What abot this party?
etxxu
Member Posts: 15
Hi, everyone! I mees up with my beloved gnome so... Im going to start again...
Now i want more fun interaction between party members.
What do you think in banters, story banters and fights (difficult level at most) of the following party?
- Me: elf or demi-elf Fighter/Mage (IDK kit) halberd and Two-Handed swords
- Custom Gnome Fighter/Illusionist DualWielder Hammer and Katana (name as my failed gnome CHARNAME)
- Anomnem: tank with shield spells, Holy spell (i dont remember name)
- Minsc or Neera
- Jan Jansen until chapter 4, then Imoen (or better Jan for banters?)
- Aerie (must, for the PREGNANCY in ToB)
What do you think? Thinking in fun banters, story banters and balance to Difficult level.
Thank you all!!
Now i want more fun interaction between party members.
What do you think in banters, story banters and fights (difficult level at most) of the following party?
- Me: elf or demi-elf Fighter/Mage (IDK kit) halberd and Two-Handed swords
- Custom Gnome Fighter/Illusionist DualWielder Hammer and Katana (name as my failed gnome CHARNAME)
- Anomnem: tank with shield spells, Holy spell (i dont remember name)
- Minsc or Neera
- Jan Jansen until chapter 4, then Imoen (or better Jan for banters?)
- Aerie (must, for the PREGNANCY in ToB)
What do you think? Thinking in fun banters, story banters and balance to Difficult level.
Thank you all!!
0
Comments
Actually I’d probably forget about Minsc for this party...I love his personality but you already have two multiclass fighters, as well as Anomen and Aerie who can be amazing front-liners when buffed by their own spells. Then again you can never have enough warriors.
Where you considered Neera, I’d take Imoen. And I’d also take Jan, but this is just a matter of personal choice as I love thieving, and can never say no to Imoen owing to her quest to save her, and she’ll work in any party regardless of reputation or alignment. Neera has some interesting in depth side quests though.
But really you could go with any of the choices above and do well, depending on your playing style. I’d strongly recommend trying to get Anomen to pass his test, if you plan to have Aerie too, just sayin’
PS Anomen and Jan do have some funny banters when together...it’s hard to tell who really has the upper hand between them...a bit like Tom and Jerry.
I really would like to have Minsc-Neera-Jan, but if i take Neera i will have romance problems with Aerie...
Animen i dont like his banters, i really like him as Fighter/cleric after his trial so... Why do you recommend me keeping him with Aerie???
Anomen is a complex character...on the surface he’s a bit irritating, but his outlook changes as the story progresses, regardless of which path he takes. For this reason I consider him one of the best written characters in the game. Like Nalia though, he starts as someone well-meaning who needs to see more of the world before realising his potential.
As for Neera, well it’ll never come to blows I don’t think, just tell her you prefer elves...
@jsaving I’ve never tried using a F/M character, but might try an elven one in BG2 soon...what’s the best way to use them?
PS elven fighter/mages can’t pick kits in the standard game, unless you’re modding or using Shadowkeeper
Imoen has very little in terms of banters in SoA, but a few good ones in ToB. She definitely adds some cool nuance to the story though. From a balance perspective, you don't need her if you have Jan. It really comes down to how much value her importance in the story.
Aerie has good banters with a lot of the other NPC's so certainly keep her, especially since it sounds like you're planning to romance her.
Jan is fun and works in a lot of different party compositions, and is a good enough thief for whatever the game throws at you.
Minsc works well with the Aerie and Jan, and indeed with a good chunk of other NPCs as well. He does make your party a bit frontline heavy though, what with you two custom characters already being brawlers.
Anomen has good banters with plenty of folks, but not really many of the ones you're planning to bring along. He is entertaining with Jan as mentioned above, but other than that I can't really remember him interacting in any meaningful way with the rest of your party. Anomen can be really strong and a great tank, but before you bring him you should consider how many front liners you want.
Neera brings plenty of flavour and a good amount of banters with the rest of your crew. You can also never have too many mages.
Anyway, never be afraid of replacing characters if you find that they don't click for you. I've always found BG2 is at it's best when you experiment with it. Just remember that if you start a romance with someone, removing them from the party will break it and you can't restart it.
Great info!! Thanks!
How to avoid problems in Aerie romance being Neera in the group??
I have decided to uso CHARNAME, my Fighter/Illusionist gnome old failed CHARNAME (because i really liked It), Minsc, Neera, Aerie, Jan (but i feel bad for not taking Imoen after her recue... Haha)
@Dharius the best is gnome Fighter/Illusionist, really strong un BG2... with all the Illusionist spells they hardly hit you and, if the do, you hace a other good spells like armour, Spirit armour, ironskin, etc, etc... And... Great spells that blind mages (mage its the worst against a F/I but gnome has great salvations points) and illusonist spells that dream one to more enemies!! A machine of killing if you put him dual wield o Two-Handed (i really like halberds, but only for the style)
Yes, but she leaves... With Aerie and Jaheira happened to me in my previous game :S
I chose Jaheira and Aerie left
it is possible to play a wild mage and reload when a bad surge happens, that imho is a lame way to go, accept to pay the cost of the bad surges, that sometimes can be very harsh, or to use the wild mage with some precautions, and the most important one is never use him to cast spells on the party, so use an other mage to buff it.
i think that a wild mage can only shine with an advanced and experienced use or abusing the reload to get only the best and avoid the worst of him.
while imoen is a very powerful not kitted mage that even if she miss some xp as the level you will find her when you rescue will be probably a little lower then the one of the rest of the party, but she catches up fast as the xp gain later ramps on.
anomen & aerie:
he: lev 7 fighter and dual means that if he gets GM in a weapon has 1.5 more apr that for who welds FoA with its super strong slow effect that ignores MR and ST is really effective only if used by an high apr guy as it triggers 30% of the successful hits.
he also has more HP, if the gauntlets that fix his low con are used, reaches earlier high level divine spell levels, for spells like implosion and summon fire elemental to name 2 of the most useful and has a turn undeads that works, so can turn mummies, gasts, vampires and later even liches and demi liches. with him the 2 times you visit the bodhi's dungeon and some other undead battles become very easy, activating turn undead the run away without hurting you if they don't explode.
his higher cleric level makes his combat buffs strong earlier as are level dependent both as duration and strength
she: not really able to turn undeads in a party of 6, but can combine arcane and divine magic in her sequencers and trigger for very strong combos, she can use her arcane magic to tank better then any other while she is buffed to go mlee and can protect her buffs with SI, while he can be dispelled.
if you use a cleric only to cast protections like chaotic commands and don't buff him for combat aerie is only a sub par mage and cleric, that needs forever to reach high level spells as is a multi and does almost nothing with her sling and he becomes weak quite fast as has only 7 levels in fighter, but if you buff them, at least for the hard battles, they are very strong and don't overlap much as part of their spells are used for self buffing and they are clerics in different ways, he reaching higher levels, she combining both the magics, in sequencers but also in combat as she use the divine one for increasing her thac0 and damage and the arcane one to protect herself.
here the links to 2 threads dedicated to them:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/47354/superaerie-power-tactics-for-the-c-m-spoilers
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/74776/the-most-powerful-soa-fighter
PFMW makes him immune to vampires and mind flyers, as their weapon is magic they can not hit him so can not drain his int or levels.
SI abjuration makes his buffs not dispellable.
as soon as they can cast simulacrum you have one more fighter, that can use BBoD from a scroll and even if in EE the player has almost no control on which spells the clone retains (as the alphabetical order is used and not the order you memorize them like it is in the original game) all the HLA like GWW are preserved even if he is level drained.
the helm allows a single simulacrum/day, the FM at top level has 3 more.
it is true that a FM should not cast a fireball a round and fight the next, but he can cast and attack in the same round without any problem as long as he does not loose too much time to cast. there are spells that are effective and have a short cast time, like flame arrow (2 if AOP is used) that packs a good damage, MM for disruption and on and over.
when he uses the RoV, so in the battles where is not crucial that your main mage cast fast, he can use also slower cast time spells and still attack.
cast and attack is not only useful to do damage, but frees also your main mage when a fast spell is needed, ie to disrupt, so the mage can use instead the round to cast a slower but more effective spell.
being a good caster means also more improved haste/day for the party or allows tactics like lowering the MR of dragons fast or stacking webs possible, with him, jan and a main mage you can cast web or lower resistance 3 times in a round, and then, after applying GM can cast let's say 3 feeblemind or flesh to stone in a single round, thing that is very likely a win against every soa dragon and with a little more redundancy even with the WK-ToB ones.
good fighting capability (fighter's hla and only marginally lower thac0 compared to a single class fighter) and good magic capability (mage's hla and up to 2 lev 9 spells end game, things like improved alactity, CC, planetar, spell strike) make him super strong and super useful as he can deal mlee damage, tank very well using spells that improve AC or deny the damage or the hit, and is also a strong support mage that can very often cover the role without affecting his being fighter make him very strong.
The access to lev 9 spells and the earlier access to the other levels and a marginally better thac0 and lev 13 earlier make him an interesting alternative to the FMT and FMC, that any way compensate it with their thief or cleric part, being probably as strong as him overall.
while the dual FM starts as a strong fighter but, specially if you dual at 9 and not 13, later on becomes a strong mage that retains part of his former fighter power the multi is a very strong fighter and good secondary mage trough all the game, he does not need to change his role in the party as his fighter levels become too few and his mage ones make him very good at casting, end game almost as a pure class mage, that is what happens to the dual.
EDIT: i have corrected the number of lev 9 spells he can get as was wrong.
Don’t even waste your time with a longbow.... Dual wield with that badass FM!
they don't carry str dmg bonus, you don't have a long bow that gives you +1 apr like it happens for short bow and xbow, the arrow enchantment gives only better thac0, but not increased damage and there are no arrows that can damage some (very few) end game bosses.
compare it to:
sling: str bonus used, enchanted ammo increase also the damage, up to +4 bullets in ToB, way better then the +1 apr that the bows get (and a sling with the best bullets and having good str used by a FM that activates GWW for 10 apr can do A LOT of damage in that round).
returning daggers: same apr then the long bow, bastard sword like damage, str dmg bonus used and can also be used mlee in the MH working like a mlee +1 apr weapon. you start with a +2 one that you can steal at the beginning of chap 2 and you will have the +3 one later, same enchantment then the best arrows in the game.
short bows: the tarsheron one can hit as +4, you get early the tugian one that has 3 apr, can use all the useful arrows (dispelling, elemental damage) the long bows use. a little less damaging, but capable to hit also enemies that need +4 weapons and with tugian you have 1 more attack so even if less damaging as alpha you probably do more damage in the round.
Xbows: firetooth very early if you visit the WK area and have some money, army scyte has +1 apr and there are plenty of very interesting bolts like the ones that have a chance to poison.
Returning axes and hammer, probably not so interesting if not dwarf, good aligned (adzuredge) or you happen to have GM in axe (korgan), but they carry str dmg bonus.
i would say that for a FM the long bow is probably the worst choice, also because when you cast and don't fight mlee, so you can at the beginning of a round use a ranged weapon to do some attacks then use the rest of the round to cast your spell to have a weapon that packs good damage with few attacks (sling or returning dagger) is better then to use a weapon that has more apr, but lesser alpha, as you have more time in the round to cast the spell.
you cast then you order to attack ranged and after the number of attacks, usually 2 with sling and 3 with returning dagger, you cast again, and having a good str naturally or using an item/spell, and even better if enchanted bullets are used, you will do some noticeable damage, while still have a big part of the round to cast.
also the fact that you need only 1 hand, so you can equip a shield is a plus if ranged attackers are around, a FM with sling and shield of reflection can destroy tarnor in the temple sewers without taking any damage while with a bow he will surely suffer, just to make an example.
If you want to deal crushing damage at range, polymorph into a mustard jelly.
Yes, its really consistent in bg2ee. All ranged weapon use missile dmg type, so there is no difference between throwing axes, arrows, bolts or sling bullets.