Heh, that blade combo sounded pretty awesome. I like having an NPC party, they are good to have around, and without them I wouldn't have made it though most of the situations, but one character than can do most everything is helpful to have even in a group, like if you need a fighter, mage, thief, cleric, or so on. The only NPCs I get are the same ones EVERY SINGLE GAME, I can't seem to find the others. I use Viconia ocassionaly, Jan, Aerie, The Cleric Mage at darnise keep, minsc, jaheria, to name a few. I would like to get Jan, Edwin, Viconia, the guy that is a druid (avenger I think) he can turn into were wolfs, just to name a few. Any help on the locations would be great.

Jan and Viconia are in the government district, not hard to find; Valygar looks like he could be good if you do his quest and outfit him with gauntlets of ogre power, and find the Celestial Fury (though I killed him because I am evil) and he is in Umar Hills.
Ol' Cernd (the wolfman) is in Trademeet (probably not better than Jaheria but he is good if you intend to keep Aerie and are otherwise tank heavy).

Yep the Kensai/Mage is THE killing machine ! grand mastery in katanna, Celestiall Fury, DerthZarkons Blade, Girdle of Hill Giant Strength, Ring of regeneration all make him the walking, talking, death dealing, character of the century. The only thing he cant do is thieve

Hey, tonight while chatting and watching the history channel I played single player (so I could switch between board and game easier) wait for it.... Totemic Druid.... the summoned spirit animals last for ages, take a lot of damage and appear in next to no casting time. They are my tank. Everyone else is firing missiles out of the way of the Mephits annoying blasts. Pretty cool.

I wonder how they'll fare at later levels.

With 18 wisdom he's crapping all over Jahiera as a caster too.

Damn it Memnoch, I knew you'd distract me from my Jester! Oh well back to him tomorrow night.

This hasn't been discussed alot here, but at the BG dungeon tavern it has gotten alot of face time. Over there the general concensus is that the dual classed Kensai Mage is king of the hill.
As a Kensai he gets AC bonuses, mine started at 0 which is to offset the fact that he can't wear armor, which works out perfectly in his mage role. He can wear rings and robes of protection. He gets awesome attack bonuses, weopons specialization, can use every weopons except Holy Avenger, there may be a couple of others. Grand Mastery pays off splendidly for a Kensai who allready gets extra attacks, mine does 35 to 60 damage each with each hit. He gets +1 to THACO every 3 level ups. With a great 2HS he's devastating.
Since he can't wear armor he can cast spells and wade into the fray without impediment.
I didn't dual class my Kensai, I wanted him to reap the full rewards of being a Kensai, but the dualed mage does sound intriguing.

I started to play solo with a monk. I imported him though and didnt have to nurse him. I don't think its very fun to play through solo. I ended up turning off the game after i killed Firkragg single handedly (quivering palm rocks). It sucked too because i always just had to bite down and take it when there was a trap, waste hours trying to get the punk to force every locked door, and take a nap every damn time my hit points got low. I think that if i had stuck with it, however, i could have had a very boring time beating the game solo with a monk.

"Like fluffy arrows of death, they came down upon us during the night."
Squirrel's Avenger

Relic, i used to post regularly at the BGDungeon tavern too, the kensai mage is for powergamers who want to solo. At top levels KM can be just about unbeatable, exp. if you remove the cap. think timestop, improved haste, and improved invisibility and no one will have time to scream.

but personally i get more out of a kick out of roleplaying the character. i just started a jester and it's such a fun class to play.

next i'll be trying out a totemic druid. someone has to prove that these loser classes can actually beat the game!

Monk can be soloed. Best char I've played.
I'm doing the Jester too, just about to hit Brinnlaw after doing all subs bar Valygars.
Where are you at Memnoch?

My party is:
Korgan
Minsc
Viconia
Jan
Ruadh (a Jester with Eldroths portrait)

I've had Keldorn Edwin and Mazzy in the other spot, but now I'll go get you-know-who

The truth is the only way to get a super god is to make one by hacking the game other than that i reacon that half-orc
barbarians are one of the best classes(and races)if you get good stats

Yor I'm still in Irenicus dungeon, it's starting to be a chore getting out of there.
So far the Chaos song is working ok.