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Top 5 NPCs, and bottom 5 NPCs! best party combos

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  • QuartzQuartz Member Posts: 3,853
    edited July 2015
    Nice thread!

    BG1 Tops:
    1. Kivan - The ever-badass Elven Clint Eastwood. What a freaking legend. A lot of times this guy ends up feeling like the head honcho over my PC, I'll be real. From a power-gaming perspective, he's also arguably the most versatile fighter, at least after Beamdog gave Shar-Teel awful pips.
    2. Xzar - The funniest soundset and best voice acting. He's a schizophrenic Necromancer for God's sake, what's not to like. He always brings a lot of life to a party.
    3. Kagain - A more believable character than many BG1 NPCs, with a very entertaining soundset to boot. He's also the tankiest mofo this side of the Sword Coast. Fun times.
    4. Xan - Mr. Crowd Control and beat those incapacitated fools to a pulp Man. It's easy to just see a cheesily depressed character, but he's got a lot of very subtle sarcasm going for him too. A colorful character in his own right. It's obvious BioWare put real effort into him.
    5. Yeslick - Seriously, what's not to like? A very down-to-earth character with that reliable, resilient wisdom. He feels a wise man who has everyone's best interests at heart. He'd certainly be my friend in real life.
    Honorable mentions: Quayle, Coran, Montaron, Baeloth.

    BG1 Bottoms:
    1. Minsc - Shit this guy's soundset is annoying, and literally everything besides his 18/93 Strength is underwhelming.
    2. Jaheira - Another annoying soundset and underwhelming abilities. Fighter/Druid class is a great one, that's about all she's got going for her.
    3. Branwen - Annoying soundset, somewhat underwhelming abilities. Is there a pattern here?
    4. Shar-Teel - Just kind of boring; not offensive, just boring.
    5. Imoen - Here's an idea -- let's make a last-minute decision to add this character who will make everyone decide not to pick up our multitude of much more interesting thief characters. Seriously, once I started ditching this girl this game got so much more entertaining.
    Honorable mentions: Skie, Dynaheir, and Faldorn. All for being boring characters.

    ---

    BGII Tops:
    1. Yoshimo: I like him. I like his character, I love his constant sense of humor, I love how he feels like an incredibly competent guy despite his silliness, both in gameplay and in spirit.
    It is a true shame that the ability to raise him was not included in the final (rushed to release) game.

    2. Jaheira: Possibly the most realistic character ever. I feel like she's an actual person. As a bonus, she's pretty capable of kicking ass if you throw a strength belt her way.
    3. Sarevok: Also a very real character. Kicks huge ass. Exudes a very genuine badassery, which is impressive since my initial reaction was, "wow, what a gimmick to make him recruitable after killing him and all."

    4. Viconia: Pretty realistic and engaging. Feels like the vanilla "here's a lot of spells" Cleric (vs. the tough Cleric), which has its own charm. Viconia is also incredibly sexy.
    5. Haer'Dalis: A fun and charming character in his own, weird and unique way. A good choice of characterization for a Blade.
    Honorable mentions: Edwin, Anomen.

    BGII Bottoms:
    1. Hexxat: Gag me with a spoon, this writing is awful and it feels like they came up with her class, race, and other such esoteric attributes BEFORE writing her damn character. Totally backwards and awful.
    2. Dorn: More grating writing next to the original BGII. Not at all realistic or relatable.
    3. Nalia: Decently written, this is really just personal tast-- *Vomits profusely*
    4. Wilson: Lol, seriously?
    5. Cernd: For being pretty boring.
    Honorable mentions: Neera, Korgan, Minsc.

    ---

    That was fun.
    JuliusBorisovbob_veng
  • mikklemikkle Member Posts: 39
    edited July 2015
    I just finnished BG with evil/neutral party and they were literally unstoppable:



    1) PC - Fighter/Cleric Half-Elf (3 tomes of wisdom added)

    2) Kagain (equipped with the best armor, shield and everything - perfect tank)

    3) Shar-Teel (dualled to Thief at level 6, maxed in daggers, she killed sarevok by herself with two backstabs :P)

    4) Dorn (good damage with 2H sword + poison)

    5) Edwin (best mage, specializing in summons and nuking)

    6) Safana (dualled to mage at level 6, magic support for edwin, specializing in mind control and close range spells)

    This team was so perfect, also the characters are cool: greedy dwarf, evil lesbian, stubborn mage and nymphomaniac. Dorn is a little bland but oh well - all beamdog NPCs suck hard.
    Quartz
  • QuartzQuartz Member Posts: 3,853
    edited July 2015
    mikkle said:

    This team was so perfect, also the characters are cool: greedy dwarf, evil lesbian, stubborn mage and nymphomaniac. Dorn is a little bland but oh well - all beamdog NPCs suck hard.

    ROFL. I like you already.
  • VasculioVasculio Member Posts: 469
    Hmm...


    Best

    1. PC
    2. Jaheira
    3. Sarevok
    4. Montaron
    5. Xzar
    6. Baeloth

    Worst

    1. PC
    2. Skie
    3. Quayle
    4. Hexxat
    5. Neera
    6. Jan Jansen
    semiticgoddesselminster
  • FrdNwsmFrdNwsm Member Posts: 1,069
    edited July 2015
    Vasculio said:

    Hmm...

    4. Hexxat
    5. Neera

    Seriously have to disagree with you here. Neera is excellent as a mage in my neutral to good party; give her the robe of Goodman Hayes and the circlet of Netheril and she gets almost as good as Edwin, spellwise, and the girdle of fortitude gives her an extra 10 HP. She also has decent NPC quest lines.

    Hexxat obviously won't function well in an otherwise good party, especially one containing Keldorn and/or Anomen, but she works fine with my evil group. Any pure thief type will be a bit weak HP wise, but once they get the Use Any Item HLA, they start to shine. My Hexxat right now is wearing the grandmaster armor and has the +4 large shield, can lay spike traps, has the assassinate ability, and functions also as an ersatz mage, with wands of spellstrike, cloudkill and lightning and a bunch of scrolls. Next ability will be to learn the time stop trap.

    This is, of course, true of any pure thief; but she also gets vampire stuff. As in ... can't be killed (since I have never seen an opponent carry a stake or use holy water), gets super strength when indoors or at night, and has vampire abilities. Oh, and you can use her coffin bag as an extra bag of holding, which is great if you are a pack rat like I am.

  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    My personal picks:

    Best (BG1): Kivan, Coran, Kagain, Shar-Teel, Ajantis
    Worst: Eldoth, Viconia, Faldorn, Tiax, Xzar

    Best (BG2): Yoshimo, Jaheira, Haer'Dalis, Anomen, Keldorn
    Worst: Edwin, Jan, Dorn (RUINED!), Cernd, Nalia

    Never go without: Imoen, Sarevok
    JuliusBorisov
  • FrdNwsmFrdNwsm Member Posts: 1,069
    edited July 2015
    To: Artemius_1

    Some agreements, some disagrees. Considering BG2 only. Agreements first:

    Nalia is Imoen light and needs tools to do locks/traps properly, so agree there. Cernd gets higher level spells faster than Jaheira, but by ToB the greater werewolf thing is obsolete and Jaheira gets whirlwind, so she gets the nod from me over Cernd starting around chapter 9 in ToB. Jan is just annoying. I agree that Yoshimo is pretty good if trained properly, but halfway through SoA HE DIES! You can't get him in ToB, so you need to find a replacement. Imoen takes over as far as disarming/lockpicking, but can't set a trap to save her life.

    Dorn is ruined? Why do you say that? OK, Keldorn is far more useful since he gets a huge number of dispel magics and true sight uses, but he isn't going to work with an evil-oriented party. Give him that +5 Unholy sword and a few whirlwinds and Dorn's not bad in melee.

    Biggest disagreement. Edwin is weak? Please explain the logic here. He gets a huge number of spells due to his amulet, and if you toss in the circlet of Nethril he has almost twice the spells of any other mage the same level. His forte is summoning things, which is actually more useful later on than direct damage spells. Sendai's and Abazigal's areas are full of dragons and drow who have magic resistance; direct damage spells may fail. Summoning hordes of creatures to keep them occupied while your fighters whirlwind them to death is definitely a viable tactic there.
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    Probably should've mentioned that power levels do not influence my decision at all. This is my favorite and least favorite NPCs list, which may not have been the point of this thread, in which case, whoops.
    elminsterAyiekie
  • blackchimesblackchimes Member Posts: 323
    edited July 2015
    I am a solo player, but if I were to travel with a party of 6, these would be my picks in BG2:

    - Keldorn. On the mechanics side, all he needs is Gauntlets of Dexterity and he's a solid melee fighter. And while personally I'm not a huge fan of Inquisitors, his ability to wreck any mage's face is unquestionable. Also comes ready to wield Carsomyr. On a personal side, he's the most likeable Paladin I've ever seen in fiction. Even his ending in ToB is epic(literally).

    - Mazzy. Crazy underrated NPC; most people don't look at her special abilities closely enough and going purely by her stats she's "Okay, but...". Except her innate Strength ability lasts 1 turn/level! Yes, 1 turn, not 1 round. At level 18 that Strength lasts for over 30 in-game hours, and you get two casts per rest, so you can basically scratch that 15 Strength off and write in 18/00 permanently. She also comes with other "Paladin" abilities that Keldorn lacks and no-nonsense proficiencies. And did I mention Haste? And she's a frigging Fighter Halfling who wants to be a Paladin, and she'd be the cutest NPC in the game if BG2 portrait artist could actually draw.

    - Valygar. Stalkers tend to be one of these underrated classes that you look at and can't figure out why you never bother playing. Fortunately you can always just take Valygar. Whether dual wielding or backstabbing he absolutely wrecks face and they have a good selection of mage spells they cast while wearing armor. Valygar also is a cool guy with a cool road trip quest and redemption and shit. Very bro.

    - Sarevok. I hope I don't need to explain Sarevok. Before ToB use this space to do NPC-specific quests.

    - Imoen/Yoshimo/Imoen. How could you leave Imoen you heartless bastard? Unless you play solo, that is. Ahem. The game obviously wants you to take Yoshimo as a Thief replacement for Immy, and I'm perfectly fine with that. Imoen is a passable Thief and a decent mage, and in case you haven't noticed yet so far all my characters are martial classes so we need some of that arcane up in here. Yoshimo is a replacement, but he's good enough of a Thief(actually he's the best Thief in the game by the virtue of being the only pure Thief in the game) and I like his story arc. When Yoshimo, errr, "leaves", you just replace him back with Immy and all's cool.

    - Viconia. I don't like romancing, but it was between her, Cernd and Anomen. Yeah... Viconia is basically the best Cleric in the game and if you romance her you can supposedly stop her from killing/getting killed by other good-aligned people in your party, and in ToB even make her Neutral Good. I don't care about her as a character but again... Cernd? Anomen? I don't think so.

    And in BG1:

    - Imoen. So that you don't have to be a Thief yourself.

    That's all, since BG1 NPCs are so terrible! I'd rather not have them leech my XP.
  • FrdNwsmFrdNwsm Member Posts: 1,069
    edited July 2015

    Probably should've mentioned that power levels do not influence my decision at all. This is my favorite and least favorite NPCs list, which may not have been the point of this thread, in which case, whoops.


    Ah. My turn to say oops. Thought you were talking about how useful they were. Yes, Edwin is an arrogant sucker, and you might dislike him because of that. On the other hand, if you are running an all evil party, you have to expect that they aren't going to be all sweetness and light. Dorn wants to slaughter thousands and bathe in their blood. Hey, everybody needs a hobby. But, compared to him, Edwin is Mother Theresa.

  • steelchasersteelchaser Member Posts: 72
    Olga Silaeva's (pocket plane) Coran is an awesome NPC for BG2. Build him into a pick pocketing machine and ave on all the potions. He also stole enough healing potions I was able to go without a cleric (I can't stand Anomen). His "use any weapon" enabled him to swing Carsomry leaving my PC to dual weapon the flail of the axes and Crom Faeyr
  • murmandamusmurmandamus Member Posts: 45
    My top is:
    BG1

    1. Tiax - of course him. He rules all after all.
    2. Minsc - Who doesn't like Boo. Minsc a quite simpleton but i like him and powerfull ranger.
    3. Xar - i have soft spot for insane characters.
    4. Imoen - My beloved sister. I almost always am with her no matter what.
    5. Viconia - My love interest for entire saga, cannot play without her

    BG2

    1. Viconia - As before a love interes and good cleric. I feel bad very bad after epilogue.
    2. Imoen - A sister and must for me. I am quite pissed she became a mage.... damn
    3. Minsc - Boo and again Boo and big fighty guy. Who doesn't like his banters and comments.
    4. Jan Jansen - another must for banters with other npc. Turnips are best.
    5. Edwina - well to bad it can't be pernament. That would be hillarious.

    And Black list for NPC

    BG1

    1. Quayle - just week and annoying guy
    2. Jaheira - bossy and annoying women i tent to feed her to her beloved nature wolves.
    3. Khalid - another wimp and only little less annoying than Jaheira. It must be her influence.
    4. Shar-aTeel - no no to Feminists in my parties.
    5. Faldorn - did i mentioned i don't like druids to much?

    BG2

    1. Aerie - just plain whiny annoying girl. All she can babble is about her lost wings. Sometimes i am tempted to say. Girl stop that alredy they are gone and won;t regrow again so stop it.
    2. Anomen - he get's on my nerves this narcistic egomaniac
    3. Haer'Dalis - i just hate poets. Please Haery speak like normal men for once.
    4. Joshimo - a traitor and only for a half of the game. Well i pass....
    5. Jaheira - again i just don't like her bossy attitude and she got uglier too in BG2/
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    I wouldn't call Shar-teel feminist but she can definitely be very grating.
  • Abi_DalzimAbi_Dalzim Member Posts: 1,428

    I wouldn't call Shar-teel feminist but she can definitely be very grating.

    She's a strawman of an angry, militant feminist (to be fair, the militarism doesn't stand out in the setting). Or straw-woman, I guess.

    semiticgoddessAyiekieKurona
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277


    4. Shar-aTeel - no no to Feminists in my parties.

    Feminist =/= misandrist. Please learn the difference and try again.
    AyiekieKuronaNonnahswriterSkatan
  • KuronaKurona Member Posts: 881
    Well, guess I should do that too. It's purely personal preference, nothing to do with power tiers or even writing quality.

    BG1

    The Best
    Shar-Teel - man-hating lunatic, but the most lethal Thief and has a badass portrait
    Xzar - I want his babies and the ones of the BioWare employee Mike Sass used for model
    Tiax - he rules and doesn't need to do more than this
    Khalid - he makes a pretty good archer (though he's no Coran) and I find his personality endearing
    Coran - best archer in the game so I'll forgive him for being a huge twat

    The Worst
    Imoen - awful "childhood friend" archetype, guilt-trips you when you ditch her, obvious last-minute addition
    Neera - annoying, irresponsible, constantly guilt-trips you in doing whatever she wants; wish you could sell her to Ekandor, preferably in the form of meat pies
    Dorn - "OMG I'm so badass: the NPC"
    Minsc - loud and annoying joke character, possibly the worst warrior type stats-wise in BG1, his popularity will always boggle my mind
    Quayle - weak, not funny in the least, and doesn't get along with Tiax, who rules

    BG2

    The Best
    Korgan - unstoppable murder machine, surprisingly complex by BG2 standards and extremely difficult to write for, something a lot of NPC mod authors seem to not realize
    Sarevok - what Dorn is, in his dreams
    Anomen - has a tendency to try one's patience but there's something very satisfying in seeing the insecure boy leaving his alcoholic father's shadow to become a great hero
    Valygar - Stalkers rule, and while Valygar starts as a very judgmental person he grows out of it to the point he's the only good character who treats Sarevok with respect
    Jan - Mage/Thief multiclass is by far my favorite class so Jan tends to be redundant but the fact remains he's extremely powerful and a lot more insightful than he initially appears

    The Worst
    Dorn - he manages to be even worse than in BG1, something I thought impossible
    Imoen - for some unfathomable reason she was promoted to main character, which just makes me dislike her more
    Minsc - managed to become even more one-dimensional than in BG1
    Neera - same reasons as before
    Jaheira - I used to like her in BG1 but in-between games she became very judgmental, authoritative and simply started to truly act like a Harper. I hate Harpers.

    I'm not going to write a SoD list but I really like Glint and Voghiln.
    borntodieAaemforever
  • OcelotOcelot Member Posts: 13
    Best: Yeslick, Voghlin, Xan, Coran, Baeloth.

    Worst: Skie, Eldoth, Nalia, Faldorn, Wilson.
  • GundanRTOGundanRTO Member Posts: 81
    Best. The Canon Party.

    1. Khalid (Underrated tank, doesn't need Gauntlets of Dex to be effective, mastery of long swords makes him an effective damage dealer. Low morale is easily circumvented)
    2. Jaheira (Can also tank, provide spell support, serve as the party healer)
    3. Dynaheir (Web rules all, and she imposes save penalties on it and other invocations. Sleep wand compensates for a lack of early debuffs).
    4. Imoen (Can serve as a good party leader, can play as party thief or mage depending on need).
    5. Minsc (Lowest ranking member of the canon party since his role can be filled by either Kivan or Coran, but he's still a pretty great damage dealer in his own right).

    Yelick, Coran, Kivan, Branwen, and Ajantis all have their uses, but honestly I find the Canon party the most fun to play from start to finish, both in terms of rp'ing and effectiveness.
    Balrog99
  • ShadowBlazeShadowBlaze Member Posts: 41
    My BG1 Top 5 (including SoD)

    1. Edwin. (I would pick all 5 as Edwin but that would look stupid. Just love that dude.)
    2. Corwin (She comes with her own powerful bow, and requires the Brawling hands, but by god, she can kill with her bow. Ammo Belt saves you a lot of inventory space, thankfully!)
    3. Imoen. (Can dual into a Mage and is the best support/completmentary character. Seriously missed her in SoD)
    4. Coran/Kivan (Unbelievably good with bows. I start with Kivan and then switch to Coran. Coran also can nicely fill in for Imoen if you dual her at 6/7.)
    5. Baeloth. (Better than a PC sorcerer and can get him pretty early on too!)

    Honorable Mentions - Kagain and Yeslick. (Beastly tanks)

    Bottom 5

    1. Jaheira (BG1 Jaheira just isn't good. No Lv 5 spells in BG1. Stats are also bad compared to BG2. Needs Brawling hands AND Ogre gauntlets to become viable in melee)
    2. Quayle (I don't know if I am missing something, or don't know how to use him, but why is he so bad at everything)
    3. Alora (By the time you get her, you are pretty much done with most of the thieving in-game or already have a reliable thief in the party.)
    4. Skie (Again, too late to join the party, and offers nothing unique)
    5. Rasaad. (Monks are just meh in BG1)

    Dishonorable mentions - Faldorn (Her only saving grace is Lv 5 spells in BG1), Garrick/Eldoth (can use wands)
  • nimbusnimbus Member Posts: 6
    My opinions for BG2, "vanilla" SCS, in terms of raw power, EE NPCs excluded because I've never used them

    Best:
    1. Edwin. The only NPC who the Bhaalspawn can somewhat envy... Console yourself that he will NEVER get to use the amulet of power!
    2. Keldorn. Good stats, broken kit.
    3. Korgan. Great stats, good race, solid proficiencies, borderline-broken kit.
    4. Jan. Illusionist/thief is a great class and his items are helpful.
    5. Viconia. MR is good and really helps an otherwise vulnerable class.
    Honorable mentions: Anomen, Aerie (I might be underrating her, cleric/mage is just GOOD), Yoshimo if you want to pop some traps in early BG2

    Worst:
    5. Imoen. From a powergaming perspective, she's like Nalia but with a fat XP penalty. Nalia also gets a cool ring. Still a fine NPC though.
    4. Minsc. The two rangers are perfectly solid. They just don't offer anything special.
    3. Valygar
    2. Mazzy. Still a fine fighter but her abilities don't offer much over normal buffs. Rangers get armour of faith at least.
    1. Cernd. The only really weak NPC. Still usable but Jaheira is a much more useful druid, especially considering their wacky XP table.
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