Best Npcs

Porfiry Petrovitch · Post by **Porfiry Petrovitch** » Fri Dec 01, 2000 7:50 am

Who are the most powerful Npc's out there guys and girls?

So far I've got the obvious ones down.

ie:

Keldorn(if you're not a paladin)
Edwin

Who else? Please, I don't care how funny they are or how sexy their voice is, I only care about how powerful they are.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Fri Dec 01, 2000 7:51 am

Valygars a good alrounder although lacks being able to wear cloaks.

Anomen is also quite nifty.

Mazzy is quite a good fighter (for a short lass

)

Nalia is quite a good mage.

[This message has been edited by Mr Sleep (edited 12-01-2000).]

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Fri Dec 01, 2000 8:14 am

Pheew! Your question strikes me as a bit odd to tell the truth. Keldorn is a very powerful fighter when donning the bracers of dexterity, a belt of giant strength and wielding the Carsomyr but he still can't disarm traps or cast spells.

I assume you mean wich NPC that gives you the most advantages when added to the group?

Valygar is a very powerful fighter, with the ability to backstab with the celestial fury and then having three attacks on the same target the next round. Plus he gets some useful mage spells trough the Stalker kit.

Imoen is a very tough mage, and with the appropriate gear she nullifies the need for another lockpicking/trapdisarming thief. This essentially makes her worth two characters in one.

Viconia is the best priestess, and can reach a hefty magic resistance to boot with the right gear. Not to mention that her lacking strength is so easily compensated for.

Edwin is a spell powerhouse but that is all he is. He is weak and he is annoying and for some reason always ends up dead for me. Might have something to do with me always volounteering him for monsterscouting duties.

Mazzy has some really good special abilities, and shoots arrows like some small machinegun when she reaches higher levels and good equipment.

These are the NPCs that stand out in some way, in my humble opinion, wich still does not mean that the others can't fend for themselves.

Nalia makes a good second archer and spell support.

Jaheira is a good fighter, dual wielding either clubs of scimitars and augumented by her druidic spells.

Airie is very flexible trough her large number of available spells and got all the good wishes available from the limited wish spell trough her high wisdom.

Jan Janseen is an illusionist/thief = devastating backstabber.

Minsc and Korgan are both solid fighters though not remarkable in any way. They are propably the least useful NPC in my opinion

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Fri Dec 01, 2000 8:18 am

Try giving Edwin a sling.

Chade Fallstar · Post by **Chade Fallstar** » Fri Dec 01, 2000 8:18 am

No matter what people'll say I still prefer Minsc over Keldorn. Keldorn - with the right equipment is just kick-ass but so I Minsc. When Keldorn basicly is no good (in frontline) without Gauntlets of dex. / Girdle of streght & Carsomyr. (Though the gauntlets of dex & girdles of strenght seem to be made for Keldorn) Minsc doesn't need those Items as he already has allmost as good stats - he can wear something else in those slots. Don't forget that Minsc also gets spells, not that they are awesome - but they do help you out (e.g. armor of faith), Dualwielding is also very nice.

Crovax · Post by **Crovax** » Fri Dec 01, 2000 3:33 pm

for me its Haer'dalis (donot under estimate him).

Oke keldorn is great with the right stuff, but ANY NPC IS GREAT WITH THE RIGHT STUFF.

Aerie is very kewl and is probably my second choice because she is a mage/cleric. THat freed up some space in my party for additional fighters. With her you never need 2 worry about having the right spells (she's mage/cleric daduh)

No 1:
Haer'dalis rulez...he comes with 2 fine blades (yeah kick ass blades)....and with tha right tactics he can make keldorn look like a toddler (even with his girdle of blablabla an gauntlet of shit).
Hear'dalis is good balanced npc that does fine even without kewl magic stuff, Keldorn on the other hand is a really sucky warior if you look at his stats (thats without magic stuff that u can give him).

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beer-for-love

Kingpin · Post by **Kingpin** » Fri Dec 01, 2000 3:54 pm

My favorite npc atm would be Anomen
i got him as a fighter
ac -14
thacO -3
hp 107
wielding Crom

and hes got some kickass spells (of and def)
blade barrier would be my fav

Lucian · Post by **Lucian** » Fri Dec 01, 2000 4:02 pm

anomen is laughable..give me viconia any day!

Jurosementalistile · Post by **Jurosementalistile** » Fri Dec 01, 2000 9:21 pm

Why are people always choosing between Minsc and Keldorn? How many warriors do you have in your party? Personally I have both, plus my PC is a warrior. As for Valygar, I'm not sure what it was but I found him to be quite pathetic. I wanted someone to use all those cool bows you find, but I don't think BG2 is really suited for bows. Nalia and Imoen can be helpful picking away with their shortbows, but warriors are far more helpful in hand to hand. The number of strength girdles and gauntlets of ogre power make melee attacks much more damaging. With high levels of specialty and dual-wielding you can get the same number or even more attacks than with a bow. Finally, There are just too many creatures that are immune to arrows. Any powerful mages cast 'protection from normal missiles' and mantle type spells and thats it, you can't hurt them. In my experience, anyway, arrows just don't cut it in BG2. Valygar just isn't powerful enough in hand to hand, and he can't wear good armour.(I'm getting a bit off track aren't I? I'll get back to NPC's now.)
Jaheira is supposed to be a warrior that is even more helpful as she can cast spells as well. I found her to be pretty useless as both. No mater what armour or equipment I gave her she seemed to get shat on in melee. Healing spells are about all priests are good for, and later on you don't need those. MAYBE if you don't have Aerie or Viconia you may want to keep her. Otherwise, get rid of her, fast.(Personally, I don't think you need a priest at all).
I think you have to plan your party to include likely equipment. Yes, anyone with a belt of stone giant strength will have good damage in melee. But Keldorn's the only one who can use Carsomyr.
To summarise, I recommend both Minsc and Keldorn. Not Valygar. I haven't tried Mazzy.
One priest max (Aeire is my first choice, although I never tried Anomen as I disliked him too much).
Imoen is thief enough, but I recommend at least one other full strength mage (ie Not Aerie or Jan).

I do have a life beyond this game. Really I do.

The Nutless One · Post by **The Nutless One** » Sat Dec 02, 2000 3:59 pm

On my first time through the game, I used nearly an all melee party and it took me about twenty thousand reloads. I had al'Lan Mandoragon (straight Kensai, duelling katanas), Valygar, Korgan, Minsc, Keldorn, Mazzy. I was by FAR the most powerful member of my group, taking in around 60% of total kills, and doing 30-35 on a regular basis. Korgan came in next, followed closely by Valygar (when you need backstabs to kill), even with gauntlets of dex and Carsomyr, he was surprisingly vanilla. Plus he was a paladin, so that's almost enough reason to kick his ass out the window. Minsc, was pathetic, failing his saving throws almost all the time, and then having to duke it out with Keldorn *sigh*. I suppose he's worth having for goblin clean-up. Plus his stupid boo speeches and his doofy looking portrait was a definate minus as well. Mazzy, was good, but with so much melee power she didn't have much to do. The main problem was item distribution.

This time around, I put emphasis on ranged-combat, and it is frickin awesome ! So far, it's Narishma (kensai/mage, 9/17), Imoen, Mazzy, Nalia, Edwin, Viconia, Aerie. Nalia and Imoen both wield Tansheron's bow. Mazzy has the tuigian. Edwin wields the +3 throwing dagger while Viconia uses the +5 sling. And Aerie with the +4 sling. Since the VAST majority of encounters in the game are of the typical murder 50 goblin types. It's not that hard to pick them off at range. It was mildly difficult during Chapter 2, when the random encounters would land the thugs in the middle of your party, but after that it was so simple. For the tougher fights, (dragons, liches, Irenicus, Bodhi, Twisted Rune), I just triggered my stoneskin/fireshield/tenser's x-form, for my first action, then send in my summons (skel warriors or fire elementals), and it's one big slobberknocker, because I now have ridiculous amount of melee power AND mage power AND ranged power.

Anyways, my vote goes to Edwin, for having funny lines and mage power.

After that Korgan for evil melee power when he duals frostreaver and crom faeyr.

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I'll try being nicer if you try being smarter

Yuusuke · Post by **Yuusuke** » Sat Dec 02, 2000 4:25 pm

Korgan baby! -18 thac0, -12 ac, with cromfaeyr, ring of gaxx, boots of speed = mashed potatoes with red sauce. Sure, he can't disarm traps, cast spells, or open locks, but damn can the guy kill.

Depends on what you mean by "best". If you mean one guy that can do a little of everything, then you migh wanna consider someone else. But if best means you person that can do one thing really really really damn well, then you're talking Korgan.

P.S. If you're willing to take a small hit in AC, dual wield the mace of disruption +2 with Crommy. Vampires? What Vampires?

[This message has been edited by Yuusuke (edited 12-02-2000).]

renyu · Post by **renyu** » Sun Dec 03, 2000 8:56 am

i need some help in party composition

for me i am a cleric myself
my thac0 isn't too bad, and with girdle of strength i can deal considerable damage
minsc and valygar i my frontline fighters
jaheira serves as a druid
aerie is the mage cleric and jan is the thief

right now i am in the middle of drow city

jan is going to go as soon as i return to athkatla and get imoen back, who i asked to wait for me at the copper coronet

are two clerics overkill?? i mean i'm much better than aerie at casting spells but i dun want to kick her out cos she's my romance

i dun see much use for jaheira except to summon fire elementals =(

minsc and valygar both duel wield katanas

i tried keldorn for a while then kicked him out for valygar cos i wanted to do planar sphere

i haven't tried mazzy yet but i think shes not bad

so... what do u people think i should do about my party
i'm already in chap 5 and by time i get to athkatla in chap 6 then it might be a bit late to take on new fighters or mages cos they have too little xp

anyway, haerdalis is missing in action due to a bug where i rescued him and gave him his jewel without even talking to raelis shai

so.. need some help here i guess..

[This message has been edited by renyu (edited 12-03-2000).]

Hannwaas · Post by **Hannwaas** » Sun Dec 03, 2000 12:01 pm

Renyu, I'd kick Jaheira out and get Mazzy instead.
And Edwin kicks ass too.

Jurosementalistile · Post by **Jurosementalistile** » Sun Dec 03, 2000 8:58 pm

Renyu, you need spell power. I don't see why anyone would go that far without a high-level mage. Definetely drop Jaheira. Tactically it would be a good idea to drop Aerie too, but I had the same problem you did. How can you send her out into the world all by herself after what you've been through?

I got Valygar for the mage quest too, but I found him to be pretty weak and dropped him for Keldorn, so I recommend you do the same. Imoen for Jan is definitely a good idea. You might want to drop Aerie for Nalia (or Edwin if you can stand the evil.Might cause problems if you have Keldorn? Dunno). But thats only if you got the guts to break up with her.

renyu · Post by **renyu** » Tue Dec 05, 2000 11:25 pm

ok thanks
but is it too late for keldorn
becos by time i get him back it would be in chap 6
and my pc is already lvl 18
so keldorn would be a little lacking in levels wouldnt he?

but of course, there still is holy avenger =)

so.. lets see

valygar for keldorn
aerie for aerie cos i can't kick her out =(
and.. jaheira for?? mazzy?

Maurice · Post by **Maurice** » Wed Dec 06, 2000 5:12 am

I believe NPC's you recruit are 'upgraded' to match your own level. So if you ditched one at the start of the game, and pick it up at the end of the game, that particular NPC should have a lot more exp. than with what you kicked him/her out.

But I'm not 100% sure about this, though ...

Chade Fallstar · Post by **Chade Fallstar** » Wed Dec 06, 2000 5:23 am

I think it's suppost to work like that although it doesn't =(. Every NPC I've met have been around level 10 no matter what level my group is. =(

renyu · Post by **renyu** » Fri Dec 22, 2000 11:00 am

all i want to know is , is it worth it to pick up npcs late in the game

Nick_Dude · Post by **Nick_Dude** » Fri Dec 22, 2000 8:39 pm

Can anyone give me suggestions for my party? I have:
Minsc
Viconia
Mazzy
Jan
Cernd
and a barbarian as my PC. A barbarian realy kicks ass, since he has 160 hit points.

subterranean · Post by **subterranean** » Sat Dec 23, 2000 3:23 am

I just want to make one comment. It doesn't matter! Granted, depending on your party some things will be easier than others, and some parties will be stronger than other parties. But each party and each npc will have strengths and weaknesses that will make the game a challenge. If the idea is to have the best party so you don't ever lose a battle, then where is the fun?

I'm guilty of it too, but you have to admit it. A battle that you have to reload a few times and work on your strategy is a lot more fun than one that you completely dominate.

Pick a party to the best of your ability and play it. If you pick the right strategy and you're not a total idiot, you'll be fine. If your playing on the hardest difficulty, then you should know enough not to have to ask who is better anyways.

In short, the idea is to be challenged, not to donimate. So any group of npc's you pick is likely to work fine, you just have to know how to play them. $.02.

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If I could be At The Drive-In my life would be complete.