Bad Party Comps

dockaboomski

So, anyone ever go ahead and play through the game with Garrick, Skie, and Eldoth in a party together? How about Tiax and Quayle? What are your favorite RP/non-powergaming parties?
I finished my first EE run (actually my first full playthrough) with my charname wizard slayer, Ajantis, Yeslick, Quayle, Garrick, and Xan. I loved it.

DetectiveMittens

I usually play through the game where I let my computer decide for me through stochastic simulations. And I have had some fairly bad combinations of parties (can't remember any though).

I believe from the 29 now available NPCs there around 118755 different combinations of 5 NPC parties you can pick. (146596 technical combos total)

I have attached 1000 different full party combinations. Choose your PC carefully

Gallenger

Because you can pick up to 6 characters it's fairly easy to have the weaknesses of any one NPC be hidden or subdued by the strengths of another NPC - obviously you could have a party that performs more optimally using other characters, but running a party with the "bad" NPCs shouldn't be impossible by any means so long as you play to the strengths of the "bads;.

I'd also argue that contrary to much of the thinking of the last decade+ Quayle is not at all a bad NPC. Quayle is one of the very best in fact lol.

Xan and Ajantis are a great paring though Especially if you have some evil folks in the party at some point.

recklessheart

I'm playing BGEE again for the first time in what feels like a year, but which I confess probably isn't. I never play an optimal party, per se, and like to keep it mixed up and different every time as much as I can. The current playthrough seems to be sticking at this--

Caitlyn (Human, Female, True Neutral, Mage-soon-to-be-Thief)
Jaheira (True Neutral)
Ajantis (Lawful Good)
Safana (Chaotic Neutral)
Edwin (Lawful Evil)
Coran (Chaotic Good)

For a time I had considered holding onto Montaron, but when I sent him on his way my intention was to take Alora along once I reached Baldur's Gate. It always feels better to have a token shortie around! When I arrived, however, I became uneasy at the prospect of replacing Safana as it would make a party a little Good-heavy on the alignment front. I like to mix it up, but keep my protagonist's alignment foremost among the mix of 6. I could have dropped Coran for Alora, and considered it at length, but as it stands it looks like I'll stick with a vertically-advantaged party.

It's not a bad party, per se, but I always enjoy reading about other people's party combos, so I thought you might like to read about mine.

Gallenger

A few of my favorite parties in EE settings:

Me (halfling berserk!), Baeloth, Tiax, Skie, Eldoth, Dorn, The evil nu party lol

Another favorite though was mixing Ajantis with any evil NPC I could find + Xan for maximal funny.

The first party I ever beat the game with in 99 though was: (specialist mage of some type), Alora, Quayle, Khalid, Jaheira. Imoen (Dualled to Mage). I really liked magic

deltago

Current party:
Halfling F/T, Imoen, Yeslick, Feldorn, Garrick and Quayle.

Grum

Did a run with a monk charname and Raasad. Talk about dead weight.

sarevok57

I remember one team I had, had: faldorn, quayle, tiax, eldoth, and skie, if I remember correctly I was some sort of warrior, it was a whack team

PK2748

I think that team of Eldoth, Faldorn, Tiax and Quayle would be pretty optimum used well. Skie is dead weight though

Gallenger

Well skie would still be there for trap disarming and lock-picking. That way Tiax can focus on stealth and stabbing things with his staves!

PentiumD

Well try a mostly all cleric healing party.

PC - Cleric / Thief > dual Classing
Yeslick
Branwen
Viciona
Faldorn
Xan - Need Haste and other spells

Previous Party Members.
Neera
Safana
Garrick
Imoen

Picking Up soon.
Alora > Viconia

AdaJ

My best RP party is Minsc, Dynaheir, Imoen, Neera, and Viconia. Loved the interaction and can you imagine Minsc, Boo and Viconia in a camp banter? How put out would Viconia be when a miniature giant hamster is thrust in her face and the big dude who chunks people for Goodness declares that the hamster thinks she is not good? Hilarity.

SirBundlesofJoy_1912

I used to create all my characters myself, but lately I have been just creating CHARNAME and recruiting the rest.

For BG, I like using Minsc, Dynaheir, Alora, Dorn, and Kagain. Sarra is my CHARNAME, a cleric. I always "summon" Alora using "CreateCreature" so I can use her from the beginning. So this party consists of a cleric, mage, thief, and three fighters.

For BG2, I use Sarra, Minsc, Dorn, Nalia, Korgan, and later on, Mazzy. I like that Nalia is a thief and a mage, that way it frees up a slot for another fighter. So I have four fighters, a cleric, and a thief/mage.

I like to cover all my bases. I always have at least one of each character type (fighter, mage, thief, cleric).

I've used a bard before and they're pretty cool as well. Especially with their ability to identify magic items.

LordRumfish

Some of these characters are less powerful when they are lower level, and depending on what rules you are running. For example, Garrick and Eldoth are a bit on the weak side at lower levels, and on Core Rules they don't learn spells easily. You have to plan their scroll intake around Potions of Genius and whatnot. However, if you auto-learn scrolls (or reload-learn scrolls), then both of them can get up to Stoneskin, can prepare a Spell Sequencer with Mirror Image / Blur (or Horror / Web), and toss a few well-placed fireballs, dispels, and whatnot.

Rasaad is pretty terrible until level 4 when he becomes proficient with slings (I do use him to punch skeletons before that though). Things shift a lot when he reaches level 6 though. With good equipment, and possibly the belt of hill giant strength, Rasaad can meaningfully participate in most combats at level 6 and doesn't immediately die. Level 6 - 8 Rasaad can pull his weight. He still might not impress you, but he's good enough, especially when you start adding in a few fun fire powers.

Tiax is... pretty subpar. There are better clerics, there are MUCH better thieves. Push everything towards stealth, get him Kiel's Buckler for +1 Dex and, with ankheg plate, Tiax can do a little bit of light offtanking (as in, he might be the 3rd toughest party member depending on your setup). I tend to keep Tiax's cleric spells as utility / curative, especially if I have no other divine caster to fall back on. If you have multiples, then spread the spells out between them however you like.

Any arcane caster is good, and the pure divine casters are fine (at least in BG:EE). I've rocked my way through the game with Xzar and Xan and Dynaheir before, you don't need the power of Baeloth or Edwin in order to win. Quayle has such a wealth of spells available that he is also quite good, in spite of his low Wisdom score. I probably don't have to sell you on the rest of the clerics/druids: Jaheira, Faldorn, Branwen, Viconia or Yeslick. Faldorn will get up to 5th level spells and Iron Skins, Jaheira and Yeslick can bash heads, Branwen is relatively sturdy and Viconia is a fan-favorite with high Dex and magic resistance.

Safana is not as good as Imoen, but Safana can do alright since you get her pretty early. Skie though... poor Skie just has problems (and she won't even complain about the important problems). You've got through a lot of the game to reach her, and then... she isn't as good as Imoen, and she has spent a lot of her thief skill points already since she will necessarily be higher level. Tiax has this same problem, but I don't ever use him as a primary thief so I sort of ignore it. Not to mention that she is attached to Eldoth...


Anyway. You can use every character tactically, and spellcasters are not to be underestimated. Probably the worst thing you could do to yourself would be the all-thief party (charname, Imoen, Safana, Skie and Alora... toss in Tiax, Coran or Montaron if you must).

AdaJ

LordRumfish said:

Probably the worst thing you could do to yourself would be the all-thief party (charname, Imoen, Safana, Skie and Alora... toss in Tiax, Coran or Montaron if you must).

Sounds like a pinata party waiting to happen:

Daveorn: "You will all die!"
The Party: Backstabbackstabbackstabbackstabbackstabbackstabbackstab.