The last couple of days, I've been trying to come up with the perfect six-player party. I must've tried at least 4-5 party setups, but after a few hours, I've always felt that something was wrong. Now I'm playing with the current party and I believe I'm getting very close to my ultimate personal setup.

Female Ranger/Cleric
Minsc
Mazzy
Keldorn
Solaufein
Imoen

This leaves me with a very well balanced party in my opinion. Five strong melee fighters, two mages, a very good ranged support fighter, all the clerical and druidic spells I'll ever need, some limited (though completely sufficient) thief abilities, Dispel Magic and True Sights in abundance, all of good alignment, all pretty interesting characters with lots of dialogue, and a romance. Finally, I will also get to experience all those extra Solaufein Mod challenges.

But... I just realized I feel uncomfortable about playing a female character and being hit on by a male :( I really want a romance though, so I was thinking of switching Solaufein for Aerie and changing my Ranger/Cleric to a Fighter/Druid. This'll give me the added satisfaction of managing with only the original NPC's [img]smile.gif[/img] My party wont be as strong, but it'll still maintain the same balance I sought. I thought about Viconia, but having a single-classed cleric take up a whole spot seems a bit of a waste - One of my main goals was to only have characters who either have one very strong primary use (such as melee fighting or arcane spellcasting), or combines several strong, and not so strong, abilities. I also don't want to have several people who share the same special (minor) uses. If I'm going to have Aerie (who is acceptable since she combines both the minor role of a cleric, and the more useful role of a mage), I would want her clerical abilities to really count, which they wouldn't if my PC was already a far better cleric than she is. For the very same reason, I never considered Jan since his uses are already covered by Imoen.

Having a F/D and Aerie messes up a whole bunch of my plans though, I wont get to experience the Solaufein mod, I'll be a lot weaker going through the Improved Ilyich encounter, I wont be able to use any of the weapons I had planned for him to use, I'll have very odd level-up gaps and quickly fall far behind the rest of my party, and I wont find a fitting voice :D

Think I'm picky? I probably am, but it just seems so hard to find a party that feels 100% right.

[ 02-04-2003, 01:54 PM: Message edited by: Rataxes ]

That's OK. Since the game is easily won with any party, having fun with the party you're playing is of extreme importance. [img]smile.gif[/img]

As for the "Perfect Party" issue... I'm playing my very own Trump-Through-Everything party myself now - one that fits ideally to my playing style. In order to balance things out, i'm handicapping myself - no Celestial Fury, no Project Image, no Shield of [ Balduran / Reflection ], no Staff of the Magi, no Clones-to-Clone-Equipment, and, most importanatly, no Out of Character Knowledge. This proved to be really exciting. [img]smile.gif[/img] Fortunately for me, the party is also strong on the dialogue aspect.

IMO, best party:
PC (ranger, dual-wielding katanas)
Solaufein (flail of ages+ his special longsword+timestop=dragons?where?)Mages? where?)
Imoen (good mage)
Kelsey(Sorcerer, cheese walking :D )
Tashia ('Nother sorcer, can you spell c-h-e-e-s-e?)
Minsc (Tank. 'Nuff said.)

<font color="deepskyblue">I'm still on my original trip through BGII using my very first character imported from BGI. My current party is:

<font color="lime">
Cerek Tolgar - Wizard Slayer/Thief (24/26)
Minsc
Keldorn
Jaheira - (Romance option...but it never worked out [img]graemlins/verysad.gif[/img] )
Imoen</font>

As mentioned earlier, Jan was serving as little more than a pack mule with a low survival rate, so I sent him home.

After downloading the Wiemer Mods, I have created two new characters. The first is an assassin. I had already created him and started the game when I downloaded the tactics mod. I had gone too far to face the Improved Illyich, so I had to start all over. I also created a kensai (to dual-class to a mage). To add a little spice, I made the kensai female - so I know what you mean about playing a female character. Here are the parties I plan to create for these two.

<font color="orange">Evil Party
Kelric Val'Caern - Assassin (may dual over to mage later on).
Viconia
Korgan
Edwin
Valen
Anomen (maybe - undecided)

Why Anomen in an evil party?? Because my assassin is the kind of guy that would really enjoy "corrupting" him and causing him to fail his Radiant Heart test. [img]graemlins/firedevil.gif[/img] Then he would make a good back-up tank and cleric.</font>

<font color=deeppink>Kensai party
Kasana Sage - Female kensai (will definitely dual over to mage)
Minsc
Keldorn (maybe)
Anomen (possible romance)
Kelsey (more likely to romance than Anomen)
Jaheira</font>

And finally - I'm working a second PC through BGI that I plan to import to BGII. He is a half-elven ranger and I plan to create the "Nobody Loves Me" party for him.

<font color=silver>Nobody Loves Me party
Jacah Firehair - Half-elven ranger
Aerie
Mazzy
Haer'Daelis
Cernd
Valygar</font>

The main thing I try to do is create a "theme" for each party...then choose which characters fit that particular theme.</font>

The party I had the most fun with?

My Ultra Evil Halfling Stormlord of Talos and Viccy. Think Micky and Mallory Knox on PCP and Crank. We left a swath of bloody battered souls all up and down the Sword Coast.

If you kill a man, you're a murder.

Kill many, you're a conquerer.

Kill them all, YOU'RE A GOD!

my favorite parties
my kensai party
straight kensai
Minsc
aerie(romance)
imoen
jahiera
mazzy

all female
thief(romancing all three w/ a little help from acouple of small mods)
jahiera
aerie
viccy
mazzy
imoen

couple of other good ones but i have class.

Meh, I do all of those things naturally, except for Out of Character Knowledge [img]tongue.gif[/img] Stuff like the Shield of Balduran and the Cloak of Mirroring is the pinnacle of the cheese mountain. Using CTRL-Y vs Beholders would really be more exciting than standing idle by and watch as they commit suicide with the shield, certainly requires more effort from the player as well [img]smile.gif[/img] Now for Out of Character Knowledge, that one is really a tricky one to stay away from, since there's mostly very little difference between what your party could know, if you made them go out of their way to explore everything very thoroughly, and what you know. In the end, it all boils down to "Can I really, for this sxiteenth time through the game, be bothered to go in with my invisible thief and take a sneak peek at the enemy party, just so my party can discover what I have known since the first time I played through this game months ago?". For me, the answer is no [img]smile.gif[/img]

<font color=white>Here is a party which fits to my playing style; Im in chapter 3.

Me (wizard slayer, Lilarcor)
Aerie (Party leader, gauntlets of ogre power/clerics staff+3/3xstoneskin..)
Minsc (Flail of Ages, Namarra, x-shield+4)
Valygar (Tuigan bow)
Nalia (Never use her poor thief abilities)
Yoshimo (Im in big trouble when I lose him..)

I had Cernd, Jaheira and Jan in my party for a while, but they didnt cut it. Im not too much into analyzing which party is the most powerful, to me the key is to have a good time. However, seems like Rataxes is very close there.</font>

[ 02-04-2003, 04:31 PM: Message edited by: NiceWorg ]

SpoilerS!!!

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just my 2 cents... Anomen will work with a Evil party when he fails to get is Knighthood (Revenge Quest), if you have Keldorn in your party... it will end up in a fight with Keldorn Vs Anomen that Anomen will win because keldorn will not move a muscle :S.... so I think Anomen will work in a evil party... only thing is that you Rep. most not become lower then 3 or so... because even then he will leave.... it is real nice to see Anomen works himself trough a dip ... just something everybody would want to see and say something to Anomen like ''it is you own dumb fauld you nancie a** paladin'' this will end up in an other fight... GOODBYE Anomen

[ 02-04-2003, 04:51 PM: Message edited by: Annatar ]

Ah, I see somebody else likes Minsc with flails.

To me, Minsc dual wielding flails is how it should be. He is crazy after all, and, having a flail in each hand really shows it. With the FoA and the Sleeper or Wyvern Tail. You would have to be crazy to do this, two flails, well, you WOULD bonk your self sooner or later. Minsc might get a new headwound soon.