Khalid has got a higher morale failure level than other joinable NPC's however, this is offset by having a character with 17 or 18 charisma in the leader spot. Having 16 charisma leader (Imoen, Xan etc) still gives a very slight chance of morale failure on Khalid only if his health drops very low.
So people need to not blame Khalid for running in fear and start putting proper leaders in charge of there parties .
I found some very interesting things though by having a low charisma leader. If you have a weak leader (low charisma), Xzar and Montaron will fight with Khalid and Jaheira to the death if all four are in your party. There are a few other good joinable NPCs and evil joinable NPCs who fight to the death with a weak leader.
@Cuan Hmm I have never realized this, you happen to know the variables and code/script that controls that behavior. That's really cool and something that I have never seen mentioned before.
My PC doesn't like how he's always comparing him to Gorion - "Gorion would be proud of your actions" "Gorion would have none of this, tis shameful". Combat wise, I've never had a big problem, yeah he's not perfect on stats and he's got a bit of a morale problem (though fairly rare in my experience), but it's never been a major setback for me. I do use him as an archer if I'm playing the meat shield. Usually I end up keeping him, but in my current session, we parted ways in Nashkell.
Probably my biggest complaint would be that after he's all geared up, he can't carry anything - very annoying
One day years ago on a lark I was bored and had a notion to play a game where the PC is a Jester who chooses all the most outrageous answers, does all the stupidest things, etc. Sort of like the character Navin from the Jerk. It would probably get old real quick. But anyway, If I ever get around to doing this I will give the PC a sufficiently low Cha score to be assured of watching the NPC pair fireworks. Thanks, lol.
I'm definitely not one of his haters, in fact I'm a Jaheira hater, I usually kill her off within the first half hour of getting her in BG1, and get rid of her not too long after I get Aerie in BG2. If I could make the switch
she would die in Irenicus's dungeon, and I'd keep him
People hate Khalid because he, like brave, brave Garrick, willingly employs a tactic of running away if the battle isn't going well. Which frankly makes him a fun character to play with.
I used in one play through to do the canon party. Will never use him again. I can't imagine ever going on an epic quest with someone as soft as Khalid.
I never hated Khalid. I often took him and Jaheira along as part of my party. When it came to NPCs I only put up with because they were part of a pair, Montaron was probably my least favourite. Killing him off always appealed more than killing off Khalid.
I didn't really miss him in BG2, though. He would have been dumped in the Copper Coronet anyway in favour of new NPCs, I guess. Not Korgan though, he annoyed me too. Guess I'm not a fan of short evil fighters in either game!
People hate Khalid because he, like brave, brave Garrick, willingly employs a tactic of running away if the battle isn't going well. Which frankly makes him a fun character to play with.
Khalid and Garrick are both endearing characters to me. They never have morale failures in my games because my PCs tend to have relatively high Cha, and my parties are masterful in battle. But I agree that if they were to run away that would just add to the fun.
Khalid can achieve grandmastery with long sword. He can actually get more kills than Minsc.
Garrick can be put to effective use well. Which, as for any other plain bard, for me in BG1 means identifying items, casting a few choice spells, and using his Bard Song. (With BG:EE, eventually players will also be able to give him a kit via the Level 1 NPCs mod.)
Give the guy a break!! Have some compasion for god's sake, the Man is afraid of his wife. How horrible it must be....living in constant fear and terror. I'm with You Khalid!
Khalid can achieve grandmastery with long sword. He can actually get more kills than Minsc.
This. Plus, he's the only fighter in the game with overall rounded combat stats. If you want a fighter who's decent at everything, he's your best pick.
I'm okay with people saying they don't like his personality, but when people say he is "useless" they are just plain incorrect.
I find it vaguely offensive that so many people seem to hate him because he stammers. I actually find him a very endearing character and was always pretty happy with him whenever I took him along. Then again I seem to like all the characters that everyone else hates, and think Minsc is totally boring and never use him.
I didn't realize people hated Khalid. Nor that they preferred Jaheira (always the first one I ditch by having her compare girdles to a certain ogre). Nor did I think he was such a bad fighter. Equip him with ogre gauntlets and boots of speed and the game is pretty much over.
But as many have noted, he is the first to flee. What determines morale? Or which save vs. is it to successfully block morale-affecting spells?
I like Khalid. And he is normally a permanent character in my group. Yes his stats are sort of Average considering he is a fighter. BUT I like to really immerse myself in the game and I like his sort of average everything. It's nice to have an average guy in the party. Plus he actually makes a great archer in the group
Mainly it's because he's a snivling coward. There's only room enough for one chicken in my group, and that's me :P Actually no we got along fine. I wanted to just rest at the Friendly Arm Inn for a few months, you know, keep out of trouble, like Khalid was suggesting, but Jaheira, as you know, is such a nag, so we both felt obligated to go to Nashkel. Seriously, at one point, I thought we were both married to her. Then we met Minsc, and it's hard to say no to him because he's such a...big, strong and..*gulps*..intimidating type.
In all seriousness though, I find his personality really is what's misleading. It never occurred to me to compare his stats in my early playthroughs, which is interesting, because despite being a cowardly personality, he has pretty good stats, and with the gauntlet of ogre strength he can be an amazing fighter. I think he's perfect because of this, since he's such a set of contradictions. Picture the image (rp-wise) where he has the gauntlets of ogre strength, which turn him into a massive, hulking guy, and yet still with that attitude. I think he has some sort of morale weakness though, because he always seems to start running away, but it's funny because it's really due to his massive constitution that he lives long enough to be able to run. Also, where I played a character with overinflated stats, I was always fixated on my own character, since I usually had better stats than most characters.
That being said, as was stated above, Khalid's strength wasn't very good, and the gauntlets of ogre strength are a little late in the game (not to mention missable), so for the longest time, he's operating on specialization or mastery alone (+2 to +3 damage), so doesn't deal very good damage, compared to say Minsc with 18/93 and specialization (+7 damage total, and +4 more vs gnolls lol) or Kivan (+2 with bows, +5 with melee, and +4 vs ogres). I usually had him in the group though.
Give him the Manual of Health to boost his constitution to 18 and hes even better! Have leader with high charisma and he never runs so I am not sure why people think this is an issue. All joinable NPC's and charname will run in morale failure with a low charisma leader.
Charisma of the party leader determines morale failure. There is no save, just a chance of it happening under certain circumstances. Low health or a party member dying in combat etc can all trigger a morale failure running. Having high charisma leader will offset the chance so it doesnt happen.
@Cuan, lol my main char monopolize all the manuals in the game so i can benefit from it in BG2, if the NPCs in BG that are carried to BG2 keep the manual stats... that would make it worth to use them on NPCs.
Somehow, I think Khalid getting killed and mutilated and being given the option to leave Jaheira and Minsc to die in Irenicus' dungeon was a subtle *wink* from the BGII designers.
Khalid is my favorite, I have never had a party without him, Jahiera on the other hand has always annoyed me, so usually I let her die via hobgoblins before I even leave the Friendly Arm. But with the enhanced edition coming out, I'm looking for more creative ways to kill her.
Comments
So people need to not blame Khalid for running in fear and start putting proper leaders in charge of there parties
I found some very interesting things though by having a low charisma leader. If you have a weak leader (low charisma), Xzar and Montaron will fight with Khalid and Jaheira to the death if all four are in your party. There are a few other good joinable NPCs and evil joinable NPCs who fight to the death with a weak leader.
Hmm I have never realized this, you happen to know the variables and code/script that controls that behavior. That's really cool and something that I have never seen mentioned before.
Probably my biggest complaint would be that after he's all geared up, he can't carry anything - very annoying
The ogre is slow, so 2 ppl with ranged weapons can easly kill him.
I did not know that.
One day years ago on a lark I was bored and had a notion to play a game where the PC is a Jester who chooses all the most outrageous answers, does all the stupidest things, etc. Sort of like the character Navin from the Jerk. It would probably get old real quick. But anyway, If I ever get around to doing this I will give the PC a sufficiently low Cha score to be assured of watching the NPC pair fireworks. Thanks, lol.
I hate his shrew of a wife!!!!!
I didn't really miss him in BG2, though. He would have been dumped in the Copper Coronet anyway in favour of new NPCs, I guess. Not Korgan though, he annoyed me too. Guess I'm not a fan of short evil fighters in either game!
Khalid can achieve grandmastery with long sword. He can actually get more kills than Minsc.
Garrick can be put to effective use well. Which, as for any other plain bard, for me in BG1 means identifying items, casting a few choice spells, and using his Bard Song. (With BG:EE, eventually players will also be able to give him a kit via the Level 1 NPCs mod.)
I'm okay with people saying they don't like his personality, but when people say he is "useless" they are just plain incorrect.
But as many have noted, he is the first to flee. What determines morale? Or which save vs. is it to successfully block morale-affecting spells?
In all seriousness though, I find his personality really is what's misleading. It never occurred to me to compare his stats in my early playthroughs, which is interesting, because despite being a cowardly personality, he has pretty good stats, and with the gauntlet of ogre strength he can be an amazing fighter. I think he's perfect because of this, since he's such a set of contradictions. Picture the image (rp-wise) where he has the gauntlets of ogre strength, which turn him into a massive, hulking guy, and yet still with that attitude. I think he has some sort of morale weakness though, because he always seems to start running away, but it's funny because it's really due to his massive constitution that he lives long enough to be able to run. Also, where I played a character with overinflated stats, I was always fixated on my own character, since I usually had better stats than most characters.
That being said, as was stated above, Khalid's strength wasn't very good, and the gauntlets of ogre strength are a little late in the game (not to mention missable), so for the longest time, he's operating on specialization or mastery alone (+2 to +3 damage), so doesn't deal very good damage, compared to say Minsc with 18/93 and specialization (+7 damage total, and +4 more vs gnolls lol) or Kivan (+2 with bows, +5 with melee, and +4 vs ogres). I usually had him in the group though.
@Rexfaroensis
Charisma of the party leader determines morale failure. There is no save, just a chance of it happening under certain circumstances. Low health or a party member dying in combat etc can all trigger a morale failure running. Having high charisma leader will offset the chance so it doesnt happen.
I, for once, don't hate him. Yet.
I still have to meet him, though, so that's up in the air...
But with the enhanced edition coming out, I'm looking for more creative ways to kill her.