5 man custom party - Good-ish Alignment.

Incantus89

So I've been thinking of going through the saga, all the way from BG:EE to SoD and then BG2:EE.

Now I've seen most banters, and done all romances before. So mainly I'm going for a 5 man party so that I can pick up NPCs with quest chains and do those for all that lewt.

Now a few things I'm worried about, I plan to have paladins, will they be able to aid with dorns quest chain in BG2 without dropping to low on rep? Or will I need to take breaks and go raise my rep back up in order to prevent them from falling?

Also, neutral priests arent hurt by holy smite right? I plan to grab a pure class cleric, more so for thematic purposes and have him neutral so he can use the few items good aligned characters arent allowed.

Currently my party is something like this:

CN, Priest of Talos Half-Orc -> Main character, Talos is an aspect of Gruumsh so I feel it fits Half-orcs, also I have a weak spot for lightningbolt... Got an ungodly roll on him so his stats are 19,17,16,16,18,10 - 96 roll (yes took forever, but I like my main characters abit on the godly side).

Inquisitor - Dualwielding Bastard swords, Flails and Maces (and whatever else I figure to put points into)

Cavalier - 2handed swords

Fighter 9 -> Thief dual - Daggers and scimitars, Dagger of the Stars for thematic reasons, scarlet ninja-to offhand because poison and backstab, yes please.

Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple - Robe of Vecna, Amulet of power, Staff of magi etc powerhouse character.

Now my main problem is the first game, because I will at first just rush Neera and Dorns questlines, then dropping dorn off untill I can reach baldurs gate. Meanwhile I plan on grabbing Safana or Imoen to fill out the thief duties, as my own thief wont be one untill SoD, I'm hoping this will work out ok-ish, thoughts?

Basically I intend to do pretty much everything in all games, so should reach XP-caps.

Well, I was mostly curious about feedback

JuliusBorisov

If you're thinking of a party combining paladins with Dorn, you really have to be careful with reputation. Dorn's BG2 quests severely damage your reputation, but if you start them with high reputation and then make visits to temples, it's possible not to fall below 9.

Skatan

A few comments:

1: I dislike having 4 (+ maybe 1 more NPC) going melee at the same time. They will trod and trample around eachother trying to all fight the same enemy etc. I very rarely use more than 3 melee at the same time (though some ranged switch to melee if attacked ofc). If you don't have any trouble with this, then you will ofc steamroll the game with that party.
2: I'd go F/T or T->F instead of the otherway around if I were you. One of the main reasons for using 5 custom made characters is to not having to rely on NPC's, yet you have to have a NPC thief throughout BG1. Again, if this doesn't bother you, then by all means continue as planned. This is just "IMHO" ofc.
3: If you like paladins, I understand your choices, but I'd choose a dwarf zerker over the cavalier myself. They can fit the exact same role, but there's only one Carsomyr and the zerker can wield the flails and foebane etc instead. A dwarf with max CON based bonus to his/her saves and zerking activated quickly becomes nigh invulnerable.
4: Managing the rep is easy, just spend a few thousand gold in between quests if/when needed.

Arius

MY custom party that am running and have run in BGEE and SoD and now onto BG2EE SoA and ToB

1 Is CharName is a Pali that uses Great Swords LongBows and Bastard Swords

2 Is a Dwarven Defender that dual wields axes and use LongBows

3 Is an Elven Ranger that dual wields Long Swords, Bastard Swords and uses LongBows

4 Is My Dwarven Fighter/Thief that dual wields Scimitars and uses LongBows

5 Is My Dwarven Fighter/Cleric that Dual wields Hammers & Flails and uses slings. The dwarven throwing hammer in BG2 is a great get IMO.

6 And Finally my Elven Fighter/Mage that dual wields short swords and uses LongBows as well.

All are good aligned. I choose longbows as I don't need to share room in the ammo belt with 2 different kinds or 3 different kinds of ammo. I left Katanas off the weapons list as they are really in BG1 or SoD that are really any good and certainly not 2 of them. Having 3 Characters of the jump with 19 con makes life a bit more survivable. The Elves get the natural bonuses with long & short swords as well as long bows so that wasn't that hard. That left getting a pali fro all the great swords and the Holly avenger. Can't leave that bad boy on the table. Oh and the rogue reclaims Drizzt's Dwarf made armor for himself and keeps the scimitars. He's pretty much good to go till ToB.