Brains or Brawn? And what about armor?

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I have just finished BGTutu with an evil Half-Orc barbarian. I'm going to tranfer him into SoA, and eventually go through the whole series. The party is definitely going to consist of:

PC, Korgan, Viconia, Edwin, and Valen.

I'm going to give Valen daggers (as opposed to her claws) in an effort to un-cheese her. I just want to have an evil thief, I don't need her level draining everyone. Now the question becomes, who is the fifth NPC? Is Korgan and a barbarian enough beef up front? Should I pick up Sarevok or Anomen (failed test)? Or go for more finesse, like Haer-Dalis or Solafien? It seems like a secondary mage or a secondary cleric may be more useful than another tank...

Also, I'm drawing a blank on armor here for my barbarian (no plate or full plate). I know at chapter 6, I can pick up the Crimson Chain from Ribald, but what about before that? I know that there's a decent set of armor (Ashen Scale?) in Bohdi's lair, but I don't think I'll have access to that since I plan on siding with her. There's also a set I never use from the Shade Lord, but I don't remember if it's any good (I'm thinking that if I never use it, it probably isn't very good). I'm not going to get any help from a shield with this guy either, so a decent set of armor is going to be needed...

 

The one that you get from the guy with the shade lord is Darkmail +3. It is pretty decent. You could also use the Shadow Dragon Armor. I just finished CH3 siding with Bodhi and you can get the Ashen Scales. As far as what to do early, I always have the Mail of the Dead from some guy in CH1. I remember reading that if you import a character, that could change what armor you get there.

 

Armor of Faith would be a good one. AC:1 +1 to all saves. The question is if you can get it.
I dont remember if it´s only a reward for good aligned people while doing the Cleric Stronghold, or if it´s a reward for doing the Unseeing Eye quest.


As for fifth NPC, I wouldn´t add a fifth, but I´d take Sarevok if I had to have another one.
And if it weren´t for the fact that it´s nice to have a thief, I wouldn´t use Valen either.

 

I think the armor of faith is scale mail - which is a good thing, but I think it's a reward for the cleric quest, which is a problem, because I'm not a cleric, and it certainly isn't an early-game solution as I'd have to do the unseeing eye quest early - never a good idea when it involves lots of beholders.

 

You can get the Jester's Chain +4 from the machine in Spellhold which, if you head there as soon as you can, won't take an age to acquire.

 

I dont know what you consider cheating and I dont know what mods you´re running.
But, if you install the multiple stronghold mod and if you have the bonus merchants the Allseeing Eye quest and getting the armor is pretty easy.
Even in chapter 2 with a low level party. It was the second quest I did yesterday soloing a F/M.
But then again, you might consider this cheating so.
If not, then the Shield of Balduran will make this thing a walk in the park.


Some other good suits you could probably wear though I forgot the locations are:
Bladesinger Chain - AC 1
Crimson Chain - AC 0
Darkmail - 20% FR, AC 2
Jester´s Chain - AC 1

Also, the Red Dragon Scale, is it actually a scale mail or does it count as a plate mail?
Beating Firkraag with a lowlevel party might proove difficult though.

 

You get plate armour from Firkraag - full plate +2 actually with about 50% fire resistance. Pretty decent stuff.

 

I know what it does, just wondered if it was a platemail or scalemail since it says Red Dragon "Scale"...
And by saying "beating Firkraag blabla" I assumed people would understand that it was there you got the "ingredients" for it.

 

The Shadow Dragon armour is considered leather armour, and it's AC 1.

Getting it will be hard. Prot. from Acid Scroll(s), ring of invisibilty (for letting his buffs wear off), Illbratha (Mirror Image sword) and some defense and stregth potions might just do it.

--EDIT--

Oops. Just re-read the post. I though you were soloing. If you've got a party you can waste the Shadow Dragon right outta the dungeon.

 

Sort of off topic, but it was a question. Red dragon scales are literally scales, yes, but they are huge compared to a human, so they in fact form plate mail.

I agree with Duke Eltan, 4 NPCs are enough. But I've never tried the Anomen thing, never could stand him much, so I'm trying him out in my current party. Some okay dialogue I guess.

 

These are some decent options - except for Bladesinger Chain as I'm not a bard.

The more I think about it, I'm going to need THREE relatively light-weight suits of armor. I need one for my barbarian, as he isn't allowed to wear plate or full plate, Viconia is too weak to wear plate or full plate, and I simply refuse to spend close to 20,000 gp on a stupid girdle, and Valen needs light weight armor to use her thief abilities. So as opposed to which one I will use, there will only be a few that I won't use...

 

I am currently playing an evil party. As soon as I had 5,000 gp to spare, Viconia got

Ankheg Plate mail (AC 1)
because the strength requirement is very low.

Shortly after that she was wielding the mace that gives 18 Strength. She didn't change armor until I got the Doomplate +3 in the Asylum, but with that mace she could wear other stuff much earlier.

I've never used Valen, but to the mix of good armors already listed, I would add one for her

Dark Elven Chain (AC 4)

The AC isn't great, but it has low thief penalties. In case you didn't know, you will get it when Viconia gets attacked.

 

@ CUE ??? I've had Viconia in my party before, but I don't think she was ever attacked... Where?

 

I think he's referring to a romance plot, where a Handmaiden of Lolth and a Yochlol attacks.

 

You're thinking of the Melodic Chain, which is only useable by Bards. Bladesinger is the +4 Elven Chain you get when you kill Nil'shizza or whatever that dragon's name is.

 

That's correct. I forget when it happened, but she had a dream once, then then next time that I rested, the characters that Xei Win Toh mentioned teleported in and attacked her. The handmaiden had the armor and a mace that Viconia still uses sometimes.

Oh, and the Ankheg shell that I used was one that I happened to find somewhere in the Bridge district, so you won't have to go to Windspear Hills to get one.

 

You found an Ankheg in the city???

 

@Mystra's Chosen

Just the shell, not the whole Ankheg. Don't quite remember where it was exactly...

 

The shell was in a house that wasn't very memorable other than there was an Ankheg shell in it, but I remember that it was right next to a house that had a tough fight in it for my party at the time.