Hmm, which class should I choose

45th Parallel · Post by **45th Parallel** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 6:27 pm

I’m having major trouble deciding what character class to play as my main. I haven’t really played the game beyond the first chapter. I figured it would be better to read up on what NPCs are available and try to get and idea of how they would fit best into a party.

Well, after reading up on the NPCs, these are the ones I think I would like to go with:

Minsc (was in BG1, boo is cool, plan on him using the Crom Faeyr)
Jaheira (was in BG1, I’ve read that there is a romance plot with her, plan on here using that one +4 staff)
Kaldorn (Inquisitors have some nifty abilities, will need him to use the Holy Avenger)
Aerie (not that great but Minsc likes her and there is supposedly a romance plot with her as well)
Viconia (was in BG1, great cleric, drow are cool, plan on her using the Flail of Ages)
Imoen (important to the plot and related to the main character, and I need some thieving abilities but I don’t’ like pure thieves)

Yes, there are six characters there

Which one should I remove, and what character class should I play in his/her place to be round out the resulting party?

The limited amount I’ve played so far was as my Half-Elf Conjurer imported from BG1 (TOSC) (with tome stat gains). I’ve also played BG1 (TOSC) through with my own party made up of a Pally, Ranger, Fighter with 18int, and a Fighter with 18 wis. I didn’t use any of my stat gain tomes in this game however, so I can dump them all on the one character I decide to bring into BG2

I would like to use one of these characters if possible, but I am extremely tempted to start a Sorcerer fresh in BG2 (but I’m hesitant to do so since he wouldn’t have any stat gains and there is just something cool about having a 19 int and a 21 wis).

I’ve thought about this way too much, so I was hoping for some fresh opinions from experienced players. My concerns so far are that if I don’t play a mage, Imoen will be my only mage capable of casting high level spells. Is she enough? Also, how many str enhancing items are left in the game if you make the Crom Faeyr? The NPC fighters will kinda suck if they don’t all have str items, but if I bring in one of my fighters from BG1, he would already have a 19 str and wouldn’t need a str item.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

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mizuno · Post by **mizuno** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 6:33 pm

since everyone is good alignment, it's better to dump viconia. you have enough mages, and minsc and keldorn will form a very solid front line. no point to get paladin for you pc if you wnt keldorn, it's good to keep in mind that imoen won't be available in CH2 and 3, she got captured, thus nalia could replace her prefectly. i think you party need back up figter and potrntially cleric, or you get anomen, but ranger/cleric or figter/cleric will do the trick since anomen is better at fighting then cleric skills.

fable · Post by **fable** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 6:35 pm

Note that Viconia is an "evil" character in a "good" group, which means that sooner or later she's going to get challenged. You might want to ditch her, to stay with all good/neutral.
If you do so, consider running a cleric or a multiclass mage/cleric. I'd say you need both, since Aerie doesn't get the very high level clerical or mage spells. Clerical spells will be very important in fighting the Undead later in the game, while mage spells are just plain important, period.

It's no great secret to note that Imoen will not be around for long. You'll need an effective replacement, and I suggest Jan. He's a top-rate thief, and an effective mage. Plus, he's neutral, and comes with his own quest (admittedly, a rather minor one). You can find him in the center of the Government district.

Bruce Lee · Post by **Bruce Lee** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 6:44 pm

You should try totemic druid...they are cool.
But so are the other classes aswell, maybe not wizardslayer but all the rest are great.

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Proud member of the Brotherhood of the woods.

Satyr · Post by **Satyr** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 6:48 pm

Why not play a thief yourself?

Also, I found that Minsc takes way too much damage, and doesn;t have enough HP, to be a really effective tank. He's a great archer though (with some guantlets).

I'm using him in this role and stuck Jaheira in the front line... she can get a really good AC.

I agree with the other posts - dump Viconia for part balance.

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"Pain heals,
chicks dig scars,
glory lasts forever."

mizuno · Post by **mizuno** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 6:56 pm

keldorn with gaunlet of dex. with holy avenger is your answer, he really rocks with those 2 items, well better give him something which immune to charm and confuse, otherwise you'll be screwed!!

my ranger/cleric forms first line with keldorn, minsc is just a third fighter. need some belt to increase jaheira's strength, way too low. thieving is not a problem as long as you have potions of master of thieves. nalia will do fine, aerie... mm. give her mace of disruption +2 and you'll know she can fight. crom/FoA with you main character, jaheira with staff of rynn, or woodland(if you got her haper pin, thats the best for her!!) silver blade or waveblade(sp?) for minsc. i really find this party is quite good though. but anyway, follow your style to play!

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Mizuno is a Proud Member of the Brotherhood of the Woods

Bane12345 · Post by **Bane12345** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 7:01 pm

Dont listen to his crapy advice druids suck wizard slayers rule!! 2% percent magical resistance per level (for all you mathamations out there that 38 at level 19) plus each hit gives you a 10% spell failure that means if you hit em 10 times they cant cast a single spell!! Even if they have stone skin or fire sheild or any of those other ****y wizard spells. But it is your call, It depends on what you like, if you like to be a little-tiny-mage-who-cant-even-pick-up-a-sword then that is ok but, if you would rather be a Massive-machine-of-destruction than choose the fighter class... oh yeah I have had Alot of success with the stalker class, dont let the fact that they cant use chain or plate mail not make you be one. The shadow dragon scale is a 1 A.C just as good as most plate plus hiding in the shadows and being able to backstab is really handy....

45th Parallel · Post by **45th Parallel** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 7:05 pm

Wow, those were some quick replies

Actually, I kinda wanted to try to keep Viconia this time. I chose Branwen over Vic in BG1 so I thought I would try her this time. I know I'll have to keep my rep below 18 (assuming BG2 is like BG1) to keep her, which may be hard to do. But I thought having a "bad seed" in the party might make for some interesting NPC interaction.

If I did drop her though, I could bring in my fighter from BG1 with 18 wis and dual him to a cleric. I was actually thinking of dropping Aerie and doing this. But like I was saying earlier, that would only leave Imoen as the high level mage (though that party would have a lot of clerical power). And I did read that Imoen will be gone for a bit so I was thinking of using Edwin or Nalia in the mean time. I don't really like Edwin (from his history in BG1) though, so I didn't want to keep him for long.

I'm not a big gnome fan so I probably won't use Jan (he is a gnome right?). And I have to admit that I'm leaning towards not keeping Aerie since she'll be lacking in the late game, but she does have some interesting plot threads so I would like to keep her for that if possible (I'm going for more NPC interaction this time which I didn't really didn't try for in BG1).

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mizuno · Post by **mizuno** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 7:07 pm

not a lot of monster or enemies could stand 10 hits from my party!!!, thus what kind of theory is that hit 10 time and he can't cast speels, of course he can't he is at hell!!!

what i know is the party lacks of clerical spells!! aerie would be the best if you use wizard slayer(i am not saying he is not good!) minsc can only cast a few minor healing, jaheira couldn't cast a lot, but quite useful, kelorn couldn't, and neither imeon nor nalia could. viconia is "evil". thus he needs a cleric!! unless he want to use anomen tha silly bastard!

mizuno · Post by **mizuno** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 7:12 pm

there should be things you should know, is not that easy just saying you keep your rep lower than 18, that' not the problem.

the real problem is minsc will fighter edwin and keldorn will fight viconia, and both edwin and viconia will pick on aerie(insult i meant) and she will threaten she will go(which she really will!)

45th Parallel · Post by **45th Parallel** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 7:49 pm

Your right about Keldorn, I think he'll be pretty decient with some dex gauntlets so I probably will keep him (and not bring in my BG1 Pally). What's wrong with Minsc though? He has a 16 dex and con and a good str, which is all you really need of a fighter type, plus he has 2 points in dual wield from being a ranger so he can be made to use a variety of weapons. Plus he has a super space hampster (or something like that)

What weapon proficiencies does Mazzy start off with?

I probably won't go with a totemic druid even though they are kinda cool. I read in the manual that druids are limited to 15th level or something, which I think would severely limit thier power. Besides, Jaheira should be fine in the druid department since she maxes out around level 15 anyway on the druid side.

Like I was saying, I can basically bring in the following characters from BG1 and I saved all my stat tomes so I can majorly buff up the one char I choose to use for BG2:

-Fighter with 18 int for dualing to mage type
-Fighter with 18 wis for dualing to cleric type
-Ranger (who i'm tempted to bring in as an Archer)
-Pally (who I would bring in to replace Keldorn)
-Conjurer (or start a brand new Sorc)

How many strength items are in the game will be a big part of my choise. I really would like all my front line fighters to have an 18/00 or higher. So if there aren't enough str items to go around after making the Crom Faeyr, I'll probably have to bring in one of my fighters (who will have a 19 str from the tome).

Are wizard slayers any good? After reading that they can't use any magic items (other than weapons), I pretty much wrote them off since I'm sure there are a lot of cool items in the game.

As for playing a theif, I was tempted to be a fighter/thief, but I figure Imoen or Nalia will be good enough for disarming traps and such.

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45th Parallel · Post by **45th Parallel** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 7:58 pm

Ahh, so the good NPCs will pick on Viconia untill she leaves? Bummer. Maybe I will ditch her and go with a Fighter dualed to Cleric. Still, she has some good stats and I'm sure her MR is nice. I would rather ditch Aerie than Vic, so if Aerie is the only character that can't work with Vic, then I'll probably take Vic over her.

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mizuno · Post by **mizuno** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 8:01 pm

first of all, nothing wrong with minsc, but my character is just better than him, nothing much wrong.

yea, dualling to cleric or mage is one of the best optons to play BG2. there are belts which will increase your srrength to 19, 20 and 21 respectively. (3 belts in total) and the coolest thing is the crom will increase your strength to 25!!

what makes BG2 different fromother AD&D games is there are a lot of NPCs convasions, etc romance, fight, etc. thus playing with care is needed.

45th Parallel · Post by **45th Parallel** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 8:34 pm

Thanks for the info Mizuno. If there are 3 str belts in the game then there should be enough to go around without the need to use one of my own fighters. I did read that you need to use one of them to make the Crom though right?

Like I said, I've been thinking about this way to much

I guess the only other concern I have is that if I have Keldorn using 2 handed swords, Minsc dualing maces and hammers, and Jaheira using Staves or clubs. That doesn't leave anyone to use longswords, katanas or axes. Can't have it all I guess. If I got rid of Aerie and used my fighter and gave him dual wield with longsword and katana profs then that would be cool (I could even have him use axes later on as he gets more prof points). But is 4 fighter types too many?

I was reading some other "best party" threads and some of them seem to sucessfully mix Vic, Edwin, and/or Korgan into a party. If there is just some infighting in the party, than that is cool (and kinda what I'm looking for), but if people actually leave the party then that would be bad, especially if I've already invested a lot of time and xp into them.

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mizuno · Post by **mizuno** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 8:46 pm

leave keldorm use the carsomyr, a 2-handed sword useable by paladin, +5 thaco, +5 extra damage to chaotic oppunities, and 50 magic resistance!

let ur pc dual wield crom and flail of ages.

yes u need one of the belt to make crom. but when i make it, i put it in the bag of(something, can't remeber, got it from ayslum) and went to forge it but the belt stayed there. dont know why, is it a bug?

fable · Post by **fable** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 8:51 pm

If you're going to consider a fighter dualed to a mage, think of a kesmai dualed to a mage, instead. You still get to use mage robes as a kensai (while a fighter's armor will prevent you from casting in a battle, and you can't remove it); some of these are pretty neat. And as a mage, you'll retain all your old proficiencies, along with the ability to cast spells. It's worth a thought.

mizuno · Post by **mizuno** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 8:53 pm

Originally posted by fable:
If you're going to consider a fighter dualed to a mage, think of a kesmai dualed to a mage, instead. You still get to use mage robes as a kensai (while a fighter's armor will prevent you from casting in a battle, and you can't remove it); some of these are pretty neat. And as a mage, you'll retain all your old proficiencies, along with the ability to cast spells. It's worth a thought.

agree. otherwise u'll need to use elven chain mail

45th Parallel · Post by **45th Parallel** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 10:11 pm

I am very tempted to play a kensai/mage. As soon as I read the kensai kit description, mage popped into my head. I actually have brought my Fighter into BG2 and played him as a kensai for a little bit. They do kick major butt. He was killing most mobs before Minsc or Jaheira even scored a hit. But don't kensai only get the +1 per 3 level bonus if they are using swords? That wouldn't allow him to use the Crom or Flail of Ages very well.

The only thing that is turning me off about the kensai/mage is that it seems to be the class that everyone is playing. Plus it seems a bit of overkill. If I'm going to use him for spells, I should probably just keep him back out of combat anyway. But if i'm going to use him for combat, I might as well leave him as a full kensai so he'll kick major ass in the late game.

Thanks a lot for the input so far. I was reading that thread on weapon/class testing and it seems like the Crom and FoA is the way to go. So I'm almost 90% decided that I'll go with a fighter/cleric.

That being the case, I'm not sure what I should do with Minsc since I was planning on giving him the Crom. Use some prof points in axe maybe and dual axes or axe and mace I guess. What type of weapon is the next best after the Crom and Carsomyr, a katana, axe, or longsword?

Also, I'm not sure which NPC I want to ditch out the the six I mentioned. I'm thinking Aerie, but if it will really be to hard to keep Viconia then I should probably lose her.

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mizuno · Post by **mizuno** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 10:14 pm

flail of ages is pretty cool, the wave blade is good as well, ad your mage will need staff of magi

Ro´Jadre · Post by **Ro´Jadre** » Sat Mar 24, 2001 4:57 pm

You know, you really need a thief in that party, and Yoshimo is the best (since he's the only pure thief). I you don't want him, take Jan.

Shorah