So thinking about taking a party into SoD...

dracostrike

I want my characters which have travelled through BG with me to still have the same gear as I gave them and still have the same levels so I will only be using those characters which appear BOTH in BG and SoD.
This is the list of characters I could take:
- Minsc
- Dynaheir
- Dorn
- Safana
- Jaheira
- Khalid
- Baeloth
- Rasaad
- Viconia
- Neera
- Edwin (EDIT: I forgot the most OP Red Wizard...)

If you had to choose from this list (and you can make any kind of PC), who would be in your party for both games?

Queegon

PC dwarven fighter/thief, Minsc, Dynaheir, Viconia, Jaheira, Khalid. And I'd make Minsc a Berserker personally.
Or give a tome to Safana and dual her to mage, ditch Minsc and Dyna. Your main can be whatever frontliner then. Last spot for Baeloth or Neera or Dorn. You forgot Edwin.

Zilber

Well, if you're interested in keeping the group together, there's the option of taking a party through through BG, SOD, BG2

Edwin, Dorn, Viconia with a swashbuckler or fighter/thief

Good could be Dynaheir, Minsc, Rasaad with charname as a cleric/thief (preferably dual, you'll need those cleric levels) (though I really don't like Rasaad)

Neutral would be Khalid, Jaheira, Neera, this would still need a cleric/thief

You could pad this with whomever you fancy, but taking four character parties through the games is quite interesting as well

dracostrike

Looking at going through BG all of the way to ToB, without dropping anyone, I believe only these NPCs are available:
- Edwin
- Dorn
- Neera
- Rasaad
- Viconia
- Minsc
- Jaheira

The obvious point that both of you guys brought up is the issue with thieves Seems like Imoen's disappearing issues throughout the series really put the party's balance in jeopardy.

Queegon

I'm having a blast with Dwarven Inquisitor now as PC. /cheatyface

Zilber

dracostrike said:

Looking at going through BG all of the way to ToB, without dropping anyone, I believe only these NPCs are available:
- Edwin
- Dorn
- Neera
- Rasaad
- Viconia
- Minsc
- Jaheira

The obvious point that both of you guys brought up is the issue with thieves Seems like Imoen's disappearing issues throughout the series really put the party's balance in jeopardy.

There's also the possibility of just adding a second CHARNAME to your game, that will follow you as well.

I just started a game that will star just two players, a nice couple of Bhaalspawn, elf and half-elf, that will frolic trhough the fields, whacking and stabbing for goodness (NG THF/MAG E, NG RGR/CLR HE).

BGLover

Zilber said:

There's also the possibility of just adding a second CHARNAME to your game, that will follow you as well.

Started this very thing today!

Me and my best friend, who happens to be a stout Dwarven Defender who would happily do anything for me! (He's also mute after an unfortunate accident some time ago, and this explains why he doesn't banter much with our other travelling companions).

Skarose

Go Team Evil!

An EVIL party needs a thief so your main character should be some sort of thief and if you are going to be EVIL,nothing says evil thief more than the Assassin kit. Currently I've started an Evil Assassin run myself with my Assassin Main Character 'Blackhound' the Half Orc Assassin.

Being an Assassin means you have to prioritize your thieving skills. For my character, I concentrated on Detect Traps/Move Silently/Set Snares. Baeloth has the knock spell and I also have potions of master thievery for locks and pick pockets and potions of perception for detect traps (I stopped at 80%, because skill points are so precious for an Assassin). You could probably get away with focusing on detect illusion instead of move silently or set snares, (Have the Baeloth Edwin cast invisibility on you, ring of invisibility etc.) But I like the flavor of a stealthy Assassin who sets ambush traps.

I haven't finished Baldur's Gate yet, but so far the assassin has 80%+ of total kills. I use the party for support and emergency situations. It's a lot of fun, being an assassin with a blackguard buddy and the two of you begin combat peppering foes with poisoned arrows of biting and just when things get dicey or dangerous you can use Edwin and Baeloth to abruptly put an end to the encounter!

*Blackhound/Assassin, Viconia, Dorn, Edwin, Baeloth

Aerakar

On the Assassin kill ratio, I easily top 50% of kills throughout the game, liberally using backstabbing and poisoned arrows, traps and scouting/taking out solo targets of opportunity. I noticed this only recently and at first was somewhat surprised. Later I thought about it more and it makes sense with the poison.

bob_veng

Skarose said:

Go Team Evil!

An EVIL party needs Glint

word.

Belfaldurnik

Do you want to stop after SOD or continue in BG2?

Be careful, though, if you let join some companions only temporarily, they reappear in SOD with their low level because you've not developed them further.

Recently I went with the canon party, only to develop the story companions further already in BG1, such as by giving Minsc two of the Tomes.

And what happens in BG2EE? The game doesn't recognize any of Minsc's development! Attributes lowered. Weapon skills not those I've given Minsc. Longbow ++ instead of Two-handed Weapons ++.

Oh, please. That's disappointing. I had hoped that would be specific to Imoen, but it likely affects all NPC companions in the same way.

dracostrike

Belfaldurnik said:

Do you want to stop after SOD or continue in BG2?

Be careful, though, if you let join some companions only temporarily, they reappear in SOD with their low level because you've not developed them further.

Recently I went with the canon party, only to develop the story companions further already in BG1, such as by giving Minsc two of the Tomes.

And what happens in BG2EE? The game doesn't recognize any of Minsc's development! Attributes lowered. Weapon skills not those I've given Minsc. Longbow ++ instead of Two-handed Weapons ++.

Oh, please. That's disappointing. I had hoped that would be specific to Imoen, but it likely affects all NPC companions in the same way.

Yeah, I will be going into BG2:EE as well, luckily the only tome I gave to another NPC was to Safana so I had 2 Mages throughout BG and SoD, Canon party apart from Imoen for Saffy.

Good thing about a C/R, they can use every tome apart from Int pretty well ^^