I have a soft spot for Paladins, too many stories of knights when I was young I guess. What could be more noble than getting a bunch of good people together and taking them off to make the world a better place. I thought about this and came up with the answer.... Gather a group of the meanest, most selfish, trade their own mother for a cigerette sons of b****** and lead them out to save the day. Sort of a dirty half dozen. Being fairly new to SOA I would appreciate some pointers from the more experienced heads out there on possible party combinations and how to keep them together doing good.

The firm hand of redemption
Sleinad Luap

Well, the only *really* rotten SOB in the game is Korgan, though Viconia and Edwin are also evil aligned. Other characters that fit in well include Jaheira, Anomen (if he takes revenge for his sister's death), Jan, and Haer'Dalis. They are all neutral aligned. Mazzy and Imoen are good guys, but seem to work well with the bad guys as long as you don't get a really bad reputation (which is both hard and a bad idea in general).

Keeping them together is not all that difficult. The only thing you need to do is avoid getting your reputation above 18. You should also avoid Keldorn, Aerie, and Minsc in such a group.

Aloha
Vormaerin

If you aare willing and able to put up with a reputation of less than 18 and more *****ing than you ever imagined, you can play the entire game with nearly any combination of NPCs that you want.

OTOH, I am not exavlty sure what the low end is in order to keep good aligned NPCs in an evil group - I believe it is probably around 5 (Though I managed to keep Imoen and Aerie in a group with a rep that was 3. At 2, Aerie left. Anomen left at 5.)

Thanks for the advice any tips on how to keep that rep at 18 and below as I intend for these miscreants to be turned into a force for good and complete all the quests they can. Killing innocents is not an option but anything else will be considered. I have never used Korgan if I keep the rep at 18 and below will he be OK I don't want to arm him to the teeth and then have him slice and dice my party.

The sharp stick of guidance
Sleinad Luap

Well, adding Viconia to the party lowers your rep by 2 on its own. You can also drop it a bit by getting caught stealing from otherwise useless merchants. A few of the quests can be done in a reasonably good way without getting rep, like the trademeet nobles feud. Finally, turning into the slayer is worth plenty of negative Rep as needed. :)

You can also utterly refuse to cooperate with Trax the tax collector. He'll try to have you summarily executed, which drops your rep by a bit. I think resisting that sort of bad government is a good thing! ;)

Aloha
Vormaerin

Edit: As for Korgan, the only person he has a problem with is Aerie and she's the one who leaves. Otherwise, he's fine.

[This message has been edited by Vormaerin (edited October 15, 2001).]

Though others have reported Aerie leaving if Korgan is in the party, I found that keeping both no problem. I just didn't romance Aerie and kept my repbetween 12 and 15 - high enough to keep Aerie, low enough that Korgan wasn't too unhappy. The personal charisma of the party leader is also an issue here - a good reason to always have the party leader (not necessarily you/the PC) wearing the Ring of Human Influence [CHA=18 minimum].

The fights between Aerie-Korgan, Edwin-Minsc, Keldorn-Viconia, and Keldorn-Edwin (I think there's one other, may be forgetting one), happen randomly. You have to receive two or more random dialogues between the two characters in question before there will be a fight. So it's very possible to go a whole game without seeing the fight. On the other hand, it could pop up at a horrible time, like right after you just finished something long and difficult but before you could save. So take those pairs at your own risk. I don't believe charisma has any effect at all on those NPC quarrels, just time and the luck of the draw. I've definitely had them occur for 18-charisma characters and never happen for lower-charisma characters.

Keldorn is already good and would be doing good deeds regardless so he doesn't qualify. It looks like the party for my campaign is going to be Paladin (possibly undead slayer), Viconia, Edwin, Korgan and Yoshimo (I need a thief otherwise I would avoid any neutrals). It should be interesting I am looking forward to the dialogue as we performs acts of selflessness.

Blind optimism forever
Sleinad Luap