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I know these questions pop out so often that even I sometimes get sick of them, but still take a look at my party:

Lanya - Main character - female - bard
She tanks, she casts, she tanks and casts. The allrounder who can do a bit of everything, wielding a long sword.

Anomen - romance - fighter/cleric
The main tank. Wields the mean Crom Fayer and Flail of Ages and casts boosting cleric spells to make him more effective.

Jaheira - fighter/druid
Second tank who insect plaques and summons beasties for aid and tanks along with Anomen. Spears, staves and clubs.

Viconia - cleric
Her personality got me. She is the healer and protects the party when others cannot. Wielding a mean mace of distruption and others when Anomen lets ad equipment is available.

Jan - thief/cleric
The main thief and backupmage. Basically functions a lot like my main character except he DOESN'T tank. Wielding daggers and short swords.

Nalia - mage
The main caster. Wields mean spells and the Staff of Magi. Don't get on her way when she has boosted her int with the machine found in ToB.

The group is VERY magicheavy and I like it like that. Any suggestions on whom should I change? The most important thing is the awesome interaction that the characters have. Can't live without it.

Tank= a character that can take (and also make) a lot of damage while other organize their strategies....

So i think your party really miss a real tank. I mean, your bard cannot be a tank. And Anomen is not so good as main tank. IMO you have to drop Viconia for Korgan.

And about the interaction.....look for the one between Korgan and Nalia...


[ 07-17-2001: Message edited by: Edwin ]

I count tanks as characters who can hold heir own against foes and keep them off of the weaker characters. And I have played SoA with a bard before and she Can tank. Perhaps not so well as a pure fighter, but when you make her cast all those protection spelss, she becomes almost impossible to hit. Much better than a fighter with just his armor class.

I don't agree with you on bards as tanks...i mean you find a group of enemies; a tank must go to fight within a few seconds to let your spellcasters starting to cast spells. Your bard needs time to cast stoneskin on himself and, later in the game, tenser transf. But a lot of time passes for these 2 spells to be casted. And you don't have a tank in your party, so who's going to fight your enemies while you cast your spells??? Anomen???? Not enough IMO. And against powerful enemies your stoneskin don't last so long....
That's only my opinion and it all depends on your playing style. You can beat the game with your party, no doubt about it, but if you ask me a suggestion about changing someone, i say again drop Viconia for Korgan....

I would warmy reccomend Mazzy, give her a Short Bow and watch the arrows fly!.. I simply cant live without her in my game. She got thaserions bow (Spelled wrong), you can get it in trademeet. She really kills with that and if it comes down to it, she can hold her own in melee.

Congrats on a very good party. I've played a lot with those characters and my own half-elven bard Machiavelli.

Anomen often acts as my "main fighter". Compared to for example Korgan, Anomen is no "tank". Still, he can be used as front fighter and will do a *very* good job. Clerics have the second best THAC0, can wear heavy armor and shields and have very good spells to enhance their fighting skills. Equip him with Gauntlets of Dex, Full Red Suit (for fireballing), Boots of Speed and the Flail of Ages (maybe later Crom Fayer) as well as the Sling of Everard.

I would recommend two changes, although none of these is by any means neccessary.

Viconia for Valygar. Why? You have enough cleric spells anyway. Another warrior will come in handy. Note that Valygar is the warrior that demands most finesse to play (mostly due to armor restrictions). In other words, the game will still be extremely fun. Since Jan will mostly be taking care of traps, opening locks and then lay own traps in the beginning, Valygars abilities to scout and backstab (awesome!) are very nice, too. Use Celectial Fury and his own Corthala Family Blade. Finally, great personality, but so has Vic, of course.

Jaheira for Cernd. Why? With Anomen and Valygar, as well as your own bard (after Stoneskin, Tenser's and so on), there is no real need for another fighter. Cernd *is* the better druid. He's kit is very fun to play, too, and it's further enhanced once ToB installed.

Edwin: Stoneskin can be cast in a pinch and you can prepare yourself if you suspect that a fight is imminent. At least with my playing style a bard can tank with all those spells. Accidents happen as always and then Viccy can heal and Anomen and Jaheira can keep on pounding (Jaheira with Iron Skins). But thanks for the tip anyway. Korgan would be kinda nice... But I don't like other meanies except Viccy.

Mazzy was one character which I would have liked to add. She has always been in my party and I like her very much. Dunno.... I could replace Anomen with her....

Originally posted by Edwin:
<STRONG>your bard cannot be a tank.</STRONG>

I think Two's "No Deaths, No Reloads" topic kinda proves the opposite

Astafas: Thank you. Valygar's stealth is very useful but I was thinking about suplementing that with invisible bard or Jan. We'll see... Cernd has some very good dialogue and I would like to have him, but I kinda have come to grips with Jaheira, 'cause I'm currently playing BG1 with my bard and she's with me there.

All NPC's are great!!! Why can't I have them all!?

Originally posted by Arocle:
<STRONG>Astafas: Thank you. Valygar's stealth is very useful but I was thinking about suplementing that with invisible bard or Jan. We'll see... Cernd has some very good dialogue and I would like to have him, but I kinda have come to grips with Jaheira, 'cause I'm currently playing BG1 with my bard and she's with me there.

All NPC's are great!!! Why can't I have them all!? </STRONG>

You're welcome. I still have to say that your game will go much smoother with Valygar in your party. His fighting skills will turn the tide of battle in your favor those critical times when most needed. It can also be very nice to backstab and stun a mage before starting the fight. Valygar also does *loads* of damage with the two recommended katanas, especially when equipped with a Girdle of Strenght. Your bard should save the second level spell slots for Mirror Image and Blur. Jan should put his thief points in other skills than Hide/Move til late in the game, since he won't hit much while backstabbing anyway.

I agree with you when it comes to taking all the NPCs with you at the same time. I've tried to play several games at once but it gets all confusing about which party did which quest and talked to which person and...

I think that a well equiped Anomen can be your Tank... in my opinion you don't need Vic.. if you like magic and you said you like I'd recommend Edwin or Aerie!!! IMO you'll love Aerie more for the magic and Edwin for the interaction...

Originally posted by Astafas:
<STRONG>Your bard should save the second level spell slots for Mirror Image and Blur.</STRONG>

The spell Strength seems pretty overlooked. It lasts all day and stacks on top of itself up to 18/100 (in two castings). That makes it look good even on Minsc (giving him +1 to hit and damage), not to mention Jaheira. Memorize a couple of these if you're not already loaded with Strength enhancing items.

You guys seem to be leaving out the best NPCs in the game...Edwin and Korgan. Edwin is simple put a woopass mage because of all the spells he gets. Korgan (the destroyer as I call him) is an unbelievable tank, specially when I get him dual wielding Crom Faeyr with a woopass axe.

Originally posted by Skeelo:
<STRONG>You guys seem to be leaving out the best NPCs in the game...Edwin and Korgan. Edwin is simple put a woopass mage because of all the spells he gets. Korgan (the destroyer as I call him) is an unbelievable tank, specially when I get him dual wielding Crom Faeyr with a woopass axe.</STRONG>

Yup, I agree, but put them in a good party and you will have to watch your rep all the time,

Unless, you play ToB and not SoA.

@xyx:

Well, if you wanna use your bard as a tank, you should save all second spell slots for the spells I mentioned. Better to, in this case, let Jan and Nalia memorize the strength spell. I seldom use it anyway, since there are a lot of girdles as well as the gauntlet of ogre power. A spell I do find overlooked, though, is Spook (save -6 at 12th level!). This is probably due to the all time favorite Magic Missile.

@skeelo:

I don't think we've overlooked them. I've played through SoA with all NPCs and know well how good Korgan and Edwin are. However, I've had most fun with the "weaker" characters. Arocle striked me as a person who prefer NPCs with nice personalities before the more maxed out ones. Also, by the suggested party, I got the impression that arocle don't like pure fighters like Korgan.

[ 07-17-2001: Message edited by: Astafas ]

I'd drop Vic for Mazzy.

Mazzy has the combat abilities of any other fighter type, loads of hit points, and if you get her early enough (prolly too late for that now) you can place her weapon proficiencies in something other than short sword. I picked her up very quick in an old game and had her wielding all those wonderful axes. She consistently had the lowest AC in the party, and with a strength booster she is way nasty. Plus she has her little "paladin" abilities which, while minor, can help in a pinch. She saved the party with her resist fear ability when fighting the red dragon.

I liked her dialog as well, plus the idea of having a 4 foot tall female halfling whooping ass on just about everything.

Honestly, you have plenty of cleric power in there with Jahiera and Anomen. True, Vic is the best single cleric, but I think clerics are kinda overrated. I never carry more than one and a half (Aerie and Jahiera count as halves to me.) And you could use some more tankage, which Mazzy does well.

Go forth and conquer!

@Arocle, you have a nice party, there. I, too, tend to like magic-heavy groups, which don't fit the accepted norm in most discussions.

Here are my suggestions for tweaking it, for what it's worth:

Drop Viconia; take on Keldorn. Viconia's the best cleric in the game, but you really do need a character with a huge amount of hit points that can stand up front and take damage while dishing it out. Minsc, Valygar, and Keldorn all fit this description, but Keldorn adds a few side benefits of the paladin. Note, if you do keep Viconia, she will get increasingly strident as your reputation rises, and will probably leave you once you hit 18 or higher.

I've seen it suggested elsewhere, here, that you might drop Jaheira for Cernd. I wouldn't suggest this, personally. Cernd is slightly superior as a druid, but he requires an extra turn to go from fighting mode (in his shifted shape--he's a terrible fighter in his native form) to spellcasting mode, and back again, as well. This means you'll lack a vital turn for spells or attacks when you could need them the most--such as when you observe several enemy mages readying spells. If Jaheira's in your party, she can simply fire off an Insect Plague that stops them all, no matter what's she's been doing up to that time, but if Cernd's your druid, and he's been fighting, it will require an extra turn for him to change back to his druidic form. Oops, too bad, those druid spells hit your party, and the tide of battle turned. Reload, and try again.

Anyway, hope this helps.

Drop Nalia, get Mazzy

I use my fighter/mage as a tank with stoneskin and the cloak of mirroring or reflectionand belt of inertial barrier he has 125% resist to magic damage. He's hard to hurt unless he gets stunned or somthing. Bards are cool no matter what anyone says. They are one of the best classes to role play. Jacks of all trades can some times be the masters of BGII

Thanks ye all!

I got many great ideas know from you.
Astafas: I think I'll follow your advice and take Valygar or as someone else suggested Mazzy instead of Viconia. And Thinking about replacing Jaheira with Cernd.

Thanks!

Can't wait 'till I get ToB. Wohoo!