Class and NPC Advice for a BG1 (but not BG2) Newbie
alastair93
Member Posts: 117
I was wondering if you guys could help me out with my first real game of BG1.
I've played through BG2+ToB about 5-6 times (using virtually all NPCs, and also solo runs). For some reason, BG1 never appealed to me — I guess I found it a little too slow, and the initial quests of solving an iron shortage had as much appeal as fighting tax evasion. What can I say? I was like 12 or 13 at the time. So I'd never played it for more than an hour or so.
Since then, I've bought BG1EE+BG2EE for the iPad. I've had a little dabble and this time around I'm really getting into BG1, so I'm now planning to start a proper play-through all the way to the end of ToB.
Now, I have two big questions: (1) What NPCs should I choose?, and (2) What class should I choose? Now before anyone says "It's up to you", I personally enjoy conversations about party formation etc., almost as much as the game itself!
I'm torn between having new NPCs (Dorn, Neera and Rasaad) or my old favourites. I'm leaning towards having all the new NPCs because I've heard they're very well-written and add lots of extra content. I've also done virtually all the NPC side-quests in BG2+ToB, so it would be revisiting old territory. However, I have to say that I'll miss some of my old favourite NPCs like Jaheira, especially since I haven't seen what they're like in BG1. I didn't romance Jaheira, but I found that she was the character with the most depth, i.e. annoying and frustrating at first, but then loyal, kind and protective. She had a real character arc. But since she comes with Khalid, and since I'm 100% taking Imoen, I wouldn't be able to take Jaheira *and* all 3 new NPCs. It will be hard to justify this from a RP perspective though. Will I miss much good or critical dialogue/story in BG1 without Khalid and Jaheira?
What I want from an NPC is someone who will be with me from the start to the end, but who has character development that I'd be emotionally invested in. I don't really like characters such as Valygar or Minsc, since I find them a little one-dimensional.
Would you guys recommend all three new NPCs? Do you get the same satisfaction from them as old NPCs? Who would you recommend as the 6th person? I might have Charname (neutral good), Dorn (romanced), Neera, Rasaad, Imoen. I'm considering Viconia. Any ideas? Or should I leave the 6th slot free for rotation (and Sarevok in ToB)?
I guess this leads on to my class. Personally, I love magic classes. I love how they start relatively weak but then become super powerful. I also love the mage-on-mage battles. I was thinking of a Wild Mage, since I find the idea of tapping into high-level magic at the risk of death quite satisfying; it made certain boss fights quite epic in BG2. I remember once when my party was being slaughtered by a dragon, I used a risky Dwoemer to cast a level 8 spell to kill it. It was awesome.
But I guess having two Wild Mages (charname and Neera) would be redundant, I wouldn't want 2 in one party. So sorcerer? I have solo'd with a sorcerer and really liked it, plus I know which spells are good. But while it was cool to take down very powerful enemies 1-on-1, I'm not sure how it would work with a party. Although from a RP perspective, the sorcerer class description does say that they may have the blood of gods, so it works that way. Plus, no NPC is a sorcerer, and it's cool to have a niche. While some people say the sorcerer is boring, I actually found it quite fun to build: it made the spell choices much more significant, and made the character very individual & customised.
Lastly I was considering a Cleric/Mage multi-class. The reason I considered this was for access to divine and arcane magic, to make an uber-magical type of character. I also liked that it would be the same class (roughly) as Amelyssan, which would be fitting. From a RP perspective (although not D&D rules), I liked the idea of Charname having divine magic from heritage and arcane magic from study. I'm not so worried about only getting the good spells later in the game, but I worry that for wizard spells that rely on class levels to work well (e.g. dispel magic), the character would be grossly underpowered compared to a pure mage of the same experience. Is that true? Would cleric levels count towards these kind of spells? I wouldn't want to sacrifice any arcane spell-power for the utility of priest spells, but would want to play around with some interesting priest-wizard spell combos. I'd be prepared to sacrifice getting spells early (I can handle a delay due to dual class), but not overall/total arcane power.
Sorry for long post. Thanks in advance for any help
I've played through BG2+ToB about 5-6 times (using virtually all NPCs, and also solo runs). For some reason, BG1 never appealed to me — I guess I found it a little too slow, and the initial quests of solving an iron shortage had as much appeal as fighting tax evasion. What can I say? I was like 12 or 13 at the time. So I'd never played it for more than an hour or so.
Since then, I've bought BG1EE+BG2EE for the iPad. I've had a little dabble and this time around I'm really getting into BG1, so I'm now planning to start a proper play-through all the way to the end of ToB.
Now, I have two big questions: (1) What NPCs should I choose?, and (2) What class should I choose? Now before anyone says "It's up to you", I personally enjoy conversations about party formation etc., almost as much as the game itself!
I'm torn between having new NPCs (Dorn, Neera and Rasaad) or my old favourites. I'm leaning towards having all the new NPCs because I've heard they're very well-written and add lots of extra content. I've also done virtually all the NPC side-quests in BG2+ToB, so it would be revisiting old territory. However, I have to say that I'll miss some of my old favourite NPCs like Jaheira, especially since I haven't seen what they're like in BG1. I didn't romance Jaheira, but I found that she was the character with the most depth, i.e. annoying and frustrating at first, but then loyal, kind and protective. She had a real character arc. But since she comes with Khalid, and since I'm 100% taking Imoen, I wouldn't be able to take Jaheira *and* all 3 new NPCs. It will be hard to justify this from a RP perspective though. Will I miss much good or critical dialogue/story in BG1 without Khalid and Jaheira?
What I want from an NPC is someone who will be with me from the start to the end, but who has character development that I'd be emotionally invested in. I don't really like characters such as Valygar or Minsc, since I find them a little one-dimensional.
Would you guys recommend all three new NPCs? Do you get the same satisfaction from them as old NPCs? Who would you recommend as the 6th person? I might have Charname (neutral good), Dorn (romanced), Neera, Rasaad, Imoen. I'm considering Viconia. Any ideas? Or should I leave the 6th slot free for rotation (and Sarevok in ToB)?
I guess this leads on to my class. Personally, I love magic classes. I love how they start relatively weak but then become super powerful. I also love the mage-on-mage battles. I was thinking of a Wild Mage, since I find the idea of tapping into high-level magic at the risk of death quite satisfying; it made certain boss fights quite epic in BG2. I remember once when my party was being slaughtered by a dragon, I used a risky Dwoemer to cast a level 8 spell to kill it. It was awesome.
But I guess having two Wild Mages (charname and Neera) would be redundant, I wouldn't want 2 in one party. So sorcerer? I have solo'd with a sorcerer and really liked it, plus I know which spells are good. But while it was cool to take down very powerful enemies 1-on-1, I'm not sure how it would work with a party. Although from a RP perspective, the sorcerer class description does say that they may have the blood of gods, so it works that way. Plus, no NPC is a sorcerer, and it's cool to have a niche. While some people say the sorcerer is boring, I actually found it quite fun to build: it made the spell choices much more significant, and made the character very individual & customised.
Lastly I was considering a Cleric/Mage multi-class. The reason I considered this was for access to divine and arcane magic, to make an uber-magical type of character. I also liked that it would be the same class (roughly) as Amelyssan, which would be fitting. From a RP perspective (although not D&D rules), I liked the idea of Charname having divine magic from heritage and arcane magic from study. I'm not so worried about only getting the good spells later in the game, but I worry that for wizard spells that rely on class levels to work well (e.g. dispel magic), the character would be grossly underpowered compared to a pure mage of the same experience. Is that true? Would cleric levels count towards these kind of spells? I wouldn't want to sacrifice any arcane spell-power for the utility of priest spells, but would want to play around with some interesting priest-wizard spell combos. I'd be prepared to sacrifice getting spells early (I can handle a delay due to dual class), but not overall/total arcane power.
Sorry for long post. Thanks in advance for any help
Post edited by alastair93 on
1
Comments
As to your party, there are many ways to get rid of Khalid, so that you could go with Imoen, Jaheira, and the three new NPCs. The TOB XP cap is 8 million. The highest level you can get as a mage is 7,875,000 XP. This leaves you 125,000 XP that you could gain in another class before dualclassing without it limiting your arcane power in any way (supposing you gain enough XP in the game to reach the XP cap). Scaling spells end up equally powerful as those of single class mage, although you'd be a bit behind initially.
Translated to your character you could dual class at Cleric level 8 (110,000 XP) although you wouldn't be able to complete the dualling process in BG1. Therefore it would be probably more convenient to level at Cleric level 7 (55,000 XP). You'd have 3 level 1 spells, 3 level 2 spells, 2 level 3 spells, and 1 level 4 spell (plus any bonus spells for high WIS). Hope this helps.
Crossbow over longbow/shortbow because firetooth (BG2) and the light crossbow of speed (BG1) is really nice. Buy bolts of biting from high hedge and you'll deal amazing damage with your crossbow. You'll be able to pick up a very powerful two handed sword +2 in BG1 and you'll find several powerful ones in BG2 with Lilacor being a very early +3 two handed sword with great immunities.
Elf - Half/Elf
Fighter/Mage
** Crossbow
** Two handed sword
** Two handed weapon style
That's what you can end up with in BG1, it'll be a great start for BG2.
[Edited] : There is also a two handed sword +3 in BG1. It's one of the few +3 weapons in the game.
If I kill off Khalid (I read on here that Basilisks are the way to go), would that ruin some of the dialogue in BG1? Would Jaheira be start talking to him even though he's petrified? Or would I lose some of her dialogue without Khalid?
As for NPCs, with the exception of the new NPCs for EE there is only a rare occasional banter and in a few cases a conflict might erupt after a few antagonistic banters. (With CLUA console enabled you can Crtl+I to make their banters fire.)
You may want to see what Imoen is like in BG1. She's quite different than in BG2.
I would recommend Khalid and Jaheira since you want to see what Jaheira is like in BG1. Up to you if you want to kill off Khalid, but personally I like the two of them as a couple.
For a first time run I think I would recommend Xzar and Montaron (they're paired) to round out the party. Xzar is a particularly entertaining character. Monty is actually a well realized character in his own right too, though. He's an excellent thief.
Minsc is pretty much the same as BG2. And you won't find much difference with Viconia either. Edwin is also familiar as you know him from BG2.
There's a good reason not to split the two NPC pairs recommended above, but I won't spoil you. However, if you don't take Imoen, and/or if you kill off* Khalid and Montaron, you might consider:
Kivan
Coran
Xan
Garrick
or any of the new EE NPCs. Kivan and Coran are both devastating archers, and most players enjoy their personalities. Xan is an effective Enchanter and his personality is very amusing, plus he's particularly well voice acted. Garrick has been maligned in a lot of older walkthroughs, and perceived as weak from a powergamer perspective; but over time fans have reconsidered how to use him effectively, and when used to his full potential he more than pulls his weight.
* You can also break up a forced NPC pair by sending the NPC you wish to remove into a building alone (select a location that isn't frequented by the party), then remove him or her from the party. This prevents a separation dialogue from firing that forces both members of the pair to leave together. Then you have the option to re-add the character later if you like.
Therefore I won't do it again, and I can't recommend combining the new NPCs all at once. Play through twice, a Good-aligned run with Rasaad and Neera, and an Evil-aligned run with Dorn (and Hexxat once you reach BG2ee).
Doing it in two runs also relieves the selection pressure for the rest of your party, so that (for example) there's room for Khalid alongside Jaheira.
With Rasaad, Neera, Khalid, Jaheira and Imoen in BG1ee, I'd want a protagonist who can contribute some divine spellcasting. Since you particularly like arcane casting, I therefore suggest a Cleric/Mage. In BG2ee, since you like party continuity (so do I!), all you need to do is replace Khalid, since you can re-recruit all of the others. You'd want some sort of warrior type, and Keldorn would fit well with that party. Yes, your Cleric/Mage would be weak at Dispel Magic, but when you've got Keldorn his Dispel Magic is better than even a single-class Mage, and anyway you'll also have Imoen and Neera to cast level-dependent spells.
With Dorn, I'd suggest a different cast of characters for BG1ee, for both variety and mutual compatibility. Since you like continuable characters, you'd probably want Edwin and Viconia. That leaves you needing a Thief, and probably another warrior, and a little more arcane and divine casting would also be useful, but you'll have a pure Thief (i.e. Hexxat) when you get to BG2ee so you won't want to be a Thief yourself. Therefore I suggest playing a Sorceror protagonist, and taking Kagain with you to stand up front with Dorn, and Safana as Thief (possibly replaced later in the game by Tiax). Then in BG2ee you'd again recruit Dorn and Edwin and Viconia, but now you'd take Hexxat as Thief, and that leaves you short of warriors so you'd probably take Korgan to complete the party (possibly replaced later by Sarevok). Alternatively, and perhaps unusually, you could take Cernd instead of Korgan - he's willing to work with an Evil party, he'd boost your divine casting a lot, and once he acquires his Greater Werewolf transformation at level 13, he suddenly turns out to be a surprisingly good front-row tank (not a great damage-dealer, but his AC and resistances in GW form are excellent, so he can soak up the enemy attacks while your other characters deal out the damage). (Yes, I've used Cernd that way, and it works - I had him fighting in melee right through to the end of ToB, and he was still standing.)