Evil party

hipdose

Hello, I played some bg, bg2, icewind dale 1/2, planescape, temple of elemental evil, but for some reason I never really finished any of these games or went really deep into story line. Maybe this time I will manage to finish it with really EVIL party, using only evil alignment companions. It might be fun and I wouldn't need to think about losing party members because of my evil deeds. (Off course I know that you can control your overall alignment by doing bad/good things this way keeping your companions at one place) maybe it will be harder playthrough but I am looking forward for it.
But the problem is I have no idea which of evil companions are worth picking or how to level them properly (after completing half game and understanding that you made a lot of mistakes by simply picking bad party members or leveling them wrong makes me kinda frustrated ).
Can anyone suggest me evil party companions(or must have) and what my main protagonist could be to make party "balanced". Thanks for your help and sorry for any typos I made. I am writing from mobile phone and english is not my mother tongue.
Tdlr : suggest evil party composition ( maybe some leveling tips, especially for mage, or maybe best way to gather said party) thanks again ^^

shawne

Assuming you're referring to BG:EE and BG2:EE, and that a balanced party is Melee/Melee/Utility/Healer/Caster/Caster:

For the first game, you can pretty much pick any class you want for your PC, because there's a broad enough selection. Dorn, Montaron and Kagain are great fighters (Monatron is a multiclass thief); Shar-Teel can be dual-classed into a very impressive thief; Viconia is the best cleric in the game; Edwin, Xzar and/or Baeloth are supreme spellcasters. So a balanced party would be something like:

Dorn/Kagain/Montaron/Viconia/Xzar/Mage PC

or

Fighter PC/Dorn/Shar-Teel/Viconia/Edwin/Baeloth.

In terms of recruitment, none of them are particularly difficult: you get Xzar and Montaron in the very first screen after leaving Candlekeep; Viconia is one screen north and east of the FAI; talking to Dorn in the FAI will trigger an encounter with him when you go to Nashkel; Shar-Teel's just hanging around Mutamin's Garden and will join you if you have a male party member who beats her in a duel; Kagain will join you in Beregost (then just take him north to end his quest); Edwin will require a quest (killing Dynaheir in the Gnoll Stronghold) and Baeloth will appear in Larswood near the broken tower when your PC reaches level 5.

---

BG2:EE only has five evil NPCs, but they're a balanced party in and of themselves: Dorn and Korgan on the front lines, Hexxat as the party thief, Viconia as the healer and Edwin as the primary mage.

Because BG2 has more instances of timed quests, it's harder to parse the specific recruitment sequence, but basically, they're all in Athkatla and can be recruited immediately (except for Edwin):

Dorn is in the Temple District.
Viconia is in the Government District.
Hexxat and Korgan are both in the Copper Coronet.
You'll encounter Edwin when doing the Mae'Var questline, and he'll join you once that's wrapped up.

abacus

My current Charname is an evil Blade. In BG1 she's running with: Kagain(Tank), Dorn(Massive Damage), Viconia(Healer), Edwin(Caster Supremo) & Shar-Teel(Dualled early to thief). Charname's role is support magic & 2nd wave melee (with S-T).
It seems a really powerful combination at the minute.

When she gets to BG2, she'll be linking up with Dorn, Edwin & Viconia again, with Korgan in the grumpy dwarf role, and Hexxat as Sneak-Chief.. Again an almost game-breaking line up.

Come ToB... The big Vok will probably come in for one of the front liners.

Edit: Either of these parties would also work with a caster PC... A sorcerer in particular would be a deadly mix with Edwin late-game.
I just like my PCs to be able to swing a sword (or two)...

hipdose

Bg:ee but after it I am planing to continue on bg2:ee, so thanks for including it too in reply.
Thanks for your comments once again, it was really helpful. If anyone wants to add anything related to evil alignment feel free to do so.

abacus

One tip for playing evil: be careful of your reputation levels - if it gets too high, many evil npcs will call you a wimp and leave.
Reputation can go up for completing quests (particularly "heroic" quests), many of which you have to do to progress in the story.
A good tip for avoiding this is to always ask for money.. if they're already offering money, ask for more money!
The occasional murder will also keep you down to a safe level (murder usually deducts 2-5 reputation points).

Skaffen

I face a similar problem. Want to do an evil party to experience the Dorn and Hexxat content, playing a sorceror myself. Vic and Korgan are clear but I don't want another mage so Edwin is out. I would like to have an archer type but who would be compatible with that party? Minsc and Valygar might be (not sure) but will lose their ranger status if reputation drops ( which it will...). Mazzy and Keldorn are out. Rest are all casters or pure melee if we count Rashaad.

Any suggestions? I actually started multiplayer but the archer I made lost ranger startus after Rep dropped to 6 when Vic and Dorn joined... are there any companion mods BG2EE compatible that are easy to install on a mac?

KidCarnival

Some nice evil BG1 parties:

Montaron - thief & ranged; can come in as backstabber
Xzar - dualed to cleric (from necromancer 5 or 6); ultimate casting machine (you need to grab a tome of wisdom for him to dual; the one in the upper levels of Durlag's Tower is available before getting access to the city)
Kagain - frontliner, tank
Dorn - frontliner, damage
Edwin - mage
PC - anything; kitted thief (i.e. assassin) would be my first choice (played this party several times; as Assassin and Jester)

Dualing Xzar may seem a bit tedious if there's Viconia as a pure cleric, but Xzar truly becomes death, destroyer of worlds. With the tomes, he can reach higher wisdom than any of the actual clerics, plus with his 5 - 6 mage levels, decent strength and dex and the ability to self buff he becomes incredibly versatile and can hold up as a frontliner.
I usually take Kagain relatively late; he doesn't mess up his proficiencies, and have Branwen or Viconia as throwaway cleric before dualing Xzar. Save up high XP maps like basilisks and sirines to get Xzar's levels back quickly.

Shar-Teel - early dual to thief (needs no tome)
Dorn - frontliner, damage
Kagain - frontliner, tank
Edwin - mage
Viconia - cleric
PC - anything; I'd go with a bard

This party covers all basics and you can get all NPCs early and easily. You don't need to metagame (which is a downside to dualing Xzar) and have absolute freedom what class to play.

Montaron - thief
PC - dwarven defender, front liner/tank
Dorn - frontliner, damage
Baeloth - sorcerer (you need to be level 5 to get him, so you can take either Xzar or Edwin until then)
Viconia - cleric
Eldoth - bard

Eldoth gets a lot flack, but I personally love his personality, voiceset and how versatile he can be. Yes, he does need the dex gauntlets, but so do others. He makes a lethal archer with Dead Shot and his ability to create poison arrows, so it's worth it in my opinion. You just have to kill/discard Skie (this quest has no timer - make sure to temp drop anyone but Baeloth or Dorn; they return to FAI and you'd have to go back to pick them up again. Much easier if Viconia or Montaron just waits outside the door.)

shawne

@Skaffen: I can't speak to companion mods, but from the pool of core characters, you can skew Chaotic Neutral and pick up Jan - he has high Dexterity and can serve as a capable archer...

Skaffen

@shawne Thanks but no thanks. I love the fellow but I want someone who can at least specialize in ranged and with whirlwinds dish out the ranged pain. Before Jan I would rather take HaerDelis at least he levels faster but again he won't get more than 3 attacks with Tasheron. Hmmm... Improved haste 6... worth thinking about at least.

The thing is, in my current good party I am sitting on this huge pile of really great ammo that noone uses at all. I want to change that in my next play, esp. since I love my archer in black pits 2 who just ownes the arena.

kaffekoppen

Here's my current BG1:EE party:

Myself - halfling fighter/thief
Kagain
Dorn
Viconia
Baeloth
Imoen

I love this party, personally. I do want to replace or kick out Imoen at some point, but right now I'm enjoying her 100 open locks / find traps too much.

Heindrich

kaffekoppen said:

Here's my current BG1:EE party:

Myself - halfling fighter/thief
Kagain
Dorn
Viconia
Baeloth
Imoen

I love this party, personally. I do want to replace or kick out Imoen at some point, but right now I'm enjoying her 100 open locks / find traps too much.

Poor Immy, what did she do to deserve such company...

kaffekoppen

Oh as long as you tell her a few stories she doesn't mind

KidCarnival

Heindrich1988 said:

kaffekoppen said:

Here's my current BG1:EE party:

Myself - halfling fighter/thief
Kagain
Dorn
Viconia
Baeloth
Imoen

I love this party, personally. I do want to replace or kick out Imoen at some point, but right now I'm enjoying her 100 open locks / find traps too much.

Poor Immy, what did she do to deserve such company...

Shouldn't the question be "What did this party do to deserve such company?"...?

Corvino

I'd suggest that with the current Evil NPCs in BG2 then having your main character as some kind of Arcane caster makes a lot of sense. Edwin may be a mere 2000 years off kicking Elminster's Arse, but it's always good to have a second mage.

A Bard of some kind, a mage, sorcerer or Fighter/Mage would all fit very well into the Evil party of BG2.

kaffekoppen

I wish you could bring Neera *and* Edwin. She may be neutral, but she's working just fine in my otherwise completely evil BG2 party (containing 2 wild mages for the sheer chaos and pretty lights).

KidCarnival said:

Shouldn't the question be "What did this party do to deserve such company?"...?

Not a big fan of Imoen?

KidCarnival

kaffekoppen said:

I wish you could bring Neera *and* Edwin. She may be neutral, but she's working just fine in my otherwise completely evil BG2 party (containing 2 wild mages for the sheer chaos and pretty lights).

KidCarnival said:

Shouldn't the question be "What did this party do to deserve such company?"...?

Not a big fan of Imoen?

Why would I be a fan of a NPC that has ZERO banter in BG1, is stupid enough to get arrested for a Magic Missile of all spells, and still doesn't have significant content? Do not process.

Real

If you are really aiming for an evil playthrough, I'd ditch neutral npcs, so you don't have to worry too much about your rep dropping low. I would think that Imoen isn't too bad of a choice for an evil party, not because she casts dimension door to go to prison with a bunch of old men in gray robes at very start of the game, but because she won't ditch you (at least, in BG2, correct me if I'm wrong) no matter how trigger happy you are with that fireball.

Of course, this is only if you don't want Edwin in your party, want two wizards in your party, or want a full evil party but don't intend on taking one of the other evil NPCs (for me, this would be Hexaat but different players would have different preferences).

CrevsDaak

I'm starting another evil run, this time I'd go female and for BG:EE and BG2:EE entirely, I'll take;
Fighter PC, half-elf, STR 18/25 DEX 18 CON 18 INT 9 WIS 15 CHA 9 LS++ SWS++
Shar-Teel fighter->thief at lvl1
Dorn
Viconia
Edwin
Neera
and for BG2:EE
Fighter PC, half-elf, +1 to all abilities, an extra +2 to WIS, LS++??? SWS++ ???
Hexxat
Dorn
Viconia
Korgan or Sarevok->thief for Carsomyr
Edwin or Neera