Seeking advice on party structure

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Unfortunately I found that I had lost my saves this weekend from about a year ago when I changed Pc's I actually threw the old one away last week (irony anyone). One of the saves was a kensai/mage that I had got past the Sahaugin city before I left it for a while.

So I have my original BG1 character starting as a Kensai at level 12 I will dual-class him to Mage, he will have 5 proficeincies in Katana and 3 in dual-wielding. My intention is to have him wielding Celestial Fury and Dakkon's Zerth blade. I have no mods other than the Grand Mastery fix and ToB installed.

I'm taking Jaheira (romance), Nalia and Yoshimo/Imoen those are irrevocable and not open to negotiation. To begin with I will take Minsc and then rotate for their quests Korgan, Valygar, Keldorn and Mazzy.

Question who should I take into chapter 3 and beyond? I'm wavering between Minsc and Mazzy.

The last spot starts with Aerie and then rotates between Anomen, Edwin and Viconia.

So the last question is that without a strong cleric this game is tough, I'm a mage and so don't really need Edwin. It comes down to a choice of annoying Anomen or pain-in the-arse-to-keep Viconia. Once I'm the slayer it's easy enough to regulate my reputation to ensure Viccy doesn't go, Am I going to need Anomen's tanking ability (especially with the Crom Faeyr) or Viccy's superior spelling and control of undead?
Aerie's a nice kid and all that but her constitution just spoils trying to play her.

Answers on a post please, thanks DS

 

Personally I like mazzy more. With the str girdles/gauntlets you can make her equal to or greater than minsc's str. Her dex is higher and con is the same if I recall. This means she is actually a better tank. She will gain levels faster and caps at a higher level. You will have plenty of time to custumize her so pick any weapon and go with it. For instance give her 2 points into halberds and 1-2 points into two handed style and you will have a nasty fighter on your hands. While you wait for that you can have her fo nuts with a shortbow and short swords. Lastly she has some cool special abilities that help you out just a little bit.

Also anomen is annoying but he is one of the best tanks in the game. If you help him in his quest you can make him a good caster as well. He still might be a little less in the spellcasting deptartment but his melee ability is so much better and he can easily wear all the best equipment. Plus in late games a couple extra really low level spells do not help that much but a cleric who can walk up and have multiple attacks per round with the flail of ages or crom hammer is very usefull.

 

I am discovering in my current game that Mazzy is way more useful than Minsc. She rocks.

 

Viconia can tank nearly as well as Anomen with strength spell and proper armor, but Anomen can deal out far more damage.
The gap in clerical power isn't noteworthy, Viconia only gets 4 extra low level bonus spells because of her higher wisdom,but that's all.

Mazzy is far better than Minsc. Strength is useless since you'll have more than enough strength spells for 18/00 strength and magical items. As halfling Mazzy also has far better saving throws.

I would wait with dualclassing your kensai until level 13, so he gets the extra half attack/round and better saving throws which benefits your character more than than the levels 10-12 together.
Or dual at level 9. Wasting 750,000 XP (2 full mage levels) just for +4 thac0,+1 HP,+1 damage and +1 speed factor at level 12 just isn't worth it.

 

Minsc is funny, Mazzy can kick more a$$; simple choice depending on what you're looking for. As to your cleric dilemma, I was going to suggest a mod NPC, but there appear to be quite a dearth of cleric mods (plenty of druids, though ). The only one that's out there is Wikaede, a One-Day NPC who has been improved since his release to have a fair amount of banters and interjections.

EDIT:
Almost forgot. Dual at level 13 instead for the extra half-attack as kmonster says. It's more than worth it if you're going to use your K->M on the front-lines with Stoneskin or whatever.

 

You need:
1.Beater
2.Beater2
3.Thief - traps
4.PowerCaster - bosses
5.Healer
6.Somebody

My party today looks like:
Me
Kachiko (from mod)
Yoshimo (dual-classed to Fighter)
Viconia
Aerie
Haer'dalis

That gives 3 beaters, 2 thiefts, 2 healers, 1 power caster and 2 mini-catsers + Yoshi as archer. Not to mention 2 of those characters seemed to be crapy at first sight.
Yes, I'm a powergamer, but you have to maximize the number of options that you have access to. Think about dual-classing and transforming party members by spells or items, such as Tesner's Transform or Girdle of Strenght. I suggest to concentrate on magic rather than of beating, but fighter with mircale stuff also may handle many situations.
But make sure a member you wnat to transform is powerful in his main purpose. I personally find Jaheira crapy, as she is nor good beater neither cleric.

 

I'm too tired to advise on who to take, but since you're powergaming and have ToB installed, you would really be cutting yourself short if you don't go to level 13 as a Kensai.

 

@Warmonger I'm taking these characters and I'm not modding

So my conclusion from this would be
1. kensai to 13th level then dual-class
2. take Mazzy although Minsc is funny he's already dedicated himself to Aerie as his witch now and will probably get p'd off if I don't take her.
3. Annoying Anomen

I must do the romance with Viconia sometime but that's another day.

Cheers
thanks
DS

 

Why not take along Aerie or Viconia? They're perfectly good for divine magic, and having either along doesn't mean you have to give up the romance with Jah. There are dialogue options to effectively kill their advances, or you can simply invite them to your party, kick them out (and tell them to wait somewhere), and once you've retrieved them, they won't try to romance you again. I personally find them much better options than Annoyman. And since you've already got Mazzy, Jaheira, and your PC for melee power, Anomen's fighting skills aren't necessary.

But, that's your call

 

@Zenastin I normally do take Aerie as my cleric but I wanted a change and her Con is low and makes her difficult at times to keep alive, and as for Viccy well it came down really to the fact that although he is a superb kensai with dual katanas I want to be a mage first and Anomen is slightly better as a tank.
So my party breaks down as:-
3 straight tanks Mazzy, Jaheira and Anomen
2 divine casters Jaheira and Anomen
2-3 Arcane casters Me, Nalia and Imoen
2 archers Nalia and Yoshimo/Imoen
and a backup tank Me

The only other reason to take Viccy would be to have all female companions with Me

 

^If you have multiple romances fix it would be enjoyable, you can romance all ladies. Ah, and Anomen too if you desire, with some other components.

Viccy has good MR, that is her best bonus IMHO. With right stuff she can be a good meatshield against most mages.

I don'T like tanks who can't cast StoneSkin or something like that as they get beaten a lot and die easily on insane difficulty. But your call.

 

@Silversatr as I've said twice now I don't have any mods, I don't want any mods at the moment maybe later when I'm bored with the game but with ToB installed I've probably completed it 5 times so I'm not bored yet. As for the tanks that's what makes it interesting, I'm thinking of taking a bunch of wizard slayers through or trying it anyway just for the crack.

 

^Ok then, your call. I hope you will have a nice time!

Why do you want WSs?

 

It's a mad idea of a party comprising 1-2 divine casters, one thief and 2-3 wizard slayers using no arcane magic users and the last slot to be filled by the person giving the quest(s) ending with probably Keldorn.

 

^ Beat the game without ANY arcane assistance? Wow that is realy a challenge, but I like mage spells so much, they are so versatile and freakingly powerful! I most certainly will never try it, but hey, if you can prove it can be done, I will be very impressed. Why don't you go for it?

 

Hm, I guess that since you can solo through with just about any class - more seldom than often would you be left without Arcane magic - so having five companions with you shouldn't make it harder. Besides, Wizard Slayer is one of the most powerful classes in the game.

 

If you can solo the game, of course you can go through the game with no arcane magic.

 

The 2 extra shopkeepers that you can add with Torment and IWD stuff, Torment lady is in Adventurer's Mart, the guy is supposed to be in the Coronet in the Slums isn't he? If yes then I've lost him somehow..

 

Yes, he should be in the Copper Coronet. But recently I discovered a little quirk in one of my own games. You know how peasants and such will run away from hostile creatures and people fighting? Joluv does the same damn thing. I actually found him outside the door (on the street) after cleaning out Lehtinan's goons. It was a little annoying to go in and then remember to come back out when I wanted to buy anything from him, but I'm set in that game so I don't have to deal with the cowardly ninny anymore.

The moral: Look around. He could be anywhere around the CC, or even outside one of the doors. He might even be farther if there were a sequence of fights near each new location he fled to. The one thing I don't think he can do is go to another district.

When all else fails...
CLUAConsole:CreateCreature("WMART1")

 

Cheers Fel, unexpexted that was and I didn't know he liked to wander I'll go hunting him down later.


EDIT: Couldn't find him anywhere in the slums or CC so I created him back in the CC happy now

[ February 15, 2006, 00:33: Message edited by: DarkStrider ]