I am trying to take a no reload party through the game (not including the expansion). I have an idea on a party, but I think I need some suggestions.
I was originally going to go with just my character, Minsc, and Dynaheir (can't remember how to spell her name [img]redface.gif[/img] ). But after thinking about what I knew from playing before, I came up with:

My character (Fighter)
Minsc: will be my tank as I don't want to put my character in as a tank, plus he is very powerful if you know how to use him.
Imoen: Traps, traps! There are many traps and chests to be opened, and I will need her to do it.
Jaheira: I will need lots of healing, and I remember her being my best option for a healer in the past.
Dynaheir (spelling???): Spell caster. These can be destructive in the game, and I will probably need her skills.

IIRC, you cannot have just Jaheira and in your party...you will also need Khalid in there too. But I also kinda remember that if Khalid dies in the game, Jaheira will still stay with you.
Any suggestions?

If you are going to need lots of healing, Jaheira is not preferable to Branwen, Viconia or, best case, Yeslick. Make the PC a fighter/thief, so you can be elven (better for archery), and so that you can hide out of sight if life gets too rough. With the PC a fighter/thief, you can dual Imoen to a mage early, I don't like Dynaheir, and Imoen has huge INT. So that gives us:

PC => Fighter/Thief
Minsc
Imoen (dualled to Conjurer at level 3 or 4)
Yeslick, Branwen or Viconia, preferably Yeslick.

I would also add Kagain, as he is an insane tank. Finally: I would hold on to Jaheira but NOT as primary healer. Why? She's a damn good fighter, hand her the Dagger of Venom and a quality shield, and she can spellcast and fight quite well.

In conclusion:
PC => Fighter/Thief (Light Crossbow of Speed, Longsword +2)
Minsc (Heavy Crossbow of Accuracy, Spider's Bane)
Imoen (Eagle Bow)
Yeslick (Warhammer +2, Sling +1)
Kagain (Throwing Axe +2, Battle Axe +2)
Jaheira (Darts of Wounding/Stunning, Dagger of Venom)

Thanks. IIRC, Branwen was the person who was stoned at the Nashkell Carnival (and no, she did not have 1 too many beers :D ). Even after playing through BG so many times, I cannot recall the player Kagain. I will try to find him. Please don't spoil his location, but just a hint...can he be found early on in the game? And Yeslick...hmmm, where was that little guy? Could some1 just give me his location? I don't mind be spoiled on that as I'm pretty sure I've run into him many times.

Edit: what is a good level to dual my fighter to a thief?

[ 08-23-2003, 11:55 PM: Message edited by: Lord ]

Dualing a fighter to a thief, eh? I would say level 6, but it depends. You'll spend a fair amount of time in thief-only form, but you'll be more powerful later. You can dual earlier if you want more time after dual, or later if you don't mind spending a long time in thief form. Kagain is very easy to find, early. Just go into buildings in cities early on. ;)
Yeslick's [spoilers]
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In the 2nd or 3rd level of the Cloakwood Mines. [/spoilers]

Hmm I totally disagree with your party but at least have your fighter as berserker.

I decided to take out Kagain as he is evil, and the rest of my part members will be good aligned. So far, this is what I am thinking, although I probably will modify it somewhat:

PC: Fighter, no need to dual to thief.
Minsc: Tank
Imoen: Archer, thief, no need to dual to mage as I figured I will need her to excell in thief as far as possible, especiall since I don't have anything to remove the XP cap.
Uncertain here between Jaheira and Branwen: both are true neutral, but branwen would be the better healer as she is a pure cleric, while Jaheira is fighter/cleric. If I take Yeslick in, then I'll also use Jaheira. If I take Branwen in, I might get some1 else in place of yeslick.
Yeslick: only in if Jaheira joins, cuz he's also not a pure cleric. So having those 2 together could help.
The last think I need is a mage: not Xzar, he's evil. I was thinking Dynaheir still, partly because of Minsc. I can't take in Edwin as he is also evil. Xan was a little weakling, and is very likely to die. And Quale was so annoying that I won't even consider taking him in. I think I'll stick with Dynaheir.

Alright, I understand your reasoning. Remember one thing though: you want the most powerful party possible, as you are going for no reloads. Kagain and Edwin are two of the best in their fields, and they will significantly boost the power of your party. But that's still quite a strong party you have. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Yes, but I've had Xzar get into a fight with my players before when I was running a good party, and Jaheira ended up killing him as I could no longer control those 2. Don't want that happening again ;) .

*cough* Ease of Use Happy Party Component *cough*

SPOILER about good and evil in the same party
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Get Minsc and rescue Dynaheir. When both Minsc and Dynaheir is in your party, go and take Edwin into your party (Dynaheir and Edwin will agree on being in the same party as they could watch each other then). Dispose Dynaheir (let her leave while she is alone in a building - or let her die). If your PC has a high CHA (my paladin had 19 (21 with the cloak)) Edwin didn't leave eventhough I had 20 in reputation.

I guess it would also be OK to have Kagain in your good aligned party with a rep of 20. Just as long you have high charisma on your PC.

[img]graemlins/greenbounce.gif[/img]
Insane

BTW: You need a LOT of HP on all your characters. Edwin has CON 16 (=> best HP bonus for a mage) and Kagain has the highest CON of the NPC's IIRC.

You will also need some way to 'remove' (or better: avoid) charm, fear, paralyze etc. on your characters. I normally use 'the cloak' or dire charm spells. If one of my 'weak' (melee wise) characters ends up charmed, I sometimes let one of my fighters (with high AC) drop his weapons and try to punch the charmed character into his senses [img]smile.gif[/img]

For a No-Reloads game, I would suggest forgetting about Mages for the first half of the game, and concentrating on a Fighter / Thief oriented party. You won't have to spend that much gold on Healing Potions because your band of Warriors will just steamroll their way through the early game with no problems at all (well, except for Tarnesh). Later on, once your average party EXP is around 40,000 EXP, go and recruit your mage-type person: If this is their first time joining your party, their EXP will automatically be bumped up to your level, meaning that you can get a Level 6 Wizard without having to go through all the trouble of dragging his/her lazy, pebble-slinging butt all over the Sword Coast.

Well, since everyone has yet to mention it, here's my advice. Don't die.

Well, don't die, nice advice ;) . I've had Imoen die at least 10 times so far, and she is a waste of money since I keep paying temples to raise her. I just finished going through all of cloakwood mines with her dead from the fight just before entering the mines.

Um, I think I kinda screwed up my party according to the advice you all gave. I took my party back to edwin and uh, I 'accidentally' had Dynaheir kill Edwin at the bridge for a little bit of revenge. So I can't get Edwin into my party now. Unless....do you think it would be too much to clua edwin in? I didn't want to cheat on this load. In other loads, I admit I have CLUAed in healing potions, but I was planning on taking this party all the way with out cheating.

This is how I had my part up till the cloakwood mines:

PC: fighter
Minsc: tank
Imoen: thief
Dynaheir: Spell caster
Jaheira: cleric
Khalid: an extra fighter.

at yeslick in the mines, I had my PC attack Khalid till he was dead, and then removed him from my party. I had Yeslick join, so he is the newest addition to my party.

And btw, if you would not consider it too much cheating to clua edwin in, what's his clua code? I don't have Gate keeper (or whatever it's called) to find out.

Edit: oh, nevermind. I suppose that I will go with out edwin. I figured, I killed him, so he stays dead...unlike Drizzt if you've played BG2 :D . Besides, Dynaheir is actually could be quite powerful if i raise her HP.

[ 08-26-2003, 03:10 AM: Message edited by: Lord ]

eh question............. Why the hell did u kill Edwin for revenge if u wanted him in ur party?

I didn't want him in my party then, I did this BEFORE reading the boards, so I just had Dynaheir go kick his butt

non-reload or not, mage is simply not that useful in BG1, regardless of how high a level a mage is at. Most of the tougher monsters in the game have extremely low saving throws, and thus most of the time, the spells wouldn't work anyway. handle the less tough monstrers, a good mage might serve well for the party, yet, you don't really need mage to defeat less tough monsters anyway.

based on ability, Edwin is defintely a better choice than Dynaheir since her spellbook is so POOR! yet, as the game goes, Dynaheir is good enough.

actually, Lord, I just finished BG + TOTSC yesterday (now into SoA) with the identical party as yours, the only difference is that my PC is a multi-class Fighter/Mage. I didn't play it as non-reload game, but I think your current party is capable of doing that as long as you're familiar with the game.

There are two excellent reasons to take a high level mage: Wands of Animal/Monster Summoning, and Cloudkill. [img]smile.gif[/img]

well, Dynaheir can manage both.
Monster Summoning is GREAT and saved my life quite a few times, but in my latest run, I only have Dynaheir cast cloudkill...mmm...once (or two the most).

also...if using wands, I thought the level of a mage doesn't matter? you mean a higher level mage can summon higher level monsters using the same wand?

<font color="orange">No, it doesn't affect the power. Trust me, in a no-reloads game, Cloudkill is simply stupendous. Try it on a solo fighter/mage, for example, and see what I mean. Of course, using cheese and summons to keep the folks in place is important, but whatever. [img]tongue.gif[/img] My actual point was not saying Dynaheir sucked, just that high level mages are quite valuable (first paragraph of your last post) ;) </font>

[ 08-26-2003, 07:17 PM: Message edited by: True_Moose ]

well what I said is simply based on my own BG experience = never soloing, I always play with a party...yet, even playing a party game, the mage can always get to the highest level allowed anyway (suppose we don't do the cap removing and high levels modification thing).

btw, are you saying that summoning monsters holding enemies back is cheesy? then what about cloudkill killing them from a distance?

But that's what cloudkill was meant for!

And I have to agree 100% with that wand of monster summoning. In the past I've always used it to surround Drizzt to keep him busy, and when they're done for, my group would move in to finish them off. This time, I surrounded him and used poison arrows on him at the same time, and I didn't have to initiate any melee combat at all to kill him!

And speaking of fighters/mages, I think my next goal is solo fighter/mage, but I know that the level I can get that too is just much too low. If I install the XP Cap remover, is there a limit to what lvl you can get to (like the XP cap remover in ToB set the higher level u can get to as 50 I think)? Or does it allow me to make as many lvls as I want?

well...then, what are wands of monster summoning for? just pure cheese? is there any appropriate condition or non-cheesy way of using summon monsters?
actually as I get familiar with the game I use summon less and less, yet, there are some fights I still need help from summons.

for the XP cap thing, don't worry, now there are not only XP cap remover, but also tweaks that do high level modification...IIRC, with those tweaks, you can make your figher/mage at levels 50/50@"@

OK...

I went back to my last save and fought the final battle again, without using the wand of monster summoning and I managed to win it.

well, maybe we can say that wands of summoning are the "bless" and "cheese" that save our lives before we figure out how to win tough fights without them^_*