Just rambling *mild spoilers*

abacus

Ok, so I just noticed something. Assuming a blind/noob run, your rough path will be...
...Escape from Casa del Jon (accepting all the help you can get along the way)... Ooh, a big circus tent, I wonder what's in there... toddle over to the slums... follow Gaelan's kid to stronghold quest...

Following this path, you get:

1) Charname
2) Minsc (Ranger)
3) Jaheira (Fighter/Druid)
4) Imoen (Thief>Mage) [Yoshimo (Bounty Hunter)]
5) Aerie (Cleric/Mage)

Which is pretty balanced: two healers, one stealer, two mages and one who rages.
And..
6) Additional NPC as determined by class-specific stronghold quest.

So if Charname is:
Mage >you get> Valygar (Stalker)
Cleric >> Keldorn (Inquisitor)
"Warrior" >> Nalia (Thief>Mage)
Thief >> Edwin (Conjurer)
Ranger >> Mazzy (Fighter)
Bard > Haer'Dalis (Blade)
Druid >> Cernd (Shapeshifter)
Paladins >> Anomen (Fighter>Cleric)

All of which end up with a fairly balanced party with a strong theme. (Admittedly a thief is probably going to have to ditch Minsc at some point. But Boo wouldn't want him mixing with such nefarious folk anyway... And a bard might face some "competition".)

Just sharing a thought, and wondering if this is a developers' nod to a class-dependant-canon party...

Erinne

abacus said:

follow Gaelan's kid to stronghold quest...

Usually I just follow Gaelan's kid to the nearest inn. Which might explain why I've finished SoA about 3 times with a party consisting of Minsc, Jaheira, Aerie, Anomen and Yoshimo/Imoen :P. Interesting theory, though. Wouldn't the druid's party end up a bit "competitive" as well, with CHARNAME, Jaheira and Cernd? Though I guess you can never have too many Insect Plagues and Fire Elementals.

shawne

Not really, because if your trip to the slums took you through the Copper Coronet (not an unreasonable assumption) you'd have Anomen, Nalia and Hexxat to choose from all at once.

Eudaemonium

I'm not sure who these 'Minsc' and 'Jaheira' characters are. I vaguely remember some guy who went mad and died in Nashkel and some random meddlesome Harper woman that I left in a ditch, but that's about as clear as it gets.

Also by Imoen you mean that doppelgänger who tried to trick me like the ones back in Candlekeep, right? I wasn't buying her lies.

abacus

Erinne said:

abacus said:

follow Gaelan's kid to stronghold quest...

Usually I just follow Gaelan's kid to the nearest inn. Which might explain why I've finished SoA about 3 times with a party consisting of Minsc, Jaheira, Aerie, Anomen and Yoshimo/Imoen :P. Interesting theory, though. Wouldn't the druid's party end up a bit "competitive" as well, with CHARNAME, Jaheira and Cernd? Though I guess you can never have too many Insect Plagues and Fire Elementals.

Yeah, I thought that, but I guess it could work with a real aggressive-caster build Charname… On the other hand, it ends up being a woodland warriors type party, and I themed parties!

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shawne said:

Not really, because if your trip to the slums took you through the Copper Coronet (not an unreasonable assumption) you'd have Anomen, Nalia and Hexxat to choose from all at once.

And Korgan. The best thing about these games is the variety of ways to beat them, but there's no denying that all except the Paladin quest put you right into contact with a recruitable NPC.
Honestly… I was just bored at work and randomly plotting future runs!

Shin

abacus said:

And Korgan. The best thing about these games is the variety of ways to beat them, but there's no denying that all except the Paladin quest put you right into contact with a recruitable NPC.

Indeed. Given the number of NPCs available they obviously had to place them somewhere, and integrating them into quests seems better than just having them stand around looking for something to do.

nano

Heh, that's exactly the path I took my first time through. I didn't know about the strongholds, though. I still follow this path more or less, after swapping out the characters I don't want to use.