New Party

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I've started a new game of BGII/ToB
My MC is a half-elf Fighter/thief
neutral evil
Stats are: S-18/59 D-16 C-11 I-10 W-10 Ch-14 (with ring of influence 18)
I have the following in the party:
Korgan, Edwin, Viconia, Jan and Yoshimo.

I don't need Yoshimo but am not sure who to replace him with. Would like someone with fighting skills. Viconia can take care of the healing. As you can see my party is evil. Jan is neutral but doesn't seem to mind what he does as long as he can have a turnip. I like Jan and he gives the others someone to pick on. He has great trap finding and pick lock skills. Which I need at least until I develope my MC more.

I haven't played BG II in a long time and never used the bard (Haer ?) very much. Would he fit in place of Yoshimo or is there someone else of evil or neutral alighnment that would be better.

I always played more or less good in the past.

I played ToB through with Korgon and Edwin but alighment and reputation doesn't seem to matter as much in ToB as in BGII.

I will be away for the holidays (no computer) but will check in as soon as I get back.

Happy Holidays, everyone.

 

Fighter Thief PCs rule.

I reckon go with Haer Dalis - Splunge reckons he is cool to play.

 

...and we all know that if I say it, then it must be so.

Anyway, I agree with Harbourboy that HD is your man. Blades are a lot of fun to play - their strength lies in their versatility, but they require some micro-management to get the most out of them. HD's main weakness is his CON, but you can take care of that with the girdle you get when doing the Unseeing Eye. On the plus side, he has some cool weapons (which you can make even better if you use the Item Upgrade mod), and he has 2 points in short swords, and gets 2 in long swords when you start TOB (blades are normally limited to one point in a weapon). I also think he would fit in your party - he's not evil, but he's not particularly good either.

 

HD for sure. Yoshimo, Jan, and F/T MC is overkill on thieving abilities. If you dump Yoshi and take HD, you'll get some fighting power, some magic abilities, and in TOB you'll get powerful traps and songs. Plus you'll get pick pockets, so you don't have to spend any points on that on your other thieves. PLUS!, you'll get his lore. Definately, take Haer'Dalis!

 

To go against the grain, Jahiera is a possibility. She's half fighter and with AoF and Iron Skins, she'll be able to soak up a fair amount of damage. Plus you'll get extra summons, and insect plagues. She's nuetral, so she'll be unhappy, but she'll stick around.

 

If you're playing an evil party, Valen is always worth a whirl. She's a fighter/thief with some awesome abilities, but she's pure evil.

 

And, as has been said elsewhere, she completely unbalances the game. She becomes the main character, and her powers are absurd. She's fun, but you have to know what you're getting into. She's not really a candidate for "filling out" a party.

 

I was thinking About suggesting going with 5 players as I was reading through these posts, and there I find Beren echoing the identical thoughts I had. My last effort was very similar to this. Me(fighter),Korgan,Viconia,Edwin,Jan (and I slotted Imoen in as a 6th for a while). The evil party was great fun after lots of good-guy stuff, they have better dialogue.. In ToB I picked up 'S'.

I like a Fighter/Thief choice if you intend to carry on with ToB after SoA, it will make a powerful character, though I agree with Mulsis who suggested including Jaheira (at the expense of Jan), it's about time she enjoyed a walk on the dark side in the name of balance.

 

I'm sure they designed the 'evil' party members to accomadate the PC being a F/T. Its the only class that fills out the 4 person party. Jan is usually added as a filler but I never see the point in more than 4 until you can pick up Saravok.

If you can put up with him, you can always make Annoyman fail his test, I quite like deranged characters.

You may notice that there is a lot less XP for rewards in quests. I think this is a balancing issue because you get continually attacked by Amnish Guard and Cowled Wizards with a rock bottom rep. It can be quite frustrating so I always keep my rep at 18 for evil - which loses you XP. The attacks arent that hard at higher levels and are a good supply of early cash (several encounters lead to full plate mail being dropped and high level scrolls)

Have fun and don't forget to kill those goody-two-shoes paladins and clerics of lathander (after you've done their missions) in Temple District. Another good source of XP

 

Happy New Year, All!. Thanks for the answers. I've got a ways to go in SoA because of the computerless break over Christmas. I do have Valygar in party right now. I meant to kill him but picked the wrong answer and suddenly he was volunteering to be in my party. I want to do his quest.
My rep is 14. Let's see; I have MC-f/t, Edwin, Korgan, Jan, Viconia & Valygar. For ToB I want Saverok, probably. I think I'll replace Valygar with Haer Dalis when I get to him. If Valygar lives long enough.

By the way, I've never played with Edwin before. Always played pretty much good. Edwin Rocks!. At level 11 he scares me. I did play with him in ToB but i'm wondering what he'll be like in an imported party. How high a level can I get him in SoA if I play all the quests that I can and maybe kill off a few innocents? What sort of equipment can I get for Edwin? I want the best for him. If I have to steal it. Course now I can steal and should. I'm having a lot of fun with this party. Playing evil brings a freshness to SoA.

I don't have the Valen Mod installed. I have the up-grade one and part of the ease of use. Bonus merchants. Have the banter pack installed. Didn't install the multiple strongholds. I have the Thieves Guild.

@Malovae: Thanks for reminding me about killing off the those "goody-two-shoes paladins". Hate paladins even when i'm playing good. They're so sanctimonious. Now I can get them good.

 

Standard mage outfitting for Edwin is the way to go.... Staff of the Magi and Robe of Vecna. With the Item Upgrades, use the Sorcerian Ring to really kit him out

 

I am chasing after Haer Dalis (sp).
@Splunge-See I'm taking your advice.

I hope I don't lose my Thieves Stronghold being stuck in the Planar Prison. I dropped Valygar. Interesting the way this was written. Valygar wasn't really happy with my party but he didn't want to leave. Was playing evil an after thought by the developers?

I haven't found the staff or robe for Edwin yet-No don't tell me where it is. He has the Cloak of Shield which gives him AC 0. I have some neat stuff for HD when I find him.

I have to apologize to all you who play evil. It really is a lot of fun. Maybe someday I'll even break down and play a "goody-two-shoes paladin" and see what that is like. Someday.

I have the Ascension/Redemption mods installed. I figure by the time I get to ToB my PC will be up in his thief skills and I can drop Jan. I love Jan (in a friendly sort of way) but he seems to me to be the most expendable. Then I guess I have to choose between Savorek & Jon Boy or drop someone else.

 

Edwin is in my opinion the best spellslinger possible in the game, even better than a sorcerer. Eddie may be able to cast slightly less spells than a sorcerer but his versatility more than makes up for it and that necklace he have might disable him from the amulet of power but it gives him a ton of free spells.

Playing evil is down prioritized by the developers, the evil choices are most often stupid and yield much less award. Most of the times I have been playing evil I have played "smart" evil, i.e. I have done most things in a good way because it made more sense and my char figured out pretty quickly that he got more gold that way. A high rep was also found to be useful. There are a few places in the game though where you really can be evil and have it be worthwhile.

 

I'm sorry I didn't limit my party to 4 or 5 earlier in the game. Also I don't have a bowman since I dropped Valygar for HD.
I'm in the sewers on the 'Unseeing Eye' quest or whatever it's called. I think I'm playing "smart" evil. My PC isn't so much 'Evil' as self-centered. He wants to know whats in it for himself. He doesn't really love anybody. He is, of course, attracted to Viconia and prehaps even falling in love with her. He is after Irenicus rather than rescuing Imoen. He can be loyal to his companions.
Interesting (at least to me) this PC is more developed in my mind than any of my past ones.
I haven't played SoA for 1 1/2 years and am finding this game different even if the quests are pretty much the same.
Any suggestions as to when the best time is to go on a rampage and kill all the paladins? I really, really want to do that. Not that I'm anti-paladin. Well, maybe I am.
I wish the developers had given more thought to the 'dark side'. The guys at the Temple of Helm were a little patronizing but Keldorn was quite willing to join me. I vaguely remember an old game where I had him for a while. Not too bad but I hate to be told to be good. Had Annoymen briefly, very briefly. I love not having someone complain if I do something not so nice. Is this my most fun BG game? you betcha!

 

I've tried evil, but couldn't get into it. I think you're right when you suggest the evil path wasn't really fully developed. Of course, the reason for that is that Bioware is a Canadian company and, as everyone knows, we Canadians just don't do evil - we leave that to the Americans!

Nakia, one other mod I would recommend is Unfinished Business - it adds a lot of new content (but I'm not entirely sure what is in it for your particular party members). However, I'm not sure if installing it mid-game would create problems.

 

Joy, oh joy! I have been a little depressed today but was playing SoA. Edwin had gotten the Nether Scroll. We were wandering around looting tombs in the Graveyard District when he decided to try a spell. I knew (I thought) what was coming from other posts. Ha! I laughed until I cried. Made my day.

 

Yes, that's one of the funniest moment in the game, IMO. It'll get at the very least a chuckle out of you, no matter how depressed you are

"This is BAD!"

And yes, the evil path does seem to have been an afterthought, which is too bad. I've always toyed with the idea of playing an all-evil party but never tried it. Your description of how things go is pushing me to try it out soon!

 

@Ziad I'm chuckling just reading your post. It's worth having Edwin just for this moment.

I think the term 'evil' is a turn-off for some of us. The PC doesn't have to be evil just for the fun of being evil. My PC is not sadistic. He doesn't like slavery. He just wants what he wants. "Me first, you can have the crumbs." He's smarter than Korgon but they have a lot in common. He tolerates Edwin because Edwin is such a good mage but Ardano (PC's name) is getting a kick out of Edwin's predicament.

 

"Nice rack, Edwin"
"Yes, I think it is quite nice. Wait a minute..." *checks* "Oh god no!!"
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I like your style of playing the evil character. Playing a truly evil character (doing things such as leaving innocents in their situation even if it would be easy to rescue them and killing commoners) doesn't fit charname, in my opinion. Even though he/she is the son/daughter of Bhaal, he/she is, from my personal experience of the choices proposed, supposed to take the path of righteousness and not give in to the evil. There simply are better reasons to be good than evil.