help needed for a kick-aft party

[St. Thomas]

Having recently recieved ToB I have felt the need to restart SoA with ToB in mind. So, I am trying to develop an appropriate party. I'm thinking: Me(Inquisitor), Sarevok, Minsc, Viconia, Jan, and Imoen, when all is said and done. I'm wondering, however, if Jan's capable of being an effective enough thief for ToB. I was able to get through the first three levels of Watcher's Keep with Nalia and a potion of master thievery (while still in chapter 2). This party seems able to utilize most of the better weaponry available, and should be able to handle what's thrown at them. But if Jan can't cut it, however, then I could be some kind of thief, but then I'd want Keldorn, and then Vic would be out, but I think Jahiera's ineffective and I'm sick of the Aerie romance... Oh, and I'm a nice guy no matter what, so Edwin's out. Any thoughts, y'all?

[fable]

Ever since BG2 appeared, I have been trying to figure out why it's so important to achieve a non-game goal called the Best Possible Party. No offense; it just seems to me like you're ignoring the developer's claim that they deliberately created a range of party NPCs to suit all players' strategic preferences. I mean, you can succeed quite well with a party that has no druids, or no clerics, or one of each--or a party that has Aerie, or Viconia, or Anomen. You can win easily with a solid tanking frontline, or heavy magical firepower, or a mix. The only real requisite as far as I can determine is that it helps if you have some traditional combination of fighter, thief, priest and mage, more or less, though the fighter can be a ranger or a paladin, etc.

Keeping that in mind, you can't build a "wrong" party. The only place you can go wrong is if your strategy is poor, and you don't play to the advantages of the party you choose.

I've played through SoA five times, and ToB twice. Three times, I used Jan, and found him extremely effective. He's the best thief in the game, and a good second string mage. No, he won't get additional high end spells in ToB, but his thieving abilities continue to climb. Eventually, he'll be able to use all items, which makes him into a super-gnome.

[St. Thomas]

Ah, yes. I had no qualms about odd parties in SoA (my all-paladin ensemble was quite entertaining) but the game seemed easy to me. I had heard, though, that ToB would be exceedingly difficult (yay!). So, with the fear of Bhall set firmly in heart I began my preparations for the unwinnable fight. Am I making too big a deal over this? Is my worry warrented, or should I just solo an Avenger with bottomed-out stats?

[Erydian]

TOB was more difficult than BG2, but not to the point where you'd need a super party to prevail. There were fights that I actually took the game off of Insane out of frustration - and I'm a pretty stubborn person.

Quite simply put - if you're not planning on being a thief, Jan does make the best thief (all of your other choices are dual-class characters and can't ever improve their thievery skills). However, since you have Imoen, you might be better off choosing someone else to fill that last slot. If you're looking for a mage (and don't want Edwin), I'd take Nalia (strategically speaking) as she will level faster than multi-classed Jan and thereby get higher level spells faster. You could also take Haer'Dalis, for a mixture of magic and melee (as well as Bard Song - which in TOB is actually decent). It is possible to play, and beat the game with one of the dual-classed thieves, so its really a matter of personal preference.

My personal advice would be to take the characters you like and enjoy the game. You can always adjust your party later on if you don't like how it's working out, and the game isn't so difficult that you need a certain party to win.

[Phantom of might and magic]

You see Thomas, there were millions of posts like you have mate. The truth is that there is no perfect party, you gotta experiment and find out who's best for you. BTW if you are a nice guy why do you want to have sarevok? He's chaotic evil And Viconia is not a goodie herself.

Good luck

[ 01-05-2002: Message edited by: Phantom of might and magic ]

[Phantom of might and magic]

I dont want this to be counted as spaming but how in this forum do i make avatar appear when i post? I just see signature and picture.

[ 01-05-2002: Message edited by: Phantom of might and magic ]

[SixOfSpades]

I personally think the folks at Bioware were quietly B.S.ing if they said they "created a range of party NPCs to suit all players' strategic preferences." If they really wanted us to be happy with the choices, they'd have kept folks like Kivan, Montaron, Xan, Yeslick, etc. A decent mix of the folks from BG1, not neccesarily *better* than the options in BG2, just *more* options. Just about the only NPC I really like is Yoshimo, and I hear you WILL NOT be able to keep him the whole game, so the only Thief, the ONLY Thief who can gain levels is Jan, and that's just plain stupid. (Not that I dislike Jan. He seems pretty cool--although I am planning to have my Elven Mage/Thief get Use Any Item, then kill Jan for his equipment; see my sig. )

I like the fact that some folks will fight with others, and how you have to choose NPC's based on equipment (Should the Gauntlets of Dexterity go to Edwin or Anomen?), and how some folks have weird abilities that don't fit with their class (Minsc's Berserking, for example), as it just makes the game that much more interesting. I do NOT like the fact that they gave us only 17 people to choose from.

A possible antidote to the Thief problem, if you don't mind cheating: The last time I played Imoen through BG1, she had more than 100% in Traps and Stealth, plus I'd Dualed her to become a Conjurer. I don't see much wrong with a little Gatekeeper action to re-create this.