In praise of BG1 NPCs
tbone1
Member Posts: 1,985
I've played Bauldur's Gate since it first came out on OS9 back in '99 or '00. My most common companions are probably Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira, Branwen, and Kivan. I had never or rarely played certain NPCs, generally if they didn't fit or were tough to get to. After reading this forum, I've made a few runs where I blitzed to Chapter 5 so I can pick up some of the others, and they are largely worth it. My current party has Quayle, Skie, Yeslick, and Faldorn, plus CHARNAME (swashbuckler) and Kivan.
Alora is awesome, now that her rabbit's foot works. I let her pick off enemies with a bow or throwing daggers, or have her sneak in for a backstab. (I always imagine her saying "Tickle tickle!" as the dagger plunges in.) Plus, with her pickpocket scores, she could steal the underwear off a caffeinated ogre that's on guard duty. And her personality is great, the opposite of what an adventurer's expected to be. Add a couple pop culture references, including Ren and Stimpy, and I'm sold.
Skie, it turns out, is a darn solid thief. No one can beat Alora, but she's on par with Imoen and Safana, if not precisely their equal. I also find her spoiled rich girl talk funny, but then we live in the 1%-er school district and it's deliciously sarcastic to me. *bacstab* "I broke a nail." *backstab* Yep, that sounds like this suburb. The only points against her are that she can't dual to a mage (not a big deal to me, YMMV), she shows up late, and is tied to Eldoth.
Eldoth is, IMnsHO, not worth it. He's not much better than Garrick, statistically, and of course Garrick can be obtained way earlier. Also, being evil, Eldoth can put a crimp on your reputation score to keep him around if you happen to be playing a paladin. His poison arrows are nice (whenever he generates them, I hear Martin Fry of ABC croon "shoot that poison arrow through my hea-ea-ea-eart!") but his THAC0 is poor enough that he *needs* them. And his personality grates on me. There is no humor in his comments, unlike other NPCs. Not long after recruiting Skie, I had him dump inventory and check out the rumor of a basilisk in a warehouse, and oops, oh well.
Faldorn rocks. Jaheira may be better in power gaming terms, but Faldorn in ankheg armor, throwing darts at mages to disrupt spells or summoning insects, is great. Her special summoning is quite useful, even late in the game, the shapeshifting helps if someone sneaks past the tank, and she is great as a healer/summoner. With a spear she makes a decent second-line fighter. Those level 5 spells make a big difference late in the game. Plus her broody bitterness matches my own personality.
I wish you could get to Yeslick earlier. I understand why he is where he is, the plot being the plot, but he is a great companion for a good party. He's a damn good tank; his cleric buffs and shorty saves rock. I wish his strength were higher, but you can't have everything. He also has some funny comments, which I always find a plus. (References to Tennessee Ernie Ford *and* The Three Little Pigs? Sign me up!) Unfortunately his low intelligence means he can't use wands or scrolls, but he's easily the equal of Branwen; if only he mentioned strapping buttocks.
i've often used Coran, as have many, so I will just reiterate that he is an awesome archer, has funny dialogue with Safana, and is my go-to for hierarchy if I dual Imoen.
Quayle is great although his personality is not everyone's cup of tea. In my current run I have him using the wizard's ring and had him using the cleric's ring. He could never get through all the spells. There are better wizards, there are better clerics, but there is no better *spellcaster* in the game. His low intelligence means you must be careful what he scribes to his spell book, and being specialist (illusion) does limit him, but he's a handy NPC to have around. Plus he can annoy other party members, which is fun.
I haven't tried Tiax yet, but I'm looking forward to it. I plan on my next run being evil-aligned just so I can add him, and maybe Xan and Shar-Teel, whom I haven't recruited in a long time.
If you haven't tried them, make a blitz for some of the late gamers. They aren't always the most OP characters, but they add a flavor you might have missed before, and that's half the fun, isn't it?
Alora is awesome, now that her rabbit's foot works. I let her pick off enemies with a bow or throwing daggers, or have her sneak in for a backstab. (I always imagine her saying "Tickle tickle!" as the dagger plunges in.) Plus, with her pickpocket scores, she could steal the underwear off a caffeinated ogre that's on guard duty. And her personality is great, the opposite of what an adventurer's expected to be. Add a couple pop culture references, including Ren and Stimpy, and I'm sold.
Skie, it turns out, is a darn solid thief. No one can beat Alora, but she's on par with Imoen and Safana, if not precisely their equal. I also find her spoiled rich girl talk funny, but then we live in the 1%-er school district and it's deliciously sarcastic to me. *bacstab* "I broke a nail." *backstab* Yep, that sounds like this suburb. The only points against her are that she can't dual to a mage (not a big deal to me, YMMV), she shows up late, and is tied to Eldoth.
Eldoth is, IMnsHO, not worth it. He's not much better than Garrick, statistically, and of course Garrick can be obtained way earlier. Also, being evil, Eldoth can put a crimp on your reputation score to keep him around if you happen to be playing a paladin. His poison arrows are nice (whenever he generates them, I hear Martin Fry of ABC croon "shoot that poison arrow through my hea-ea-ea-eart!") but his THAC0 is poor enough that he *needs* them. And his personality grates on me. There is no humor in his comments, unlike other NPCs. Not long after recruiting Skie, I had him dump inventory and check out the rumor of a basilisk in a warehouse, and oops, oh well.
Faldorn rocks. Jaheira may be better in power gaming terms, but Faldorn in ankheg armor, throwing darts at mages to disrupt spells or summoning insects, is great. Her special summoning is quite useful, even late in the game, the shapeshifting helps if someone sneaks past the tank, and she is great as a healer/summoner. With a spear she makes a decent second-line fighter. Those level 5 spells make a big difference late in the game. Plus her broody bitterness matches my own personality.
I wish you could get to Yeslick earlier. I understand why he is where he is, the plot being the plot, but he is a great companion for a good party. He's a damn good tank; his cleric buffs and shorty saves rock. I wish his strength were higher, but you can't have everything. He also has some funny comments, which I always find a plus. (References to Tennessee Ernie Ford *and* The Three Little Pigs? Sign me up!) Unfortunately his low intelligence means he can't use wands or scrolls, but he's easily the equal of Branwen; if only he mentioned strapping buttocks.
i've often used Coran, as have many, so I will just reiterate that he is an awesome archer, has funny dialogue with Safana, and is my go-to for hierarchy if I dual Imoen.
Quayle is great although his personality is not everyone's cup of tea. In my current run I have him using the wizard's ring and had him using the cleric's ring. He could never get through all the spells. There are better wizards, there are better clerics, but there is no better *spellcaster* in the game. His low intelligence means you must be careful what he scribes to his spell book, and being specialist (illusion) does limit him, but he's a handy NPC to have around. Plus he can annoy other party members, which is fun.
I haven't tried Tiax yet, but I'm looking forward to it. I plan on my next run being evil-aligned just so I can add him, and maybe Xan and Shar-Teel, whom I haven't recruited in a long time.
If you haven't tried them, make a blitz for some of the late gamers. They aren't always the most OP characters, but they add a flavor you might have missed before, and that's half the fun, isn't it?
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Comments
I even like Eldoth.
Another thing to note is how often players miss the NPC conflicts - yeah it can be annoying to have members of your party murder each other, but it's fun to see it happen all the same since invariably in a game of *real* d&d there will almost always be a party conflict that almost or does actually come to blows lol.
If you don't know already, you can also get Xan to goad Ajantis into *not* murdering people because of their alignment lol. They would make a great sit-com pairing.
You need to kill off Skie for this line-up but it's a fun combination.
Glint in SoD is great too, but I found he doesn't have the same quirkiness the other three gnomes possess. He's still quirky, just not *gnome* quirky.
"Someone needs a tickle! Someone needs a tickle! Smile already, yeesh!"
"I'm so sweet, I've got rotten teeth and gums!"
"Hey there, hi there!"
try taking kivan and viconia, eldoth and shar-teel in one party. fun stuff.
Minsc: You Travel with Minsc, you toe the line! I'll not suffer slackers while I'm busy hero-ing!
Shar-Teel: You're such a funny man! That's why I'm gonna kill you last.
Eldoth and Shar-Teel are pretty great too, but it generally results in Eldoth's death. It went something like this.
Eldoth: Your lot in life is to bake cookies and bear children.
Shar-Teel: Die!
At that point they fight, and there's no way that spoony bard's going to beat Shar-Teel. I think the likelihood of them fighting goes down the higher your charisma is, since they never fought when in my blackguard's party.
There's some great conversations in BG2 with Edwin. Try bringing Minsc and Anomen along with Edwin sometime.
I did a chaotic neutral playthrough awhile back, trying to gather all the fellow crazies on the sword coast, and wound up picking a lot of companions I'd not normally use together.
It's fun in my mind making up reasons to lose NPCs as well. Kivan leaves once his vengeance with Tazok is sated. Kagain leaves once he has sought revenge. Yeslick broods after escaping Candlekeep and his last brush with Reiltar. Imoen leaves to study wizardry. And so forth. It leads to some short visit NPCs like Branwen, sure, but I get to go through nearly the entire cast.
After Candlekeep I will probably pick up Safana and Shar-teel. As my party will be slim pickings. Ajantis will have to go smooth things over with his higher ups now that he's a wanted criminal, Khalid and Jaheira will have to organise a way into Baldur's Gate and shore up relations with the Harpers in the area. As a reprieve I can still do good deeds for the folk of the Sword Coast and after hiding out at the Friendly Arm, Garrick and Xan will have uncovered some lore about a hidden treasure trove in a sea cave.
Most of the time it works, most of the time the game is a little trickier due to the levels of the npc's, but you can get through it and I feel like it adds something to the story. I couldn't do it without some good NPCs. The NPC Project mod also helps.
It helps if your PC is a Fighter type though, to be the tank.
Right now our pair of Harpers and Imoen are tagging along with Margo my PC Fighter to revisit our old home of Candlekeep and/or pay respects to the resting place of Gorion, beloved father/mentor/adventurer. Alora tags along as our mascot who is just in love with uncovering secrets and Yeslick is there for Reiltar...whether for vengeance of justice, I don't know.
Yep, that's the best way to play IMHO. You're able to enjoy every NPC and creates tons of RP reasons to change your party. Pretty fun!
I do like your approach.
I just restarted a run, not because I didn't like my Charname but because the party wasn't much fun IMO.
Mind you, it helps if you don't like any of the cannon NPC, or at least them in pairs, when it comes to trying out the others.
I added the NPC project mod and I now see what all the fuss is about. I haven't tried all the characters yet, let alone alone all the combinations, but dang, it's almost like playing a new game. Great job, everyone who contributed to that.
I played through with Tiax, and he was great fun. He is not the most OP character, though his summons is quite nice. In gameplay terms, as a cleric/thief, he ticks two boxes and can open up another slot for another NPC. He's not a great backstabber, but better than I thought - his strength is low and there really aren't many cleric-usable weapons that are good for backstabbing. However , with DuHM and Sanctuary, he's a heck of a lot better than I expected. His interactions with Quayle are great, too. He's not everyone's cup of tea, but I found him fun and need to make another speed run to try him again.
I hadn't played Shar-Teel in a long time, but she was a dashed good damage-per-second front-liner. Her low constitution keeps me from giving her a perfect rating. One critical hit and I had to rush Viconia or Tiax up to heal her. It was tempting to have her use a shield, but her dual-wielding is what made her such a great frontline fighter. I did not switch her to thief, so I need to try that next, but she is good for power gaming, particularly if you have Kagain tank, and she has some good interactions with other characters.
Xan is always fun. I like his gloominess and the challenge of his mage specialization. The first time I played him, years ago when the world was in black and white, I dismissed him. No magic missile? Not even Fireball?? But Xan makes you think and explore other spells. Chromatic orb, I knew from my PnP days, became powerful at higher levels. Skull trap, I discovered, was possibly better than fireball. He's not the most OP mage in the game, but he is effective if you know your stuff, and his gloomy depression cracks me up. Is there a better battle cry than "Onward! To futility." in the series?
Alora, Eldoth, Garrick, Skie, and Tiax is a fun party.
So, does it make her more interesting? Absolutely. But does it lessen the amount of sexual tones in her dialogue? No. But that's the kind of character she is, much like Isabela in the Dragon Age series.
I personally find Safana to be an interesting character, and she's actually one of my favourite NPCs. I think the lack of real loyalty to the Bhaalspawn is a nice change of pace compared to a lot of the other NPCs like Imoen, or Jaheira & Khalid.
Her romance in SoD certainly won't make you like her character any more, though. If she's not for you, it's best to just avoid her altogether.
I just want to say, reading this entire post was an absolute hoot
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