I'd like any opinions or advice on how my party is set up. Criticism, constructive or otherwise, is just as welcome as helpful hints :D LOL!

The party goes like this. Three rows of two people. D'rin Zar (my character) a fallen cavalier with shield and sword, and Minsc with a hammer and sword at the front. Bashy bashy, hit the other guys with big sticks. Next is Mazzy, with a short sword and shield, who runs into battle also. I'd have it as two rows of three except that's too broad a formation for a narrow path/ dungeon etc. Beside Mazzy is Yoshimo, who does the thiefy theify stuff, and shoots a short bow (I know, I know...

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....... I'm undecided what to do about Yoshimo before he causes me trouble).....

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The last row of the party consists of Viconia, with a sling (I think), who does all the healer-ish stuff, and gets any wands I find/ buy, and Aerie, who is my mage, and has a sling.

Viconia causes ALL sorts of problems, cos she's so evil... :( I do have two problems with this formation though. 1) When I charge forward into battle, and get surprized by attacks from the rear, the last row of my party gets battered before I can do anything much about it. I was thinking that Jaheira would be better than Viconia, as she is mroe suited to melee fighting (and she's not so evil). 2) My character orignally had his points put into 'two weapon style', and I wanted to fight with two swords, or a sword hammer combo. I got a shield that is too good to lose, so I'm fighting with a sword and shield, despite not having points in that style. Against Bodhi, my main cahracter (who is very fast), ran in by himself and got level drained four times before he so much as took his sword out of his scabbard.

first you have to decide what you want to do with yoshi, If you don't want to keep him for his ending get rid of him now. He's just taking up xp. If you want another thief who levels your stuck w/ jan(who's actually a mage/thief) or you can take a level 4 or pick up a level 7 thief. or you can just not have a thief and make liberal use of knock and detect traps. or you can keep yoshi for awhile.

unless you pick up keldorn, viconia will yell at the other party members but not do anything drastic. just don't let your rep get above 18, cause she'll leave. Jaheira is a better fighter cause she's multiclassed. if you keep viconia give her something that increases str. She's much less effective w/out one. a certain warhammer comes to mind but that will take a little while to find.

my suggestion if you want to dual-wield, give viconia the shield and the str. increasing item, give her a good armor, a good shield and a nice weapon and watch her melee effectiveness increas(she's still not great cause of a low con. but much better) also make liberal use of protection spells. armor of faith, stoneskin, armor, spirit armor, ghost armor ect. I like to put stong melee people in front. My two weakest in the middle and the last to imbetween. the way i would do your party. me and minsc in front. then viconia and aerie, then mazzy and yoshi.

I would drop yoshi he is just waisting expierence.
Get jan the thief/mage comes in handy on more then one occation.

As for your character wait to lvl to put a piont in sword and shield style, if you can't then i would follow what angelouss said.

And for the formation keep your biggest fighter in the front and Wizards/clerics/sorcs in the back with another weaker fighter. and put the archer in the middle. But thats just what i do, i usually only play with a single mage and i like to have them protected at all times.

[ 01-23-2003, 01:36 PM: Message edited by: Zerephel ]

95% of the time two tanks are enough. I would put Mazzy in the back row with a bow. And when three tanks are needed, it doesn't take much, even in a narrow hallway for Mazzy to switch to sword and move forward into melee. With Mazzy in the back row, this provides rear protection.

Personally, I would drop either Mazzy or Minsc, for a cleric/druid. They can wear armor and provide protection and spellcasting from the back row.

If Viconias "evil" causes problems with youre role-playing experience, drop her for Anomen. Before anyone says anything about him being bad and annoying, hes not that bad, especially after he joins Radiant Heart, and yes, he is annoying, but some say Jan is annoying(even though he is the funniest character). If it bothers you, turn down the sound and just press Enter on the possible dialogues, that should do it. Cause he is an all around good character. level 7(8?) fighter, can use weapons pretty good, and an open cleric, can cast good divine spells.

Anomen can be somewhat annoying, yes, but, he has some of the best dialogs in the game with some of the other party members, the best of course being with Jan. I wont mention any spoilers, but, there is a cutting bit of dialog between Jan and Anomen is that absolutely priceless. There is also a certain prostitute somewhere (Wont say where) that you can have Anomen talk to for some really funny stuff. If Jan is there, he makes it worse. Also, you can find Anomen's Nanny, and, if Jan is there, there is an utterly priceless moment that will make your sides ache with laughter.

You gotta love Jan. He is a great buffer for otherwise annoying party members like Anomen. Anomen alone is only so so as an NPC, but, toss Jan in the mix, you get some good stuff, but, the same is true for any of the other NPCs. Jan and Keldorn for example, is a real hoot.

the korgan-aerie-anomen-edwin dialogues are quite funny.

On the whole, these are my rules:

1) Decide the general Alignment of my party
2) Decide who my Thief will be
3) Get one incredible bad-ass Tank, with great AC, Saving Throws, Magic Resistance, and, lastly, THAC0.
4) Get 1 or 2 backup Tanks.
5) Get at least 1 full Wizard and one backup Wizard.
6) Get at least 1 half Cleric.
7) Don't mix Keldorn with Viconia, Korgan with Aerie, Valygar with Viconia, or Keldorn with Anomen.

-- For the Main Tank, obviously the PC is the best choice, but Keldorn, Anomen, Korgan, Minsc and Mazzy all do well in this slot.
-- Good backup Tanks are Keldorn, Valygar, Anomen, Mazzy, Minsc, and Jaheira. Viconia would be here, but her poor CON and lack of Ironskins means one Critical Hit and she's gone.
-- Main Wizard: Nalia, Edwin, Imoen. Backup Wizard: Aerie, Jan, Haer'Dalis.
-- Notice that I said half Cleric, not half Priest. Jaheira's spells are nice, but they're just no substitute for the Cleric spells I need.

My current party is myself (Female Blade), Anomen (romance), Jaheira, Jan, Nalia, and Minsc. I use the "pentagon" formation, with myself (as party leader) in the center, a good place for a Bard. My party Alignment is Good-Neutral, my Thief will be Jan, Anomen is Tank, Minsc and Jaheira are backup Tanks, my primary Mage is Nalia, backed up by Jan and myself, and my Cleric is Anomen, supported by Jaheira.

Thanks for the advice, peeps. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I like the idea of putting Mazzy at the back, cos she is good with a short bow. In the long run (ie after a certain building on an island, and a lot of fighting), I want Imoen as a mage/ thief. That means splattering for Yoshimo. [img]smile.gif[/img] whhooo hooo :D (God, how I hate him).

One question, and yes, it does involve a bit of spoiling, but who is Jan? I wasn't aware that there is such a character in SoA.

jan one crazy gnome you meet in the government district. you have to keep him from getting arrested