Dramatis personae: the Asylum

FredN

....Heading into the Asylum we have Jaheira, Anomen, Keldorn, Aerie, Neera and moi, Swashbuckler Extraordinaire. Neera isn't free from wild surges even with the Robe of not-so-goodman Hayes, so I gave her a bunch of wands and the Book of Infinite Spells, which unlike regular scrolls, almost never causes a wild surge. Once we get Imoen, Neera will be dismissed, of course.
....I have nemtioned before that Anomen is a horndog, but this bit of interaction surpeised even me. Anomen said something suggestive to Neera and she agreed to have sex with him. Quote: "I like my men manly; I'll come to you tonight and give you what you want". OooooKaaaay ... didn't see that one coming.

FredN

Next up is Anomen, our designated Vampire Slayer. He is wielding the upgraded Mace of Disruption; Keldorn could in theory use it but he has zero skill in maces, while Anomen has 2 pips in maces. He is also the only on with skill in flails. So, he uses the mace vs Undead and the Flail of Ages vs the living. The Helm of Charm Protection is needed to keep the vamps from hitting him with charm/domination.

FredN

Jaheira is pretty basic. Healer, mage killer, basic support spells like Doom, Summon Fire Elemental, etc. Tanky enough to fight in melee when the situarion calls for it, mostly using Belm for the extra attack.

FredN

....Keldorn needed a LOT of work. His weapon, Hallowed Redeemer is a piece of garbage, IMO. A mere 2x and no really good properties. It causes minor damage when someone hits Keldorn? Big deal. Keldorn's AC using it was 2, pretty poor for a melee character at this point in the campaign. Luckily he had pips in crossbows, so I gave him both The Army Scythe and Firetooth, so he could at least give long range fire support.
....As soon as he had 2 skill points saved up I gave him proficiency in Bastard Swords. Why? Foebane, of course. A 3x weapon, it's one handed which allows him to use a shield;. It also does extra damage vs evil things like demons; very appropriate for an Inquisitor. I also gave him the Brawling Hands to pump up his dexterity. As a result, his THACO is now 3, his AC is -8 and he is now the butt-kicking nemesis of all things evil that he was meant to be. A triple threat: ranged, dispel magic, and close melee combat.

FredN

Aerie, of course, remains the most fragile of the group, but is very usefil as a combination cleric and mage. Due to her odd race, she can actually use items like helms. I gave her the Eyes of the Beholder, so she can attempt thing like Domination. However, the first thing I have her do when combat breaks out is to run off to the side somewhere out of the way. Her contingency is to cast Improved Invisibility on herself.

FredN

And of course, I have the traps locks and scouting covered.

atcDave

I pretty much always give Keldorn Lilacor until we get the Silver Sword… And then on to Carsomyr. He also gets the Improved Mace of Disruption, I get him the two pips as fast as I can. I keep him in the third slot and he doesn’t get attacked often.
I took Anomen once, 20 years ago! Never again, he’s a jerk. Besides, I usually have a cleric of some sort for myself. If not, well Jaheira and Aerie can do the job.
I pretty much always have Jaheira as a tank. She’ll get a good armor class, and with Belm she really cuts things up.
Yeah I mostly use Neera as a device-mage. She can be an effective caster, and I often use her in BG1. But in BG2 I’ll most often have Imoen and Aerie. If I have a third it’s because I’m running it.

FredN

Yeah Anomen is a jerk, but useful. He's actually the only NPC cleric other than Viconia. He and Jaheira together have a ton of healing spells. While Jaheira is fairly tanky, she is also useful casting support combat spells as I mentioned. I send her into combat after she has done her castings. Lilacor is the first +3 weapon that is available, and I usually give it initially to Miinsc. I despise Minsc as much as you dislike Anomen, but he's the closest thing I have to a tank early on in the game. Also, Lilacor and Minsc are both idiots, so it's a fit pairing. I really like Foebane for Keldorn; as I said, it fits his persona as a lawful good paladin. +6 vs Undead, Demons, Devils and shapeshifters; it's perfect for him. And as mentioned, lets him use a shield. That AC of -8 is nice. Anomen gets the upgraded Mace; haste him and he wipes the floor with vampires. Against live foes, he switches to the Flail of Ages, since he also has proficiency with flails.

FredN

>Yeah I mostly use Neera as a device-mage. She can be an effective caster, and I often use her in BG1. But in BG2 I’ll most often have Imoen and Aerie. If I have a third it’s because I’m running it.<
Well, yes, that was my overall plan. Use Neera until we get to Spellhold, at which point I send her home and replace her with Imoen. Neera was with us beause of her battle vs the Red Wizard enclave. We scored a lot of experience there. It was just amusing to see that she is as big a horndog as Anomen.

FredN

OK here they threw me a curveball. Neera, when removed from the party, doesn't go back to Brynnlaw or Athkatla, she stays in Spellhold until I come back for her?? How do I even do that? Is it possible, or is she stuck there forever?

atcDave

She's stuck. I believe you can still summon her in ToB. But my team is always set long before then.

I always use Nalia up to this point, then I replace her with Yoshimo before I run off to Brynnlaw.

I leave my temporary characters (Minsc, Nalia, Skie) at De-Arnise Castle. My regular base of operations.

FredN

OK prob;em solved. I went back and dismissed Neera before we hit the asylum. She went back to the hidden refuge, on the (rather low) off chance I want to recruit her again. I might use her in ToB in the wild magic rooms of Watcher's Keep, since she still has that robe.

jmerry

The only character that can go back to mainland Amn from that point is Imoen herself. If you tell her there's no room, she'll go back to the Copper Coronet and you can recruit her later.

So, four choices.
- Don't let Imoen join. Send her back to Athkatla.
- Go to Spellhold with an empty slot in your party.
- Go to Spellhold with Yoshimo, who will leave your party permanently and leave an open slot.
- Leave someone behind in Spellhold. They will be unavailable until ToB.

FredN

Yes, I reloaded a save and dismissed Neera before we hit the asylum. If you do that, she says she will go back to the Wild Refuge and wait. As opposed to being stuck in the Asylum forever. So yes, we hit SpellHold with an empty slot. Also I brought 2 scroll cases full of scrolls, so Imoen could learn a bunch of new spells. Her former selection was quite limited. She has some good ones now, including contingency, shield, minor sequencer, wyvern call, oracle snd spirit armor.