Best Npc
I know there can be a lot of arguments made to this subject, but from experience in a lot of playing of this game i think its safe to say Jansen yes (Jansen) could be the best npc in the game. My reasons are simple, hes a illusionist/theif witch in itself is pretty strong at high levels. When high enough he can get the use any item ability witch is pretty dang good, he can backstab and cast high spells. At his highest strength ive used him to utterly defeat anything i have faced. If you have a different npc in mind plssss share id love to hear more (:
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Comments
Edwin: he is better than any specialist mage you can create.
Valygar: The armor he gets is really nice and backstabbing with Celestial Fury is not bad either. I wish my stalkers could wear his armor!
Korgan: Dwarf Berserkers are pretty ideal frontliners. Dual-wielding Crom Faeyr and Axe of Unyielding is pretty devastating.
The NPCs I find most effective Anomen, Aerie, Jaheira and Haer'Dalis, who can all become one-man armies in different ways when used correctly.
ToB - Sarevok
On a more serious note, to me the best NPCs in the series are hard to choose.
I'd go for Xzar and Monty. Today ye goody goodies make me sick!
Edwin is the best mage. Only a high level PC Sorcerer is better, imo.
Korgan is the best melee NPC. His constitution and berserk make him a one man front line. Only a PC berserker rolled with higher dexterity and strength is better.
Viccy is probably the best priest. She has weak strength and constitution so you probably have to use her in the back unless you give her the proper equipment. She also doesn't get Holy Smite, which is easily abused if you have good aligned front liners. Besides that she has the most priest spells unless you create your own priest.
To counterbalance their power, you have to deal with the fact that they are evil:
1) They will leave if your reputation gets too high. This can be a problem if you're doing every quest in chapter two and going for the most experience.
2) They will randomly fight the good aligned members in your party, resulting in the death of one of your NPC's
From a power perspective, I think those are the three best NPC's and are worth the trouble if you can get around the reputation and fighting issues. I also think those three have the most entertaining personalities.
Out of everyone else, I think Keldorn is the best. Give him gauntlets of dexterity, a strength belt, Carsomyr, and the best armor and watch him kill everything. His true sight ability combined with Carsomyr makes any battle with a mage a breeze. His dispel magic ability is a great "reset button" if things get out of hand.
After typing that last paragraph I might change my vote to Keldorn. He's truly a game breaker with Carsomyr and true sight.
Maybe I'm focusing too much on early game but 18/93 unbuffed for an NPC is crazy (Unless you're playing EE with Dorn..........). It allows you to put the strength buffing items on other NPCs that need it more. He was my main powerhouse for most of my BG2 playthrough (Put 2 profecieny points into axes as soon as I could and he was dual wielding +3 axes surprisingly early into the game).
Maybe it's because late game there's enough strength buffing gauntlets, belts, weapons to put everyone and their mums at 18/00+ strength, but I found him surprisingly good for an NPC.
Just the thought of it amuses me.
I would like charisma to affect things, but I don't see that it does. I believe it can very occasionally allow to not pay for a favor or something like that, but because you get way too much money in the game anyway and later on there's nothing to buy, this doesn't matter.
I'll be very happy to be proven wrong on this.
There are several other such cases, where quest rewards can be either an item or gold depending on reaction. None of them are game-changing.
There are some quests which you won't get at all if your encounter reaction is low, and a couple (presumably designed for bad-guy parties) which you won't get if your encounter reaction is high, although (so far as I recall) all are minor side-quests, not important.
Some of the recruitable NPCs will refuse to join you if you've got a particularly low encounter reaction, which can be game-changing if you were specifically planning on using that particular NPC.
I reckon the only case where god-level CHA (i.e. >20 CHA) might change anything is that, if you're moderately-low REP, then you might nevertheless be able to get some of the high-reaction results, since encounter reaction depends on both REP and CHA. Shop prices depend on both REP and CHA, not on REP alone. That's the most important effect of CHA, but in the case of shops the effect of CHA is capped at 20 CHA, so it's different from the ordinary encounter reaction calculation. That depends very much on your personal playing-style. I like to be able to re-charge wands and other chargeable items, which is very expensive - so expensive that I'm always very short of gold, even at the end of BG1. (This applies in BG2 as well, throughout SoA and the first half of ToB; it's only towards the end of ToB that I've finally got so much gold that re-charging doesn't exhaust my wealth.)
I suspect that the reason the original devs included so much gold was precisely in order to make re-charging a usable option, because otherwise you could never afford to do it. If you're not in the habit of re-charging items, then yes, there's more gold than you can use.
Sarevok. Incredible stats, and death bringer assault.
Clearly the best BG1 npc is Garrick, and the best BG2 is Cernd.
BG2 - Me.
2. Edwin (3 extra spells in each Spell Level. If he had 1.000 years and a pointy hat, he could be better than Vicky...)
3. Korgan (Berserk, Dwarf, 18/77 Str, 19 Con)
Evil Ways
Add Dorn or The 'Vok for oomph and Jan for utility and Charname is pretty much just along for the ride.
Best morals: Keldorn and Mazzy
Best story: Aerie
Best overall: Minsc and Boo!
BG2: Wilson !!!!!!!
Inquisitor is a cheat kit, and with right equip Keldorn on early playthrought have 19-18-17-X-X-X and the Carsomyr like weapon.
That's enough?
The second best is Anomen.
The dualclass Fighter/Cleric is insane, and in mid game with right spells and item he arrive with 23-23-23-X-16-X....and in late game have Crom+FoA, what else?
Then in ToB there is the big brother that with ur special attack istant kill everyone, and if equip his with Vorpal....ahahahahah....
Sorry for bad english.