GameBanshee Forums

Right now I have a party consisting of:
1) Me (Totemic Druid)
2) Minsc (and Boo )
3) Yoshimo

I've only gotten out of Irenicus's Dungeon, but I've gone through the game enough times to know most of what will happen later on (even though I actually never finished it). Eventually Yoshimo will be ultimately replaced by Imoen, but until I get her back I lack a real mage. The only other alternatives would be Nalia - annoying with the romance enabled (via teambg patch) and a pretty bad thief, Edwin -who will cause a conflict with Minsc (so i've heard)...and Jan Jansen - who I've never actually tried. Eventually, I'll get Viconia (romance) and Keldorn. These are my personal favorites, not to mention Minsc of course.

Does anyone have any suggestions for my party (esp. the mage situation)?

Well, Keldorn would probably end up whacking Edwin as well, he did in my game.

Jan is a great character, his thief skills are really all you need, and he makes a pretty decent spellcaster. Nowhere near what Edwin is of course, but he seems to get along with pretty much everyone. In his own special way.

Keldorn I would get simply for the Holy Avenger. And the fact that he is a great mage basher.

Replace Yoshimo with Jan. He works really well with Minsc.

Having Keldorn and Vicoina in the same group will make things interesting...

Having Edwin, Viconia and Korgan even more ... not that they're battling each other but Viconia letting down Edwin and Korgan letting down Viconia is pretty amazing. The line about the neclace of drow ears, OMG ...

Conflict

I've decided that if I was to actually *finish* the game from beginning to end, my first romance would be with Viconia. Since my character's alignment is neutral, because he is a druid, I thought I would be a good idea. Besides, Aerie is *extremely* annoying - with her always bantering about loosing her wings...blah...blah...blah. Jaheira is too demanding and is always mentioning something about how much she misses Khalid - making her slightly less annoying than Aerie, but she still remains as an irritation. Viconia on the other hand is a mystery of her own and is sometimes quite funny (esp. when Aerie is in the same party ). There are also some added *bonuses* when you romance her . Having Keldorn is almost a necessity when taking a slightly "good" approach to the game. I thought that by having Keldorn and Viconia would prove interesting. Although, I would reconsider this idea if they turned hostile against each other later in the game. I'm not sure about this, but I do not think they will fight - so I'm keeping them in the same party.

Thank you for your input (it's my first day on the board )

I think I though the same thing, Keldorn spins some line about how Viconia sould leave Viconia says nuh ahh your the doo doo head (you know the drill)
A few days latter Sir boring old fart litteraly just tells Viconia her numbers up and give her a sound Carsomyring. I dont know if this is a bug however, for people who actually like chars with 9 str (i dont like mellee much) I reloaded to see if there would be dialogue if Viconia killed Keldorn as there was done the other way around, keldorn just hops back in the party as if nothing had happened. I had to litteraly mob Keldorn to stop the crazy old goon from wasting Viconia but he died and it says on the bottom panel something about being rewarded by your god!? Viconia got TWO yes TWO symbols of Talos, very odd but then again a very good reason to let Keldorn join if your using an evil party

I seem to recall that there is a patch which will allow you to keep both in your party....check out the sticky called "BG Crossroads" or something like that....you should find it somewhere in there...

Re: the mage dilemna, if you do not care about party interaction, you could also set up your game in multiplayer and create your own mage....or maybe a sorcerer, they are a better IMHO......

my suggestion:

you should really consider Jan.
Okay, I can understand some people find him annoying, but for me he made the game really more fun. He's weird and doesn't fit to the other chars (he's actually QUITE special), but he is a rocking thief (in the early time at least). But if you dont matter party conversation you should better choose Edwin (more powerfull mage of course). But then you have the problem Edwin will be beaten up by Minsc later on.
My suggestion finally: Take Jan! You won't regret (especially if you like Minsc)

Life is short. Play more.

Mabrook

Not sure if anyone else brought this one up, but having Minsc and Jan is not the best of ideas...A little 'conflict' erupts over...

Yes! Boo finally plays a real part in this game!

All I'll say is that you pretty much get caught in the middle to help straighten things out with these two kindergarteners. I would definetly consider Jan over Edwin (he's such a loser...but that Girdle of Gender works wonders!) because he is an excellent thief. G'Luck!

Jan

I played an evil party through using Jan, Anomen (CN), Edwin, Viconia, Korgan, Me (bard) and I found that Jan was easily the worst character. All right he's a thief, but traps can be tanked chests knocked/bashed and scouts invisibled, my bard can pick pocket. Jan's mage spells are next to useless, I only really ever used invisibility and true sight, both of which you can do without, having Edwin in your party. Also, he died all the time, and I mean all the time. I got so sick of picking up all his items and re-equiping them hundreds of times. I tried to keep him back but area of effect and death save spells got him every time. The one thing I can say about him is that there's not much choice if your going evil, and his dialogs are quite funny.

Jan can be a very useful character, but you have to play him right. Why would he die all the time? Clearly he isn't meant for melee/close combat! And he's not more vulnerable to deathspells than any other NPC.
Also, I don't see why his spells would be useless, after all, you can give him almost any spell you want!
You're right of course, about not really needing a thief in the game, but that goes for all classes, else it wouldn't be possible to solo with so many.
No offense, Demonspoon. It's just, I'm a big Jan fan, since he's Dutch as well.

Vanilla Nalia:

There is a bug which you can only fix with Shadowkeeper. They basically forgot to give her two stars (**) in dual wield proficiency Once you have fixed this, go ahead and give her all the best equipment available throughout the game: vecna, cloak of balduran, weimer ring, necklace from suldanesselar, etc. Dakkon Zerth blade is useful for a while, until you get the Celestial Fury / Sanchuudoku combination going. Feel free to load death fog+improved haste+tensers into sequencer. Strength buff or belt is a must, but that buff lasts long time, so she managed to use belt of inertial barrier most of the time. Edwin is a fool and a wimp, while Nalia does it all .... For the needy!!

-OR-

Just get Jan. You say you've never tried him before, well you havent had your money's worth from BG2. Someone said his mage spells are useless?? He cant use necromancy spells. Apart from that he has the same spells as anyone else. He gets extra spell per level due to his specialised status, he also benefits from early abilities (if you have ToB installed). There's alot of spells i just didnt 'notice' or use much my first time through... weapon protecs, and later mantle+improved mantle, are ideal spells for Jan. If he died a lot in my game, i would blame myself for playing badly, not the NPC. Turn off AI or whatever ... Jan is a SURVIVOR!

Originally posted by Aqua-chan
Not sure if anyone else brought this one up, but having Minsc and Jan is not the best of ideas...A little 'conflict' erupts over...

I've only ever seen them exchange words. It's never gone beyond that.

other conflicts

The anomen-keldorn conflict is interesting if anomen fails his knighthood.

I recently saw a conflict that surprised me - well and argument.

Mazzy picked on jaheira for saying "yes o omnipresent authority figure", saying not to be rude etc.

Ive never seen that before, then again ive never had mazzy in my party before.

Does anyone know if this develops into a further conflict or love triangle?

Also the interaction between mazzy and valygar is interesting - she thinks he is her squire lol.

Re: other conflicts

Originally posted by chimpmaster
Mazzy picked on jaheira for saying "yes o omnipresent authority figure", saying not to be rude etc.

Ive never seen that before, then again ive never had mazzy in my party before.

Does anyone know if this develops into a further conflict or love triangle?

No, neither