Okayyyy... playing another round, and I chose not to have the default BG2 RNPCs except Imoen. Imoen will always be in my BG1 party setup, even if my PC is a filthy low-life scum.

The problem I forsee now is... who is going to be my Mage? I need a good-aligned Mage. Not evil, not neutral, but good. Besides Dynaheir, are there any other good-aligned Mage in the game? I do not want to be stuck with Garrick as my main source of Arcane Magic. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Yes, I am well aware that Garrick is Chaotic Neutral, but I need somebody to cast Magic Missile or I will face frustration in encounters where the enemy casts Mirror Image.

Basically, I am having a party where every single member can shoot. Rynn, my PC, is an Elven Fighter/Thief who uses Darts at the moment. Imoen uses Shortbows of course. Kivan uses Longbows, and Garrick uses Crossbows. I plan to get the Paladin soon and hope he can use ranged attacks as well( preferably throwing axes, haha).

Which just leaves me with the issue of getting a good-aligned Mage( slings!). [img]tongue.gif[/img]

You could try dual-classing Imoen, though admittedly this is more of a long term plan.

Well, Dyna is the only good mage in the game that also starts with a star in slings.

Dualing Imoen is probably your best option, she can sling spells quite well, and, can dual class to a specialist mage in BG1. I highly recommend Illusionist, as it fits with her thief persona.

Ooh also...

Get Garrick the Light Crossbow of Speed ASAP if you can. Vastly improves his combat skill.

Hmmmm... never thought about dualclassing Imoen. Intriguing idea.

Consulting the manual, I can dual Imoen at level 6 to make a 6/9 Thief->Mage. This means I will not lose out any Mage levels. Thankfully, since my PC is half Thief too, I can split the thieving skills between them( aka who do what).

Garrick was never meant to be a long term investment. I planned to ditch him if I could a suitable Mage to replace him. I guess he is going to stick around until Imoen holds her own.

So...

Paladin
PC who is a Fighter/Thief
Imoen who is going to be a Thief->Mage
Kivan who is a Ranger
Garrick who is a Bard and I want to ditch

Besides Khalid, Minsc and Dynaheir. Who are the other good-aligned RNPCs in BG1?

<font color="gold">Well, you have Ajantis the Paladin, Coran the Fighter/Thief, and Yeslick the Fighter/Cleric. ;) Yeslick can only be obtained late in the game, though. ;) </font>

Yeslick with the Guantlets of Dex makes a FEARSOME tank.

*Groan*

Not another thief! I swear the entire game is flooded with RNPC Thieves. http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/uhoh2.gif

Ajantis I plan to get already, so I guess that leaves Yeslick. Happily, I happen to need a Cleric to complete the party anyway.

Alas! That means I cannot replace Garrick! Aiyee! Must I bring in another thief into my party to make it all good-aligned? Crikey... decisions, decisions... ...

Are there really no more than that? :(

Well, if it is any consolation, Kivan and Coran can pretty much carry you through the end with no effort, trust me, no mage is needed. Coran is a wicked archer, and, has a pretty mean backstab as well. Kivan, well, I am sure you have already seen what he can do.

Coran with the Bracers of Archery is capable of plugging Saravok with arrows and rarely misses... Makes the end battle quite easy.

[ 02-28-2003, 01:31 PM: Message edited by: Butterfingers ]

Ajantis and Yeslick are a bad combination--who gets the Gauntlets?

Yep, Dynaheir and Imoen are the only Good-aligned Mages in the game. But you know, you might just want to bring Xan along. Other people may hate his depressing attitude, but I think he's a hoot. (I also like Quayle and Edwin's voices.)

If you want an archer party, including Coran is practically a given. Even if you don't need his Thieving skills (which happen to be the best in the game), enemies will practically slit their own throats if they see Coran with a bow coming toward them--and he's a damn good hand at Backstabbing, too, which is something you might miss by Dualing Imoen.

I would take your current party, but include Yeslick, and drop Ajantis for Coran.

Well , I, for one, find Xan's moaning strangely comforting. And, besides he is not really complaining about anything like, for ecample, Jaheira. And it's not like he lets his attitude get in the way of his dealings.

Finally, as a newcomer to BG1 I cannot overemphasize how cool a spell charm person is.

Bassilus:

First attempt, Xzar with various damage spells: My party gets shot to pieces by hordes of skeletons with crossbows.

Next attempt, Xan, Charm person: Bassilus. Bassilus, Turn undead. Result: Bassilus: pwn3d.

I would like to note that it is possible to make Xan a half way passable warrior. Creative use of spells and potions if you take my hint. His Moonblade does considerable damage. He is a darn good mage, all things considered. I like him. Butterfingers the Bard misses him greatly in BG SoA.

Xan is in training session of BG SoA. It is easy but if you haven't done it is worth a few laughs, at least I think so.

I've been considering bringing Xan into BG2 proper, as part of a Wizard MOD that would also add some new spells & kits. I've got a great encounter planned upon entering Trademeet for the first time with Xan in the party. [img]smile.gif[/img]

uh... you have played BG2 havent you ?
lol

It may come as a surprise, but I was never really a fan of dualclassing. It just seems so... illogical.

Yeah the problem with it is that your character starts on the first level again.

well i was more meaning specifically about dualing Imoen... since she STARTS BG2 dualed to mage. but as for dualling in general, it has its uses. for instance, if you just want a few levels of some class to gain some skills, but you dont want to make a whole career out of it. for instance, say you wanted a battle cleric, you might want to give him some basic training as a warrior before you start your priestly training. the advantage over multiclassing is that you only need to spend EXP on your minor class up till the point you feel your skills are adequate. Havent you ever gotten a multiclassed character to a point you feel one class is just stealing EXP from the more important class ?

Yeah the problem with it is that your character starts on the first level again.</font>[/QUOTE]I think that the bigger problem is that a character must be human. Humans are ugly (just look at those paperdolls!) in BG2, and even in BG1 they are not much nicer.

Yes - Alora is CG. Unfortunately she's also a thief. :rolleyes: and waits for DS [img]graemlins/scream.gif[/img] of frustation. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

BG1 has a lot of thieves (especially compared to BG2)

The human paperdolls of BG2 is much nicer than those of BG1 with the exception of the wizard.

I am always wondering why the hell the female human warrior wears a swimsuit when not in armor. With Sword Coast Keeper you might be tempted to make something quite.. ..indecent.

Why make them all good? Why not mix up the party alignments a wee bit? I'm toting around both Ajantis and Viconia, and the dialogue can be amusing. Not as amusing as Faeldorn and Ajantis, mainly because Viconia doesn't seem to have the high testosterone levels that Faeldorn did. But watching people bicker seems to be much more entertaining than having a whole party of people who just get along all the time. Yuck!