Baldur's Gate NPCS in Icewind Dale

dockaboomski

I'm thinking about going through IWD with a party of just Baldur's Gate NPC clones. Who would you put in a party? I will be using EEKeeper to do make illegal stats, with regards to Coran.

abacus

I'd probably just do the canon party of Imoen, Jaheira, Khalid, Minsc & Dynaheir... although I might tweak their classes a little. Minsc as a Barbarian is a fave of mine... I'd also probably make Khalid into something a bit more interesting, a Bard maybe?

SomeSort

Garrick, because vanilla bards are fantastic in IWD and poor Garrick deserves to finally be useful for once.

Jahiera, because Druids are also pretty sweet in IWD, (not that she was bad in Baldur's Gate). Are you using BG1 or BG2 stats, because the latter in particular would be really useful.

One of Coran or Montaron is a no-brainer as your party thief, because you want your party thief to be as fighty as possible. Coran's the stronger choice because of his illegal dex (there are a lot of dex-boosting items to get him to 21 for that extra AC / Ranged THACO), but also because of the illegal extra pip in long bows.

Shar-Teel's a great choice because she has non-garbage Strength/Dex and is a vanilla fighter, which means she can get Grandmastery, which is even more powerful in IWD than it is in BG, (+3/2 APR instead of just +1 APR).

The last two spots are tougher if you're using BG1 NPCs, since you really want another fighter-type and all other BG1 fighter-types have major flaws in strength, dexterity, or more commonly both. I'd probably go with Khalid just to give me a good-aligned fighter to make use of the Shimmering Sash, which will more than offset his 16 Dexterity as a front-liner. Plus, like Shar-Teel, he can get Grandmastery.

(Alternately, I might be tempted to take Montaron as a second tank / sneak attacker and just otherwise ignore his thief skills. Helm of the Trusted Defender + 17 Dex = yes.)

For the mage, the specialists have it tougher in IWD than BG. Edwin and Xan give up Invocation (most good damage spells), Dynahier gives up divination *and* conjuration, and poor Xzar gets hurt even more, losing both Illusion *AND* Enchantment. From a power standpoint, Dynahier gives up the least since Garrick can handle identification and Necromancy provides plenty of good alternate summons. Plus, enemies get a -2 save penalty against her Web spells, which is really cool.

So from a powergame standpoint, that'd be my party. Khalid / Jahiera (with her BG2 dex score) / Shar-Teel as melee brawlers, Coran as an archer, Garrick and Dynahier as arcane support. Healing will be in short supply until Garrick hits level 11 and unlocks the War Chant of Sith, but otherwise it's a pretty balanced group.

If you are going to use BG1 stats for Jahiera, I might just replace her outright with Faldorn or Branwen for a more robust divine spellcaster, since with no Shimmering Sash and no Dex bonus and druid weapon restrictions Jahiera won't be much of a melee fighter.

DJKajuru

If cloning BG1 npcs I'd take Kagain and yeslick (dwarves have a special connection to the IWD plot and there are excellent axes and hammers) , branwen (clerics are pretty necessary) , imoen (dualed to mage at level 7) , edwin and garrick .

Kamigoroshi

Since Icewind Dale is set a century ago previously to Baldur's Gate's timeline, I'd say take only long living demihumans in your party. Meaning no humans, half-elves, halfings and half-orcs. Oh, and not Aerie either... because she's an elven teenager even in Baldur's Gate II. One hundred years before that and she'd be a toddler for sure. :V

Viconia: The fallout with House DeVir hasn't happened yet and she is still a Priestess of Lolth. You could make her Chaotic Evil to amplify that past. Thus roleplaying it so that an alignment shift occured when Viconia embraced the Sharran faith.

Xan: He is a golden opportunity for any Icewind Dale party. Given that the game already features his cousin, Erevain Blacksheaf. Maybe they decided to meet in one of the Ten Towns. Or Xan decided to search for his cousin's werabouts after an unsettling long period of silence.

Kagain: While there are not enough references about him, chances are that he wouldn't be owning his mercenary business yet. It is more likely that he himself was a mercenary before that. Which makes thing easily enough to integrate. Either Xan hired the young Kagain as an extra pair of muscles. Or he took part in another mission. Such as procuring the Heartstone Gem for an dragon hoard's load of gold for instance.

Zilber

Branwen could also work. Being a statue is something that's easy to keep doing for a while.

mlnevese

I would love it if some of their banters could be imported to the npcs... not the setting/story related ones,of course, but some of their interpersonal interactions would be interesting... I always missed BG style NPCs in Icewind Dale.

Abi_Dalzim

Zilber said:

Branwen could also work. Being a statue is something that's easy to keep doing for a while.

She'd even get the shiny new Priest of Tempus kit! Although, there is the detail that it was Tranzig, a human mage, that petrified her, but it never made sense that he'd be able to do that at his level, so I guess we can ignore it.

tbone1

Abi_Dalzim said:

She'd even get the shiny new Priest of Tempus kit! Although, there is the detail that it was Tranzig, a human mage, that petrified her, but it never made sense that he'd be able to do that at his level, so I guess we can ignore it.

Flesh to Stone scroll?

Abi_Dalzim

tbone1 said:

Flesh to Stone scroll?

Bah, if a flunky had access to a level six spell scroll, then you'd think Sarevok would have some to use on you.

SomeSort

Abi_Dalzim said:

tbone1 said:

Flesh to Stone scroll?

Bah, if a flunky had access to a level six spell scroll, then you'd think Sarevok would have some to use on you.

Yeah, I hardly see how Branwen is so intimidating as to warrant that kind of firepower.

Kilivitz

There used to be a mod for the original IWD which ported over several NPCs from BG2, including soundsets, items and everything. Playing through the game with Imoen, Jaheira, Minsc and Sarevok was awesome. I lost the mod on a hard drive failure and could never find it again. I wonder if someone would want to work on a similar mod for IWD:EE.

tbone1

SomeSort said:

Yeah, I hardly see how Branwen is so intimidating as to warrant that kind of firepower.

She has "breests", as Stephen Fry says, and twerpy mages would find that intimidating just like twerps nerds do on Earth. (I worked as a programmer at NASA, so I know whereof I speak.) And if she flashed a Spiritual Hammer at him, he would use whatever he had available.

DJKajuru

SomeSort said:

Abi_Dalzim said:

tbone1 said:

Flesh to Stone scroll?

Bah, if a flunky had access to a level six spell scroll, then you'd think Sarevok would have some to use on you.

Yeah, I hardly see how Branwen is so intimidating as to warrant that kind of firepower.

He's a bloody sadist.

mlnevese

Kilivitz said:

There used to be a mod for the original IWD which ported over several NPCs from BG2, including soundsets, items and everything. Playing through the game with Imoen, Jaheira, Minsc and Sarevok was awesome. I lost the mod on a hard drive failure and could never find it again. I wonder if someone would want to work on a similar mod for IWD:EE.

I never knew such mod existed. I would have loved to play with that