like a well rounded group and not really have to worry about some situation i cant handle due to party comp.

thanks in advance

imoen->coran when you find him
khalid and jaheira drop them
branwen ->yeslick when you find him
bring minsc and dynaheir

2 archers you and coran
3 pretty strong fighters minsc(was probably top1 but now with dornimbalancedpoisonlol) yeslick(f/c) ajantis(like khalid but not a whinging coward)
1 mage neera she is pretty much female edwin in power
1 cleric yeslick f/c

should be pretty good with this fighter/archer combo