I need recommendations on assigning armor

Vasculio

The two characters that come to mind is Khalid and Montaron

First Question, Khalid with Splint Mail or should I give him the Plate Mail?

Second Question, Montaron with leather based armor or should I give him chainmail based armor?

elminster

Khalid with Plate Mail, Montaron with studded leather (or leather if you only have leather).

Erinne

For pure fighters, there's absolutely no downsides for going with heavier armor. Wear whatever gives the best armor class (some armors may have other bonuses that make up for worse AC, but those are rare in BG1).

For Monty, if you give him anything heavier than studded leather, he won't be able to use his thief skills. It's up to you if you prefer to use him more as a fighter or as a thief. You could also make him wear heavy armor and just remove it when you need to use thief skills.

Zalson

Are you going to have Montaron backstabbing or do you need another front-liner?

If you need a front-liner, Montaron's AC can get pretty low with plate and a shield.

GamingFreak

But why would you put a fighter/thief in plate mail? Total waste if you did that.

KidCarnival

Mostly, I wouldn't recommend having Khalid and Monty together in the party, but that's a different story.

Khalid is a pure fighter, so the heaviest armor you can get - ideally Full Plate.
Monty can't use his thief skills with anything heavier than Studded Leather - ideally Shadow Armor.

Vasculio

Thanks for the input. Khalid is plated and Montaron is heavy leathered. Guess my next question is for Jaheira. Should she use heavy leather or is she fine with splint mail or can she benefit from plate mail?

KidCarnival

Divine spells don't care about armor, so you can put the heaviest on her, too.

Aranthys

General rule regarding armor is :

If you can equip an armor type that grants better base AC, equip it.
Unless :
- You have Wizard / Bard levels and intent casting
- You have Thief levels and intent backstabbing

moody_mage

Kill Drizzt and give Monty his mithril Chain Mail+4.

Kaltzor

I wouldn't recommend going beyond Studded Leather for Montaron so he can use his thief abilities...

Non-Magical Plate Mail is not all that hard to come by, so if Khalid can carry and wear it without overencumberance problems there really isn't a reason for him to not have it...

Though I find it better to save my best armors for the warrior class characters who use 2 handed weapons (Like everyone's favorite ranger) since the ones who use more Sword and Shield style get AC bonuses from shields.

Eudaemonium

Kaltzor said:

Though I find it better to save my best armors for the warrior class characters who use 2 handed weapons (Like everyone's favorite ranger)

But Valygar can't equip higher than Studded Leather! And he dual-wields.

…

Oh, you meant Kivan. That makes sense.

scorpiova

No armor... get them both killed and use some good characters

Dragonspear

@Scorpiova

Khalid and Montaron are some of the best characters in game. My only complaint is that both will be fighting for the gauntlets of ogre power.

If you increase Khalid's strength, suddenly he's a frontline tank, quickly gaining Mastery in the most wildly available and useful Magical Weapon type in game (Longswords), and actually has minor bonuses to Dex and Con.

Meanwhile, Monty is an early thief (high full thief point customization) AND a halfling (yay free thief points). I seem to remember he also has respectable dex and con (I want to say 17 and 16 off the top of my head). With only a str spell or str increasing item (all 2 of them in BGEE), you have a ferocious backstabber.

Honestly I think that Monty is better than Xzar, although his dialogue set isn't quite as amusing.

KidCarnival

I can't agree on Monty being better than Xzar. They are the most versatile NPCs to me.

Monty does very well as thief (even if he's the only one in the party) - as halfling, he can max traps and locks, has good strength, dex and con and even with minimal investment in stealth points (+ Shadow Armor + Worn Whispers; then potions/Sandthief Ring), he'll still be able to hide and backstab efficiently, leaving him - if neccessary - points for setting traps. Along with Shar-Teel, he's the best evil ranged fighter, except he also has good con and is a shorty, and can frontline if neccessary. I frequently have him and Kagain go against Aet'Letec, with the rest of the party just watching.

Xzar can dual to thief or cleric with 1 tome each - no other NPC can dual to two classes. Xzar is simply the best cleric in the game - 5 to 6 levels specialist mage plus highest possible cleric level with highest possible wisdom; very decent strength for a mage (and monstrous with Hands of Takkok, but unlike Viconia, he doesn't need them to use shields), good dex and the low con is still higher than Viconia's or Shar-Teel's (aka "a non-issue"). Xzar frontlining with Stupifier and a large shield = best thing ever; plus as frontliner, he can make use of various necromancy touch spells. On any other mage, they are usually a waste; Xzar makes them awesome (and his sounds contribute to it, too).

nano

It's definitely worth picking up Rasaad for a bit if you have two characters (eg Monty and Khalid) who need the ogre gauntlets because the cursed belt of giant strength is amazing. It also lets you use the gloves of weapon mastery, or whatever they're called, giving you gratuitous amounts of damage. If you have Monty backstabbing with the gloves and 19 strength and you roll a crit it's like setting a nuke off in someone's spine.

GamingFreak

Cursed Belt of Giant Strength is awesome on guys like Minsc, who are dumb by nature anyway.

Dragonspear

@GamingFreak

I gave it to Yeslick in my last game (and Kagain in the game before that which felt wrong). Yeslick turned into a monster for the rest of the game with that belt + gaunts of dex.

nano

Plus the downside doesn't matter in BG1, where there aren't any mind flayers (thank god).

GamingFreak

yeah it pretty much works with any fighter that you like keeping on the front line at any point. People like Minsc, Jaheira, Yeslic, and maybe even Montaron would do best with it. Jaheira definitely needs a strength buff so if you want to go all 'canon party' then she could use it the most

Zalson

GamingFreak said:

But why would you put a fighter/thief in plate mail? Total waste if you did that.

If you're expecting him to be a thief, totally. If you need him to be a just a gimped fighter (for instance ... I can't think of one right now ...), then plate makes sense. Right? Right?!

I am just trying to grab some straws here, guys!

GamingFreak

Zalson said:

GamingFreak said:

But why would you put a fighter/thief in plate mail? Total waste if you did that.

If you're expecting him to be a thief, totally. If you need him to be a just a gimped fighter (for instance ... I can't think of one right now ...), then plate makes sense. Right? Right?!

I am just trying to grab some straws here, guys!

If you put a fighter/thief in plate mail, you just made a gimped fighter with less HP and Thac0, who can't even use the thieving abilities that he/she has in exchange for those nerfs. Never ever ever ever ever EVER put a Fighter/Thief in plate. You need AC? Drink a potion of defense. That's something those fighter levels are good for.

GemHound

Exploits man. You equip the Leather armor, send Monty into the shadows, have him equip the Ankheg armor and voila! Instant explosive tank that appears in the middle of the enemy! Instant chunking spectacular, with no need to hide him after the first blow has been sent!


Note: Instant Chunking only happens on opening shot, the rest are normal hits.

Vasculio

Wow... I never thought of dual classing Xzar... I might try that in my next game.

KidCarnival said:

I can't agree on Monty being better than Xzar. They are the most versatile NPCs to me.

Monty does very well as thief (even if he's the only one in the party) - as halfling, he can max traps and locks, has good strength, dex and con and even with minimal investment in stealth points (+ Shadow Armor + Worn Whispers; then potions/Sandthief Ring), he'll still be able to hide and backstab efficiently, leaving him - if neccessary - points for setting traps. Along with Shar-Teel, he's the best evil ranged fighter, except he also has good con and is a shorty, and can frontline if neccessary. I frequently have him and Kagain go against Aet'Letec, with the rest of the party just watching.

Xzar can dual to thief or cleric with 1 tome each - no other NPC can dual to two classes. Xzar is simply the best cleric in the game - 5 to 6 levels specialist mage plus highest possible cleric level with highest possible wisdom; very decent strength for a mage (and monstrous with Hands of Takkok, but unlike Viconia, he doesn't need them to use shields), good dex and the low con is still higher than Viconia's or Shar-Teel's (aka "a non-issue"). Xzar frontlining with Stupifier and a large shield = best thing ever; plus as frontliner, he can make use of various necromancy touch spells. On any other mage, they are usually a waste; Xzar makes them awesome (and his sounds contribute to it, too).

KidCarnival

@Vasculio - You need the tome from Durlag's. It's possible to get it with a level 4 - 5 party. Either have a thief sneak in (all the way from map entry, if you want to avoid the battle horrors) or if you have a good frontline, you can kill the horrors and do all upper levels. Ideally, you avoid the basilisks and sirine maps until you dual Xzar; then get the XP to bring his levels back faster.

Corvino

@GamingFreak - it all depends on context. If there are no traps on your map and a lot of tough enemies (like the werewolf isle) then full plate makes complete sense on your fighter/thief. Metagame knowledge makes a difference though.

Freche

My fighter/mage always runs around in the heaviest armor available to my party. But I also only stack her with defensive spells that I can cast before more difficult fights.

[Deleted User]

@Nano There is one downside to the cursed strength belt in that it lowers the character's INT below the requirement for using scrolls and wands, but that's a pretty minor penalty for most characters.

Belanos

Dragonspear said:

@Scorpiova

Khalid and Montaron are some of the best characters in game.

Seriously? Khalid is a friggin' coward, he'll go running off at the first scratch, shouting, "The better part of valour!" The only reason to keep him in any party is so you can hang onto Jaheira, as she'll leave too if you kick him out. As for Montaron, he doesn't get along with anyone. Having him tagging along is just an invitation for an in-party battle. I dump those two at the earliest possible moment. They're always left cooling their heels in Beregost when I can pick up Kivan and that Bard.

Dragonspear

Montaron doesnt start the dialogue in the checks, it is xzar.

Also I must be very lucky cause Khalid might pull that stunt once in an entire game on me

KidCarnival

Legend has it that Khalid has a slightly different morale failure value than other NPCs, and that hasn't been confirmed in a convincing way. A lot people play the "canon" party and I doubt that would be so popular if Khalid was really that bad and hard to manage.

Montaron gets along with everyone but Ajantis on his own, and it's Ajantis attacking all evil NPCs, not Monty attacking good NPCs. Jaheira and Xzar start the Harper/Zhent fight, true, but other than that, neither pair has conflicts with other NPCs.