Hold the presses: new headlines! Yoshimo useful! Mad bomber strikes!

FrdNwsm

I have been complaining about not having a decent thief/mage, and being stuck with Yoshimo. but it turns out he does have some usefulness after all. Traps. Recently, whenever I rest out in the open, I have been surrounding my group with his snares. Consequently, critters sneaking up on me while I sleep often get an annoying surprise. In BG1 I never bothered with such a tactic, because the thieves were all low level and didn't have much skill with that ability. This has come as a bit of a revelation. Traps are my new toy!

The best instance was when I grabbed Dragonslayer; I was planning on sleeping in that room to heal up and regain a bunch of spells, so I had spread traps around beforehand, as per my newfound habit. Hah! When What's-her-name and co. showed up, they were sitting right on several of them. Serves the backstabbing wench right.

With Jan still not talking to me, I haven't had the opportunity to check Yo's ability against any other thief, but I suspect he is better because he's a bounty hunter. If I ever get Imoen back, I know she won't be as good since she's only a level 7 thief and Yoshimo is now level 12. When I get back to town, I'm going to pick up Hexxat for a minute, just to see what her trap ability is.

Varwulf

Not only that, but he can dance on the head of a pin as well.

FrdNwsm

>> he can dance on the head of a pin as well.<<

Heh. But he's no angel.

I checked out Hexxat; she has almost NO trap ability whatsoever. Also, according to the kit, Bounty Hunters get the special snare ability, and normal thieves do not. Unfortunately, Yoshimo doesn't have the stats to dual him over into a spell caster ... or anything but a fighter, for that matter, which seems sort of pointless. So if I want to play with my new found toys, I have to keep him around. That's definitely going to throw my plans about an ideal group for a loop. If I keep Yoshimo, Jaheira and myself, retire Nalia and recruit Neera and Aerie, that leaves only 1 slot open and only myself as a front line fighter. Recruit Kaldorn? Keep Anomen around and let him use that cleric-to-fighter spell in combat? I really need another mage; there are so many intriguing mage spells and one mage can't carry enough of them. Decisions, decisions ...

FrdNwsm

I conclude that what I really need is a party with 8 characters in it. Which mod allows that again?

st_live418

Personally I wouldn't put TOO much thought into forming a "perfect" party. You'll be able to complete the game with any combination of characters that you decide to use, after all. It can just be an excuse to play through the game again with a completely different character setup.

FrdNwsm

>> I wouldn't put TOO much thought into forming a "perfect" party<<

Blasphemy! All must be perfect from the start! Nothing out of place ... no false ... drat, my OCD is acting up again. Where did I put that medication?

Belanos

It sounds like someone is heading for some disappointment later on.

Varwulf

I've been interested in this 8 party member mod myself, actually. I just am concerned it'd cause a lot of breakages and what not.

FrdNwsm

I was being facetious; don't think there is such a thing

lunar

Yoshi can be pretty effective with backstabs, too. What I like about him is that he is a pure thief that isn't weak as a kitten in melee for a change! (Fed up with Imoen and Alora in bg1 dying to every kobold/xvart in melee) My friend who is playing bg2 first time as well, he loves Yoshi to bits. 'He is my number one man!' He says.

Wowo

Hexxat and Jan can get good set trap ability simply by allocating points there on level ups.

Traps are insanely powerful honestly and I always put at least 50 points in the skill for all my thieves.

Sometimes when someone turns up and has a go at you it's possibly to pause the game before they turn hostile and drop a trap at your thiefs feet.

At thief level 11 the traps start poisoning the enemy too iirc ...

FrdNwsm

Oh I know I can control skill points once I level an NPC up. One problem as far as training other thieves is that Jan still won't talk to me, and Anomen absolutely abhors Hexxat. I'd probably have to park him and recruit Viconia in order to keep Hexxat around long enough to level her a few times. I suspect she's too high maintenance to keep around for long. You know; the whole "I neffer drink ... vine." thing.

Yoshimo still isn't great in close combat melee but I have given him the Tuigan bow and a bunch of +2 arrows, so he's like a gatling gun. I keep him towrds the rear in combat situations and have him pot away at enemy spell casters. Also, only bounty hunters get the special snares. Hes getting better as a thief also; gave him the Shadow Armor and some potions of thievery.

Dropping traps during combat! Hmm, that's an idea. Drop traps behind us and then retreat and draw the enemy into a minefield when they follow. Have to try it.

FrdNwsm

>>Fed up with Imoen and Alora in bg1 dying to every kobold/xvart in melee) <<

They're first level! Even level 1 warriors get killed by kobolds! Sheesh. They shouldn't be engaging in melee anyway, even later on; they can't wear the armor needed to go toe to toe, and they don't have enough skill to backstab reliably. Missile weapons, Imoen's wand of Magic Missile, that sort of thing is what they should be using. She won't be doing much damage with that wand, but she can suppress enemy spell casters with it.

FrdNwsm

Hmm, forgot you have to set traps out of sight of an enemy. Duck around a corner maybe? Run out of sight range?

lunar

FrdNwsm said:

>>Fed up with Imoen and Alora in bg1 dying to every kobold/xvart in melee) <<

They're first level! Even level 1 warriors get killed by kobolds! Sheesh. They shouldn't be engaging in melee anyway, even later on; they can't wear the armor needed to go toe to toe, and they don't have enough skill to backstab reliably. Missile weapons, Imoen's wand of Magic Missile, that sort of thing is what they should be using. She won't be doing much damage with that wand, but she can suppress enemy spell casters with it.</p>

True, they have low hp and abysmal str so they are especially bad in melee. Yoshi has very high hitpoints, good strength that actually helps him to hit things, and single weapon proficiency with the best melee weapon type, katana. I have seen him deal 70-80 points of damage with a critical backstab, with an attack roll of 19, thanks to weapon style. That impressed me a lot, when compared to Imoen's dud criticals for 2 hp damage in bg1.

FrdNwsm

>>Yoshi has very high hitpoints, good strength that actually helps him to hit things, and single weapon proficiency with the best melee weapon type, katana. <<

Strength isn't that critical; potions of giant strength are reasonably common, and there are spells like strength, strength of one, and so on that increase THACO. I've pumped his AC up to -1 but that's still not great for melee combat. I prefer to give him the Tuigan bow and something like +2 fire arrows for distance attacks. He's at 100% trap detection now and he can set 6 traps/snares per day, which is also very useful.

I find it difficult to set up backstabs; I will, however, send him into melee if the tactical situation calls for it.

Also he doesn't like to be called Yoshi!

lunar

FrdNwsm said:

>>Yoshi has very high hitpoints, good strength that actually helps him to hit things, and single weapon proficiency with the best melee weapon type, katana. <<

Strength isn't that critical; potions of giant strength are reasonably common, and there are spells like strength, strength of one, and so on that increase THACO. I've pumped his AC up to -1 but that's still not great for melee combat. I prefer to give him the Tuigan bow and something like +2 fire arrows for distance attacks. He's at 100% trap detection now and he can set 6 traps/snares per day, which is also very useful.

I find it difficult to set up backstabs; I will, however, send him into melee if the tactical situation calls for it.

Also he doesn't like to be called Yoshi!</p>

Heh, fair enough. He is one solid npc. :-)

booinyoureyes

I've recently started using EEKeeper to make Yoshimo a Fighter/Bounty Hunter and he's been excellent. I've taken Yoshimo in every party I have ever made, despite not loving thieves, but as the multi he is extra useful with his backstabs. I had him and Valygar one time, and the double backstabs really destroy things!

In addition to having an excellent personality with great voice-acting, Yoshimo is also great character story-wise, and I'd keep him with you no matter what.

hispls

Traps are very strong and also the best use I've found for Yoshimo. A good strategy is to scout ahead with someone who is invisible, if you find a tough lot of enemies ahead lay a pile of traps out of their sight, then have the thief backstab one enemy and run for the traps luring the opponents through the gauntlet to where the party is waiting to mop up survivors.