keldorn is awesome! dispel magic and true sight, i use them all the time

carsomyr+5, the best weapon in the game [img]smile.gif[/img]
most spells dont even touch him, and give him the gauntlets of dexterity (found in the unseeing eye quest) fixes his dext problem easily and gives him an acof -4 with his armor i think

i gave him and minsc boots of speed, and they can handle most monsters by themselves while my party sits back at wherever i started in that area, because most of the time i find that i dont need them [img]smile.gif[/img]

just because they dont have uber stats doesnt mean theyre not good... but with mages, i have to agree with you, they should ALL have 18 int or not even bother being a mage! who wants a dumb mage, anyway....

i'm just finnishing TOB with my character from BG1 (thief/mage - quite interesting combination with abilities usefull in different situations). found that minsc/keldorn combo for fighters/aeire all out spell caster and Jaheira alrounder worked quite nicely with one more slot for an "interesting npc".
Found valygar was worst npc never really benefitted the party in any way - but then he died a nasty death, i accidently removed him from my party during the dream in which you have to kill Bhaal (set in candelkeep). Technically i suppose he is still in my pc head.. [img]smile.gif[/img]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by SixOfSpades:

Warriors: Plenty of those, but sadly only Korgan and Anomen make good Tanks--the rest of them seem to have chosen either 2-Handed Weapon or Dual-Wielding. Still, Keldorn with the DEX Gauntlets or Mazzy with a Girdle will be fine, for any gamer worth his salt.<hr></blockquote>

Jaheira is also a good tank. Ironskins make up for her low HPs, and she does go for shields. She needs a girdle, but after that, watch out!

In ToB, she gets the Globe of Blades HLA. Very sweet.

-- Nifft, agreeing about the lack of thieves

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by antonius:
Six,

INT does make a different for the mages - maximum spell level and number of spells per level can matter. Ever want to cast level 9 spells? Tough, unless you're a mage yourself.

.....The way the theif skills are organised means that you're never going to a get a single thief you is good at locks, pockets, traps and stealth. My own Thief is an Assassin, but the low skill levels means that he needs a backup thief (someone to detect traps) so that he can excel in his chosen profession. <hr></blockquote>

Sorry, antonius, but au contraire, on both counts. Last night, I made an Elven Mage/Thief with 19 DEX and 9, yes, 9 INT. Then I Shadowkeepered her up to the EXP cap for ToB, and gave her a stack of Potions of Genius and a buttload of scrolls, especially the high-end ones. Go back into the game, take a few swigs, and there was NOTHING she couldn't scribe. With an Intelligence of 9, she would limited to 6 (or was it 8?) spells per level, and couldn't learn anything past Level 4. Good thing she now has 25 INT, and can learn every blessed spell on the planet. Then I had her rest (to give the potions time to wear off), and then she waded through Irenicus's dungeon, casting Time Stop, Dragon's Breath, Bigby's Hand, Horrid Wilting.....you get the idea. Then I find a scroll of Larloch's. DOH! I've already learned the maximum allowed for my intelligence....time to start drinking again. And into the spellbook goes Larloch's.

Simply put, a Mage does not absolutely require a high INT, except for Dual-classing purposes (I strongly doubt potions would work in that case).

About the Thieving skills: You're right, a backup Thief is always great to hang around, so you can get all your bases covered quickly. But a single Thief, or even half a Thief, is good enough, once you get there: Once I hacked her all that EXP, the same girl I tested the Int with had over 100% in all 7 Thief skills, and her Detect Illusions was all the way up to 250%. And that's WITHOUT all those kickass Thief items (Mercykiller Ring, Amulet of the Master Harper, Boots of Stealth, etc). An Elven Thief only needs to be Level 22 to have 100% in everything, without items.

Gedd, that's got to be the weirdest damned place to lose an NPC I've ever heard of. Congratulations, you win a cookie, and just be glad it's Valygar in your head and not Minsc. You would have some SERIOUS mental health issues.

Oh yeah, I forgot about Jaheira. Thanks, Nifft. I keep forgetting about Druids because they don't get any REALLY good weapons until Watcher's Keep.

I may be wrong, but here goes...

I thought that intelligence only has to do with actually learning mage spells (and dual-class requirements, of course). If I remember right, it has no effect on the number of spells per level (determined by level, per the chart in the back of the manual) or on the actual level of spell that you can cast. This is different than the pnp game, where intelligence does stop you from using certain level spells. The reason I say this is that I just finished the game with Aerie in the party, and she was casting 9th level mage spells just fine with a 16 intelligence. When it came time to learn the spells, then I had to use the potions of genius, since it was the only way to both expand the number of spells per level that she could scribe and the level of spells she could scribe. But once the spells were in her book, intelligence had NO effect whatsoever on her actual spell use.

Didn't realise that potions of INT were so useful, have to start carrying them around. Is that the way it works in PnP games as well, as it doesn't seem _quite_ within the spirit of the game? I can understand getting the bonus in order to actually scribe the scroll (per cent chance), but I find it a little odd that it only checks for the number of spells at that point, so I'd never have thought about it. (on reflection I suppose it has to a be a one time check, otherwise you may ahve the odd problem with mind-flayers)

The manual does say about the maximum spell level - but since when has the manual been correct? [img]smile.gif[/img] , in practice though I'm pretty sure it does apply.