Best NPC Team

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I'm rather a new player of BG and BG2. At this time, I've just begun BG2. I would like to hear the views of others regarding what they believe to be the best NPC teams to assemble. I feel rather dizzied by the many party options available to me in BG2 -- keep Jaheira? or go with Viconia (even though she is evil)? choose Jan or Imoen? Pick one team and stick with it? Or have something of a revolving team, with some NPCs substituting for others at certain points in the game? And so on.

My thanks to any who are willing to share their thoughts and experiences.

 

NPC choice revovles around, firstly, your PC. I'll list some example parties below. Keep in mind that these are just hypothetical situations, and my experiences with BG2 don't give any special weight to my words; others here will probably be able to give more informed opinions than I.


Example one: PC = Sorcerer
NPCs: Minsc
Yoshimo (switched for someone else later, won't tell you now or it'd spoil things)
Anomen
Cernd or Jahiera, I'd suggest Jahiera for your first play-through.
Korgan/Valygar/Mazzy/Viconia... It really doesn't matter, since your PC, as a sorcerer, doesn't need a whole lot of help.

Ex.2
PC = Barbarian
NPCs: Yoshimo (again, switched later)
Edwin (or Nalia, Edwin's a superior mage, but Nalia has some thieving skills. Same goes for Jan. Either of these can replace Yoshimo as thief, and have mage abilities as well, but on your first game I'd suggest taking Yoshimo.)
Viconia
Haer'Dalis
Korgan (or Minsc, both make great tanks)


I believe the first party I finished BG2 with was:
PC (male elven F/M/T)
Imoen
Minsc
Jahiera
Edwin, and
Anomen (not sure here, might have been Korgan)


So... there really is no "best party"... it all depends on your preferences and situation. Some people, myself among them, like to plan out a party of NPCs and build a PC to fill in for what they lack. Example of this:

NPCs: Minsc
Valygar
Edwin
Korgan
Jan
A logical PC choice for this party would be a Cleric or a Druid, to provide healing and buffs. If you're anything like me, though, you'll play around with several PCs before you settle on one you like, then build a party around that. All in all, just have fun, and your party will turn out fine


One last note: Welcome to SP, I hope you stick around!

 

Personally I always stick with a fixed line-up - I will bring in Valygar to do his quest and then boot him (if he isn't part of my planned party that is).

The party that I used my first time is (I think) a fairly standard first run party. It included

Jahiera
Minsc
Yoshimo
Aerie
Keldorn

This party can work well with just about any class of PC as the NPCs cover pretty well all of the bases.

Oh, and if you end up replaying endlessly, like some of us here do, you will likely end up at some point with a spreadsheet of the next half dozen or more tailor-balanced PC and party combinations that you want to try - I know I did.

 

Ive started loads of games, but only finished with one so far. I think it was:

-Human Berserker PC, dual wielding bastard/long swords
-Korgan, switched for Sarevok in TOB (presumably not an option for you, if you're posting here)
-Anomen
-Jaheira
-Imoen
-Nalia

Very balanced: Two major league damage dealers, two priests suited to both melee and range combat and two wizards with bows. Great for a first time through, although not the most interesting lineup ever. There's plenty of leeway for the reputation/alignment situation, so dont worry about that too much. Be warned, however; there are a few NPC who really object to eachothers' presence and will eventually kill eachother or drive the other away. I wont spoil the story with the reasons, but Minsc/Edwin, Aerie/Korgan and Keldorn/Viconia are no go. Just experiment; the characters are designed so that you cant really make a completely useless party, assuming you have enough common sense not to make a party consisting only of paper thin thief/magi, and even that could be done. Consult a FAQ if you're really worried. There's loads here on SP and on gamefaqs.

 

First time playing eh? Keeping that in mind, may I suggest:

- PC - any class you like, hopefully the fighting sort
- Imoen
- Minsc - sentimental favorite
- Yoshimo - need a thief without Imoen
- Aerie - spell casting duties
- NPC of the day - do their quest, boot them out

So only one party member goes through the revolving door, which lets you check out all the NPCs without giving your party a makeover.

 

Jan, Imoen, Haer'Dalis, Anomen, Cernd, Jaheira will work with both good and evil parties.

Keldron, Minsc, Imoen and Jaheria alone can get through the whole game.
You can make any PC you want.
Like Blog said, keep the last spot open for doing the NPC quests.

 

Actually, if you plan on playing through more than once, there is exactly enough NPC's for three full-party groups without having to re-use any NPC's (assuming Imoen and Yoshimo are considerd to be "one" NPC, but I won't say why since it involves a spoiler).

It's actually hard to go wrong with any one group, just as long as you try for some balance (at least one each of a tank, priest, mage and thief), and bearing in mind that some NPC's will fill 2 roles. Also try to keep evil NPC's away from good NPC's. Beyond that, it just depends on your preferred playing style.

---nerd!

I just have mine written down on scraps of paper.

 

Thanks, everyone, for the excellent responses! They are quite helpful. I'm learning that there is no "best" NPC team. There are variations, strengths and weaknesses to any team devised, it seems. And some may even prefer a team with obvious weaknesses and deficiencies for the challenge or because he or she likes some NPCs better than others or likes their story-lines better.

After reading the posts here and doing some other reading on sorcerers.net, I think I'll go with the following party.

Minsc -- Tank #1. And I just like him alot.
Keldorn -- Tank #2. Plus some good special abilities.
Jan -- Thief. Good thief; good mage.
Aerie -- Primary mage and cleric. Although limited as primary mage, I just like her.
Jaheira -- Cleric. Average but I like her story-line. Plus I like the idea of Jaheira competing with Aerie for my affections.
Myself -- Ranger with Archer kit. The Ranger is my favorite and I like the Archer kit.

I welcome reactions and any additional advice. I am especially interested in learning how difficult it is to rotate NPCs in the 5th slot in order to do their quests. Thanks.

 

That party should do just fine.

I would personally plan to use Jaheira as a tank - she is quite good at it. She can act as a secondary cleric and provide some extra healing but I mostly use her druid abilities for pre-battle buffing and summoning.

I would suggest that you consider using Yoshimo and then Imoen instead of Jan - for story reasons. This leaves you a little weak in arcane magic at first but with Keldorn to help remove spell protections you should be able to manage.

 

Just a couple of considerations:

1. You have 2 multi-classed mages. Due to the SOA cap, you won’t get access to mage spells above level 6. This isn’t a big deal unless you want level 7+ spells.
2. You have 2 multi-classed priests. Again, due to the SOA cap, Jaheira won’t get access to druid spells above level 6, and Aerie will only have one level 7 cleric spell. Again, not a big deal unless you want them.

JSBB’s suggestion above might take care of #1 (if you care), and personally, I don’t use many priest spells, so #2 wouldn’t be an issue for me.

Rotating out NPC’s isn’t a problem, but avoid kicking out Jaheira. Minsc is probably your best bet.

 

JSBB wrote:
"I would suggest that you consider using Yoshimo and then Imoen instead of Jan - for story reasons."

I'm curious about that. Would I really miss much of the story without Yoshima/Imoen in my party?

 

The Yoshimo element of the story involves one event that is significant to the plot. If Yoshimo is not with the party there is a substitute story that basically serves to move the plot along in the same direction, however I think most people would agree that the Yoshimo version is better.

 

Yeah, a fair amount. They are both very much parts of the plot, so it doesn't really make much sense not to take them, especially if this is your first time. Aside from that, all I have to add is that you should really consider Viconia. Not only is she hands down the game's best cleric, with one of the many Strength enhancing items littering the game she can make a doable secondary tank. Or at least she can defend herself. Plus she's not nearly so whiny as Aerie.

 

In any case, yoshimo is cool. Take him and enjoy.

Just to hijack this thread to my own ends- anyone tried Cernd?

 

To answer the usual Cernd queries:

I have tried Cernd.
He can contribute reasonably well to the party if used properly.
If you have the shapeshifter rebalancing mod installed he will probably be way too powerful.
I DO find his character irritating.
I don't like him, and
I will probably not be using him again.

 

Wow! You guys are fantastic! Thanks for all the suggestions.

I think I'll modify my base party to include the following.
- Minsc
- Keldorn
- Jaheira
- Aerie
- Yoshima/Imoen
- Me (Archer)

I'll plan a second go-round and at that time would like to make some different choices, such as, definitely including Viconia and maybe Korgan or Valygar.

Thanks for all your help.

Also, Splunge wrote:
"Rotating out NPC’s isn’t a problem, but avoid kicking out Jaheira. Minsc is probably your best bet."

That's good to know. I would like to do some of the other NPC quests (though not all of them -- I will save some for next time) and so definitely want to do some rotating. Question: Are there any others that need careful handling in a rotation arrangement? Are there any NPCs who might leave permanently if you rotate them out?

 

@ chiz65

I had Cernd in my first party and I quit liked him and I found him as an okay npc used the right way, I haven't tried the shapeshifter rebalancing mod yet, but I would like to have another go with him, with this mod. although the whole "cast spells while shapechanged" sounds a bit overpowered.

 

@ Lord N - of the NPC's you've listed, Yoshimo should be able to be kicked out temporarily; Aerie could be a problem if you're romancing her (I'm not sure, though); and Keldorn could possibly be a problem (but again, I'm not sure). Minsc is still the safest, though (Yoshi would actually be a better choice, but then you'd be without a thief).

 

I think Jaheira is the only NPC who I have had refuse to rejoin after I shuffled her out. As far as I know the other romances are just killed and the NPC becomes unromancable.

There are some conditions that I have encountered where the other characters will permanently leave but none of them were triggered by shuffling the NPC out of the line-up.

Personally, I normally shuffle out Minsc if I am using him and he has always been glad to rejoin the party for another round of butt kicking.

 

@Lord N: Don't throw Jaheira or Aerie out if you want them to "compete" (heh). In any event you probably shouldn't throw Jaheira out, as there's a possibility she will never return (depends where you are in her quest). I'm almost certain that none of the others are a problem, and as has already been said Minsc is the safest.