I'm in the middle of a no reloads game, so I'm not pulling any punches here. I need some meatshields to help keep my little Gnome Cleric/Illusionist alive!

Here's who is in the party so far:

Gnick O'Thyme Cleric/Illusionist
Jaheria (tank/druid)
Yoshimo -> Imoen (thief/wiz)
Keldorn (tank, wiz killer)
Korgan (tank, I love this guy. It's worth watching your Rep to keep him).

Now, I want to add one more meatshield here. I was thinking of the following:

Minsc (I'd rather not add him, but he qualifies if anybody gets chunked... no reloads!)
Mazzy (decent option as she becomes good in melee later on)
Anomen (He can fight pretty darn good, and I'd have a lot of spellcasting which would help)
Valygar (another decent option, he makes a good scout too, opening up a lot of options for my party)

I suppose another option for me could be to recruit Valygar and Mazzy, dropping Korgan. I wouldn't have to worry about Reputation in a game like that.

Please give me some suggestions or ideas. TIA!

You already have Jaheira, and she is technically the best tank in the game. Not sure you really need much more. Give her Ironskins, Armor of Faith, Defensive Harmony, Shield of Harmony, and the best plate mail you have available and a healthy supply of healing potions and then stand back.

I don’t use Korgan much…so I can’t speak to his tanking abilities but they should be good.

Keldorn is not so much a tank but with Jaheira and Korgan he really doesn’t need to be.

But if you want another tank… Your best bet would be Anomen. Though with both Keldorn and Anomen in your party you would have issues about who gets the gauntlets of Dexterity…and to be a really great tank Anomen would need them. (can you ever really have to much spell casting?) add a proficiency in flails so he can use FoA and he really starts to shine.

Otherwise your options are really limited

Valygar is a killing machine...but no tank. He is limited to leather armors making him lag a bit behind in AC compared to others. When I use Valygar he always end s the game with the highest kill totals. But he is always first to hit the healing potions

Cernd…um…no

Mazzy, the best sniper in the game….but not really a tank until much later on. Worse her proficiencies in short sword limit her weapons options for a bit…and given her proficiencies in bow you don’t want to tie her down with a shield.

Haer’Dalis…um…again…no

Minsc, in my experience Minsc dies very easily

Viconia, no matter what your reputation she and Keldorn will end up coming to blows. That and her pathetic strength means you will have to decide how to farm out your limited strength enhancing items. Jaheira and Keldorn already need those and the girdle of frost giant strength isn’t available until the underdark


You option of dropping Korrgan and picking up Valygar and Mazzy is a good one…

[ 10-08-2006, 12:38 AM: Message edited by: IronDragon ]

You have a pretty good party there, Keldorn and Korgan are very good fighters, especially with the right equipment, and Jaheria and Yosh are also good fighters, until you lose Yosh, and Jaheria can be an excellent tank. With your character bein a cleric mage you really dont need anyone else, so I wouldnt take a sixth, that way you can level up faster. Hehe YEEEEEEAAAA!!!!!

I'm not so sure you need more fighters either. Until you get to Spellhold your party is definitely short of arcane magic, and unless you go to Spellhold pretty early Imoen will lag for a long time. I'd be thinking of Edwin or Kelsey if you can put up with mods.

But as far as fighters go I think Mazzy is your best choice. If you get her at level 8 she has only one point in short swords and by level 12 (which is likely before Spellhold) she can have 2 stars in any weapon you like (flails, katanas, etc.). Until then she can contribute very effectively as a sniper. All she lacks as a tank is Korgan's rage ability.

I'm playing no reloads, so I'm taking as few chances as possible.

For a decent party, I'm semi-set on:

Gnick O'Thyme
Yoshimo (maybe Jan for a while) > Imoen
Jaheira
Keldorn
Korgan
Valygar (I think Mazzy would be a better fighter, but Valygar can end fights before they really start with backstabs, and a scout could be really helpful in a no reloads game. Since it's been a while since I last played BG2, I plan on having Valygar cast Find Traps and then hiding in shadows and scouting ahead in areas I fear to be trapped).

I can speak from experience that the combo of Imoen + Valygar is a quite effective one: Valygar creeps along in Stealth, while Imoen stays a few paces behind him, checking for Traps. If he spots a bad guys, she's still out of sight, and if she spots a trap, they both halt until it's dealt with. Imoen + Jan provides similar versatility (and, given a good STR item, just as much Backstabbing fun), but since your PC is already half a Mage, you don't need another arcane spellcaster. On the same note, Gnick makes Aerie, Anomen and Viconia almost completely superfluous.

It seems to me that with Korgan as the main Tank, you'd have Jaheira, Keldorn and Valygar as backup Tanks, and Gnick and Imoen in the back. Seems very solid to me. I should also note that in the talk about Valygar I've seen recently, nobody has yet mentioned how extremely spiffy his armor is. Who cares if it's leather, it's better than most of the Plates out there. He makes a darn good meat-shield, trust me.