Strange...

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I just finished SoA with my most recent character (LG Human Monk), and something strange that I'm fairly sure is a glitch occurred. After Ellesine's(sp) speech, only half my party was transported to the talking heads! Minsc, Valygar, and Imoen were there, but Kelsey, Jhonka the Monk, and Haer'Dalis were left behind in Suldanesselar. (I could select anyone's portrait and go to where they were, and if I talked to Ellesine, the cutscenes that end SoA/being ToB played again after she said her same speech. After that, though, half my party still remained in Suldanesselar.) I had Minsc talk to the spirit-heads, and their poetry went along as normal. Ilassera(sp again?) appeared in the elf-filled room, leaving my three characters to take her and her lackeys on (not much of a challenge, anyway, but very unexpected)

After the customary delay to allow for corpse-looting, my PC collapsed and my entire party was whisked away to the Abyss. Does the game use any kind of teleport spell to move you from Suldanesselar to the forest grove? Perhaps magic resistance (though I don't think Haer'Dalis had any... hmm.) has a minute chance of stopping it?

Also, I'm wanting Sarevok in my party, but having doubts as to who to get rid of. My party consists of, if you didn't catch it already:

• PC - Jhonka, Lawful Good human Monk
• Minsc (Not willing to get rid of him, love him too much. He has the majority of kills in my party, and singlehandedly took down Bodhi (While she whaled away on my Monk, no less ))
• Valygar
• Haer'Dalis (Rescued him immediately before going to Bodhi's lair, so he hasn't been around long. I still like him, though.) **side note: try giving Haer'Dalis a couple slots in Long Swords; at the moment I have him dual-wielding the Equalizer and either Entropy or Chaos, don't remember which. He's pretty powerful, and did a nice heap of damage to Irenicus (Monk landed the killing blow in both fights, however )**
• Imoen
• Kelsey (Mod-NPC, human Sorcerer. Also not leaving.)

All recommendations are welcome.

 

Actually, I seem to remember that happening to me as well. However, I just reloaded, and it hasen't happened again, so...

As to the advice, I hate to say it, but get rid of Minsc. I know, I know, everyone loves him, but when you get right down to it, he and Sarevok are essentially the same, that is, uber-tanks. Minsc has his few ranger spells and berserk, while Sarevok has his Deathbringer assault thingie. So, pick whichever you like more. If you don't want to lose Minsc, I'd say either Haer'Dalis, (personally, I can't stand the "sparrow"), or Valygar. Bards aren't exactly required, while Valygar has roughly the personality of wet cardboard. Further, Valygar really only shines as a ranged attacker, duties that can easily be taken up by either Minsc (in a pinch), or Imoen. In fact, whether you get rid of Valygar or not, what I'm doing with my current party is use Kelsey for offensive magic, i.e. Fireball, Flame Arrow, Finger of Death, etc, while Imoen handles buffs, ranged attack, and some Breach and Peirce Magics. I hope some of that helps.

But my biggest piece of advice is this: Drop Haer'Dalis like a crate of Radioactive Ebola Carrots (tm).

 

sarevok is superior to minsc by all means. all except some poor rangerspells sarevok can do it better.

i guess you use valygar for celestial fury and haer'dalis for all those longswords and shortswords you get, so dropping one of them will make you loose some power. if you drop minsc you loose nothing because you got valygar for ranger spells and mr. grandmaster sarevok for 2handed swords, halberds, crossbow and whatever is 2handed (as minsc was eh?). you dont need minsc to field 1handed blunt weapons do you !?

another aspect beside grandmastery is the INT stat. minsc is dead after 2 mindflayer hits, sarevok stands 3 hits. sarevoks advantages in direct comparison to minsc are legion ...

 

Bards may not be required in any party, but their presence increases its overall power drastically.
Haer Dalis will also become very handy to your party later - you are lacking a tank that will be able to stay alive while doing damage. The only other character in this category is Jaheira.
Haer's HLA's will also become a boon to his performance later. Dropping Haer for Sarevok will also seriously unbalance this party... you lack good healer. But seeing as you survived SoA without one... Nice job, that.

I suggest you drop Valygar.

 

Why am I always being to post after you, Scythesong?

But this time, I have to say, down with the Blade! Should have given yerself a reason to kill the pest by romancing Airie dude.

But though he is good, I must admit, and doing the man on top (that's you Immortal) justice, and a versatile character at that! I have to say that the Stalker with a depression streak is more important.

Two beefed up fighters are what you will need to deal with the mighty monsters of great chaos and evil!

And no, complimentary bard songs are not really needed, I have Minsc to do that, he should be a skald or jester or something.

So, out goues the Sparrow and in comes, Mister DeathBringer! Yeah! Go Bhaal's evil!

 

Personally I'd lose Valygar and Haer'dalis, in exchange for Sarevok and maybe Keldorn.

Valygar may bee good at ranged attacking, but I find in a lot of these fights, that doesn't last.

HD is a personal favourite of mine, the magic is a nice bonus, but I find that parties relying too much on magic get slaughtered. I think brute strength is the way you want to go, particuarily if you want a hope of winning the last battle.

 

@Scythesong: I actually had Jaheira with me up until I rescued Haer'Dalis, but got fed up with her whining Also, I found she didn't stay alive long without healing, and came VERY close to death far more than anyone else while I was in the Underdark, regardless of her -11(!) AC. Probably I didn't use Ironskins/Insect Plague and the like often enough to get full use out of her. Bleh.

@everyone else: Normally I'd have no problem at all losing Valygar, but he's the only one I have right now that's suited for wielding Celestail Fury (gotta love it!) Unless Monks can use CF, but it'd almost be heresy to give my Monk a sword

And, I must agree that dropping Minsc is a logical choice.. but he is BY FAR my favorite NPC just because of his hilarity. So, I guess it looks like if I commit myself to Sarevok, Valygar's gonna hafta go. Gimme the CF and the shadow-dragon-scale armor, Val, you're cut.

(BTW, what kind of new 2-handed swords can I look forward to in ToB? Minsc is using the Vorpal Silver Sword right now, and I didn't see much better in SoA (Warblade maybe, but I couldn't afford it )

Thanks for the help guys, 'tis much appreciated.


edit: Hurray, new gem!

 

I had the party-splitting problem once but after I'd beat Ilasera (pretty difficult fight because only the PC made it to her, the others remained on the tree in the elven kingdom) I was teleported to the pocket plane and my party was back to full strength again. In a way it made the start of TOB quite a bit more interesting as defeating Ilasera on my own was a challenge.


New two-handed swords? Keep a look out for Gram the Sword of Grief, although you'll need to kill Abazigal to get it. I think there are a few decent two-handed swords in Watcher's Keep but the name of them escapes me right now. One can be gained from the first level; the others are further down.

 

there is a 2handed sword+5 making bearer immun to all charms and mindflayer abilities. dont remember atm where to get but it is an early one.

 

You now, Jhonka, Valygar's not the only one who could wield CF... Haer can cause more mayhem with it.
Of course you'll have to do a but more micromanagement, which sadly is more trouble than it's worth considering you're taking a full party.

@Bloodtitan
That's the Psion's Blade, iirc, and it's a very nice two-handed sword.

@Jhonka
Just try to finish up killing Yaga-Shura as early as possible and you'll come across the Psion's Blade soon enough.

@Zephyr
Actually, if he had a cleric in there I might have suggested he'd exchange Haer for Sarevok as well. But he doesn't.