Party advice please!

Mrpenfold666

im wanting some people in my party but im having trouble to decide who to get rid of and who to keep so first i will list my current party:

CHARNAME: totemic druid with spear focus

Jaheira: working on the romance

Minsc: who is my main melee fighter aside from me and jaheira

Nalia: i need a thief

Neera: who i want to keep for my mage but her main quest is impossible because the game cheats and i killed the wrong person when i wasn't in control of my party, ive given her tons of scrolls and she is pretty much essential plus i LOVE wild magic!!

anomen: who i mainly use for raise dead (Jaheira's doesn't seem to work anymore) and turn undead.


as you can see everyone is pretty vital and i want to add some people:

Keldorn: i heard he is a much better fighter and it seems im beginning to struggle with combat and it seems impossible to get my main characters AC below -1

Mazzy: who i hear is also a monster in combat

depending if keldorn has turn undead (he should as a paladin but i cant remember) i might replace him with anomen, but i need anomen for raise dead on te fly.....arg its frustrating!!

velehal

Keldorn and Mazzy are both better than Minsc. So I would swap Minsc for Keldorn or Mazzy. I like Mazzy more, but Keldorn is probably stronger.

ryuken87

If you plan your fights well then there is little need for Raise Dead. Maybe a Chaotic Commands in place of Raise Dead would lessen the need for the latter. There is also a Rod of Resurrection available early in the game (temple sewers, hidden door).

You have three divine casters which is total overkill seeing as it isn't *that* strong or necessary to have more than one. Both Anomen and Jaheira have their merits but seeing as you're romancing Jaheira stick with her and drop Anomen.

It isn't that hard to lower your AC. E.g. On Jaheira equip a plate mail and a shield and you're at -1 already without doing anything other than the bare basics. Get her the Helm of Balduran, a full plate, a magic shield and a protection item and your AC will be much lower. Have her cast Ironskins and she'll be a great tank.

There's nothing wrong with Minsc. His high strength means you can give your first strength boosting item to someone else (Jaheira, Mazzy and Keldorn all really demand one). Of all the single classed warriors, Keldorn is probably the worst in a straight up fight but has two great abilities which make mages a lot easier. Seeing as Mazzy starts of speced for ranged fighting, she won't be better than Minsc until midway through the game at least in melee. Very late in the game Minsc will better at tanking and Mazzy at dealing damage.

Inquisitors lose turn undead so Keldorn doesn't have it. A Paladin also turn undead at a lower level than clerics.

nano

It looks like a pretty good party already. If I was to get rid of a character I'd get rid of... charname! Haha, but seriously, which part of combat are you having trouble with? Are you trying to make charname into a warrior? As a totemic druid you're more of a summoner and should hang out in the back, let Jaheira/Minsc/Anomen do the whacking.

I definitely support dropping Minsc for either of the two you mentioned though. I swapped him for Mazzy in my game and it was well worth it.

Mrpenfold666

@ryuken87 i cant wear platemail as im a normal druid and i cant seem to find any armour that is decent, i have some rings and stuff that help me but im still wearing hide armour as things like studded leather +1 dont change anything and im not finding any better light armour.

and as for combat all my characters seem to be getting hit constantly. ill list everything equipped (which isnt much as im just finding mainly magic weapons which could be the problem)

Charname (-1)
Helmet of balduran
bracers of AC 3
ring of earth control
hide armour
spear +2
ring of fire resist

Jaheira: (-4)
Fullplate +1
large shield
helm of infravision
club

Minsc: (-1)
delvers plate +2
helmet
Sword of chaos +2
two handed sword +2

Neera (3)
after losing her stuff from dying it apparently got deleted as i wasnt able to recover it:

robe of invocation:
Q staff +2
bracers of AC6

Nalia: (3)
the protector +1
her signet ring

anomen: (-1)
full plate
his shield.

jaheria never walks away from a fight with more than 50% of her HP unless its against animals or something and nothing i buy affects anyone's AC it seems. seeing as for some reason im no good at long drawn out fights its the reason why i have 3 healers, i figure if i can get a good damage stick i can hopefully end fights before they get too painful

edit: @nano druids dont get that much in the way of ranged weapons and my spells are mostly healing and buffs so he has nothing to do but summon and flank but because he has to stand 3 inches from someone to talk to them he often gets targeted and ganked by everyone unless i make him run away or reload and metagame by making mass summons and buffs, but in all honesty he has nothing else to do except go into combat to try and keep the heat of minsc and jaheira, or to engage someone going after neera or nalia

nano

Hmm, but as a druid you don't get much in the way of armor either. You might manage to make him a decent fighter with good gear but putting all that gear on a real warrior would help a lot more. Even if you jump in with a spear it's not going to do much more damage than standing back and chucking darts because you're not a fighter to begin with.

I would stack all my best equipment on one guy. Like have Minsc dual wield and give him the Helm of Balduran and full plate. Are you making use of debuff spells? Even a Slow from Neera can turn things around early on.

You can make a tankier person your party leader so your charname doesn't end up in the front all the time.

Disgruntler

I think your problem is that you have too many healers. Try Anomen not as a healer, but as a buffed up frontliner. Go to this thread, page 3, scroll a bit up. Elminster has a very good post on what buffs to use with Anomen. http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/25838/why-does-everyone-say-viconia-is-the-best-cleric#latest
Your main char is a druid? That's great. Druids have some amazing spells. Memorize insect plague, both versions, some conjuration spells to get some meat shields and iron skin, which is a great defensive buff.

What quests did you do already? If you quest for a bit you will find some item upgrades. It's a slow process, but will improve your team steadily.

Mrpenfold666

i will respond in the morning but thank you so far for your help

Mrpenfold666

so far ive done nalias quests, neera's quests but the game made it impossible for me to finish it, the windspear hills and a couple of side missions like the circus tent to get aerie just about to clear the umar hills

Khyron

I'm not sure how much I can say without spoiling things for you.. so read on only if you think you can live with it. I'll try to keep it at a minimum.





A weapon from Windspear Hills + Keldorn + Dex Gauntlets + Strength Belt = The meanest, leanest, most effective melee killing machine any npc will ever be for you. In terms of newbie friendlyness and easy to use melee; Keldorn is unrivaled, down right in a league of his own.
In fact, this combination makes him far superior to almost any type of Charname as well.
Oh and he just so happens to be the most pleasant travel companion there is.. everybody needs a good, clean and wholesome father figure xD

Umar Hills, In a big quest heavily tied to this area you will find something you can bring to a dwarf in the Docks district that will serve as very good protection for you, for a long, long time.

Xannis

Cheapest way to get your AC up when you're limited by class restrictions is Spirit Armor spell. Your mage can cast on any party member (assuming mage is not barred from Necromancy). Acts as full plate, stacks with shield/rings/amulets, and gives a plus 3 on saves vs magic. Lasts a long time. Only downside is it takes a level 4 slot, doesn't give the hidden AC resistances real plate does (+vs slashing and piercing), and can be dispelled.

Jaheira: Give her iron skins to help with survivability.

Minsc vs Keldorn/Mazzy. If you're not married to him for RP/Banter/humor reasons Minsc is, IMO, one of the more lackluster frontliners in BG2. He's serviceable and to be honest I usually include him for the RP/Banter reasons but vanilla ranger just has very little going for it. In BG1 his STR (and lack of STR enhancing items for NPC's) kept him ahead of other people but with the plentiful amount of STR belts in BG you can basically take a better kit/class and give them the same stats Minsc would have.

Your party as is looks pretty good though honestly.

Mrpenfold666

im told on my "i need a new theif" thread that Jan is better than nalia at being a theif, so it seems the common consensus is:

replace anomen with keldorn, or turn anomen into a self buff frontline fighter

going on other thread aswell:

replace nalia with Jan
or
keep the party as it is and just be better at playing the game XD

ive said this again but thank you for the help ill play around and see what works

Lathlaer

Yeah, Keldorn may seem a bit lackluster in the beginning but it's because of his poor dexterity. You can remedy that fast with dex gauntlets. And then, there is Carsomyr - weapon so good that I've known people take him or make a paladin just for the sake of having it. Still, it's worth noting that his starting equipment is actually excellent - considering that you can have him almos instantly after exiting Irenicus' dungeon.


Myself, because I like Hexxat, I had to install a mod with another paladin so I could keep it

Khyron

Jan is indeed far superior to Nalia, as her thieving skills are stuck as they are without Dex tome or potions. Or some of the items available.. but you'd wanna use those item slots to make her a useful mage first.

I don't like Jan though.. nor Nalia for that matter haha. In fact I can't stand either one and often find myself forced to play a Thief-combo Charname because of it. I guess it's silly of me, but that's really the case for me.

starsky

yeah too much divine. Id say you were better off starting as a fighter or beserker and dualing into a druid. Or going avenger and being all casty. If youre into it you can make a fighter/totemic though shadowkeeper though.

I'd say having both jaheria and anomen is okay, but not needed. if all u need is raise dead, just plan your fights better or buy scrolls/find the rods.

Keldorn is an AMAZING guy. he just needs some equipment. no one in the game wrecks mages harder than keldorn.

Id take Jan over nalia for sure. Also Mazzy is great. get the bow from the slavers in the copper cornet and she is amazing! (bring lots of ammo)

My current party is similar to this, it's going great. Generally I like 2-3 fronliners, 1 divine caster and 2 arcane.
Keldorn
Rasaad
Yoshi
Mazzy
Charname - M/C muticlass
Nera

starsky

looking at your OP again,

Id say you should go

Keldorn
Jaheria
Mazzy
You
Jan/Nalia/Imoen
Neera

OR

Keldorn
Annomen
Mazzy
You
Jan/Nalia/Imoen
Aerie (if u really need the romance, dual druid is kinda bleh - Aerie might be better than jaheria and has raise dead)