Power NPC party?
Grimo88
Member Posts: 191
Putting alignment and RP aside, what party of NPCs is the most powerful, efficient and deadly? Edwin would have to be the mage for instance
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Depends on PC: For a fighty type, this would be mine:
Imoen, thief 6/mage; Shar-Teel dualed to thief - backstabber; Edwin; Yeslick (Dex gaunts and STR belt); Dorn.
In BG1 bows reign supreme. No matter what you do you should aim to get as many ranged characters as possible and enough melee to keep them at range.
I'm not normally a fan of Kaigan; I don't like that both his dex and strength are low, but he is a damn fine tank if you give him the gloves of dex. It really depends how you want to play the party and since I will have a heavy emphasis on ranged dps I need to make sure my tanks are up to the job. For my second melee I'll use Dorn. He hits hard and his kit has some nice abilities.
Magewise I will take the PC. Pure mages don't cut the mustard imo, not in BG1 anyway, so my PC will be a fighter mage specialised in [edit] longbows since he will be an Elf. There is more than one Composite Longbow in the game.
When it comes to Cleric, I'm going to steer off the beaten track a bit. I will use Xzar. I will dual him as soon as I possibly can (as soon as I can get my hands on a tome of Wisdom) so that my cleric can make liberal use of all the mage wands that lie about.
Now, on to ranged support:
Coran is brilliant. He has a natural 20 dex, but he can't use composite longbow +1 due to inadequate strength so you have to keep the Marksmans Bow for him.
Kivan is a reasonable ranged character, but he has less than 18 dex which puts him at a disadvantage. he can wield the Composite Longbow +1 though.
Khalid also has less than 18 dex, but if you give him the bracers of dex he can get 5 specialisation points in Long Bows. Since he requires the best tanking gloves to be viable and he is mutually exclusive of Coran Khalid isn't an option
Anywho, my line up is as follows:
PC - Fighter/Mage - Ranged dps and mage
Kivan - Ranger - Ranged dps
Coran - Fighter/Thief - Ranged dps
Xzar - Necromancer>Cleric
Kaigan - Tank
Dorn - Melee dps/Off tank
I'd go Edwin, Kivan, Dwarf-that-does-not-exist, Dorn, Branwen, and then a fifth of your choice.
Edwin is a no brainer. For straight-up magical firepower, there's none better.
Kivan is your ranged guy, and boy does he kick ass. Have him fill everyone full of arrows.
Dorn and Kagain are your tanks. It is only necessary to have one of them, but nice to have both.
Branwen is my personal favorite straight-up cleric, I think she's a total badass. The Spiritual Hammer ability is a nice plus too. Quayle is also pretty good and crazy versatile, but I don't think he's all that cut out for powergaming. Good mage, good cleric, but not great at either. So, Branwen it is.
Personally I would go with Xan as the fifth member. I know he's got someserious issues going on with his stats, but he is actually p. awesome. I like having two mages so each one can concentrate on different specific uses of magic at the same time. With Eddy going for straight damage spells and Xan handling support and CC, they can pretty much wreck some serious shit. Also if you buff him up enough you can p. much send him straight into melee combat and he won't get hit, and his moonblade can do some SERIOUS damage.
If you must have a thief in your group, Fighter/Thief is a must. Boot either Kagain or Dorn (I would drop Kagain, but that is because I hate his guts), get Coran. Thief who can still kick some real ass. Monty is another okay choice, but then you gotta deal with Xzar. If you REALLY want to go off the beaten path, pick up Shar-Teel and then dual her to thief. Surprisingly effective.
Elf Fighter Mage, longbows, scimitars, single weapon style
Kagain, mastery in axes, dex gauntlets, con tome, str belt
Dorn, Spiders bane sword, dex tome, cursed claw thingy
Shar'teel, dualled to thief at 3, find traps, stealth, mastery in crossbows, spec in longsword, light xbow of speed, str tome
Coran, open locks, +3 thaco longbow
Viconia, Darts (Yeslick cannot really be used with Kagain, both need dex gauntlets anyway)
Healers are for sissies
Fighter: Dorn, Kagain, Minsc, Shar-Teel
Thief: Imoen
Mage: Edwin (with Neera as a close second - her bonus is similar to his but she has the disadvantage of wild surges)
Cleric: Viconia
Edwin is a no brainer. I've heard equally good cases for Branwen and Viconia... I think that one really comes down to preference. Dorn is great for those enemies that archery isn't as suited for (ones with damage reduction, ones that ambush you, or ones that are immune to normal weaponry), but Shar-Teel is also a beastly backstabbing machine if you're patient with her. If tankiness is your game, then Kagain is a nice choice, but really a tank isn't that necesary.
Imoen: Thief dual at 4, 5 or 6. 5 is the latest you can dual and reach max mage levels, that would mean you ONLY focus on traps and will rely on knock late game for locks.
Coran: Your archer bot. Use Kivan until then
Kagain: Your tank early game, honestly I would advise replacing him with Yeslick later on, saving the tome for Yeslick. While Kagain IS good and can reach high mastery in Axes, Yeslick can cast Protection from Evil on himself and Draw Upon Holy Might to make up the difference.
Dorn: Greatsword and go to town
Edwin: Cause it absolutely positively needs to be blown up tonight.
Now if you really wanna cheese the system, since honestly the best divine caster in BG1 is Faldorn (18 wisdom to Viconia's 15 and druids can reach level 10), what we're going to do is KEEP Kagain and roll our own fighter/cleric. DO NOT make a dwarf as we're going to cheese our way meleeing through the game relatively soon.
Roll a human of any alignment (but remember you're going to need to keep your rep at 18 or below), and make sure you have 18 str, dex, con and wisdom. You can be as charismatic as you want, int is your primary dump stat.
Take 2 points at the start of the game in Warhammers and 2 points in 2 weapon style. At levels 3 and 6 put points into Mastery and then High Mastery for warhammers and also once you hit 6 dual class into cleric. Here is where we get cheesy.
Put your new weapon points into slings and some other weapon you don't have yet as I don't believe you can reach specialized in them yet. At level 4 you have an option of continuing to put points in weapons that you haven't or effectively sitting on that point. I would suggest more diversity but for pure cheese sit on it. Once you hit level 7 and regain your fighter levels, put that point into grand mastery for hammers. Once you hit level 8 put THAT point into Mastery for 2 weapon fighting.
Now if you want you can be a better tank than Kagain, deal more damage than kagain or dorn, and gain all the self buffs that Yeslick would have had over Kagain. Also you're using a better damage type than either of them as blunt weapons offer the best damage in game (No armor has additional effectiveness against blunt, and chainmail is actually more susceptible to blunt damage).
Also I'd advise maxing flails next in BG2, using every str, dex, con and wisdom tome on yourself as well as charisma if you have it decently high.
Other fun notes:
Using the str tome on yourself then using draw upon holy might once you've regained your fighter levels will give you 21 Str (Be sure to taunt Dorn when you do this), 21 Dex (Grats on reaching the next -1 AC from Dex plateau) and 21 Con (oh and you can taunt Kagain as well). This coupled with 21 wisdom (from 3 tomes) and ring of holiness means you will have an obscene amount of spells to back up your devastating potential. And we haven't even gotten into the abusive BG2 fun with this yet. The only downside is that you can't reach level 7 fighter before you do this I believe for the extra 1/2 attack per round =(
Most formidable NPCs imho:
Dorn
Kagain
Kivan
Edwin
for sure are the strongest, it seems to me.
Montaron if a thief is needed (Fighter melee hardiness)
Yeslick if a cleric is needed (Fighter melee hardiness) - problem is you don't get him until later in the game, though
CHARNAME = Berserker/Kensai/Paladin (I wouldn't play a paladin, but you might)
+ Kagain, Shar-teel, Viconia (with BG2 stats), Edwin, as thief Coran/Montaron
but to be honest, I don't like powergaming that much. my best power-party I played with was 4-manning BG1 as CHARNAME(thief swashbuckler kit) + Kagain(tank) + Edwin + Viconia(with BG2 attributes mod)
Went thru the game like a breeze...
PC Elf Stalker 18/00 str, 19 dex
Coran (Traded for Imoen)
Dorn
Rasaad
Branwen
Dynaheir
If you replace Rasaad with Kivan that's basically a perfect party in my books. Kivan + Coran combo is very much powerful, efficient and deadly, especially with a guy like Dorn, Minsc or Kagain up front. So many party options in BG1
Alternatively, dual classing to cleric from fighter at three still allows for grand mastery in a weapon, and you could specialize in dual wielding, or just take a shield.
I tagged lemernis since that way it wouldn't take long at all to regain fighter abilities.
BTW, am I the only one that prefers Yeslick to Kagain? I think the cleric buffing is better than Kagain's loco constitution (Yeslick's is pretty good anyway). With the addition of the STR belt, I think Yez has surpassed Kagain, as you can slap the dex gaunts and big fist belt to get a very good tank. I know you can do the same to kagain, which is why the choice basically comes down to Yez's spell casting vs the one extra fighter level Kagain gives and his 20 con.
Protection from evil, DUHM, Sanctuary, chant, and especially the new ghast-raising raise dead push yelick over the top, in my book. It's nice because you have another character that doesn't need babysitting. Plus, you only lose 1 level of fighter and one level of cleric vs. single classes, while still getting access to fourth level cleric spells and the 7th level half attack from fighter. He won't deal out as much damage as kagain via melee, but his tanking ability will at least equal kagain's.
Kagain will have high mastery vs. Yez's specialization, which basically means +1 thac0 and damage. He'll have one more level of fighter, another +1 thac0. That's the only difference between them as fighters.
Kagain's best argument is his enormous HP pool, but considering that Yez can summon beasties to tank with him, Yez probably has more hp disposable then kagain. Also, he gets the level 4 protection from evil 10, which boosts everyone's AC and saves.
PC - Cleric
Khalid - Tank
Rassad - Melee dps
Imoen - Ranged dps
Neera - Mage
Jaheira - I just love her romance in BG2, shes pretty useless
But then you lose out on all the spells (particularly DUHM) which continue to grow as you level up. Personally the thing that makes me slightly prefer Kagain to Yeslick (Although I rarely use either) is that Kagain can use axes and can be acquired MUCH earlier in the game. By late chapter 4 I've usually already grown attached to my party members. That said I think for my mages party I'm going to use Yeslick and Xan. Unfortunately no Minsc since I'm an invoker myself and can't bring myself to separate Minsc and Dynaheir by other means.
The other problem I'm going to run into is that Ajantis and Yeslick both will want the gauntlets of dex =(
But DUHM only increases every three levels anyway, and in BG1 single class clerics cap at 8. He'll be a level 7 caster. It will matter for the duration component of spells, but not in a really significant way. If he were in BG2 it's be different, but in BG1, MCs are great.
Ajantis does need the gloves, you're right, especially if he's tanking for you instead of dps. My current party is TN Berserker (Eventually DC to druid in BG2; Imoen thief6/mage9; Shar-Teel Fighter3/Thief9; Yeslick; Dorn; Neera. Everyone in my group is high-dex except Yez, so he got the gauntlets. Also threw the STR belt on him because he's dumb as a rock anyway.
Yes but you suggested dualing him at 3, in which case he'd only get +1 from DUHM instead of +2.
Ack, I thought you were talking about Yez/Kagain, my bad.
In that case, I wasn't clear then. I was suggesting dualing from fighter to cleric. Splashing three fighter levels won't stop you from maxing cleric, and you'll still be able to hit grand mastery in your weapon of choice, as well as have two profs left over for weapon style, or a ranged weapon. So you'd pick say sword-and-board and hammer to start, hit three and master hammers; dual class to cleric and pick up sling and flail (or mace) hit cleric four, regain fighter and high master hammer; cleric 8 grandmanster hammers.
Kaigan in ultimate tank form (belt of 19 str, Dex gloves, sword and board style, boots of speed)
Viconia with str gloves as back up tank/slinger
Elf Archer PC
Kivan
Coran
Edwin
Basically, kaigan runs to the front line and keeps anyone from touching my squishy archers. Viconia backs him up if there are too many for him to tank alone. The rest is obvious.
PC Inquisitor
Korgan
Mazzy
Edwin
Jan
Viconia
Viconia
Kivan
Coran
Edwin
Dorn
PC - Archer or tough Barb/fighter
Archers are the best thing in this game. Take Coran, give him boots of speed and he can kill everything.
Kagain
Kivan
Coran
Edwin
PC Fighter/Cleric or Cleric/Ranger
Dorn - Best melee damage dealer.
Kagain - Best tank character.
Yeslick is a near second, and may even be better when he novas, although his low intelligence lets him down when it comes to scrolls and wands.
Coran - Best NPC, not even lyin'.
Edwin - Best Mage.
Neera - Second best mage - especially early on when her Nahal's can bust out Cloudkills potentially as early as level 1, and she has no opposition school.
Viconia - Probably overall best cleric, especially now Ankheg plate doesn't interfere with Rings.
Charname: Elf Archer - with 19 dex, the dex tome, and elf bonus to bows sinking as many proficiency points into Longbow as I could I had a THAC0 of -4 by the time my XP capped.
Kagain: Give him the Dex Guantlets, and the Strength Belt and he is a beast. 18/00 Str, 18 Dex, 20 Con? Yes please.
Dorn: Amazing stats, highest strength and melee damage in the game (for an NPC) since he's great with the +3 Two-Handed Sword or Staff of Striking (with some proficiency points) and give him the Con Tome to give him a much needed boost to HP.
Xzar: Give him a Wis Tome and dual class him to Necromancer 6/Cleric 7. He can cast 3rd level arcane spells, 4th level cleric spells and use all of the copious amounts of arcane wands in the game.
Edwin: Best Mage. Blow things up.
Shar-Teel: Dual class to Thief at level 3 for a Fighter3/Thief 9. Devastating backstabs and with potions of mastery thievery or taking some knock spells with one of your two arcane classes you cover traps and locks.
This group can be devastating at range or in melee. I'd suggest using a Composite Longbow (or Longbow of Marksmanship depending on your strength) on Charname and Dorn (unless you really want to use the staff of striking on Dorn) the magic throwing axes with Kagain, The Sling +1 and +2 for Xzar and Edwin and the Crossbow of Speed or Accuracy for Shar-Teel (depending on what proficiencies you prefer).
Both Yeslick (Fighter/Clerics are great and he has a very useful innate ability) and Faldorn (Insect Plague anyone?) came close to getting in this group but I feel the above 6 mesh very well together. Funny how most of the strongest NPC's are all evil.