Skald party member suggestions

Cvijeta

I'm neutral good skald. I'm at loss with companions to chose. I'm at beginning of chapter 2, having solved one quest only. Please help.

Cvijeta

I would prefer more balanced party in terms of power. So 2 fighters, thief, mage, me and last slot should be deserved for diviner. Ideas?

unavailable

spell casters mainly.

take nalia until imoen is back, jan, aerie, edwin, amonem, viconia.

the creatures they summon will be very good with skald songs.

Gallenger

With a Skald the biggest bang for your buck comes from having the maximal amount of physical attack power in the party. Since your character will rarely do anything else than sing the song/recite the poetry etc.

Mages and other weak on physical attack types don't flow well with such a party because they aren't going to get much out of your song bonus'. Because your song provides -2 or -4 THACO later in the game, +2/+4 damage, and -2/-4 AC.

Ultimately you're going to want *some* arcane casting purely for CC and protections, and also a thief for traps and locks - because memorizing a lot of knock is annoying.

Since you're NG you've got some options here.

Nalia --) Imoen for rogue, they'll use your bonus' *somewhat* because they can at least use short bows and also provide you with Arcane casting.

Anomen could be your sole cleric and cover that role, but if you feel that you just don't have the spell slots or are spending tons of money on potions, you could also pick up Aerie, but that's now 3 slots in your party that aren't taking advantage of what you bring to the table, so I'd try to avoid that.

So.... Party.


Nalia ---) Imoen
You
Anomen (divine casting + bashing)


Keldorn for *sure* especially because he wants to use 2 handed swords your -2 to AC will be greatly appreciated - and has access to the best 2h in the game (arguably).

Minsc also for the same reasons (although Keldorn will be more effective in the long run)

Valygar (he often suffers from being too squishy, but your song de-squishifies him)

Raasad for the same reasons de-squishied by your song and he'll get *really* strong late game.

Cernd could make an interesting choice because werewolf + your song bonuses and added divine spells.

Mazzy too + she has great saves lol.

You could of course stack yourself with casters and buff summons, but that takes the fun out of skald run for me since you almost always stack the party with arcane casters because they're so strong in bg2 lol. Let the fighters have their day

gorgonzola

Jan, Haer Dalis, Aerie, Anomen, Keldorn.
Quite unusual, but interesting.
4 arcane casters and 2 divine casters + Inquisitor's DM, you will be magic heavy, but you will reach very high level arcane spells late. Still you have a potential of 6 spells x round.
You have 2 fighter like, Keldorn and Anomen, and the blade and the C/M can help them in doing serious damage, he can have 4 APR with the right weapons and she can buff her STR at 25 with spells and do her share of damage even if has only 2 APR. The song bonuses help them doing it better.
With so many arcane casters with all their stoneskins and protective spells you have no problem to tank, when the AC of a shielded Anomen is not enough.
Jan is a real thief, do much more than open doors and detect traps. His backstabs are improved by the song.

Late game you will have a lot of summoning potential, and 2 bards that can stack their enhanced songs to transform spiders into real fighters and make elementals/devas/planetars devastating also against bosses.
And Jan will open each battle with a fantastic backstab as both the song bonuses get multiplied.

Cvijeta

I eventually decided for Jan, Aerie, Anomen, Minsc and Jaheira. I still don't have access to all companions, I didn't finish bard quest, but I am still at the beginning. Your thoughts?

gorgonzola

Good and well balanced party. You will enjoy it.

Francois

Good party, but Aerie and Anomen are a bit redundant as cleric especially with Jaheira also in the group. You could remove Anomen and leave room for switching between different companions for extra quests. There's often one companion associated with each major quests. Sometimes you have to take a person in the party to get their quest.

Gallenger

I'd drop Anomen or Jaheira at some point for Keldorn, but your party is fine as is too

Anomen gets all the self-buffs and can dish out the pain, Jaheira gets really solid anti-mage spells and stone skin so she provides some unique utility and heartiness. So it's up to you on your tastes.

Keeping Minsc, if you like him, can also provide you with a bit of flexibility, since he *is* a ranger he can also take ranks in bows, and although bows are nerfed quite a bit in bg2 relative to BG1 they're still pretty good lol. If you keep Jaheira and Anomen both you can have a solid shield wall for him to hide behind with a 2 handed sword as well and you won't have to worry about his relatively poorer AC causing him to take hits more often.

But again if you just keep these folks you'll be happy too + it'll add something for future playthroughs

Neverused

Solid party, though not taking advantage of the Skald bonuses as much as possible: Mazzy is a significant possibility over Anomen or Minsc, since her Grand Mastery in bows is giving her 4 APR before 13, 5 APR if she's wielding the Tuigan bow. Add Haste, that's 6, and Improved Haste, 10. And with that many attacks, the Skald's damage and accuracy boost really starts to make a difference in murdering things.

gorgonzola

Anomen give a lot to a party, even with Aerie in the party the more clerical spells the party have the better it gets. More Chaotic Command, more healing, more Harm spells, more skeletons, devas and energy blades.
And with the FoA and the clerical buffs he hits hard.

But with a Skald APR is what matters and as there are 2 +1APR weapons both Jaheira and Minsk can DW with increased APR, he can't.
So having to drop one of the 3 Anomen would be my choice in that party and I would have Minsk DW FoA and Kundane as soon as he has 2 points in flail. Having place for the quest NPCs and Keldorn in the rest of the time.

Cvijeta

Quick help needed.
My main character is proficient in two handed swords and wields sword of chaos, minsc wields lilarcor, anomen, aerie and Jaheira can not wield sword of roses, only member who can wield it is Jan Jensen or Yoshimo. I have not check if Nalia or Hexxat can, I think Viconia could be able to wield it anyway, I will probably not play with Korgan anyway, and I have not yet find Keldorn.

Should I drop sword of roses3 or not...

Gallowglass

@Cvijeta - just store it in a container somewhere, along with other stuff you don't currently need.

Depending upon who you have in your party later and how you develop their proficiencies, it might then turn out to be a useful weapon ... or if not, you can sell it. With your current line-up, it wouldn't be silly to give Long Sword proficiency to Minsc (if you're eventually going to develop him for dual-wielding), or alternatively it's also not too bad an idea for your Skald protagonist. You'll eventually find quite a few long swords in the game with useful bonus effects, so it's handy to have someone in the party who can wield them proficiently.

As for other potential party members - both Nalia and Hexxat can wield swords, but Viconia cannot. Keldorn can not only wield swords, but will probably already be proficient with Long Swords when you find him.

Gallenger

Viconia can't use it because it'd be against her cleric ethos to do so. I assume you may as well sell it. Worse case scenario you buy it back at a later date lol.

Francois

Even if you're not proficient with longsword you can still equip it to get the charisma bonus when going to a store or talking to someone. As a +3 weapon it's a good one because you can get it early in the game , but in the long run it's not that usefull in combat compared to other weapons. Anyone with a warrior or rogue class can equip it (and eventually gain proficiency if they don't have it).