Unorthodox Tactics with NPCs
recklessheart
Member Posts: 692
After reading a few consecutive comments that suggests that Mazzy is used as frequently for sword & shield strategies as for her mastery of shortbows, I wondered what other methods people use with the Baldur's Gate NPCs that do not line up with the obvious. What do you guys like to do?
The main one for me is making Viconia my primary tank. HP never meant a whole lot to me - at least not in BG2. With her super high Dexterity, access to the best armour, and natural Magic Resistance, Viconia can hit -10AC before you throw any buffs upon her, whilst disregarding most Mage attacks. That's pretty huge: I think you have to drop down into The Underdark in SoA before things that aren't Dragons start to hurt her. I've seen her do some neat damage with a sling before, but I don't think it is as much as Haer'Dalis, for example, can do with his weapons if Viconia is keeping the enemy attention away from him.
My secondary arcane spellcaster (usually Imoen, or Jan) tends to exclusively use the 'other' spells: Breach; Dispel Magic; Spell Shield; Summon Monster. Because this character is always able to use a Thief's array of weapons (Edwin is never a secondary spellcaster, and Aerie is never in my party), they tend to do damage that way whilst covering the bases. They come to the fore mainly in the big battles, or when all the Fighters have to step aside and let two Mages duke it out in a chess game of disarming spells.
Meanwhile, I leave it to the primary arcane caster (Edwin/Nalia/PC) to throw on the Robe of Vecna and toss out Chain Lightning, Fireball, Chaos, and the critical spells that change the early stages of a battle, before relaxing them back into Aganazzar's Scorcher, Magic Missile, and other low-artillery spells and letting the secondary caster facilitate changes in the battle.
The main one for me is making Viconia my primary tank. HP never meant a whole lot to me - at least not in BG2. With her super high Dexterity, access to the best armour, and natural Magic Resistance, Viconia can hit -10AC before you throw any buffs upon her, whilst disregarding most Mage attacks. That's pretty huge: I think you have to drop down into The Underdark in SoA before things that aren't Dragons start to hurt her. I've seen her do some neat damage with a sling before, but I don't think it is as much as Haer'Dalis, for example, can do with his weapons if Viconia is keeping the enemy attention away from him.
My secondary arcane spellcaster (usually Imoen, or Jan) tends to exclusively use the 'other' spells: Breach; Dispel Magic; Spell Shield; Summon Monster. Because this character is always able to use a Thief's array of weapons (Edwin is never a secondary spellcaster, and Aerie is never in my party), they tend to do damage that way whilst covering the bases. They come to the fore mainly in the big battles, or when all the Fighters have to step aside and let two Mages duke it out in a chess game of disarming spells.
Meanwhile, I leave it to the primary arcane caster (Edwin/Nalia/PC) to throw on the Robe of Vecna and toss out Chain Lightning, Fireball, Chaos, and the critical spells that change the early stages of a battle, before relaxing them back into Aganazzar's Scorcher, Magic Missile, and other low-artillery spells and letting the secondary caster facilitate changes in the battle.
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Comments
Used Cernd as a target for Jan's flashers due to Cernd's bad AC outside of werewolf form.
Used Jan as a fighter, backstabber, disabler, debuffer, disrupter, and DEX drainer over the course of another no-reload SCS run.
Used Hexxat for basically nothing because I already had Jan.
This way, starting from mid-SOA Dorn's poison weapon works most effectively. Any further proficiencies he gets only increase the variety of weapons he can use (usually they are for APR-adding weapons).
Minsc. Also no two-handed weapons for him, but instead I give him a second pip in maces (for "Stupifier") and then add a pip in hammers (for "Ashideena"), so that he dual-wields in BG1.
A prefer to use him as a party's scout in BG1 so that my thief can focus on things other than HiS or MS. In a leather armour he scouts and finds enemies. Then depending on what enemy it is Minsc either takes a composite bow (his STR gives him this possibility) or puts on a plate mail and goes in melee with Stupifier and Ashideena.
I also like to use him against casters and charming/stunning opponents: sirens, ghasts, carrion crawlers, etc etc. The ability remains useful in BG2 (immunity to Charm Creature, Horror, Unconsciousness, Confusion, Rigid Thinking, Fear, Maze, Level Drain, Stun, Hold, Charm, Feeblemindedness).
BG1
I sometimes use Kivan as melee more than ranged (not very original though).
Minsc dual wielding (as said above) and not using 2-handers.
Sometimes I have Dorn using crossbows more than melee.
I've read about dualclassing Dyna and Xzar using tomes, but haven't tried it yet. Could be quite unorthodox to do so.
BG2
I sometimes use Aerie as tank. Other times I give her the robe of vecna which also reduces casting speed for divine spells. Very handy for healing spells in the thick of combat.
Cernd not shapeshifted, used as pure caster instead.
Jaheira ranged rather than tanking.
Viccy tanking (not very original either, but still.. ).
Jan gets a pip in shortbow and uses Tuigans if no other shortbow user.
Nothing very strange and/or new though. I guess other have came up with a lot more unorthodox usage of the NPC's than me. I haven't read much about giving Aerie robe of vecno though
In the spike room in Bodhi's lair I always transform one of my NPC's into a rat with cloak of the sewers then and lure out the vampires with him/her. Rats don't take much damage from spike traps, normaly like 1 to 5 damage max. I figured this out on my very first playthrough, I don't know how, but it was just something that made sense to 14 yr old me.