Assembling the "C" Team
Narcissist
Member Posts: 65
Whether their class just isn't very good in BG1, their statistics aren't great, or if you just don't like their personality. There are a lot of NPC's that go overlooked. What I'd like to know is who are the worst of the worst? What would be the worst party you can assemble from the list of NPC's, and what class would their noble leader be?
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Comments
Tiax: Second-lowest Wisdom score among the game's clerics.
Khalid: Constant morale failures.
Dynaheir: The only mage blocked from two schools of magic.
Garrick: Low Intelligence means he gets into trouble when trying to scribe spells, plus incredibly low Constitution.
Rasaad: Given BG1's cap, you just can't get Rasaad to the point where monks become viable party members - he's easily killed and can't land enough hits/do enough damage.
Quayle: The worst cleric in the game (10 Wisdom).
Garrick would be the archer, Faldorn and Rasaad would have to frontline, and for half the game, you wouldn't have a thief. Druid as only divine caster and getting her mid game isn't ideal either. Plus Garrick would have to depend on spells/amulet charges (no Elven Chain) and use all his spells just to make up for having no armor.
Charname would be either a paladin or a cleric/thief to fill in for Faldorn and Alora in the first chapters.
Quayle is much underestimated. He's had a Dex buff for EE to make him a legal illusionist. He gets so many spells in total, more than anyone in the game.
I don't view any of the following NPC's as bad but if I had to choose 5 of them I'd go with
Jester (it doesn't really compliment the following party much)
Faldorn
Skie
Eldoth
Garrick
Rasaad
(Honourable mentions go to Xan and Xzar).
He is pretty annoying though, imo, so I get that argument completely.
I have a hard time including any of the early NPCs on such a list. They all have their applications, with the exception of Rasaad of course. He is a complete liability as far as I am concerned.
Rasaad is for now a weak NPC due to his late-blooming class, but will doubtless come good in BG2:EE.
Garrick - Annoying and only marginally useful
Zan - terminally annoying to the point where he can cause the rest of the party (and the player) to want to commit suicide
Rasaad - Just can't get useful at lower levels. Isn't a front liner and isn't a caster/thief. He's somewhere in the middle and less than useful because of it.
Quayle - really poor wisdom
Dynahier - Blocked from two schools of magic AND tied to another NPC (albeit a good one)
Alora
Thieving Skills (level 4)
Open Locks: 95
Find Traps: 30
Pick Pockets: 100
Move Silently: 45
Hide in Shadows: 45
Detect Illusion: 10
Set Traps: 20
Thieving Skills (Level 6)
Open Locks: 100
Find Traps: 50
Pick Pockets: 110
Move Silently: 45
Hide in Shadows: 45
Detect Illusion: 10
Set Traps: 35
Skie
Thieving Skills (level 4):
Open Locks: 45
Find Traps: 30
Pick Pockets: 50
Move Silently: 45
Hide In Shadows: 40
Detect Illusion: 0
Set Traps: 5
Thieving Skills (level 6):
Open Locks: 55
Find Traps: 40
Pick Pockets: 60
Move Silently: 55
Hide In Shadows: 50
Detect Illusion: 0
Set Traps: 5
Basically her high pickpocket score doesn't really make her any less useful than Skie strictly in terms of thieving skills.
Let's say you're running with Khalid and Jaheira and you really want a cleric but don't want to bring along yet another average strength melee NPC who needs either the gauntlets of ogre power or dexterity to really perform. Then take Quayle and use him as a support caster.
Alternatively, you already have a solid mage in the form of Edwin, Neera, Dynaheir or Xan and just need a second caster to cover spells you don't have enough spots for. You could use another full mage or you could use the *only multiclass mage in BG1* to do all your arcane and divine buffing while Edwin saves slots for fireballs.
10 wisdom means he misses 2 1st level and 2 2nd level spells compared to Branwen or Yeslick, but he gains an entire arsenal of mage spells to compensate. He is a bit annoying though.
This makes Dynahier much more viable.
Viconia is the best NPC cleric in the game--her innate 50% MR, give her ankheg plate mail, potions of strength, and the Honorary Ring of Sune. If you know a tough battle is coming up then give her potions of fortitude, as well.
Khalid--I concur that he is actually quite useful as a fighter.
Actually, in all the years of having BG1 I have never used Dynaheir, Tiax, Faldorn, Eldoth, Skie, Yeslick, or Coran. Perhaps if some of these characters had been available before the end of chapter 4 or fully into chapter 5 things would have been different. Still, there is no NPC who cannot be made into a model party member if given the correct equipment.
Quayle's deficient wisdom isn't a deficiency in BG1 since you cannot normally get 6th or 7th level cleric spells, anyway. Just give him the Ring of Sune if he needs extra spells.
And intelligence classes always come first, so he doesn't lose anything from wisdom technically.
I'm not 100% sure about this though.
The biggest gimp effect would certainly be in a party with a bard charname and both Eldoth and Garrick, but no Dorn. Even with his quest, only one would have armor and be able to cast.
Xzar doesn't belong anywhere near a C or even B team. He's a casting machine after dualing him. Decent str, good dex, good int, very good wis - the only downside is the low con (and both Viconia and Xan have less... hell, Shar-Teel has less). He truly is death, destroyer of worlds!
Of course, any of these NPCs can be made powerful with the right equipment ... but you really have to baby them to put them on-par with other NPCs, truly.
Oh and Faldorn and Dynaheir will always suck in terms of combat ability. Sure their spell-casting is useful (Faldorn is the most capable Divine spellcasting NPC), but they're always gonna suck hardcore in physical combat.
Faldorn is much stronger now that EE added the rest of the druid spell list (hello Summon Woodland Being!), and Garrick, well, who else will you give the Crossbow of Speed to? He sits in the back and uses all my wands and scrolls while Quayle casts from memory for an hour before resting.
One of my best playthroughs was me (Stalker), Ajantis, Faldorn, Garrick, Quayle, and Imoen (dualled).
The only NPC I have truly never used is Tiax. I really want to, but he never fits into any party I build because of how late you get him. I've also only used Skie once, and I got so sick of her voice acting.
So I guess my list is:
Skie (worst thief in game full of thieves)
Safana (second worst thief in game full of thieves, but at least she's sexy and can dual to mage if you work it right)
Dynaheir (totally crappy dex and not even 18 int - worst mage in game)
Jaheira (I do not get the love. other than Con her stats are horrid, and Faldorn gets better druid spells faster - I wish they had upgraded her to BG2 stats when EE came out)
Rasaad - agree with all above he is impossible to use at low levels and a wasted party slot
With this party your CHARNAME would probably need to be some kind of fighter since you have only Jaheira for "muscle." I'd go with Wizard Slayer since they are weakest at low levels and can't use any potions or magic items.
My favourite playthrough of the Baldur's Gate series was actually when I tried to have everyone in my party - at least once - throughout BG1. I tried not to metagame and only reloaded when my CHARNAME died. If any NPC's died, and my PC didn't overly like them he would leave them dead. I found this gave great variation upon meeting these same NPC's in BG2:EE. "Xar!? I thought you had been killed?"
I didn't worry to much on whether or not they were strong or weak. I loved the variation in personalities - and whereas some NPC's were indeed annoying or were incredibly pathetic, I would still let them tag along awhile anyway. It was great from an RP perspective. Garrick screwed up his memorization of a bunch of expensive scrolls, well: "I think we should part ways.... bloody idiot bard."
All in all, in my honest opinion I don't think I found any of the NPC's useless really. They all served a purpose in some form or another and when played right could still be relatively effective in combat situations.