tips for my party
pooley
Member Posts: 3
Hello there!
A friend of mine bought me baldur's gate enhanced and after a lot of reading, i put on my speedos and dove in.
There are very few games that keep me fascinated (mass effect comes to mind), but this is a true gem.
My first ad&d experience (except for the board game, which i thought was a little boring imo) and loving it!
I'm planning to play through baldur's gate II enhanced as well (then kotor, then icewind dale enhanced
I do have a couple of questions regarding my current party (with current stats):
- Arathon (cavalier): ++long sword, ++axe (ranged), +two-weapon style (for flail of ages + sword / axe)
- Dorn (blackguard): ++two-handed sword, ++two-handed weapon style
- Minsc (ranger): ++longbow, +mace, ++two-handed sword, ++two-handed weapon style
- Jaheira (druid/cleric): ++club, ++sling, +quarterstaff
- Imoen (thief): +shortsword, +shortbow, +single weapon style (i put a lot of points in detecting traps and opening locks)
- Neera (wild mage): +quarterstaff (hopefully her quest comes up soon, so i can get the item that controls her a little better : ) .Only had one wild surge so far (put all the monsters and party members (except Imoen) to sleep lol.
Now for the questions:
- Is this setup any good? If no, who would you swap and for whom?
- Tips for spending upcoming proficiency points?
- Weapon tips (best weapons) for these party members?
- Best spells for Neera?
- Is the core difficulty the best?
I'm not having too much trouble right now, but i wonder if it's not too much of hassle with the chance of not learning spells, not reviving etc (already have Neera as a surprise factor).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Have a good one!
Cheers,
M@rk
A friend of mine bought me baldur's gate enhanced and after a lot of reading, i put on my speedos and dove in.
There are very few games that keep me fascinated (mass effect comes to mind), but this is a true gem.
My first ad&d experience (except for the board game, which i thought was a little boring imo) and loving it!
I'm planning to play through baldur's gate II enhanced as well (then kotor, then icewind dale enhanced
I do have a couple of questions regarding my current party (with current stats):
- Arathon (cavalier): ++long sword, ++axe (ranged), +two-weapon style (for flail of ages + sword / axe)
- Dorn (blackguard): ++two-handed sword, ++two-handed weapon style
- Minsc (ranger): ++longbow, +mace, ++two-handed sword, ++two-handed weapon style
- Jaheira (druid/cleric): ++club, ++sling, +quarterstaff
- Imoen (thief): +shortsword, +shortbow, +single weapon style (i put a lot of points in detecting traps and opening locks)
- Neera (wild mage): +quarterstaff (hopefully her quest comes up soon, so i can get the item that controls her a little better : ) .Only had one wild surge so far (put all the monsters and party members (except Imoen) to sleep lol.
Now for the questions:
- Is this setup any good? If no, who would you swap and for whom?
- Tips for spending upcoming proficiency points?
- Weapon tips (best weapons) for these party members?
- Best spells for Neera?
- Is the core difficulty the best?
I'm not having too much trouble right now, but i wonder if it's not too much of hassle with the chance of not learning spells, not reviving etc (already have Neera as a surprise factor).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Have a good one!
Cheers,
M@rk
Post edited by pooley on
0
Comments
With Minsc and Jaheria and a Cavalier PC you won't need Dorn. And in the first game Minsc and Jaheria come with companions that you can't split up (unless you kill them off).
If you dump Dorn you can grab Viconia. Then you'll have a Druid, a Cleric, a Wild Mage, and a Thief/Mage if you dual class Imoen.
For a thief, you only really need Traps and Locks. Traps at 100 will find anything and Locks in the 70's will open most locks without you having to resort to casting Knock on them.
If this is your first playthrough, I recommend that you ask questions in the "New Players (NO SPOILERS)" part of the forum. The plot is a big part of the enduring appeal of the BG games, and it would be a shame to get spoiler'd by somebody over-enthusiastically trying to point you in the right direction.
As for your questions...
Is this setup any good? If no, who would you swap and for whom?
Yes your party looks perfectly fine. There's two things I wanna mention:
1) Dorn is evil. Your Charname is Good (I assume, given he is a Paladin variant). That's going to cause a problem if/when your reputation rises to 19+ It also doesn't make a lot of sense roleplay-wise.
2) There is a canon party in BG1. It doesn't matter mechanically if you use them or not, though the start of BG2 will make a little more sense if you do. The canon party is Minsc, Dynaheir, Khalid, Jaheira and Imoen.
Given the above, I'd recommend that you replace Dorn. Khalid would have been ideal, but if you lost him already, then Yeslick will be great too.
Weapon tips (best weapons) for these party members? and Tips for spending upcoming proficiency points?
These questions are basically linked, and far more knowledgeable players than me can answer them. However I would like to point out that BG2 has a whole new cast of characters in addition to returning ones from BG1, and that when transfer a save from BG1 to BG2, it only transfers details for Charname, so you don't need to worry about proficiencies for everyone else in terms of planning for BG2. Also, the item that helps Neera control her power to an extent is not in BG1.
Best spells for Neera?
I would avoid spells that she needs to cast on party members. It's not a problem if you are okay with reloading every time something goes wrong, but otherwise it's not worth the risk. In BG1 that means I just load up her spellbook with stuff that kills or disables the enemy. Web, Sleep, Confusion, Horror, Chaos are all great cc spells, especially if you can also land a Greater Mallison beforehand. For the actual killing, Magic Missiles, Skull Trap and Minute Meteors get the job done nicely. There's plenty of Wand of Fire in the game for Fireballs and Scorchers too. In BG2 there are too many options to mention, and it greatly depends on the style of magic you enjoy, but I'm sure you'll have a better grasp of the magic system by then
Is the core difficulty the best?
There is no objective answer to that. For me, it is. But I am not a power-gamer and I enforce many role-play restrictions upon myself that provide the challenge in my game that others might not deal with. For example I don't pre-buff before a difficult battle, I don't rest in the middle of dungeons or use slings. For me, Core Rules is just right for the style that I play. I am not interested in metagaming and using tactics that I'd regard "cheesy" to defeat enemies with artificially buffed stats.
If you are the type of player who likes to push the game to its limits, find interesting methods to defeat "impossible" difficulty, then even Insane might be too easy for you and you might want to look at the SCS mod.
I'm not having too much trouble right now, but i wonder if it's not too much of hassle with the chance of not learning spells, not reviving etc (already have Neera as a surprise factor).
Maybe I misunderstand you, but those are already factors in Core Rules. Normal is the lowest difficulty where you always learn spells 100%, cannot suffer permanent death and gain maximum hp on level-up. I think there's also 20% damage reduction. So really, I think of Normal as an easy mode, and Core Rules as "standard".
As for mixed alignment parties... of course, it's your game, so as long as it makes sense to you, that's fine. But do be aware that choosing noble paths in quests, which typically provides the best rewards in BG1, will quickly fire up your reputation to 20, and that all evil companions will leave you at 19. There are also a number of NPCs that do not get along with each other, but I don't see them on your planned lists, so it should be fine.
Branwen (statue at the carnival) is a fine cleric if you aced Viconia.
The people you'll want along if you want to get the best story-wise transition into BG2 would include, in this order IMO Imoen, Jahira/Khalid, Minsc/Dynahair, Edwin, Tiax (of course Nera and Dorn but they're EE only and arguably not quite as well written or seemless as the others).
Really just about any party can beat the game, particularly if you have a good balance (a couple fighters, a priest a thief and a mage... double up on priest or mage to suit your style, or add a druid or bard). I'd stick with the canon party for your first ever playthrough then mix it up next time around. Between unique class specific strongholds and romance options BG2 is worth 5 playthroughs easy and you'll be hard pressed to do and find anything in either of them in even 2 tries.
If you like a good story with replay value and fun interactions between NPCs BG2 and KotOR really do well (the HK droid character in KOTOR is rather weak compared to force using characters but has some of the best banter in any games). IWD is pretty good as a tactics style game if you like the engine and game mechanics of BG you'll enjoy it, but it holds far less replay value than the others and the story isn't terribly compelling.
As far as difficulty the main reason I'd recommend against core rules is the variable HP. Assuming you start BG2 with a fresh PC you will have MAX HP for 7th/9th level (depending on class), whereas if you took things as they come in BG1 you'll come into BG2 really weak HP wise (though you can pick up quite a few permanent stat boosts), so I think at least maxing HP on your PC would be worthwhile, otherwise why even port him over?
You really don't need to power-game to win, have fun, or even to be very powerful. Pick whatever weapons fit your style and run with it. About the only thing that's really thin on options is club. Otherwise, though some are more plentiful than others, there's plenty of really strong and viable options for all weapons eventually in the series.
For thief skills I'd say even 50% pick locks does enough so that you don't need to use knock too often, and definitely go deep on find/remove traps! Setting traps can also be very powerful, not so much in BG1, but in BG2 they can crush even the toughest opponents so it's a good option if you're taking along a thief. I've never been a huge fan of stealth as a thief ability since casting invisibility or using potions are far more reliable.
... So that you have a consistent and complete full saga story? :P
I personally think that max-hp characters are out of line with your equivalent companions in BG2 (cos their hp gets reset even if u had them in BG1) and the enemies you face, so I prefer to start BG2 with 70-90 hp (for warrior types), not the 100+ you'd have if you max'd rolls in BG1. But hey, now we're getting into the age-old powergamer vs roleplayer debate.
For OP, optimal difficult is whatever is most fun for him.