Most and least favourite NPCs

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My definite favourite would be Edwin. He's a powerful mage, his Nether Scroll quest is just hilarious, and his biting sarcasm and cynical nature always make me laugh. Also, since I often play as a mage myself, I feel obliged to drag him along. Professional courtesy and all.

For some reason, I like Sarevok. Just a perfect character, with great voice acting. And he is my half-brother, after all.

Aerie is the worst NPC, by far. I've never wanted to strangle a wingless elf so badly!
It's just 'whine whine whine' for the entire SoA series. Then, in ToB, she suddenly has the nerve to start bossing you around! Unbelievable!!!

Every time 'Faster than Chitikka Fastpaws!' blared out of my speakers, I would wince involuntarily. The number of times I have polymorphed the pest into a squirrel is unlimited.

People glorify her as an 'almighty' character when she hits ToB levels. But is it really worth putting up with her whiny ass attitude, and her frail constitution, for so long? Until she gets the ability to put priest spells in a contigency/spell sequencer, she's just dead weight.

Edwin doesn't need to reach ToB levels to start kicking ass.

Which reminds me. Valygar is also a mega pain in the ass with his continuous whining about 'evil' magick. Too bad my finger slipped, and turned him into stone.

 

OK, OK, I am ready for the bashing here...

My favorite NPC of the game is Anomen. Swear they took my husband as the basis of this guy. Yes he is annoying, and it takes a special type to deal with ones like him. If you already have the instinct to overlook the complaining and the insecurity, he's not really a bad guy, just one who has a somewhat hard time explaining himself who likes to brag about his accomplishments. Anomen is not bad to look at, especially if you are female and about 30. The romance end of it is good, and really not much different if Anomen is CN or LG, although he is less stuffy as CN.

Viccy is a great Cleric,if you are playing a character where your alignment is not all that important, say a thief, but definitely not someone who you would want in your party if you're a paladin.

Imoen and Nalia are what Forest Gump would say are like Peas and Carrots, and I am not sure if anyone as ever had both girls in the party at the same time before, but some of the banter between the two of them is especially funny, and Immy calls Nalia, her "Little Sister".

What can be said about Minsc and Boo and Lilacor? A good laugh at sometimes very unexpected times.

My least favorite NPC? Kelsey. Not only is he loud, he usually tries to get my attention and tries to join with my party at the worst possible times. For those who have the Unfinished Business Mod installed in the game, usually when we have to go to the government district when Boo has been kidnapped, and we are trying to deal with the snobbish noble girl trying to make Boo swim, or after when we are dealing with the Cowled Wizards that show up.Aerie is whiny and I usually have people in my party want to kill her or have (CN Anomen).Keldorn killed Viccy once when I had both in my party during the Unseeing Eye quest.

Indifferent: Valygar would be more interesting if you could really find out what the deal was with Suna,besides the fact that she is working for Irenicus,otherwise he is boring, and Cernd's character seems like it was thrown together last minute or was left unfinished, although his quest in the city of Athkatla is quite interesting, as is the banter.

One character I would have liked to have known more about in general and would have loved to see as a Mod NPC sometime is Irenicus. Just plain old evil to the bone, but has such amazing voicing. Same goes for Bodhi, but then again I have never taken to joining her guild or playing a neutral or evil party for that matter. Maybe you see a lot more of her that way.

BTW, for those wondering, it's my real name, and just happens to work well with role playing...

 

Interesting stuff. We have finally met Anomen's wife.

Nalia is still may favourite NPC and Haer D'Alis is still my least favourite. One day I might even play BGII again so I can see what this Edwin guy is all about.

 

hey, hey! I'm Anomen's wife. Oh, well. fine. I will be *Sir Anomen*'s wife. settled

 

¿Two Anomen`s wifes? By the gods, Whats happen here???!!!

 

Can't believe this but I was just taking a look at when I first bookmarked this site. July 22, 2001, so I have been LURKING here reading the boards for 4 and a half years, and had never posted until last week! If that isn't dedication...

@Beren, I say that because my hubby is in his 30's, in the military, is Welsh/Portuguese (Britian and Portugal, what can you say), is self admittingly annoying, talks too much, and has a temper

He also had the mustache/goatee thing going for the longest time, but now just has the moustache, the goatee is gone because of the military. My hubby's hair is darker though, and now is kind of going a bit gray. I give him another 5 years and he'll look like Keldorn!

[Competition for Jaheira I meant. ] - Beren

[ December 31, 2005, 07:08: Message edited by: Beren ]

 

You're both wrong! I'M Anomen's wife!

 

^You? Well...if you say so.

Still, I once had Nalia&Immy at the same time to the end of the ToB, and I think I missed their talk, does Immy really say that Nalia is her little sister? Aww that would be so cute, I wanna see it! Or banter packs add this? I didn'T have it when I first finished ToB, with 0 mods installed.

I sure love Immy and Nalia, too bad, if Naly Nalia had a romance I would get her always!

BTW I know she has a romance mod but she only fancies the 'Muscled' guys which I never play so...

 

One of the banter packs or another may have added the Nalia /Imoen "Little Sister" talk. Definitely in ToB, and I believe it usually spawns in Abazagail's Lair near where you meet up with the three petrified novice adventurers, and you have to get the geas removal scroll. Try adding the banter pack and the two go to say something to each other and Immy starts off by saying "Hey little sister..." and it's also part of the conversation where Immy tells Minsc that she wants a hamster, which again, since I have been playing the game with all kinds of mods installed for at least the past three years, I am not sure if the "Minsc, I want a hamster" line is from the original game script, or if it was again added by one of the banter packs out there.

 

You'd get some from me if the PST board was more active

That is in the original game.

That takes about five seconds to change, heh.

 

Favourite characters... That's a tough one. I've never played evil, so I don't pick up any of the evil characters, like Vicconia, Edwin or Korgan [but playing through with Viccy should be interesting, especially in Ust Natha and with the elves at the end.].
I like Nalia, but Imoen is way better.
Jan and Haer'Dalis are great additions. Jan is just hilarious, and Haer'Dalis has some interesting interactions with Anomen.
I love Minsc and Boo. That just goes without saying, I think. Plus he always seems to have the best hitpoints, too [Anomen second in the Hit points department]
And yes, as much as he annoys me, I always have Anomen in my party. I like his personal quest, he's the best good/neutral cleric IMHO and he's the only original romance option available. *sighs*

 

Like at most : Viconia,Valygar and Edwin
Their humor is just lovely...
Don't like: Dual and multiclass Npc so useless and aerie keeps blaming and bothering....

 

hate: Aerie

like: Korgan, Sarevok, Viconia, Edwin

Aerie's constant bitching makes me sick. The characters I mentioned are more than willing to kill at the drop of a hat. Just the kind of people I need to survive the harsh quest at hand.

 

Maybe it's just me, but I like to take a sweet innocent woman (like Aerie) and corupt her to the core and impregnate her before marrage!

 

GOOD:

Keldorn - powerful character who generally knows how to keep his mouth shut (except for that whole family thing, but you can resolve that quickly). Then it's back to dispelling everything and whacking enemies with Carsomyr. Quietly.

Yoshimo - dialogue slightly annoying but good leather armor and Tuigan are available early, bring his pick locks to 100 and dump the rest in set traps (considering that trap damage bypasses most resistances) and you have one of the most powerful NPCs in SOA, hands-down.

Korgan - completely misplaced personality for alignment (the guy isn't CE at all, more like NE) plus at the end of the Shagbag quest, he turns into Lucky the cereal leprechaun for some reason, but the baddest melee fighter in SOA other than <charname>, give him 3* in two-weapon fighting, Stonefire +3, & Frostreaver +3 and watch him splatter everything.

(TOB) Sarevok - Now this is a chaotic evil (former) demigod! Incredible stats (befitting one of his conditioning) and power in battle, great voice, good character interactions. Sarevok + vorpal sword / Gram +5 + whirlwind HLA = pureed enemies. Or go crazy and dual him to a thief, get UAI and use Carsomyr +6...because you CAN. (Yeah, I know this is the SOA forum, but I'm not the only one who posted about this guy.)


OK / Fair:

Edwin - Bonus spells are what gets him and keeps him in the party. Nether scroll quest is OK, not being able to use boots of speed afterwards is not so OK. Not being able to identify things is annoying. So is jumping through hoops just to recruit him. Still the most powerful MU in the BG series thanks to his bonus spells.

Viconia - Arguably the most powerful cleric in SOA. Low STR is easy to remedy, low CON is more difficult to remedy (permanently). Somewhat annoying personality, romance is somewhat thin. Reputation hit is a mixed blessing depending on your party composition and if you're juggling reputation to stay under 20.

Anomen "Annoy-Man" Delryn - Very close to being bad, but his character power saves him (barely). Actually a very powerful build (or would've been with better proficiency point spending), but we all remember his attitude problems, and his tunic. You can just as easily skip him and make a <charname> build similar to his but better, ideally a berserker with 3-5* in some kind of blunt weapon or two (flail for FOA, mace for IMOD, warhammer for CF), dual at 9/12/13 to cleric, then put on the heaviest armor and shield you can find, buff yourself silly, go berserk (immune to everything), and flatten anything in your path, especially undead.

Mazzy - Interesting character, but she doesn't fit into all parties. If you're going for raw power (I'm sure plenty of "serious role-players" have already rolled their eyes at my post already), you'll probably get an itch for a <charname> with the archer kit instead. Also, a pain in the neck to hunt down and recruit.

Minsc - His dialogue may or may not strike you as being funny. (For most people on this board, it apparently strikes them as funny.) OK power, but hamstrung by less than stellar CON and DEX, which make him a weaker frontline tank than a <charname> with 18-19 DEX, 18-20 CON, and full plate. His proficiency points are distributed to make him a well-rounded character capable of melee and ranged, but BG2 is all about a full party with pure melees and pure mages. The best thing about vanilla rangers in the BG series is that even though they can only have 2* in various weapons, they get ** in two-weapon fighting for free, and since they top out each weapon proficiency at 2*, you can top out in a bunch of them. There are plenty of devastating 1-handers in SOA, and a well-equipped vanilla ranger with 2*'s all over the place can be a walking weapons platform that dual-wields two of the following at any time: Crom Faeyr, Celestial Fury, Equalizer, Belm, IMOD, FOA, any of the +3 battleaxes, etc. etc. Pick at least 4 of the above for entirety of SOA.


BAD:

Cernd - Does anybody like this guy? Don't get me wrong, he'd be a powerful character in a small-scale PNP campaign, but compared to some of SOA's best characters, he's crap on a stick. Also, annoying personality who won't shut up. Like Coran, he also left a woman in the lurch, but Coran was a scoundrel and arguably charming, while Cernd is just a dipstick nobody likes. (And Coran didn't leave his woman to die. Oops.)

Jaheira - Another totally screwed up character in terms of alignment, but much more egregious than Korgan (Jaheira should be CG, she isn't concerned with maintaining any druidic balance, she's self-righteous and fanatical and threatens to fight and kill "evil" monsters and characters and right all perceived wrongs). Also a pushy, second-rate fighter with mediocre stats. Take the sling and shield and shut your piehole. Be glad I'm letting you in the party at all.

Valygar - Sorry, but this guy sucks. Bland as hell personality (voice doesn't match the portrait in the least) with nothing interesting to say. "A good hit." "I bet that shall do the trick." Yeah, real memorable. In terms of power, he also sucks. Part of this is because of how bad the stalker kit sucks to begin with, at least compared to some of the other kits in the game. Even vanilla rangers arguably have an edge over them in terms of combat versatility. Stalker backstabbing really isn't that great, and Valygar's stats are such that he needs assistance to really get the most out of them (strength enhancing items, ring of invisibility, haste, which he admittedly has himself). You can apply these same enhancements to a high-level assassin and get much more bang for the buck. He's also a second-rate archer (yes his DEX is 18, but he's stuck with the ranger's 2* max proficiency), and his 17 STR means he can't use some of SOA's better longbows without some kind of STR enhancing item.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

Greetings,

First time poster here although I've been lurking for about a year now and have been hooked on BG2 and BG to the extent that I prefer this gem over newer games such as The Movies and Civ 4!

Anyway, to the topic at hand...

My favorite SOA characters...

1) Jaheira: Probably my favorite NPC. Jahs almost always has a place in my party regardless of alignment. An excellent tank when outfitted properly, her druid spells make her especially powerful--especially once she hits level six and you get to summon up "Junior", her pet fire elemental. Junior is an excellent hall and room sweeper--especially where undead or low-mid level mobs are concerned. We just let him loose with [charname] or whoever is the party thief trailing a bit behind to open up the map while the rest of the party sits down and plays cards. Jahs also has good banter dialogue with most party members, one of the best quests in the game, and the best, but also trickiest romance for a male PC in the game. Alignment wise, she'd really be a better 3E druid than 2E as she really is NG. An excellent powergaming PC if you're into that as well as roleplaying PC if that's your cup of tea--everyone can use a little "Jahs" in their lives.

2) Minsc...and Boo: The "Abbot and Costello" of BG2. Tank him out...go stealthy with him...he's good to go either way. True, there are better tanks and better stealth characters, but his one liners and banters are priceless--the stuff of legends. They're not in all my parties, but even when not on the team, they have a warm place in my heart...

3) Korgan: If you're running a neutral or evil party, he's the dwarf with the mostest! A one dwarf wrecking crew, just give him the best...or second best depending on what [charname's] doing...armor and weapons, berserk him, and turn him loose. Golems...umber hulks? What golems and umberhulks? You mean that heap on the ground over there where the tuckered out dwarf is standing? Also, he has some pretty good one-liners and banters--his crack about Nalia's aunt is priceless and him and Edwin have some good exchanges. But the poster above me is right, he really should be NE and not CE.

4)Anomen: With this guy, it seems that people either really like him or really hate him--not much in the way of middle ground for him. I can see why people get irritated with him, there are several times [charname] has wanted to whump him upside the head, but his story is one of the best...and most poignant...in the game. Also, depending how you complete his quest you could have either a very powerful cleric or not--but even if you don't complete his quest "the good bear way", he's still a valuable and interesting addition to the group--in many ways, if [charname] is female, the CN Anomen romance is actually the better way to go. Also, he works with both good and neutral groups--and, again, depending how his quest works out--even evil groups can use him--especially if [charname] is a rotten, conniving corrupting CE female [ahem...] . To be honest, what his story needed to make it even better would have been a path to carry out the corruption all the way to CE, leading to an appropriately tragic result.

5) Yoshimo: While in many cases, depending on [charname's]class and alignment, Yoshimo might spend a good chunk of Chapters 2 and 3 in the CC and only come into the party for Spellhold, his story is a gripping one and that reason alone puts him in my favorite list. However, if party dynamics call for him, he's an excellent addition and brings a lot to the table.

Here are the PC's I'm neutral to Ok about:

1)Mazzy: An Ok character, some good lines and banters and nice abilities--in 3E she would most definitely be a paladin, but also somewhat limited in party usage. She makes a pretty good tank though in good parties where Korgan wouldn't be appropriate.

2)Keldorn: While I like this grizzled old vet, and he's got some nice abilities, if you're good in alignment and roleplay his quest properly, you're not going to get a lot of mileage out of him.

3) Viconia: Actually, Viccy could just easily go up into the favorite category--I just didn't want to overload it. Good banters, good roleplay--give her the right stuff and she'll hold her own in the line, as a divine spellcaster there are none better. Also, a good romance--in many ways the flip side of Jahs'.

4) Jan: Great stories and a fun character to have in the group, he's also a bit brittle. Not at all a bad addition though.

5) Edwin: Probably the most powerful spellcaster in the game, he's really only appropriate for evil and maybe neutral parties as a truly good party would find it difficult completing all the quests called for to get him into the group. Great banters and an absolutely hilarious quest though.

6) Aerie: Yes, she's irritating until her romance is resolved one way or the other. She has some good banters with some of the NPC's and can mature into a powerful character, but again, is only appropriate with good and neutral to good groups. A quest path that would lead to her corruption would have definitely given her a more gripping story line.

7) Imoen: Yeah, she's [charname's] kid sister, so she usually finds a place in my parties--regardless of alignment--at least until chapter 6. She's a decent mage and marginally good thief, but by the time she makes her reappearance, doesn't really bring much to the table. Still, all in all, not a bad character and she is your kid sister...

8) Nalia: Again, not necessarily a bad character--but limited in what parties she really works best in. With a little intellect boost, she can become a pretty good mage.

These are the guys I don't really like:

1) Cernd: Other than some pretty good dialogue and his quest in Athkatla, doesn't really bring a lot to the table--he generally hugs his tree back in the grove.

2) Valygar: Again, a limited character with limited applications--use him for what he's good for and then let him go.

No opinion on these:

Haer' Dalis: Haven't had him in the party yet for any extended periods so I can't really judge him.

Well, that's all I can think of for now...

 

/me coughs politely
You seem to be forgetting that Sir Anomen is MINE! Keep your hands away people!

 

Actually, Sir Anomen now belongs to the Radiant Heart.

Lately, I've found even my favorite NPCs are grating with the bantering. If only I could shut them up...oh yes, multiplay a party.