Going Through Again

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OK, I need some different type party suggestions. I'm going though this game again with my R/C from BG1. WIS 21, INT 9, everything else 19. I'm looking for a bit of a different gaming experience. First of all, I have already done all the romances, and seeing as how I have a boatload of cleric spells, I don't need any sissy clerics or druids to come along, other than perhaps as temporary companions to do their quests.

What I'm looking for is a different type of party grouping that I don't typically try. That said, I'm not looking for stupid groupings that will cause them to fight either. I don't want Minsc-Edwin, nor do I want a Keldorn-Viconia pairing. Going with that theme, I can't take Nalia, as I always have her. I'd be OK with sticking with Jan or Haer-Dalis' until I get Imoen as my primary mage. I have to take Valygar, as I never have him in my party. But I want at least one more tank, and since I'm playing a good character, that leaves basically Keldorn and Minsc, and I always have at least one of them, although I typically don't have both of them. Hmmm...

My initial thinking is Aldeth, Keldorn, Minsc, Valygar, Jan, with the last spot for temporary characters, finishing with Yoshimo before going to get Imoen back. (I can't help - I always take Imoen.) Actually, that IS a lot different than most of my parties because it's so tank heavy...

 

Keldorn and Minsc have some interesting interactions (very well written) -- Keldorn will actually bring Minsc out from his rage after a battle.

What about Mazzy? Let Keldorn stay with his family and get the halfling fighter -- she's awesome and has a great voice set. Mazzy and Korgan are actually pretty interesting together. Another cool combo would be Aerie/Haer-Dalis' -- I've never been able to get the love triangle going but it sounds interesting. I've heard they may both leave if you play your cards right (you even have the chance to kill HD). You may need to wait to get Aerie until you have HD or are on the quest to get him.

I also had fun with my "freaks of nature" party -- R/C, Minsc, Jaheira, Cernd, and Valygar. This party is quite powerful even before Cernd gets his greater werewolf. If you put on the Shapeshifter Unbalancing Mod Cernd just takes over (I think he could kill Demogorgon by himself).

Have you tried any of the NPC mods?

 

I have taken Mazzy, but not nearly as often as other characters. My two least-played characters are almost certainly Valygar and Cernd - I don't think that I've ever had them longer than what it took me to complete their quests. Cernd just seems too gimmicky with the whole transform to Werewolf thing, and Valygar just never seems to bring much to the table. I have a thief if I want to backstab or sneak around, and a thief has further utility in finding traps, picking locks, etc.

If I didn't need a thief, I would love to sub Jan (who is in about half of my parties) out for Mazzy, and just go super fighter-heavy. I suppose this would be possible to do right before I went to get Imoen. Having a thief is pretty non-negotiable, and you certainly have access to adequate amounts of thief specific gear between boots of stealth, ring of danger sense, ring of lockpicking that Imoen is more than capable of being your primary thief once you get her back.

Hmmm... That is looking pretty interesting. Maybe I won't pick up all the characters, and just get my core party together. Ditch Jan completely in fact. Have NO arcane casters for the early game. All tanks plus Yoshimo, who is traded out for Imoen....

 

Not something for your current character, but for later.

The party that gave me the most fun last summer was:
Me (fighter/illusionist)
Jan
Imoen
Nalia
Aerie
Edwin

I expected the party to be quite bad in day to day boring fights, but it turned out to be great, just recasting stoneskin and haste after rests was a bit tiresome. Hotkeys help. When it came to facing enemies, a band of mages furiously beating enemies with their staffs makes a hilarious sight.

And when some mob angered me, I could make a salve of fireballs and fry them in a fraction of a second. Later on 6 mages with Acceleration....did whatever they wanted to any enemy.

And I also did a more extreme variant. Made my main character a Kensai(21)/Mage(22). And replaced Nalia with Sarevok, F(21)/M(22). But waiting for myself and Sarevok to regain fighting powers took far too long and there were hardly any fights left, in fact I had to abuse the Lum machine to get Sarevok this high. So I don't recommend this setup. Maybe the main character as a F/I and Sarevok dualling at 18 would work better though...

 

Cernd is pretty awesome -- he's worth a try. The only problem I have with him is how long it takes to go from 14th to 15th level.

 

Have you thought about trying some of the Modded NPCs? I liked all of the below for different reasons.

Auren Auseph - Palin Jane fighter with decent but not great stats. Very Customizable to your melee needs.

Kivan - Archers kick ace.

Ninafer - Fighter/Mage kick ace as well.

Tyris Flare - Amazon chic frmo another realm.

Saerilith - Her voicing is a little tough, but not bad. Her quests are excellent.

Mazzy the Paladin - For a different option.

Beyond the Law - Which adds Kiyonne, a LG Archer and Kova a M/T. My favorite Mod. The story itself adds a bit of a twist to the game.

 

I have tried modded NPCs, although not all of those that you listed. I did like Kelsey, but I think I gave up on modded NPC after Chloe annoyed me to no end. I have not so much as heard of Ninafer and Tyris Flare - much less played them. I have heard of Beyond the Law, but have not played it.

You misunderstand - I said I don't need any sissy clerics or druids. The sissy was an adjective to describe the clerics only. If you would prefer, I'll restate it as I don't need any druids or sissy clerics.

 

Good quests sounded interesting so I gave it a go. I haven't got any of her quests yet, and so I'm not sure how it will all play out, but I guess I'll figure it out. It is a little creepy that she's like 14 and attracted to you.

Now as for the party, I went hardcore fighter, with no arcane magic users presently. There's me, the R/C - I also have two paladins, a wanabe paladin, a ranger, and a thief. So the party is Aldeth, Saerilith, Keldorn, Minsc, Mazzy, and Yoshimo.

 

OK, I thought the quest for Sarelith involved a dragon. While I haven't seen that one, I did have her get kidnapped. What the hell? I have to fight a couple of demons with no spells, abilities or items allowed? I have to just beat the things to death? Are you kidding? The first one wasn't too bad - a concentrated attack with my fighter-heavy party was adequate to take it down with minimal damage.

But the second one... WTF? Since the only allowable strategy was beating it with a stick, that's what I tried to do, and it just wrecked my party repeatedly. I ended up cheesing it after the first several attempts went poorly. The guy that accompanies you - Eldorem or whatever - evidently has somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 hp - give or take a thousand either way. He didn't do a particularly good job of hitting the demon, but he took whatever damage the demon dealt out. Eventually, I managed to kill the damn thing, but it took about two full minutes of whacking away at it.

Anyway that wasn't fun, and the timing of it was poor as well. I was in Trademeet, and had just killed Rejik and was ready to cast the restoration spell on the girl to complete that quest. Upon my return to Trademeet after the interruption, she was gone, so I won't get to complete that quest. Also, since I wasn't planning on going there and I had just spent a bunch for some items from the Trademeet merchants, I wasn't able to buy much of what the merchant offered in that plane. I was able to afford a very nice shield, and I did buy the necklace (that apparently does nothing) as I thought that may be a necessary item for the Sarelith storyline, but I would have liked to have purchased the ilithium as well - that way I could upgrade the mace of disruption and do the Sir Sarles quest - and maybe pick up some arrows +3, but alas, I didn't have the money.

Anyway, I do have a question - as I've said, my plan is to use Imoen as my primary thief, and to make her a fully functional thief, I was planning on using an item from Cromwell's Item Upgrade Mod - you can combine the gloves of pickpocketing with the ring of lockpicks and the ring of danger sense to make a pair of bracers that has to combined properties of all three (not bad!). In my travels, I have found the two rings, but I have no idea where those gloves are. Can someone help a brotha? I'd prefer to make them before I get Imoen at Spellhold, but I understand that there's the possibility of not acquiring it until after I leave.

 

I thought the gloves were in the Copper Coronet (upstairs in the hooker's area with some retired thief).

 

Hmmm... That may well be. And even though I completed the Copper Coronet slavers quest, I'm pretty sure everyone upstairs is still upstairs afterwards, and if it's in one of the rooms in a chest, it's definitely still there.

 

What the? Uh, I know it's been a while, but did I break my stronghold? I went back to the Umar Hills to see if I had another quest at my cabin, and when I walk over to the cabin, expecting to see the forest sprite, she's not around. So I figure, I'll head into the cabin and rest. In the place of the door icon when I scroll over the entrance, I get the question mark icon. Clicking on it, it say, "the door has been barred from the inside and the items inside have been removed." Huh? That's my cabin! I got the deed right here!!

 

You may want to check a guide for the stronghold quests. I seem to recall a couple of the ranger quests were timed and at least one could be assigned while you were gone. It may also have to do with choices before you got the cabin (such as giving swords to the kids).

 

Just read through your writeup, and sure enough, it's the second quest that I missed out on. I completed the first one with the mithril medallion, but I never had Delon seek me out to tell me that the Orogs were attacking the town. Oh well... I've done the Ranger Stronghold quest before, and it's not like the Moon Dog Figurine is all that.

Come to think of it, that may have been another quest that got hosed because of the Sarelith event. I need Trademeet and the Druid Grove shortly after the Umar Hills, but because I went back to Athkatla first, and rested a couple of times along the way, it certainly sounds like it would have been about 4 days... that girl has now cost me two rep points.

As an aside, I did find the Gloves of Pickpocketing - I had not realized you also needed Bracers of Defense and two +1 Rings of Protection, so that turned into a rather pricey set of gloves once you add in that I had to buy the bracers and one of the rings from the Adventurer's Mart.

I'm also ready to head off to get Imoen. I have the Sir Sarles quest, the Windspear Hills (IMO the most difficult of the various stronghold quests), and I will eventually go kill that Shadow Dragon. I don't think I'll have use of the armor I can make from the Shadow Dragon, but IIRC, I think the Red Dragon armor is well worth it.

 

The Shadow Dragon armor is one of the best armors for thieves or other classes that are restricted to leather armor. The only other leather(type) armor that has an AC as good as this armor, and that's the Grandmaster's armor you can get in ToB.

The Red Dragon armor is ok, but you'll find quite a few other armors that are better than this one. Unless you really need the fire resistance it get you.