Alternate between good and evil party

OrionMD

I got a Chaotic Neutral Assassin (the guy on my pic), who I play more in a selfish way, doing whatever I want and is better for me in the occasion. There is some good companions that I like (Minsc, Keldorn, Aerie for instance) but there is some evil companions that are interesting as well (Edwin, Vic and Korgan for instance). So I would like to at some point of the game, maybe in ToB or when I meet that Sarevok guy, change totally my good party to a evil party only for the purposes to meet and know all the characters that I like (Or even better, alternate my party occasionally as it fit better for the quest or my mood). I would like to know if this is possible? I'm on the very early game now on SoA with a good and functional party (Keldorn, Minsc, Jaheira [that should leave soon], Yoshimo and Aerie) but Im pretty sure that I will got weary of they sometime. My concern is that in other usual RPGs alternating too much your companions will prevent they to evolve and become stronger to fight late game challenges. And as I saw BG2 is a quest game, without "respawn" areas to chain monsters for EXP (which is interesting and realistic btw). I swear that I search a lot in the foruns and didn't find this question, so I decide to make a post, maybe this will be relevant and other people got this question as well.

Thanks in advance.
Cya fellow adventurers o/

BelgarathMTH

You can switch in and out characters at will, as long as your reputation doesn't go to either extreme. (Evil characters will not join you with reputation too high, good characters will not join you with reputation too low.) In BG2, most of them will give you a choice where to wait when you kick them (on the spot, or in an inn somewhere).

Characters not adventuring with you do NOT gain experience. If you've never talked to them before, they will spawn at a level comparable to yours, but once you've "locked in" an instance of their spawn by bringing them into your party (or getting the offer and turning them down), they will not progress unless they're with you.

Queegon

Fun way to go is to be a good guy, have good party, do good deeds, become evil in hell, get evil party for tob, murder everyone.

If you want to swap companions more often in SoA, personally I don't see a problem in giving them as much experience as the NPC you trade them with via console. Balance.

Ammar

Also note that there is really no reason to stick to a one-alignment party. I don't know why this has become so popular as of late. For example, there are great banters between Mazzy and Korgan.

Queegon

Ammar said:

Also note that there is really no reason to stick to a one-alignment party. I don't know why this has become so popular as of late. For example, there are great banters between Mazzy and Korgan.

To be fair Korgan goes along well with everybody but Aerie (and few like Aerie). He fits any party which even Keldorn himself acknowledges.

Ammar

Queegon said:

Ammar said:

Also note that there is really no reason to stick to a one-alignment party. I don't know why this has become so popular as of late. For example, there are great banters between Mazzy and Korgan.

To be fair Korgan goes along well with everybody but Aerie (and few like Aerie). He fits any party which even Keldorn himself acknowledges.

True, but there are plenty other examples. Viconia and Edwin also get along with a fair number of the good NPCs. Edwin is still a jerk, but not more than to other characters.

Queegon

Since ToB has no infighting except for Rasaad and Sarevok, if evil (and that talk might not ever happen and/or you sway him to the right path first) you are free to experiment there.

I went with mainchar, Dorn, Rasaad, Neera, Hexxat, Sarevok to get most of the content and it netted me some nice items too in the process. Plus their quests bring possibly the hardest battles in the game.

Nuin

Just do what most people do. Decide on a core party of 3-5 (including your romance picks) and then use the last slots to rotate NPCs. The way experience/leveling works in BG2, NPCs don't usually get left too far behind unless you decide to switch party members around late ToB or you kill off all the arcane spellcaster NPCs.

OrionMD

First of all, thanks everyone, this forum is great, good community, open to discussion, that's kinda rare nowadays.

@BelgarathMTH

That's interesting. So if I never met those guys, I can just invite them later and they will be close to my level, right? Is there enough quests in game to put all companions (or more then 5) in Lvl 40?

@Queegon
Hm, like calculating how much exp a member gain in last quest and transfer it to another character via a console cheat? I may try this in last case, good idea!

Another question, since Im here, any good choice to replace Jaheira in my actual party?

BelgarathMTH

@OrionMD , No, that's not how it works.

There is a highest level possible spawn of all the NPC's, and the highest level will never be anywhere near your final level of the game.

The whole game is designed for you to pick 5-6 NPC's and stick with them for most of the game. That's where it gets a lot of its replayability. You really need to start the game over to experience different party configurations.

You've got *some* flexibility, but not much.

Also, it's supposed to be a classic western role-playing game, not an action role-playing game like Diablo.

Trying to just be willy-nilly all over the place with good and evil parties is really not supported very well by this game. I'm not even sure why you'd do that, unless you're trying to play this very old game as though it were a modern action rpg.

I'd suggest you stick with evil characters mostly, with some neutrals. Most people who play D&D and call themselves "chaotic neutral" are actually "chaotic evil" in how they play, anyway.

OrionMD

@BelgarathMTH

Yup, no problem at all, its a good concept, chain monsters for EXP it was always something non realistic that bothers me, and I already knew that Baldurs Gate was a root/classic RPG with his own mechanics.

I will do as you say before and search for the other guys (evil party) later on, probably on ToB, and avoid encounter, so they could spawn to a level close to mine.

Thank you o/

Queegon

Just to give you some ground footing, the max experience NPCs will have upon joining is 1,250,000. So if you are above that threshold, you are out of luck or have to resort to console.

Onox

I almost always have a party with good and evil NPCs at the same time. When I played Baldur's Gate fifteen years ago, some would occasionally fight, or leave if my rep was too high. But when it happened, I simply reloaded my last save and went on, as it did not occur so frequently as to make the game unplayable (in fact it was rare).

Now, I always use the tweaks "NPCs do not complain about reputation" (or at least, "cannot leave"), and "NPCs don't fight".

It is obvious why good NPCs would leave a group with a too bad reputation, but it never made sense to me that evil NPCs, especially Lawful Evil ones, would leave the party if your reputation is too high.

BelleSorciere

I always leave the complaining on, but I don't let them leave. My party is the Hotel California.

OrionMD

@Onox
I guess my real point was not really the conflicts of a good/evil party, but my will to play with the most characters and combinations as possible.

@Queegon
I don't get it, after the value of 1.25kk they will stop gaining exp?

Ammar

OrionMD said:

@Queegon
I don't get it, after the value of 1.25kk they will stop gaining exp?

The XP a NPC starts with depends on your XP when you meet him. The maximum starting XP is 1.25 million.

Once you had an NPC in the party for the first time, he will never gain any XP unless he is in the party. This is in contrast to later Bioware game like KOTOR.

Nuin

In all my years of playing BG2 I've only had people fight maybe 5 times or less. It may just be luck, but I think it's one of the undocumented (rumored) effects of high charisma.

Anyway more info on starting XP here. Note that only SOME NPCs scale with PC levels - Anomen, for example, peaks very early which makes sense because he also starts as one of the strongest NPCs. The OT is a pure rogue, so he can actually cause higher level NPCs to spawn MUCH earlier.
Note that you MUST avoid any contact with these NPCs until you're ready to take them with you. AFAIK, once you've met them their levels are set. The only exception is Imoen.

Late SoA is really no big deal since a new batch of NPCs are generated in ToB (the ones you didn't bring with you) and you always have scroll scribing as a last resort. As I said, the tricky part is if you keep switching party mates until mid-late ToB.

FrdNwsm

My characters are always true neutral; that way, I can justify them traveling with anyone. I switch NPCs a lot, to keep their experience levels decent and to be able to do everybody's side quests.