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Best Npc

ballsackattackballsackattack Member Posts: 27
in Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
I know there can be a lot of arguments made to this subject, but from experience in a lot of playing of this game i think its safe to say Jansen yes (Jansen) could be the best npc in the game. My reasons are simple, hes a illusionist/theif witch in itself is pretty strong at high levels. When high enough he can get the use any item ability witch is pretty dang good, he can backstab and cast high spells. At his highest strength ive used him to utterly defeat anything i have faced. If you have a different npc in mind plssss share id love to hear more (:
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Comments

  • TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    Jan is very versatile. I very rarely use him, but he's handy, but I don't feel he particularly excels at anything. He's like the Swiss Army Knife of NPCs.

    The NPCs I find most effective Anomen, Aerie, Jaheira and Haer'Dalis, who can all become one-man armies in different ways when used correctly.
  • CrevsDaakCrevsDaak Member Posts: 7,155
    Jan Jansen for sure. He's the most über-munchunkin cheeseful and versatile NPC in BG2.
  • CaloNordCaloNord Member Posts: 1,809
    Jan and Edwin are my favs. Both in power/versatility and personality. Just for personality I would have to pick Minsc and Boo. Just a great pair to have around if you're goodly aligned. :)

  • JonelethIrenicusJonelethIrenicus Member Posts: 157
    BgII - Edwin
    ToB - Sarevok
  • GlidderdustGlidderdust Member Posts: 70
    I always thought the evil NPC's were better than the good NPC's 1vs1.

    Edwin is the best mage. Only a high level PC Sorcerer is better, imo.

    Korgan is the best melee NPC. His constitution and berserk make him a one man front line. Only a PC berserker rolled with higher dexterity and strength is better.

    Viccy is probably the best priest. She has weak strength and constitution so you probably have to use her in the back unless you give her the proper equipment. She also doesn't get Holy Smite, which is easily abused if you have good aligned front liners. Besides that she has the most priest spells unless you create your own priest.

    To counterbalance their power, you have to deal with the fact that they are evil:

    1) They will leave if your reputation gets too high. This can be a problem if you're doing every quest in chapter two and going for the most experience.

    2) They will randomly fight the good aligned members in your party, resulting in the death of one of your NPC's

    From a power perspective, I think those are the three best NPC's and are worth the trouble if you can get around the reputation and fighting issues. I also think those three have the most entertaining personalities.

    Out of everyone else, I think Keldorn is the best. Give him gauntlets of dexterity, a strength belt, Carsomyr, and the best armor and watch him kill everything. His true sight ability combined with Carsomyr makes any battle with a mage a breeze. His dispel magic ability is a great "reset button" if things get out of hand.

    After typing that last paragraph I might change my vote to Keldorn. He's truly a game breaker with Carsomyr and true sight.
  • TheRaven476TheRaven476 Member Posts: 44
    I'm surprised more people haven't said this but in vanilla BG1/2 I found Minsc to be incredibly strong.

    Maybe I'm focusing too much on early game but 18/93 unbuffed for an NPC is crazy (Unless you're playing EE with Dorn..........). It allows you to put the strength buffing items on other NPCs that need it more. He was my main powerhouse for most of my BG2 playthrough (Put 2 profecieny points into axes as soon as I could and he was dual wielding +3 axes surprisingly early into the game).

    Maybe it's because late game there's enough strength buffing gauntlets, belts, weapons to put everyone and their mums at 18/00+ strength, but I found him surprisingly good for an NPC.
  • moody_magemoody_mage Member Posts: 2,054
    Blackraven said:

    Keldorn is also really good against mages i.e. the bulk of the fights in SoA and ToB. Inquisitor is such a powerful class, and with the Gauntlets of Dex (and optionally a Strength) belt his stats are very good as well.

    Don't forget the Ring of Human Influence. For even more giggles you can place the Blade of Roses in an equipment slot plus the Helm of the Noble for 21 CHA.

    Just the thought of it amuses me.
  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 5,975
    edited September 2014
    @decado then the nymph cloak for 23 cha then wear the plate of balduran for 24 cha, ah i remember back in the day when my imported charname had 19 cha and i would bump it up to 25 for spite, goood times :)
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    @decado, @sarevok57‌ - for what? 20 CHA is useful because it maximises your store discount, but beyond 20 is does nothing but further improve your encounter reaction which is already as good as anyone needs, so >20 CHA is pretty pointless.
  • xzar_montyxzar_monty Member Posts: 631
    @Gallowglass: Can you or anyone else give me an example of a situation where an encounter reaction actually matters? The only real instance I can think of is where your reputation is so low that shops won't do business with you, but that's a matter of reputation, not charisma.

    I would like charisma to affect things, but I don't see that it does. I believe it can very occasionally allow to not pay for a favor or something like that, but because you get way too much money in the game anyway and later on there's nothing to buy, this doesn't matter.

    I'll be very happy to be proven wrong on this.
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    xzar_monty said:

    @Gallowglass: Can you or anyone else give me an example of a situation where an encounter reaction actually matters?

    Right at the start in Candlekeep, Fuller will reward you (for fetching his crossbow bolts) with a Dagger +1 if your encounter reaction is high, but otherwise with merely 10gp.

    There are several other such cases, where quest rewards can be either an item or gold depending on reaction. None of them are game-changing.

    There are some quests which you won't get at all if your encounter reaction is low, and a couple (presumably designed for bad-guy parties) which you won't get if your encounter reaction is high, although (so far as I recall) all are minor side-quests, not important.

    Some of the recruitable NPCs will refuse to join you if you've got a particularly low encounter reaction, which can be game-changing if you were specifically planning on using that particular NPC.

    I reckon the only case where god-level CHA (i.e. >20 CHA) might change anything is that, if you're moderately-low REP, then you might nevertheless be able to get some of the high-reaction results, since encounter reaction depends on both REP and CHA.
    xzar_monty said:

    The only real instance I can think of is where your reputation is so low that shops won't do business with you, but that's a matter of reputation, not charisma.

    Shop prices depend on both REP and CHA, not on REP alone. That's the most important effect of CHA, but in the case of shops the effect of CHA is capped at 20 CHA, so it's different from the ordinary encounter reaction calculation.
    xzar_monty said:

    ... because you get way too much money in the game anyway and later on there's nothing to buy, this doesn't matter.

    That depends very much on your personal playing-style. I like to be able to re-charge wands and other chargeable items, which is very expensive - so expensive that I'm always very short of gold, even at the end of BG1. (This applies in BG2 as well, throughout SoA and the first half of ToB; it's only towards the end of ToB that I've finally got so much gold that re-charging doesn't exhaust my wealth.)

    I suspect that the reason the original devs included so much gold was precisely in order to make re-charging a usable option, because otherwise you could never afford to do it. If you're not in the habit of re-charging items, then yes, there's more gold than you can use.
  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 5,975
    high charisma has a much bigger effect in bg1 than bg2, it seems to me they put more effort into their charisma stuff in bg1, although having a high charisma can help in some certain situations in bg2 but those are far and few between
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    Aerie. cleric/mages in the late game are killer. With the right spell set up, she can fit any role needed except for aerial scout.
  • FleshIsADesignFlawFleshIsADesignFlaw Member Posts: 39
    Edwin. 2 more spells of every level is simply ridiculous.
    Sarevok. Incredible stats, and death bringer assault.
  • DreadKhanDreadKhan Member Posts: 3,857
    Neera probably has an edge on Edwin in later BG2, and definately does in ToB, but Edwin is more reliable.

    Clearly the best BG1 npc is Garrick, and the best BG2 is Cernd.
  • CruelMetatronCruelMetatron Member Posts: 8
    edited September 2014
    deltago said:

    Aerie. cleric/mages in the late game are killer. With the right spell set up, she can fit any role needed except for aerial scout.

    I found her to fall off in the lategame compared to real mages. It is very hard, if not impossible to get the Improved Alacrity/Timestop combo going on her and buffs kind of fall off. She is still very usefull, but I wouldn't count her as one of the most powerful NPCs. Shitty stats and very slow level gain in the lategame hinder her offensive capabilities.
  • KloroxKlorox Member Posts: 894
    Jan!
  • VitorVitor Member Posts: 288
    edited September 2014
    1. Viconia (65% Magic Resistance, 18 Wisdom, 19 Dexterity)
    2. Edwin (3 extra spells in each Spell Level. If he had 1.000 years and a pointy hat, he could be better than Vicky...)
    3. Korgan (Berserk, Dwarf, 18/77 Str, 19 Con)

    Evil Ways
  • abacusabacus Member Posts: 1,307
    Vitor said:

    1. Viconia (65% Magic Resistance, 18 Wisdom, 19 Dexterity)
    2. Edwin (3 extra spells in each Spell Level. If he had 1.000 years and a pointy hat, he could be better than Vicky...)
    3. Korgan (Berserk, Dwarf, 18/77 Str, 19 Con)

    Evil Ways

    Indeed.
    Add Dorn or The 'Vok for oomph and Jan for utility and Charname is pretty much just along for the ride.
  • karl_maulderkarl_maulder Member Posts: 133
    edited September 2014
    If you know how to abuse the system, the best NPCs are: 1. Jan Jansen 2. Aerie 3. Haer'Dalis in that order.
  • Viconia9Viconia9 Member Posts: 34
    Best personality: Jan
    Best morals: Keldorn and Mazzy
    Best story: Aerie
    Best overall: Minsc and Boo!
  • _Luke__Luke_ Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 1,535
    BG1: Baeloth
    BG2: Wilson !!!!!!!
  • KrudarKrudar Member Posts: 95
    The best NPC, if equipped well, is Keldorn.

    Inquisitor is a cheat kit, and with right equip Keldorn on early playthrought have 19-18-17-X-X-X and the Carsomyr like weapon.

    That's enough?


    The second best is Anomen.

    The dualclass Fighter/Cleric is insane, and in mid game with right spells and item he arrive with 23-23-23-X-16-X....and in late game have Crom+FoA, what else?


    Then in ToB there is the big brother that with ur special attack istant kill everyone, and if equip his with Vorpal....ahahahahah....


    Sorry for bad english.
  • JenzafarJenzafar Member Posts: 303
    edited September 2014
    Keldorn's dispel can't be beat, but . . . I really like Haer'Dalis in TOB, especially when he has the harp of pandemonium, can use any item, and has a couple spike traps to his name. Call it cheese if you want--I think it's a reward for carrying a bard that far.
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