*Spoilers* End of SOA - Entering TOB

OnePotato

Hello good people of the forum!

Somehow throughout the years I've never actually completed SOA or even started TOB, despite finishing the first game several times. All of that is about to change as I currently am on the cusp of entering the seventh chapter and having a great time.

Now storywise I am quite out of the loop in TOB (including Watchers Keep) so I´d quite appriciate plot spoilers to be kept at a minimum - however I am already aware of much of the equipment and the added NPC, whose future inclusion is what I´d like to discuss.

Note that from this point *SPOILERS* will be discussed - especially concerning equipment and NPC:s

My current party is the following:

Protagonist: Half-Elf Fighter(15)/Mage(14) - Katanas(Fury) and scimitars(Belm) with axes recently added
Keldorn: Inquisitor(19) - Two-handed swords(Carsomyr) and crossbows
Jaheira: Fighter(15)/Druid(14) - Spears(Impaler/Withering) (possibly adding daggers later for Firetooth)
Anomen: Fighter(7)->Cleric(23) - Aiming for Grand Mastery in Flails(Ages)
Nalia: Thief(4)->Mage(19) - Short Bow (Gesen)
Imoen: Thief(7)->Mage(15) - Firetooth (though there is a +3 no-ammo bow waiting if Jaheira wants the dagger)

Now I quite like this party and how they are performing, being able to face many foes with minimal buffing/spells, yet being able to raise their potency quite dramatically when needed, thus limiting the need to rest. So now I am quite unsure of how or if I should add Sarevok. I would love to fit him in since I only know him as the antagonist from BG1 and am quite excited to hear what he has to say. But who do I replace him with?

Keldorn fills a similar role but he is quite stunning with his Inquisitor abilities and Carsomyr.

I think I could manage without two devine spellcasters but both of them are so versitile and potent when things get messy, both as melee fighters and as spellcasters. I´m romancing Jaheira, though I think that I might have gone at too fast a pace for it to properly resolve itself so I´m quite resigned to not completing it.

Imoen and Nalia are very similar - Imoen is quite a bit weaker at the moment but she is actually a good thief and feels central to the plot. Nalia has memorised the level 9 spells that I have found thusfar and has become very dangerous even though I realise that she is weaker on paper than most other mages.

I would very much welcome any input on the matter, either in terms of what you would consider to be the most powerful party or the most enjoyable plotwise in TOB (without actually being too story-specific as to why) or a combination of the two.

/Your most humble potato

DJKajuru

OnePotato said:

Hello good people of the forum!

Now I quite like this party and how they are performing, being able to face many foes with minimal buffing/spells, yet being able to raise their potency quite dramatically when needed, thus limiting the need to rest. So now I am quite unsure of how or if I should add Sarevok. I would love to fit him in since I only know him as the antagonist from BG1 and am quite excited to hear what he has to say. But who do I replace him with?

/Your most humble potato

What a great party! You've got plenty of spellcasters , which really helps when developing different tactics, and, to contrast that, four of your party members can frontline.

Tactically, they're excellent. I wouldn't remove Imoen or Jaheira because of their participation in the story. Nalia is an option, but her arcane spells are too much fun at higher levels.

Sarevok is an excellent frontliner, so in my opinion you've got two options : by keeping Keldorn you'll have two excellent fighters , and by keeping Anomen you'll have lots of divine spells.

Jarrakul

I'd drop Anomen or Nalia, personally. Anomen because he's annoying, and you've already got Jaheira for healing. Nalia because you already have Imoen for thief abilities, and Imoen and your MC for mage spells. You could, of course, drop Jaheira or Keldorn, but they're both excellent anti-mage characters and mages are kind of mean. Theoretically either one could manage well enough on their own, but having both will help. So I'd drop Anomen or Nalia.

Daevelon

I would drop Nalia, but not Anomen, at high levels (as you already have) he can turn and make explode almost every undead you meet. But i agree that he is annoying as hell:D

elminster

Of the available options I'd drop Anomen or Keldorn. Mages rule, so dropping either Nalia or Imoen at this stage (especially if Nalia has level 9 spells) would be inadvisable (plus Nalia and Imoen have some pretty fun dialogues with eachother in ToB from what I can recall). Cleric spells are nice at high levels but they aren't on the same level as mage spells. Keldorn's Dispel is awesome but all your mages should have Breach at this point and there are very few enemies that won't work against (plus they can use triggers and continguencies to instantly cast Dispel Magic/Remove Magic/Breach).

I wouldn't drop Jaheira partly due to story reasons and also due to the fact that she really starts to shine once you get access to HLA's.

If you really want to use Carsomyr you can even dual class Sarevok into a thief in order to be able to later use it (with Use Any Item active). Its probably not worth it but if that is the sort of thing you want to do it is an option.

wubble

I'd drop Anomen if I were you, he whines too much and Keldorn is brilliant against mages, Jaheira will give you enough healing to keep you alive (there are tons of potions of superior healing throughout the game as well). Keldorn is a good scrapper and can also summon a deva with a HLA if needed, he is very magic resistant (assuming you equip him with carsomyr) and as everyone says he can dispel nearly anything which is good if you want to free up your mages for casting horrid wilting (who doesn't).

OnePotato

Thanks for all the response! It has certainly given some food for thought.

I think I will drop Anomen then. I like the redundancy of priest spells for convinience, but so far I have yet to make the most of it (a lot of spells left come bedtime). I've tended to use him as mostly a back-up warrior lately and Sarevok should fill that role better.

I considered Keldorn aswell but he's just too useful. I do tend to use his dispel like a drunk elephant attempting ballet however, constantly thwarting the well-prepared defences of my protagonist. But then what sort of Inquisitor would he be if he didn't at least try to hamper the spellcasting blasphemy of my Fighter/Mage? Plus, story wise, he sent his wife to rot in prison not two month's ago and let the man who had provided some sort of stability in the lives of his children hang at the gallows. I'm sure the children and the zealous paladin could use some time apart...

...and he's going to need to get his hands on some high-level loot to pay for family counseling in the years to come.

Well then, thanks again! The Throne of Bhaal awaits!

TheArtisan

I'd like to add that with 3 mages eventually one of them can go for the Summon Planetar HLA which has useful priest spells that Jaheira lacks. So yeah for all the praise I like to give Anomen dropping him would hurt the least.

ChildofBhaal599

i would agree with dropping anomen. there isn't an urgent need for multiple divine casters, and Jaheira will get a huge jump in spells at some point in TOB. plus I hear he is annoying from everybody

also, I am not sure you really could go too fast with Jaheira. I think the only time you can go too fast and end a romance is if you accept Aerie's first offer. what you may be experiencing is that you may have never gotten the bandit attack by sleeping in a wilderness area. if this is the case then you wouldn't be that far through and I would recommend either ignoring it or fast forwarding it with console commands/keeper.

OnePotato

ChildofBhaal599 said:

i would agree with dropping anomen. there isn't an urgent need for multiple divine casters, and Jaheira will get a huge jump in spells at some point in TOB. plus I hear he is annoying from everybody

Yep, Anomen is resting in the pocket-plane, although I fear leaving him alone in there with that butler/smith might just push him to Chaotic neutral. I actually didn't find him that bad, he's arrogant of course but then there's alot of that going on in this party.

ChildofBhaal599 said:

also, I am not sure you really could go too fast with Jaheira. I think the only time you can go too fast and end a romance is if you accept Aerie's first offer. what you may be experiencing is that you may have never gotten the bandit attack by sleeping in a wilderness area. if this is the case then you wouldn't be that far through and I would recommend either ignoring it or fast forwarding it with console commands/keeper.

Ah sorry I meant that the other way - that I was progressing through the game faster than her romance dialogues were appearing. But after realising that I still had one or two things to do in chapter 6 (mainly introducing liches to my shiny mace) she finally got her pin.