NPC choices
FrdNwsm
Member Posts: 1,069
Starting MyChar off as a fighter class and then dualing over to mage seems a popular choice, but that's not going to happen for me. Half-orc berserker; no switching to anything. So, I figure I'll need to rely on my NPC group for spell buffs, magical combat and what have you.
Right now I have Minsc, Jaheira, Nalia, Yoshimi and Annoyman ... errr, I mean Anomen.
I figure I'll stick with Jaheira; her multi class nature will slow her advancement but she can wear much better armor than a pure druid, and as a Harper she can raise the dead. Very useful; I've already had occasion to use that ability twice now :P
I do want another spirit caster, preferably a cleric, but Nameless ... sorry, I mean Anomen again ... is starting to grate on my nerves; what a self-righteous prig! Also, what's this stuff about him being a Knight in training? Does that mean that he will eventually become a Paladin? If so, out he goes asap. If he's insufferable now, he'll be a lot worse then, not to mention being far less useful. Or would he keep his clerical abilities also?
I understand Aerie is a cleric/mage, although I haven't met her yet. That's a possible replacement. I also like having more than 1 character with access to mage spells. Who else do we have in the wings besides Nalia and Aerie? I'd like to get Imoen back, but I am assuming that rescuing her will take a fair amount of time. If so, I'll need a fill-in for a significant period.
I did save Viconia from that auto-da-fe but didn't take her with me. I was rather amazed we didn't get arrested then and there for killing a bunch of townsfolk, but I guess the guards decided to overlook the entire thing, since the planned execution was illegal in the first place. If I eventually decide to enlist her, will there be any further problems because of her race?
I am undecided about Minsc; he's a second rate warrior and I'm not that impressed by the ranger spell selection. However, he does have that whacky berserk thing going for him, which is useful in avoiding certain forms of mind control during combat. I'd really like to see him use Boo as a missile weapon though; then he could really shout "Go for the eyes, Boo!" with some validity to it.
Somewhere on a BG1 forum I read that Neera would also be available in BG2; is that the case? She's a total airhead but I like her cheerfulness.
I don't know what other NPCs might be available later on; anyone have any recommendations?
Right now I have Minsc, Jaheira, Nalia, Yoshimi and Annoyman ... errr, I mean Anomen.
I figure I'll stick with Jaheira; her multi class nature will slow her advancement but she can wear much better armor than a pure druid, and as a Harper she can raise the dead. Very useful; I've already had occasion to use that ability twice now :P
I do want another spirit caster, preferably a cleric, but Nameless ... sorry, I mean Anomen again ... is starting to grate on my nerves; what a self-righteous prig! Also, what's this stuff about him being a Knight in training? Does that mean that he will eventually become a Paladin? If so, out he goes asap. If he's insufferable now, he'll be a lot worse then, not to mention being far less useful. Or would he keep his clerical abilities also?
I understand Aerie is a cleric/mage, although I haven't met her yet. That's a possible replacement. I also like having more than 1 character with access to mage spells. Who else do we have in the wings besides Nalia and Aerie? I'd like to get Imoen back, but I am assuming that rescuing her will take a fair amount of time. If so, I'll need a fill-in for a significant period.
I did save Viconia from that auto-da-fe but didn't take her with me. I was rather amazed we didn't get arrested then and there for killing a bunch of townsfolk, but I guess the guards decided to overlook the entire thing, since the planned execution was illegal in the first place. If I eventually decide to enlist her, will there be any further problems because of her race?
I am undecided about Minsc; he's a second rate warrior and I'm not that impressed by the ranger spell selection. However, he does have that whacky berserk thing going for him, which is useful in avoiding certain forms of mind control during combat. I'd really like to see him use Boo as a missile weapon though; then he could really shout "Go for the eyes, Boo!" with some validity to it.
Somewhere on a BG1 forum I read that Neera would also be available in BG2; is that the case? She's a total airhead but I like her cheerfulness.
I don't know what other NPCs might be available later on; anyone have any recommendations?
3
Comments
Accepting Viconia into the group will initially drop your reputation by 2 points. She's a great cleric and has 65% MR because she's drow. She won't affect your game otherwise other than a few personal encounters. She's actually pretty useful to have around when prancing around Underdark.
If u decide to take Minsc, you may want to take Aerie as well. They have great interaction. Btw I love the space hamster-missile idea..
A lot depends on what kind of run you are going for? A good party or an evil party? Or neutral? As a half-orc your romance options are very limited.
This is spoilery, so read at your discretion.
If you choose to kill Saerk, Anomen will fail his test, and become a bitter Chaotic Neutral character. If you leave the murder case to the authorities, he will pass the test, become Lawful Good, and gain Wisdom (thereby becoming a better cleric), oh and become known as Sir Anomen. The Chaotic Neutral version of Anomen also has conflicts with a few good-aligned characters too, namely Aerie and Keldorn.
If you found Anomen annoying, I doubt you will like Aerie. I personally find Jan quite annoying, but a lot of people who dislike Anomen and Aerie seem to like Jan, so that's probably an option for you. He covers both arcane and thief requirements, and has a nice weapon to boot. And yes, rescuing Immy will take some time. The "townsfolk" were a bunch of fanatic worshippers of an evil deity, whose name I've forgotten. Viconia has one conflict that I am aware of, but otherwise she just causes you to lose a little reputation.
Keldorn will attack her.
There are quite a few more NPCs scattered around the place. Valygar is good if you enjoy backstabbing people, Haer'Dalis is apparently very powerful if you gear him up correctly, and many people love Mazzy. All three of those require quite some effort to get to, however.
The only one I'd highlight is Keldorn, if you wanted a replacement for Minsc, he would be ideal. Inquisitor Dispels are invaluable against the many mage battles you will have to fight in BG2, and only he can wield the most powerful weapon in the game.
Carsomyr, which is only usable by Paladins, so basically Keldorn or a Paladin Charname.
Romance? Romance? I dun need no stinkin' romance! I'm a Bhaalspawn! My goal is to become a god! Mortals will worship me, not romance me. If I want romance I'll snag me a nice valkyrie or a cute fertility demi-goddess. Yeah ... fertility rites ... that'll work. "Hey babe! Let's fertilize your field and make some crops grow!"
Wheee-o; there's gonna be a bumper turnip yield this year!
Considering your name-dropping, I assume you play mostly good-aligned, or at least neutral, so I am gonna take that into consideration. Also, I love spells so I almost never use singleclass thieves or fighters. My choice of NPC's reflect that.
1: Jaheira: Stick with her. Personally I find her personality to be even more annoying than Annoymen, but she's a solid char with her buffs and other spells. She can tank, take out enemy mages and, as you already experienced, revive fallen comrades. She's also available for romance, if you're into that.
2: Anomen: Sure, annoying as hell, but the best non-drow cleric in the game. Not much can replace him other than a CHARNAME cleric IMHO. Can tank, has fighter levels. Improves even more with quests, as said above.
3: Jan: Jan is king, both thief extraordinare and illusionist. He make's an outstounding partymember for a long time, making other thieves unnecessary. Boot Yoshimo asap and stick to Jan. Level his pickpocket and steal your way to godhood, if that's your fancy.
Jan can then be replaced in once you get Immy back. They fit largely the same role, more so than Nalia IMHO, since Nalia can never really replace Immy/Jan as solo thief. . He's also funny as hell with all his amazing stories, but I know not everyone agree with me on that.
4: You lack arcane with this setup, so lastly I would pick up a mage. Any of these will do, but since you got alot of divine above, I wouldn't bother with Aerie unless you really dig her personality/cuteness. Imoen can take this slot as well, depending on preferance.
* 4.1: Nalia: crappy thief, less crappy mage. She is.. decent and somewhat undervalued. Sure, she's kinda annoying and her 4 levels of thief are too little (but since you got Jan, you can ignore that), but any mage in BG2 is good and Nalia is a mage. Just play her as you would play any single-class mage.
* 4:2 Neera: wildmage. It's her or Nalia, one is funnier but more deadly, the other easier but kinda boring. Guess which is which?
* 4:3 Haer'dalis: blade, so he can fit both supporting mage and fight. I like bards and blades in particular, but it's always good to have one mage leveling as mage, for the higher levels of arcane goodness.
The last slot I would change depending on quest and mood. If you want more meat, go with Kel, Minsc or even Valygar or pick any other NPC out there for their personal quests and then change them once done. Rasaad is an option here as well of course, though I am not a huge fan of monks myself.
You can probably pick up Edwin in the above group as well, replacing slot number 4 above. I can't remember exaclty who he fights but I don't think any of the above ppl fights him and you should be able to get away with it by replacing the fifth slot member before fights start. Edwin is the best mage, but he is evil so it depends on how kosher you wanna play alignments I guess. It's the same as with Vic, as mentioned by both @yannir and @Heindrich.
Hah, so that turkey Gaelen was talking through his hat! I figured as much; no way was I going to drop 20 large with no guarantees of success.
Swap Korgan for Minsc ... paladin for ranger ... ok, I can deal with that. I'm not planning on doing anything evil ... well, not TOO evil ... I am related to the God of Murder, after all ... but I generally act in a neutral manner. Unfortunately I suspect I won't be able to take Boo away from Minsc when I grab all his stuff, dress him in funny clothes and leave him by the side of the road. Oh well, you can't have everything.
Or can you? Hmm, what happens if Minsc meets with an ... unfortunate "accident"? Does Boo get dislodged? "Here Boo! Come get the nice lettuce!"
I like to have a more or less stable core group, for continuity and RP. No evils, thank you. I went through all of BG1 with MyChar, Jaheira, Branwen, Khalid, Imoen (whom I dualed to mage at level 8) and Neera. That way I could control their skill choices all the way through. We pretty much ran over everything, with three exceptions. (You can probably guess which encounters gave me trouble).
So, Me, Jaheira, Anomen, then Minsc -> Korgan, Nalia -> Neera, Yoshimi -> Jan. That should cover most bases.
However, being a completionist, I temporarily swap various characters out in order to recruit other NPCs who have a personal quest. Since Anomen usually starts with significantly more XP than the rest, I often use him as the one to "rest" while I'm working on someone else's quest (except not if my protagonist is female and romancing Anomen, for both RP and mechanical reasons). Assuming that you mean Keldorn not Korgan, then yes, that'll be a fine party for the whole game, with all skills well covered. Or if you drop Jan to make room for Imoen (when you finally manage to rescue her), then it'll still be a fine party.
(Actually, even if you had Korgan instead of Keldorn, then it'd still be viable, although mixing Evil characters into a Good party requires some management of Reputation which can be tricky if you haven't done this before.)
The more general problem with mixing Good and Evil characters is that very low Reputation will cause Good NPCs to walk out (and certain specific Evil actions will also cause certain specific NPCs to walk out), whilst very high Reputation will cause Evil NPCs to walk out. If you're playing a reasonably decent person, then the natural tendency in the game (which is also advantageous in terms of shop prices and so on) is that your Reputation tends towards the maximum, so suddenly (actually when REP exceeds 18) your Evil companions will abandon you. Therefore you have to keep an eye on the Reputation figure, and take action (i.e. do something Evil) to keep it down to a maximum of 18 (at least until you're in ToB, when your team will stay with you regardless of Reputation, although there are still some specific actions or situations which can cause someone to walk out on you, and some NPCs will still leave permanently if you drop them from the team at a time when they dislike your Reputation). All this is perfectly do-able, but it necessitates some meta-game knowledge and micro-management, and can become distinctly tedious. I therefore don't usually mix Good and Evil in the same team (except temporarily to complete someone's personal quest), although occasionally (for specific RP reasons) I'll put up with the hassle of maintaining Good and Evil together for the whole game.
Wow; an excellent point which I totally overlooked. Yeah, there are a lot of NPCs around and they mostly all seem to have some sort of agenda. BG1 had some character specific side quests also, but most were general. Hmm, indeed, probably I should park Anomen somewhere while I go for a moonlight stroll with Hexxat, for example.
Hmm, I'll keep that in mind. Unfortunately, he has about as much magical ability as Boo. Maybe less; Boo IS a giant space hamster, after all. Boo might have some magical talents I'm not yet aware of. I suppose I could mix and match a bit, swapping him out on and off for someone like Neera or Jan.
Good to hear; I'm a berserker. I suppose I could drag Minsc back in for that one, on the theory that if one berserker is good, two are even better.
Ooooh! Can Boo berserk also? A berserk giant Space hamster ... the mind boggles!
Or should that be "booserk"?