Party of Corwin, Voghiln, M’Khiin and Glint . Who to choose as a CHARNAME and the 5th NPC?
JuliusBorisov
Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,725
Before the release of BG2EE, I wanted to make a first run through it with all the available EE NPCs so that I could see theire content and understand them better. I asked this community on your thoughts about choosing a CHARNAME's and the 5th NPC's classes and kits.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/23468/party-of-dorn-hexxat-rasaad-and-neera-who-to-choose-as-a-charname-and-the-5th-npc/
It was a good discussion, with people recommending making an Avenger and taking Viconia. it turned out to be a good choice and I've liked my first BG2EE playthrough with that party a lot.
Now, with SoD becoming nearer, I'm thinking about going through SoD for the first time with every 4 new NPCs.
I know that one can play and enjoy any class (kit), but still I wonder what may the most interesting choices be in terms of CHARNAME and the 5th NPC.
There's of course a problem that we still don't know which NPC(s) in particular won't be avaible for SoD after its start, but still we have a lot of NPCs, including BGEE's Dorn, Neera, Rasaad and Baeloth.
So:
CHARNAME - ?
Captain Schael Corwin - Archer
Voghiln the Vast - Skald
M’Khiin Grubdoubler - Shaman
Glint Gardnersonson - Cleric/Thief (and I really think he will be a Cleric/Thief and not, for example, a Cleric/Ilusionist, https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/666394/#Comment_666394)
NPC - ?
I hope this discussion can be interesting not only for me but for others as well because the decision to take all 4 new NPCs may be quite popular.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/23468/party-of-dorn-hexxat-rasaad-and-neera-who-to-choose-as-a-charname-and-the-5th-npc/
It was a good discussion, with people recommending making an Avenger and taking Viconia. it turned out to be a good choice and I've liked my first BG2EE playthrough with that party a lot.
Now, with SoD becoming nearer, I'm thinking about going through SoD for the first time with every 4 new NPCs.
I know that one can play and enjoy any class (kit), but still I wonder what may the most interesting choices be in terms of CHARNAME and the 5th NPC.
There's of course a problem that we still don't know which NPC(s) in particular won't be avaible for SoD after its start, but still we have a lot of NPCs, including BGEE's Dorn, Neera, Rasaad and Baeloth.
So:
CHARNAME - ?
Captain Schael Corwin - Archer
Voghiln the Vast - Skald
M’Khiin Grubdoubler - Shaman
Glint Gardnersonson - Cleric/Thief (and I really think he will be a Cleric/Thief and not, for example, a Cleric/Ilusionist, https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/666394/#Comment_666394)
NPC - ?
I hope this discussion can be interesting not only for me but for others as well because the decision to take all 4 new NPCs may be quite popular.
5
Comments
Will it have the epic mage battles of BG2 or feature the huge horde swarming of the IWD games? We just don't know yet.
You're desired party lacks two things: melee and (arcane) magic. So if you're intend on making a balanced party though, I would go for Dorn/Rasaad depending on your alignment (monks start actually becoming decent around the lvl 10 range) for melee power, while your charname is a mage/sorcerer or a mage multiclass
That kind of party would be prepared for any type of situation.
Heck you could even go the other way around and pick Neera and play a melee type yourself.
Fighter 8/Illusionist 9 or Berserker 7/Mage 11 as charname
Somebody tanking in the front line as the fifth NPC (what are the options here?)
I can appreciate that "fighter/mage" probably isnt want you want to hear but it looks to fit very well.
what to go cannon with
Minsc
Imoen
Dynaheir
Kalid
Jaheira
Im interested to see what they do with that story line
If you decide to play a warrior type yourself I'd agree that Baeloth sounds like a pretty good choice for the 5th npc, but Edwin (or Neera if you don't want too many evil npcs) would work well. As for the specific CHARNAME class that would be down to your own preferences, but I'd probably try a dwarven defender, since they have 1d12 base hitpoints per level plus potentially a bonus from 20 CON (which also gives regeneration), which would be fairly effective, and that's before you include defensive stance!
For an arcane CHARNAME my first choice would be Kagain (are you seeing a pattern here?), since once you equip him with gauntlets of dexterity and that cursed strength belt he has perfect stats for a fighter. Ajantis might work well if you don't want someone evil. It's a shame Minsc is still attached to Dynaheir, otherwise he might make a fun choice
If I wasn't being so powergamey and more roleplayery I'd probably still bring Baeloth if I needed an arcane caster, but for the warrior npcs I might go for Kivan or even Shar-Teel, since we've absolutely no idea what happened to them after BG1
Go Baeloth and a tank. Perhaps a DD
No, I reiterate, a party with the 4 new NPCs should have charname and the fifth as 2 front liners, not 1. F/M plus Ajantis or something works fine or even a Blade with a tank type NPC perhaps.
Skalds can also easily double as tanks espically with eleven chain and the new bard hat.
PC- Fighter
Captain Schael Corwin - Archer
Voghiln the Vast - Skald
M’Khiin Grubdoubler - Shaman
Glint Gardnersonson - Cleric
Baeloth The Entertainer - Sorcerer
But still, I'm somehow sure that the amout of the new content for SoD NPCs will be the biggest.
And a great idea about Baeloth. I didn't think about it and now it seems very appealing to me. Indeed, it seems that for SoD there's nothing preventing making a lot of content for Baeloth, especially when a part of SoD will be in the Underdark.