5 least recruited NPCs in all of your runs (BG2/BG2EE)
Bubbles
Member Posts: 589
I am curious as to which 5 NPCs most players hardly touch in most or all their runs and why?
1
Comments
Viconia gets the second least use for me. I had to force myself on a recent run to finally complete her romance. I understand that a lot of people love her and that's fine. I just don't get it.
Of the ees, I have only used Neera and a certain easter egg extensively. Rasaad is next on my list. I will likely never use Dorn or the mystery woman.
2. Edwin
3. Korgan
4. Nalia
5. Hexxat
Nalia - "I fail to see how leaving me tied up in this ditch is helping the needy."
Haer'Dalis - Oh, Raven Sparrow Honeydewdrop, allow me to wax lyrical upon the fact that I am a bard, and bards are comparable solely to my personality in terms of being terrible.
Keldorn - If you do not explain the reason for your presence and instead ask me to get out of the way, I will attack you, because Paladins are colossal epithets.
Hexxat - Here is my bag of holding, I'm trusting you to- Eurgh! Quickly, get me to Dragomir's Respite!
Cernd is indeed kinda boring with his personality.
2. Anomen
3. Anomen
4. Anomen
5. Cernd
Honorable mentions to horrible Hexxat.
2. Jan
3. Mazzy
4. Anomen
5. Nalia
I have yet to try Rasaad or Neera enough to bench them, though they do not appeal to me.
Korgan - The problem with this guy is that he shines in parties where you bring NPCs like Mazzy or Keldorn along. He's rather meh without the interesting banter, just another sword and shield/two-handed weapons user (and we have a rather large selection of these). Great NPC otherwise though.
Valygar - Valygar would be in a lot more of my parties if he were an actual a fighter/thief instead of a stalker. The problem is that he's basically competing for the same slot as Haer'Dalis, and most of the time it's no contest.
Anomen - Arrogant and annoying. And the fact that does a complete 360 if you have him knighted just makes him even more annoying in my book, because there's no buildup or anything. BAM, he just changes. Wut. The one thing that makes sense is if your PC is female, since you do get the opportunity to have serious conversations with him. I don't play a lot of female PCs though.
Jan - Jan is great to have around but his stories can get boring and tiresome if you keep him around too often, so I try to limit the number of times I bring him along. He's also competing for the same slot as Nalia and Imoen.
Hexxat - There are so many things I'd like to say to this NPC (along the lines of "Huh. Go on." or "Whatever." or, more recently, "DIEEEEEEE!!!") but the game never actually shows me the choices I want (or something equivalent) when I want them. Oh well.
In comparison I've been playing all the other new NPCs regularly.
2. Faldorn (NEVER had her. Only once to see what sounds she makes when you click on her a million times)
3. Cernd
4. Shar-Teel
5. I don't take Viconia in BG1, but I do in BGII, so I guess I have to go with Haer'Dalis. There's no real reason, I actually like him, but I feel like I need another BG2 character on my list.
6. Hexxat. Took her for a bit once but I don't think I'll take her again as I found her overall story a bit disappointing. However, since thieves are hard to come by for an evil playthrough, I might try her again and see the romance.
2. Yoshimo - I mostly drop him as soon as I come out of the opening dungeon
3. Valygar - I have only ever used him for the quest, than dropped him off
4. Cernd - I almost always only use him for the quest, than dropped him off
5. ALL Evil NPC's - only just now I'm playing an Evil playthrough with an evil Priest of Talos>Mage Charname to experience the evil NPC's. Only other time I used evil NPC's is Korgan as a fighter with a TN Totemic Druid and Edwin as extra firepower next to a LN Mage.
1) Tiax
2) Quayle
3) Alora
4) Skie
5) Neera
BG2:
1) Jan
2) Mazzy
3) Aerie
4) Cernd
5) Nalia
I always play with a Half-Orc F/T.
I am yet to take Dorn on in any meaningful way in BG2EE though, I just don't enjoy the kind of Evil gameplay his story seems to revel in. He was much more approachable as the man betrayed seeking revenge in the first EE.
Also in BG2EE, it is very rare for me to take Minsc beyond Irenics Exit. He is a joke that I played out years ago, and mostly there are other characters who fill his potential role better.
Imoen does not see much play by me in BG2EE due to the structure of the story. She is taken away when useful, and by the time I catch up she is so far behind in xp that she will never function well in the party (often over 1Mxp behind)
Cernd is the last original character who has seen almost no play by me, but is lined up for a future self-sufficient run, where I play only (N)PCs with a minimal kit requirement, such as Cernd, Wilson, and Rasaad.
Back to BGEE, and I rarely play the bards, Garrick and Eldoth, nor Safana. Eldoth arrives too late, and Safana is just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Garrick, somehow never fits the party I am planning at the start of a game. Likewise, Xan is rarely played due to his appalling HP and a Moonblade trying to make him into something else. Skie is the only BGEE NPC whose portrait I have never even seen in the party. Too little, too late, and too hard to recruit.
On topic: I've never used Cernd for long. Also never took Edwin, Korgan or Anomen to Spellhold. Barely used the EE NPCs so I don't even think they count as of now.
Nalia: Recently did try her, decent thief all around.
Keldorn: He stopped my silver pantaloons ransom job! Since that one time I haven't actually used him.
Cernd: Sometimes..But not a lot.
Mazzy: Still haven't tried playing with her in the party.
Or maybe make a new series where your party NPCs will ask for certain treasures rather than letting the charname distribute them ^^ (adds realism to the game play).
1. Korgan
2. Valygar
3. Minsc
4. Anomen
5. Haer'dalis
Mostly it boils down to voices. I never much liked Korgan's voice--I enjoyed it in one run and then never played him again--and Minsc's voice has gotten grating over time. I alternate between liking and disliking Anomen's voice (he's a bit of a jerk, but there's a charm in that like there is with Edwin). Valygar is simply flat.
Quests are another factor. Getting Valygar requires you to enter the Planar Sphere, and since I play no-reload games with SCS, that's not something I try out early in the game. Haer'dalis has the same problem.
As a powergamer who has seen most of the banters and such for BG2, the most important thing is getting a functional party with voices and portraits I can tolerate, from locations that are convenient.
2. Dorn
3. Neera
4. Rasaad
5. Wilson
I'll probably come off as an EE hater for this. And I'm OK with that.
The dialogues for these "characters" (I literally accidentally typed "patients" here on my first draft, as if they were in dire need of help) is just straight garbage. I hope they fired the intern who wrote them up. One of my friends who never played through till EE asked me if I could explain to him the first Hexxat interaction in the Copper Coronet. I said, "I was hoping you could help me with that." Further, the archetypal portrayals exhibited by these characters are way too extreme. Hexxat and Dorn are too villainous to accompany a PC. Then we have the stoic monk and the capricious wild mage, both of whom lack the counterweight needed to be interesting. Mechanically they are quite weak as well. I think the power gamer in me is thankful for this though. I would dread slogging through Rasaad's unintelligible amphitheater dialogue for a second time...
Yeah, some of the voices I get tired of, or annoyed over time too.
SCS is ver tough and may take up a lot of time per major fight too.
I tend to do no-reload using just standard installation at core rules but trying different weird or restrictive party combinations for it to introduce a different challenges.
1-Dorn. Actually, killed him near the Order of the Radiant Heart when we first spoke
2-Haer Dalis-got him in tob as some of my crew perma-died. Found him too weak to bother.
3-wilson-never even found him
4-nalia-did her quest in soa for gp reward and never picked her up again
5-yoshimo-chunked by Brennan Risling (Mencar's party) right out of the first dungeon so his stay was very brief.
I tried Jan and Cernd for the first time and found them very, very useful. Aerie, jaheira, rasaad, viconia all chunked. Keldorn, sarevok, korgan and mazzy were all fantastic, sadly they all got chunked too. Imoen, Valygar, Cernd and Jan survived the ToB.
........
Safana
Skie
Faldorn
Quayle
Tiax
BG2
........
Cernd
Jan
Nalia
Aerie
Sarevok
Are you playing SCS or insane difficulty? How did Korgan and Mazzy get chunked? O_o
The Neutrals get a little more interesting. I like Neera and often use her. I occasionally use Cernd if I need a Druid briefly. I use Jaheira often (does she count as neutral?)
I've used Jan just for his dialogue. Haer d'whatever makes me so angry every time he opens his mouth, I'd whack him if I wasn't playing good....
I like Yoshimo and his part in the story.
I've never found Wilson.
A drow wizard threw a 3x flesh to stone to Mazzy, petrfying her. I was casting a cone of cold then, and it fired off a second before Mazzy got petrified, and the cone shattered her statue.
I am partly to blame as I editted all flesh to stone spells to require save vs polymorph instead of spells. Mazzy and Korgan have excellent save vs spells, but to balance it out there are good items against petrfying, addoys belt gives +5 and another amulet +5 more to save vs petrfy/polymorph. If only they wore them!
Nalia and Aerie catching up ^^.
Mine would include Anomen, Aerie, Keldorn, Cernd and Jaheira. The whiny, goody-goody idiots and tree huggers
BG1EE:
I've tried almost everyone except for Eldoth, Skie, Rasaad and Dorn.
Imoen always stays, Xan I usually pick too, as he's crucial for bolstering the groups' morale^^. Other than that it depends on my mood.
I'll definitely never pick up Neera again. Horrible contemporary all-american girl voiceacting straight out a teenie-soap, and her questline wasn't exactly great, either. There are mods with better voiceacting out there.
BG2:
Ignore by default
Keldorn
Aerie
Anomen
Cernd
Haer Dalis
Just pick them up for their quests
Valygar
Mazzy
Yoshimo
Keep them for a longer time
Nalia
Jan
Korgan
Core members
Minsc
Jaheira(SoA)
Sarevok(ToB, obviously)
Edwin
Viconia
Imoen
Hahaha Neera is voiced by Nicola Elbro (she is a Canadian by the way) ^^.
She probably decided to use an American teenie voice (guess they probably sounded chaotic and neutral? ^^). Probably her lines was written in such a way I guess it kinda hard to use other ways to project them.
I always try very hard to imagine a Greater Werewolf hugging a Tree ^^.
However I can imagine a bear doing so (Jaheira) ^^ especially when there is Honey up there ^^.