GameBanshee Forums

Characters get more power when they advance. Yet there are many different NPC's. In Coronet, I see Korgan, Nalia and Anomen, plus I spoke to Jansen's parents and he is apparently nearby.

At what point should one settle on the main team?

To what extent is the group harmed (from an efficency standpoint and otherwise) by frequent swapping of PC's?

If I am playing a full party, I keep five base members, and use the last slot for a swing position so I can pick up NPC's for the quest's they have and the xp that gives you.

If you wind up swapping members all the time, they will fall behind you in levels. I ususally settle in on my party pretty early. That way, no one is too far behind in xp.

The manual lists every NPC you can pick up with their race, alignment, class and brief background.

You could look at that to try to find out who's available and get an idea of what party you'd like. I did this, but I also picked up every character at least to look at their special abilities, equipment, etc. Also, if you'd really like to have a particular character, but not right now, don't pick them up. They will be fixed at that XP level, usually very low, so when you come back later, they may no longer really be worth picking up.

Can anyone confirm whether the level is fixed when they first talk to you, or actually join your party?

Get the NPCs you want ASAP and keep them. If you want to try out others, do it in the next game. BG2 is very addictive, so you'll probably keep playing it until the end of your days anyway. Creating parties while considering each NPC's strenghts and weaknesses is what I like most about the game.

Personally I prefer forming a stable 4-guys team (my PC + 3 NPCs)early and have 2 slots free. So I can have a slot for "visiting" NPCs that are in the group only for their quests (Haer Dalis, Mazzy, Cernd...), and also another for "temporary support" if needed (an additional fighter or mage).

Later (after Underdark and in ToB) you should definitely decide on who to keep so everyone will be of high enough level.

My 0.02

@ Nygma,

I read somewhere that the NPCs start with a fixed level when the game starts and their level goes up along the game as long as they don't talk to you. Can't remember what the level was, also not sure whether it is dependent on place, ease of accesibility (for instance Mazzy).
If I find the site, I'll post it here.