New Content play through. Any advice?

Necomancer

I plan to do a playthrough using all three new NPCs and Imoen. I might need to change Dorn's alignment since I am a goody goody toe shoes gumdrop fairy person. Regardless, I felt I should ask for advice on what I should play.

I'm thinking of using a mod I saw that adds a paladin to the game then pick them up for more up front power, but I'm also worried I'm shoehorning myself into the role of cleric. I'd like to think a party doesn't need a cleric, but I'm not sure of potion chugging is healthy.

Currently I'd like to play a barbarian or bard(blade) but these seem like bad choices when my party is going to consist of a paladin, blackguard, thief (eventually theif/mage in BG2), wild mage and monk. So I'm asking people with more experience with the game, do I need to be a cleric or druid to balance things out, or is barbarian/blade okay with this set up?

jackjack

Dwarven Fighter/Cleric?
You'll want some divine magic other than a Paladin, but these two together should do the trick. No need to roll a single-classed Cleric.
The alternative would be to forego the Paladin NPC and pick up Branwen or Viconia, (or grab Xxar and ditch Monty - you can dual him to Cleric, though this will take some work and leave you without a Cleric until you pick up the needed Wisdom tome.). For BG2, you have Anomen and Aerie in addition to Viconia.
If you do choose to ditch the Paladin for a Cleric, you can make Charname just any class you want.

Twani

Changing Dorn's alignment will probably cause him to fall and lose his kit. That would be fairly bad for you, as he'd just be a fighter who can only get two pips in any weapon. And, to be blunt, he's pretty darn evil no matter what you do. I'd divide them up and do (Hexxet)/Dorn on an evil playthrough, and Rassad/Neera on a good/neutral playthrough. It's very hard to justify taking Hexxat or Dorn in if you're playing good.

In BG1, you can get through without a cleric. In BG2, it's a lot harder due to the useful buffs you lose. I'd try doing a fighter/cleric multi (or cleric/ranger), myself.

Necomancer

I always thought paladins fall via reputation. If so, is it even possible for an NPC paladin/blackguard to fall?

Heindrich

@Necomancer

Yes Dorn can fall... I found out because I never intend to play evil, or at least Dorn's version of evil. But the reason is spoilery, so I'll leave it at that.

Lemernis

Re: Dorn maybe you could play a CG protagonist who can tolerate a having a powerful Blackguard for the sake of saving the Sword Coast? I'd leave his alignment as-is.

Fighter/Cleric is a powerful class and can be fun to play. Dual class or multi, both work fine. Although when to dual is always a hot topic.

Necomancer

@Lemernis I do that quite a bit. At one point my lawful good character lost half his party due to rep getting too high. Thats the problem, there, keeping my rep from making him go away. Usually I use this as a way to justify having more characters in my party for the sake of the pretend story in my head.

KidCarnival

If you don't like the cleric playstyle, how about druid? You can still do the healing, but get more offensive power, can cover some frontline help with summons and as true neutral, it makes sense to roll with both Rasaad and Dorn.

Skaffen

I don't think the alignment on the character sheet is the key problem - it will be the actions you need to take in his quests and content. I haven't done his ToB yet but didn't like SoA at all.

Chromatic5

I'm doing the same play through right now with dorn neera rasaad and hexxat. On my way to spell hold to pick up imoen.

I'm playing a power hungry neutral cleric/Mage multi.

It plays like a Mage but with a few healing spells of my own, a few from dorns "paladin" spells, plus rassads lay on hands, I've got plenty of healing.

This party was great in bg1 (minus hexxat) where my cleric Mage was mostly a cleric that buffed up to fight and wore heavy armor,

In bg2 my character plays as a Mage with full access to cleric spells as well.
Rasaad gets ridiculously good fast in bg2 and with dorn and hexxat that is all the front liners you need.

So with some improvised math my party has:

2 fighters: rasaad and dorn
1.5 clerics: charname, quarter dorn, quarter rasaad.
2 theives: hexxat and imoen
2 mages: charname and imoen

Seems to work great for me.

shawne

You don't need mods for paladins - there's Ajantis in BG1 (very easy to recruit) and Keldorn in BG2.

One thing you may wish to consider:

There's actually a fourth new NPC in the first game (evil mage) and a fifth in the second (neutral fighter). They're secret characters, but if you want them along for the ride, it might affect the composition of your party and your choice of PC.

booinyoureyes

@Necromancer are you referring to the Isra mod? I know one of the EE creators made it, and I have been wanting to try it out for awhile now (in BG2 actually, but maybe in BG1 as well if you like it)
If so can you give some feedback if you do try it out?

Chromatic5

Link to Isra mod? Never heard of it.

Necomancer

@Booinyoureyes Thats actually the exact mod in question. I've had three full playthroughs planned so far. A standard playthrough I'm doing now, where I plan my party based on stuff I like and things I enjoy. A new content playthrough, focusing on the new content and possibly a mod or two, and a mod playthrough where I use at least three fan made NPCS.

It looks like I'll be adding a evil playthrough to the mix. On the plus side, in BG2 the evil party is pretty well balanced (A tank, a thief, a cleric, a wizard and a Dorn) so I can be pretty much what I want.

@Chromatic5 For BG1: http://www.shsforums.net/files/file/1042-isra/
For BG2: http://www.shsforums.net/files/file/1070-isra-bg2-pc/

@Shawne I took Ajantis last time I went through the game and quite enjoyed him. My own character was a paladin and I often imagined them bro fisting for some reason (even though this wouldn't happen because of the setting, but hey, a man can dream). As noted above I'm trying a new fan made character, so I'm looking for a bit more then just your standard paladin. I'm looking for a chatty one...thats hopefully well written.

Lemernis

Necomancer said:

@Lemernis I do that quite a bit. At one point my lawful good character lost half his party due to rep getting too high. Thats the problem, there, keeping my rep from making him go away. Usually I use this as a way to justify having more characters in my party for the sake of the pretend story in my head.

Rep is easily restored (i.e., cheaply) by donating to any temple. Plus you end up swimming in loot and gold even with just average Rep. It sounds like it's really more a matter of psychologically whether your PC as you envision him or her can tolerate someone like Dorn as a member of the band. He's actually pretty self-restrained (guarded even). If he were wantonly going around slaughtering innocents that'd be different of course.

Tarlugn

I would definitively pick up cleric or druid as a 5th npc - having a healer around prevents the trouble of going to a temple for healing+healing potions. My preference is having 2 divine casters at a party - that covers up all the buffing/healing needs nicely, and if they are some combination of fighter as well, they can serve as tanks/damage dealers in the front lines - a role that has often fallen to my pc in the past.

Necomancer

Edit:Oh, you misunderstood me it seems. Half my party was evil and my rep got too high, not too low. Restoring rep would have just made the problem worse.

@Lemernis I have to be honest, my character back then knew full well he was traveling with evil people but allowed it to happen for two reasons. One, he is not a murderer, no matter who his father is. He will not kill people unless they attack him. These three did not attack him. Baeloth and Viconia actually asked for help and Shar-Tel? Well, she was in his service now. They had a deal.

The second reason being that as long as they were with him he could keep their more vicious sides in check. He felt he could control them, and keep them from committing horrible acts of moraly questionable natures. This was rather foolish of him, but to be fair his theme is that he is more then a bit of a fool what with the "Stopping in the middle of the woods to help a kid find his dog" and "Rushing headlong at the super evil smashy monster" things he does.

This was true for the short time Dorn followed him as well, before the ghouls nommed his delicious half-orc meats.