Jaheira

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She annoys me to no end, but I do end up taking her most of the time. I would think a character has to be pretty decent if they annoy you to tears and you still take them most of the time you play, right? Then again, there's always the "mute" button.

 

I sometimes feel like her and Minsc are kind of shoved on you. I rarely take either of them in BG1 but they somehow demand that they are the two I'd pick up in BG2?

Both of them were part of groups that would get upset if you tried to seperate them or didn't go after their partner(in the case of Minsc). Both of them are very annoying. Even after a bit of an upgrade in the things they say.

I tend to rescue them for the xp... Use them for space... and dump them once I get other party members.

 

Jaheira always annoys me. In BG1 I let her die, but kept Khalid...I loved his stuttering and running away! I kept her in BG2 until I found out she was playing both sides with the Harpers. I let her go after that.

Minsc is my favorite NPC. Picking him up and keeping him is a no-brainer.

 

if only there could be more than one

 

How many are there?

She's pretty powerful once you get her a STR girdle. If you're very patient, she's awesome dual-wielding a club with Belm off-hand.

 

First of all, you don't have to pick them up, but they are in my opinion probably two of the strongest and most interesting characters in the game (Minc in particular). I personally think that their banters are hilarious, but I also think that about Jan's and many people think that he is annoying as well. So it all goes down to personal preference, I suppose.

 

While you do have a point. In Counter point there is the fact that while you don't have to pick them up. They are rather boldly set in your path to be picked up. Unless your really not paying attention they are made extremely obvious and ready to be added to your group.

The other two that I can readily think of as being kind of shoved in your direction in BG2 are Aerie... Who in exploring the literally second area of the game you can move around in is part of a ready quest right close to where you start.

And Jan... Who walks up to you and starts a conversation with you unsolicited and can pretty quickly be figured out that he's joinable.

However my biggest problems with Jan are the fact that you basically have to pay some money for him(Though I do like to send him to jail) And that he's not strong enough even to carry his own equipment let alone anything else. Even Viconia can at least carry her own equipment.

 

You might even say Yoshimo or Nalia are "forced on you" too. But they're not. You have a choice for NPCs. That's the best part about the game. You get to choose who you want to take. BG2 is all about choices. So let the talk of Jaheira being "forced on you" stop, because it's not true. Her and Minsc are just offered as assistance to help you escape the dungeon you found yourself in. And no matter your PC; Minsc, Jaheira, and Imoen pretty much cover the bases for a decent team for the dungeon that size so your PC could be any class of your choosing.
As for Jaheira outside the dungeon, it's my personal preference that I don't like to take her (she's annoying) but I do more often than not.

 

By those lines of thought, Keldorn and Valygar are "forced" on you too. They are both there to join up with you just as you go on your way to complete a quest. Even Anomen starts talking to you as you wander about the Copper Coronet.

Unless you lack curiousity, Mazzy is forced on you too I guess. Cernd as well, considering you have to talk to him and he wants to join your party.

Pretty much 100% of all the NPC's approach you/talk to you/are topics of quests you do in the game. There's no way to ignore them except by Not doing the quests or ignoring a huge portion of some maps.

Jaheira's start just seems to be the longest winded one. Why can't she be quiet for a few days, ugh!!!!??

 

Nah. They're not the strongest characters in the game by a longshot. Minsc can be surprisingly flexible as a man-at-arms character if you stick with him a good long while, but there's a reason why those two are your starting companions in the first dungeon. Both are decent all-rounders at BG2's "lower" levels (if you can call level 7 "low").

With Minsc's high STR (and correspondingly decent THACO) and Jaheira's heals and buffs, the starter dungeon is manageable for pretty much any CHARNAME class. That's why BIO starts you in the game practically staring them in the face as joinable companions.

 

Anomen doesn't always approach. Nalia does if you really want to get into that but she's easy to insult.

Keldorn, Valygar, and Cernd It's rather easy to have a full party before you ever meet them. Though the chances are increased if you belong to certain classes and want to start you class quests early on.

I'm not the only one that ignores joinable's once they have a full party because they've usually already put work into the people they have.

Mazzy is very easy to miss in the dungeon she's in. I missed her entirely my first time through.

I did forget about Yoshimo but sometimes I just try to block out he exists at all because they ruined the one good thief like they did.

And Valygar depending on how you approach it. It's very easy to end up killing him rather than having you join him. Specially if you follow the quest to find him and don't just run over him during other things. (I killed him a couple times before I realized he was a joinable NPC. I thought he was just part of the quest plot.)


Jaheira and Minsc. Yes they provide something useful to make it easier for any Protagonist make it through the first dungeon. They are also the only ones that give you XP for setting them free. They start in the room that you start in and they are in plain sight from the Opening Sequences as well as being the Two NPC's that carry over from BG1. And You can read all through these boards where many of us players like continuity in the story. Which Continuity wise they are two of the three that the Bioware guys themselves are saying "Take these people with you".

Jaheira has some semi-interesting quest stuff attached to her at least but her romance bugs the heck out of me. I'd rather put up with Aerie's romance.

Minsc all he has is Boo. And Boo jsut doesn't do it for me personally.

 

Don't forget Viccy & Jan

 

I agree that Jaheira and Minsc - and Imoen - are forced upon you. It's not surprising though, as developers always think about the lowest common denominator... meaning it's a failsafe system for every ADD kid who made his sum 50 Beastmaster and just wants to kill stuff.

On the actual topic, I don't like Jaheira too. She's pretty arrogant and always has leadership problems, and I'm not really that fond of druids...

 

She comes with a temper. She's given the assignment to take care of you, and looses her husband. Anomen is arrogant, but I don't find Jaheira arrogant. On the other hand I find her to be one of the most complex NPC in the whole game. But of course if you don't agrees with her... leave her be or stab her it's up to you. I can't stand Anomen anymore, I used to take him once in a while. Jaheira is needed in my parties any time.

 

to the original poster's Jaheria no-show issue --> if you get quite deep into her harper quest, regardless if the romance is alive or not, she will leave you forever since, be in love or not, she did choose to stay with PC rather than harpers.

to those who just hate her personality -- well, this is quite common, and many BGers hated her since BG1.

to those who think that she's a crap NPC power-wise -- well, many have said otherwise with good points. to sum up and add something --> full plate, iron skin, insect plague, Harm, FIGHTER HLAs (when she starts getting HLAs, you can pick from both fighter and druid pools--> critical strikes, hardness, greater WW when protected by iron skin, well...), more than enough spell slots for cure/healing (sometimes joins the true sight party); can put on Amulet of Power the moment you get it and breezes through any vampire infested area with ease (well, smarter mage mod makes vampire/mage more tricky, but insect plague would take care of that before she charges in anyway). weapons-->all those wonderful staves, spears, clubs, scimitars (spectral brand, staff of ram, blackblood and so on) you don't know whom to give? give them to Jaheria and have fun. probably the most versatile and resourceful NPC in the game.

her romance has the most efforts put into it. well, manybe because Bioware people knew that she wasn't exactly the crowd favorite in terms of personality, and so they made her so desirable in other departments (besides her usefulness, there's no other vanilla NPC brings in more extra xp). personally, I rarely go through the game without her.

 

This is inacurate.

IMHO, I think she's a lot worse if you played BG1. She was a whole lot more annoying in that game.

 

I think teardropmina meant to say that she will leave Harpers, an organisation so powerful and important in her life, just to be able to stay with the PC. This means she is such a loyal, trusthworthy and honorable person. Let's face it, if you thınk RP-wise, would you like to have someone really untrusthworthy lıke, say, Edwin (just to gıve example) in your party instead of good old Jaheira, an old friend of your deceased foster father, whom you can always depend on?

Teardropmania is also very right in saying that she is the best NPC in reward-wise. Her romance can reward 100.000 quest xp points to your PC if you do it right, not the mention a few very useful magical items as well.

Personality wise, she never comes bossy to me. She is wise and knowledgable and tries to help PC to find his way through the chaos he or she is destined to live...

 

My on this topic...

I agree with Silverstar and teardropmina comments, Jaheira is an all-good rounded character, either power gaming or RP wise.

I specially like her interactions with PC on BG1, as well as some of the banter that she has with Khalid, (although I'm not sure if that is in the vanilla game or if it is added by BG1NPC mod), some of the "blushing" comments made between the two are quite funny.

 

about my statement regarding whether Jaheira will leave PC forever-- that's from my own experiencel maybe that's not always the case, but I wouldn't know since I only "tried" to ditch her once and it did happen.

during that runthrough, my PC wasn't romancing her, and when doing the planar sphere quest, with a crowded party, I made a decision to remove her and put Valyger in. and she just brusted out, saying something like "how can you do this after all we've been through and stay with you rather harpers. I'll never come back and you'll never find me again!" It's voiced dialouge...made me quite sad. I cannot remember whether it's just after the final harper fight or she's already gotten harper's pin. anyway, I reloaded and ditched someone else^^ if this isn't the norm or it's some kind of bug...well, then I'd say, my statement above was accurate "once." ~~