Any suggestions for my next party setup?

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I want to go for a new BG-2 game over the easter days and I want to play a good party.

My main char will probably be a dc swashbuckler-mage my next time through. As for a second pc I´m hesitating - I´m considering to take (a) Donaldus - halfling cavalier or (b) Alobar Steelfist, dwarven berserker

With this limitations I don´t know which other chars I should take - I need a cleric, Mazzy would be cool too, just like Jaheira/ Viccy for romancing or Keldorn for Carsomyr (I simply can´t imagine Donaldus weilding a two-handed-sword ....) and so on ...

Any ideas?

 

Good on you! Lets see a whole party of vertically challenged heroes!

 

For variety, I tried an all women party. It was very effective once they had leveled up a bit but hard going without a decent melee tank at the start. I'm now running a non-magic user only party. It's too early to say how tricky this is going to be with some of the better magical adversaries but so far no real problems. (I've posted about both these party types)
http://www.sorcerers.net/ubb/Forum2/HTML/001851.html
http://www.sorcerers.net/ubb/Forum2/HTML/001701.html

However, I still reckon your better of going for an interesting mix of characters just to get dialogue. Hell, next time I'll even consider having Hagan Das (sorry I know that's not his name it's just what I think of when I see it) and the Druid bloke just to see what they have to say.

I also think Minsc is a must for any party, just because he is the most fun. As to effective party combinations, I don't think it really matters, you can get away with anything really especially once you've been through once.

(Stands back and waits for the outraged cries demanding 2 tanks, a thief, a cleric and a mage)

PS of course, to keep Ironbeard happy, you could go for a party of Aerie and the 5 dwarves....

 

Well I say go for an all Evil party with one good character. They get in lots of fights, U don't have to worry about your actions cause they don't care! The one good cahracter should either be: Aerie(she gets shocked when U do something bad) or Keldorn(he gets mad)
Hope that helps!

 

It's indeed a whole difference between playing BG2 with a neutral/good party and an evil party. It's also a a lot more difficult so maybe that's a good idea.

 

Has anybody tried a full dwarf ,gnome, elf / halfling party. No Humans allowed.

Mazzy
Jaheira
Korgan
Aerie
Jan


Could be fun ???

 

Nice idea but I think there are real problems trying to keep Korgan and Jaheira in the same party. This isn't just an alignment problem its a real bust up and falling out. A bit of nark & niggle, real argie bargie stuff. Has anyone lese tried it succesfully?

 

Sorry forgot about those two or three , you could also try Viconia but I think its also do or die stuff there , wait is'nt Haer Daleis an elf - Tiefling. There you go a full party , that should get along

but you get the idea that I'm trying to put through , maybe you can have one other unique non NPC character to make six.

 

Another thought has just hit (God I'm thinking about my next time through and I've only just started again). How about a party of all of the character classes that no-one ever plays (possibly because they are crap but I wouldn't like to upset anyone who does play them). For example:

Jester - half orc
Swashbuckler - halfling
Shapeshifter - Half Orc
Inquisitor - gnome
Wizard Slayer (although I was almost convinced that these aren't too bad in the chatroom yesterday - the manual gets their bonus wrong) - gnome
and whatever your own personal non-favouite is.

PS just noticed the race restrictions mean you can't use the races I suggested - shame.

PPS Slappy cringes waiting for the flames from all the players who use one of the above classes.

 

How about the tree hugging party?
Use Minsc, Jaheira, Valygar and Cernnd. To make up for mage abilities you can call Aerie a tree hugger(based on her hatred of underground and general elfness) and/or try and do something with your character. Unfortunately, I'm not sure a druid or ranger can dual to mage. Best might be the avenger druid.

 

A halfling with a 2-handed sword would be a sight worth seeing!

I've never tried it, but can you use Shadow Keeper to make "out of the box" combinations, like halfling cavalier, or half-orc sorcerer?

It could be fun to play a group of mis-fits like that. "We've been kicked out of every respectable RPG in the industry. We're all mutts!"

MAT

 

I just created a halfling cavalier - his rescue throws are really fabulous (almost like a monk´s). I intend to let Keldorn wield Carsomyr - my halfling will have the flail of the ages, daystar or Namarra and/or skullcrusher - daystar *IS* a two handed-sword on a halfling

I don´t knwo who else I´ll take and romance so I´still open to suggestions

 

If your Halfling is male, let him hook up with the winged-one. The two goody-goodys are almost two sweet! (awwwww)

Or Mazzy. A little short-bread never hurt anyone!

You'll probably turn into a good tank, especially with Keldorn, the two of you will stand up to anything. That makes Minsc optional - fun, but too many fighters up front?

Why not take Cerd (turning into a greater wolfwere is killer - literally); Mazzy (for the short-bread romance); Edwin (for a little dark side fun) and the rich b*ch?

 

Just a quick note, unfortunatley there is no romance option for Mazzy (even if you are playing a halfling) shame but true. So you're stuck with Aerie, Jaheira or Viconia. Now Viconia might open the eyes of an innocent little halfling.

 

Thanks Slappy. I didn't know that Mazzy prefered her own short sword to male companions!

When romancing Vic, don't they change the background music to "black magic woman"?

Look out little cavalier!

 

Poor Mazzy - she and glorious Donaldus will never come together

However - I think I´ll run two games simultaneously: a good one and en evil one. So I´m still thinking about my first char for tis game. I considered: monk/ asassin/ swashbuckler/ dwarven barbarian/ priest of Talos but I don´t know which to choose.
Any ideas?

 

Try a monk.
The first time i tried it, I thought I would turn out to be some weakling cleric preaching for goodness. Not so. Monks are especially good fighters in hand to hand combat, their 'stunning blow' ability is, well, stunning, and they can use most good swords. Plus their armor class gets quite low near the end (too bad about the no-armour restriction).
I'm busy plaing an assassin, but they're not so hot.

 

Having played both a monk and a k/thief (what rags is now), I'd stay away from the monk. Sure he's a whirling dervish of Death, but a monk plays very similiar to a thief. He's you're first strike weapon. Just like a thief without the backstab bonus (THAT would be a one-man-killing machine!)

Too similiar= boring.

I'd try (and am going to) a straight cleric or mage, just to get off the front lines for a while. Finally have someone who can use a +5 weapon, Keldorn, and use a few of the NPCs I haven't ever used before... Mazzy, Val, etc... Maybe even ctrl Q me a recruit off the street. maybe a dragon....

 

Still searching for my evil counter-char for the parallel game. I´ve recently considered to play a real weakling , an mc mage-thief WITHOUT grandmastery ... or I´m going with a nice pure hack´n-slash dwarven barbarian - but that would be too similar to my halfling pally. Maybe a sorcerer ... or be a priest of thalos (though this would be kinda uneconomic for Viccy already is an excellent clerix )

So You have the choice: elven or gnomish mc mage-thief (neutral evil I think), dwarven barbarian, sorcerer or priest of thalos - vote for it!

 

I´m getting more and more interested in the idea to play my good old BG-1 elven mc mage-thief as an MC mage-swashbuckler (using shadowkeeper) ... The advantages would be: fighting abilities like or better than a fighter/ mage/ thief (initiantive of a same level fighter!), -2 AC, availability of elven chain and escpecially: Better use of XP compared to a fmt.
Disadvantage: no backstabb, still inferior to a dc char , not really conform with the rules

However I have another problem with my good party setup: I don´t want to take Arie for I played this romance before. I haven´t finished Jaheira yet so I want to have her in my party. I want to have Imoen, Keldorn and Mazzy in my party too - leaves one place: I´d like to have a cleric to deal with undead - but my only choice is Anomen So what should I doo - convert Arie to a pure cleric ?! Dunno Your opinions please ...