Party with best banter

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I recently finished a nostalgia run of Planescape: Torment and am now planning to give the original Baldur's Gate a second try. Last time playing I went with the de-facto BG2 party [Minsc + Dynaheir + Jaheira + Khalid + Imoen] and boy was that a mistake! I couldn't imagine a party more annoying, uninteresting and autistic than that. Aside from Minsc's excruating battle cries and Jaheira's bickering there was absolutely no banter or any type of social interaction going on within my party. Needless to say, I didn't have a very... immersive experience.

So before I begin playing again I'd like to hear some suggestions on forming a party that's as talkative as possible. I don't really give a rat's arse about efficiency - the party I'm looking for could consist solely of bards for all I care.

All suggestions and responses welcome!

 

Are you playing an unmodded BG1?

If you are then there's no banter to be had at all, I think.

BG Tutu with BG NPC Project is a whole different story. There's lot of interactions there, regardless of the party you pick.

 

You don't get banter like you do in Baldur's Gate II but you do get some comments.

There are characters who dislike each other and will snipe at each other constantly (unlike BG2 they won't leave the party, though):

Shar-Teel and Eldoth (actually, no one really likes Eldoth, except for Skie)
Yeslick and Kagain
Viconia and Kivan
Jaheira and Faldorn
Edwin, Dynaheir and Minsc
Tiax and Quayle

Coran will flirt with Safana (well, if you've played BG2 you know how that turns out...)
Garrick will pine after Skie

Any combos of these should be more amusing.
I have yet to try a party with Monty and Xzar - I do need to do an evil run through at some point! A party with Xzar and Tiax should be a bit of a riot, really.

 

I'm planning on installing Tutu since the original engine is almost unbearable. The mod you speak of sounds interesting, I'll definetly give it a try!

Regardless, I'm still looking for suggestions / ideas of what NPC's to include.

 

WARNING: incredibly biased pro-BG1NPC post follows. Take with a grain of salt, and crosscheck with others. I liked it so much I joined up and apprentice-modded with Domi, just to support it. Without BG1NPC, I don't play...

but with it, you really can't go wrong. There are literally thousands of lines of banter and interjections, much of which is only available if the conditions are right and you have the right people in party, so replayability is incredibly high. Many of the interactions also include randomness, so responses differ slightly from game to game. I have not found a single NPC in there that didn't make internal sense, and didn't have a good extended story to tell.

If you like a "good guy/gal" party, you might try Jaheira and Khalid and Imoen and Kivan for a bit, then swap out Kahlid and Kivan (send them to an inn, an option you get with BG1NPC, so you can pick them up later). My favorite male PC romance is Dynaheir. The ladies get the choice of Ajantis, Coran, or Xan, and can even have all three conflict over her favors (Branwen and Dynaheor do a little of this on the mens side, but nothing compared to teh boyz.)

For a mixed party,

Safana and Ajantis are funny, Edwin and Dynaheir and Minsc doing several quests are downright a game all to themselves; adding Coran or Kivan into most things with some of the evil folks are very entertaining.

For an evil party, erebusant tells me that the Shar-Teel romance is great. I have a tough time playing evil, so I can't say too much. I mean, I have read the dialog and troubleshot the code, but from a playthrough standpoint, she requires that fine line between self-interest + brutality vs abuse - and I get creeped out. That means to me there is phenomenal writing, and the romance will work for folks who want to walk on the dark side, but I tend to be a "shining light and goodness dispells all shadow" player. Plus, she can kick my arse, and that makes me nervous There really isn't a female PC option for an "evil" romance.

For banters, try Eldoth and Skie and anyone else, or Shar-Teel and Yeslick and anyone else - Eldoth and Garrick, Edwin and anybody... a canonical "evil party" Edwin and Viconia in a party with Kagain and Shar-Teel/Safana might be a blast if you want to MDK and try an Assassin run.

If you want blood, try putting Viconia and Kivan and Ajantis in the same party, or Edwin and Minsc and Dynaheir.


look, I could go on all day on this. To cut this down to the chase, the two *least* content-added NPCs are Yeslick and Alora. And Yeslick with Kagain in the party not only has banters, dreamtalks, and interjections, they can square off against eachother. Alora has added banters (two per BioWare NPC, I think) plus all sorts of interjections. The original intent of the project was to bring the level of BG NPCs up to BG2, but the project passed that point years and years ago, with added quests and interactions that are not more numerous than BG2 content and aimed at being equal partners if the game were BG2, but much more clean story-telling wise and with tons more options and ideas.

Summary: I like it.

(and there is an install order thread at G3 in the General Mod Discussion area that will help you determine where things go on EasyTutu that will help on that front).

 

cmorgan: Well done!
/me claps hands and grins happily

I wholeheartedly agree. BG1 NPC is the reason I still have two parties waiting to return to Candlekeep.

Ballad: I have never finished a BG unmodded and unTutued game, so I can't help you with that.

If banters and interactions is what you're looking for, I had a blast with BG1NPC on EasyTutu. The game looks like BG2 (engine), and there are more options for talking to your party (player initiated dialogues for one).
Installation is easy and quite user friendly (meaning: I did it, and I need to read the FAQ to add a spoiler to a post ).

Bottom line: Try modding and Tutuing your game. You've already finished it, so you know how it looks in original. There's nothing for you to lose.