GameBanshee Forums

I'm having people management problems.
First Minsk bails on me because I was dicking around too long. Something unpleasant happened to Khalid so he's gone. Now Jaheira keeps sniping at me about poor management. Sheesh.
I can see how people might get impatient. I like playing all areas and doing as many subquests as possible. Definitely not going for the powerplay.
However, now I'm worried that my party is becoming unbalanced.
I have :
Me, fighter
Ajantis
Jaheira
Imoen (dualled to mage at level 5)
Kivan
Branwen

This basically means that I have just two melee fighters (got Kivan with a bow and the others using missiles when not spell casting).
Jaheira also has a nice blunt object which she seems to be using well when necessary. Except for the whining, she's kinda fun. Is she going to walk? I think she wanted to get to the Nashkel mines but now that we're there she's still not happy.
Should I replace her with Xan? I'd like another spell caster but are two melee fighters enough? I seem to keep getting into tight quarters with not much range for the ranged weapons.

You have 4 warriors. Thats plenty. You can always switch to melee weapons when enemies close in.

You shouldn't have any problems with that party.

Assuming that you, Ajantis, and Kivan are armed with composite long bows (preferably magical), Jaheira and Branwen with slings, and Imoen with a sling or darts (if mage) or bow (if thief), there shouldn't be a lot of the enemy standing for a melee battle and those that are left should be easily dispatched, especially if you get Bless and Chant spells off at the very beginning of the attack.

Be sure to use Ajantis' Protection From Evil as well.

Also, if you give Jaheira and Branwen decent armor and weapons they can certainly be second-row attackers and sometimes even join on the front line.

Jaheira and Branwen are neutral characters, so their complaints get really annoying when your reputation reaches 19.
But at least they won't run away.

About melee/ranged: Each of your party members has at least 2 quick weapon slots, so changing between ranged and melee shouldn't be a problem. Just equip everyone with a melee and ranged weapon and good armor.

Regarding party balance:
Imoen can cast enough arcane spells for the party, you can replace Jaheira with Xan if you want, but Xan won't whine less. (not only because he's also neutral)
As long as you have at least one fighter,mage,thief and priest in your party (that's your PC,Imoen and Branwen for example) your party is balanced.
The only thing missing in your party might be a thief, but if Imoen has enough thieving skills for your playing style don't bother.

Ah, so I'm assuming that the constant whining by Jaheira is just her sparkling personality. Yesterday she mentioned that we weren't acting like "warriors born" or something like that, just after beating up a bunch of gnolls.

I guess as long as this doesn't mean that she's going to walk out I can put up with it. I like to take my time and don't want to rush through things for fear of losing a crew member (like stupid stupid minsc...)

Shine wrote:Ah, so I'm assuming that the constant whining by Jaheira is just her sparkling personality. Yesterday she mentioned that we weren't acting like "warriors born" or something like that, just after beating up a bunch of gnolls.

I guess as long as this doesn't mean that she's going to walk out I can put up with it. I like to take my time and don't want to rush through things for fear of losing a crew member (like stupid stupid minsc...)

Jaheira does have a grating personality and will begin complaining once your party's reputation is 18 or higher. Since she is Neutral she will leave if your party gets a rep of 20 or higher. You can prevent her leaving by installing the "Happy Patch" mod that I believe is part of the Ease of Play mod (highly recommended).

Most NPCs that have a time limit on their quest will let you know both when they talk to you initially and as the time gets close to ending.

DaemonJ wrote:Jaheira does have a grating personality and will begin complaining once your party's reputation is 18 or higher. Since she is Neutral she will leave if your party gets a rep of 20 or higher. You can prevent her leaving by installing the "Happy Patch" mod that I believe is part of the Ease of Play mod (highly recommended)...

My party just reached reputation 20, I guess a tragic accident is in the future for Jaheira then to prevent her from leaving - if she leaves does Khalid go too? Will Branwen bail as well?

My party:
Me Fighter/Thief multiclass elf
Khalid
Jaheira
Imoen - just dualled at lvl 5 to lvl 1 mage
Branwen

Was considering ditching Jaheira in any case since Branwen can also heal (although my incarnation of Branwen only has one quick weapon slot - she is wielding the hammer+2 from Bassilus) and either picking up Minsc and Dynahier (sp?) or dumping Khalid as well and also acquiring Kevin or perhaps temporairly the thief (can't recall her name) in the lighthouse zone until I can also get my detect traps skill higher (so far I went pick locks and Imoen was detect traps, but her thieving abilities are lost for now)

I have just returned to BG after not playing it since it was new back in '99. Finally gave up on MMORPGs as requiring too big of time block commitments to accomplish anything worthwhile. With BG I can play for 30 minute periods if I so desire, no lfg time, nor time wasted waiting for a raid to form up, etc.

Soooo..... what would be the drawback in slapping around some innocent bystanders to reduce the reputation?
As a good-aligned group, is there a goal in mind, in the end, to having the highest possible reputation? Or does it make sense to keep your reputation less-than-super in order to appease both good and neutral members?

From an RP point of view, killing a puppy or robbing a little old lady in order to keep a valuable team member does make a strange sort of sense, although I'm sure my Paladin would get his loincloth in a bunch just at the thought of that.

Killing a peasant is dangerous since it makes the others near him get hostile which can lead to a forced killing spree and to 1 reputation which will make the game nearly unplayable because of the attacks from guards.

I'd only lower the reputation with evil characters in the party. Reputation has an important effect on shop prices, you get 50 percent discount for 20 reputation and have to pay a lot with low reputation. There are many expensive items you'll want to buy, like the "robe of the good archmagi" for Imoen, full plates, the composite longbow+1, ...

The best option is to install the "happy party" component (You'll probably have to edit manually afterwards.), the complaining is unrealistic anyway.

I had a rep. of 20 for most of my last run-through and Jaheira never bailed on me. My rep. right now is 20 and she is till with me and I am only playing the vanilla gave (cuz I am too retarded to properly install mods... ).

Nuetral charachters will not break from the party at 20 rep they just complain constantly. So don't worry about Brawen or Jahiera leaving.

On your group I would ditch jahiera for Coran when you make it too Cloak Wood. Between Coran and Imoen they can deal with all your theiving. Also Coran is even better than Kivan with a bow IMHO. But both of them together really rock. Still have yourself and Adjantis for front line work. I would give Adjantis The Gauntlets of Dexterity when you find them really helps with his AC. Recap you would have One Cleric, One Mage, Two Theives, Four Warriors. I would Charge the enemy with Yourself and Adjantis while keeping Coran and Kivan with the girls to protect them if a stray enemy getts close.

Well, it seems to me that "the girls" bailed Kivan out when he took a wrong turn and got himself turned to stone.
The reason I'd like to keep Jahiera is because she's a spell caster and spells are fun. A missile-lobbing spell caster is even more fun. On the other hand, there is so much stuff lying around that I don't bother with thieving very much. Currently, with Imoen dualled, I don't even have one thief and seem to be okay with missing the odd chest to lockpick. I do go through healing potions and spells when dealing with traps, though But I can't see why I'd need two thieves.

Interestingly, I thought I'd be constantly on the lookout for better NPC's to round out my group. But now it's turning out that I am getting attached to them, for better or for worse. In terms of RV, it's interesting to have to work with the advantages AND limitations of your companions, just as you do in real life. Makes for more interesting gameplay, I think, than to create super-buff fighters that do their job effortlessly.

Shine wrote:Interestingly, I thought I'd be constantly on the lookout for better NPC's to round out my group. But now it's turning out that I am getting attached to them, for better or for worse. In terms of RV, it's interesting to have to work with the advantages AND limitations of your companions, just as you do in real life. Makes for more interesting gameplay, I think, than to create super-buff fighters that do their job effortlessly.

Well said. I'm happy to hear you didn't go the multi-player create-all-6-PCs route.

Dude, you're gonna *LOVE* the sequel.

Jordoo wrote:Nuetral charachters will not break from the party at 20 rep they just complain constantly. So don't worry about Brawen or Jahiera leaving.

Truly my bad and I apologize for the bad information. Only evil characters will break from the party if you have a high rep.

It is good to hear that you are starting to enjoy your party. Once you have their capabilities and weaknesses figured out you will have a great time.