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Canon NPCs

HeindrichHeindrich Member, Moderator Posts: 2,959
in New Players (NO SPOILERS!)
Because I intend to play the same character from BG1 (and its expansion) to BG2 (and its expansion), and I have no strong opinion on the composition of party characters, I was planning to stick to the canon characters (i.e. Imoen, Khalid, Minsc etc) for BG 1.

I just wondered if this makes a reasonably strong team, and/or if I am missing out on anything very nice/important by abandoning other NPCs, like Garrick?




Comments

  • atcDaveatcDave Member Posts: 2,150
    The canon party is a solid one. There are plenty of arguments about what makes the "best" party, but you can easily beat the game with the canon party.
  • revaarrevaar Member Posts: 160
    The canon party is pretty balanced, but it is a little light on the divine magic, with Jaheira only being a multi-class. I'd suggest running a Cleric or some sort of cleric multi-class to really balance it out best.
  • SionIVSionIV Member Posts: 2,689
    The canon party got it's weaknesses but that can easily be built around. Here is a good setup you could run to make that party efficient.

    1.) Khalid

    Run khalid with longbows and then have him stand back in the group and fire at the enemy. Get him Bracers of archery as quickly as possible (You can get them very early in the game) with those gauntlets he is a great archer. I don't give him gauntlets of dexterity as i prefer jaheira to have those.

    2.) Minsc

    Have minsc use a two handed sword and put the rest of his proficiency in longbow/crossbow aswell. Equip him with a two handed sword and one of he mentioned ranged weapon. As he isn't using a shield it'll be very fast and easy to switch between the weapons.

    3.) Jaheira

    Give her the best shield and armor you can get, and put her at the front as a pseudo tank. Focus on defensive spells with her and have her cast them on herself before going into combat. With a full plate, a ring of protection, a large shield + 1 and the gauntlets of dexterity she will have a great AC class. You can get all of those items early in the game.

    4.) Imoen

    Use her as your main thief. Try to get her the shadow armor, boots of stealth, dagger of venom and a ranged weapon and she should be fine. It's also a good idea to dual class her to a mage at level 7, then she will reach level 8 in the mage class and be a great secondary mage to Dynaheir. Just remember that if you do this you'll be missing out on a thief for a quite a long time.

    5.) Dynaheir

    She's a decent spell caster. She isn't the best one out there but she isn't the worst one either. You get her in a pair with minsc so try to get the most out of her. Try to memorize as many crowd control spells as you can (Sleep, confuse, hold, slow) to slow down and make the enemy team easier for your melee to take down.

    6.) CHARNAME

    You can play any character with this party. The only thing it is lacking somewhat is divine magic but only having Jaheira is fine aswell. Divine isn't something you need to complete the game, so really you should pick whichever character you fancy here.
  • francofranco Member Posts: 507
    If it's your first time through, the canon party might very well be the best. It is pretty well balanced, powerful and easy to manage, with some very likeable characters. It's very good for getting through the game on a solid footing. In the future you can always experiment with a different mix of NPC's to experience the game from a different perspective.
  • QuartzQuartz Member Posts: 3,853
    Heindrich1988 said:

    I just wondered if this makes a reasonably strong team, and/or if I am missing out on anything very nice/important by abandoning other NPCs, like Garrick?

    Are you missing out on anything very nice? Yeah, maybe. BG1 really shines when it comes to the ridiculous number of NPCs that you can pick from.
    Are you missing out on anything important? Not really. The new NPCs have a lot of good items in their quest line (which is total bullshit), but on the other hand, in vanilla BG1 we got by just fine without said items, so no worries.

    Baldur's Gate is good for a whole hell of a lot of playthroughs. Your first playthrough being the canon party is not a bad idea at all. Enjoy!
  • zur312zur312 Member Posts: 1,366
    SionIV said:

    The canon party got it's weaknesses but that can easily be built around. Here is a good setup you could run to make that party efficient.

    1.) Khalid

    Run khalid with longbows and then have him stand back in the group and fire at the enemy. Get him Bracers of archery as quickly as possible (You can get them very early in the game) with those gauntlets he is a great archer. I don't give him gauntlets of dexterity as i prefer jaheira to have those.

    2.) Minsc

    Have minsc use a two handed sword and put the rest of his proficiency in longbow/crossbow aswell. Equip him with a two handed sword and one of he mentioned ranged weapon. As he isn't using a shield it'll be very fast and easy to switch between the weapons.

    3.) Jaheira

    Give her the best shield and armor you can get, and put her at the front as a pseudo tank. Focus on defensive spells with her and have her cast them on herself before going into combat. With a full plate, a ring of protection, a large shield + 1 and the gauntlets of dexterity she will have a great AC class. You can get all of those items early in the game.

    4.) Imoen

    Use her as your main thief. Try to get her the shadow armor, boots of stealth, dagger of venom and a ranged weapon and she should be fine. It's also a good idea to dual class her to a mage at level 7, then she will reach level 8 in the mage class and be a great secondary mage to Dynaheir. Just remember that if you do this you'll be missing out on a thief for a quite a long time.

    5.) Dynaheir

    She's a decent spell caster. She isn't the best one out there but she isn't the worst one either. You get her in a pair with minsc so try to get the most out of her. Try to memorize as many crowd control spells as you can (Sleep, confuse, hold, slow) to slow down and make the enemy team easier for your melee to take down.

    6.) CHARNAME

    You can play any character with this party. The only thing it is lacking somewhat is divine magic but only having Jaheira is fine aswell. Divine isn't something you need to complete the game, so really you should pick whichever character you fancy here.

    make charname fighter/cleric or ranger/cleric for more melee power with jaheira and minsc and some neat spells like summoning skeletons duhm and others that jaheira can't use

    X/cleric is really powerfull he will be probably your main dps because of buffs unless khalid is as good as archers with bows
  • KaltzorKaltzor Member Posts: 1,050
    I think best class to multiclass with cleric with the canon party might be a Thief/Cleric... You can make Imoen into a mage freely as you can cover the required thief skills...

    And if you want backstabs with it, clubs and quarterstaffs are able to backstab.
  • scriverscriver Member Posts: 2,072
    What I'd make the PC depends entirely on whether you plan to dual Imoen to mage or not. It you plan to keep her a pure thief, I'd make CHARNAME a Bard or a Fighter/Mage, mostly to back up Dynaheir and to access the spells she's barred from because of her specialisation. Bards are also neat since they are actually more powerful than mages during BG1, and gain levels faster. If you plan to continue this playthrough in BG2 I'd make a F/M though.

    If you however plan on dualing Imoen to a Mage, I'd go with a Any-Class/Cleric for the reasons stated by other people above.
  • HeindrichHeindrich Member, Moderator Posts: 2,959
    scriver said:

    What I'd make the PC depends entirely on whether you plan to dual Imoen to mage or not. It you plan to keep her a pure thief, I'd make CHARNAME a Bard or a Fighter/Mage, mostly to back up Dynaheir and to access the spells she's barred from because of her specialisation. Bards are also neat since they are actually more powerful than mages during BG1, and gain levels faster. If you plan to continue this playthrough in BG2 I'd make a F/M though.

    If you however plan on dualing Imoen to a Mage, I'd go with a Any-Class/Cleric for the reasons stated by other people above.

    I rolled a Half-Elf Fighter/Mage for my protagonist. Having read through what everyone has said, I am probably going to stick with the canon NPCs mostly, but I might not resurrect one of them to make space for Branwen.

    As for Imoen, I don't plan to dual-class her. I don't know the game mechanisms well enough to make the most of it.

    Oh and yes, I do intend to stick with the same protagonist throughout the four games. I might swap in a few new NPC party members when I get to BG 2 eventually.

  • DreadKhanDreadKhan Member Posts: 3,857
    Yeslick is a beast laterish, ditto for coran, assuming you are good.
  • HeindrichHeindrich Member, Moderator Posts: 2,959
    DreadKhan said:

    Yeslick is a beast laterish, ditto for coran, assuming you are good.

    lol I'm a total noob to BG and AD&D... so no, I'm not good, at least not yet.

    Oh yeh I just noticed that the NPC stats are also rolled randomly... and my Jaheira has rolled tough, but stupid with 15 Str and 17 Constitution, but just 10 Intelligence... -.- Does this mean she will never be a decent cleric? Maybe I should swap her out for Branwell or Yeslick when I can? Cleric seems to be the healer class in AD&D, and if it's anything like Avernum, then a good healer is absolutely essential.
  • francofranco Member Posts: 507
    In BG INT has nothing to do with being a Cleric or Druid. Good WIS is required for a Cleric, while a decent combination of WIS and CHA is required to be a Druid. Jaheira has enough to handle the job. Plus, her decent stats in STR, DEX and CON means that she will be pretty good in melee also and can tank for you.
  • HeindrichHeindrich Member, Moderator Posts: 2,959
    franco said:

    In BG INT has nothing to do with being a Cleric or Druid. Good WIS is required for a Cleric, while a decent combination of WIS and CHA is required to be a Druid. Jaheira has enough to handle the job. Plus, her decent stats in STR, DEX and CON means that she will be pretty good in melee also and can tank for you.

    Oh, in that case her rolls is okay. She got 14 wisdom, 14 dex and 15 charisma.
  • HeindrichHeindrich Member, Moderator Posts: 2,959
    Oh by the way, can somebody tell me what determines how many spells you can memorise? My protag is a Half-Elf Mage/Fighter with 18 intelligence, but he only has 1 slot for memorising spells.
  • revaarrevaar Member Posts: 160
    edited June 2013
    Int doesn't increase number of spells per day for a mage like Wis does for clerics. Int determines how many spells you can learn per level, and the % chance to learn.

    Here's a chart showing the mage spell progression: http://playithardcore.com/pihwiki/index.php?title=Baldur's_Gate:_Progression_Charts#Mage

    This is also a good site to bookmark for reference on lots of things.
  • zur312zur312 Member Posts: 1,366
    Heindrich1988 said:

    Oh by the way, can somebody tell me what determines how many spells you can memorise? My protag is a Half-Elf Mage/Fighter with 18 intelligence, but he only has 1 slot for memorising spells.

    intelligence is doing very little for mages and spells

    but wisdom is very important for clerics/druids

  • KaltzorKaltzor Member Posts: 1,050
    edited June 2013
    Heindrich1988 said:

    Oh by the way, can somebody tell me what determines how many spells you can memorise? My protag is a Half-Elf Mage/Fighter with 18 intelligence, but he only has 1 slot for memorising spells.

    In Baldur's Gate all Intelligence affects 4 things... your chance to learn new spells, how many spells you can learn per spell level, lore score and your survival chance against mind flayers.
  • SionIVSionIV Member Posts: 2,689
    Kaltzor said:

    Heindrich1988 said:

    Oh by the way, can somebody tell me what determines how many spells you can memorise? My protag is a Half-Elf Mage/Fighter with 18 intelligence, but he only has 1 slot for memorising spells.

    In Baldur's Gate all Intelligence affects 4 things... your chance to learn new spells, how many spells you can learn per spell level, lore score and your survival chance against mind flayers.
    There is actually a fifth aswell, bard stronghold.
  • DreadKhanDreadKhan Member Posts: 3,857
    I thought that relied on Friends boosted Charisma?
  • kamuizinkamuizin Member Posts: 3,704
    Dorn, Neera, Rasaad, Edwin and Viconia are somehow canon from my view point, even not being in Irenicus Dungeon.
  • SionIVSionIV Member Posts: 2,689
    DreadKhan said:

    I thought that relied on Friends boosted Charisma?

    It has a charisma and intellect factor.
  • KaltzorKaltzor Member Posts: 1,050
    kamuizin said:

    Dorn, Neera, Rasaad, Edwin and Viconia are somehow canon from my view point, even not being in Irenicus Dungeon.

    Going by the reactions in BG2... I think Edwin, Viconia, Xzar and Montaron were more or less the party at Nashkel, and then it goes to Imoen, Jaheira, Khalid, Minsc and Dynaheir for the rest.
  • HeindrichHeindrich Member, Moderator Posts: 2,959
    Kaltzor said:

    kamuizin said:

    Dorn, Neera, Rasaad, Edwin and Viconia are somehow canon from my view point, even not being in Irenicus Dungeon.

    Going by the reactions in BG2... I think Edwin, Viconia, Xzar and Montaron were more or less the party at Nashkel, and then it goes to Imoen, Jaheira, Khalid, Minsc and Dynaheir for the rest.
    lol my Montaron died in his first battle...
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