Optimizing The Canon Party

Sirxeko

Recently I picked up BG:EE. I have never actually beaten the game, usually finding myself in a battle well over my head somewhere in chapter 4 or so... So, I am starting fresh and looking for suggestions. I am planning on playing through the game as a good character, using the Canon party of Imoen, Jaheira, Khalid, Minsc, and Dynahier. Now, in previous playthroughs of the game, I typically played as a Mage or Sorcerer, though I read somewhere that, given the canon team, the player character is more or less forced to be a Cleric just for survivability's sake. So my first question is; what sort of character works best with the canon party? I do have a pre-made Dragon Disciple (Sorcerer Sub-class) character with unusually high stats, but considering I was never able to beat the game before, it might be wise to go a different route...

Or, perhaps it's not a problem with the character, but an issue of being under equipped. That is also a very real possibility, as I have never really made it a habit of shopping, and I only recently realized that some of the best gear can only be obtained from shops, or else from specific side missions that I may have neglected in my single-minded pursuit of the plot. So, second question... What is the best equipment to use with the canon team? Where would I find that equipment? Are there any absolute must-do missions that would net me some mighty life-saving equipment? Any shops that I should keep in mind? Apparently Traveler's Robes and Splint Mail +2's aren't good enough...

Then there's the issue of development. According to the "canon" of the game, Imoen should be dual-classed into a Thief/Mage at level 6 or 7, but that would leave my party without any thief skills for a while... So I'm not sure that I'd end up doing that... I haven't quite decided, and would like some advice in regards to that. But what about the other characters? In my last attempt, I had Imoen with a short bow +1, Khalid with a magical longbow that I seem to forget the name of, and Jaheira never advanced to anything more impressive than a basic club and a medium shield +1. Could it be that I'm just not prioritizing my weapon proficiencies right?

I suppose all of that could be summarized with "If you were to play the game using the canon party, how would you go about doing it?"

Oh, also, this is entirely off subject, but I would like to import the character from this playthrough into BG2:EE as well, and I was wondering... There is a very clear canon party for BG1, but is there anything deemed canon for BG2?

wubble

Any character will work well with the canon party as they are very well balanced.
you won't need any more healing than Jaheira (and potions) can give you unless either you are either extremely poor at playing the game (unlikely) or you are playing something like SCS or just on insane.
so long as you make sure your character is good at whatever it is they do (be it melee, archery, magic etc.) then you will do fine. I myself have completed most of my playthroughs with a warrior type but other classes are just as viable and in many cases much better.
as for npc weapons give them all a missile weapon, longbow for Minsc and Khalid, shortbow for Imoen, sling for Jaheira (works with her shield) and a sling/darts for Dynaheir. missile weapons will cut down most enemies before they ever reach you and for the enemies that survive Minsc and Khalid (and your character if you're a fighter type) will easily deal with them in melee. Then equip them with the melee weapon they have proficiency with for emergencies.
there is no canon party for bg2 it all depends on which characters you like and which suit your playstyle.
I have only completed the game (all the way through to ToB) once with my sword and board fighter Minsc, Keldorn, Jaheira, Aerie and Imoen (switching minsc for the character introduced in throne of bhaal) i can reccomend this party setup as i found it very flexible and also the characters are very likeable(to good people).
as to the items which might help you i could suggest a few if you'd like but that would depend on how many spoilers you would find acceptable.
some basic items are:

ring of wizadry doubles first level spells. found by walking to the right when you first arrive at the friendly arm inn it's at eh base of the evergreen tree use tab to find it.

Ankheg plate mail. very good plate armour (slightly cheesy at the level you can get it) found in nashkel in the leftmost field about halfway up the leftmost furrow, again use tab to get it.

robe of the archmagi. best mage robe in the game can be bought from thalantyr in the big building in high hedge. enter his house and talk to him before his golems kill you and he'll call them off. costs a lot but worth every penny, be sure to buy the correct robe for your alignment.

if you would like more suggestions you just have to ask

meagloth

Most of the good stuff on along the main questline, though varscona is pretty standard. if you don't have that it's on greywolf in the nashkel mine area(not the actual mine).

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dunbar

I agree with pretty much everything mentioned above, but from your opening explanation I suspect the root cause of your problems is that you're just not getting your AC low enough. Personally, I concentrate on getting the best possible armour/shields for my characters before I start splashing out cash on weapons upgrades. For the squishy characters especially, the robe of the archmagi (as previously mentioned) and the shadow armour - both fiendishly expensive but not quest-dependant and well worth the money.

wubble

typo_tilly said:

Khalid
- long sword and longbow
- use a shield, because low AC helps a lot in BG1. Plus, you'll still have 5 people with missile weapons while he goes ahead.
- have 2 or 3 points in long sword and... 1 or 2 in bastard sword. If you find a shapeshifter bastard sword... hold on to it! ~_~

I forgot about possibly giving Khalid a shield, if at any point you get fed up with going on to the inventory screen there's a nice returning throwing axe somewhere in the game (thunderhammer smithy i think) this just gives you a decent ranged weapon that you don't have to enter your inventory to switch in.

Sirxeko

I believe Prat drops that in the Candlekeep Caves mid- to late- game. Which will help a lot in the final fight, probably, but not too much up to that point. And yeah, that's probably my problem; focusing on offense over defense. Especially when I'm playing as a Sorcerer. Kinda a dumb move, I guess.