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I'm playing the romance triangle with Aerie and Haer'Dalis in my party and only want Jaheira for the Harper quests. Don't know if this will work but since she leaves the party permanently if you kick her out more than once I thought I might try petrifying her instead to get her out of the party without losing her. I got the idea when I found the Cursed Scroll of Petrification in opening dungeon. I kicked Jaheira and Minsc out of the party as soon as I emerged from Jon's dungeon. I picked her up again by the Harpers docks hq and she immediately left again because the first Harper messenger showed up. I did some NPC quests with Keldorn, Jan and Anomen then dumped each in turn and went back to meet Jaheira. Picked her up and went into the Harper's Hold and then we killed everyone inside as usual. Next I took the party over to the Five Flagons so Jaheira could get cursed. Cured her curse and having no other need for her I had her read the Cursed Scroll of Petrification with the hopes that I can pick her up later on to get another Harper encounter (I really like killing these misguided Harpers). Do you think it will work, or will this count as having kicked her out of the party for a second and final time?

Also, I'm playing a male berserker dualed to thief. I just installed the Sola mod, but after reading the README file it sounds like I probably don't want to have him in the party. Any advice on how to play this? I like the idea of all the extra attacks and such but I'm not interested in a gay drow romance (I'd like to play out the complete Aerie romance string without any conflicts).

From what I understand there is an option to diplomatically refuse his advances without his leaving the party

DW is right. Sola doesn't need you romancing him for staying with you. You can politely refuse his romantic interest and keep him... as a friend, and a very good fighter/mage. However, you should be careful while discussing with Solaufein, for his courtship starts long before you take notice of it. Anyway, Aerie will notice early enough for both of you.

Regarding Jaheira's petrification, I haven't ever tried it and have no suggestion whatsoever; good luck with your experiment though.

Hmm, since petrification/imprisonment terminates romances I think it's completely the same as kicking someone out of the party (for example you even get the -2 rep if you let a petrified Viconia rejoin your party)

Whenever party members are petrified and then turned back into flesh, they act as though you have kicked them out of the party. They have blue circles under their feet, and if you talk to them, they ask if you would like to have them back. That's about all I can tell you. I haven't seen the associated scripts.

For what it's worth, you can bring petrified party members back into your party automatically by using the Ctrl-Q cheat. I can't remember if you have to turn them back into flesh first; it's possible that you don't need to. In my opinion, being petrified isn't the same thing as being kicked out of the party (under most circumstances, anyway), so I don't see why you should be penalized for it every time it happens.

Its just not fair!

Originally posted by VonDondu
In my opinion, being petrified isn't the same thing as being kicked out of the party (under most circumstances, anyway), so I don't see why you should be penalized for it every time it happens.

I agree. But it really doesn't matter. The Harper loot isn't all that great (no special enchanted weapons of note). Besides either Jaheira's stone form has disappeared or I just can't remember where I left her. It was worth a try, but had I known that petrification was treated so stupidly by the game rules I wouldn't have bothered. Even a dead person who's been resurrected itsn't treated that way and that's a bit more severe than petrification. Having her turn herself into a stone monument was fun however. Now I think I may have screwed up the Aerie romance. Nothing has occured in the longest time. My char politely declined to sleep with her and I think that may have done it. That'll make it easier to drop Haery the fruitcake of a bard and perhaps Aerie later on and pick up Sola and Immy.

Re: Its just not fair!

Originally posted by UncleScratchy
I think I may have screwed up the Aerie romance. Nothing has occured in the longest time. My char politely declined to sleep with her and I think that may have done it. That'll make it easier to drop Haery the fruitcake of a bard and perhaps Aerie later on and pick up Sola and Immy.

I can't remember exactly how the love triangle works. If you tell Haer'Dalis that he can have Aerie, that will end your romance with her, and their romance will continue. But even then, Aerie can dump him at a later date. I don't think that happens all the time, because their romance can continue in Throne of Bhaal. I've seen the dialogues, but the last time Aerie was in my party, I let her romance my female PC. (There weren't any good MODs available at the time, and I figured, "Why not?")

In any case, you didn't screw things up by declining to sleep with Aerie. If you had slept with her, the last dialogue would have been different, but the end result would have been the same. She's just not ready for a relationship. That's the end of the romantic dialogues until you reach the Tree of Life. But the romance can continue in Throne of Bhaal if you want it to. Aerie decides that there's no use waiting for life with you to become more stable and secure because it probably never will, and she matures into a sexy little love kitten. (Or at least as much of one as an NPC can be in the BG series.) "Inexperienced young girl grows up to be a sexy, loving woman" sounds like a natural character evolution to me, but of course, it's limited, and it requires patience on your part, just like it would in real life. For what it's worth, I think the romance with Aerie in Throne of Bhaal is the most fun out of all the stock romances.

I don't know which NPCs to recommend for your party. Haer'Dalis fit right in with my party of troubadours, and I let him romance Aerie, but he hasn't been in any of my more "conventional" parties. In my last game, all I had was Imoen and, later, Sarevok (excluding Nalia and Keldorn, who helped me temporarily). I can't really recommend any of the stock romances besides Aerie. Viconia is doomed, and Jaheira never really wants to make a commitment. I can't see you pursuing a relationship with Anomen or Solaufein or Kelsey (the only other ones I've tried), and I don't know much about the Imoen romance or the Valen romance. I hate to bash MODs, but the Nalia romance MOD is not very good, in my opinion. I guess it all depends on which NPCs you'd like to get to know better and which ones have the skills you'd like to use.

Originally posted by VonDondu
... In any case, you didn't screw things up by declining to sleep with Aerie. If you had slept with her, the last dialogue would have been different, but the end result would have been the same. She's just not ready for a relationship. That's the end of the romantic dialogues until you reach the Tree of Life. But the romance can continue in Throne of Bhaal if you want it to. ...

Thanks, thats good to hear about the romance progression. I don't usually play the romances as I find them a needless distraction but I thought I'd make this game as different as possible from all the previous ones. I've even tired of the NPC banter though I did find Haery's observations about Yoshi secret master interesting. I'll have some tough decisions to make in the Underdark. I'll be taking a full party consisting of my two BG1 clones (Kagain and Yeslick), Aerie, Hae'Dalis and Yoshi (he's my mule for transporting Imoen's gear to the Asylum). Then I'll have to decide on who to drop if I want Sola. I can't invision Aerie as a sex kitten. I wish someone would improve her game portrait, she looks like an anorexic ferret-faced groupie from the hippy generation 60's. I half expect to see rows of needle marks along her arms.

The easiest solution would be to let her get killed while she is in the Party. She takes up a NPC slot, but doesn't gain any experience, and she isn't kicked out of the Party.

Originally posted by UncleScratchy
I don't usually play the romances as I find them a needless distraction but I thought I'd make this game as different as possible from all the previous ones. I've even tired of the NPC banter though I did find Haery's observations about Yoshi secret master interesting. I'll have some tough decisions to make in the Underdark. I'll be taking a full party consisting of my two BG1 clones (Kagain and Yeslick), Aerie, Hae'Dalis and Yoshi (he's my mule for transporting Imoen's gear to the Asylum). Then I'll have to decide on who to drop if I want Sola.

Since you want to add some new excitement and freshness to the game, maybe it would be a good idea to install the Tashia MOD as well as the Solaufein MOD. Then you could get rid of Aerie and Haer'Dalis. You might also consider getting rid of Imoen, although I'm not sure how much dialogue she has with Solaufein or Tashia. I haven't tried the Tashia MOD (which is why I forgot to mention it earlier), but I've heard good things about it.

Originally posted by UncleScratchy
I can't invision Aerie as a sex kitten. I wish someone would improve her game portrait, she looks like an anorexic ferret-faced groupie from the hippy generation 60's. I half expect to see rows of needle marks along her arms.

Well, I was probably overstating Aerie's transformation, but I wanted to emphasize that you can see a change in her (for the better). Other characters also undergo transformations, including Anomen, Viconia, and the new guy in TOB. Nalia and Valygar also undergo some minor changes (mostly in outlook, not in character), but the end result is not as interesting. Of course, none of the NPCs' transformations is anywhere near as interesting as the changes the PC undergoes from Candlekeep to Throne of Bhaal, but that's one of the reasons why the Baldur's Gate series is so appealing to the player's ego.

As for portraits, I'm sure you could find a new one for Aerie if you did some searching. On the other hand, I haven't seen portraits of many young blonde elves who didn't look like anorexic human flower children, so I'm not sure how long you would have to search before you found something that you like.

BTW...if you set the global "tashiamatch" to 1 after you get her in the party, your female pc can romance tashia...just do this before lovetalk 10, and you are set...

and tashia romance is Absolutely awesome...the only romance I like better is the lord mirrabo one...

mods

@UncleScratchy --

If you take VonDondu's suggestion and decide to install Tashia and Sola mods, you should know that Tashia should be installed last. I don't know if it has been fixed, but Tashia mod changes dialogue.tlk file and alters the game's map. I recall having some minor problems myself when I played it, nearly a year ago.

On the other hand, Sola and Kelsey mod cause no problem at all. BTW, Kelsey is also a nice mod to play. He becomes a real powerful sorceror in higher levels.

HEY, IT WORKED!!! (sort of)

Originally posted by Screaming Johny
The easiest solution would be to let her get killed while she is in the Party. She takes up a NPC slot, but doesn't gain any experience, and she isn't kicked out of the Party.

Thanks, but that's not quite what I had in mind as I need all 6 party slots for living party members.

But I finally found where I had left Jaheira. I accidentally ran into her petrified statue in the Copper Coronet (after having previously given up finding her), turned her back to flesh and she rejoined my party, no problems. I never had a romance going with her but that wasn't my goal. Unfortunately it was to late in the game to be messing with the Harper's quests. I had to ressurrect Sola and Aerie after they were kidnapped by the vampires so I took Edwin and the unpetrified Jaheira in my party until I could make it back to the Shade Lord area. We then went back to the graveyard to get the Nether Scrolls for Edwin before heading off to the Shade Lord grove. What put an end to my experiment was when I revived Aerie and dropped Jaheira. Jaheira walked across the minefield (the puzzle where you have to walk on the letters to the word 'Amauntor' or be fried) as she attempted to talk to my main char and was incinerated. Then I revived Sola and Edwin was toasted the same way. It was really quite funny as I didn't realize what had happened until I had already saved the game. I will have to try this petrification thing again and try to remember where I leave the statue next time.