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F/T main, options for a good/neutral 4 char party?

rickcrrickcr Member Posts: 77
in General Discussion (Spoiler Warning!)
Of course I suffer from always starting a new character before actually finishing (furthest so far is with Illusionist/T , levs 5/6.) Now, I've rolled up a half orc F/T and I'd like to travel with a smaller party, preferably 4 person, but I don't want to bring along anyone evil.

Thoughts on decent party? (I also don't want to have wait 'too long' to acquire the team.) It seems like the biggest difficulty is finding a decent mage. Dynaheir seems like the main choice, but she requires Minsc unless I get him killed. Some options I was considering...

Branwen
Minsc - Can he tank well enough, in a 4 person group?
Dynaheir


Branwen
Garrick (mage/wand) - Would he be able to work as enough 'mage-like' support?
Ajantis - Tank?


Other thoughts?


Comments

  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    Minsc - sure he can tank, no problem. Especially if you give him the Gauntlets of Dexterity (which you find while rescuing Dynaheir). Bear in mind, though, that it's also perfectly feasible to put Branwen in the front line with heavy armour, and have Minsc mainly standing back as your archer and stepping up with a two-handed sword when appropriate.

    Garrick - with careful use of wands for offensive magic, so that his limited memorisation could be mostly dedicated to buffs and so on, then yes, it'd be do-able. But life would surely be easier with a real Mage.

    Neera is a potential Mage for you, available even earlier than Dynaheir. You have to be prepared to reload in case a wild surge goes disastrously wrong (rare but possible), else a Wild Mage is not for you.

    Dynaheir is okay, but the loss of the Enchantment/Charm school deprives you of some of the best crowd-control spells, so she has drawbacks when she's your only arcane caster.

    Another Mage option would be an early-dualled Imoen, and mechanically may be the best choice for a sole Mage, although personally I'm averse to it because I like her dualled at the canonical level (i.e. 7).

    If I were doing this, I'd probably work through several changes of line-up in the early Chapters, and end up at the beginning of Chapter 5 (and the rest of the game) with F/T, Yeslick, Quayle, Imoen(T7->M), which is arguably the strongest 4-man team possible (once Imoen completes her dual) ... but getting there would be quite complicated, and I note that you'd prefer to settle your final team much sooner.

    I reckon your suggestion of F/T, Minsc, Branwen, Dynaheir sounds pretty credible. Whichever of Minsc and Branwen goes in the front row is the one who needs the Gauntlets of DEX ... I'd probably switch them to and fro quite frequently, depending upon what sort of enemies I expected, but maybe that's more micro-management than you'd enjoy.

    Otherwise F/T, Ajantis or Kivan, Branwen, Neera would be a decent team. I'd lean towards Kivan for this (and put Branwen in the front row with the Gauntlets of DEX), since ranged attack is so strong in BG1, but Ajantis in the front row (in which case he needs the Gauntlets of DEX) and Branwen behind would be fine if you prefer a more melee-based strategy.
  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 6,002
    usually when I play a half-orc fighter thief I usually just do a three man team: charname, imoen and xan, I give charname two handed weapon style and two handed sword and watch him slice and dice through baddies,

    I keep imoen around just because bows and arrows rock hard in bg1 and she can have all the left over thief skills that my charname doesn't have ( like pick pockets and set traps or open lock and disarm traps while charname has pick pockets and set traps)

    And then xan just for flavor and kicks, he gets a wicked sword he can use and ironically with some well planned out potion drinking and item usuage I can make him dish out around 25 damage on a non critical hit ( usually reserved for the last battle since I can only make this a once in timed duration opportunity)

    and if I really needed more? I would probably add branwen just for some healing and skeleton summoning, even in bg1 when a cleric hits level 7 those skellies rock, and branwen with the ring of sune at level 8 can have around 4 of them memorized which is pretty solid

    and then going further through the game, once I get up to coran I can switch him in for imoen since coran has some brutal awesome archer capabilities and can still be a great thief ( thanks to EE) and if I had branwen I can switch her out with yeslick, which has way better fighting ability and great saves

    so maybe start with;
    charname, imoen, branwen, neira

    and then when the time comes when you see them, switch 'em up for some extra flavor;
    coran for imoen, yeslick for branwen, and xan for neira
  • rickcrrickcr Member Posts: 77
    edited November 2015
    Great stuff guys. I think I will go with Neira like you both mentioned. I don't mind reloading (I'm not caring much about a no-reload run.) Note, also by having a 3/4 person party early... I didn't necessarily mean that I had to stick with them the whole time, only that I'd like to have a decent small party throughout the game (plus I like to control their skill proficiencies as soon as possible as well.)

    The one thing that will be a challenge is I hate not being able to grab all the loot:) Even with the various bags to hold gems, scrolls, etc, it seems like i'm always running out of slots to carry everything. I guess though money isn't too hard to come by even if I have to leave some stuff behind. I need to find an online chart that list the gold amounts for things so I know what's best to drop and keep.
    Thanks again, good suggestions above.
  • BillyYankBillyYank Member Posts: 2,768
    You could use EE Keeper to give yourself the bag of holding and subtract 12,000 GP, as if it was available to buy at Thalantyr.
  • rickcrrickcr Member Posts: 77
    Gallowglass said:

    (and the rest of the game) with F/T, Yeslick, Quayle, Imoen(T7->M), which is arguably the strongest 4-man team possible (once Imoen completes her dual) ...

    Just curious, why Quayle?


  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    rickcr said:

    Just curious, why Quayle?

    Being both a Mage (Illusionist) and a Cleric, he has far more spells than anyone else in the game. A very versatile and powerful caster, I often use him in a full party, and his versatility is even more valuable in a small party. (It's a pity he's an irritating jerk, but I guess you can't have everything.)
  • rickcrrickcr Member Posts: 77
    Until I get Yeslick, I'm having trouble deciding between Ajantis or Branwen. Currently my plan is to do:

    Early (where I am now):
    Anjantis or Branwen (for main tank)
    charname F/T flank/tankish if I feel like putting on plate [ focusing on MS and set traps ]
    Neera
    Imoen [ focusing on find/disarm traps (plus some locks) ]

    Early on for the Nashkel mines and early cloakwood etc would Branwen or Ajantis be better (with either having dexterity gloves of course.)

    Next:
    If I recall correctly after doing some early stuff Coran comes into the picture, and I really dig him as an archer (and archers rock things in bg1. ) His drawback is he's lame in find/disarm traps (relatively speaking) so that's going to be my weak spot for a bit.
    Once Imoen hits 6 as a thief, I was going to dual her to a mage, but that adds a challenge though leveling up Imoen with a 4 person party if I wanted to keep Coran, sine I'd be low on mage support, and low on trap support for Durlag's tower. However, if I time things right I could get back Imoen's thief support by the time I need to hit Durlag's tower, and if I focus on find/disarm traps with her early she'll be ok. Big question is do I want to go without decent mage support while Imoen levels up. Since I'm only playing Core Rules it shouldn't be an issue though even without too much meta gaming. Although, I still might just drop Imoen altogether and then just run with Neera (this could work out fine if on my main I sacrifice some hiding/trap setting an instead focus some on find/disarm.)

    Final party:
    charname F/T
    Yeslick
    Imoen (T > M) OR Neera
    Coran

  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    rickcr said:

    Until I get Yeslick, I'm having trouble deciding between Ajantis or Branwen. Currently my plan is to do:

    Early (where I am now):
    Anjantis or Branwen (for main tank)
    charname F/T flank/tankish if I feel like putting on plate [ focusing on MS and set traps ]
    Neera
    Imoen [ focusing on find/disarm traps (plus some locks) ]

    Early on for the Nashkel mines and early cloakwood etc would Branwen or Ajantis be better (with either having dexterity gloves of course.)

    Ajantis would be the better warrior, but I don't like running without any divine caster for buffing/healing/etc. Therefore I'd go with Branwen.
    rickcr said:

    Next:
    If I recall correctly after doing some early stuff Coran comes into the picture, and I really dig him as an archer (and archers rock things in bg1. ) His drawback is he's lame in find/disarm traps (relatively speaking) so that's going to be my weak spot for a bit.
    Once Imoen hits 6 as a thief, I was going to dual her to a mage, but that adds a challenge though leveling up Imoen with a 4 person party if I wanted to keep Coran, sine I'd be low on mage support, and low on trap support for Durlag's tower. However, if I time things right I could get back Imoen's thief support by the time I need to hit Durlag's tower, and if I focus on find/disarm traps with her early she'll be ok. Big question is do I want to go without decent mage support while Imoen levels up. Since I'm only playing Core Rules it shouldn't be an issue though even without too much meta gaming. Although, I still might just drop Imoen altogether and then just run with Neera (this could work out fine if on my main I sacrifice some hiding/trap setting an instead focus some on find/disarm.)

    Final party:
    charname F/T
    Yeslick
    Imoen (T > M) OR Neera
    Coran

    Certainly Coran is a strong character who fills a very useful role in many parties, but whether he's the best fit in your particular party is a different question. Since your protagonist is also an F/T like Coran, you're not desperately in need of another character with roughly the same skill-set. I reckon you'd be better off with more casting power instead ... which is why I'd take Quayle instead of Coran if I were keeping the dual-classed Imoen. However, if I went with Neera instead of Imoen, then I agree that Coran's Thief skills would be pretty useful.

    Your plan is pretty focused on Thief skills, and of course you do want plenty of Find Traps and Open Locks when you go to Durlag's tower, but you can easily avoid Durlag's tower until after Imoen has completed her dual and recovered her Thief levels. I'd probably not bother so much with Set Traps, which I've always found very useful in BG2 but usually not so necessary in BG1.
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