Need some advice on my party

Darth_Stilnox

Hello everybody.

It's my first real playthrough, I tried BG2 when I was a kid but it proved too hard and I dropped it.
Doing some secondary quests before deciding who to side with in Chapter 2. Playing on EASY (yeah, I know it sucks but at the moment I just want to enjoy the game)
My current party is around 900k XP

-Charname (pure mage imported from BG)
-Minsc
-Jaheira
-Yoshimo
-Hexxat
-Viconia

While I'm pretty happy with it, for the future I'm considering either to replace Yoshimo with Edwin or just drop the bounty hunter, leaving just the other members. I've read that he eventually betrays me or something like that, so I'd lose him anyway. Hence my two questions

- Is Edwin really worth it whereas I already have a pure mage?
- Do I have to worry about him and Minsc fighting? What is your experience about it?

I'll wait to reach the 1,2kk experience cap for companions to make my decision; in the meantime your advice will be greatly appreciated
Thank you everybody and long live this great game

DJKajuru

Hi there

1-It's always good to have a backup mage, it could be Edwin, Imoen ,Nalia ... it's good because you it expands your tactics , like having one mage cast a disabling spell such as Chaos while the other mage hastes the party or casts an offensive spell. In BG2 more spells in a round mean more tactics but it's just another option.
Also , as a conjurer Edwin has very good summoming spells but so does Jaheira with her fire elementals or Viconia with aerial servant (at level 11) . Don't get me wrong,he is very powerful indeed but since you've already got a mage I wouldn't consider Edwin an essential party member.


2-Minsc and Edwin do fight. There are some ways to avoid it which I haven't tried before . If you wanna avoid the whole thing I would pick Imoen instead of Edwin.

jsaving

I'd personally put Keldorn in the party (dropping Yoshimo or Hexxat) because of his unique dispel ability. Dispel magic is one of those rare spells that requires a caster level check to work, which means it often fails against strong foes even though those are exactly the situations where you most need it. Keldorn casts it at 2x his paladin level which makes him by far the best dispeller in the game, especially at high levels where mages are only gaining levels every 375K XP.

For a future run-through, you might consider playing a fighter/mage because there are some great synergies between mage buffs (stoneskin, mirror image, etc) and melee. Or you could try a fighter/mage/thief to have those same advantages while also covering the thief role (giving you more flexibility for other party slots).

Rik_Kirtaniya

Drop Yoshimo, get Keldorn.
Drop Hexxat, get Jan.
Drop Viconia, get Aerie.

You're good to go! Your party becomes more balanced, and everyone will be happy!

And by the way, welcome to the Forums! You'll have a great time here.

Skatan

I'd consider dropping one thief and add in another more tanky character. It makes it easier when you are not so accustomed to mage chess, cheese or meta. Doesn't matter if it's Yoshi or Hexx. Keldorn is a great one for example. If you have another more "click and forget" character it allows you to spend more time microing your mage(s) and thief(ves). Mazzy is a fantastic character as well and would fit your (primarily) good party. The good thing about Mazzy? She doesn't need any ability enhancing items, so you can safely give Jaheira STR boosting belt and Minsc the Dex gloves. Keldorn, the old venereable guy, sure needs a little of both so you get more item overlapping if you use him.

So to sum it up, and with making minimal changes to your party, drop Yoshi or Hexxat and add in Mazzy or Keldorn. My opinion would be to drop Yoshi and add Mazzy, but either work. I wouldn't bother with 2 singleclassed mages if this is your first run in a very long time. Focus on your charname!

Gianni

Hello, without opening a new thread I thought about exploiting this one:


I'm looking for suggestion for a new party, my last two playthrough were
-me fighter/mage -me fighter/thief
-keldorn -dorn
-jaheira -edwin
-minsc -korgan
-imoen -hexxat
-anomen -viconia

Now I'd like to try a different one, I want to try Neera, maybe Aerie.. if I pick Aerie though I also want Minsc for RP reasons.. maybe the awesome Jan also, but I fear that having him, Aerie and Neera together might be too much.. who else? Cernd? Is there any way to make him a frontliner?

Thanks in advance

EDIT: mmm.. those where supposed to be two separate columns.. whatever

Ammar

If you never had them in your party at the same time, there are some pairs of NPCs which have especially good interactions and might be worth building a party around:

Mazzy & Korgan --> one of my favorite interactions
Mazzy & Valygar
Aerie & Haer'Dalis --> only pure npc romance in the game
Aerie & Minsc
Minsc also works well with Aerie, Mazzy and Keldorn

So, if you want to take Aerie and not romance her yourself, then I would strongly recommend Haer'Dalis, who also makes a very good frontliner.

One trend I see in suggested parties is to go for parties that are "pure" alignment-wise, but as per above some of the best interactions are in mixed parties.

jsaving

No, there isn't a good way to make Cernd a frontliner. Maybe consider Mazzy/Korgan/Minsc for your frontline and Aerie/Jan/Neera as your casters?

Humanoid_Taifun

With Shapeshifter Rebalancing installed, Cernd is an excellent frontliner. Without it, you'd probably have to make heavy use of spells and possibly even potions to make him passable.

Gianni

Thanks for the replies, so is Mazzy a good tank? What are her weapon proficiencies? Aerie-Minsc-Mazzy-Neera-Cernd/Valygar/Jan.. I'm a little scared about the lack of a pure cleric, and that overall it seems a little frail.. any good suggestions about what would be a good Charname to complete such a party?

Humanoid_Taifun

I think Mazzy has one point in short swords and five points in short bows.

A "good tank" is a strange descriptor in Baldur's Gate. The people who traditionally perform the role (fighters) have no protection spells, and the people who tend to be protected (mages) can make themselves pretty close to invulnerable. The advantage of using fighters to tank rather than mages is that they take less effort. If you are willing to invest time and lots of spells, the best tanks would be Haer'Dalis and Aerie. If you are not willing to invest much time, then Korgan is probably be the best because he has good HP and saving throws and (more importanly) Rage.

Any fighter in Baldur's Gate II can reach Dex18 and Con18, making them as good a tank as can be expected from a pure fighter. Mazzy starts from Dex18 and Con16. So other than missing out on 18 extra HP, she is pretty good out of the box - for a pure fighter. But she has no Rage, no Armor of Faith and no Stone-/Ironskins. Her Intelligence is 10, so she will die if she gets 2 hits from an illithid. I would probably train her in halberds and have her as a second-line fighter, using Tuigan and pole-arms to finish off any opponent that needs finishing off.

jsaving

For the reasons you state fighter/mages are by far the best tanks in the game, though unfortunately none are available as joinable NPCs in either BG1 or BG2.

Ammar

jsaving wrote: »

For the reasons you state fighter/mages are by far the best tanks in the game, though unfortunately none are available as joinable NPCs in either BG1 or BG2.

A Blade is the next best thing, which is why Haer'Dalis is an extremely strong NPC.

Gianni

You speak the truth, in fact the figther/mage when properly buffed could solo against every enemy without fear, but what I meant was during the casual fights, when I don't care to prepare and want just to hack through in haste, for those I need a fighter in heavy armor with nice bonuses against missile and a great damage potential.. that's what I was looking for, can Mazzy fit this role? Also, I never played Blade, is it better than fighter/mage multi or dual?

Humanoid_Taifun

A blade is less powerful than an FM by far. But the blade has far more versatility.

UAI, HLA traps, high level Dispel Magic and an easy way to max out your AC in a hurry when you suddenly run out of protections in a fight (not that this would do you any good in Throne of Bhaal).

gorgonzola

jsaving wrote: »

I'd personally put Keldorn in the party (dropping Yoshimo or Hexxat)

in a party with viconia? not an option, they will fight to death...

Rik_Kirtaniya wrote: »

Drop Yoshimo, get Keldorn.
Drop Hexxat, get Jan.
Drop Viconia, get Aerie.

the paladin with his dispel magic and the sword he will get is super useful.
the other 2 are probably the most powerful and versatile npcs of the game, if properly used by someone proficient in doing it and willing to buff them and explore ALL the possibilities that their multi combo allows. (there is imo a clear difference between an optimal use of all the resources of a npc for non conventional tactics and cheese... )

Gianni wrote: »

maybe the awesome Jan also, but I fear that having him, Aerie and Neera together might be too much..

neera at high level is by far the most powerful mage of the game. but as a wild mage the chance of bad surges is always there, the lower her level the worst it get. i am not a no reloader, but i am an almost no reloader when dealing with wild surges, so take what i say now according to that. is extremely risky to use a wild mage to buff your party, it is quite risky to use a wild mage to spam too many spells, with some care and in some situations the PI of a wild mage can be used and can be extremely powerful, it can even spam dweomers as the clone and not neera will take the bad surges on self.
this is why when i use neera i want at least a couple of secondary mages, their task is buffing the party and they take care of the bulk of the spellcasting until she reaches the level to have the best chaos shield and can be quite reliable, even if continues to need particular care. both jan and aerie can do it, both can use the rest of their arcane potential to power up their other class, and doing that they can both be killers, aerie can range from being an unkillable tank that hits like crazy to a deadly spellcaster mixing arcane and divine spells in sequencers (that in the first option she can use to buff herself in a split second); and the gnome's arcane magic bring his rogue potential to the top, spamming invisibility or using mislead to multiple backstabs, using a clone to lay carpets of traps and magic traps then lure enemies in and on and over.
bad surge= reload? no thanx, if so what is the point of using a wild mage at all?

having 3 mages makes some though battles almost a joke. let's say you face a dragon. aerie's sequencer has the clerical magic resistance, the arcane lower resistance and doom. jan's one has greater malison and flash to stone/feeblemind/finger of death, nera's one has 3 flash to stone or 3 feeblemind or finger of death. you have won the fight for ko at the beginning of the first round . only 1 of the 1000 examples about why 3 mages are NEVER too much...

Humanoid_Taifun wrote: »

A "good tank" is a strange descriptor in Baldur's Gate. The people who traditionally perform the role (fighters) have no protection spells, and the people who tend to be protected (mages) can make themselves pretty close to invulnerable. The advantage of using fighters to tank rather than mages is that they take less effort. If you are willing to invest time and lots of spells, the best tanks would be Haer'Dalis and Aerie. If you are not willing to invest much time, then Korgan is probably be the best because he has good HP and saving throws and (more importanly) Rage.

this is very true. the point is using it at the best avoiding the trap of having "fixed roles", flexibility is always a better option. your fighters with good ac and hp are the tanks in minor fights when they can suck the damage with no problem, in the tough ones the arcane protected ones are used, alone or with the fighter type ones, and each one can suck the most of the beating or retreat to safe position depending on its hp and/or remaining duration of the protective spells.
the real point should never be "who is the best tank?", but "what is the tanking potential of my WHOLE party and who and how i must use in that particular situation in a fight that evolves dynamically?".
sometimes is better to send first the "arcane tanks" to take the initial punch and then use the "fighter tanks" when the enemy is softened to avoid to waste too much spells, other times is better to send first the fighters, but having the mages ready if the fighters hp becomes to low is super useful and other times is better to try to split multiple enemies, let's say having a protected mage sucking the spells of a powerful enemy spellcaster and the fighters take care of his mlee heavy helpers.
hope the whole point is clear now, versatility and no fixed roles are the key to real effectiveness.