Hello from your most humble servant.
I just rolled a gnome C/I too good to let go, so I think I'll take her on the SwordCoast Tour(tm) courtesy of BlackIsle Travels Inc.
Being LE C/I I figure I donn't really that many companions at all. I was thinking me, Safana (Imoen manage to continously piss me off) and Shar-Teel.
I remember Shar-Teel being really REALLY good, but she only joined after battling a man. What will happen if I show with only females? Does she join automatically?

EDIT: Silly me forgot Safana needs a man when she joins. Perhaps Kivan will do to pick her up and possibly Shar-Teel as well.

[ 06-04-2004, 06:48 AM: Message edited by: mad=dog ]

You would REALLY think that Shar-Teel, noticing you have no men in the party, would decide that it's her kind of group. But no. Instead you need to refuse her challenge and she wanders off, disgusted and never to be seen again.

i guess you could pick up a male fighter type for as long as it took to enlist her - she could murder him in his bed afterwards

It would be a catastrophy if she left.
Thanks! I wouldn't have guessed it, but I vaguely suspected it might be so.
Guess Kivan will have to do some hiring before we dump his body in the river.
This will be a fun game. I usually play a do-gooder with "the usual crowd".

A little funny detail for the curious: Gnomes and dwarves share avatars in BG1 (at least). Since female dwarves have beards a female gnome will also be shown with a beard, even though gnomish females never have one.

[ 06-04-2004, 08:33 AM: Message edited by: mad=dog ]

You could also recruit Kagain for Shar-Teel purposes, or for the more basic reason that he's a kickass Tank. (Shar-Teel just doesn't have the hitpoints to make a full-time TANK, IMHO).

Another option would be the Girdle of Gender Change.

Girdle of masculinity/femininity. Good for more than just leaving your least favorite NPC in an awkward sitaution. Just have a Remove Curse handy afterwards.

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#00FF00">I wonder what would happen if you recruited Shar-Teel and put the Girdle of masculinity/femininity on her? Hmmmmm.........</font>

[ 06-04-2004, 03:15 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

I dumped the girdle of m/f at the friendly arm so I could go and fetch it.
Kagain also gets hit more often due to his low dex and doesn't hit that often due to his low strength. Since ogre strength and dexterity bracers are mutually exclusive you can remedy one, but not both. Besides Shar-Teel can use the claw without adverse con effects and effectively block out missile fire.
I don't know if Shar has a dialogue line á la Edwina, but I don't think she does. Could be an experiment to conduct.

Kagain has 16 STR, which is enough to supplement his Warrior THAC0. Tanks are more defensive than offensive anyway--most of the party's kills are going to come from the 5 guys in back, not the Tank in front. Besides, you are going to be taking Critical Hits no matter what your AC is, and I'd feel more comfortable with a Tank who can shrug of 9 Criticals in a row than with one who has to turn and run after 4.

Plus, there's that whole "Regenerate back to full health after sleeping or moving to a new map area" thing.

Shar-Teel has super strength going for her, but middling con and low hp means she can't take much punishment.
Kagain may not do as much damage, but with 20 con, it's going to take a long time for him to fall.

spoiler below
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when injured, Shar-Teel gives Jesse Ventura's line from Predator "I ain't got time to bleed"