Fun Party

[Mordamir]

I´ve been soloing since BG1 as a pure mage (I´ve recently put Aerie in my party for romance), and just finished SoA. Now I´m going to play ToB as a lvl 26 mage, but I feel that the game is getting TOO boring. I´ve always thought of NPC as XP stealers, but now I regret that, cuz I absolutely have no interaction...well that´s the price I´ve paid for power...

Well anyway, I´m going to start again as a monk. So now I ask: What NPCs should I put in my party to get the most fun out of it? I don´t care if they´re useless or whatever, just going for the fun. Jan Jansen will be invited that´s for sure...what other NPCs should I invite?

Also, there´s something I´d like to ask about D&D prestige classes, but that would be considered spamming right? And I don´t think posting that in the general forum will help, cuz the RPG guys are here. Do I post it here or is there another forum for Pen n Paper RPG?

By the way, how do I put these weird looking faces on the text?

Thx for your help...

[McHaggis]

Welcome to IronWorks Forum! [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img]

Well, you should take Lillacor! He (It?) is no NPC but he hell-a-lot fun. [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Seriously I think you should take atleast Viccy. She has some nice dialogue and she's a decent cleric. And then perhaps somebody to tank. I don't no if Keldorn has a lot of interactions but I think you should take him. Hm.. But what does he say about Viccy? I don't know that..

And those graphical smileys; there's link "Graphics Libary" at the top of the screen.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Welcome to the Ironworks Forums, Mordamir. You may find help on smilies in the Graphics Library.

Since this game is about D&D, I do not mind threads that deal with the matter. Do not go overboard though. Moderation is key( no pun intended). Just remember to title your thread properly, so that people can tell you wish to discuss PnP.

For a 'fun' party, get Jan Jansen, Minsc, Anomen, Keldorn and Nalia( to be replaced with Imoen, or you can bite the bullet and not take Nalia at all).

[weimer]

The only NPCs in the original who come close to Jan's level of humor are Yoshimo and Imoen. Conveniently, you can take both. The NPC with the most interaction and banter (as measured by character count in associated DLG files) is Jaheira.

Without tooting our own horns too much, Solaufein and Kelsey (Mod NPCs) both have Jaheira-levels (or more) of conversation, banter and interjections. In addition, they both combo well (= funny, in the opinion of many) with Jan and Imoen (in particular, Kelsey's romance with Imoen is cute and funny). Since you're playing the game for the Xth time, now is the time to grab some mods (at least the ease of use mod, to make replaying less boring: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~weimer/bgate ).

NPCs to avoid if you want party interaction:

Cernd
Valen

Some NPCs also form little "teams" that have a bunch of banter: Mazzy/Valygar/Korgan is fun, for example. Good luck.

[Mordamir]

Thanks for the welcoming... [img]smile.gif[/img]

Actually, I´m playing the game for the second time, so I´m not sure if I´ll use mods...I´ll think about it...

I was thinking about this party: Me, Jan, Keldorn, Edwin, Minsc and ???

Does any of them make a "NPC conversation team"? Or, even better, is there a site where I can view all these little teams?

Thx alot.

[Dundee Slaytern]

I did consider recommending Edwin, but I remembered that he had conflict problems with Minsc.

Since Jan Jansen is a given, I can tell you straight away that he will have banter with Minsc, Keldorn and Anomen. Imoen was thrown in to balance the party, and because she chats a lot too.

[Olorin]

Don't be afraid to take some of the NPC combinations that cause conflicts.

In general this means having x-good and x-evil NPCs in your party together. The neutral aligned characters tend to get along with everyone (or at least tolerate them)

Most people will tell you to avoid certain NPC pairs, because they hate each other, but that in itself can add to the game. Some of the combos in this catagory are Keldorn/Viconia, Edwin/Minsc, Korgan/Aerie?, Haer Dalis--Aerie--Yourself if you are romancing Aerie

It can also be fun to take all three female romance options at the start. They can get pretty hostile to each other if you are in the beginning romance stages with all of them.

[Mordamir]

OK, I´ve come to a verdict [img]tongue.gif[/img]

The party will be: Me, Jan, Keldorn, Edwin, Minsc and Viconia

I feel that this one party will get into alot of chatting...Jan seems to interact with everyone, Keldorn will get into fights with Viconia [img]graemlins/fight.gif[/img] , same with Edwin and Minsc [img]graemlins/starwars.gif[/img] , and I´ll even get some good romance with Viccy [img]graemlins/lovestory.gif[/img] .

This sure is better than solo... [img]smile.gif[/img]

Hm...I forgot something....what about the reputation? If I get 20 rep, Edwin and Viccy might leave the party...I´ll just have to do some evil stuff now and then... [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

Thx ALOT guys!

[Butterfingers]

Keldorn WILL kill Viccy. Or leave the party, taking all of his stuff with him.

Free warning.

[Olorin]

For reputation, you actually have to watch out for a rep above 18 (or below 3)

Another way to control your rep apart from murdering civilians (which I never thought was in character), is to demand payment for all your quests. If you choose the dialogues that demand to know what the rewards are before you take on a quest, and badger them about payment on completion, you don't always get the repuatation bonus. I'm not sure about which quests always get it, and which ones depend on your dialogues, but AFAIK, the quest exp is the same either way.

I like this way of watching rep gain better, since it makes sense that I'm worried about getting paid for my help so I can have enough to rescue Imoen.

What I think would be really cool is if you could decrease your reputation by donating money to the Temple of Talos, and bring it closer to neutral with gifts to Helm.