GameBanshee Forums

Happy Holidays!

Quick question:

Is it manageable to play with a full 6 men party with 3 multiclasses?

The party I'm considering is:

PC (Fighter/Thief)
Minsc
Jaheira
Imoen
Jan
X (Rotating NPC according to different quests).


With 3 Fighters, 2 real Thieves, 2 Mages and 1 Cleric I love this party on paper but I'm afraid 3 Multiclassed characters may be too many. I do plan on taking this party to ToB and picking up that new NPC there.

You'll struggle a bit for a while, then you'll tear through everything when you reach higher levels. Your biggest problem is you're really weak on divine casting and healing magic in particular, and since Jaheira's a multiclass druid it takes aaaaaages for her to get past level 14 - if you're using the G3 Tweakpack with the Improved Shapeshifter component you may be better off with Cernd. Also, you'll probably want to leave most of Watcher's Keep until ToB, since if you do enough SoA quests to get your party up to speed Mr ToB will be pretty weak comparatively.

If I were you I'd make your PC a Ranger/Cleric to boost your divine casting power and give you access to Turn Undead - as it stands without Negative Plane Protection you're going to have problems with level-draining undead types and will need to stock up on potions big-time.

Thanks for the answer!

Changing the PC isn't really possible as I'm already at the end of BG1 (I always prefer to take my characters through the first game). And I'm also really curious to see my PC with UAI.

What if I keep Viconia in the party for awhile? Does she have interesting stuff to say in the Underdark?

Or swap Jan or Jaheira for Aerie. Or consider her as your 6th member.

Viconia's one of the more chatty NPCs, though less so in the Underdark than I was expecting. Viccy makes a great Cleric (especially when you deck her out with the Helm of Opposite Alignment for instant Turn Undead undead chunking - take that stoopid liches!) but as a single-class caster she lags behind in ToB. That said, equip her right and she can get 100% magic resistance pretty easily, so that's quite a plus.

Much as I hate to say it you really will be better off replacing Jan with Aerie.

Ode to a Grasshopper wrote: Much as I hate to say it you really will be better off replacing Jan with Aerie.

Yeah, I know. But I'm gonna take the hit in party balance here and take Jan anyway. I really don't like Aerie and for what I've been reading, Jan's banter in ToB is a must-see!

Yeah, Jan rules and I can't stand Aerie unless I'm picking on her with Viconia...

As a final suggestion, if you're so inclined you could get the level 1 NPCs mod from the Gibberlings 3 and make Jan into a Cleric/Mage and/or Jaheira into a Ranger/Cleric.

I'd swap Jaheira for Anomen.

Jaheira is good, but not as the only healer in your party.

If you complete the Anomen quest the good way, his wisdom will improve, amd then he'll become a damngood cleric with fighter skills.

Personally, I think he's the best NPC in the game, but it's really up to you to decide.

Quick follow up question:

How hard do you think would be to finish the game with a full 6 party multiclassed members? Purely hypothetical, but image that I create 3 custom characters:

Fighter/Thief
Fighter/Mage
Cleric/Ranger

and then add Jaheira, Aerie and Jan to the party.

Same as before, you'll struggle a little bit in the earlier stages, by ToB you'll be gods - except it'll be a bit easier thanks to your Ranger/Cleric rounding out your party.
If you're going the custom party route it'd be better to ditch Aerie and make a custom Mage/Cleric too - Aerie has average stats at best, no extra quests, and doesn't bring much to a party personality-wise IMO.