A few new-be questions (need your advice)

Shilpa · Post by **Shilpa** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 9:48 am

Hello!

Sorry to start of with a thread like this, but I am in great need of anwsers and tips

I have recently started plaing Baldur, after like 4 years, and I have came up with a 4 person party - me (thief), Aerie, Minsc ... and Edwin. I am planing a neutral party ( not to evil, but not to lawful). From the moment I joned Edwin the party seems very well balanced and strong. But then I came accross the information, that Edwin and Minsc will sooner or later kick'em selfs

SO my question are:

1) Do Edwin and Minsc HAVE to drag their ill feeling out? Or is ther a way to awoid it? I mean, are they bond to fight? Or is ther away to deal with it?

2) With who could I re-place Edwin? He is definitly the best mage in the game, and Aerie is good, but only like half the power Edwin has. And I get the feeling Nalia could be the same (I rember kicking her out those few years ago when I played first)

3) Or maybe if Edwin and Minsc are bond to not get along, I should re-place Minsc? But with who? Any sugestions?

Thx in advance for anwsers

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 10:28 am

Be sure to check out this resource in our forum. It's got some good locations to find mods.

As for helping Minsc and Edwin get along, try this tweakpack. Among its many features (which you can individually choose to accept or reject) is one that negates the whole "good and evil fight it out" aspect of party NPCs.

As for replacing Edwin, that first link I provided above has a link in turn to an NPC called Kelsey. He's usually considered the best non-Bioware-created party NPC you can get in terms of balance, quality of writing, etc. He's also a sorc.

Good luck! And welcome to the forum.

Shilpa · Post by **Shilpa** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 11:40 am

Thx for the tips ^^

But is ther no way beside moding? Im not really into mods generally, and I use my national-language version (Polish that is), and mods just don't go along with it. I can't leagaly and without hustle obtain an English version unfortunatly.

But if I won't find any way for Minsc and Edwin to get along, I'll guess I will have to try the twaekPack.. Or I'll switch Minsc to that wierd Palladin guy... dunno yet...

And does anyone know what would happen if I Minsc and Edwin got into fight, and then I would re load a previously saved game? Would they still fight?

CFM · Post by **CFM** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 11:47 am

If I understood your post, you want to maintain a balanced (and neutral alignment balanced) 4 member party. And, it's your first time playing through to the game's conclusion. Minsc is your warrior, Edwin is your main wizard, Aerie is your priest and secondary wizard, and you are the thief. Nice balance.

Maybe try Jaheira for Minsc. As a fighter/druid, her spells help her tank like a Minsc, and compliment Aerie's cleric spells too.

Maybe try Haer'Dalis for Edwin. As a blade (bard kit), his spells will compliment Aerie's arsenal, and he'll rise in level faster than anybody, making several spells more effective. He's also rather interesting. These forums harbor strong opinions regarding H'D: many seem to consider him either totally worthless, or one of the strongest NPC's of the lot. Interesting, when you consider bards are supposed to be the jack-of-all trades and the masters of none. If you can figure out all his many talents, and he ends up complimenting the abilities of each of your other 3 party members, then maybe he's worth a try.

The Minsc/Edwin Fight thing operates on some kind of semi-random conversation timer, or something along those lines. They would either Fight around the same time after reloading, or eventually at some random point. It might be more of a pain than it's worth. And hey, it might be fun to watch them rumble.

There have been too many positive things said around here about the quality of the mod NPC's to think they wouldn't be worth anybody's time. But I personally would only try a mod with a subsequent run through the game. Your virgin run, imo, should be with the official vanilla game, as the original game designers intended. Then, when the game is no longer new to you, add the new content that mods provide, to refresh the experience. Just my opinion.

Shilpa · Post by **Shilpa** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:06 pm

Thx CFM I feel preaty much intrigued by Haer'Dalis... I must admit I never really considered him

Maybe I'll join him in, and see what happenes

Thx for the idea! My main charakter is doing preaty good with the tanking (I don't know how you call her clas in English, but she is the one with the armor bonus and no back-stab bonus), so maybe in the end I'll keep Edwin and Haer'Dalis and leave Minsc out (he is a big boy, I sure He will do good), or if Edwin proves to be redundand, I'll sack him :mischief:

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:34 pm

Edwin is without question a magical powerhouse. If that's what you seek, he's well worth keeping. As for Haer'dalis, he's difficult to play well, but very rewarding when this is the case. Do a search on his name here in the forum, and you'll find various threads suggesting strategies for using him correctly.

CFM · Post by **CFM** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:41 pm

I think the thief kit you may be refering to is maybe the 'swashbuckler' kit?

Anyways, the other cool thing about H'D is that he has ALOT to say if Aerie is in the party, especially if you romance her. Cool, assuming you like the NPC banter portion of the game.

And if you're playing a girl character, *highlight to see spoiler* Anomen Delryn the Fighter/Cleric is romancable.

The romances, at the very least, add some flavor to the banters.

And H'D & Edwin & Aerie would be one heck of a grand magical combination.

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 1:07 pm

Aerie starts off slowly, because of her multi-class status (cleric and mage). But ultimately, she's the most powerful spellcaster you can have, since she can place clerical spells inside mage-based contingencies. Of course, that's if your strategy includes making use of contingencies.

Jedi_Sauraus · Post by **Jedi_Sauraus** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 2:37 pm

I would'nt keep Mincs as my only tank. Keldorn is a better tank IMO. but if you don't want him make your thief a swashbuckler and now you have a tank and a thief all in one.

Edit: Edwin can be replaced also by your custom made sorceror. and you can pick up Jan to get a decent thief .

to keep any NPC from conflicting save often, dialogs are triggered approx. every 40 minutes real time. if/when you get your first dialog between Eddie and Minsc just reload

Shilpa · Post by **Shilpa** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 2:46 pm

Thx for all the tips

I will try the re-load thing also. THose few years ago when I first played, I rember also having Minsc and Edwin, and if my memory serves me right I did manage to finish the game with them (or maybe I droped the game before they wnet into conflict... don't rember really)

But another question that came to my head: Will Anomen romance with my main charakter... even if she is a Halfling? I thing Halflings are cute, but I am not sure if CUTE is Anomens type?

Jedi_Sauraus · Post by **Jedi_Sauraus** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 4:06 pm

No unfortunatly not, IIRC Anomen romances only humans elves and half-elves
but why would you take him anyway

your best off downloading some male mod npc for romance

Shilpa · Post by **Shilpa** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 5:38 pm

As I wrote before, I can't use mods, as non are wrtitten in my national language... and most mods swap all texts with English lines, so I get this wierd feeling when I see English, and hear Polish xD

Anyways, if Anomen won't romance me, thats his loss

I didn't like him anyways, he is such a jerk.

Thx for the anwser

Celacena · Post by **Celacena** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 9:05 am

Shilpa wrote: Anyways, if Anomen won't romance me, thats his loss I didn't like him anyways, he is such a jerk.

at level 21, like he's reached in my party - he's a very useful kind of jerk!

watch those undead explode!

He's just got the ability to summon a Deva, who are really VERY useful indeed.

Jedi_Sauraus · Post by **Jedi_Sauraus** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:50 pm

@ Celacena

A full time cleric is kind of overkill for both healing and killing undead, and you have to put up with his voice. Aerie is the better choice IMO, she doesn't tank as well but more than makes up for it with chain contingencies and timestop + harm combo. My last run through I went with Jaheira as my only cleric and it was enough, Restoration was left to projected Images