Help With My Party

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Hi all; this is two fold.

I want to run an evil party (tired of same old Me, Minsc, Kivan, Yeslick, Imoen, etc etc).

So I will have myself as a fighter dual classed to mage.

For sure I will have:

Kagain
Viconia
Edwin

My question is who would you suggest to round this out? Who would be the best thief? I'm open to any options, so if I end up 4 spell casters I don't mind, I'm looking for a new experience. I do know I would like to have 1 more fighter and 1 more thief, but if that can be combined somehow no big deal. I was thinking maybe Montaron and Xzar, getting my fighter/thief and an extra spell caster. But maybe I would be better to just get Safana as a pure thief and Shar-teel as a fighter. I then have my two front line fighters, a thief, a cleric, and two spell casters. My only draw back would be the lack of ranged combatants; normally I have Kivan and Imoen as ranged fighters and I like it that way.

My second question is how should I keep my reputation low enough to keep everyone happy. To get the xp from most quests requires an increase in reputation. I hate to just go about randomly killing innocents in order to keep my reputation low. How do you guys normally do it? I would like to get all the evil bonus abilities as well.

Last of all, would it be possible at all to merge a good and evil party? Lets say I want the 4 people listed above as well as Kivan and Minsc. Will the rep brackets allow them to stay together? If so, can I do it without sacrificing the evil abilities?

Sorry for being so lengthy. Lets hear what you all recommend.

Thanks

 

Kivan and Viconia don't like each other much, and may get into a fight. But I wouldn't think of replacing him with Dynaheir, because she can be the trigger that sets off Minsc and Edwin. Without Dynaheir, though, Minsc and Edwin get along surprisingly well. I would also advise against getting Yeslick; the only two dwarves in the game don't get along too well, either. Other than that, your choices are wide open.

I'd suggest Shar-Teel or Minsc for your other front-liner, and Montaron makes a great sneak-thief (don't raise his stealth but give him some Boots and maybe Shadow Armor).

You can easily keep your rep low enough by kicking Viconia out and letting her rejoin when she walks over to ask about it; your rep drops 2 points each time. And so long as you keep your rep between 3 and 9, you'll be able to keep everyone and get the evil powers instead of the good ones. You might want to keep it around 9 if you've got Kivan or Minsc, though. If you get too low (6 IIRC) they'll become "fallen" and lose their class abilities, becoming mere fighters.

 

Thanks Felinoid.

It was my understanding that when you kick Viconia out you gain back the reputation you lost? If not, that makes it easy.

Thanks for the advice. I was mainly worried about Montaron not being an adequate thief. If he can be my thief and a ranged combatant, that works out great and leaves me one more character to play with.

If you had to recommend one neutral/evil char to play the ranged role, who would it be? I know Shar-Teel has high dexterity, but so does Viconia. Cleric's obviously can't use the better ranged weapon, but there are a few magic slings out there. If Viconia and Montaron can be my ranged combatants, that leaves Kagain plus another front liner of my choice. It also keeps both the spell casters out of the ranged column and allows them to concentrate on magic.

Sorry if this is too boring. I personally enjoy this phase more than the game itself..

 

Not at all; if it was boring, I wouldn't have answered. I actually like the idea stage too. I tell ya, I've got more ideas than I could play in a decade.

I haven't played with Viccy myself yet, so I can't say for sure, but it's definitely something to try. Likely you don't get the rep back because you've already agreed to take her with you and it damaged your reputation with the commoners. And then when you have a perfect opportunity to change your mind, you decide to let her join again. I suppose you could think about it as how your opinion of someone drops if they refuse to break off an abusive friendship.

Monty doesn't make a good ranged fighter due to his proficiencies (small sword x2 & missile weapon x2), but he can kick some serious a$$ if you use him to backstab and then back off. But if you want a ranged thief...odd as it may seem, I'd suggest going with Imoen or Coran. I don't recall if Imoen will leave or not at the rep break point (2), but you shouldn't be getting quite that low anyway, or you'll be facing the Flaming Fist at every turn.

Shar-Teel is a straight tank (large sword x2 & small sword x2), so I wouldn't expect too much ranged work from her. Grabbing Minsc might not be such a bad idea in that instance, so long as you keep a vigilant eye on your rep. Khalid might do the trick too, so long as you can wrestle him away from his wife.

 

hey falco
i'd go with shar-teel and monty for your two free slots. both make adequate ranged fighters with their dex of 17. i usually take one ranged weapon for each character, so you could spend shar-teels next proficiency for long bows. what do you intend to play yourself? i'd go with human fighter or elven thief. montaron actually is a good shot with a sling as he is halfling ant gets +1 thac0 racial bonus. get kagain the light crossbow of speed and the gauntlets of dexterity and watch all of your party turn your enemies into pincushions from afar, then switch to your melee-weapon once the enemy closes in (either your tank or just the one engaged hand-to-hand).
keep your reputation at about 12, that way, you don't have to worry about flaming fist mercenaries hunting you or shopkeepers charging you double (or so). what you can do:
lie to oublek and tell him you ARE ghreywulf.
kill petrine's cat at the orders or her step-father.
otherwise, i don't know much except killing one or two innocents now and again or suffer the constant bickering of your party.

 

If you kick Viconcia out you do not gain the Rep. back. If she rejoins you, you don't loose any more either. That is what I have experienced when playing. One more thing, Viconcia will not join you if you are LG, actually Edwin didn't join me either. So your alignment will play a major role on how NPC's view you. I like to play CN whenever possible.

 

I've had both Edwin and Viconia join me with a LG character, so that's not the issue. The problem was probably something else (too high a repuation maybe?)

Shar-Teel is a good fighter, and a good choice for an evil party.

I don't like either Xzar or Montaron (though Xzar's insanity can be quite funny). I would have said pick Faldorn or Eldoth as your 6th character, but that would leave you without a thief. Safana would be the best I think.

As for ranged characters, Shar-Teel (and Viconia to a lesser extent) should be able to taker care of that.

 

It's an encounter reaction thing. If they view you too lowly for some reason (rep or CHA), they won't even consider joining you. The same can be said for just about any NPC.

 

You guys *actually were able to recruit* Shar-Teel? Everytime I stumbled across her, she'd challenge the "most powerful male" to a dual, and it would just end in her death. WTF? Something I missed?

 

@Disciple:
It is kind of tricky. You have to get her down to less than half her hitpoints (but more than zero) before she'll surrender. That means between 9 and 16 damage if she's second level, between 17 and 31 damage if she's fourth level, or between 24 and 45 damage if she's sixth level.

So if you're trying to get her very early, you should try to make your first blow do at least 9 damage and then stop (tell the character to move away or something). Or if you're trying to get her kind of late, two or three hits doing between 24 and 31 damage and stop. If you really want to be sure that you get her on your first try, you can use a Wand of Magic Missiles to inch her HP down little by little after the first blow or two.

 

I've also had odd things happen with Shar-Teel. I once didn't even speak to her until after Cloakwood, and I thought it would be funny to have Minsc defeat her and then send her on her way humiliated. He was carrying Spider's Bane, hit her once, and insta-chunked her. I guess that shouldn't be surprising because he was about six levels higher than she was, but it was still quite

 

@Big Cat: Eh, that's odd, she never surrendered. I would just bash her a few times, go away, and she would just follow me, still hostile. WTF?

 

That`s strange. I was able to get her all the time. I would recomend her, great Dex, great strength, and (what might be found a waste, but great fun) dualable to thief!

 

@Disciple:
Forget about what I said with the Wand; if she turns hostile then you're already screwed. Don't force attack her, because it's scripted so that the character who she wants to fight will attack her back and she'll stay neutral (blue); only that way will she join you.

 

Alright, thanks, Big Cat, I'll try it.

 

I really wanted to play Vicona but don't like the Evil party thing, so I cheated out a helm of opposite alignment, let her join and put the helm on her.
It worked great in BG ToSC, but my NPC in SoA were LG and wouldn't tolerate her.

 

Well, you cheated it in once already...