Need advices about my party composition

Aradhor

Hello guys !

I've already finished the game in normal mode (with some boss on easy) and I wanted to try to play on hard mode. I'm usually not a good player on most games so I'm trying to make this as good as possible. I know that this is not legacy of bhaal, SCS or even a solo run but still, trying to get a nice start.

I've decided that I'm gonna play an archer, with firetooth. Just rp reasons. Since I'm an archer, I'm also gonna be mostly good, but I'm open to a mixed party. As for now, this is what I plan to do :

MC : Archer, physical DPS.
Edwin : Main mage, anti-mage too.
Jaheira : Main tank ?
Imoen : Thief, secondary mage.
Anomen : Cleric, frontline.
Keldorn : Secondary anti-mage, later off tank with gloves of dexterity.

This seems kind of okay to me but still, I'm no expert. I know this would perform nicely in that difficult, but do you see someone I could replace ?

Thanks !

jmerry

One specific issue to watch for: Edwin and Keldorn conflict. It's not that Keldorn has a problem with Edwin, but that Edwin eventually picks a fight with Keldorn out of paranoia. Going with a different mage, such as Neera, would avoid this issue.

Imoen is also unavailable for chapter 1 and 2; you'll need another thief for that part of the game.

Yigor

Hmm... Jaheira doesn't look like a tank to me. 😜

jmerry

Jaheira has relatively low hit points - her BG2 version made poor HP rolls - but she's got everything else going for her. Heavy armor, a shield, and high dexterity for excellent AC. Armor of Faith and Hardiness for resistance tanking at high levels. She's certainly better at tanking than Anomen or Keldorn.

lroumen

And don't forget the ironskins. I agree, she is great. You can also cast some meaningful smaller party wide buffs.

jmerry

Iron Skins is a nice spell, but...
- The long casting time means that it's not something you can renew in combat. You start a fight with it up, and if it goes down during a fight you just have to live with it.
- Jaheira only has two level 5 spell slots before she gains access to HLAs, and Insect Plague is a much higher priority. She gets a third slot at three million XP, and doesn't get any more than that until six million. HLA slots to spend on Hardiness are easier to come by than level 5 spell slots to spend on Iron Skins.

Aradhor

Yeah the logic behind Jaheira are her defensive spells, nothing much. It was her or Haer'Dalis and I want her romance, so...

I learned elsewhere since that Keldorn and Edwin would fight. I knew about other characters, but not these. Anyway I can prevent this ? If there's mod or even through EEKeeper, I don't know ? Or replaced Keldorn, but who could do that ?

acudoc

I wonder how that run went for you, and what party you went with?

FredN

1) Jaheira has a main strength that you aren't even mentioning: Insect Plague. This can hit an entire room. Additionally, Jaheira's Harper quest is huge and will net you a ton of experience.
2) If you are going with a crossbow archer as your MC, Firetooth is hard to beat. But you will want a secondary weapon, like +3, with other bolts for those fire immune critters, or those magic golems that have to be hit with normal weapons.
3) Imoen is NOT a thief! She is a mage who can pick some boxes. She cannot gain more thief levels, and will never get those sweet, sweet thief HLAs. She also can't set a trap to save her life. If you want a thief/mage get Jan.
4) Mages: Edwin is by far the best mage in the game. (Note that he cannot be in the same group wirh Neera). Keldorn is good provided has has Carsomyr. That dispel magic is great, but he's not that useful as a tank. If it's a choice between Keldorn and Edwin ... well that's a bit of a problem. Both have their merits. If you really want a paladin type, you could go totally insane and recruit Dorn instead. Give him Ir'revrykal (the evil counterpart of Carsomyr) and he's pretty nasty in combat. Not a very pleasant fellow, but his ToB quest is epic. But if that's a no-go for you, probably the best thing is to drop Edwin and use Imoen as your main mage, with Jan as your backup.
5) This leaves the question of clerics. I rather like Viconia; that magic resistance is nice. The problem is, I am not sure if she can co-exist with Keldorn. If not, you are sort of stuck with Anomen.
Addendum: I did a bit of googling, and as I sort of suspected, Keldorn and Viconia do not play nice together.

FredN

OK, looking at the overall party composition, I see one problem. Who can you get as a legitimate tank?
1) We need Jaheira; if the you know what hits the fan, she has Harper's Call.
2) Anomen is the only viable cleric we have.
3) Imoen is probably the best choice for mage, if Edwin is out. But as I said if you want a REAL thief/mage go with Jan instead.
4) Keldorn with Carsomyr.
5) The MC with Firetooth.
One slot remains open, Who can we rectuit as a tank? We could grab a ranger ... Valygar, Cern or even ...ugh! Minsc, or perhaps a fighter like Mazzy Fentan. Mazzy is sort of odd, she's some type of semi-paladin. She can, for example, lay on hands to cure wounds. The problem here is that she has grand mastery with bow ... which overlaps with the MC ... and only a minor skill with melee weapons. Hard to say whom I would pick, myself. I despise Minsc, so it's not him, which leaves 3 candidates. Roll a 6 sided die to choose.