Okay, I just finished killing Bodhi and her cronies (chapter 6), and have a question. Before heading after Bodhi, this was my party:

me (female mage)
Minsc
Mazzy
Anomen
Jan
Keldorn

When I entered the graveyard, Bodhi took Anomen because I'm in a romance with him. So, I recruited Viconia to my party since she'd be helpful with the vampires. The thing is, now I have Anomen back and I decided to cut Keldorn loose. I like Viconia because she's actually a decent fighter and has great spells (yes, I know Anomen has them, too). So, my question is, before I go on, should I get rid of Viconia? My party's a good one, so maybe it would be best? If I do that, who should I pick up next? Oh, I'm going to do the Planar Sphere quest next since I hadn't gotten around to it, if that influences your suggestions. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 09-03-2003, 11:09 AM: Message edited by: Shotgun ]

It looks like you are nearing the end. Generally I wouldn't advice dropping characters at this point because if you recruit someone anew he/she will be probably lower in level than your party at this point (even with the lvl adjustments mad by the game). But if you still have some quests to build up XP you can of course ditch Viconia because of her alignment and add somebody else.
You seem to have a very balanced party.

because all the key players are present twice (thief is not THAT important)
If you really want to lose Viconia and add a good NPC I'd consider Keldorn again (his True Sight rocks) or Valygar (nice equipment and don't underestimate Stalker-backstab) who you have to deal with anyway for the Sphere.
BTW what did you do to Imoen? I never leave my sis alone when I'm playing good.

It's your own call really. I say do whatever you want now: you can always start a new game with a different party!

Hm, guess I'll have to think about this. I've used Aerie, Keldorn and Imoen so far as well, so they've all received some extra XP while I've been playing. I ended up dropping Imoen because I preferred Jan and Imoen really didn't do much for my party. I found that since my PC isn't great in the fighting arena that I wanted someone else who could handle their own and use spells when necessary. Although Keldorn doesn't really have any spells per se that he can learn, I do like his fighting style! [img]smile.gif[/img]

What about Jaheira? She's got decent spells. With the right equipment, she can be a good choice.

Oh, yeah. I've used Jaheira, too, but find her whining about her husband annoying. [img]smile.gif[/img] I have Valygar with me now because I've started the Planar Sphere quest. Once that's done, I don't know what I'll do! Would you suggest I take Imoen with me, particularly when I start ToB? I'm pretty much happy with everyone, except that one party member. Here are the NCPs I like the best and which I'd choose from:

Aerie
Viconia
Jaheira
Keldorn

Keep in mind that I have a good party, and my PC is a mage. I plan to keep the others: Jan, Minsc, Anomen, Mazzy. Any suggestions? I have no idea what I'll come up against in chapter 7 or ToB, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

hmmm. well i got to different games going (as a male and as a female)

My female is
Jaheria
Minsc
Yoshimino
Aerie
Anmonen (think i spelled wrong)
only difference in male is I don't have Anmonen, got Nalia
Yeah I know, same character, but I am a good fighting force.
It's funny, in my male character. Aerie and my character has a romance, but she is jealous of Jaheria (Jaheria talks to me about Khalid's death and is more friendly than in my female character's game) It's funny to see them fight. lol

taking Imone is more about story than her usefulness, especially you have Jan in the party and you didn't take Imone to the Bodhi finale, then you don't really need to take Imone in...Jan is much fancier character to play comes ToB.

also, actually, you don't really need another NPC to go through the rest of SoA, those five core memebers can do just fine into ToB. Once you get into ToB, you'll find out that you can pick any NPC you want (plus one new NPC).

that is, if you feel like it, just pick anyone on your backup list, Aerie, Viconia, Jaheira, Keldorn or even keeps Valygar; any of them will just enhance your party, but not really necessary. my pick will be Viconia or Jaheira, for healing, Viconia's additional cleric spells and Jaheira's useful spells... or of course, Aerie can enhance both the mage and cleric departments.

Yeah, I was thinking either Viconia or Aerie. I can't figure out where to see my party's reputation, and am wondering if it's worth it to take Viconia? Other than taking two points off my reputation, are there any other disadvantages to having Viconia? I like Aerie, but find she doesn't last as long in a fight as Viconia. I did like having Aerie and Keldorn together, though. He became a bit of a father figure to her. Interesting.

actually putting Minsc and Aerie together is nice too (but that "nice" thing occurs quite early on, if you had Minsc and Aerie together early you might've already experienced that event). Also, walking into certain place (indoor), Mazzy and Aerie will have some nice interactions as well.

as for Aerie or Viconia, that's really your call, both will serve well I think; however, if Aerie usually didn't last long enough in a fight, you probably didn't explore her spell books well enough and didn't give her decent protection. she can buff herself up with both mage and cleric spells...

[ 09-04-2003, 02:03 PM: Message edited by: teardropmina ]