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Hey,

I was wondering what I should do to my party to make it stronger and a little more fun in the storylines ... if anyone has any suggestions, I'll be more than thankful for any replies.

My party is a mixture of good and neutral characters. I'm a level fifteen kensai , in the true neutral allignment. I have encountered several characters so far, and tried out most of them. I met Yoshimo, Wyconia, Anomen (boo! ) Nalia, Jan, Haer' Dalis and some others too.

My Party consists of:

Minsc (who I dont want to get rid of because he's level 14/15 and he makes me laugh )

Cernd (can now for the first time shapeshift into greater wolfwere)

Mazzy (level fifteen)

Imoen (annoying, but good with spells)

Keldorn (level 14/15 too, and sounds like Sean Connery )


I did have Aerie, although because she was so useless and moaned all the time I killed her off. Now I kinda regret it, and want some love interests in the group.

Do you have any ideas of who I can swap for some better, tougher NPC's ?

cheers

Obviously you need a cleric. Since you killed Aerie, you have to choose either Anomen (Fighter/Cleric) or Jaheira (Fighter/Druid). If you find evil more entertaining, you can try also Viconia (Cleric), who can be a romantic interest as well.

And by the way, Aerie isn't useless. She just gains levels a bit slowly because she is a multi-class Cleric/ Mage. As for Minsc, he might be funny, but Korgan can be hilarious, plus he's a much better fighter than Minsc.


Cheers

Do you have any ideas of who I can swap for some better

Ah, yes: Cernd.

so, swap cernd for the evil girly ? OKey dokey. ta

Jaheira can be a romantic interest as well. But, this depends on how you have treated her so far.


Cheers

I was always nice to her before, and she said she would meet me in the government district, and she was there, so ya know. But I think I might try someone different.

thanks for the advice.

Is there anyone else in the party that I should consider swapping , apart from cernd ?

ta

You could replace Minsc with Korgan, but this is totally up to you and to your personal taste. Personally, I would prefer taking Jaheira over Viconia; she has some very nice spells and she's a decent fighter, too.

If it's your first time playing the game I would say go with your instinct. And have in mind that if you have evil NPCs (i.e., Viconia and Korgan) in your party, you can't let your reputation go very high. Evil NPCs will leave.


Cheers

hmm. I have a reputation of 16. It is the first time I have played the game, so I think I might get rid of Cernd and get either Kelgorn or Jaheira. I dont know who is weaker out of Jaheira or Cernd though, but I will find out.

Is there any point getting rid of Cernd now he is level-ed up quite a bit when Jaheira left ages ago at a lower level ?

Try to think NPCs in a long-term basis, not according to their present level and status.

Personally, I suggested Jaheira over Cernd because she would be more useful to your party, you would have a romance interest, and her druid spells, both defensive and offensive, are quite nice. Should you experiment with them at a higher level, you will see why I'm telling that.

By the way, how far have you proceeded with the game?


Cheers

I'd get Viconia, replacing Cernd, although she and Keldorn might fight. Also, if you want to pick up Jan, he's a blast. Especially with Keldorn, Minsc, and Viconia in the party.

Im apparently about three quarters through it. Ive done all the little quests throughout the different zones and districts. Im at the beholder dungeon in the Underdark.

...

btw, I did have Jan, I thought he was one of the coolest NPC's there

Keldorn and Viconia in the same party is not a good idea. Not at all.

Im apparently about three quarters through it. Ive done all the little quests throughout the different zones and districts. Im at the beholder dungeon in the Underdark.

Have you also completed all the quests outside of Amn? Umar Hills, Windspear Hills, etc.? If so, it might be a little late to change party members. Unless you have also Throne of Bhaal installed...


Cheers

yes, Ive completed most of the tasks in the Umar and Windspear hills, Trademeet, etc. (apart from the dragons)

Maybe I should hang on to Cernd then. I could always go back and play the game again once Ive finished with more experience and a different set of NPC's.

thanks

Keldorn and Viconia can be in the same party if your rep doesn't get too high or too low.
If you kicked Jaheira out of your party before she won't have leveled up since then. I would keep Cernd, despite the fact that he's a total bore.
Also, if you remove one of the romantic interests from your party and get him/her back later, there will be no more romance between the two of you.

just be warned, if you have read readme in wes ease of use mod, you find out werewolves dont regenerate.....install ease of use for supercharging cernd....

aerie and jahiera are the two cheesiest npcs in the game,, the combination of fighter and druid is lethal used correctly, and aerie is at high levels capable of taking dragons down solo...

korgy is deadly under enrage, will ignore just about any spell disablers, and his axe skill and tob axes make him by far the best tank, however he is rather annoying....

oopse..too much spoilers and cheese...sorry...

User,

I'm under the impression that Bumble hasn't any mods installed. I might be wrong though.


Cheers

Originally posted by Aubrey
Obviously you need a cleric. Since you killed Aerie, you have to choose either Anomen (Fighter/Cleric) or Jaheira (Fighter/Druid). If you find evil more entertaining, you can try also Viconia (Cleric), who can be a romantic interest as well.

And what is Cernd? Chopped liver? He has just as many spells as the rest of them (excluding Aerie).

Bumble, if you want to make your party "a little stronger and more fun", I think you need to choose the NPCs who have the best dialogue, and you should have each of your party members concentrate on their strongest skills.

For example, if Mazzy is in your party, use her as an archer, since that is where she excels.

I'm guessing that your Kensai main character is your strongest Fighter, but you seem to have a lot of strong fighter-types in your party: Minsc, Keldorn, Cernd (shapeshifted to a werewolf). You could replace one of them with Korgan if you want your party to be even stronger in melee, but I really don't think you'd gain all that much, since you're not weak there in the first place.

If I were you, I would add more spellcasters to your party. And I wouldn't choose spellcasters on the basis of their melee skills, which would be missing the point in having them in the party. Who cares if Viconia isn't as good in melee as Cernd or Jaheira? Look at what she can do to undead. If you don't use her in melee all the time, you can actually have her cast spells in combat, which Jaheira and Cernd can't do if they're busy hitting their opponents with melee weapons.

I'm glad that there are people who come to the defense of Aerie's prowess in combat. If you think she's "useless", then you have no idea what she's capable of at higher levels.

But if you want a "Cleric" in your party, then you can keep things simple and choose a character who's a Cleric and play her (or him) AS a Cleric and let her excel at what she does best. Viconia would probably be the most interesting to you, especially if you pursue the romance with her. I don't think she's as strong as Anomen, but if you can't stand Anomen and Cernd, you could replace Cernd with Viconia. Jaheira is a strong character, too, but I don't think she's all that much fun. Dramatic, yes, and sometimes interesting, but not fun.

Personally, I don't think that Thief skills are an essential part of the game. Imoen has enough Thieving skills to get by (though just barely), with the exception of backstabbing, which you might as well forget about. You should let Imoen look for traps and unlock doors and chests. But for the most part, you should play Imoen as a Mage. She's pretty good at higher levels.

But I suggest that you add a second Mage to your party, and you might as well pick the best. That means Edwin. Since Keldorn's best abilities besides melee combat are Dispel Magic and True Sight, you can replace him with a powerful Mage. Personally, I don't like Edwin (I kill him the first chance I get and steal his amulet, ha-ha), but Edwin will (quite unintentionally) add a lot of laughs to your game.

And speaking of adding laughs to your game, you could replace Imoen with Jan, since she runs out of dialogue after you rescue her from the Asylum (although her dialogue picks up again in Throne of Bhaal). Jan can handle your thieving needs a lot better than Imoen, as well as help you improve your vegetable sales.

If you replace Cernd with Viconia and replace Keldorn with Edwin, that unbalances your party and makes it considerably weaker in melee. Personally, I don't consider that to be a problem, since all you really need to beat the game is one Fighter, one Cleric, and one Mage. But if your playing style is dominated by melee, then you need to strengthen your party's melee power. In that case, I'd replace Mazzy with Korgan. A Lawful Good character doesn't belong in a party like yours in the first place (the only reason such a character would travel with you would be to keep an eye on YOU, not just your enemies), and in my opinion, archers just aren't as effective as other Fighters in the advanced stages of the game. I like Mazzy, but if you want more power, lose the bow and pick up a sword.

So here's a party you might want to try:

Kensai
Minsc
Viconia
Edwin
Jan
Korgan

Notice how the only three Evil NPCs in the game are all desirable party members? Thank goodness you have Minsc and Boo in your party, whose Goodness matches the Evilness of all three of the Evil NPCs combined.

"Thank goodness you have Minsc and Boo in your party, whose Goodness matches the Evilness of all three of the Evil NPCs combined"

and whose insanity balances the sanity of everyone else in the party.....

actually the jan minsc dialog is funny.....

hint, hint...after a certain event happens with edwin, you will know what.....go to the copper coronet, save the game and have edwin talk to that little elf gigalo near bernard....

thanks for the indepth response.

Ok, I didn't word my first post in the way I should. I know Aerie isn't "useless" when she advances, but because she is double classed she advanced alot slower than my other party members and others that I COULD have in my group. So I thought to change her.

I tried Jan, but I found against harder enemies such as vampires, he got attacked first because he is weaker than the others. Unfortunatly, without being really careful of his whereabouts during combat, this meant alot of costly resurection spells and resurection rods used up.

I like the sound Of Korgan, especially if I got him and Viconia. ( If I swapped Cernd and Keldorn )

Edwin also sounds like a good choice.

So maybe then;

Kensai,
Minsc,
Korgan,
Viconia,
Imoen,
Edwin.

It sounds like it could be more powerful than my group already.

thanks for all the in depth advice for the newb.

And yeah Aubrey, I dont have any mod's installed