Fairly New Player - Help With MAINCHAR Class?

The_Grump

I have a few concepts I can work with, but I've never gotten very far in the storyline in BGEE, so I'm not sure what to expect as far as combat challenges go. So I have a quandary that I'm hoping you veterans can help me answer!

I desperately want my party to line up with the party I'll end up with in BG2EE, since I'm hoping this character can run through the entire BG series with a fairly continual party. Given that certain potential BG1 party members (no spoilers, in case fellow newbies stumble across this thread) aren't usable in BG2, I plan on creatively offing them fairly quickly. So in essence, I'll have MAINCHAR, Imoen, Jaheira, and Minsc. I know I want to bring Neera along; no idea who the 6th will be (if I have a 6th, would it be significantly less frustrating to have 6 people to a party?)
Will Imoen get mage training? I dunno, never messed with multi/dual classing in BG, I'm willing to give it a shot though!

With this is mind, I'm not sure what class I want MAINCHAR to be.
+ I want him to be able to uniquely contribute to the party through the majority of BG1 and BG2.
+ I like spells and similarly clicky-things (options, basically!)
+ I like supportive playstyles.

I'm not looking for an extremely power-gamey party, just something that'll let me see what the BG saga is with a consistent party. I don't really care for a MAINCHAR that only does melee.

Any ideas? I think this is the correct section.

KidCarnival

Bard, probably Blade.

You have Khalid and Minsc to fight, you have Jaheira to heal and cast, you have Imoen for thief stuff, you have Neera for arcane magic. As Blade, you can help out as frontliner (i.e. Khalid as archer), invest Imoen's points in traps/locks and still pickpocket, and cast spells Neera may not have (enough of, i.e. Identify, later drop it as your lore is enough to identify a lot).

thelovebat

For your 6th party member definitely go for Ajantis. You can't go wrong with him in a good party for BG1. Just make sure to go north of the Friendly Arm Inn early to get him before he scales in level to you, getting him around level 1 or 2 is best. The reason for Ajantis over others is that he makes a great party leader and is the best frontliner of the bunch (as well as Paladins being a good class in general).

For a support class, I'd probably go with either a Gnome Cleric/Illusionist or a Skald Bard kit. Both would make great additions in larger parties to either cast a bunch of spells or in the case of the Skald, use their great bard song to give your party better combat effectiveness.

KidCarnival

Regarding 6th party member, you plan on ditching Khalid and Dynaheir? Considering BG2, which you apparently do, they were with you all the way. You'd come out with the canon party:

Khalid - archer or frontliner
Minsc - frontliner
Dynaheir - arcane
Jaheira - divine + possibly tank
Imoen - thief

As bard, you'd have the charisma to lead your party, and Jaheira as optional leader. Cleric/Illusionist is a good alternative, since you wouldn't have a cleric or paladin otherwise. Turning Undead and some extra healing is what you give up as bard (which would give you pickpocketing, more arcane magic, and depending on kit - buff, crowd control or extra fighting ability).

Gallowglass

I disagree with @KidCarnival and @thelovebat above.

If you're going for the canonical party to take into BG2ee, then (as pointed out by @KidCarnival), you'll need Khalid (obligatory pairing with Jaheira) and Dynaheir (obligatory pairing with Minsc), unless you're going to play a bad guy and (for example) send Khalid and Dynaheir on a suicide mission to get rid of them (which doesn't fit with the story at the start of BG2ee).

Ajantis (as recommended by @thelovebat) is indeed a useful guy in a Good party, but if you're going canonical then your party is already full and you don't have room for him ... and anyway he's certainly not essential, you'll have ample fighting power with Jaheira/Minsc/Khalid. [Tip: use Jaheira in the number-1 slot, i.e. as party leader, even though that may not initially seem to be the most obvious choice, because her quite-high Charisma will help keep Khalid's morale from breaking, which can otherwise be a problem.]

Also, for the most seamless continuity to BG2ee, you should dual-class Imoen into a Mage as soon as she reaches level 7 as a Thief ... and that can be quite handy, because then you've got another Mage alongside Dynaheir, which is plenty of arcane-casting power. [Tip: put all of Imoen's Thief-skill points into Find Traps and Open Locks at every level-up until she has at least 95% in both, those two are much more important than the other Thief skills. You'll then have a few Thief points left over before dualling, and I suggest putting those into Pick Pockets.]

The glaring gap in the canon party is a Cleric. You've got Jaheira, a half-Druid, but no other divine caster, and anyway Druids miss out on a lot of the great buffing spells which Clerics get, and are generally rather weak casters until they get to higher (i.e. BG2) levels. Therefore the canonical party is better-balanced (i.e. more all-around competent in most situations) if your protagonist is a Cleric (or at least a part-Cleric).

I definitely wouldn't use a Bard for the canon party, unless you're planning to keep Imoen as a pure Thief instead of dual-classing her (but then that would mean sacrificing some of the continuity with BG2ee, which you specifically want). A Bard is a fine choice as a second arcane caster, but you don't need a third arcane caster when you've got both Dynaheir and dual-classed Imoen, so you're definitely better off with the protagonist bringing something to the party which you don't already have ... which basically means Cleric.

I'd say just go with a straight single-classed Cleric as a fairly new player, but if you want to do something a little more complex, then there's also a decent case for a multi-class Cleric/Thief (which would have to be a gnome or a half-orc), since that'll allow you to explore the other Thief abilities. It wouldn't be ridiculous to use a Fighter/Cleric or a Cleric/Mage with the canon party, but your Fighter and Mage needs will already be well-covered by other characters, whereas the canon party is a little light on Thieving power, so Cleric/Thief makes most sense.

If you go with a single-classed Cleric, bear in mind that the various Cleric kits (unlike kits for most other classes) have advantages without any disadvantages, so you're always better off using a kit. If you're playing a Good party (which is undoubtedly the canonical choice), I therefore recommend that you should be a Cleric with the "Priest of Lathander" kit.