Y'know I never really understood why Viconia made it into BG2/SOD, and not Branwen, each to their own I suppose...
I feel the same way about Xzar and Montaron. In BG1 they're the evil versions of Khalid and Jaheira, kickstarting your career as an adventurer. In BG2 they have a brief cameo but not much else. You'd think like Jaheira at least one of them would've been a persistent presence in your journey.
Yeah agreed, joking aside, I also wish we had more of the BG1 npcs in BG2, especially Xzar and Monteron. Considering I hate Jaheria, would love to have more options for a consistent party throughout the series
I'm okay with Montaron dying, he was always unpleasant, which yeah makes sense, but not a lot of fun to be around. Xzar being Joinable would be pretty great.
I'm okay with Montaron dying, he was always unpleasant, which yeah makes sense, but not a lot of fun to be around. Xzar being Joinable would be pretty great.
True. Though it's worth noting that from a gameplay perspective, Montaron would've been really appreciated as an evil thief. Until the Enhanced Editions added Hexxat there were no evil thief companions.
Where Xzar had some pretty heavy competition in the Evil Mage department.
From AD & D vol 2 "Magical resistance enables a creature to ignore the effects of spells and spell-like powers. It does not protect the creature from magical weapon attacks." In other words Viconia is more resistance to charm and hold person spells but still is susceptible to fireballs. This gives her my vote for a cleric. This is an innate ability. In a room full of confusion-casting clerics, she can just walk around and play Whack-a-mole.
Yeslick drives a hard bargain and does make it into quite a lot of my BG1 parties. I probably used to use him more than Viconia but these days it's something like 50/50 for me depending on the party. I do really like the unique magic resistance she has but I guess the selling point for me is the feeling of continuation since she is in the sequels. It's not that hard to buff her STR with items and even in BG1 and SOD there are plenty of fortitude potions that fix her HP problems for a good while.
Also, you get Yeslick kind of late in the game (at least if you are like me and have done pretty much all of the wilderness before going into cloackwood). If instead of the mines he would be held prisoner in the bandit camp (that would kind of make sense too) and you'd be able to pick him up earlier I think he'd definitely get my vote for BG1.
Jaheira is a nice contender but I just really never use her in BG1. All the rest of them I never pick up these days for the kind of silly reason that I find them too annoying to deal with.
From AD & D vol 2 "Magical resistance enables a creature to ignore the effects of spells and spell-like powers. It does not protect the creature from magical weapon attacks." In other words Viconia is more resistance to charm and hold person spells but still is susceptible to fireballs. This gives her my vote for a cleric. This is an innate ability. In a room full of confusion-casting clerics, she can just walk around and play Whack-a-mole.
I'm pretty sure Viconia's magic resistance does work on fireballs.
It just doesn't work on enchanted weaponry, like Varscona.
Vic's magic resistance shouldn't work on attack spells. What you might be experiencing is her saving throws against an attack. char can get a saving throw against attacks, whether paralyze & poison, rod & staffs or wands, petrify & polymorph, breath weapons, and spells. Each spell will tell you if a saving throw is allowed. Fireball has a saving throw for 1/2 damage. Greater Malison does not. So Vic would have a 50% resistance to the spell Greater Malison. Branwen would not. There are several enemies that seem to be immune to spells and such. Your tactics need to change when they're resistance to your spells and wands, so its nice to have someone like that in your party. Especially fighting other clerics who are fond of debilitating spells. I get the helm of opposite alignment at Durlag's Tower
I voted Branwen because I pick her at lvl 1 and she's used more often than the rest. I don't use Tempus kit, but she's decent even as a pure Cleric, if you insist on having one.
PFE 10', Defensive Harmony, Free Action - Branwen gets 4th level access early and she has a good number of 2nd/3rd level spells, perhaps more than other casters (need to double check). Animate Dead is always useful, you can get good results with Holy Smite (BGT), so these slots are valuable. If you give her Tome of Dexterity (16->17), she can be dualed to Cleric/Thief, it's nice for a change.
Since I prefer Fighter/Cleric dual- and multiclasses, I sometimes rush to get Yeslick early - it comes naturally because I like unlocking Baldur's Gate and Sorcerous Sundries ASAP. I also like Tweak Anthology's component that gives ToB style level-ups for NPCs. Almost a must-have for BG1 since there are 7 characters inaccessible before Cloakwood!
I almost never pick Tiax or Viconia, but I'd like to revisit Quayle in my next BGT playthrough. Great portrait, nice multiclass, but subpar stats.
An interesting thought is that Viconia has 18 Wisdom in BG2, as opposed to only 15 in BG1. Personally I think she might be more attractive as a spellcaster-type cleric if she had her 18 Wisdom in BG1.
Other changes between BG1 and BG2: Jaheira apparently gained 3 points of Dexterity, and Minsc 1 point each of Dex and Con...
Erm, if this is your first playthrough I strongly recommend you get a full party... its not hard to hit the XP cap, but many fights will be very hard with just a shaman, Viconia and Garrick... I hope you find a tank especially. Imho, if you are set on Garrick and your Shaman, Yeslick is a better fit than viccy.
In my first ever run through the game I took Branwen as a cleric - and dualled her to thief after reading the dexterity skill book to get her Dex to 17. She made the perfect replacement thief just when I needed her, for Imoen who dualled to mage at about the same time: both of them finished up at 7/8.
I was a high-strength Paladin, and the rest of my party was Imoen, Branwen, Jaheira, Minsc and Dynaheir - not Khalid, sadly, because he got chunked in the early fight with Bassilus and I didn't bother reloading because I already had plenty of front-line tanks and Khalid had kept on losing morale, running away and drawing other enemies down on us. (At the time the party was me, J&K, Imoen, Kivan and Garrick: then I did so many sidequests in Chapters 1 and 2 and took so long that Kivan deserted to go after the bandits himself - while I was on the way to get Dynaheir, having picked up Minsc as a replacement for Khalid and wondering who to drop when I picked up Dynaheir, Kivan saved me the trouble and left me a space. Then arriving back in Nashkel, I picked up Branwen from the Carnival, and left Garrick entertaining the punters.)
Yeslick really annoyed me because you have a six-man party by the time you meet him, which means you have to either leave him behind in Cloakwood Mine or leave somebody else behind there, and they end up drowning when you flood the mine. I actually left Jaheira behind in the mine temporarily just so I could get Yeslick to safety at the Friendly Arm Inn and come back with a five-man party...
Of those, Branwen… I like the Norse feel of her as an NPC.
I never play Quayle as a cleric, I use Level 1 NPCs to make him a straight Illusionist. Generally, I only play Yeslick as a Dwarven Defender/fighter also - although this time I am playing him as a Fighter/Cleric (with a Clangeddin kit).
Most recently have used Gavin.
Have never much used Viconia as I rarely play evil.
I really like Branwen nowadays as it is easy to get her early and I just love the Priest of Tempus kit abilities she got. Chaos of battle is amazing!!!!
Before the latest patches I always took Viconia for big dmg with slings and bonus magic resistance when evil.
I never really gave Yeslick a chance because he becomes available at a point where my party is already set in stone even though he has the potential to become one of my favorites as I really like dwarven Clerics with big hammers
Yes, that's an annoyance which they really need to fix. Characters that don't become available till too late, and then aren't strong enough to justify replacing your party members.
I guess they're mainly intended for no-reload run-throughs in case too many people get permanently gibbed and your main character has to keep on running away to find somebody else to fight alongside them? I cannot for the life of me think why anybody else would take, for instance, the ones you have to go all the way to Chapter 5 to get - Skie, Alora, Tiax and Quayle. Even in Chapter 4 - where you can meet Yeslick, Faldorn, Eldoth and Coran, the only one seriously worth taking is Coran, and that's because he has an illegally high Dexterity and weapon specialization in bows.
Even Xan (at the end of chapter 2) is only there for if you're not evil enough to take Edwin or Xzar and don't want to go all the way to the Gnoll Stronghold for Dynaheir to find a mage: but look at him - he has no Constitution and no HP, you don't meet him till *after* the Nashkel Mines which is already too late, the first weapon he gets the use of is his moonblade, which means he's useless with a sling (which is a mage's only option when mages run out of spells) until level 6, while he can't even remotely fight with his moonblade because he's dead the first time a kobold so much as sneezes at him. AND he can't even cast Magic Missile or Fireball. No wonder all good parties wanted to dual-class Imoen to mage (which became so popular that even BioWare noticed and decided to make it canon for BG2.)
Going back to clerics: At least Jaheira is available from the start, and Branwen right from the moment you arrive in Nashkel, and neither will leave due to your reputation. Even Viconia is someone you have to go considerably out of your way for, all the way to Peldvale, which isn't normally where you head as early as Chapter 2. And the less said about Faldorn (Cloakwood Shadow Druid, halfway through Chapter 4) the better. Yeslick would be nice if you met him early, but the narrative circumstances mean he can't show before the Cloakwood Mines, so he's only of any use if you have (a) space in your party and (b) gear for him since he starts with none.
I think you're underestimating some of these NPCs... Yeslick and Faldorn are very viable, Skie is a decent thief, Eldoth is the best bard in the game (...erm, yeah). Most of these get a more powerful ability, like Tiax's or Alora's Rabbit Foot. They might not all have superb stats, but they really are pretty viable, especially with the thieves not having crappy picks locked in. Yeslick's Dispel can be handy actually.
Xan is a great teacher for a BG1 player, especially how in many fights the very best spells are disablers, and Xan can cast them fine. You can use One Gift Lost or a Wand of Fire to cast Fireballs if you fight undead anyways. Chaos on Xan is nasty esp.
To be fair, BG1 doesn't do a great job teaching the player about these kinds of things. Fighter/clerics and fighter/thieves have a massive melee edge over single-classed clerics and thieves, for example, but Yeslick and Coran come so late in the game that most players just bypass them. And for Xan, it would have been really helpful to stress the importance of disablers during the Candlekeep tutorials because a lot of players mistakenly think his inability to cast evocation spells makes him weak.
I picked Quayle, as I have picked him in the past because Aerie is always my go to NPC pick, regardless of whether I have any clerics, and I like their story association. Cleric mages are also a very enjoyable class.
Voted for Vic allthough i've never played her, yet!
About to pick her up on my second ever evil campaign. The previous one i was running as a f/c but i've gotten a bit bored of the playstyle. Used to pick up Anomen on every playthrough for his juggernaut capabilities, despite his grinding personality. So now i'm switching it up and taking Vic as a single class cleric with swift level progression, evil turn undead etc. On paper she looks so unique and i'm excited to play a totally new (to me) char 20 years in!
I voted for Branwen as I generally prefer single-class characters in my party. My usual party setup in BG1 consists of:
- Myself, pure Generalist Mage
- Ajantis
- Imoen
- Branwen
- Kivan
- Yeslick (who for the purposes of this party serves as my backup tank/healer. I would have preferred to replace him with Jaheira, but she won't go without Khalid and due to lore reasons I prefer not to kill off Khalid just to bring Jaheira along.)
Comments
Where Xzar had some pretty heavy competition in the Evil Mage department.
I do like Viconia's personality, but don't like how weak (CON) she is, so would take Branwen over her.
In other words Viconia is more resistance to charm and hold person spells but still is susceptible to fireballs. This gives her my vote for a cleric. This is an innate ability. In a room full of confusion-casting clerics, she can just walk around and play Whack-a-mole.
Also, you get Yeslick kind of late in the game (at least if you are like me and have done pretty much all of the wilderness before going into cloackwood). If instead of the mines he would be held prisoner in the bandit camp (that would kind of make sense too) and you'd be able to pick him up earlier I think he'd definitely get my vote for BG1.
Jaheira is a nice contender but I just really never use her in BG1. All the rest of them I never pick up these days for the kind of silly reason that I find them too annoying to deal with.
It just doesn't work on enchanted weaponry, like Varscona.
PFE 10', Defensive Harmony, Free Action - Branwen gets 4th level access early and she has a good number of 2nd/3rd level spells, perhaps more than other casters (need to double check). Animate Dead is always useful, you can get good results with Holy Smite (BGT), so these slots are valuable. If you give her Tome of Dexterity (16->17), she can be dualed to Cleric/Thief, it's nice for a change.
Since I prefer Fighter/Cleric dual- and multiclasses, I sometimes rush to get Yeslick early - it comes naturally because I like unlocking Baldur's Gate and Sorcerous Sundries ASAP. I also like Tweak Anthology's component that gives ToB style level-ups for NPCs. Almost a must-have for BG1 since there are 7 characters inaccessible before Cloakwood!
I almost never pick Tiax or Viconia, but I'd like to revisit Quayle in my next BGT playthrough. Great portrait, nice multiclass, but subpar stats.
An interesting thought is that Viconia has 18 Wisdom in BG2, as opposed to only 15 in BG1. Personally I think she might be more attractive as a spellcaster-type cleric if she had her 18 Wisdom in BG1.
Other changes between BG1 and BG2: Jaheira apparently gained 3 points of Dexterity, and Minsc 1 point each of Dex and Con...
I was a high-strength Paladin, and the rest of my party was Imoen, Branwen, Jaheira, Minsc and Dynaheir - not Khalid, sadly, because he got chunked in the early fight with Bassilus and I didn't bother reloading because I already had plenty of front-line tanks and Khalid had kept on losing morale, running away and drawing other enemies down on us. (At the time the party was me, J&K, Imoen, Kivan and Garrick: then I did so many sidequests in Chapters 1 and 2 and took so long that Kivan deserted to go after the bandits himself - while I was on the way to get Dynaheir, having picked up Minsc as a replacement for Khalid and wondering who to drop when I picked up Dynaheir, Kivan saved me the trouble and left me a space. Then arriving back in Nashkel, I picked up Branwen from the Carnival, and left Garrick entertaining the punters.)
Yeslick really annoyed me because you have a six-man party by the time you meet him, which means you have to either leave him behind in Cloakwood Mine or leave somebody else behind there, and they end up drowning when you flood the mine. I actually left Jaheira behind in the mine temporarily just so I could get Yeslick to safety at the Friendly Arm Inn and come back with a five-man party...
I never play Quayle as a cleric, I use Level 1 NPCs to make him a straight Illusionist. Generally, I only play Yeslick as a Dwarven Defender/fighter also - although this time I am playing him as a Fighter/Cleric (with a Clangeddin kit).
Most recently have used Gavin.
Have never much used Viconia as I rarely play evil.
This time my PC is a cleric.
This.
There was a time when playing BG1 that I didn't think too highly of Viccy (though I always liked her for her persona/backstory).
Then Davaeorn cast a fireball on my party. Guess who was the only one left standing without a scratch on her:
I don't think Imoen and Faldorn share her sentiments about death though, LOL.
I guess they're mainly intended for no-reload run-throughs in case too many people get permanently gibbed and your main character has to keep on running away to find somebody else to fight alongside them? I cannot for the life of me think why anybody else would take, for instance, the ones you have to go all the way to Chapter 5 to get - Skie, Alora, Tiax and Quayle. Even in Chapter 4 - where you can meet Yeslick, Faldorn, Eldoth and Coran, the only one seriously worth taking is Coran, and that's because he has an illegally high Dexterity and weapon specialization in bows.
Even Xan (at the end of chapter 2) is only there for if you're not evil enough to take Edwin or Xzar and don't want to go all the way to the Gnoll Stronghold for Dynaheir to find a mage: but look at him - he has no Constitution and no HP, you don't meet him till *after* the Nashkel Mines which is already too late, the first weapon he gets the use of is his moonblade, which means he's useless with a sling (which is a mage's only option when mages run out of spells) until level 6, while he can't even remotely fight with his moonblade because he's dead the first time a kobold so much as sneezes at him. AND he can't even cast Magic Missile or Fireball. No wonder all good parties wanted to dual-class Imoen to mage (which became so popular that even BioWare noticed and decided to make it canon for BG2.)
Going back to clerics: At least Jaheira is available from the start, and Branwen right from the moment you arrive in Nashkel, and neither will leave due to your reputation. Even Viconia is someone you have to go considerably out of your way for, all the way to Peldvale, which isn't normally where you head as early as Chapter 2. And the less said about Faldorn (Cloakwood Shadow Druid, halfway through Chapter 4) the better. Yeslick would be nice if you met him early, but the narrative circumstances mean he can't show before the Cloakwood Mines, so he's only of any use if you have (a) space in your party and (b) gear for him since he starts with none.
Xan is a great teacher for a BG1 player, especially how in many fights the very best spells are disablers, and Xan can cast them fine. You can use One Gift Lost or a Wand of Fire to cast Fireballs if you fight undead anyways. Chaos on Xan is nasty esp.
Shame on you all.
About to pick her up on my second ever evil campaign. The previous one i was running as a f/c but i've gotten a bit bored of the playstyle. Used to pick up Anomen on every playthrough for his juggernaut capabilities, despite his grinding personality. So now i'm switching it up and taking Vic as a single class cleric with swift level progression, evil turn undead etc. On paper she looks so unique and i'm excited to play a totally new (to me) char 20 years in!
EDIT: She not he
- Myself, pure Generalist Mage
- Ajantis
- Imoen
- Branwen
- Kivan
- Yeslick (who for the purposes of this party serves as my backup tank/healer. I would have preferred to replace him with Jaheira, but she won't go without Khalid and due to lore reasons I prefer not to kill off Khalid just to bring Jaheira along.)
God Branwen is annoying.