Don't know who to remove from my party (BG2: EE)

Lil2Wkd

My current party consists of
Charname - Sorcerer
Dorn
Hexxat
Korgan
Viconia
Edwin

However I really want to run Haer'Dalis but have no idea who to remove from the party so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated (and I guess running him in my good party when I get through BG:EE again is a valid suggestion).

mumumomo

Your party is already very good and well balanced and i suspect that haer dalis would actually weaken that group.

Hexxat and viconia brings you thieving skills and divine magic. So they should stay

For the rest it's up to you : you have 2 full arcane caster and 2 full warriors.
Haer dalis can be seen as half warrior/half caster.

If i had to chose one, i would remove edwin : your sorceror is already a formidable main caster and haer dalis could bring some support (breach, dispell magic,...). Furthermore 3 arcane casters require a lot of micromanagement to be efficient.

SharGuidesMyHand

mumumomo said:

Your party is already very good and well balanced and i suspect that haer dalis would actually weaken that group.

mumumomo said:

If i had to chose one, i would remove edwin : your sorceror is already a formidable main caster and haer dalis could bring some support (breach, dispell magic,...). Furthermore 3 arcane casters require a lot of micromanagement to be efficient.

Agreed on both counts.

jacobtan

Haer'Dalis is excellent if you're running a party with many attacks from fighters and summons, assuming you're not using the Rogue Rebalancing mod.

But as it stands, your party can still get some utility out of Haer'Dalis. I second the opinion that Edwin is the one to go. Haer'Dalis is already half an arcane caster so you're mainly losing out on the high-level spells.

He is great for pre-combat arcane buffs to relieve the burden off your sorcerer (e.g. Improved Haste), trap-setting (assuming you don't have Rogue Rebalancing), and if you have a swarm of summons complementing your front-liners, Enhanced Bard Song is deadly even without abusing the clone song exploit. It's also convenient that you can hide him far away from the heat of battle, get him to sing, and manage just 5 characters. Without Edwin, no one in your party will need to scribe scrolls, so you can stock up on the good spells and let Haer'Dalis use them in critical fights. If you're feeling cheesy, you can equip him with various wands and such, and alternate between singing and firing off spells from wands (e.g. Rod of Reversal). In a pinch, you can use him as a makeshift fighter/mage who fights in bursts.

He won't necessarily weaken your party, but you need to see to it that his abilities compensate the loss of the high-level spells from Edwin, which means milking the traps/song/spins for all they are worth, and changing your strategy.

Lil2Wkd

I've no summoners on my team right now and no protection breakers as such and is likely primarily how I'd use em, so this actually helps a lot with everyone's favorite tiefling..

Chromatic5

I can't believe everyone gave you the wrong answer:) I'd get rid of korgan. Haer can tank just fine. Plus korgan is boring. He doesn't have much of story.

Plus with out Edwin, your sorc will be the only caster with hlas in tob. Having two characters with time stop, improved alacrity, etc is a must for me.

jacobtan

@Lil2Wkd‌

The suggestion to drop Korgan has merit, but you need to remember if you drop Korgan, this will be your remaining party:

PC Sorcerer
Dorn
Hexxat
Haer'Dalis
Viconia
Edwin

Just the change of one character to drop will change your strategy drastically. Everyone's preferences differ, but you will have a party with rather conditional tanks. Dorn will probably the only main melee damage dealer left. Some people are ok with it, others are not. Consider:

1. Dorn has no HP bonus from Con (not a big deal for me but 36HP matters a lot to some players)
2. Hexxat (you might prefer to use her as a thief rather than a tank, and she is a thief after all)
3. Haer'Dalis (needs abilities and spells to tank)

If you want Haer'Dalis to tank, his damage output will be conditional and limited (reliant on abilities and spells). If you want Haer'Dalis to cast spells, he can only cast up to L6 spells at best (though he will probably have a higher casting level). But if you want Haer'Dalis to sing, he can't really fight, and his enhanced bard song is best used on fighters. If you are running only two fighters (assuming you put Hexxat at the front), you can't milk the most of out the song, assuming you hide your casters (Viconia, Edwin AND PC) behind. Therefore, if you drop Korgan, the synergy might be weaker than if you drop Edwin. You will also lose a full fighter for half a caster, meaning your strategy will be spell-heavy compared to your current lineup. You can clear the game with this party, but is this what you want?

Another possible alternative would be to:

a. Drop Edwin for Jan
b. Drop Hexxat for Haer'Dalis

Since you have a sorcerer to bombard enemies, you can use Jan as a buffer/debuffer/summoner, focusing on supportive spells and doubling as your thief. He isn't that bad as a support caster since he does get +1 spell per level as a specialist. Then you can drop Hexxat for Haer'Dalis. You will then have the following party:

PC Sorcerer
Dorn
Haer'Dalis
Korgan
Viconia
Jan

You will still have your 2 tanks (Korgan and Dorn), 1 backup tank (Haer'Dalis), cleric (Viconia), mages (PC to deal with bombarding, Jan to cover everything else with support from Haer'Dalis, plus thieving and ranged support via crossbows/bows). Your mileage may vary though. All these are possibilities and there is no best party, though we can identify synergies between characters

jackjack

Add to that the fact that Dorn isn't a tank - he's a damage dealer low on HP. A glass cannon, if ever there was one. Haer'Dalis can be a tank, but to pretend he can replace Korgan in that regard is folly.

jacobtan

@jackjack‌ Here is your glass cannon

vyvexthorne

Might not make sense to a lot of people because of how they play.. but for me it's easy. Dump the fighter.. So Korgan. Viconia can easily be frontline material. Just give her the gauntlets of ogre strength if you have them or make sure you have the strength spell and give her gauntlets of dex. Haer'dalis makes a good middle line guy. You just concentrate on protective spells more than disabling spells. I find pure fighters kind of useless. You either have to buff them up with other characters spells or constantly give them potions.

The only problem with haer'dalis is there's not a lot of really good short swords. There's tons of +2 short swords but they don't cut it when you come across a creature that needs +3 or better to hit. I just give him pips in whatever nobody else in the party is concentrating on.
On a good note.. You can fill his inventory with wands, musical instruments and other magic items of that nature. There's a lot of that stuff in the game and he can use most of it.

Necomancer

Personally I suggest dumping CHARNAME and putting Haer'Dalis in charge.

Alkalurops

You get The Shadow's Blade +3 at the end of Mae'var's questline, and the sword of mask is sold at the watcher's keep. Just save a bit of money and you've got one of the few +4 weapons you can get in chapter 2. If you'd rather keep TOB weapons for TOB, you can get Cutthroat +4 at Bodhi's coffin.

I personally ran Haer'Dalis with the Celestial Fury (with your party configuration, there seems to be no competition in katana's) and Dak'kon's blade, giving my bard an early boost in spell slots. Combined with some equipment making him immune to most elemental damage, a few stone skins and generally low AC, he was completely unstoppable. I have to shamefully admit I never played with him before (hey, I'm slowly catching up with you guys...) but I'm considering moving him up to number 1 in my list of useful NPC's.

I would drop Dorn. He may be useful early game but barring his poison ability I found him to quickly become obsolete. Haer'Dalis' THAC0 is "close enough", but he's a much better tank with his low AC and the ability to cast protective spells.

SharGuidesMyHand

IF one of the fighter NPCs is going to be dropped, it should be Dorn instead of Korgan, for the reasons jacobtan and jackjack stated.

drumcooler

Don't drop Korgan, he's the best tank of the game! If you have to drop a fighter, drop Dorn. He's slow, he has low constitution (u have to micromanage it with the belt every "morning") and in ToB i'm sure you'll take Sarevok as a two hand weapon fighter.

PS Dorn's quest is pretty if you want to drop him, make the quest first.

elminster

It depends on where you are in the game. But for a warrior I'd stick with Dorn over Korgan. Either way though if you want to get Haer'Dalis I'd suggest you get rid of Edwin.