Equipping my party...

[willsanders84]

So I'm having real problems with equipment. I care also about the aesthetics on the party (i.e. jesters chain can rot in hell). Here's who I have, and before I go further, I appreciate that there are a million and one of these threads every day, and hope that reading this on isn't too much of a bore. So thankyou:

Inquisitor
Minsc
Jaheira
Hear'Dalis
Aerie
Nalia

I have ALL the weapons available in chapter 2, and all the armour. I appreciate that setups change as characters level up, but want something vaguely permanent that I can be happy to play with for pretty much the rest of the game. So my question really is what the hell should I equip everyone with? I have vanilla SoA, no ToB. My thoughts currently are such;

Inquisitor- Casomyr, no brainer, but daystar/blade of the roses for undead. Happy with this, I also have a shield just in case. I'm not worried about this character because Casomyr is just so damn good it doesn't take any thought.

Minsc- WHY THE HELL does he have two proficiencies in long bow? Jesus. I've put the one point I've gained so far in Katanas. However, I also have FoA at my disposal, and wonder whether to give this to Minsc aswell as Celestial Fury. BUT the best way to use either of these is along with Belm or Kudane. I think Kudane looks too pussy cat. So I'm torn between giving him Celestial Fury in the main and FoA in the off, or either one and Belm in the off. PLUS I'm worried that by the time I've finished the game he'll still be better with two maces. Ah Minsc, why the hell have you taken long bow?

Jaheira- To dual weild or not to dual weild? She can only have one point in dual weild, as far as I can tell, so surely she'd be infinitely better off with blackblood and a shield. However, 5 attacks with blackblood/belm, almost regardless of THACO seems a worthwhile tradeoff (when she reaches the required level).

Haer'Dalis- Well Kudane was made for him wasn't it. Perhaps give him FoA in his main hand? Currently he's got frostreaver, because I think it looks good on him

Thanks, I know this has all been said before, and is probably all slightly boring, but there's nothing in the world worse than wasting a proficiency slot. Will Jaheira eventually be good enough to warrant dual weilding? Does Haer'Dalis warrant one of the big boys; FoA or Celestial Fury? If I DO dual weild Jaheira, and give Kudane to Haer'Dalis, is it a waste if I dual weild FoA and Celestial fury with Minsc?!

THANKYOU!!!! Much appreciated.

[kmonster]

Give Minsc a greatsword like Lilarcor, you'll find other greatswords during the game. He has neither the character nor the brain for dualwielding tiny weapons.

Jaheira is a quarterstaff character, look at her BG1 picture. Buy the quarterstaff +4 from Ribald, you'll find even better staffs to use for her during the game.

If Frostreaver looks good on Haer'Dalis keep it, in combination with Kundane he'll be quite effective.

For Aerie and Nalia just use what looks good on them.

[willsanders84]

Like your style Kmonster. Like. Your. Style. As you've guessed, I probably care more about everyone having weapons that suit them rather than what does the most damage.

My Inquisitor has pride of the legion and no helmet.
Minsc full plate+2, helm of balduran. (Might give him an ioun stone though, love the white hair).
Jaheira red dragon scale, dragon helm, dragon shield, blackblood.
Aerie robe of good archamgi
Nalia elven chain (looks superb with her hair!)

I'm thinking that perhaps I can dual katana and scimitar with Minsc - I mean he definately has something eastern about him.

You're right, Jaheira's a sword and shield or quarterstaff kind of girl.

thanks for your input, it's helping the mulling process...

[RPGguy]

So I'm having real problems with equipment. I care also about the aesthetics on the party (i.e. jesters chain can rot in hell)

Too funny. I am playing BG1 right now and found some Ankheg + 2 in the dirt. It's way better than anything else I've come across so far. Problem is, while it looks gold, when you put it on, it turns horrid pink!

And then I accidentally equipped the girdle of masculinity/femininity and lordy , I was seriously considering burning that character down and starting from scratch.

A perfectly good cleric/ranger destroyed like that.

[willsanders84]

Haha! Like the cloak of displacement! Or even the staff of the magi! Frankly I'm reluctant to memorise stoneskin for the same reasons. Currently I've got Minsc in full plate +2 (like I've said) pretty much purely because the armour's black! I can't regenerate whilst wearing it, and I'd be better off wearing full plate and a ring of protection +2, but he looks so BAD.

Oh and I hate blur and mirror image too. Yuck. And basically anything that makes anyone look weird. Slightly reluctant to use Flail of Ages because it's slightly too garish for my tastes! Ha! How sad! but it's why we play RPG's isn't it. Life falling to peices, no organisation, but at least we can fiddle around with six imaginary people and make them *just right*.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

So I'm having real problems with equipment. I care also about the aesthetics on the party (i.e. jesters chain can rot in hell). Here's who I have, and before I go further, I appreciate that there are a million and one of these threads every day, and hope that reading this on isn't too much of a bore. So thankyou:

Inquisitor
Minsc
Jaheira
Hear'Dalis
Aerie
Nalia

I have ALL the weapons available in chapter 2, and all the armour. I appreciate that setups change as characters level up, but want something vaguely permanent that I can be happy to play with for pretty much the rest of the game. So my question really is what the hell should I equip everyone with? I have vanilla SoA, no ToB. My thoughts currently are such;

Inquisitor- Casomyr, no brainer, but daystar/blade of the roses for undead. Happy with this, I also have a shield just in case. I'm not worried about this character because Casomyr is just so damn good it doesn't take any thought.

Minsc- WHY THE HELL does he have two proficiencies in long bow? Jesus. I've put the one point I've gained so far in Katanas. However, I also have FoA at my disposal, and wonder whether to give this to Minsc aswell as Celestial Fury. BUT the best way to use either of these is along with Belm or Kudane. I think Kudane looks too pussy cat. So I'm torn between giving him Celestial Fury in the main and FoA in the off, or either one and Belm in the off. PLUS I'm worried that by the time I've finished the game he'll still be better with two maces. Ah Minsc, why the hell have you taken long bow?

Jaheira- To dual weild or not to dual weild? She can only have one point in dual weild, as far as I can tell, so surely she'd be infinitely better off with blackblood and a shield. However, 5 attacks with blackblood/belm, almost regardless of THACO seems a worthwhile tradeoff (when she reaches the required level).

Haer'Dalis- Well Kudane was made for him wasn't it. Perhaps give him FoA in his main hand? Currently he's got frostreaver, because I think it looks good on him

Thanks, I know this has all been said before, and is probably all slightly boring, but here's nothing in the world worse than wasting a proficiency slot. Will Jaheira eventually be good enough to warrant dual weilding? Does Haer'Dalis warrant one of the big boys; FoA or Celestial Fury? If I DO dual weild Jaheira, and give Kudane to Haer'Dalis, is it a waste if I dual weild FoA and Celestial fury with Minsc?!

THANKYOU!!!! Much appreciated.

Woohoo, another chance to be all opinionated!

Erm, have you considered getting Shadowkeeper and the G3 Tweakpack? Between proficiency redistributions and the weapon styles for all and protection item tweaks it seems that'd solve most of your hassles right there, and the bonus merchant items are pretty useful too. I quite like the no-visible helmet tweak.

Inquisitor - You might want to also consider Azuredge for undead, it's much like the Mace of Disruption only a throwing axe. Or if you've got Haer'Dalis using axes you could give it to him - be aware that as a throwing axe it can't be dual-wielded is all. IMO I'd just stick to Carsomyr. Pride of the Legion is probably the most fitting armor, the helm of Glory might be worth a try too. If you get the Tweakpack and the bonus merchants the Plate of Balduran has a nice CHA bonus that goes well for paladins, but it's not very shining armor-esque.
Minsc - get Shadowkeeper and reassign his ** in longbows to 2-handed weapon style, for best characterisation I suggest the cursed berserking sword or Lilarcor. Keep him in maces, with his racial enemy as vampires he's bloodsucker death with the Mace of Disruption, and there's a nice mace that has a 50% chance to cause foes to lose remembered spells as well.
Jaheira - Staves are a good choice, if you want to dual-wield again get Shadowkeeper and assign her proficiencies as you want/use the tweak weapons styles for all. Belm is the best offhand weapon she can use. I usually stick to natural armors with Jaheira but that's just personal preference - Aegir's Hide actually works pretty well (elemental resistance and charm immunity IIRC) despite having a poor AC compared to plate mail, and the shadow dragon scale has a sort-of black leather look that's rather fetching...
Haer'Dalis - Yeah, Kundane is about as good as you'll get for offhand weapons. Katanas are also a good choice (Dakkon's Zerth Blade from the bonus merchants is great for HD - it has an AC bonus and extra spell slots for mage spell levels 1-4), as are longswords. Pretty much the best elven chain you can get until the end of SoA is available during the latter part of HDs quest, so I'd use that.
Aerie - Seriously, get the bonus merchants, the Robe of Vecna reduces casting time a lot and so is a godsend for casting types - it'll even affect your priest spells too. For melee weapons she's best equipped with the Defender of Easthaven for its damage resistance, while the unlimited ammo makes the Sling of Everard the best ranged weapon she can use - these two and the Shield of Harmony for the AC bonus and immunities is as good as it gets. Aerie's a physically weak spellcaster, so she shouldn't be doing melee anyway - what you want is a setup that minimises the risk when opponents get close.
Nalia - Actually better to give her the Robe of the Good Archmagi thanks to no thieving penalties - she needs all the thief help she can get (did I mention you should totally get the bonus merchants?). Main weapon should be the Tuigan bow for the extra attack per round, and the Staff of the Magi for invisible trap-detecting and general hassle-free thieving.

[willsanders84]

Thanks Grasshopper, much appreciated. I agree with pretty much everything you've said. I had no idea that one could alter NPC's using shadowkeeper. I had a go, and interestingly enough, it felt like I was touching Boo. "Boo scuttles away as you try to grab him, and Minsc stops any further attempt to steal the animal with a harsh glare." Eventually, it just didn't feel right.

So, not satisfied with the NPC's available (I mean come ON Nalia you "had to pick a few locks to escape the castle" you couldn't pick your nose) I decided to create a party. So many, MANY soundsets and class combinations later, I ended up with what I felt comfortable with. Except I didn't. None of them had any character, or any flaws. I got the feeling that I might as well have started them all as fighters and then dualled instantly. Who doesn't find seven levels of fighter handy?

What had I become. So here I am now, and I think I've finally settled on a party. The most obvious party going.

ME (Inquisitor)
MINSC
JAHEIRA
YOSHIMO

And that's it. No magic. No arsey Valygar. No stern Keldorn. No annoying Aerie. No arrogant Haer'Dalis. Minsc is a truly great character. I can't abide Jan, he's just too silly. Minsc is humorous, but just because he's stupid. I can buy that. Jaheira's all you'll ever need for cleric spells, eye candy, and kicking arse as a woman. Yoshimo, well, he's the only bloody thief in the game, I mean come on.

I'll add Imoen to the crew, and continue to use Yoshimo as my primary thief... OH NO WAIT! I must say, as far as I'm concerned, Imoen is probably my least favourite of the NPC's I'll play with, but I mean, she's IMOEN, you know? And at least she has character. (Did I make it obvious enough that I can't STAND Valygar?)

So here I am. Thoroughly enjoying a slow paced, extensive play through of BG2 with the only characters I think I ever could. And I always knew, you know? The developers always knew. All the other NPC's can rot in the Copper Coronet.

Thanks for everyones input on this thread, I really appreciate it, and it's furthered my understanding of the game. One can only feel comfortable going minimal when they understand the maximum potential. Like only being able to appreciate booze after being an alcoholic and coming out the other side

[Faithhammer]

Inquisitor (Assuming its keldorn) just about any two handed weapon is good for him. I have him using a halberd that does like all elemental damage possible : ice, fire, electricity, poison, and some other stuff
Minsc : I have him using this flail that does fire, acid, and ice and he duels with another hammer, that you can only make from killing the dragons
Jaheira : Spear all the way, i believe she has ++ proficiency for this
Hear'Dalis : I ended up dithcing him, but just keep him dueling with short or long swords
Aerie : I gave her a spear recently, she does well, but a club or hammer does just as well. However, she gets hurt easily. A good sling and some spells makes her freakn amazing in combat, she almost never misses with her sling.
Nalia : she kinda sucks (i stopped using her), but two swords short or long is a good thing. She is supposed to be good with daggers, but no one uses those, and i don't recomend it.