Will your knowledge of the future affect your decisions?
Dougie
Member Posts: 34
Now that BG 1 & 2 are connected together, how will your knowledge of the deaths of Khalid and Dynaheir in BG2 affect your dealings with them in BG1?
- Will you knowledge of the future affect your decisions?140 votes
- I will be less likely to recuit them8.57%
- I will still recruit them but will have them in my party less often2.86%
- It will make no difference to me80.71%
- I will still recruit them and will have them in my party more often0.00%
- I will be more likely to recruit them7.86%
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Comments
I most often use Khalid and Jaheira to complete the quest they give. I typically play characters with good sense, and these are the folks Gorion urged you to see.
Then after the Nashkel mines I usually cut them loose, though. I like to experience variety in replays. And there's lots of NPCs to choose from. I virtually never finish the game with the BG2 available starting party.
The only NPC who's usually with me from start to finish is Imoen.
Curiously, when they're in my party both of them have the tendency to drop all their gear, run naked towards the nearest angry bear, and get chunked.
>.>
<.<
That said I'm glad Khalid is dead in BG2 cause I didn't like him much in BG1. He was kinda of a big wuss in BG1. I just wished Minsc had died in BG2 also, I actually liked Dynaheir more than Minsc.
I mean, come one, aren't these some great lines?:
"I don't mean to be confrontational, but could you be a little less... evil?"
"This group shows... promise, ex-cep-sho-nahl."
I know I'm in a minority, but I like Khalid (the personality) a lot better than Jaheira (the personality). Jaheira is one of only two healers available early in the the game. That's the only reason I tolerate her. She does also happen to be the strongest meleeing cleric in the game, as well. But Khalid is actually a damn good tank. So it isn't like he's dead weight.
As for his bravery issues... If your character isn't a particularly charismatic leader, who's fault is it really that Khalid's has occasional morale failures? Ditto if you as a player are letting your party's butt get kicked. (Any NPC that gets down to just a few HP can have a morale failure, btw.)
Dyna also bears the brunt of many players' ill will because she's force-paired with Minsc. I'll readily agree that Dynaheir isn't nearly as entertaining a personality as Minsc. Nor is she as powerful a wizard (and neither is she as funny) as Edwin. But in terms of capability she's on par with Xzar and Xan.
I usually play with an ease-of-use mod component that allows you to split the pairs.
However, I distinctly recall that there's even a way to do it in-game without a mod... You take one of them inside a building and remove them. Then as long as you don't set food inside the dwelling again, the other member of the pair continues with you as if nothing happened. Or it's something close to that. My memory's hazy, long time since I played.
I think when I play BGEE Im going to try to have a party consisting of all the new members plus Imoen and maybe Tiax or Alora just for fun.
I liked Khalid too, and I'll admit to having been a little sad when I discovered his body. I really despise him as an adventurer, though; I've spent more time trying to keep him from dying than any other NPC (and that's including Xan, for Pete's sake [whoever Pete is]!), so a small part of me is actually relieved in BG2 when I don't have to worry about him anymore.
Dynaheir's sweet, but to be honest I only really keep her around because of Minsc. Maybe that's because her characterization in BG1 is so minimal (as are most of the BG1 NPCs) that I feel more empathic toward Minsc.
...On the other hand, maybe in my next play-through I'll leave Minsc behind. It just doesn't seem right, making him fight his way out of Irenicus's lair after his witch has just been slaughtered...
@Aosaw I can't leave any of them in Irenicus' dungeon! I'll take Yoshimo along too. But once I've made it out of the dungeon I'll usually part company with most all but Imoen. I'll often keep Minsc, but not always. I often keep Yoshi. But I mix up the party in just about every playthrough.
Dynaheir is no where near as useful as Xzar or Xan for the simple reason that she is an Invoker. Invoker is by far the worst mage specialization as she gives up two VERY useful schools of magic: Enchantment and Conjuration. Enchantment is full of incredibly useful spells and sports a good selection of "Save or Lose" spells. Conjuration is probably the strongest specialization in the game simply for monster summoning. Losing access to these makes Dynaheir the worst mage in the entire Saga.
Also, with the choices of Jaheira, Viconia, and Branwen as healers fairly early in the game I would pass on Jaheira every time unless I was going for a fun "canon party" game.
But as a straight up fighter, he's mediocre compared to other NPCs in that level range. His only edge is an ability to get High Mastery in a single weapon. Outside of that, Minsc, Kagain, Kivan, and Ajantis are all better choices to fill the same role.
But yeah, Khalid is awesome. He's easily the best good-aligned fighter type character.
Also Dynaheir sucks. No conjurations, no enchantments means she can't do the two most important thing mages bring to a party: buffs and crowd control. Conjuration is a super important skill as far as buffs go and everyone knows the power of summons. Also I'd rather bring someone with Hold Person than Fireball because it saves my life way more often.
As for Dyna being an Invoker, and therefore restricted against scribing Enchantment and Conjuration spells, that is a major deficit. Sleep, Hold, Confusion, Emotion: Hopelessnes, Greater Malison, Chaos, Domination, and Hold Monster are all great spells. Monster summoning I typically don't use in BG1 because it almost makes the game too easy. But I like limitations and shortcomings that exist for characters because it makes them more interesting and challenging to play. It's then like, okay, well how then do I pull the best from this character? That's more fun to me by now than being uber-powerful.
Dyna can actually use wands of Sleep, Monster Summoning, and Paralyzation. And she can equip Algernon's cloak (which can be pickpocketed).
I've never been sure if BG's specialist mages ability to use any wand is an oversight re: 2nd ed. AD&D rules, or if that's legit in PnP. Anyone know?
I mean, if it's strictly about the specialist's inability to learn (scribe) the spell, then enchanted items with charges require no mental concentration, and should be fine. If it's about the specialist eschewing the use of the opposition school of magic, then I wouldn't have a specialist use their opposition school's magical items.
I've hardly ever see Khalid run. I've read somewhere his chance of running depends on CHARNAME's CHA, and I (most) always have high CHA for my CHARNAME's. They lead a party of people who all join him to help him or her in his/her cause after all, wouldn't be fitting to have low CHA. Makes me slightly suspectful people who dislike Khalid are powergamers who pick low CHA for Charname and dislike Khalid for sub-optimal stats and a tendency to run he wouldn't have that much if CHARNAME was more leaderlike (high CHA).
My PCs always have relatively high Cha because 1) CHARNAME was sired by a divinity, and 2) it doesn't make too much sense that anyone other than the canon party would follow a low Cha protagonist. I mean, I give the PC at least 10 Cha at a bare minimum. But mine typically have at least Cha 13, if not much higher. I'm also pretty proficient tactically as a player. So I rarely see any party member drop down into the single digits of HP. I have almost never seen a morale failure by Khalid.
I'm not worried about the 35-60 damage aoe splash I can do with a fireball. Hold Person is more likely to win me a fight. It's great to have magic missiles, but better to have the spell Armor.
My most recent playthrough of the whole saga really brought it to light. I was Beastmaster/Cleric, ran with Minsc, Imoen, Aerie, Keldorn (replaced with Sarevok) and Jaheira. This is the first time I've ever actually ran BG2 with the "canon" party btw. Imoen and Aerie rarely threw damage spells. It simply wasn't necessary. Imoen up with magic-stripping spells (remove magic, breach, thrust, ruby ray of reversal, etc) and Aerie with party buffs. Greater Whirlwind from Sarevok turned him into enough of a helicopter blade he might as well have been AOE damage.
What is greater: the ability to incinerate enemies or to keep them from doing anything to begin with? Everyone on my team can do damage somehow. Not everyone can keep the enemy mage from having a field day with my party.