adding Valygar? (spoilerish)

[windchime]

Hi all,
so, after careful thinking, my team look like this:

Ranger/Cleric (never tried, dual wield Crom, druid spells)
Saerileth (neve tried)
Kelsey (never tried)
Keto (never tried)
Jan (tried but hey he is the best thief)

this alone is a nice team for my tastes.
the question is:adding Valygar?
I like the idea of a second ranger, can wield katanas, spears, long swords, and can cast spells (would mean a team of three arcane casters and three divine casters...wow!), he can scout and backstab (not my "usual" piece of cake though.
if you install banter packs, apparently Jan will craft a new invention for Valygar!
People in the forum don't seem to like Valygar... now the only downside i see is that having 5 people would add up more experience than having 6.

so adding valygar? YES---> why?
NO ---> why not?

THANKS

[galraen]

confessions of a cheater.:laugh:

I have Valygar in my current party, and I used Shadow Keeper to increase his Wisdom to 17 and dual classed him into a Ranger/Cleric. I haven't used him much in th past, to me Rangers were completely (or almost) trashed in the later versions of AD&D, so I normally ignore them. However as duall classed Clerics they are darned good. As you are no doubt finding out. Can't hurt to have two of them in the party can it?

[windchime]

true but...

what about katanas and spears and long bows... and backstabbing/scouting?

[dragon wench]

I have Valygar in one of my current games, and he is my main tank with the highest kill count in my party (double that of Minsc). Simply put, he's awesome, especially once you equip him with a strength enhancing item.

I have him dual wielding Daystar and Celestial Fury, with which he does nasty backstabs, and he's a fantastic scout to boot.

Valygar doesn't say that much, but he's an excellent party member when used to his full potential.

[windchime]

temporaryValigar...

what i'll do is i'll do every side quest before having him join my party and then... i 'll do the planar sphere with him. then i'll park him somewhere, then i'll go back looking for him if i feel i'm missing him...
you ever tried giving him the impaler? how is damage there?

[dragon wench]

you ever tried giving him the impaler? how is damage there?

Actually no, I tend not to use spears at all.
As a matter of fact, in my one game I cheated slightly. I went into ShadowKeeper and removed his one point of Spear Proficiency and added it instead to Two Weapon Fighting (for a total of 3 points in it, the maximum possible).

Though, if anyone knows about giving Valugar spears I'd certainly be interested myself.