GameBanshee Forums

Hey all.

I have at last gotten around to playing BGII: SOA after play BGI and IWD with all of their extras.

I am chasing suggestions on my party that I am building. I am maintaining those members that I feel my character would like to have around.

Current party (Chapter 2):

Thomas (myself - paladin from BGI)
Minsc
Jaheira
Anomen
Yoshimo
Nalia

I am not particularly fussed on Nalia with Yoshimo around and he is only there to to the theif things.. Anomen is really annoying but does a good job with the whole healing and fighting thing.

I want to keep Minsc and Jaheira and certainly want to include Imoen later. I want to get Imoen as soon as possible as I am having Nalia learn all these cool spells just to get them out of my inventory! (Maybe I could find a chest somewhere and dump them??)

I am just about to go out and do the Nalia quest but I want to get Imoen ASAP and am also wondering if there is a faster way....

Any and all help/comments appreciated.

Regards

Devourer

I don't want to give too much away, regarding your Nalia/Imoen problem, except maybe to say that it'll take you quite a while to get Imoen back.

Also, regarding your scroll problem, some shops will sell you scroll cases, which hold a number of scrolls inside, which is rather handy, especially for quest-related letters and such. You could always buy a few of those to pack your scrolls into.

MINIMAL SPOILERS
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Some delay is unavoidable in rescuing Imoen, but you can skip the majority of the side-quests in chapter 2, following the main story line. You can do all the quests later with her!
Imoen will be one level lower or so, no problem at all, especially if you have ToB.
My advice is: keep this party as it is, all things will turn well!

Re: Scroll cases - Yay! I KNEW that there was a better storage solution for scrolls! I just haven't hunted through the stores yet. Thanks for that!

Thanks for the comments, I think that I will stay with the current team and then sub Nalia for Imoen and then maybe get a better archer to replace the missile of Yoshimo.

Mostly I am letting the whole role-play spirit guide me and I try to choose people based upon what I think my Character would do.

The story line itself will remove half of your problems...
As I said, keep EXACTLY this party and see!!!

Maybe AFTER you've rescued Imoen you could do other considerations, but most likely you won't need to....
BTW, two mages in a party are always a good thing....

Thomas (myself - paladin from BGI)
Minsc
Jaheira
Anomen
Yoshimo
Nalia


That looks like a good party to me. Nalia's thieving skills are practically useless, but she's not bad as a mage, so I would use her strictly as a mage (with a bow). I would also plan on replacing Yoshimo with Imoen just because she has enough thief skills to get by AND it's great to have a second mage in your party. I don't know what kind of combat strategies you used in BG1 and IWD, but BG2:SoA is great when it comes to spells. Even Minsc and your Paladin can cast spells, and if I were you, I would take advantage of it. Anomen and Jaheira can perform well in combat, but I think their Cleric/Druid spells are even more important since Thomas and Minsc are going to handle the front line. Having two Clerics around is great.

Imoen's thieving skills fall short of perfect, but she's mainly going to be looking for traps, disarming traps, and picking locks. (Forget about backstabbing.) There are ways to temporarily improve her skills if you need to, and you can always use the Cleric/Druid spell Find Traps and the Mage spell Knock if you have to. Summoned creatures can set off a lot of traps for you if you can't disarm them, and they might not hurt your characters even if you set them off since they'll have pretty good saving throws and lots of protective gear. But like I said, I like Imoen for her spellcasting ability. Just wait until she's 25th Level. Same with Nalia. With both of them around, I don't think you'll miss Edwin (the NPC who seems to get the most praise from people).

Originally posted by Devourer
Hey all.


I want to get Imoen as soon as possible as I am having Nalia learn all these cool spells just to get them out of my inventory! (Maybe I could find a chest somewhere and dump them??)


Devourer

You can dump your scrolls (and any item!) in any chest, barrel, table you find and you wan't lose anything.
I usually have my base in Copper Coronet where you have 2 table inside, a barrel and the 2 table of merchants outside where you can dump averything (one for missiles, one for potions, one for scrolls, one for weapons and the last for armours and miscellanea).

Welcome to the board!

You'll do just fine with that party. An alternative would be to drop Nalia for Jan, a gnomish Thief/Illusionist. He'll make an excellent backup mage to Imoen, who I've understood you want in your party. He also advances as a Thief, which will allow him to backstab, lay traps, get high level thief abilities (ToB) and much more. And he's the funniest NPC in the whole game, especially with Anomen and Minsc in the party.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

I thought that I could leave items on tables and stuff but I wasn't too ready to test it. I did notice that some of the items dropped by attackers hung around for a LONG time! ;>

I guess that I will be continuing on with the party as I have it until the storyline dictates otherwise.

Should I explore all of the city before I go out to Nalia's house? She is already complaining about us taking too long and the only thing that I am worried about is being ready - so is it a difficult quest? We are at about 7th level...

I am only asking these questions because I am on a very strick time budget and these games take a long time if you do them right the first time let alone having to repeat large sections!

Thanks again for the responses and welcome.

Devourer

Nalia's keep is meant to be a semi-beginning quest, as you get it fairly early. You shouldn't have too much trouble with it, but save often, just to be sure. Of course, that's pretty general advice... if you're not sure, save.

Originally posted by Devourer
I thought that I could leave items on tables and stuff but I wasn't too ready to test it. I did notice that some of the items dropped by attackers hung around for a LONG time! ;>

Should I explore all of the city before I go out to Nalia's house? She is already complaining about us taking too long and the only thing that I am worried about is being ready - so is it a difficult quest? We are at about 7th level...

I haven't stored things on tables before (except inside a stronghold), but I have stored a lot of things in chests, boxes, barrels, etc, and they have never disappeared. When you get a stronghold, you might want to use it to store your extra gear. Or, if you think your stronghold is too far out of the way, you might pick a place in Athkatla where you can store your extra gear. Just make sure that you don't use a container that is guarded, or somebody might think you're trying to steal.

As for exploring the city, I have a couple of suggestions. First of all, BG2:SoA is not like BG1:TotSC in one respect: you don't have to explore every building to find adventure, and there are significantly fewer houses you can enter to begin with. As a general rule, you shouldn't enter a building unless you have a reason to do so. You might just be wasting your time, or you could conceivably mess up a later quest, or you might walk in on a monster that you're not ready to handle.

I think it's nice that the game gives you advice on how to proceed. Nalia's quest is a good one for beginning adventurers. That's why Gaelen Bayle and Brus recommend it to you. So is the Circus quest--that's why it's in Waukeen's Promenade, the first area your character enters after leaving Irenicus's dungeon.

On the other hand, some of the quests initially suggested to you depend on your character class. For example, if your character is a Cleric, Brus will recommend that you seek work at one of the Temples. However, the quest that the Temple(s) give you is not appropriate for a first-time adventurer. So it wouldn't hurt to gain some experience before embarking on ANY major quest. As a general rule, if someone wants to hire you for a job, it's going to be a major quest, and you should prepare yourself for it.

I don't want to spoil the game for you, but here are some hints on how you could proceed, if you would like to read them. When you first start out, you can go to the Graveyard District and plunder tombs. A couple of them are very difficult, and you shouldn't explore too deep if you find other rooms. Just stick to the small tombs. In the process, you will find a couple of easy sidequests. When you're finished, you can go to the Copper Coronet. As you might have noticed, several characters suggest that you head for the Copper Coronet soon after you emerge from Irenicus's dungeon. It's no accident. Take the hint and see what you can find. When you've had enough fun at the Copper Coronet, I'd say you're more than ready for Nalia's quest.

It all looks like a nice party, but I yhink that I would take Aerie instead of Nalia. nalia is a nice mage, but then you should see Aerie Ok, she's a multi classed, but she spits spells out like like a newborn baby can ****...... both cleric and mage spells.... She is awsome And you can romance with her

Narf!!!!

Originally posted by Nae'run
It all looks like a nice party, but I yhink that I would take Aerie instead of Nalia. nalia is a nice mage, but then you should see Aerie Ok, she's a multi classed, but she spits spells out like like a newborn baby can ****...... both cleric and mage spells.... She is awsome And you can romance with her

Narf!!!!

Is it just me or does this post not work with his sig?

If you romance Aerie she whines incessantly.

I have been reading a bit about the whole romance bit and I can tell from the gameplay that something is up with Jahiera. However, I have a bit of a RP problem with romance Khalid's ex. I mean we were all 'brothers' in arms for BGI and so I think that my duty-bound Paladin may not be into that.

I guess that I will wait and see how it pans out and make the call when the issue comes to a head...

Re: Storage - I am busy dumping my stuff at the CC and when/if(?) I get a stronghold I will transfer it all to there.

Thanks all.

Devourer Out