Good PC for evil-ish all-women party?

Aeginidae

I've played through BGEE a couple of times and I've only just barely gotten out of the first dungeon of BG2EE and I finally know enough about 2 and the NPCs that I like that I want to do a full run of the trilogy. I'm interested in a party only containing women (no gender change belt or anything either) and with only vanilla NPCs. I also don't have to use a full group, but I would like at least 4 so as not to run into the EXP cap too early.

So far, my picks for both games are:

BGEE:
CHARNAME
Viconia
Shar-Teel
Neera
Safana
Jaheira (??? maybe?)

BG2EE:
CHARNAME
Viconia
Hexxat (because I'm really really gay, okay)
Neera
Jaheira (again a maybe)

I don't mind a bit of a challenge, and I'm not really personally interested in playing either a F/M (whether multi or dual) or a Blade. The weakness I see is that there isn't really a strong frontline attacker in BG2 because I'm not using Dorn or whatever the dwarf NPC was named, so I'm considering either a Berserker or Blackguard but I don't want to get bored with click/wait for the enemy to die.

But yeah, recommendations? Could I maybe go crazy and try without a frontline fighter and instead go with something like Avenger or Stalker? I'm also open to a lot of multi-class options, although I'm a little reluctant to dual because of downtime and the encouragement to powergame more (I like my RP which is what makes me reluctant to be a bloodthirsty Blackguard.)

Blackraven

Nice idea! Maybe you could go with a Darm Moon Monk? Not much of a frontliner in BG1 (but you have Shar-Teel and Viconia there), but in BG2 Monks become very good fighters.
Btw I don't feel Jaheira fits, but that's just my opinion.

Aeginidae

I've never even thought about Monk! I don't even know anything about how they work. That would be really fun for RP purposes. Yeah, I agree about Jaheira. I also feel bad about killing Khalid and dirty about leaving him in a building otherwise.

Zalson

You'll need a male character in order to recruit Shar-teel

Aeginidae

Yeah but then I can boot them :P

shawne

Aeginidae said:

Yeah but then I can boot them :P

Use Khalid - that way you can immediately send him east into the basilisks while keeping Jaheira.

Wowo

Maybe a cleric/mage or cleric/illusionist? It's definitely worthwhile to have 2 arcane casters to give options and this character can be a very strong front line fighter with mage and cleric buffs including the fun that can be had from combining polymorph self: sword spider, minor sequencer, shocking grasp and draw upon holy might.

SharGuidesMyHand

Aeginidae said:

Jaheira (??? maybe?)

Instead of Jaheira, I would recommend Faldorn, who would be more suitable for an evil-themed party IMO. Although both are technically true neutral, Jaheira seems to be more neutral good at heart, whereas Faldorn seems almost evil-leaning at times (her only concern is for preserving nature, no matter what the cost to anyone else's life).

Aeginidae

@Wowo -- I was definitely considering exactly that. I worry a little about the fantastic roll I would have to achieve to make her excel on the front line.
I think I might go ahead and roll the Dark Moon monk, although I'm also eyeing the Dwarven Defender. The monk looks like she has access to fun self-buffs, though I worry about the fact that her fists only advance to +4 (I guess she can pull out a +5 weapon for those precious few fights where +4 is insufficient.)

@SharGuidesMyHand -- I think I might forgo the druid entirely for BGEE but if I were to pick one, yeah, I think it would be Faldorn. I've never used her.

Wowo

Aeginidae said:

@Wowo -- I was definitely considering exactly that. I worry a little about the fantastic roll I would have to achieve to make her excel on the front line.
I think I might go ahead and roll the Dark Moon monk, although I'm also eyeing the Dwarven Defender. The monk looks like she has access to fun self-buffs, though I worry about the fact that her fists only advance to +4 (I guess she can pull out a +5 weapon for those precious few fights where +4 is insufficient.)

@SharGuidesMyHand -- I think I might forgo the druid entirely for BGEE but if I were to pick one, yeah, I think it would be Faldorn. I've never used her.

It takes a 93 to max it out which isn't too hard and if you start in bg1 you can skimp a few points here and there. It's a super fun build as there's a lot of synergy between divine magic and metamagic.

Dark Moon Monk is good but it is just point and click so be prepared for that.

Skatan

Even if your charname is "point and click" you still have to micromanage your party, so personally I wouldn't let that guide me choice too much.
Avengers are cool, but you have enough diviners already. What your party lacks, IMHO, are meat in the front and/or arcane and/or ranged.
Stalkers are really great as well, but I tend to not use backstab as much and because of that Archer is better for my playstyle. An archer with xbows or shortbows will clear out BG1 by itself and can stand in the front with either DW (if you bother to go into inventory everytime you switch between melee and ranged) or staffs with decent APR and dmg. Also, arrows/bolts of dispelling, biting, lightning etc are good compliments to arcane and divine spells.
´
Since you dont't like dualing, I would probably go barbarian or DwD. Berzerkers are great but for me, they feel too much like the first 7-13 levels before a dual.

C/M or C/I are really cool and great builds with amazing versatility. They can summon alot of meatshield skeletons etc and combined with Viccy, Neera (and Jaheira?) you can have an army of summons to hide your party behind, if you like that playstyle.

Another, completely different, approach would be to roll a sorc. The sorc, like all arcane users, can become invincible frontliners with all their buffing.

JuliusBorisov

Blackraven said:

Maybe you could go with a Darm Moon Monk?

Darm Moon Monk for darm more fun! Darm!

GreenWyvern

Darmitt, @bengoshi !

...

Now I'm thinking of a Dark Moon Monk wearing mittens.

Aeginidae

After all the angst I've had over the past night with class choices and whether or not to take Jaheira in BG2, I finally decided I would go ahead and try dual-classing for the first time. I'm going Berserker 9 to Druid for a character who is really beefy with obnoxious summons and tools to annoy enemy groups to no end along with the ability to thwack her foes to death with a quarterstaff. BG1 might get a little boring but I'll be able to dual early in 2 and get the Berserker abilities back super early. Alternatively I could go Berserker 7 -> Druid and have Insect Plague in BG1 from what I understand (not really as useful there as in 2 though). Also I have no qualms about using Autoroller to get good stats because I feel like CHARNAME's heritage really deserves it. As soon as I decide on a name, I'll be chronicling the adventures of the notorious girl gang of the Sword Coast!

Jarrakul

I did a barbarian 7 -> druid dual (with mods, so that barbarians could dual) for my first EE runthrough. It was pretty awesome. I very much agree with your choice to go with something very similar to that.

Aeginidae

One more question: do you think it's, like, exploitative to use the IWDification mod to expand the Druid's spell library? It doesn't look like it imbalances things since it's just importing spells from IWD.

Aeginidae

Also SCS? Would it be okay without having played the whole trilogy without it?

Jarrakul

I use IWDification. It mostly helps druids at low levels, which is where they really need it. I don't think it does particularly bad things to balance.

I wouldn't recommend SCS if you aren't extremely confident about the game already. Then again, I'm not the biggest fan of SCS in any case, so my recommendation may be biased.

Grum

In BG1, why no Alora? You can level up one thief to do traps or backstabbing and the other to be an archer with pick locks and find traps.

And BG2, take Edwina! It'd be the perfect party for him/her.

As for your actual question, I'd second the dark moon monk.

In BG2 they are beasts. I know that my lvl 29 monk is currently sporting an impressive -17 AC, -13 Thaco, has 4 attacks per round and hits for 20-39 damage. Add in the 100% magic resistance, and she can tank with the best of them.

If you make your Charname a dark moon monk, it just gets even better. Mirror image and blur? You'll have someone who can quite easily hold her own again anyone.

Add in the big metal unit for kicks and giggles. As the primary tank, the larger base size isn't a downside, infact it'll help her keep aggro. The extra -10 AC only makes things better from there.

jesterdesu

shawne said:

Aeginidae said:

Yeah but then I can boot them :P

Use Khalid - that way you can immediately send him east into the basilisks while keeping Jaheira.

There's something about how you end that with a smiley face which makes me chuckle

Aeginidae

You know, that's my preferred method of eliminating party members. I don't feel particularly guilty about it even.

brunardo

What about Wilson for BG2 for the party, female party that needs a front line protector and he's an animal so not really male/female...he's more of a pet