Any Tips On My Party's Proficiencies For BG2:EE?

Elrandir

(First post ever... Hope I'm doing this right.)

I'm doing a (in my opinion) canon party run-through of BG1 and 2. I'm 90% done with BG1, and as I'm getting close to BG2, I was wondering how to build my team's proficiencies, so as to not interfere with each other. I've never played BG2 before, but I know enough about the game to know a decent number of the powerful pieces of gear. Still though, I thought the experience of others would be helpful. My party is my CHARNAME, a bard, who is already proficient with scimitars, longswords, longbows, and single weapon style. I'll probably be picking up axe, flails, warhammers and katanas (not necessarily in that order) in the next game, so as to use the other great weapons that the rest of the team isn't using. The rest of my party will be (For SoA) Minsc, Jaheira, Imoen\Yoshimo (though he'll just get katanas till I get Imoen back), and Aerie, with a revolving 6th slot for party member's quests. In ToB I'll pick up Sarevok to round out the team. I figured I'll just give Ravager to Sarevok, but I'm unsure of what to do for the rest of the team. I'm especially torn between whether to give Minsc greatswords, or let him dual wield. Thanks for any help!

Elrandir

I've thought about it some more, and I'm thinking my bard will wield FoA, Minsc will dual wield Axe of the Unyielding and Crom Faeyr, Aerie will use a sling and shield, Jaheira will use Spectral Brand and a shield, Imoen will use whatever (probably daggers), and Sarevok will use Ravager. It'll still be a few days before I get to the game, (possibly a couple weeks, even) so if anyone has any suggestions, I'll be happy to get them.

Musigny

Some of the weapons you mentionned come very late.
You also have to plan for early and mid game.
(extra hint : when dealing with scimetars it is nice to dual wield)
(extra hint #2 : Aerie and Imoen are spell casters)

Elrandir

I'm mainly thinking of what proficiencies I need to get for their abilities to be the best late game. I can find alternatives in many areas. (in fact, their starting proficiencies will work decently. For example, Minsc won't have any competition for two-handers for SoA, ect. ect.) Having a Bard PC makes things easier because he can use whatever isn't being used by others and still do well. And yes, Aerie and Imoen will mainly be casting spells, so I'm not as concerned with their proficiencies, nor are their physical stats good enough for them to try and fight in melee. But I'm thinking of possibly using magic buffed Imoen as a backstabber. At least to see how it works. Probably won't be a common strategy, though. And Aerie will probably just use a sling and a shield for survivability. As for dual wielding scimitars, is Jaheira strong enough defensively? I always seemed to hear that she needed a shield to be really good.

Heindrich

Welcome to the forum

Well it sounds like you've already discovered the big spoilers for BG 2 (which is a bit of a shame before a first playthrough in my opinion), so I won't recommend that you move this to New Players section. However, you might want to move it to BG 2:EE for more responses. People mostly use this part of the forum to share their playthroughs and challenges, and not to discuss tactics.

You can either move it yourself, or I can do it for you, or you can just leave it be... Your call.

Elrandir

Thanks! Yeah, I've been a fan of the games for a few years and have watched a couple different Let's Plays of it, but only recently got the tech to actually play it. (and even then, it's just an ipad. Still better than nothing.) How does one move a thread? Via the edit option?

Edit: Found it. Thanks again for the suggestion and welcome.