Is there possibly a worse party combo than this ?

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Well, I've played through BG2 and part of ToB, at least twice now, once with a thief, once with a paladin, and now I'm doing it with a general mage, who I've carried over from BG1. I've just stopped playing BG2, about 5 minutes ago to think up a new party combination due to needing to start again.

The party I did have was, Myself(mage), viconia(cleric), Anomen(fighter/cleric), Keldorn(paladin), Jan(thief/Illusionist), Mazzy(fighter).

I had warnings through dialogs that I was going to have probs, but I just shook it off as just bickering between good and evil. Main dialog hints were with Keldorn warning Viconia. I think someone else warned her, and a few people warned Jan. I did have 18 reputation, and then Viconia was going to leave, so I had to cheat just a little and drop the rep using Shadowkeeper, I only did this cos I was in a romance with Viconia and I knew I wouldn't be able to get her back if I lost her. But my problem ended up being, I'd almost done every quest, excpet for npc quests who weren't in the party, and was in the middle of my stronghold quest, which I delayed, when Keldorn decided to turn on Viconia, they both left my party, I managed to stop the fight, but Viconia still left.

Grrrrr, like I said could I possibly have picked a worse party combo ? I don't think so.

So, if anyone knows who is going to get along with Viconia and Jan, and not try and kill both of them, or force them to leave the party it would be appreciated. I'm assuming, I'll have to leave Keldorn for certain out of the party, and I'm guessing Anomen will have to go as well, but does Mazzy go and attack anyone ?

But I'm figuring I'm going to have to go in with myself(LG), Viconia, and then party members ranging from neutral good to neutral or evil. Valygar, Cernd, Haer'dalis, Jaheira and Minsc for the three remaining party members. Due to the first 3 being Jan, and Viconia, but I might swap Jan for Yoshimo, since I was only keeping Jan in for the banter with Keldorn and Anomen, but i fear he'd be forced out of the party by someone. Why haven't I suggested Korgan ? Well his alignment if it's possible to say is more evil than Viconia's, and I'm finding it hard enough to keep Viconia in the party. She seemed to leave on me even with 18 rep, so what rep, doesn't she threaten to leave, or was she only leaving on 18 rep, due to Keldorn, Anomen, and Mazzy in the party ?

Any help and thoughts on what 1) the highest rep I can go, and 2) who has a problem with who, mainly Viconia, cos I can swap Jan for Yoshi, if I truly need to.

Yes, I do know it's not wise to have too much of a mixed party, good and evil, and thats probably my problem, and I doubt Vic would have a problem with the protagonist if he was the only LG party member.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

 

The problem is that Keldorn will come to blows with Viconia. Nobody else will. It's either him or her. Your choice.

 

Keldorn and Viconia will come to blows due to Keldorn being an Inquisitor and Viconia trying to bite everyone.

 

Okay, to Vic and Keldorn.

But will anyone else come to blows with Vic ?

Will anyone come to blows with Jan ? It seems to me Jan annoys everyone, but only Anomen and maybe Keldorn have threatened to kill Jan.

Anyway thanks for the info on Vic and Keldorn.

As long as my rep doesn't go above 18, I shouldn't have a problem with Vic leaving right ? I know she'll whine and according to the BG2 manual, she'll be angry, but it's only 19-20 that evil aligned will break, right ?

I think one of the last parties I had, was myself(paladin), Jaheira(romance), Minsc, Yoshi/Imoen, Anomen, and I don't remeber who else I had, it may have been Aerie. That party definitely didn't have a prob, except for Jaheira whining at 20 rep.

Thanks in advance for any more insight into the rep and the party problem.

 

***Possible spoilers here***

I've never had her in for a romance, however, in the TOB romance, can you not change her allignment? If so you could always call in Keldorn afterwards.

I'd kick that saintly git out anyway. Take the 5k (or was it 6?) for the Holy Avenger instead.

 

Screw Jaheira. Honestly. Take Sarevok instead. He's better, stronger, whines less and is all-around cooler than that whiny druid *mutters an un-typable word* who can rot with that stupid half-breed husband of hers. Gods, I am a cruel person. We need a vampire smiley. Whoops. Well, have Nalia instead of Jaheira, then get Sarevok.

[ February 01, 2003, 20:59: Message edited by: Eze ]

 

Keldorn will come to blows with Viconia, and I believe (though I've never seen it) that Minsc will eventually try to take a round out of Edwin if you have them together. Edwin calls him a moron, I believe. Valygar, too, has an issue with an evil character (Korgan, maybe?) and they duke it out. On the flip-side, 2 NPCs who interact a little more positively are Haer'Dalis and Aerie, but this is problematic if you want to ditch one and not the other -- once they are doing the nasty together, you have to keep both or lose both.

 

Minsc will duke it out with Korgan. Anomen (if he fails his test) will attack Aerie. Valygar and Mazzy won't attack anyone, although Valygar does get annoyed with Mazzy quite a bit. Keldorn is the only NPC that will attack Viccy, though Valygar threatens her a few times.

 

It never got to any indefferences between Keldorn and Viconia with me. Perhaps due to the fact that I romanced her? Or just because I got lucky, I don't know. I never even had to do the loading ppl here talk about to get the "Keldorn vs. Viconia" dialogue skipped.

 

ok, what I would do is to make a party slightly more tended towards neutral/evil... I would drop both Ano and Keldy... replace Ano with Jaheira - druid spells may not be hugely impressive, but Ironskins and Insect Plague are awesome. Bring Korgan instead of keldy... you do not have to dump Mazzy - she gets along very well with anyone, and Korgan even attempts to woo her, harhar

well, that's just my tuppence

btw, Eze, you certainly are an idiot, using this thread to spit your venom towards a totally awesome and sweet npc. Shame on you, neighbour.

 

The only problem I have with Anomen *and* Keldorn in a party is the low dex of both - since there is just one pair of gauntlets of dex one of both will have a crappy AC for the whole game.

With Anomen, like him or not, you'll have a rather good cleric, with pretty nice combat qualities too (preferrably ranged). Since he's dualclassed abnd not multiclassed you can use the power boosting cleric spells that simulate fighter levels to good effect.

Mazzy is perhaps the most potent NPC in BG-2 SoA, with a str-item her melee punch will clearly be awesome and in ToB she'll excell in melee once her ranged combat ability has become less effective (archers are clearly better then). As a halfling she'll have excellent saves and will resist mind affecting spells easier than Minsc, Anomen and Sarevok for example.

Viccy is a pretty good cleric and has some hot conversations and nice quest encounters. Even when Keldorn bashes her you'll have a capable cleric with Anomen.

Keldorn is a pretty robust and capable char and his inquisitor abilities are quite useful for the largest part of the game. Paired with a str-item and carsomyr, the warblade or his own sword he'll rock. However, I was surprised that he was not-so survivable in ToB, perhaps I just neglected him.

Jan is a pretty good char either, very versatile and rather funny.

Later in ToB Sarevok will be a very powerful addition to your party. H will clearly offer better combat abilities than Jaheira, insofar Eze is certainly right. Jaheir has the problem that the druid levels up quite slow over a long time and that she has to share levels with the fighter class. Perhaps she would have better be off as a pure druid (my preferred choice when I edit her). Jaheira's quest is pretty cool.

My hint would be, when you want a goody party, is to wait once Viccy had her quests, and then take Keldorn again. Of course, Extremists advice to cast maze on Keldorn is a brilliant way out of the trouble of Keldorn with Viccy.

[ February 03, 2003, 15:06: Message edited by: Ragusa ]

 

As fun as Viccy is, I prefer Amonen for clerical stuff. His turning is much more effective, in my mind, than her undead control. He is also, for a good chunk of the game, a more effective fighter, especially if you give him 3 slots in dual wielding and let him use Crom Faeyr and either StormStar or the Runehammer. My only problem with him is his arrogance and sanctimonious yapping, but Viccy is evil and her reputation cost is too much for me to ignore.

I love!!! Keldorn with Carsomyr! Put the Gaxx on him and the Seldarine amulet, and he is an anti-magic machine. For him alone I rarely play with Viconia.

 

Would you know per chance whether Othiluke's Sphere works for the same purpose, if I do not have Maze available?

 

I am not an idiot. An Jaheira is not sweet. I have played BGII countless times and all she ever did was dying and whining about my decisions. And what's the awesome thing about her? NOTHING. Gods, I'd take ANY other NPC over her any day. That means BGI ones as well. I am not your neighbor, BTW.

Eze glares and hacks Jaheira into pieces with Éomer's sword

 

You know, in BG1, I liked having old Khalid along, but hated his dippy wife. I got to enjoy his stunned cry "huh? Jaheira!! NOOO" after I'd deactivated her AI and sent her to an ignominious death. I was some annoyed when Khalid was not included in BG2. I was equally mad when most of my favorites (Dynaheir, Yeslick, Coran, and Ajantis) didn't come along for the ride either. They ditched the best BG1 charcters!

And yes, I know we see some of those people in BG2, but they can't join the party.

 

Hmm, all I can add to that is ask you to take this NPC bashing elsewhere. Obviously, if you have a personal reasons to hate an NPC, you will not want to admit or see his strengths but will only see it's weakness.

Secondly, and most important - Do you think that somebody here CARES if you hate NPC X or NPC Y ? Or is someone interested to hear it? Everyone of us is forming our views regardless of your opinion, so I would suggest you to restrain from such biased comments.

Truth is - none of the 16 NPC's is crucial to compelete the game and none of the 16 NPC's is useless. People usually form their parties by evaluating their companions from 2 aspects: useful/not useful in game terms and like/dislike - this is of course very personal.

Your comment, saying NPC X sucks, I hate her, she is useless, blahblahblah... -
It is not very useful. I actually have no idea, what was your point. You cannot possibly expect to form other people's opinion of a certain NPC, just because YOU hate her. That's just not gonna happen, people decide for themselves. Perhaps you should spend a little more time, thinking about why you hate this NPC so much, that you actually wasting so much of your precious time letting others to know that. But, then again, maybe you don't want to know your reasons...

 

Well, actually I don't think that somebody cares. But the reason, that I severely dislike our druid person, is NOT a reason to call me an idiot. So there.

Case closed.

 

Point taken. Agreed.

 

Has anybody tried this combination:
Aerie,Jaheira,Viconia and Haer'Dalis
I'm begining to think that this party could be a really the worst party combo

 

Especially if the protagonist is a male human.