Who should I get rid of?

[Sir Heinrich Godfrie IV]

Hey guys, don't forget about Quayle.
He is probably my favorite NPC in the game because of his wide range of spell-casting abilities. He's a Cleric/Illusionist who can also swing a good mace/hammer without any casting penalties. His stats unfortunetly are nothing great, and the biggest downfall is that you can't reach him until you enter the Gate (Ch.5 ?). But if you hurry along through the main story line without doing any (or many) side quests, you should be able to get him before he reaches level 5, maybe even 4. This is important so that you can dictate both his weapon proficiencies and health points. Plus, if you want you and your party to progress quicker, via larger experience point distribution, then using Quayle as your main healer in place of a Druid or pure Cleric, will allow you to have a party of 5. However, if this is your first time playing BG1, then you will probably want to take it slow and get a feel for the game and all of it's complexities. In that case, it might not be the best idea to include Quayle. Though it's your choice.

In regards to the other mages, going with Edwin, Xzar, and or Xian is not all that horrible of a plan. Currently I have myself (fighter 18/00), Imoen, Edwin, Xzar, Xian, and of course... Quayle. My PC is an absolute fortress who takes care of all the dirty work (Hobbies, Gibbers, Kobolds, etc.), and when we get into a serious brawl, my four mages are EXTREMELY overpowering. As far as babysitting goes, you sort of get used to the bickering sounds of Ed, Xr, and Xn. Especially when you are making short work of anything and everything that dares cross your path. And yes I know, if you want to have some stability with this type of group, you have to keep your reputation at or below 15.
Anyhue... enough of my ranting and raving, go ahead and pick whoever you damn well please. And have fun!

[Sir Heinrich Godfrie IV]

Posted By: n00body Exactly WHERE in the carnival is Branwen? Looked on The Gate site and it said east of the marchant tents but I don't see anyone named her east of all those tents...

She is there, just look around the center area and you should eventually hear a runty little man shouting, "over here good sir, over here". However, don't purchase from him the (hint) 'Stone to Flesh' Scroll that he will try to sell you. Go over to the Temple/Church and purchase the item there, it's cheaper. Then go back to the Carnival and get Branwen. Sorry if I spoiled you.

Khalid is a very good fighter, although I usually use him as an archer along with Kivan.

And look, don't worry so much about getting the perfect party the first time that you play this game. Because I can almost guarentee that you will be playing this game over and over and over and over and over again, like most of us do.

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by n00body: Erg....someone put all these random suggestions into one neat package for me will ya? Exactly WHERE in the carnival is Branwen? Looked on The Gate site and it said east of the marchant tents but I don't see anyone named her east of all those tents... Should I keep Khalid? One website said he was a chicken, and I do remember him getting to about 1/2 HP and wanting to run suddenly (arg!). How about edwin? I think I turned him down and he came to attack me in Nashkel (used that mirror image thing and then panic and horror and...JEEZ this guy is annoying!). Should I get him?

Ok, n00body, let' see what we can do for you.

BE WARNED ------ SPOILER INFO
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
Branwen is - indeed - outside of the Merchant's tent in the carnival. She is a statue, thanks to a Flesh to Stone spell...but there is a helpful gent there who offers to sell you a Stone to Flesh scroll to reverse the effects. That is how you get Branwen in the party.

Minsc is in the town of Nashkell itself. He will approach you and basically demand that you help him rescue his "witch". If you accept, you will only have about 10 days before Minsc will go beserk and attack the party for not rescuing Dynaheir.

You will find her at the Gnoll Stronghold in the bottom left hand side of the world map. VERY TOUGH fight....more gnolls than you can shake a sword at. It seems to be best to scout around the Stronghold at night to reduce the number of encounters. I was pretty strong by the time I got there (level 4-5) and I STILL got my butt handed to me 3 times before rescuing her. I've heard others have cleared the dungeon entirely (or as much as possible). My hats off to them, I bolted out of there as soon as I found her. She is located on the lower end of the stronghold. You have to go up 2 or 3 flights of stairs and she should be in the second large hole you come to towards the front of the stronghold.

Garrick is in the large town before Nashkell (the name escapes me). He is working for a local lady performer that wants to hire you for a job. After the encounter is over, you should have the option to let him join you.

Xian is at the very end of the Nashkell Mines. You can't help but to find him.

Edwin is on the bridge in Nashkell.

Ajantis is located on the road in the area just to the north of the Friendly Arms.

Kivan is another ranger and is located in the area to the west of the town above Nashkell. His hit points aren't great, but his stats are.

That should give you plenty of options for now.

Oh....one more "helpful hint". While you're in the area of the Nashkell Mines, you need to do a little hunting. The area is covered in winter wolves. If you rest just outside the mine, you will usually be interrupted by two wolves attacking. Fortunately, the Amnish soldiers will help you fight them. If you want actually get 8 hours of rest, just step inside the mine and rest there. You will have to clear the mine out first before you do this.

WHY do you want to hunt these wolves??? Because there is a merchant in Nashkell that will pay 500 gold pieces for every pelt you bring to him. That's another good reason to get Minsc...with his strength, he can carry a LOT of pelts.

Hope this helps you some. You should definitely check out the link provided by Albromor. It will tell you about every area and NPC in the game, along with several other useful pieces of information.....including where to find some SECRET items in the game!!!

[Medicina the druid]

I have only played BG one time
and finished with the following party:

ME Druid
Dynaheir Invoker
Quayle Illusionist/Cleric
Imoen Thief
Kallid Fighter
Jahera Fighter/druid

in regards to :
"Jahiera is dual classed so she progresses slowly but is quite powerful eventually. Plus she's married to Khallid so i'm not sure if you can split them."

How to split up pairs and take the one you want and later to be able to get the other:
spoiler
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

1- take yer group into an inn
2-make the one of the pair you want to temporarily be rid of walk to the furthest part of the inn
3-position all of your wanted characters as close as possible to the exit door
with yer main character the absolute closest one unimpeded by dumb npc's that dont move out of the way
4-click REFORM PARTY and remove the temporarily unwanted one
5- RUN OUT THE DOOR! the just ousted npc will be there whenever you finally return
6-DO NOT NEGLECT STEP #1!!!! if you do this outdoors the ousted NPC may be lost forever

have fun :]

[n00body]

Oh no, those weren't spoilers...very helpful knowledge! Only place I had found the Winter wolf was in one of those ambush fights (and WHY do they always take place RIGHT before you get to nashkel?! Some of them are hard too!). So right outside the mine...hrm sounds good.

Well maybe i'll restore from a previous save and NOT get minsc (and be forced into the knoll quest) quite yet. Besides, my main character (A half elven ranger with 18/01 strength and high constitution) is pretty beefy as it is. And there are like 20+ NPC's in the game aren't there? [img]smile.gif[/img]

Oh btw, who is that guy that you meet near the nashkel store (northern part of town) who casts a mirror image spell and then panic/horror on you (and damn is he hard!)? I'm avoiding that area until I level up some to beat him. Heck, I even used Xan's Person Charm on him but you can't damage him until you hit him again and them he starts all over again! Arrgh!

[Cerek the Barbaric]

I think that guy is an assassin sent by Sarevok to kill you. I've just entered Nashkell with my group this morning before work. Right now, my party consists of -

Jacah Flamehair - elven Ranger (my character)
Kivan
Jaheira
Monteran
Imoen
Garrick (bard)

I'm afraid poor Khalid and Xzar met with untimely accidents while facing the wolves around the Temple below Beregost.

I plan to pick up Branwen (cleric) and Minsc this time around. It would be nice to have Dynaheir for the Mines, but I don't know if I'll be able to do that or not.

The Gnoll Stronghold was TOUGH! and my characters are just 2nd level (except for Imoen (3rd). Still, we'll see what happens.

Minsc is nice because of his incredible strength. You can LOAD HIM DOWN with pelts and keep on going.

[Grimslade]

Ok, I just want to ask a hypothetical question. I've completed BG, which I loved, and I primarily used a mixed party (consisting of me as a cleric, Minsc (tank melee) Kivan (tank melee + ranged) Imoen (thief + ranged fighter) Coran (thief + ranged fighter + melee fighter) and Dynaheir (mage).

In the game, I tried to reveal every portion of the map, do every quest...basically just explore and do everything! But...

I somehow missed Ajantis.

Did I miss out on something good?

[Firestormalpha]

He is supposed to be a really good paladin (the only one in the game in fact, unless you have one for your PC.). I don't know how you could miss him honestly. He is just north west of you're entry onto the farmers map with all of the Ankheg.

[Grimslade]

I'm sure I explored everywhere! I remember that map, where you you were given the quest to find the farmer's son, I think.

Is it possible that something I did resulted in the game removing Ajantis? I remember that, instead of visiting the Friendly Arm Inn early on, I went to Nashkell and that bottom area first, found Minsc, Dynaheir etc, and then finally went up to the Inn. Because I did this, the game removed Khalid and Jaheira, to maintain the storyline.

Could something similar have happened here, with Ajantis? I visited that area quite late in the game.