I'm planning to start a new character to play through the main (and later MOTB) campaign. Right now looking for suggestions for the main campaign party members. My character will be a sorceror/heartwarder/arcane scholar (I have Kaedrin's Class pack installed). Since he'll be a Heartwarder he's of good alignment, so evil NPCs aren't a good idea. Right now I'm thinking. Casavir (only because I'm tired of Khelgar) Elanee (perhaps replaced by Zhjaeve later on) Sand (possibly to be replaced with Ammon Jerro, yeah I know he's evil, but I think he's cool).
No rogue love? I always find Neeshka useful, and her dialogue is pretty endearing to me. Give her a couple kukris and she's a competent enough fighter, at least until undead start appearing all over the place. And since you're a mage already, you shouldn't need Sand that much. But I'm no min/maxing buff. Maybe Casavir/Elanee/Neeshka is a pitiful combination. If you're fixed about having another arcane user... I don't know, both Sand and Qara get on my nerves somewhat.
I tend to think of party members as a matter of "when". With SOZ installed, definitely Elanee. AND you should accelerate your access to pick her up before she auto-levels and sticks you with an unwanted feat. (..this means by-pass the swamp, and all areas of the Fort other than the wolf fight on the path and the fight with the soldiers to get Neeshka. Proceed to the Port where you get Elanee in a cut-scene. Do her druid quest and then return to the swamp. Then finish-up with the all the fort quests before moving onto the Port again.) Of course the feat you should select for Elanee is the Dino companion. Because you have Elanee, drop Neeshka from the party when you can, and generally only use her for her quests, and also to go back to locations to open up chests. It's a tedious 2-trip process, but it's not that bad. That leaves you 2 other positions for most of the game. One should be quest dependent (like Neeshka for Neeshka quests), the other should be pretty much whomever you want. Ideally though it would be another meat-shield (if you don't have Shandra yet). Once you have Shandra (and access to Sand), I'd probably recommend Sand. With the ability to rest and replenish spells just about anywhere, and scribe spells to his spell-book, he can become an offensive power-house (especially in combination with your own Sorcerer build). Sand also doesn't seem to truly offend anyone except Qara, and Qara does + she isn't as versatile. Selecting your spells will of course be critical to your success. I'd also recommend having Sand scribe you lots of high level spells for you to use for the final 3rd of the game. Banishment is a good one for the final fight via scrolls, and probably isn't a spell I'd select for your Sorcerer class build. Also make sure Sand has craft wand feat selected as well at higher levels. The added utility and potential fire-power can be very nice with protracted battles.
Rogue is not really necessary. For the most part the traps in the game are not that deadly, and as far as opening chests, there's a spell for that. I like magic users, so I tend to think in the more the merrier terms. Can't ever have too many fireball... And I HATE Neeshka's voice. Also, I played with her in all but one of my previous playthroughs (I had a bard (18)/rogue(1)/cleric(1) that didn't need her in the party)
Oh my. I actually liked her voice-over, "impish" - like her character. A little "girlie" though, and probably quite tiresome over time.
Just to champion an unpopular cause, might I suggest Grobnar... He's not much of a straight up fighter, not too bad as ranged backup. The Bard chants are damned useful for buffs and crowd control. Make him some wands and let him rip!
Yeah, I thought about him. As I mentioned my last character was mostly a bard (with a level of rogue and cleric thrown in for extra feats and lockpicking), and he was totally awesome, but Grobnar's voice is even more annoying to me then Neeshka. But I might consider him since I've never had him in my party for more then 5 minutes.
Can someone explain to me how you actually do this? I see no way to bypass the swamp. I cannot travel to Fort Locke before I find the silver shard and then I am already level 4.
