Imoen is in every party, and I have no way to correct this. She has been in EVERY. PARTY.
I used to be the same way with multiple characters. In the first game I always gravitated toward the canon party, just because Imoen is a necessity, I'd feel too guilty not taking Jaheira/Khalid and Minsc was my favorite character, therefore Dynaheir. This sucked since I always love having Coran, Ajantis and Kivan in my parties, and I do enjoy me some Xan on occasion as well as Yeslick. I once made my "alternate canon" party with character you meet in the Iron Throne quests or have a grudge with them (Kivan, Xan, Branwen, Yeslick and...yep. Imoen) I've since expanded my horizons in the first game quite a bit, but still take Imoen and usually have Jaheira and Khalid at least until the mines are cleared. I've even started using the evil characters on occasion!
In the second game I of course always have Imoen. No negotiations. Yoshimo. No negotiations. This pattern remains today... I cannot have a game without Imoen and Yoshimo. There is like a part of my brain that doesn't allow it. Its a tick/reflex whatever. I even started a game with the intention of NOT taking Imoen... but when I got to Spellhold I lost my nerve. She's your sister, brah, you need to take care of your family. In the beginning three characters were always in my party: Minsc, who is hilarious, Aerie who I liked/felt bad about leaving her since she was so eager to adventure and finally Keldorn. Keldorn might be my favorite NPC along with Yoshimo, Imoen and Minsc. The ONLY, and I mean the ONLY reason that I can have a party without him is because my man needs to spend some time with his family. The man deserves a break, and I think he has a good retirement package with the Order. Every other spot in BG2 was up for grabs other than the Yoshimo/Imoen spot nowadays. The only exception to this rule is Sarevok. He's just too cool for school.
I'll flag Jaheira as another I tend to leave behind. Multi fighters are not as strong as duals, and in BG2 those druid levels take forever to arrive, leaving levelling the fighter at half the rate. The whole motherly figure elf dating a teenager romance creeps me out in BG2, but she does seem to have more personal content (in terms of extra gameplay) than any other PC, which feels like even more railroading from the dev telling me to take her. Especially annoying is that there is a nice early-mid game mage item that you can't get unless you take her - why should she have any bearing on a mage run, that is such a non-sequitur.
All in all, Jaheira annoys me more than any other classic NPC. I'm still not wild about Dorn, and haven't had a chance to play Hexxat or Dorn's BG2 content yet, but it is possible these could land below Jaheira in my always-leave-behind stakes. But yes, so far Jaheira is probably my lowest of the low, just ahead of Minsc (who sadly I have outgrown. Adding his UB to BG2 could make all the difference).
I always seem to find a justification for including Viconia in my party in both games.
At first sight of her stats she looks a bit squishy, but with a the right kit (in the military sense) she can make a great utility npc - buffing, healing and back-up tanking. On an emotional level I find her character in BG2 intriguing and that just her presence in the party gives a slightly different feel to the game. From a purely personal perspective I really enjoy the romance with her (but that could just be because I have a track record of dating dangerous and inappropriate women, so it fits very well with my personality).
in bg1 if I play a good party, I usually always have kivan and khalid, they have great dexterity and do pretty well in melee combat, but now adays, when I play bg1, I only play a 3 man team ( charname) imoen and xan. Imoen has all the thief skills I need and xan can use wands and cast pretty useful spells ( don't need a cleric because there is crap loads of healing potions everywhere, and I still usually end up with around 20 the time I hit sarevok anyway) in bg2, I usually always take jaheria with me because during her harper quest jargon, you will eventually get a ring of wizardry, and plus she has good dexterity, and also I usually like to take mazzy along because A) she has good dexterity she has great saves C) she has awesome special abilities ( invoke courage, haste and strength) but I would say mayhaps even 70% of the time I mix it up quite a bit for who I bring along on my parties when I play single player, about 60% of the time I just play parties entirely created by me, but when I do play single player I try and mix it up a bit
BG2: Jan. What a versatile and great character, he simply has no downsides. And who doesn't want a battlerager like Korgan in the party? And of course, there is no one beating Jaheira if you want a druid.
Edwin. Give him 2000 years and a pointy hat, and he'll kick @elminster 's arse!
Minsc. His cries alone ("Sword, meet evil!") are enough for me. Atop of that, he's got amazing strength; give him Lilarcor and it's a match made in heaven. Also, Boo. Arguably the strongest miniature giant space hamster ever to bring havoc to the Sword Coast. Wouldn't want to cross him.
As a total aside ... when you meet Dorn, 2 of the characters he is pursuing are named Dorotea and Senjak. If you have ever read Glen Cook's seminal "Black Company" trilogy, the true name of the semi-immortal empress of much of that world is Dorotea Senjak. (Sorcerers guard their true names fiercely in Cook's world, since this knowledge gives others power over them). The odds on this being coincidental (The same exact spelling? Really?) are astronomical. Makes me wonder if there are any other obscure references hidden in the game that I'm not picking up on. Minsc? A city in Russia (Minsk)? Branwen sounds vaguely familiar also.
@Vallmyr "Before anyone else" a term used by the youth. Very annoying.
Speaking as a youth I'd ask that you not tar us all with the same brush. I happen to speak the Queen's English or as close as most people get to it these days. (if you're wondering why, one granddad was an army officer and the other was a school teacher so both of my parents passed it on)
>>Minsk is the capital of the Republic of Belarus, it's not Russia <<
I date back to the days when the monolithic Evil Soviet Empire was the main threat to the Freedom Loving peoples of the world. And I still don't buy the blatant fiction that is has broken up. It's all an underhanded Stalinist plot; they're just biding their time.
BG 1 NOBODY is sacred they get dumped and picked up as needed and sometimes if they have annoyed me I take all their stuff dye their clothing pink and leave them on the side of the road. " im looking at you Monty and Xzar." Well thats without the NPC project with it Imeon is sacred and I like having Xan around.
In BG 2 I tend to build around who im romancing, Taking NPC's that have alot of interaction with the romanced, and dont make them leave or try kill them and such. also i have recently started to have a throw away NPC, that gets dumped for anyone and everyone who wants to join. Cause you know, i have to do all things.
I just noticed I haven't mentioned NPCs I prefer. I haven't played BG2 at all, and am only doing the first run through BG, so some of the NPCs mentioned by others I haven't encountered yet, so cannot comment upon.
Of those I have run into so far, Imoen is a keeper; useful and also she doesn't get torqued off if I park her aside for a while in order to try out someone else. Neera's personality is far preferable to Xan's as far as I am concerned, moonblade or not; his pessimism is SO wearying. Also, the extra spell per level thing is nice. I gave her the level 1 ring of wizardry and she's like a magic missile machine gun now. Just make sure she doesn't ever use that silly first level chaos thingie. Otherwise, adverse side effects of her magic are pretty rare; OK, there WAS that embarrassing Demon Summoning incident, but we managed to outrun it. And, like Imoen, you can park her at FAI for a while to try out someone else if the urge strikes you.
No evils in my party, so Kagain was out, dwarven perks or not. I'm getting my reputation high as possible. Also, I really don't need a repeat of the meltdown we had early on, when the good and evil members of the party started attacking each other, while Imoen and I sat on the sidelines watching and munching popcorn. I also was reluctant to grab Ajantis, figuring that fanatically good members might be as bad in their own way as pure evil ones.
I'm definitely not fond of the fact that Jaheira's dual class slows down her druidic advancement, but she's the best source of druid magic I've found so far, and a moderately decent backup healer. I also grab Branwen and give her the ring with extra Divine spell access; an extra spell for levels 1-4 can't hurt. I disagree that the availability of healing potions obviates the need for a clerical type. Having a cleric (plus a druid) in the second rank casting heal spells on the front rank fighters lets those guys do something more constructive during combat than stopping to scarf down a potion. Clerics also have some useful combat spells other than healing.
Khalid ... isn't the world's best fighter but he's reliable enough. I was thinking initially to replace him with Minsc, who can actually use a composite bow because of his greater strength, but he was just a little too crazy for me; also his insistence on staying with Dynaheir meant I'd have to free up two slots, not just one, in order to keep him. Mind you, she's a more than adequate mage, I just liked Neera better. Additionally, Khalid's constitution is better than Minsc's, he has more HP, and fights with sword and shield for better AC, making his durability better. The final straw was that Boo never actually did anything except take up a ready item slot.
So, currently my group consists of Imoen, Jaheira, Khalid, Neera, Branwen, and me ... a half-orc Kensai. Umm, ok, not a great choice if you want to avoid damage, due to lack of armor, but it sounded cool, so I went with it. I specialized in two handed swords rather than a katana, since it sounded like there might not be any magical katanas available; little did I know that magical two handed swords would be uncommon also. Had I known better, I might have gone with a human berserker. Berserking is a voluntary ability, so you can choose when to use it; being unable to use armor isn't.
It might be interesting to build a party around your favourite npc. Instead of building charname as the party leader, create a character that would be an excellent right-hand man/woman to your favourite npc and then roleplay the game through the eyes/mind of that npc.
I recently (BG1:EE) ran into an opportunity to recruit Baeloth the Entertainer for my party, he having at long last been betrayed by his Djinn slave and exiled from the Underdark. Supposedly he is a good spell caster for recruitment purposes. However, despite this setback, he remained an obnoxious beggar, so I took great pleasure in killing his Drow self instead. Also, I understand that actually taking him into the party drops your reputation.
Got a Robe of the Evil Archmagi out of it; unfortunately, although it's worth 10,000+ gold, no one seems to want to buy it. Oh well; I still enjoyed killing him.
Also, waaaay off in an out of the way corner, if you explore Adoy's Enclave fully, you run into Rocky and Bullwinkle. Not recruitable NPCs, unfortunately, but as a long time fan of the show decades ago, I was amused. They aren't named that, of course, probably to avoid legal action, but how many times will you bump into a moose trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat? Note: the trick goes awry, of course, and he gets a monster instead, which you can then kill.
Having a cleric (plus a druid) in the second rank casting heal spells on the front rank fighters lets those guys do something more constructive during combat than stopping to scarf down a potion. Clerics also have some useful combat spells other than healing.
Agreed with this.
I've only relatively recently begun exploring the combat abilities of a cleric, and it's been a revelation. Having another party member that you can devote to healing really allows you to tap into the cleric's offensive potential.
I find healing spells (prior the level 6 heal) to be very weak during combat. Casting time is really long and the HP you get back is quite low. Furthermore, healing potions are plentiful and drinking them actually do not really slow you down.
Clerics shine in bg1 but not because of healing. It's rather thanks to their crowd control spells (command makes a few early game fights trivial; paralysis is also great)
I make an effort to diversify my party from playthrough-to-playthrough. Most often, though, I tend to end up with Jaheira, Nalia and/or Viconia. I also take Dynaheir quite often in BG1. Aside from that, I've played through with almost every NPC in my party with very few exceptions:
Quayle Tiax Garrick Neera Hexxat Aerie Sarevok (by the time he becomes available I already have my party. It's so difficult to take him, though I would very much like to)
Contrary to most people, I try to avoid taking Minsc. He's such a broken record after 1 or 2 playthroughs, I think.
>>I've only relatively recently begun exploring the combat abilities of a cleric, and it's been a revelation<<
Seriously; hold person, silence on enemy casters .... animate dead once you get skeletal warriors with magical weapons is quite useful ... bless, aid and/or chant just prior to combat ... what's not to like?
Comments
I used to be the same way with multiple characters. In the first game I always gravitated toward the canon party, just because Imoen is a necessity, I'd feel too guilty not taking Jaheira/Khalid and Minsc was my favorite character, therefore Dynaheir.
This sucked since I always love having Coran, Ajantis and Kivan in my parties, and I do enjoy me some Xan on occasion as well as Yeslick. I once made my "alternate canon" party with character you meet in the Iron Throne quests or have a grudge with them (Kivan, Xan, Branwen, Yeslick and...yep. Imoen)
I've since expanded my horizons in the first game quite a bit, but still take Imoen and usually have Jaheira and Khalid at least until the mines are cleared. I've even started using the evil characters on occasion!
In the second game I of course always have Imoen. No negotiations. Yoshimo. No negotiations. This pattern remains today... I cannot have a game without Imoen and Yoshimo. There is like a part of my brain that doesn't allow it. Its a tick/reflex whatever. I even started a game with the intention of NOT taking Imoen... but when I got to Spellhold I lost my nerve. She's your sister, brah, you need to take care of your family.
In the beginning three characters were always in my party: Minsc, who is hilarious, Aerie who I liked/felt bad about leaving her since she was so eager to adventure and finally Keldorn. Keldorn might be my favorite NPC along with Yoshimo, Imoen and Minsc. The ONLY, and I mean the ONLY reason that I can have a party without him is because my man needs to spend some time with his family. The man deserves a break, and I think he has a good retirement package with the Order.
Every other spot in BG2 was up for grabs other than the Yoshimo/Imoen spot nowadays. The only exception to this rule is Sarevok. He's just too cool for school.
All in all, Jaheira annoys me more than any other classic NPC.
I'm still not wild about Dorn, and haven't had a chance to play Hexxat or Dorn's BG2 content yet, but it is possible these could land below Jaheira in my always-leave-behind stakes. But yes, so far Jaheira is probably my lowest of the low, just ahead of Minsc (who sadly I have outgrown. Adding his UB to BG2 could make all the difference).
At first sight of her stats she looks a bit squishy, but with a the right kit (in the military sense) she can make a great utility npc - buffing, healing and back-up tanking.
On an emotional level I find her character in BG2 intriguing and that just her presence in the party gives a slightly different feel to the game.
From a purely personal perspective I really enjoy the romance with her (but that could just be because I have a track record of dating dangerous and inappropriate women, so it fits very well with my personality).
BG2: Jan. What a versatile and great character, he simply has no downsides. And who doesn't want a battlerager like Korgan in the party? And of course, there is no one beating Jaheira if you want a druid.
She's just so adorable!
/obsesses over the cuteness that is Alora.
Other than her I always take Imoen in both games.
I also seem to always get Aerie in BG2. While not as cutesy as Alora, she's adorable in her own way and I can romance her too
I've never heard of this term. Could someone fill me in?
"Before anyone else" a term used by the youth. Very annoying.
Give him 2000 years and a pointy hat, and he'll kick @elminster 's arse!
Minsc.
His cries alone ("Sword, meet evil!") are enough for me. Atop of that, he's got amazing strength; give him Lilarcor and it's a match made in heaven. Also, Boo. Arguably the strongest miniature giant space hamster ever to bring havoc to the Sword Coast. Wouldn't want to cross him.
Also, Minsk is the capital of the Republic of Belarus, it's not Russia : )
Also, I suggest people should stay on topic here.
I date back to the days when the monolithic Evil Soviet Empire was the main threat to the Freedom Loving peoples of the world. And I still don't buy the blatant fiction that is has broken up. It's all an underhanded Stalinist plot; they're just biding their time.
" im looking at you Monty and Xzar."
Well thats without the NPC project with it Imeon is sacred and I like having Xan around.
In BG 2 I tend to build around who im romancing,
Taking NPC's that have alot of interaction with the romanced, and dont make them leave or try kill them and such.
also i have recently started to have a throw away NPC, that gets dumped for anyone and everyone who wants to join.
Cause you know, i have to do all things.
Of those I have run into so far, Imoen is a keeper; useful and also she doesn't get torqued off if I park her aside for a while in order to try out someone else. Neera's personality is far preferable to Xan's as far as I am concerned, moonblade or not; his pessimism is SO wearying. Also, the extra spell per level thing is nice. I gave her the level 1 ring of wizardry and she's like a magic missile machine gun now. Just make sure she doesn't ever use that silly first level chaos thingie. Otherwise, adverse side effects of her magic are pretty rare; OK, there WAS that embarrassing Demon Summoning incident, but we managed to outrun it. And, like Imoen, you can park her at FAI for a while to try out someone else if the urge strikes you.
No evils in my party, so Kagain was out, dwarven perks or not. I'm getting my reputation high as possible. Also, I really don't need a repeat of the meltdown we had early on, when the good and evil members of the party started attacking each other, while Imoen and I sat on the sidelines watching and munching popcorn. I also was reluctant to grab Ajantis, figuring that fanatically good members might be as bad in their own way as pure evil ones.
I'm definitely not fond of the fact that Jaheira's dual class slows down her druidic advancement, but she's the best source of druid magic I've found so far, and a moderately decent backup healer. I also grab Branwen and give her the ring with extra Divine spell access; an extra spell for levels 1-4 can't hurt. I disagree that the availability of healing potions obviates the need for a clerical type. Having a cleric (plus a druid) in the second rank casting heal spells on the front rank fighters lets those guys do something more constructive during combat than stopping to scarf down a potion. Clerics also have some useful combat spells other than healing.
Khalid ... isn't the world's best fighter but he's reliable enough. I was thinking initially to replace him with Minsc, who can actually use a composite bow because of his greater strength, but he was just a little too crazy for me; also his insistence on staying with Dynaheir meant I'd have to free up two slots, not just one, in order to keep him. Mind you, she's a more than adequate mage, I just liked Neera better. Additionally, Khalid's constitution is better than Minsc's, he has more HP, and fights with sword and shield for better AC, making his durability better. The final straw was that Boo never actually did anything except take up a ready item slot.
So, currently my group consists of Imoen, Jaheira, Khalid, Neera, Branwen, and me ... a half-orc Kensai. Umm, ok, not a great choice if you want to avoid damage, due to lack of armor, but it sounded cool, so I went with it. I specialized in two handed swords rather than a katana, since it sounded like there might not be any magical katanas available; little did I know that magical two handed swords would be uncommon also. Had I known better, I might have gone with a human berserker. Berserking is a voluntary ability, so you can choose when to use it; being unable to use armor isn't.
Got a Robe of the Evil Archmagi out of it; unfortunately, although it's worth 10,000+ gold, no one seems to want to buy it. Oh well; I still enjoyed killing him.
Also, waaaay off in an out of the way corner, if you explore Adoy's Enclave fully, you run into Rocky and Bullwinkle. Not recruitable NPCs, unfortunately, but as a long time fan of the show decades ago, I was amused. They aren't named that, of course, probably to avoid legal action, but how many times will you bump into a moose trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat? Note: the trick goes awry, of course, and he gets a monster instead, which you can then kill.
Rocky and Bullwinkle also appear in BG2 at the circus, but they don't say anything.
I've only relatively recently begun exploring the combat abilities of a cleric, and it's been a revelation. Having another party member that you can devote to healing really allows you to tap into the cleric's offensive potential.
Furthermore, healing potions are plentiful and drinking them actually do not really slow you down.
Clerics shine in bg1 but not because of healing. It's rather thanks to their crowd control spells (command makes a few early game fights trivial; paralysis is also great)
Quayle
Tiax
Garrick
Neera
Hexxat
Aerie
Sarevok (by the time he becomes available I already have my party. It's so difficult to take him, though I would very much like to)
Contrary to most people, I try to avoid taking Minsc. He's such a broken record after 1 or 2 playthroughs, I think.
Seriously; hold person, silence on enemy casters .... animate dead once you get skeletal warriors with magical weapons is quite useful ... bless, aid and/or chant just prior to combat ... what's not to like?