Could I ask for some party building advice for some fun banters/interactions? (possible spoilers)
odessa333
Member Posts: 59
Hello all! So if you've seen my other threads (I feel like I'm making a lot, so I apologize if you feel that way too lol) I've played Baldur's gate more times than I can count, trying various combinations of races/classes/etc. Yet this is my first run with BG 2, and while I had planned to do that here... I'm not feeling it. I know I'm still early on, but so far it's the characters that have been interesting, while the story has been very 'meh' for me so far. I'm trying to figure out some party combinations that make sense, either duo's to try or full combinations people suggest. I don't much care for how EFFECTIVE the team is, just the story elements.
At the moment, I'm going to TRY for three runs, but I'm not sure I'm going to have the patience for it. I'm only on chapter 2 of my Neutral Good Archer's run. I feel partly obligated to bring along Imoen, Minsc, and Jaheira for one run, see how they interact with each other on a 'good' run. But if only do one run, am I hurting myself by sticking to so many returning characters? I've read good things for Aerie, Keldorn, Mazzy, and Nalia as well. Not sure how to best trim this down.
An evil run seems pretty much built for you: Viconia, Edwin, Korgan, Dorn, and Hexxat. I'm not sure it's the best for banter though.
That leaves Neutral.... which I feel would be the good left overs, with Neera and Jan? I had planned a neutral bard/rogue of some kind to romance Neera on a neutral path, but right now it's looking pretty weak.
I'm still missing Anomen, Cernd, Haer'dalis, Valygar, Sarevok, Wilson, Rasaad.... but I don't see myself doing enough runs for it all, and trying to fit them all in is driving me crazy. I'm spending time over thinking it rather than playing the bloody game and getting a run done.
Basically I'm over thinking things, and could use a slap to the face, or some practical advice to stop over thinking things lol. Thank you for your time!
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Comments
For general party interactions, it depends. If you really want to see all of the possible conversations without makin a billion runs, you could just look for the texts somewhere. I think there's even some youtube videos showing party banters for each character.
In addition to banters, I'd say that exploring the quest lines for the strongholds can be quite fun as well. My favorite was the Five Flagons Inn (Bard stronghold).
For party-building purposes, you can generally lump neutral characters in with the good ones; they're fine with you letting your reputation go up to paragon levels, and they don't have serious conflicts with each other. Well, unless you let Anomen fail his test. CN Anomen is comparable to the evil characters in party conflict potential.
Mixing good/neutral characters with evil ones can be done, but it requires attention to detail and careful reputation management. There are a lot more places to watch out for a character storming off.
For my runs, I build by themes rather than alignment. For example, my current run is a no-spellcasting challenge, with a party of a fighter/thief protagonist, Haer'Dalis, Keldorn, Korgan, Mazzy, and Rasaad. My next planned run goes over to "Kill it with Fire", using a Dragon Disciple, a mod NPC, Anomen, Cernd, Jaheira, and Nalia. Then there are future ideas like making Dorn the protagonist - he would run with the other evil NPCs and also corrupt Anomen. As you can see, this style leads to plenty of variety.
Minsc, Jan, Sarevok
Minsc, Mazzy
Valygar, Mazzy
Mazzy, Korgan
Doesn't Mazzy have some interesting dialogue with Keldorn about paladinhood, too? Mazzy and Jan are probably the most chatty non-romanceable NPC's.
Funnily enough, on my profile where it shows comments I've left, this is how the forums formatted it:
"There's some great combos: Minsc, Jan, Sarevok Minsc, Mazzy Valygar, Mazzy Mazzy, Korgan"
Its like some weird game of duck, duck, goose.