Another "who should be in my party" question

Remove all ads!

People may be getting tired of these type of questions, but then everyone likes to share their opinions also, so here it goes.

I'm fairly early into Chapter 2 and I just met Keldorn and I would like to add him into my party but I'm not sure who I should kick out. Here's who I have & why:

Myself- Ranger (archer): I like playing the stealthy sniper role
Minsc: fills tank role since my main character cannot be frontline. Interesting personality
Nalia: fills thief role (albeit somewhat poorly) & has magic skills. Annoying & will be replace will Imoen (and maybe Yoshimo before that if she keeps getting on my nerves).
Anomen: Another frontline. Somewhat annoying but I need the frontline support
Jaheira: Has giant girdle so can provide some fight support with Druid spells. Mainly keeping her for interesting interaction w/ PC
Aerie: Main spell caster. Was extremely annoying but has quieted down now.

At first, I was going to dump Nalia, but then realized I would not have any open lock/find trap ability. If my main character was more of a tank and adding Keldorn would add another tank, I would unload Anomen or Minsc (probably keep Minsc on personality alone). On the otherhand, if I get rid of Jaheira or Aerie, am I going to be magic deprived (or miss out on future storylines?).

Ok everyone... Let's hear your 2-cents...

 

Firstly, Your party is fine the way it is.

Secondly, no offense, but seriously dude...the "Search" link on the top-right (in case you couldnt find it) is there for a REASON!



Edit: Oh, and welcome to the boards!

 

Whoever you like the best.

There's a couple of well known mod NPC's Kelsey (Sorcerer) and Chloe (Overpowered Kensai) you might want to consider Downloading them. As long as you have at least one Theif, Cleric and Mage along with a combination of fighters and/or secondary Clerics and mages, you should be able to cruise through the un-modded game easy enough.

Some good NPC's in terms of personality (arguably) are Edwin, Minsc, Jan, Korgan, Imoen and there are characters that are generally quite boring unless you have some characters along with them to bring out other sides of their personality like Keldorn when he's teamed up with Yoshimo, Haer Dalis and Minsc. Kelsey and Chloe also have good and interesting banters and bring out lots of other talk with NPC's like Imoen (Romancable by both custom characters) and you can also try the Banter pack mod addition and also you can get lots of Banters with Aerie and Haer together, I could go on forever about the possible combinations since there's so many it may as well be infinate for most people.

And like I said there is no best combination of classes it all depends on style, if you like fighters take a majority of fighter if you like spells take spell caster etc, it's really up to you, which is one of the best things about BGII, it's so diverse that most people will have their own preferences no matter what advice they get so the best way is to just experiment

 

My suggestion would be to skip Aerie since one cleric is enough.

 

So you have this:
- Archer
- Ranger (Minsc)
- Thief -> Mage (Nalia)
- Fighter -> Cleric(Anomen)
- Fighter/Druid (Jaheira)
- Cleric/Mage (Aerie)

The thief issue:
I always take Yoshimo along and replace him with Imoen. Yoshimo is not great at lockpicking, but he does have the skill so you can just boost it when needed.

Clerics and Druids:
You have three clerics or druids. Isn't that too much? Anything more than one is IMO excessive.

Tanks:
Jaheira makes for a decent tank thanks to being a multiclass fighter and having Iron Skins.
Anomen is also a good tank. Both Anomen and Jaheira can get a very good AC if you seriously try.
You might love Minsc for his personality (or you might not) but he does not hold up well from a powergaming perspective. Keldorn is far better.

Mages:
I think your party is a little bit light in this department, so I can understand if you were reluctant to drop Nalia before getting Imoen. If you're trying to rescue Imoen reasonably quickly - and do most big quests in chapter 6 - it's probably a good idea to drop Nalia.
Definitely keep Aerie! (edited: since she's a mage)

I think doing SoA on a party of five is a good idea so my recommendation is this:
Your Archer
Keldorn
Anomen
Jaheira
Aerie
If you must have a sixth member, then Jan Jansen is one option which gives you good thief skills and an extra mage.
If you rather would take a fighter then please consider Valygar. Much better than Minsc.

 

I would highly recommend not getting rid of Nalia. Think of her as a mage and NOT a thief. She is in fact the very best good aligned mage in the game. By the time you get Imoen back, she will be higher level and have more spells than Immy.

With Aerie, Anomen and Jaheira you have 3 characters capable of divine magic. Of the 3, Anomen is the only single class Cleric (I know he is dualled, but he is only levelling Cleric now) so will be the best Cleric. Aerie will give you good mage support and Jaheira has some fantastic anti-mage spells and can be a tank as well. I would get rid of one of these characters for definite - probably Anomen as Keldorn can tank for you and the others can cover the cleric spells.

I would get rid of another character and take Yoshi as your thief until you get Imoen back.

So, I would go for ....

PC - Archer
Minsc - Tank
Keldorn - Tank
Jaheira - Tank + Druid
Nalia - Mage
Imoen - Mage + Thief skills

...or kick out Jaheira and keep Aerie.

This will give you great front-line support:
Minsc + Keldorn
Great anti-mage attacks:
Keldorn + Jaheira
Great magic support:
Nalia + Imoen
Adequate Thieving Skills:
Imoen

You will be weaker on cleric spells, but your PC and Minsc should have enough low-level cleric spells to help Jaheira out if need be. If you prefer cleric spells to druid spells then take Aerie.

One final thing ... Dont't underestimate Nalia!!