Help me finish my party.

ZeroxSP7

So I’m going to play either a Fighter or Paladin. Haven’t decided yet. Probably a paladin for the higher saves, but I want to plan out my party. I was thinking of taking Dynaheir and Minsc. Mainly for Dynaheir’s save bonus to evocation schools and extra spell slots. I was planning on just using the Wand of Sleep and Wand of Paralyzation to make up for the lack of Sleep and Hold Person (the wand version of Hold Person is better than the spell anyways. Better save penalty).

But! I was thinking….I don’t really see much spells I’d use past level 3. The only ones I can think of using would be Greater Malison, Emotion Hopelessness, Minor Sequencer, and Polymorph Other which has a wand version. Maybe Cloudkill too. Those are the only ones I’m interested in. No Chaos, Confusion, etc. I don’t like my targets running around while I try to kill them. Web works for me just fine with ranged fire and Fireballs or sources of Free Action, be it spell, ring, weapon, or potion.

So with that thought in mind regarding spells, I thought maybe I should swap her out and take Garrick instead as my primary mage. I can’t think of an effective way to build Minsc anyways. All I need is a good mage who can cast Web, Fireball, and Magic Missile and I’m cool. But I don’t know. What do you guys think?

Coran is for sure coming along to be my archer/thief. He’s all I’m sure on.

All comments are welcome.

Update: Also wanted to mention this. No evil companions please. And no breaking pairs please.

jmerry

At BG1 levels, a bard has basically the same spellcasting power as a non-specialist multiclass mage. Except that they have a higher caster level for the spells that care about that, and they can't use the Evermemory ring.

For a primary mage, that's ... not very much. I strongly recommend taking one of the full mages. And Dynaheir's just fine for that. Now, if you still want Garrick after that, so that your party has both a mage and a bard, go ahead.

Level 4 spells are a bit of a weak spot for Dynaheir - from the list you gave, you can't even use Greater Malison or Minor Sequencer. But on the flip side, every Stinking Cloud, every Web, every Fireball (both cast and wand versions), and every Lightning bolt (both cast and wand versions) is tougher for the enemy to save against. And never forget the universal specialist feature of just plain having more spell slots.

Your full mage options, assuming you don't want one of the evil ones:
- Dynaheir. Invoker. Must be rescued before you can use her. Paired with Minsc. No need to rehash everything.
- Neera. Wild Mage. Found in Beregost. No banned spells, but the 5% chance of wild surges is always a risk.
- Xan. Enchanter. Must be rescued before you can use him. Enchantment is the flip side of evocation; lots of good stuff at spell levels 4 and 5 enhanced with tougher saves, lots of good stuff at spell levels 2 and 3 banned.
- Imoen. Dual-class generalist. You have to play her as a thief for a bit, and then she takes some time to catch up as a mage, but this combo lets you have a mage who is also an archer and utility thief.

If you do go with Dynaheir in the party, I usually build Minsc as primarily an archer. There's really no such thing as too many archers in a BG1 party, and there are two top-end longbows in the game.

DinoDin

I think it's always worth it to have one specialist mage in your party. Evermemory is arguably the single best piece of gear in the entire game. No joke. Because of how early it's available. And because of the strength of blindness in particular, but there are other great level one spells. And specialist mages make the most advantage of this item. I count Neera among this group, as Jmerry mentioned, because she's also getting the bonus spells.

On top of that, I always feel that a second arcane caster works but often it's stronger to include one that can use better weapons. So Imoen dualed or Garrick for good parties. If you play semi-completionist, the game showers you with a lot of strong mage items, especially wands. And these are clutch in the hardest fights. Having two guys who can use them opens up your tactical options.

Personally, I've found Xan + Garrick the best combo for good parties. Garrick fast leveling means he's good for stocking up magic missile, fireball, that Xan can't. But Xan has a bonus to some very strong spells, both very early in the game and in its very late part. Dagger is also the best pip for a starting wizard, as throwing daggers give two attacks per round, can get strength damage bonuses too. And it covers a melee + ranged option. It takes awhile to get to level 6. The wands, as I mentioned, also cover some of what Xan cannot cast. So I tend to prefer him over Dynaheir.

Dynaheir has her advantages. Grease can also work on Dynaheir as a slightly less effective sleep substitute, against melee mobs anyways. The biggest bonus for her is on Web, where you're forcing alot of saving throws by the enemy. I've always felt she's the best mage for new players to take.

The key is if you're really attached to Minsc. If you're going to use a bow ranger, Kivan is probably the better option over Minsc. Minsc is fine early on with a bow, but later I think he shines best if you invested in his melee pips. You can add a second pip to mace and one pip to two-handed weapon style, doubling his crit chances with two-handed swords. But if you're a paladin, you may be competing for some of these items with Minsc, and so perhaps he's a less optimal choice than Kivan.

There's also Quayle as an option. Illusionist/Cleric. His stats are quite poor, but he can work if you want to get divine spells and arcane spells out of one character slot. And thus free up your party space for say, more archers.

Jordi

Some spells I find useful:
The chaos spell is one of the best spells in BG1, if not the best, those save penalties and having Xan in the party means -6 save penalty, if you add greater malison before it's 10 penalty.
At level 4 there's stoneskin , your mage can take some hits if you pair it with mirror image.