Im currently in chap2. I have 15000 gc and i dont know whats better to do:
1) buy the belt that gives str 19
so would Jaheira's THACO gets better and do more damage
2) buy aeger's armour
so would my assassin' AC gets better
3) buy giant air crossbow
for Keldorn
4) pay Gaelan to go to chap3

SPOILERS AHEAD!
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As someone told to me, everything open to you in chapter 2 will still be open in chapter three, but you'll have a new mission objective, so to speak, in chapter three.

How many of the quests outside the city have you done? Take on the de'Arnise Keep if you haven't yet, but you might want to wait on the others until you get more into chapter 3. (That is, unless you've already done them.)

IMO, your money is best spent purchasing Gaelan's services. You'll be raking in the cash with chapter three, as well as some fine new gear. (Why give Keldorn a crossbow? He's perfect tank material, and there's a weapon that's just perfect for him waiting somewhere outside Athkatla for an adventuring party to go and get. ;) )

I don't like to rush into Chapter 3. Actually, we have only one game that is beyond Chapter 2 right now. ;) In one game, our party of 6 is in the neighborhood of 2.2 million XP, IIRC, and have done everything possible, including Kangaxx and Watcher's Keep, so I suppose we'll have to pay the man sometime soon.

The downside of waiting that long to go onto Chapter 3 is that after you are cuffy enough to lay down the smack on dragons and improved liches and the like, the encounters in Chapter 3 are cakewalk. Oh, and if you have done all the city quests, when you need to do time specific events, your only option is to rest.

Anyway, I would get the equipment you like, though I would suggest you shop around a bit. There may be some better stuff out there for your characters...

I've done the minimum: i only finished the circus tent and the part of trade meet about druid grove but didnt finished daos' quest. Got lot of the easy XP in town too.
Before i always were reluctant to buy weapons and other things but now that i know the game better, i realize that some weapons are really good and later in the game you have plenty of cash and dont kno what to do with it. So why not using a little to get better weapons at the beginning.

About Keldorn and crossbow:
I like giving ranged weapons to all of my party members (except one or two that are dual wielding) so i can fire with ranged weapons when the bad guys come to me and then turn to melee (it allows you to disrupt ennemy spell casting too). And one shot with Hair giant crossbow with magical ammo can make a lot of damage. After the shot turn to melee and tank (Firing with a crossbow dont take that much time).

[ 03-08-2003, 11:45 AM: Message edited by: lasher ]

minor spoiler
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If you want good assain armor, do the Umar Hills quest. that way you can get some good armor, and save the money.

for a good item that raises strength, visit the council of 5 building in the government district, ask for Tolgerias.

Spend the money to go to ch. 3, you'll get some nice items there and along the way.

As for the other items you want, try pickpocketing and stealing. (remember, quick save first).

Lasher first of all hello as I don't believe I've met you before [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img] (You are relatively new to the forums yes?)

Anyway a little hint for Keldorn, he has very low dexterity which effects his chance to hit with missile weapons so he will miss alot with his crossbow so to counteract this it's a good idea to get the gauntlets of dexterity for him(they raise dexterity to 18) this will improve his ranged abilites and dramatically raise his AC. The location of the gauntlets is
SPOILER!
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Go to the temple district and complete the Unseeing eye quest to it's fullest you'll find the gauntlets during this quest.

Yes im relatively new to the forum (one or two months).
It was already my plan to give Keldorn the gauntlet of dexterity (i dont want to remember where it is for the 2nd surprise so thanks for the spoiler tag)

Now that we speak about my game, I plan to have in my party:
Me: blade dual wielding longsword+... (i'll decide later)
my assassin: shortbow + shortsword
Keldorn
Jaheira: Club or scimetar

As 6th i hesitate betweeen Mazzy and Valygar. What would you do?

Minor spoilers.. i guess
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Valygar is a good fighter with his personalized katana and the Celestial Fury. Put the CF in his main hand, and his personalized in his shield hand. when he attacks, he has a chance to stun the enemy with CF, while his personalized adds poison and makes them bleed. therefor, during battle, the enemys is stunned (just stands there), is bleeding out with poion (takes damage like every sec, distrupts spell casting) while he is still wacking on them. he works pretty good.

Mazzy is the closest to a paladin then her true class. shes got some family weapons and armor too, which is allways good. IIRC she has lay on hands, a paladin healing ability. since you allready have keldorn you prob dont want another paly, so i wouldnt get her.

I would suggest another cleric or druid, such as Cernd. i would suggest Viciona, but her and Keldorn get in fights. If you can stand him, you could try Anomen. he cant stand his own in battle and can be a pure healer if you want him to (which is usaly what i make him do).

Both Valygar and Mazzy are strong NPC's so choosing one is a hard task. As Xero mentioned Valygar is excellent at duel weilding Celestial fury and his own famaily Katana. Not being able to wear better armour than studded leather is a drawback but with this setup Valygar will deal so much damage so fast that he will kill enemies before they can do much damage to him. And remember Celestial Fury can stun enemies so they can't do much damage then, and of course there is a leather armour out there that is as strong as full plate mail.

Valygar in conclusion: If you want to take Valygar you could use Keldorn with gauntlets of dexterity or Jaheria(17 dex and a shield makes for a good AC) as your tank to soak up the enemies attacks and then send Valygar in to dice then up. Very effective.

Mazzy has weapon points in short bow and short sword so there is two options to use her as a ranged attacker or as a melee fighter. As a ranged attacker you have a number of short bows available, the tuigan bow for it's high attacks per round or tansherons bow or gesen bow which don't require arrows. I would go with one of the first two as the gesen bow is terribly slow. Another option for Mazzy is to give her a short sword and shield and send her in to the melee. Mazzy has 18 dex so give her a shield, good short sword(of which there is many) and a strength belt and she can be a fantastic melee fighter with a very low AC.

Mazzy in conclusion: Very low AC means Mazzy is a hard to kill ranged or melee fighter of a very high standard. Certainly one of the if not THE best NPC.

CONCLUSION:I have tried to detail the two NPC's uses to a party and there strengths the best I can to help you decide. In the end I'd go with Mazzy as you did mention you like to use ranged weapons and Mazzy is the ranged weapons queen. Keldorn and Jaheria will be suffiencent in the melee department but if you find you need more melee power you can always slap a shield on Mazzy and send her in.

[ 03-08-2003, 03:41 PM: Message edited by: Zarr ]

o ya, one more thing. you mentioned earlier Jahiera uses Scimitars? You can find a pretty good one once you finish the Trademeet Genies quest.

Hint: help them do it, dont attack

[ 03-08-2003, 06:24 PM: Message edited by: Xero279 ]