What a terrific forum. Always a bunch of helpful people around. Very informative. I love it. I've got a question for you. I'm playing BG2 for the first time (having played through BG/TOTSC twice) with a party of six: my cavalier, Minsc, Jaheira, Aerie, Yoshimo, and Nalia. While I love this game, I get a little tired of micromanaging six characters, their spells, backpacks, etc. I'm thinking I would have more fun if I scaled my party down to four. Would I be crazy going with just four my first time through (I"m currently in Chapter 2)? If not, any suggestions on the four. I'm thinking my Cavalier (I really do love this character), Minsc, Aerie, and Nalia(until I find my friend). Any advice would be appreciated.

NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!

(Welcome to Ironworks, BTW. [img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img] )

I suggest you keep that party. Sounds like a perfect way to explore the game for the first time. The spells, items, and numbers will take care of themselves. ;)

[img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img] Welcome to the forums! [img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img]

I agree with Pirengle. As it's your first time, enjoy the character interaction and flexibility of a party...you can solo, if you want, for your second game.

[ 08-21-2003, 10:16 PM: Message edited by: Pyrenk ]

I think that you have a great party to play through first time with, mine was pretty much the same, but with Anomen instead of Yoshimo, and an Undead Hunter in place of a Cavalier. A good 4-person party (if you really want to do this), would be you, Aerie, Minsc, and either Anomen or Jaheira, for a beginner like yourself. But that's just my suggestion. :D :D :D

Setup scripts for the Fighter types - Your Cavalier, Minsc, and Yoshi to a point.

For the Mage/Cleric types, I suggest you get used to mircomanaging and using the different types of mage spells in conjunction with the clerical boosts..You're almost guaranteed to win a fight if you use the corret spells at the correct times.

But, as before, Just script the fighter types and micromanage the spellcasters.

hello from me too

i know what you mean about the micromanagement - i'm playing the usual suspects party of six now and it takes ages when you finally decide to bite the bullet and sort gear, review spell choices etc. etc.

i know i'm not doing too well with it too - with anomen, jahiera, imoen and nalia i've got a lot of spells that i'm not using well - when i rest i've nearly always got loads of spells left for example which is ok but doesn't feel very slick [img]smile.gif[/img]

enough rambling - i guess, review your spell choices, try to travel light and stick with it for the interactions

Welcome! [img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img]

Go with your party. You as a Cavalier can wield the best weapon in SoA. Minsc just rules with Flails,Aerie cam be one hell of a Spellcaster-she`s considerd as the best NPC-she can also be a <u>great</u> Tank,while Yoshimo and Nalia do the scouting. Nalia can be a Backup Mage. Of course this is just my opinion. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Enjoy!

[ 08-22-2003, 04:37 AM: Message edited by: Xen ]

Keep going. In a little while you will get an item that will greatly help your managing of backpacks.

After soloing a few times you’ll find yourself missing the party interactions. With practice the mico-managing gets second nature.

I also recommend (if you haven’t done so already) installing the ease of use mod. Makes things so much easier to handle.

Get rid of excess materials often. Find a spot to store all the garbage you collect, keys, un-sellable books, parts of uber-weapons waiting to be assembled, spare arrows, bolts, bullets, scrolls and the like. I tend to use a crate in the Copper Coronet for this, your always going back there for some reason.

I agree with all the above wit some thoughts of my own:
Get Minsc to dual wield preferably flail of ages in right hand and the improved mace of disruption in left. You can pretty much turn him loose and clean up later.

Yoshimo works best with the bow from the Copper Coronet’s beast master, three shots per round really can mow down hoards of weaker bad guys. Try adding the bracers of archery to add a bit more punch to him.

Basic spells for Nalia and Aeire don’t change. Designate one (probably Aeirie) as a defensive spell caster and the other as the offensive spell caster.

Give that first belt of XXX strength to Aerie combined with stoneskin and armor of faith turns her into a tank.

*grumbles to himself about all the unrequested item spoilers*

Exactly. In fact, there are many containers in that building, so you can sort your stuff out by type (all wands in this barrel, all scrolls in this crate, etc.). Other buildings or even outside crates can be used for this purpose. Just make sure you use containers that you will not forget where they are (and are centrally located; somewhere in the city is the best place), and only carry the bare essentials you need.

Exactly. Just go to the character screen, and set up a script for each of the fighter types. You can always override what a certain character is doing. Just set up Yoshimo as an archer, then give him the order to go backstab when you want him to. A tool that is helpful for spellcasters that I often overlook are the spell quickslots. Those save a LOT of time during combats, if you set them up with the spells you use most often. This allows one-click (or two-click for targeted spells) spellcasting for your most often used spells. You definitely have to micromanage the spellcasters; make sure you disable their script entirely and control their casting.

Make sure you make good use of the autopause options. There are some good ones that are not available in BG1.

I do highly recommend you keep all 6 characters. Once of the big things about the game that is much more developed than in BG1 is the interaction between the party members; by cutting out party members, you are missing out on the interactions. You have a very solid party, so just keep it the way it is.