A sixth for my evil party?

Necomancer

My next playthrough will be a half orc thief/fighter with using EE keeper to make thief assassin and I will dual wield daggers because style. More importantly, this will be my first evil party. In BG2 its obvious who I'll have with me but for BG1 I'm coming to a bit of a dilemma.

So far I will have Shar-Teel, Dorn, Edwin and Viconia. With two front liners, thief handled and arcane and divine both delt with I find myself unsure who to recruit as my sixth. Baeloth would be nice but I'm using BG1NPC banter pack because I'm addicted to story and plot (Seriously. I think I need a support group) and I'm fairly sure Baeloth has no new banters. Faldorn would add a bit more divine power and round out my party gender wise (Woo! Gamer OCD!) I also never really traveled with her before. Kagain would add alot of physical power to an already very melee oriented group, and I never actually played with him in my party for longer then one minute (I didn't even know he existed when I was a kid). I also am considering Safana because then I can focus on stealth skills instead of worrying about locks and traps but shes also not evil for some reason.

Any advice? As you can tell I'm not very good at planning mechanically effective parties since all my reasons have little to do with stats and how well those three would work with the others, so advice in this area would be greatly appreciated as well.

the_spyder

In BG1 it is really more focused on physical rather than magical. Which isn't to say that you can't go full on casters; just that, particularly early on, you get more bang from your buck with a fighter. the further you go, less so, but they are still fully relevant right up to the last battle.

My personal suggestion would be to go with Kagain for the first half and then switch to Tiax when you reach the Gate. Although your Charname will be a thief, as an Assassin, you won't have anywhere near the points you may want in all of the skills. Adding Tiax will resolve that issue, and add some casting power late in the game.

Another direction you could go is to change Shar-Teel to thief. Then Kagain will be your 'Second' front liner and you will absolutely have enough Thief in your group for the long haul.

I've found with my own Half Orc Fighter/Thief, he really is about as tough a front liner as either Dorn or Kagain. The three of them are total beasts and really rock the low level monsters who end up running in terror. Or to put it another way "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women."

element

seeing as your party is really already sorted, id take Faldorn as you haven't used her before and shes quite a fun npc if somewhat underrated

Blackraven

Faldorn is an interesting option as long your rep doesn't go down to the absolute lowest numbers. I had her for a while in my last no-reload run until that run ended quite abruptly. I had a few funny, and one hilarious talk with her. Also, she isn't very well documented, so there may be interesting dialogues with other NPCs that most people don't even know of. Note as well that she's by no means useless. (I had keepered her into an Avenger, because that seems to fit her character best imo.)

You could also make a group of mostly lawful evil types and include Kagain (next to Dorn, Edwin, and Charname if you will). Can shape the way you roleplay. Chaotic evil Shar-Teel would be the dissonant.

Another option is to mix alignments for great dialogues, and you can always pick sides with the evil comrade.

Necomancer

I actually forgot Faldorn wasn't evil. Everything about her seems to say "I'm evil, jerkwads!" Even her teeth. I put her in the category of "characters who would have a different alignment if it wasn't for class restrictions." Regardless this is all good advice, I didn't think through the whole "so few points" thing assassins suffer from, and since I need stealth to make full use of my backstab...Hm. This might be more complicated then I thought.

Blackraven

You're right, stealth should be a priority. You might for that reason pick Halfling with 19 DEX, they get the best HiS and MS bonuses (followed by elves if you're a member of the anti-shorties club lol). You'd still have use for another, more mechanical thief. Tiax could play that part (or Shar-Teel if you dual her).
EDIT: Tiax is really good for disarming traps in dungeons, which I normally prefer doing while invisible. He can disarm traps while sanctuaried, without this breaking the Sanctuary

Corvino

If you did want a second thief then the Shar-Teel dual is a very solid option. In this case Kagain makes a good frontline replacement.

Faldorn is an interesting option. I've never actually taken her through BG1 as she's available so late and her stats are underwhelming. She is however the "most powerful" NPC divine caster and will eventually get insect plague and ironskins, which is nothing to sneeze at. She does suffer from druids generally getting rubbish spells at levels 2 and 3 though.

A multiclass fighter/assassin will definitely suffer skill-point shortages in BG1. You could minimise this by abandoning backstabs and using a bow, and concentrating on find traps/open locks. Assassin poison is nasty enough to make this pretty viable.

booinyoureyes

are you using the NPC Project or just the banter pack?


How 'bout my homeboy Xzar? He is awesome. If you are focusing on the banter packs, perhaps you could even replace Dorn (I don't know if he has banter pack content) with Montaron. Having two decent backstabbers would be pretty interesting.

However, Dorn and Shar-Teel are both kinda low on health, and since you haven't tried Kagain yet maybe you should give him a shot. He's pretty funny and one hell of a tank. He can take the beating while Dorn and Shar-Teel give the beatings, Viconia buffs/disables, Edwin shoots things and your assassin backstabs. The perfect little burly ball of distraction for your enemies while you rip them apart.

Necomancer

NPC project. As much as I love Xzar and Montaron I took them for a full playthrough as a child (one I don't remember well, I admit) and have yet to take Edwin. I also want to see Dorn's new content. For some reason I've always liked Shar-Teel and for obvious reasons I've always like Viconia. I could switch out Edwin for Xzar and take Montaron as my sixth. Certainly something to think about, though I think I had a bug with Monty in the NPC project as when I talked to him as my neutral good bard he immediately said he was sick of me and left using his "reputation too high" dialogue (My reputation was 11).

ZaknafeinBaenre

you'll be happy with edwin from a power perspective, the guy deals some major damage and can get level 9 spells in bg2

booinyoureyes

ohhhhhh... you gonna romance Shar-Teel?
btw, I think Eldoth would fit in pretty well, especially if you have the NPC Project (is it really working well now????). He and Shar-Teel don't get along. Here is the thing: if they come to blows, you can replace him with Tiax, who is a character that would fit into your party (he will do the thief stuff your assassin cannot do since he needs so much in hide is shadows and move silently).

Eldoth could buff everyone with his songs, make poison arrows (makes sense for your assassin to appreciate that kind of skill), identify stuff and fill in all the spells that Edwin is lacking due to being a Conjurer. Keep in mind that Edwin will NOT be able to cast identify, which kinda sucks. Also if you give him some wands he will be a damage dealer with magic (Edwin has so many spells he doesn't need these items) and if you give him the gloves of dexterity he could also be the best archer, since I assume you are using your assassin to stab things while they are not looking and Dorn/Shar-Teel to hit things with big metal objects. An archer would kind of balance things out nicely on the physical damage side.

Glam_Vrock

If you want to use Faldorn or Safana, just install the Happy patch or change their alignment in EE Keeper. Faldorn should be evil, let's be honest.

Or, if it's more dialogue you want, why not try a mod NPC? For a secondary thief to fill the trap gap, there's Mur'neth or cough this dude cough

Blackraven

One more thing, unless you want to pick all locks and pickpocket a lot, once you have some money you could as well rely on potions in BG1(master thievery for pickpockets and lockpicks, perception for traps).
I'm solo'ing a 19 DEX halfling Cleric/Thief atm, and I notice myself playing him as an assassin (the Strifeleader of Cyric priest mod kit gives the cleric the poison weapon ability every six levels). Obviously my thief gets 25 skill points on levelling up (instead of your 15 skill points), but so far I haven't invested a single skill point in locks, and only 25 in detect traps (getting me to 40). The skill score checks are really low in the early and mid game. So I was able to tackle the traps in the Nashkel Mines with only one potion of perception before I had invested any skillpoints in teh ability. The Bandit Camp has only one trap iic (albeit a devious one). I'm currently making my way through the Naskel Mines, and this is what happened when I activated my Find Traps ability (still at 40 skill points):

I'm not saying it's ideal. But if you don't want Monty, it's doable, for example until you pick up Tiax in Baldur's Gate. You could wait with the heavily trapped dungeons until you have him in your party.

EDIT:
I spoke too soon... I failed to disarm the third trap, needed a potion of perception for that.

SionIV

I would just have a second thief or re focus on your thief skill selection, the amount of money you can get/save on not using those potions is very high.

80-90 open lock
70-80 disarm trap

Rest doesn't really matter.

meagloth

I dialed shar-teel had her dual weird longsword and backstab. That very nice. I like @Corvino‌'s idea. Kagian is a great tank, and there's the throwing axe under candelkeep.

jackjack

Kagain would serve as an excellent tank for your party.