With a monk PC, who would be good additions for the rest of the party? Jaheira is coming, of course, but I'm not certain how tanked the other party members will be. Jaheria seems to always hold her own, especially with Ironskins, but Valygar gets walloped in every fight and Anomen's no better (he likes to run away).

Originally, I was thinking of Keldorn, Jaheira, Valygar, Jan and Tsujatha. The healing end looks iffy, so I thought maybe dropping Keldorn for Anomen. I could drop Valygar for Minsc.

:help: ! I'm stuck in a party creation loop!

Monk PC
Jaheira
Jan
Aerie
Valygar
Keldorn

3 frontliners (Monk, Valygar, Keldorn)
2 mages (Jan and Aerie)
2 clerics (Jaheira and Aerie)
1 Theif (Jan)

Good or evil?

Good: Keldorn, Mazzy, Aerie, Yoshimo/Imoen/Nalia plus one depending on how you like to play. Minsc has good interaction with all these characters. Valygar has a lot of interaction with Mazzy (which I find annoying). Jaheira is always a good companion. I also find Anomen fits well (especially with Keldorn and a female monk).

Evil would be the usual tanking party (Edwin, Viconia, Korgan, Jan).

@UCLA jaheira would also be a frontliner

From your origional choice there. My Suggestion would be to Drop Valygar for Viconia or Cernd.

Cernd has a period where he doesn't level fast but he can work like quite the tank once you get his Greater Werewolf Form. His healing works without taking him out of werewolf form before Resting from what my party has told me from playing with him.

He can't wear armor but any rings of protection, rings that Add AC... And other items you can put on that will help you AC wise. I think you can find enough to split between your monk and him to keep them both well armored. And any of the items add on top of Cernd's natural AC of like -10 in GW form. I've got him down to like -18 right now with three mage types in my party besides him. They all have -3 ac or lower. The staff that you get from Rillofane towards the End of SoA works extremely well on him as well. Protecting him out of his GW form as well as boosting his AC in it. I use him to clear out Vampires after getting the Amulet of Power and putting it on him. His GW form comes with 50% Resistance to Fire,Cold,Lightning,And Acid as well as Magical Fire and Magical Cold. I honestly haven't had him out of his GW form since the Sauhaugin city. An Interesting little note is that Having him turned into the Drow Illusion and back while in his GW form is that I can remove and equip his weapons and get any special powers on them to affect him in his GW form. With his 25 Con he does regenerate noticably as well.

Keldorn and Jaheira will both be able to Wear heavy Armor. Keldorn with his powers and Carsomyr is powerful. Jaheira works well to help him out. You'll find Cernd up there on the lines with these two as well as your Monk after some coddling to start with until its natural AC gets a bit better.

Jan is a good thief. And if you get him like right off the bat you have a lot of control over how he develops for you but I've just gotten into ToB and leveled him like once and I've got all of my thief skills at like 70 or higher. I don't even have any real need for most of the thieving items at this point. His Magical abilities just add to it.

As long as you've got a Mage with a high enough Int to cast 9th level spells you should have a very strong party that will be prepared to take on most encounters a couple of different ways.

Originally, I was thinking of Keldorn, Jaheira, Valygar, Jan and Tsujatha. The healing end looks iffy, so I thought maybe dropping Keldorn for Anomen. I could drop Valygar for Minsc. I say cut out the middle-man and just drop Valygar for Anomen.

Then again, if you're getting tired of Anomen you can always switch Minsc in for Keldorn (tanking) and replace Valygar with Viconia. With Tsujatha you already have evil in your party, so one more won't hurt. :happy:

@Starwalker,

You give sound advice, but mages don't need to have 18 int to cast lvl9 spells in BG2, true, it is pure AD&D rule, but it is not implemented in the game. So, Naly Nalia, Immy, Jan and Aerie can all learn and cast 9th lvl spells even their int is not 18. Otherwise, Edwin(a) would be the only NPC capable of casting 9th lvl spells and HLAs and it would be unfair.

Jaheira is great for absorbing punishment that comes to the party, ironskins, and elemental resistances make her pretty invulnerable. Ditto for Cernd in his GWerewolf form but he can not use uber fighter HLAs like GWW and it makes his melee power lacking. Your call.

Do you have oversight mod? It adds new and cool HLAs for monks, they no longer need to use fighter HLAs. IMHO monks using fighter HLAs is lame, they should have new, spiffy HLAs that suit their immense ki power and their control on their body and mind.

They don't? I'll keep that in mind. I knew that Nalia and Imoen could but I'm going for my first total run through with Aerie and Jan. Just never seemed to finish with them before.

Patricularly if it does mean more than just extra spell levels is going to open up at some point for the HLA's for the two of them. not being able to get most of their Mage HLA's when I level left me wondering if I had to get higher level they would become available or if I gave them an extra intelligence dot somehow they'd become like Nalia and Imoen.

This gives me something a bit more to look forward to as I continue on since I'm just starting the ToB portion.

@Silverstar - No Oversite. I don't like the looks of the 'new and improved' HLAs for monks.

Viconia I can never find a use for in any party. I have enough people who stand back and throw things at the enemy, need that strength item or fortification girdle. Before anyone goes off on a rant about how powerful Viccy is despite her 10 Str and 9 Con, it's all about her 1 attack/round for me.

Cernd is almost in the same boat, too. Since I usually take Jaheria or a druid myself, I've not used him.

@T2 - A mostly good party, since the Tsujatha romance depends on the PC being good aligned.

I do get sick of playing the stock 'good' party - Keldorn, Jaheira, Imoen, Minsc, Cleric of your choice, PC to fill the gap. The mix looking good right now: Anomen, Jaheira, Minsc, Jan, Tsujatha and PC.

Well one thing I forgot to mention about Cernd's GW form is the fact that it gets 3 attacks around and pushes all of his mediocre stats that matter for combat above 19. Honestly with Aerie in my current party as well. Or in the case of yours it would be Jaheira. By the time I sleep I've blown half my spells and don't often need his healing for in combat casting. He's the third member in my party and the first major healer and he can litterally heal anything and everything in my party each time I sleep.

I took him origionally because this is like my second or third game trying to incorporate more that I don't really play with and wanted to see how he would do. He's been surprisingly good with Kill ratio's matching my full on tanks.

@Starwalker

Aerie and Jan are MC, and they can not get True Dweomers (10th level spells like Imp. Alacrity, Comet, DBreath, Summon Planetar etc.) until they can cast 9th lvl spells. Why, having that HLA but not being able to use it would be lame. They need a total amount of 6 million XP to become lvl18 mage and be able to cast 9th lvl spells. And yes, than they can learn those HLAs and cast any 9th lvl spell despite their low int.They can get bonus spell slot HLAs anytime though.

Kuemper, what is Tsujatha, what is race/gender/class/ and where can I download it? :p

BTW your part looks great, I personally really favor Jaheira, she is both useful, versatile, cool, has a challenging and very rewarding romance, and has many RPG points. What can I expect more from an NPC?

For anyone interested in Tsujatha Melalor (http://www.gilalion.com/tsujatha), he (along with Fade and Saerileth) can be found at Chosen of Mystra (http://www.chosenofmystra.net/). Tsujatha's stats, biography and a lot of info can be found at his d/l I linked.

I guess there's no time like the present to start gaming. I can at least get into something before checking back here. ;)