Mage options or go with party of five?

sdk

Minor dilemma....

I have played through BG many times and have had it since the original version came out. I am somewhat less familiar with BGEE as this is only my second playthrough on the IPad. I decided to break out of my comfort zone and form a party with NPC's that I either never used before/not much/not in a long time.

I am playing a good aligned two weapon specialist fighter. My party is all level 4 or 5 and we have just cleaned out the Bandit Camp.

Party:
Me- Level 4 fighter
Imoen, who I dualed to a mage at level five. Currently level 2 as a mage
Branwen
Adjantis
Kivan
Edwin

I think Edwin is one (or at the most two) rep points from leaving. Xan, Minsc and Jaheira all fell into the "used too many times" category, and that ship has sailed.

Do I have a good option for a sixth party member who is a mage, or am I going to be staying with 5 and nursing Imoen along for the next little while?

Please note that I try to role play as close to reality as possible, and don't see a good aligned party stealing and/or killing randomly to keep rep points artificially low. As far as I'm concerned, if Edwin doesn't like the way I run things, he can go toss off.

What are my options here, and what would you do? I have enough cleric/paladin/fighter types and am looking for some help with arcane magic.

Thoughts are appreciated....

elminster

If you are willing to wait until chapter 5 then there is always Quayle. If you've got the DLC there is also Neera. Besides those two (and excluding other characters that can dual class into a mage like Safana) the only other non-evil arcane caster not mentioned is Garrick.

Francois

Yes, you should get Neera. She's a new character in the enhanced and the obvious choice for your party. If you've never seen her she's in Beregost. She also has her own little side-quest.

You don't need that much magic in BG1, so you should also be ok with just Imoen. You should be starting to collect wands and she can use those to cast usefull spells even at low level.

You could also pick-up Coran or Safana to help you with thieving until Imoen gets back her skills. There's a lot of traps in the Cloakwood forest and mines and I think a good thief is more useful than a second mage.

sdk

Thanks for the replies, and Neera could be an interesting option. Can anyone confirm that she would be available for my current game if I make the purchase now? Would hate to start over...

DragonKing

Neera is the obvious answer since Viconia isn't a option. I'm actually playing with Dynahier who I'm mostly going to give Damage spells to since my current wild mage can handle cc. Unfortunately I didn't wait until she already had fireball, but oh well.

sdk

Just to add the info for anyone else in this position, I was able to add Neera to an existing game then find her. It took a couple of passes through Beregost for her to appear.

It worked out perfectly. As soon as I asked her to join, Edwin stormed off while threatening to "make me pay". I didn't even get the chance to kick him out!

CaptRory

Neera is an excellent character. With Imoen dualing into a Mage Neera will be more than enough to round out your arcane spellcasting.

sdk

CaptRory said:

Neera is an excellent character. With Imoen dualing into a Mage Neera will be more than enough to round out your arcane spellcasting.

Thanks, and agree fully! Just took out Sarevok and am starting Durlags tower. This current party can lay down the hurt with the best of them!

Skatan

Glad to see you made up your mind and found a good solution to your dilemma, but just to give my 2 cents; you could have just kept the slot open to gain a slight exp boost per character to get Imoen up and running quicker. As said by @francois you don't really need that much magic in BG1, one arcane user is often enough. Or another way would have been to choose a bard, and as we all know, BG1 has one of the best bards ever: Garrick! No I'm not joking, Garrick with gauntlets of dex and the army scythe is a decent ranged character and mage, but since you have Ajantis I guess you'll give him the gauntlets though.

Have fun!

Wowo

Skatan said:

Glad to see you made up your mind and found a good solution to your dilemma, but just to give my 2 cents; you could have just kept the slot open to gain a slight exp boost per character to get Imoen up and running quicker. As said by @francois you don't really need that much magic in BG1, one arcane user is often enough. Or another way would have been to choose a bard, and as we all know, BG1 has one of the best bards ever: Garrick! No I'm not joking, Garrick with gauntlets of dex and the army scythe is a decent ranged character and mage, but since you have Ajantis I guess you'll give him the gauntlets though.

Have fun!

Bracers of Archery give Garrick the same Thac0 as Gauntlets of dex.

Skatan

Wowo said:

Bracers of Archery give Garrick the same Thac0 as Gauntlets of dex.

True, I forgot about those! Then there's consensus that Garrick is the best option!

Ardul

Garrick is also a prime candidate for the Halberd that can be found on the gnoll Ingol. It adds an additional 4 damage, but sets attacks to 1. Not a big loss for a bard.

Wowo

Ardul said:

Garrick is also a prime candidate for the Halberd that can be found on the gnoll Ingol. It adds an additional 4 damage, but sets attacks to 1. Not a big loss for a bard.

Yes. It's quite good for a PC blade as well as Offensive Spin still adds 1 APR which makes quite a good option vs dual wielding in bg1 with limited proficiences.

sdk

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. I actually like having two mages, more for the role play, tactical and "fun with magic" aspects than feeling I need two.

Garrick- I would rather throw my Ipad in the trash than play with a bard lol. That singing, pantaloon wearing pretty boy will never be more than an archery butt to me. (and yes, this was meant to be tongue in cheek. Please don't sick the Garrick fan club on me)....

Kilivitz

Hahahahahahaha "The Garrick fan club."

Seriously, though, Bards are a great option to round out a party.

BillyYank

So, true story...

I started a new run and took Garrick for the first time. I went to that tent in the Nashkel Carnival where the dick mage is trying to kill the "witch". He horrors the party and only Garrick and Jaheira make their saves. I figure I'm going to have to reload, but I'm still looking for some way to pull off a win. What's this... bard song counters fear effects?
"Tra-la-la..."
The party comes to its senses and kills the mage.
Garrick saves the day!

sdk

That Nashkel mage encounter always drives me crazy too. You need to pincushion/magic missle him instantly or someone almost always dies...

I did try Garrick once, years ago. He can be very effective, but the idea of:

"Look, a dragon is upon us, someone break out in a song!" is not my roleplay style.

I can picture the nights camp after the kill.

"Swords are being oiled, the sound of leather creaks in the background. The spellcasters are working in arcane tongues. Jaheria prays to the mighty Tempus. Garrick tunes his lute.............. Wait, what?"

"Dude, it's been great. Here is two weeks severance pay and a one way bus ticket back to Nashkel. I promise I will give you a good reference. Just have your next prospective employer call me on the cell phone..."

BillyYank

When I first got IWD, I went through the first bit with the default party. The bard buffs in that game are pretty sweet, so I got in the habit of turning on the bard song whenever they were in the dungeon and using it as a constant buff. I didn't always remember to turn it off, so they get back to Kuldahar and I see:

The journey took 3 days.
Felicia is singing "The Ballad of the Three Heroes".

My first thought was "The same song over and over for three days straight? The rest of the party must be ready to strangle her!"

Nimran

Maybe the whole song takes three days to sing.

sdk

Innkeeper- "Hey, what happened to Felicia"

You- "It was on e of those freak, one in a million things. She "accidentally" fell on my sword 27 times, and somehow wound up in a giant bowl marked Purina Yeti Chow. It could have happened to anyone......"

laeknir

Dynaheir is a lawful good mage and the "witch" that Minsc prompts you to save. She's better than Xan, IMO, and certainly an alternative to Neera. Of course, Dynaheir can only really accompany youin BGEE and not afterwards in BG2EE due to spoilers... but I think she's a great option for a good-aligned party at the start of BGEE. That said, you don't need a lot of arcane support in BGEE. They're much more important during BG2EE.