I'm currently on track to rescue Imoen. And I'm also trying to figure out the best characters to finally keep. Is Imoen worth keeping as a thief-mage or should I keep Yoshimo as a thief and Aerie as a mage(and yes, before it starts, I know all about the Anti-Aerie campaigns).

I've already decided on:

Me (obviously)- Half elf Ranger
Minsc
Jahiera
Nalia

Yoshimo and Cernd are temporarily in my party to round out the six.


Right now, I'm leaning toward keeping Imoen and eventually picking up Anomen.
I also want to try to keep 'evil' characters out of the party for now.(though I would eventually like to try an all "Evil" party)

Does anyone have comments or suggestions that might help

Well it's probably a good idea to get Anomen or Aerie instead of Cernd, since you've already got Jaheira who's a druid. As for Yoshimo (spoiler)
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I won't spoil it for you but you won't be able to keep Yoshimo for the long run. Plan on replacing him with Imoen. She's a good enough thief anyway, and will become a good mage as well, which will be helpful since you've only got Nalia.

id grab aerie and yoshi for now, replace him with imoen later.

aerie cos shes an excellent all-round magic user, yoshi cos hes on of the few good theives available.

dump cernd. he just sucks.

if only imoen could level up as a thief she would be as awesome as before. it hurts that she lost three levels between BG1 and SoA.

in ToB you might want to switch to more fighters,less mages but i didnt.

also always have at least two chars capable of raising dead in some fasion. there are three spells that do this - raise dead and resurrection are standard. resurrection is the superior one as it also heals the dead char. harpers (read : jaheria) get harpers call which is vastly inferior, since it cost 10 hp to cast and is otherwise identical to raise dead, but a handy spell to keep incase you proper resurecter dies.

also there is the rod of resurrection, but i kinda burned it out. its a prime candidate for the shop recharge trick.

following these suggestions would kinda fix you with:

you - ranger
minsc - ranger with extra kick-ass qualities
jaheria - kick ass fighter, back up spellcaster
nalia - the only good,pure mage in the game (lvl 4 theif dont count)
aerie - all round spellcaster and useful person
imoen - theif and back up spells.

hey, thats my party. so it must be the best available. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Thanks for the info.
That formation is pretty much what I had in mind except I'm wondering do I need an extra tank instead of magic. ie. get rid of Aerie for Anomen?

you shoudnt need another tank - there are plenty of spells than can temporarily tank a mage so you can rescue/evac them - stoneskin etc.

thats tank as in seemingly invincible, not death dealer.

tenser transformtion does the latter form of tanking tho.

just remember to keep them off the front line as much as possible - there are plenty of high powered weapons you tanks will discard that they can use just in case tho. i tend to use staffs with all my magic users - thats 3 of my party. aerie uses crom faeyr instead.

with this party you have two tanks and another less durable fighter - use them effectively and do not let jah be overwhelmed when you or minsc should be in the thick of it. i think you have just about the right amount of mage support for SoA, maybe a bit much for TuB, although the theiving is a little on the light side - if there was a multi mage/thief instead of a dual mage/theif it would work better - but i like to keep imoen around. i used her through BG1 you see, and want to keep my original party together. it just dosent seem right otherwise- "well minsc, weve fought and died (repeatedly) together for about a year now - now go away and never come back!" i dont think.

<font color="white">
I simply must tell you that Imoens evil alignment conversations are the best spoken lines on the game. I fell out of my chair laughing so many times! I wish her good aligned conversations would have been half as good!</font>

Rite now i have yoshimo hes not that great though. once i get imoenback imm ging to drop yoshimo becasue i hink hes a weak player

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Guk73:
Thanks for the info.
That formation is pretty much what I had in mind except I'm wondering do I need an extra tank instead of magic. ie. get rid of Aerie for Anomen?<hr></blockquote>

Your party's well rounded without switching Aerie for Anomen. You don't need a tank as much as you need to get your summoning spells. ;)

There are a lot of good summoning spells that can make up for your lack of a tank. (And you don't have to care about them as much. :D )

[ 11-21-2001: Message edited by: Mitro Jellywadder ]</p>