Party NPCs on Steroids

fable · Post by **fable** » Fri Jun 08, 2001 12:11 pm

We'll have to reevaluate our party members in light of ToB, of course, with all those new spells, skills, and bumped-up experience cap. This seems to be a good place to post our results, so...

Let's discuss each NPC, here, in light of what they were in BG2, and what they'll become with ToB. How will they improve? How will they change in respect to the party? Your thoughts, attendees to this august conference!

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Fri Jun 08, 2001 12:20 pm

Minsc wirlwind,rage of boo(Plz)and berserk Good bye!

Disco Stew · Post by **Disco Stew** » Fri Jun 08, 2001 12:44 pm

Keldorn won't be half as good because there are gonna be weapons that (hopefully) match carsomyr's power. Otherwise the other NPC's will remain the same, although they'll be stronger.

Red Inquisition · Post by **Red Inquisition** » Fri Jun 08, 2001 12:59 pm

Cernd will become much better than he is now.
With the new druid abilities he may end up becoming o very useful NCP.

ElvenKing · Post by **ElvenKing** » Fri Jun 08, 2001 1:17 pm

Two NPC's I see becoming incredibly powerful are Edwin and Jaheira.
Edwin - Good god, the spells! If you thought he could cast with the best of them in SoA, wait until he starts getting 9th and 10th level spells to throw around. It's downright scary to think about...
Jaheira - First, her fighting skills will get a much needed boost, but more importantly Druids will get get a much needed overhaul. She'll be able to use all the good armour and shields so her AC should be really low, plus she will now have access to those high level Druid spells. She's definitely going to be a keeper...
That's all for now,
ElvenKing

edguy · Post by **edguy** » Sun Jun 10, 2001 1:25 pm

Edwin, Korgan, Viconia and big brother Sarevok - The Forces of Evil will applaud us as we stride through the gates of Hell!!!

If you add a thief/other class pc to that, who can stand in your way?

Oh, this is gonna be so cool...

TheHellion · Post by **TheHellion** » Sun Jun 10, 2001 4:57 pm

Oh, the ideas that swirl about in one's head at the thought of this question...

Let's see. Jaheira will, of course, become much more useful; which is rather amusing, since at least I considered her to be the most useful NPC in BGII. Not only will she now have upped fighting ability, but I'm looking forward to seeing her achieve Hierophant Druid status! Woohoo! I'm keeping my fingers crossed with hopes that some of her NPC-specific quests will make good use of her shapechange ability. The possibilities ooze forth like blood from a gaping flesh wound.

Aerie seems to be pretty taboo on this board, but I've always liked her. Perhaps not as a romantic interest (being interested in her makes me feel like a pedophile), but certainly as a useful NPC. The cleric/mage multi-class left lots of options open to her in BGII, and now that she'll be reaching high enough level to cast 7th and 9th level spells in both classes, her spell combinations should be very amusing. I also hope she grows up a bit, and learns to live without her precious wings.

Minsc. The name says it all. Even if he isn't the very best warrior in the game, no one else can compare, and now he'll have plenty of special feats to smite evil with and complete his djemma.

All that awaits now is for BioWare to finish play testing ToB, and get the damn thing on store shelves. B&W has been tiding me over for the last few weeks, but I'm going to need my RPG fix here very soon. I feel withdrawl coming on.

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Mon Jun 11, 2001 1:16 pm

As mentioned, both Aerie and Jaheira should improve rather well, getting level 7 priest spells. Aerie won't get level 8 or 9 wizard spells, though (bad Int), which is a pity. Unlike AD&D, BG does not require priests to have high Wisdom for level 5+ spells.

Lucian_Garland · Post by **Lucian_Garland** » Mon Jun 11, 2001 1:26 pm

you forget that you just can use a potion of genius to boost your intelligence, then you can scribe all the scrolls you want. the intelligence check is ONLY needed for scribing a spell

sigurd · Post by **sigurd** » Mon Jun 11, 2001 1:40 pm

The way i see it, all multiclasses will be more or less useless, while dualclass may be even better. So Jaheira wont be very good, she wouldnt stand a chance in real combat versus Korgan or Minsc, and as for druidspells there will be characters twice as good in those areas too.
Also they will miss all the special abilities. True however that Cernd might prove very usefull for once.

Jan is Multiclass, but he will still be needed, as the lack of thieves is still true. Otherwise i cant see any multiclass prove usefull, Aerie will probably be the weakest NPC now, taking the place from Cernd.

I think Korgan will be one of the absolutely strongest characters in the end, even beating Sarevok (maybe not in a fight, but in usefullness) With his superior saving throws and berzerker rage mage will die easily, as well as special monsters. He will be a great dragonkiller.

I can also see Anomen be a great cleric, maybe even beating Viconia in usefullness, as he can fight in close quarters too, and the lower wis wnt matter as much, he still gets as many level 7 and 8 spells (am i wrong here?)

MegaToerist · Post by **MegaToerist** » Mon Jun 11, 2001 1:51 pm

@sigurd:

The warriors' THAC0 will cap out at 1 or 0, so Jaheira will stand a chance against a straight Fighter...she's also more versatile because of her spells, although she'll miss out on some high-level abilities.

TC, Geert

sigurd · Post by **sigurd** » Mon Jun 11, 2001 1:56 pm

Ok, didnt know they would cap out, but

Fighter with 0 Thaco + greater whirlwind + good weapon = Jaheira - several limbs

Sure, she cast stoneskin, but i dont think she can really hurt anything in the end in Combat, not close to what a real fighter can do, and her spells wont help half as much as a real druid or clerics will in the end. She will miss out on all special abilities, the abilities one would use for the big fights.

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Mon Jun 11, 2001 4:19 pm

Any spellcaster-warrior will eat any straight warrior alive. Jaheira, armed with Iron Skins and/or multiple Armors of Faith is totally invulnerable to combat damage. No level 40 Fighter special gets you that kind of protection.

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Jun 11, 2001 5:51 pm

Xyx writes:
As mentioned, both Aerie and Jaheira should improve rather well, getting level 7 priest spells. Aerie won't get level 8 or 9 wizard spells, though (bad Int), which is a pity.

But does the INT of 16 affect Aerie's ability to cast level 8 and 9 mage spells, or just learn them? If the latter, she can simply take Potions of Intellect to get around the block.

GrimReaper · Post by **GrimReaper** » Mon Jun 11, 2001 6:17 pm

Ok. Did a quick check and it appears that Lucian_Garland is right. I made a mage with 12 int and boosted him to the cap and he still had the slots for level 8 spells. I did not actually check with any scrolls but I'm sure I couldn't learn them. Anyways, this is just to say that Aerie is definately going to be a useful NPC with mage and cleric spells for every level. This also dispels my fears of being forced to use Edwin for the high level spells.

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Tue Jun 12, 2001 8:55 am

I did some testing too. Low Int Mages indeed get the spell slots, they just don't get the "Write" button when you right-click a scroll.

That makes Aerie, Jan, Imoen and Nalia much more interesting in my book. Thanks to Lucian for pointing this out

Edwin, Imoen and Nalia can get to level 31 in ToB, right? Is the stuff they get at levels 21-31 much more interesting than being able to cast all Cleric spells, wearing helmets and using CF or FoA?