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Yeslick or Dorn

Hi all, new baldur's gate enjoyer here. Been playing the game for a week now, I really enjoy it, except for occasional weird/cliche dialogue options and random walls of texts appearing mid-rest; other than that, this is a real great experience and my second isometric RPG after Fallout 1

I've just completed chapter 3 and decided to alter my team a little. Here's who I picked up. I aim for this to be a diverse, neutral party, trying to keep the reputation to satisfy both good and evil members of the team



1) Charname - CG berserker with 2h swords

2) Imoen - thief who also serves as an additional archer, was thinking of dual-classing though, heard it's pretty OP but confusing

3) Neera - wild mage, though so far she's kinda bad tbh, hope later on she gets more powerful in chapter 4 and so on

4) Viconia - cleric, also helps with melee sometimes

5) Khalid - first a melee guy, then I turned him into an archer, but I'm going to replace him with Coran who I believe is superior

6) Jafeira - tank melee, occasionally helps with spells and healing through her druid magic, and I was thinking of replacing her with either Yeslick or Dorn



So far, what I've come up with is that Yeslick is a better tanker and can help Viconia heal the party after Jafeira's gone. I could just give him ashideena and the dexterity gloves then have a good, strong guy on my team, helping charname along with Viconia, but I dunno if two clerics more than enough.

On the other hand, Dorn, he's evil but I kinda don't care about it, I'll kill some peasants to lower my reputation if he gets annoyed with me. Heard he's a beast in melee, has a cool questline and he's a blackguard. Can get spells later on, though I haven't really looked at those, dunno if they're worth it or not. He's also using a 2h sword, just like charname.

So what do you veterans of baldurs' gate think? Who'd be the superior pick?

Comments

  • agentOO0agentOO0 Member Posts: 34
    I'd take Yeslick mainly because Dorn's default weapon is 2H swords, and it seems that your main is already using those. He does get two points to allocate as he levels up, so you could put those into bastard swords or something, but then he won't have a proficiency in a ranged option (unless you go with daggers or axes, but neither is as good as the longbow or crossbow for ranged). But why not take Dorn along for now, and by the time you get to Yeslick, you can decide whether to keep Dorn or switch him to Yeslick, and fwiw there are lots of good 2H swords in BG1/SoD so enough for both you if you decide to keep him. Yeslick would be the better tank though, especially with dex gauntlets, big-fisted belt, and Draw upon Holy Might.

    By the way, if you decide to keep both in the end, they will initially clash meaning that Yeslick will demand you dump Dorn, and if you don't he'll leave the party himself. However, you can just go to the Friendly Arms Inn and re-recruit him there, with Dorn still in the party, and he won't complain again; at least I've never had a problem with the two of them in the same party after the initial blowout.

    Neera is arguably the best mage companion in Throne of Bhaal, but in BG1 you'd be better off with Edwin or Baeloth. Also, you don't really need Imeon if you have Coran in the party, so you could even take both. If you only take one of them, then I prefer Baeloth simply because he can id stuff (Edwin as conjuror cannot learn Identify) - it's not a huge deal as you can still id stuff in shops/temples, but it's just inconvenient. Baeloth can also learn Invisibility 10' radius which is super useful (Edwin can only get it in BG1 if you get a very lucky loot drop for that scroll) - Melf's Minute Meteors and Slow are of course also strong contenders for his new level 3 spell when he levels up from 6 to 7.
  • the_connoisseurthe_connoisseur Member Posts: 5
    I wanna keep Imoen in my party solely because I'm banking on the fact that apparently the thief-mage dual class is super useful, and it kinda fits Imoen's character. If it's bad then ig I could kick her out and get someone better.
    Also, I'm still not really an experienced baldur's gate guy, I don't think I'd be comfortable playing Baeloth, since he only has a limited amount of spells, I wanna learn the basics with Neera, who I think can cast every spell in the game with her surges + chaos shields.

    I was also thinking of giving Yeslick a proficiency in warhammers and sword/shield style instead of bastard swords, because the hammer I got from Basilus - the Ashideena, seems really good, and I don't have a guy who can use it to it's maximum potential.

    But yeah, based on your input, I think I'll take Dorn for now, maybe do some of his quests, and once I reach Yeslick then I'll replace him. Thanks a lot boss, cheers
  • DhariusDharius Member Posts: 665
    Personally I'd replace Jaheira with Faldorn who appears before Yeslick in Cloakwood. Just makes more sense class wise to me.
  • BardsSuck_BardsSuck_ Member Posts: 133
    edited July 2023
    Kagain is better than both, however if you are decided on those, id take Yeslick any day, way more interesting, has dispel, and a cool personality.

    You should drop Neera, wild mage arent newbie friendly, i hated when my gold dissapeared because of her, edwin is better. Or Xan.
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,371
    Dorn's personal sword is magical and quite adequate, so you wouldn't have to worry about using the same weapon type really...
  • the_connoisseurthe_connoisseur Member Posts: 5
    What I like about Dorn and Yeslick is that they're not just pure fighters. Yeslick can help Viconia with the healing (or just cleric stuff in general) to fill the place of Jaheira, and Dorn is a blackguard with a magic sword and later on - paladin spells. Kagain seems like just a plain pure fighter to me, and Charname is already that. I know his 20 condition looks tempting, but I want someone who could benefit the team more than just a fighter, namely Yeslick or Dorn.

    I think I'm gonna stay with Neera, if anything bad happens, like gold disappearing or anything then I'll just load an earlier save. I just finished her questline and I think she can be just as good as any other mage provided she has a chaos shield on. Besides, Imoen will also be there to help her in magic stuff soon.

    Unless Edwin is way superior to Neera and beginner-friendly, then I'll stick with Neera for now.
  • agentOO0agentOO0 Member Posts: 34
    I wanna keep Imoen in my party solely because I'm banking on the fact that apparently the thief-mage dual class is super useful, and it kinda fits Imoen's character. If it's bad then ig I could kick her out and get someone better.

    If you dual Imeon, then she's pretty good, but the dualing downtime is a pain in the ass. Not recommended.
    I was also thinking of giving Yeslick a proficiency in warhammers and sword/shield style instead of bastard swords, because the hammer I got from Basilus - the Ashideena, seems really good, and I don't have a guy who can use it to it's maximum potential.

    Yeah, Yeslick will probably already come with 2 points in war hammers and 2 points in sling by the time you get him, so then you just need to decide where to place his remaining 2 points as he gains levels. I usually go with either two weapon style or sword and shield, even though both are kind of useless since sword and shield style kind of sucks in general, and I rarely dual wield with Yeslick. Anyway, the bastard swords was more meant as a possible suggestion for Dorn; Yeslick can only use blunt weapons anyway.

    As for Baeloth, you can only get him at 10K XP on the main, but he'll join with a whopping 40K XP (level 6 sorc) so most of his spells will already have been decided for him. At level 7, just take Blindness, Glitterdust and Invisibility 10' Radius, then Stoneskin at level 8, and at level 9 I think I normally go for Blur or Melf's Acid Arrow, Melf's Minute Meteors or Slow, and Spirit Armor or Greater Malison. I'm not saying those are necessarily the ideal spells (depends on your party and its needs), but they are still damn good.
  • the_connoisseurthe_connoisseur Member Posts: 5
    I just replaced Neera with Baeloth, seems much better than her, but it's probably because he has like 2.5 times her exp and knows a lot of shit on start. Overall he's quite good but I'm still learning how to play mages effectively. I might just boot Imoen if Baeloth is all I need, could make place for someone else.

    It seems it'll take some time before I get to Yeslick, I'll pick him up once I reach the 32k exp threshold, and for now I'll stick with Dorn. Although, he's not as good of a wrecking ball as I hyped him up to be, he gets destroyed by the wyverns in Cloakwood. Who would have known Dorn's weakness would be poison?

    With that in mind, I'm pretty much sure I'll get Yeslick, maybe Kagain, this 20 condition looks really good.
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,881
    Dorn's very offense-oriented. He hits hard with his 19 strength, but specializing in two-handed weapons means no shield. And he only has 14 CON, so his hit points are relatively low by warrior standards.

    As for (adult) wyverns ... THAC0 9, 2 APR, 1d6 piercing + poison (5 damage per second for 20 seconds on a failed save at -4) or 2d8 crushing without the poison. If you get hit by that poison, you need to cure it immediately; you can't afford to wait even a round. Slow Poison has a very fast casting time, but if your healer is out of position or can't act immediately because they just cast another spell, you need to spend a potion instead.

    Dorn has an excellent poison/death save, but that -4 modifier is rough. And wyverns have enough THAC0 to power through even full plate AC fairly often.
  • DinoDinDinoDin Member Posts: 1,597
    Given your party, I'd argue Yeslick would be the more power game choice. Key here is that Dorn is competing your main character on 2H swords. There's really only one good 2H in BG1 imo, Spider's bane. There is a +3 option available very, very late. But it's so late that you won't be making much use of it to justify having two characters on that weapon.

    Not when you can toss on the +2 warhammer on Yeslick and do just fine with him tanking. It's not a huge advantage mind you, Dorn's base 2H sword can do the job as well. So if you prefer Dorn's quest, etc, then definitely keep him. Your party will simply be a little better prepared with Yeslick imo, that's all.

    Yeslick will be very newbie friendly too, even though he's a late pick up. Toss as much armor class boosting gear on him, have him engage the enemies first, then bring your protagonist right behind him to chop them down.
  • the_connoisseurthe_connoisseur Member Posts: 5
    Sounds like a great idea, not only a tank for enemies to focus onto, but also can help Viconia with cleric stuff if the healing power of the team is bad. I'll get him once I reach the 32k EXP threshold.
    I'll also be considering booting Imoen for Xan. Baeloth could be the overall damage mage and take care of buffs, while Xan helps with enemy debuffs.
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