Temporary change in party. *SPOILERS

sonny · Post by **sonny** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 3:08 pm

Doing the quest Cult of the Unseeing Eye. My party consist of the following:

My NPC Fighter NG
Minsc
Anomen (he has been knighted)
Jaheira (in romance with)
Jan (already cured girlfriends kid)
Imoen

Just ran in to an old guy named Keldorn. If I let either Anomen or Jan go, and use Keldorn for awhile, can I get them back or are they gone for good?

Really like Jan (love the humor) so I am leaning towards Anomen, but not sure if he's gone for good, unless Keldorn proves to be better

Sorry about not doing a search and reading the threads, but trying to get through the game the first play through with out a lot of spoilers.

Thanks Sonny

KRYTON · Post by **KRYTON** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 3:15 pm

I know with Anomen you can have him either wait there (where you leave him) or back at the Copper Coronet. I'm not sure with Keldorn. I think he will go to his Paladin stronghold in the Temple District. I fogot its name.

sonny · Post by **sonny** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 3:49 pm

KRYTON, thanks.

Does anyone know about Jan? If I let him go at this point in the game, can I get him back?

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 4:02 pm

Jan should either stay where he is, if you take that option, or head back to his home in the slums. If you want to try out Keldorn, I'd suggest letting Anomen go, he shoulld also wait there or return to the Radiant heart, and with him it's more of a like-for-like swap. If you do take up with Keldorn and see through his sifde 'quest' it does lead to a role-playing dilema for you, I'll be interested to know which route you take if you go that far.

sonny · Post by **sonny** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 4:22 pm

galraen wrote: If you do take up with Keldorn and see through his sifde 'quest' it does lead to a role-playing dilema for you, I'll be interested to know which route you take if you go that far.

Thanks very much galraen. That really helps, especially since you say there's a side quest involved with Keldorn, and replacing Anomen with him is to change two like characters. So I'll let Anomen go for a while. Will let you know how things turn out, even though you already know most of it.

Thanks again

VonDondu · Post by **VonDondu** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:55 pm

I would replace Minsc with Keldorn temporarily. The dialogues between Keldorn and Anomen and between Jan and Keldorn are too good to miss. Minsc will do practically anything you tell him to without complaining. Have him wait for you at the Copper Coronet and pick him up there when you're done with Keldorn. Keldorn's personal "quest" gives you a chance to dismiss him from your service in a way that makes everyone feel good about it (if you play your cards right).

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:59 am

VonDondu wrote:Keldorn's personal "quest" gives you a chance to dismiss him from your service in a way that makes everyone feel good about it (if you play your cards right).

That's right. Every time I dumped keldorn made me feel real good

. Although Galraen is right about Anomen and Keldorn being more alike in power, Keldorn will spark some of the best dialogues in the game, even if i don't like the guy. Also, Keldorn can take over the melee chores for Minsc without effort.

anarchistica · Post by **anarchistica** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 7:22 am

Keldorn is like an older version of Minsc, it's better to switch those two. Keldorn, Jan and Anomen are great to have in one party, they've got lots of dialogue.

sonny · Post by **sonny** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 9:31 am

VonDondu wrote:I would replace Minsc with Keldorn temporarily. The dialogues between Keldorn and Anomen and between Jan and Keldorn are too good to miss. Minsc will do practically anything you tell him to without complaining. Have him wait for you at the Copper Coronet and pick him up there when you're done with Keldorn. Keldorn's personal "quest" gives you a chance to dismiss him from your service in a way that makes everyone feel good about it (if you play your cards right).

Thanks everyone. Since I have not made the switch yet (did not play last night, went to horse races) I will drop Minsc and keep Anomen. One of the things I enjoy the most in this game is the dialogues between the party members. Jan just cracks me up with that dry humor of his. :laugh:

As long as I can get Minsc back, I'll be happy. There's just something about that big dumb guy that's makes me feel glad he's part of my party. He reminds me of a friend I had in school. Didn't have sense enough to come in from the rain, but would give you the shirt off his back.

Have a great day

CFM · Post by **CFM** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:56 am

sonny wrote:One of the things I enjoy the most in this game is the dialogues between the party members.

I think that some of the interesting banters between Keldorn and Anomen occur while Anomen is going through his trials. Not all, but some. Something to keep in mind if you ever have Anomen again in a subsequent playthrough.

(As a side note to subsequent playthroughs, Haer'Dalis and Aerie have a huge amount of banters when in the same party together. Especially if you romance Aerie.)

After you've seen Keldorn's side quests to its conclusion, you can always re-recruit Minsc for Anomen, and keep Keldorn. I'd be willing to bet you like Keldorn, and I too am interested to hear about how you handle Keldorn's dilemma.

And with Anomen being knighted, it sounds like you've seen all there is to see with Anomen and his side quests. After Keldorn's side quests are concluded, if you've seen all there is to see with both characters, then you might as well keep who you like better. As previously mentioned, ability-wise they are both somewhat of a wash.

(Actually, I MUCH prefer Keldorn over Anomen. I'm talking in terms of abilities, special items, personality, everything.)

Excalibur_2102 · Post by **Excalibur_2102** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 3:49 pm

when I play through SoA again, Im deffinately going for the anomen/keldorn/Jan trio, seems like three characters I dont want to miss out on. First time through i did actually have Keldorn in my party, hes a cool guy.. though my other spaces were filled up with oldie characters id become attached to (minsc, jaheira, Imoen etc). Man, I will have a blast playing through this game again when I get round to it, I just wont know who to have in my party.

sonny · Post by **sonny** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:50 pm

Excalibur_2102 wrote:when I play through SoA again, Im deffinately going for the anomen/keldorn/Jan trio, seems like three characters I dont want to miss out on.

Well this is my first time playing the game and I'm having a blast.:laugh:

I don't remember who told me about Jan (think it was VonDondu, not sure) but this little guy is really cool, especially if you like dry humor, which I do. I'm at the point where I think the game banter would be a little boring with out him

Hell, just watching him walk is funny. And when he's hurt and near death, well I won't spoil it for you, but I was laughing so hard at what he said, I almost let him die.

fable · Post by **fable** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:08 pm

It was either VonDondu, or myself, or both. Jan's a personal favorite of mine. From an RP perspective, he's a delight, and this continues on into ToB. From a party perspective, he's not just a very competent thief, but also a good second string mage. He's lousy at melee, just as you'd expect, but otherwise an excellent resource.

Incidentally, there's a large, fun piece of BG2 fanfiction entitled Cards Reshuffled, that uses Jan quite a bit. I think the device of having nearly everybody cringe whenever he tells a story is waaay overdone, but the stories themselves, all by the author, are highly amusing.

Note that the TweakPak offers you the option to let Jan create another type of ammunition, as well as one or two items that are very carefully measured so as not to be too powerful. (In fact, one of them, as I recall, does nothing whatever, except offer you a slight chance to be singed by lightning.)

sonny · Post by **sonny** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:45 pm

fable wrote:It was either VonDondu, or myself, or both. Jan's a personal favorite of mine. From an RP perspective, he's a delight, and this continues on into ToB. From a party perspective, he's not just a very competent thief, but also a good second string mage. He's lousy at melee, just as you'd expect, but otherwise an excellent resource

Sorry fable,

Now that you mention it, I do remember you saying that he was one of your favorite characters. He's one of my favorites now.

In fact, it was you that told me about the Banter Pack in another post. The little guy is just fun to have around. Again sorry for forgetting about you, loss of grey matter you know

fable · Post by **fable** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 8:07 pm

sonny wrote:Sorry fable,

Now that you mention it, I do remember you saying that he was one of your favorite characters. He's one of my favorites now.

In fact, it was you that told me about the Banter Pack in another post. The little guy is just fun to have around. Again sorry for forgetting about you, loss of grey matter you know

No problem! Jan's a favorite of quite a few people who like vivid characters in their party. He's an object lesson in how to define and write a good party NPC for BG2, in my opinion: distinctive, yet fully integrated into the gameworld, and reflecting his attributes well. I could only wish all the others were quite as vivid. Cernd, for one, never got fleshed out. (And as a shapechanger in native BG2, he's sorely underpowered.)

CFM · Post by **CFM** » Thu May 01, 2008 6:44 am

Couldn't agree more about Jan, he's da mahn.

With 16 vanilla-game NPC's, and countless high-quality mod NPC's, and banter pack mods on top of all that, you could make a career playing the BG Saga over and over again with different party compositions.

But while certain pairs of NPC's yield more banter than others, Jan will be fun no matter who you got in your party.

sonny · Post by **sonny** » Thu May 01, 2008 7:51 am

fable wrote:Incidentally, there's a large, fun piece of BG2 fanfiction entitled Cards Reshuffled, that uses Jan quite a bit. I think the device of having nearly everybody cringe whenever he tells a story is waaay overdone, but the stories themselves, all by the author, are highly amusing.

Checked out the site. Read a few. Some of this is really good. Plan on reading some more later. Thanks

sonny · Post by **sonny** » Thu May 01, 2008 11:32 am

Sorry for posting so much on this subject, but I just had to share this with anyone who has never had Jan in their party.

In the Rift Area on the Unseeing Eye quest after freeing the Avatar, Jan pipes up: "That didn't go like the first time I meet a god". Of course Anomen does not believe Jan ever met a god. Then Jan starts his story of the time that the god Oghma got drunk and passed out in his cousin's yard, and while he was passed out, Jan and his cousin pulled Oghma's underwear up around his shoulder blades and on and on. Well Anomen is just furious and tells Jan so. Well in true Jan fashion, he ask Anomen "Do you know how hard it is to get a god drunk?):laugh:

If you've never had this guy in your party, you need to try him at least once.

Thanks, just had to share that.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu May 01, 2008 11:48 am

Have you played ToB, yet? If so, highlight:

Spoiler

You're familiar with Jan's nickname for Sarevok? If you've never had them both in a party before, you should. You really should.

CFM · Post by **CFM** » Thu May 01, 2008 12:58 pm

Spoilers?

(With this being his first trip through the game, does Sonny even know about

Spoiler

Mr. S

?)