So here's my future party, and there's heartbreak ahead!

xzar_monty

Having played BG2 quite a few times, and having tried all the NPCs, I've decided to emphasize the new ones pretty heavily this time. (Of the old ones, only Nalia was thoroughly unsatisfactory. All the others had plenty of great stuff in them. Anomen I found especially well created: it's a mark of genius if an imaginary character can actually get on your nerves in a game. But he can. Props.)

So, I'm going to be a berserker/cleric myself. Dual-class, obviously.

After that, it's going to be Hexxat, Neera and Rasaad. I'll probably have Dorn hanging around for a while, but I don't suppose I'll be able to stomach him for very long.

After those characters, I'll probably go for Aerie and Valygar. Or Aerie and Mazzy.

Anyway, the thing is: this combination won't allow me to take Yoshimo into Spellhold. I will have to reject Imoen! That's heartbreaking. Has anyone else had this? Rejecting Imoen in Spellhold just seems so... mean. I have only done it once. In all my other games, I've taken Yoshimo along for the ride. Leaving Imoen behind after Spellhold seems justifiable, but not taking her along in the first place does not.

And if this type of dilemma is not a mark of an extremely well designed game, nothing is!

mjs

Yup, I can never leave Imoen behind, the only time I did in bg2 was because I was playing an evil party, so recruited jan instead for thieving duties.

imoen is the only npc i have that attachment for. i used to put jahiera and minsc in the same bracket, but i've gone off them since playing bg:ee as they're not as staple as they are in bg2 (where they're forced on you at the off)

nano

You can always go with 5 people and grab your 6th again afterwards. I always bring her along too, seems kind of stupid to go on a rescue mission and then not rescue her.

GemHound

I honestly only rescued Imoen once, and was hunting for Irenicus every other time.

Montresor_SP

You can temporarily ask another NPC to wait at the starting point in the dungeon and "accidentally" walk Imoen into the crushing walls trap to the east, then recruit the other NPC after Imoen's unfortunate demise.

Or console yourself with the fact that Imoen finds her way back to the Copper Coronet quite easily after being dumped, where she can sip a cold drink while you have to fight your way through the Spellhold dungeon, the Sahuagin city and the Underdark before you return to Amn. :-)