Please critique my party

Thrasymachus

With patch 1.2 now a reality, and BG2EE on the way, I'm planning on playing through the entire series twice more, once with a 'goodish' party, and once with a neutral/evil party.

The first game will be 'goodish' in orientation, with an Avenger PC.

BGEE Party:

Epicurus [PC] - Avenger
Neera - Wild Mage
Imoen - Thief
Ajantis - Paladin
Rasaad - Sun Soul Monk

I like having 4-5 characters in my party in BGEE, and will not be adding Rasaad until quite late (after the Cloakwood mines). However, if there is any obvious weakness with this group, feel free to let me know. (It is a little light on the warriors, but I think that I'll enjoy the challenge.)

Moving on to BG2EE (about which I'm more uncertain)...

BG2EE Party:

Epicurus [PC] - Avenger
Neera - Wild Mage
Imoen - Thief>Mage
Rasaad - Sun Soul Monk

Aside from that core (with Yosh likely acting as thief until Spellhold), I'm not sure who else to add from the following:

Keldorn - Inquisitor
Valygar - Stalker
Mazzy -Fighter (quasi-paladin)
Sarevok - Fighter
Haer'Dalis - Blade

Sarevok obviously is not available until ToB, but I'm cool with having a 5-member party until then.

Dorn is out, I think, as I have a hard time seeing how he would get along with such a 'goodish' party. Hexxat is a possibility, but I don't know enough about her yet (aside from the fact that she's a thief) to know yet whether to include her.

In any case, I'm saving Dorn and Hexxat for my second (neutral/evil) run through the series.

Thanks for any advice!

Drugar

Add Keldorn, that's all you need.
Some plate and dispelling so your three spellcasters can let loose.

ryuken87

BG1: It's not that there's an area of weakness as such with this party, it just isn't particularly strong. Ajantis has very average stats, Neera has that unpredictabiliy and Rasaad is just weak. If anything I'd say you need a bow user but I don't think you'll have any big problems as such.

BG2: Tough choice but I don't think it will make a huge difference. I like Valygar as he comes set up to dual wield, late game game he will be a better tank than the other warriors (though not Haer) due to Armour of Faith and he has the added perk of backstabs.

Corvino

You don't have any Cleric casters in either party, or the options. While Anomen, Aerie and Viconia aren't for everyone they do cover a number of niches missed by druid casting, and having a dual or multi cleric to fill in is pretty useful.

For your BG1 party it may be worth thinking about Yeslick from the Cloakwood mines. With the cursed belt from Rasaad's quests and gauntlets of Dex he is an absolute beast and a cleric to boot.

elminster

Rasaad is weak but his Sun Soulray is actually pretty good against undead enemies. Otherwise since its currently bugged it will hit more than one target so its a nice quick-to-use damage ability.

Wand of the Heaven are useful with him. Other than that there really isn't much to say. Flaming Fist is a pretty pointless ability at present because his Thac0 (even with item enhancements) is too low to reliably hit anything in the 1 round that it lasts. That will change in BG2 but the 1.5 attacks/round that he gets (can't be hasted) won't really help with that.

keuunny

In BG1 you will have a bit of trouble in the early game I feel. Ajantis dies A LOT to random hits in the beginning. (this is coming from a guy that almost always has Ajantis in his good charname parties)

Rasaad in early BG1 is also pretty poor due to the fact that monks themselves are not in their element in the first game. So most of the time, he will need to either do some hit and runs or pelt rocks at the face of his enemies.

As for BG2EE, I think Keldorn makes sense if you are going to replace him for Sarevok as his quest line has the option to let him stay with his family.

Lord_Tansheron

If you play the unmodded game, you can probably stomp it with any party you like, and simply choose NPCs based on personal preference, fun-factor, or RP value.

In terms of power, Keldorn is probably the best good-aligned NPC, though the most powerful NPCs tend to be evil ones (Edwin, Viconia, Sarevok, and now Dorn). Rasaad will be good in BG2, as monks tend to scale well with higher levels.

Not sure what else to say. What are the parameters you are looking at? What's the important factors in a game for you?

LordRumfish

For BG1, you look a bit low on frontline fighters. Ajantis works out fine if you equip him up, but I can say from experience that only having one real melee combatant is rough. A late-game Rasaad can help with off-tanking (starting at level 6 Rasaad is pretty reasonable in this role) but his low HP and lack of a helmet will still haunt you.

However, you can make it work. I once played an all-neutral party that had to rely on Jaheira and Branwen for tanking (I foolishly made my PC a cleric/mage and also sometimes took a tank role even though I was pretty middling at it). Spells became very important with that group, and this may be the case with yours as well.

onan

Hey! It's his party and he'll cry if he wants to.

Seriously though, I like it. Lots of RP opportunities in a mixed party like that.

Thrasymachus

Drugar said:

Add Keldorn, that's all you need.

I'm definitely leaning toward including Keldorn. I've always liked him, yet rarely have used him in past games (and never all the way through SoA and ToB).

Thrasymachus

ryuken87 said:

Ajantis has very average stats

keuunny said:

Ajantis dies A LOT to random hits in the beginning. (this is coming from a guy that almost always has Ajantis in his good charname parties)...

While I'm still early in the game (just completed the Nashkel mines), I've managed to equip Ajantis with the Dexterity Gauntlets and given him Specialization in Longbows, so he's a competent archer now. I plan eventually to have him specialize in 2-H swords. Overall, he's working out 'okay' combat-wise. Definitely not the killing machine that Dorn is, or as good an archer as Kivan or Coran, but competent enough.

My main reason for including Ajantis is that I've rarely used him in the past, so the change is refreshing. And since I don't have a cleric in the party, he can pick up some of the slack (turning undead, protection from evil, and some healing).

Thrasymachus

Corvino said:

You don't have any Cleric casters in either party, or the options. While Anomen, Aerie and Viconia aren't for everyone they do cover a number of niches missed by druid casting, and having a dual or multi cleric to fill in is pretty useful.

For your BG1 party it may be worth thinking about Yeslick from the Cloakwood mines. With the cursed belt from Rasaad's quests and gauntlets of Dex he is an absolute beast and a cleric to boot.

Thanks for the reminder about Anomen. I'm tempted to include him -- especially if I include Keldorn, as I believe that they have some interesting interactions (I've never had them both in a party before).

I'm saving Viconia for my 'neutral/evil' run. As for Aerie ... I'd rather not play at all than have her in my party (one run through SoA + ToB with her was more than enough, even if it was 12 years ago!).

With respect to BG1, I may add Yeslick or Branwen, rather than use Rasaad (aside for Rasaad's quest).

Thrasymachus

Lord_Tansheron said:

What are the parameters you are looking at? What's the important factors in a game for you?

Yes, I probably should have been clearer about my criteria in my original post.

My main criterion is to have a 'fun' party RP-wise. A secondary criterion is that I don't want to deal with alignment conflicts (so only good and neutral characters in this run).

With respect to party 'strength', I'm looking for a group that is competent but not overwhelmingly powerful.

On the one hand, I don't want any serious gaps in the party (so at least 1 thief, 1 mage/sorcerer, 1 cleric/druid, and 1 warrior).

On the other hand, I want to challenge myself by having only one 'pure' warrior (although I'm flexible about this), and not necessary the 'best' mage, priest, etc. (Indeed, I would consider using a bard instead of a mage, but I don't care for Garrick, and Eldoth is evil.)

I guess that's a bit vague, but hopefully it makes some sense...

Mrpenfold666

i agree with the above you need some form of healing or your going to be resting after every fight pretty much, but i would recommend a cleric/mage of some description. you dont want to risk neeras wild magic on buffs so you want someone to buff your party (maybe add buffs t your paladin and keep healing for a cleric) and then you can have neera as a purely offensive caster so wild mage either turns into a more powerful spell (early on), a potential buff on yourself or a debuff of some kind so 2/3 are going to help in some way.

that just my suggestion though and how i would go about it if i had the same party hope it helps

Time4Tiddy

Thrasymachus said:

Thanks for the reminder about Anomen. I'm tempted to include him -- especially if I include Keldorn, as I believe that they have some interesting interactions (I've never had them both in a party before).

Their interactions are VERY interesting if Anomen fails his trial...