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Help With Party

perflolperflol Member Posts: 12
in Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
Hello, I just recently purchased BG1&2:EE for iOS and I'm just about ready to start a new game. I've played both games before though I've never fully completed either, I've probably got about 10-20 hours played total so I'm not a complete noob but also not an expert by any means.
I know this is probably one of the top five most frequently asked questions so I do apologize in advance for asking it for the 74793638483rd time.
With that out of the way.... HELP ME WITH MY PARTY PLEASEEEEEE :(!!! I'm super indecisive and I really just wanna get started with my game as I love Baldur's Gate and really wanna finish it this time around.
The only thing I know for certain is that I definitely want to use a party of NPCs with Charname being a melee fighter of sorts and I would like my party to be well balanced (i.e. Not all mages or fighters or rangers etc). I do typically enjoy being powerful as well, I've no need to prove myself by using gimped characters/classes, I wanna slaughter things ;)! Again sorry for asking the same question everyoneeee asks and thank you so much in advance for any help!!

Comments

  • tbone1tbone1 Member Posts: 1,985
    Welcome! First, keep Imoen with you. She's a good thief, handy with a bow, and you can control her development from the outset. Also, she'll stick by you whatever your reputation.

    After that, what is your alignment?
  • perflolperflol Member Posts: 12
    Well like I said in the initial post I really don't care about anything other than using the NPCs from the game and having my MC as some sort of melee fighter.
    Besides those two things I'm really open for whatever, I've basically just been reading about the game non stop for the last three days or so and I'm still undecided. Hence why I'm here asking for help haha.
  • OrlonKronsteenOrlonKronsteen Member Posts: 905
    Well, alignment is critical for determining party make-up. If you're good you're more likely to want good NPCs and vice-versa. You can have mixed parties, but some combos don't work because
    some NPCs will fight to the death if they don't like each other.

    Frankly, the joy of discovering these kinds of things in game is priceless, and I'd think strongly about completing a play-through without any spoilers or further reading. The other thing is there are so many different party combos, tactics and strategies available that you're likely to get all kinds of different advice, so you still may feel undecided. But with that said, and without going into the theory of different party roles, etc. (trying to keep my post shorter than War and Peace), and since you've said that you want to be a powerhouse, here's one possible powergaming lineup for a good party:

    Fighter: Charname (ranged combat at first with transition to tank)
    Thief: Imoen (focus on pick locks/find traps, ranged combat) - possibly swapped out with Coran later
    Cleric: Branwen at first, swapped out later with Yeslick
    Mage: Neera
    Secondary mage: Xan
    Sniper: Kivan (I can't emphasize the power of ranged enough in BG 1 - Kivan is your guy!)


    Evil party:

    Fighter: Charname
    Thief: Imoen
    Cleric: Viconia
    Mage: Xzar
    Secondary mage: Edwin
    Sniper/backstabber: Montaron (he's got sling pips in the EEs but I usually hack him to xbows)


    Anyway, these are just examples. Plenty of other combos. :)
  • tbone1tbone1 Member Posts: 1,985
    I will back up Kivan, the guy has high dexterity, is an elf, and is specialized in longbow. Please he's a broody, angry elf, so what's not to like?
  • perflolperflol Member Posts: 12
    edited February 2017
    Okay... I think I've decided to be evil. So far I definitely want Edwin, Viconia, and Dorn. I'm thinking about a half-orc barb for Charname. I still need a thief and that leaves me with one slot still open >.<!!
  • OrlonKronsteenOrlonKronsteen Member Posts: 905
    Imoen will stay with you even if you're evil, so she can be your thief. If you don't want her you could recruit Xzar and Monty and all six party slots will be full. Monty can do your thieving, but it's slow getting his pick locks and find traps up there as he's multiclass and he doesn't start out with many points in them. If you don't want Xzar and Monty, there's also a fighter named Shar-Teel who you can dual into a thief. Safana will also work in an evil party. Later on there's Tiax, but you don't get to meet him until late in the game, so it's tough. As for the sixth slot - it's a buyers market. You could take Baeloth. You'd double your arcane power and you'd have a sorcerer who can identify items, saving you a lot of gold. Then again: you don't necessarily have to fill all six slots. A smaller party can be easier to manage and you will level up faster.
  • BigfishBigfish Member Posts: 367
    perflol said:

    Okay... I think I've decided to be evil. So far I definitely want Edwin, Viconia, and Dorn. I'm thinking about a half-orc barb for Charname. I still need a thief and that leaves me with one slot still open >.<!!</p>

    Shar-teel would round out your party if you Dual-class her to Thief at 3. For the last slot, I'd suggest Kagain, which would put you at 3 fighter types, a mage, a cleric, and a thief (eventually).
  • GallengerGallenger Member Posts: 400
    So I'll give you some options here.

    If you definitely 100% want dorn, edwin, and viconia, that's fine. All you have left is a thief and maybe an archer unless you want extra casting of some sort - or a bard since you do have Eldoth as an option.

    Kagain or Monteron as Tank may be a good idea if you plan on dual wielding or using 2h swords - because Dorn's HP is rather low, his AC won't be great, and your AC may also not be great, and it's nice to have a tank around for things to attack instead. Or you could just use a second mage for lots of CC (Xzar the whole game or Xzar --- ) Baeloth).

    Your rogue options are: Imoen the whole game (or maybe dualled to mage), Safana (can also be dualled to mage), Shar-teel dualled to thief, Monteron the whole game, Tiax, or Skie + Eldoth. You have to wait rather a long time for Tiax or Skie.

    If you end up sticking with one of the thieves, and don't want a second mage, a second divine caster would prolly be nice so that you and dorn can stay in combat longer - Faldorn is an often overlooked, but very good option, for an evil party, as is Tiax, or Xzar dualled to cleric, in addition to Viconia.



  • perflolperflol Member Posts: 12
    Hello again everyone, first off let me just start by saying thank you for all the responses and WOW! Pretty surprised there's still such an active community (though I guess I shouldn't be.. BG rules!!) for such an old game.

    Okay so at this point I have Charname(Barb), Imoen, Montaron, Viconia, Edwin, and Dorn.

    I think I wanna dual Imoen to mage but what's the preferred/optimal level to do so at? Also thinking about dropping Montaron for Shar-Teel and dualing her into a thief at level three as suggested. Just looking for some input on this, is Montaron actually better?
    Thanks again for the umpteenth million time! You guys are great!!
  • OrlonKronsteenOrlonKronsteen Member Posts: 905
    Glad you're having fun with the game! Re: Imoen, if you're going to have other thieves in your party (and especially if you've got one of them specializing in locks and traps) I'd dual her as soon as possible so you don't have to wait too long to get your thief levels back (not that you'd really need her thief levels back if you dualled her at level 2, but you'd at least get to use her bow). If you need/want her for some thief skills, then the question of when to dual her becomes: which exact thieving skills you want her to have, and what is realistically achievable? Personally, I'd have her master one skill (open locks or find traps) and let a second thief handle the rest. For example, Imoen could have 100 in find traps and Monty/Shar-Teel could have 100 in open locks. This gives Imoen utility as a thief and allows her to dual at level four. She'll get her thief levels back relatively soon, and she'll have freed up some points that Monty/Sharteel can spend on stealth, setting traps, or whatever. Note: I'm not a fan of dualling Imoen, but that's how I would do it.
  • perflolperflol Member Posts: 12
    So no later than level four? Also Monty vs. Shar-Teel any thoughts ?
  • OrlonKronsteenOrlonKronsteen Member Posts: 905
    Both Monty and Shar-Teel are great. Tough call. Monty has shorty saves, actively leveling fighter thaco (giving him the option to tank) and the swath of bonus thief points that haflings get. Shar-Teel has a great strength score and you can set her up with a pip in single-weapon style and 3 pips in daggers, making her a deadly backstabber with a certain magical dagger that can be found in a certain shop in Beregost. Also, once she duals she'll be leveling as a single-class thief which is faster than Monty's multi-class leveling.
  • OrlonKronsteenOrlonKronsteen Member Posts: 905
    Re: Imoen, level 4 is how I would do it, but you could do it later if you want, and a lot of other players do. The trouble is, if you want her to get 100 points in both open locks and find traps, that takes her to level 7, which means your mage has to get to level 8 for Imoen to get her thief points back, which takes 90,000 points. It's a long slog. Too long for my liking.
  • perflolperflol Member Posts: 12
    I'm so sorry for pestering you Orlen and I'm very very grateful for all the info/help. My idea is/was to dual imoen to a mage and Shar to a thief so I could have two mage/thief types, two fighter types, and a healer.
    My problem is I'm still pretty noob and I just don't know how good/viable this set up is or how good imoen/Shae will be when dualed.
  • OrlonKronsteenOrlonKronsteen Member Posts: 905
    No worries, you're not pestering. I've gotten so much great advice on here I can't tell you. :) I'm actually shy about giving advice because there are way better players on here than me. The other thing about advice is there is often more than one way to do things... To dual Imoen or not... To keep Shar-Teel as a fighter or not... To have two mages in my party or not... There are just so many approaches and play styles. My next bit of advice: just play the game and have fun! You're wondering how good the Imoen/Shar-Teel set up is? Dive in and find out! The true joy is in experiencing it. Finally: reading these forums is great but discussions about tactics (such as we're having) are often held in a powergaming context. Advice tends to center around what is the most powerful build or party possible. But the thing is, you don't need anywhere near that kind of power to destroy the game. It's overkill. You'll hear so much praise for dual-wielding, for instance, that you start to feel like you're screwing yourself if you want to play with a sword and shield. I fall into this trap all the time, but it's ridiculous. Will you be more powerful dual wielding? Yes, but you can still trounce the game with a sword and shield, just like you can win the game with any party. So... I'd say just dive in there and see what happens! You can play the game more than once, with different parties. Try a whole bunch of different set ups, and have fun!
  • GallengerGallenger Member Posts: 400
    edited February 2017
    It depends on what you want shar-teel to do.

    Shar-teel as a rogue that doesn't go for backstabbing seems like a waste to me if you're not going to immediately dual Imoen.

    So you've got options.

    Get one of either lock/traps to 90-95ish or 100 if you prefer, and then dual Imoen immediately and make Shar-teel pick up the slack for the time being, or wait to dual Imoen until she has 100 in both (level 7) and leave Shar-Teel to hide/move silent or not dual her at all and have her specialize in bows.

    You could also just keep Monteron as a tank, put all his thief points in Locks/Traps and dual Imoen immediately, and put Shar-teel on hide/move and be fine too - or again, not dual Shar-teel at all as an option.

    It's up to you. You may miss some loot if you have nobody able to lock pick at all, and you may end up spending some extra healing potions or spells if you encounter a nasty trap and have nobody to disarm it, but in general you shouldn't have your game ruined by it until you have some kind of thief that can deal with the problem.
  • perflolperflol Member Posts: 12
    Well truth is I don't know why nor do I have any reason to dual Imoen other than I personally like/enjoy mage type characters (all games not just BG), I'm just worried she'll end up useless or severely gimped.
    As for Shar-Teel I pretty much just want her to cover for imoens thief skills while she's getting her mage up. I'm not too worried about setting traps or any of that, way mor concerned about pick locks/pockets and finding traps.
  • BigfishBigfish Member Posts: 367
    Honestly when to dual imoen for me depends on if I'll have another thief in the party for Durlags Tower. I'd say dual imoen at 7 for full thiefy stuff, and dual shar-teel at 3, putting a second pip in to long sword and then when she hits thief 4 put that point in to longswords as well. At about the point imoen duals out of theif, you should have enough theif potions for shar-teel to be fully invested in backstabbing and still able to disarm traps and unlock things.
  • perflolperflol Member Posts: 12
    Well the deed is done. Gave Montaron the boot, picked up Shar-Teel and promptly had her slit his throat xDDDD!
    I think I'm gonna have Imoen focus on pick locks/pockets and dual her around five or six when both of those are pretty close to 100. I'll have Shar focus on detecting traps and switch her over at level three.
    Words can't express how grateful I am for everyones help!!! You guys are top notch!!!
    I'm sure I'll be back before long with more silly questions heh. Thanks again!
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