GameBanshee Forums

My party consists of:

[1] Me (Eleven Ranger)
[2] Minsc
[3] Jahiera
[4] Imoen/Nalia
[5] Aeria
[6] ???

Who should I have for my 6th Character?
OR
Do you have any other Party suggestions?

If you want another tank, get Keldorn. Otherwise, I'd say Jan Jansen.

Yeah, drop Nalia cause she sucks!!

My first double post.
I allways wondered how you could produce those...

[This message has been edited by Angelus (edited 04-03-2001).]

Nalia sucks? Who knows... But not as a mage

You seem to lack a good thief, take Yoshimo or Jan.

Originally posted by Angelus:
Nalia sucks? Who knows... But not as a mage

You seem to lack a good thief, take Yoshimo or Jan.

I second this! Niether Nalia nor Imoen will ever be any more effective as thieves. They make decent mages, though.

The bad thing about BG2 is that there is only one thief that will do, sure Imoen is barely enough, (although she cant see all) for BG2, but if you plan to use the same tea for expansion you need jan, not cause he is good, but because he is the only thief that will do, imoen cant find traps well enough, nor disarm.

But i would get another tank in your party if you think you can do without thief, keldorn or anomen.

Originally posted by sigurd:
The bad thing about BG2 is that there is only one thief that will do, sure Imoen is barely enough, (although she cant see all) for BG2, but if you plan to use the same tea for expansion you need jan, not cause he is good, but because he is the only thief that will do, imoen cant find traps well enough, nor disarm.

But i would get another tank in your party if you think you can do without thief, keldorn or anomen.

This is all true, but Yoshimo is very worthwhile the first time through. He's good at his job and makes the story more interesting.

Oh please guys! Face the music, despite the obvious hardon for thieves that this board seems to have, Imoen is easily all you need. Need Jan in the expansion? In your dreams. You really think Bioware is going to wipe the floor with every party imported that doesn't include Jan by including lots of rock hard "you'll never detect me" traps? Possibly in Watchers Tower actually, but not in things you'll need to do to finish the game. Frankly, no.

Dump Nalia, replace her with Jan until you get to Immy, then bring her along instead of Jan. She is a great thief when it comes to detecting traps and opening locks, she's all that BG2 requires. She has a massive advantage over Jan in so far as she advances in spells, and only spells, where as Jan wastes his time leveling up as a Thief, gaining additional skills that are wasted in this game. Imoen has them from the second she joins the party and never has to waste XP on them again.

Since you have two front line fighters, and Jaheira is quite caperble of being a tank too, I'd reccomend you go for something a bit different. Prehaps take Mazzy as your long range expert? Actually, if you take Mazzy then your party would be identical to my second run through (including PC)

Otherwise, possibly Valygar for scouting and backstabbing? Or Edwin to bring a real magical orientation to the party?

I'd go with Mazzy I think.

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Quitch, being the Ranger known as Skyhawk, is a proud member of The Brotherhood of the Woods

There arent that many big traps really in BG, but i have encountered many that Imoen cant handle, and if i play the exansion i sure want to defeat watchers keep.

Imoen will do, but barely for BG2, but play the expansion and you need another, thats just the truth.

That they used Yoshimo of all characters to be the traitor is bad, since thief is the one class every party needs, even more than a mage or cleric.

You really think Bioware is going to wipe the floor with every party imported that doesn't include Jan by including lots of rock hard "you'll never detect me" traps? Possibly in Watchers Tower actually, but not in things you'll need to do to finish the game.

The problem with the above is that you and I are thinking (from different perspectives) for the Bioware team, and neither of us has any real idea whether we will truly need a thief who detect extremely high-end traps and open very complex locks. My inclination is to say "yes, they will," and yours is the opposite, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Another point: when the cap is raised, won't Jan's mage cap be raised, as well? It would make sense, and if that's the case, Jan will be able to advance and gain the better spells. But again, this is speculation.

Suffice to say that currently, Imoen advances in magery, and Jan in thievery, and that each offers adequate skills in the other's area.

Now...given your party, I would suggest either Imoen or Jan for your thief/mage (not Nalia), and probably either Keldorn or Haer'dalis--the former if you want to powerplay, the latter for sheer fun. I am not a bard fan in BG2; I don't think most of the kits have much to offer. But Haer'dalis has an interesting personality, and like Jan, properly using his skills in combat is an interesting strategic challenge.

The fact is, you must have a thief.

That thief simply cannot be Nalia or Imoen as their skills are not up to what is required and to improve those skills by wearing the Rings of lockpicks/dangersense/etc... would prevent them from using the much more important Ring of Acuity & Ring of Wizardry.

So you absolutely must have Jan or Yoshimo in your party. You choose.

As far as Jan goes, once you have got his locks/traps skills as high as you want, you can then get his pick-pocket/detect illusion skills up or make him stealthy. Contrary to a previous contributor's comment, the skills certainly aren't wasted and once Jan's backstab is up to 4X, you will still be struggling to give him the necessary stealth.

Do you think Jan's stealth is necessary, Percy, considering that he can cast Invisibility on himself? It's much more reliable than stealth, and there are rings which can help.

By contrast, Jan might spend his later thieving points in trap creation. I think trap creation is the one thieving skill that's really got potential interest in BG2.

In the Jan/Imoen discussion, there's another couple of factors to consider: your party's general alignment and your choice of character.

If you're running an evil party, you'll probably have Edwin, the best mage you can grab, so going with Imoen for the sake of magery is less important. Underscore that if you have Edwin, and also made your own character a mage.

However, if you're running a good party, you can't take Edwin and expect to keep him. You may want to trade Jan for Imoen when the time comes, especially if your personal character isn't a mage.

Jan will be the perfect addition to your party. he may be low on the HP and high on the talking but...

-you do have two tanks (you and Minsc)good for mage protection so they can cast there spells

-you have your cleric(s)

-you have your mages but are a little short on "clean" mages with the cabelbillity for high lvl. spells. if you pick Jan you will have tree decent mages this will make up for the high lvl. lack.
good tip use Melf's Minute Meteors with all your tree mages (at lvl. 15 15X3=45 Melf's Minute Meteors) butt-load of fun and very efficient also they are concideret as +4 magical weapon!

-big lack of thief

=jan is the perfect choise for your party!

I was going to use my main character with a bow and was worried about close range combat

Well, I know less than most that post here about this but I have finished the game twice and tinkered around partway through a few times.

If you want to keep the 5 you have and use your main char as an archer like you said then I suggest adding Keldorn and giving him the girdle of strength and carsomyr. He is a very solid tank.

If you are willing, I suggest ditching Nalia and adding Jan and Keldorn.

Dunno how this would work if you import this party into the expansion and I am not going to guess.

Nalia is just there till I get Imoen back

I'd personally drop Minsc and Nalia, both not the best and get Jan and Mazzy (far more dangerous than she looks). BUT why do you need six? Six annoys me, I like five or four groups, more experience points and you can really boost them up to the best armour, weapons, exp cap and stuff.

P.S. to ANGELUS is that from Buffy (I'd say almost definatly). I know, super irrelivant

Kieran_Frost

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"Men who crave power, and recieve it, look back over the mistakes of their lives, pile it all together and call it destiny."

I always take 6, not for strength, but for the story, they talk to eachother and so on