I'm planning to form a party which consists of:
Me (inquisitor)
Viconia
Mincs
Jan
Imoen
Valighar

What do you think? Might there be a conflict amongst this group because of VIconia's allignment? What about the balance?? Any reply will be appreciated.
Thanks

Just keep your reputation under 18 and you'll be fine. (Otherwise Viccy leaves the party.)

Welcome to the boards.

Thanks, what do you think about jan though, some people thinks he's really good but others think he's the worst NPC?? I have never used him as I have always used yoshimo till spellhold as my thief then i switched to imoen.

I've read (though not experienced) that Valygar can attack Viconia if she starts heckling him about him 'not liking women' and maybe 'prefer men'. In my game he just said leave me alone afther that.

Jan is brilliant - I especially found his detect illusion skill quite useful. A good thief and a good backup mage. You might be a little light on magic till you get Imoen though.

Yeah, I will probably get nalia for a temporary mage. I know she's not that great a mage (I'm using her in my current game) but i don't really want to get edwin yet (maybe in my next game and there is no other really good mage available.

Minsc + Edwin = Minced Edwin

Jan sucks rocks as a trap layer, otherwise a capable thief... also he's decent comic relief. Imoen, on the other hand, is an exceedingly poor thief, and not much of a mage either, really. (I usually SK her to a pure thief in spellhold, if I use her at all.)

edit: IIRC you can maze Minsc when he starts whaling on Eddie, and he'll calm down once he comes out of his maze..

[This message has been edited by Gonzago (edited April 20, 2002).]

So Gonzago, which mage should I get? Aeire, Imoen or.....?

Actually Imoen is the second best mage (after Edwin) and the best good mage. As a thief she can detect traps adequatly and disarm/unlock most things in the game. In fact if it weren't for the fact that you get her late(-ish) in the game I think she would probably be one of the most powerful NPCs. Also as a dual class thief she can use short bows and wear both elven chain and robes.

that's what i think too. But at my current game I have given most of my scrols to nalia so she is currently my strongest mage now and I'm using imoen as my thief. Yoshimo is much much better than her though. I really missed him! And now i know what's going to happen to yoshi i'm just going to use jan instead.

Try Anomen Delryn instead of Viccy, and try spelling their names right. Also Aerie would balance the party more than Jan. Elven stuff and the gloves o' pickpocketing would enhance Imoen bring her stats up higher, Jan isn't the best to have in a party, I use him purely for entertainment when I'm bored

[This message has been edited by 8people (edited April 20, 2002).]

Ok, now you can do all that, or you can KEEP Yoshimo.

Just Before going to Spell hold, take Yoshimo out of your party and leave him just inside of the Brynnlaw inn(monkey something?), and I mean RIGHT INSIDE, at the doorway or as close as possible! Proceed to Spell Hold, Imoen will suffice as a thief until you return, and afterwards, DON'T TAKE THE PORTAL OUT! Go back to Brynnlaw and enter the inn, ready to pause as soon as you get inside. (I usually pause the game outside, click on the door, click unpause and wait for them to go inside, this way you'll be ready to press pause when you're inside) Pause the instant you get inside, this will take a couple of tries, if it says that Yoshimo dies on the screen, you have to start over. If you successfully pause before he dies, tell your character to talk to him, unpause, get him back in your party, and ressurect him as neccessary. Don't become disheartened if you can't pause it quick enough, it took me a number of tries.

This may not be 'right' or 'fair' to the story, but if you love Yoshimo, then there is no other choice. I hope this helps :)

[This message has been edited by Izaad (edited April 20, 2002).]

Wow, i'll try that, thanks for the tips izaad!!!

Aerie has a nice advantage for casting spells. She is both Cleric and Mage, so you can use her priest-spells and put them in a trigger...and she is the one who killed Kangaxx all by her self.

I like Jan. I love his nonsense. I dont use traps, so I dont mind Jan is rather a dummy at that. I use him for his thieving skills as lockpicker and traphunter....also for clearing out illusions. And he's a nice backup-mage.

Sure thing Raist,
It really helped me because Yoshimo is the man, and I had done so many side quests that Imoen and Jan had no chance of catching up.

Editing Imoen to a thief, using bugs to get Yoshimo to your party after Spellhold, what next? :rolleyes:

Anyway, your party is otherwise fair, but I'd exchange Viconia to Anomen. He's a better fighter and his wisdom goes up later in the game. Besides, when you cast some of the powerful cleric spells which only affect evil targets, you don't need to watch out for your own people.

Jan is a good choice for a thief. He's the onlyone able to disarm traps and open locks without magic (after spellhold). Pickpocket is fairly useless and traps are toys for munchkins (sorry for people who use them well, but everyone I've hear of are "i put traps round the dragon and slept and put more and more and more and more traps and then talked to him and he died, i got lots of gold and experience" *moan*). He's a fair spellcaster too, and his comments are (mostly) hilarious. Have him talk with the new character (no-spoiler aura) in ToB.

I don't think any character is useless, though Aerie is a whiner and has probably the crappiest stats. Even Imoen shut up (thank the gods) after Irenicus's dungeon. There she was almost unbearable.

Look, if I want to edit Imoen to a thief, a fair, decent, non-cheating thief, (or, for that matter, an overpowered 25-in-all-stats half-orc barbarian with Horrid Wilting as an innate and wielding the killsword) then leave me be. As I've played this game as many times as I have, and have frankly grown tired of the same frickin' NPC's over and over again, in the same battles, with the same enemies, I like to spice things up a bit. The alternative is uninstalling and going back to free cell and minesweeper, the upside of which would be not having to hear people gripe about how I play my frickin' game.

K?

Incidentally, I've spent the better part of the day hunting for download-able NPC's that actually interact, and to date I've found two. There is an excellent spellcaster with npc interaction and romance (Tashia, female NG elven sorceress) that you can download through a link in the Solufain (sp.) romance pack here on SP. Not to mention Soulufain, of course, but I haven't taken my party as far as the Underdark.

At any rate, Tashia is definitely worth it. (Comes with some pretty spiffy gear as well. And man is she a cutie! :love:

[This message has been edited by Gonzago (edited April 20, 2002).]

[This message has been edited by Gonzago (edited April 20, 2002).]

hhm,, didn'T know that i can download NPCs too. I'll try that next time, I have't managed to check the sk i was afraid I would ruin my current game. ANyway, thanks for the tips!

If you're new to the game (and I don't know if you are or not), it's best not to mess around with SK yet, or any other cheat for that matter. And stay clear of the "walkthroughs, hints, and tips" section of SP. Better to discover these things yourself...the surprises are worth it.

I use these things (and nearly every other game-altering download I can get my hands on) because by now everything seems so...preordained.

Can't wait to get my hands on TDD, once they make it compatible with ToB...

If you ask me, TDD will never be compatible with ToB.

I've already posted number of times that BGmain.exe for SoA and for ToB are two different things. The problem appeared when Bioware changed stuff in ToB's exe that was differently made for SoA. Because of that, nature and behavior of effects is totally different if you install ToB and it leads to more bugs when you play SoA part while ToB is installed.

For example, if you have ToB installed, in Ust Natha although you're invisible, you'll be spotted when you "deal" Dragon Eggs and whole city turns hostile which makes impossible to do the last quest for Phaere/Solaufein. This was result of Bioware's messing the code itself. And this doesn't happen if you don't have ToB installed.

If anyone from TeamBG is looking at this, my suggestion is: don't even try to make TDD compatible with ToB!

To which I reply: Try as hard as you possibly can to make TDD compatible with ToB!!! Please!!! Pretty Please!!!

TDD is going to be ToB compatible.

Back to the original question:
I think you have a pretty balanced party, except for Viconia and Imoen. I would take Aerie instead, both for realism (inquisitor and evil Drow?) and because Aerie makes a good mage. Instead of Imoen I would recommend either Keldorn or Anomen (though I don't like Anomen, he's the snobbiest character in the game, and he ignores Keldorn's advice which is actually rather good).

Actually, TeamBG recently announced that they are nearing completion of their beta test on the ToB patch. Doubtless there will still be bugs around, but as pointed out, there are a fair number of those in ToB and SoA as it is. That's what keeps Baldurdash in business I guess. :)

As for your party, I think its fine. Its probably a bit heavier on fighters than you really need, but you should do fine. Viconia will likely piss off Minsc and Valygar but shouldn't cause any terminal problems (other than her being blasted by Holy Smite/Holy Word type spells).

Jan is an outstanding character, IMHO. His "Detect Illusions" ability is almost as good as true sight and his pick locks/detect traps ability is second to none. He's just not going to be sneaking around spying for you very well without a lot of work (you have Valygar for that, though). The flashers are nice, too. The main problem he has (shared by Aerie and Haer'Dalis) is lack of hp.

If you are looking for a character to fill in for Imoen until Spellhold, Aerie would suit your party well, though she doesn't like Viconia much. Its not a fatal problem, though.

I don't know if you have ever thought about it, but Mazzy Fentan is an excellent fighter as well. She might be a better choice than having both Rangers. She is definitely the deadliest archer you will find and her sword gives her immunity to stun, which is godlike in the latter half of the game. Power Word: Stun/Symbol: Stun? hah! She has a great dex, so just give her one of the strength items (she has a long lasting strength spell for the interim) and she kicks butt in melee, too.

Aloha
Vormaerin

But at that time you'd probably want to switch the sword for something with more clout, immunity to stun or no.

The drow city turning hostile when you steal the eggs in ToB is actually a bug? Good, the problem is not with me after all :p Will the thing be fixed in the SP fixpack I hear so much about?

ToB will be dealt with as soon as I finish the SoA fixpack, don't you worry about that! ;)

Until I slice & dice every single bug from SoA including those not even reported anywhere I can't switch on ToB (yes, such ones exist, people don't think those are bugs...lol).

Wanna see the newest bug I've just spotted? Irony is that it is reported over at Bioware's boards...lol

kannibal25 wrote in "bad guys won't die" thread:
I also found that problem, but this is occured with me at the endgame sequence (the one in hell). My party just defeated him (in slayer form) and his pet demons and he teleported to the south end of the area. After a little healing and buffing spells, we went after him and proceeded to lay some hurting on him. But he seems to be unkillable (with 4 people bashing him) he got to "near death" but if we let up on him he quickly regained ALL of his hp's so we had to beat him again....and so on. This lasted for nearly 30 min before i quit. Any ideas as to why he won't/can't die there of all places (where he's supposed to die?)

Yes, this is a bug. This is not ye olde problem when you attack some creature under invisibility so the creature won't initiate the speech after taking enough damage.
That problem exists in ToB too, occurs pretty rare, but still occurs, it is fixed by the way, and the solution will be included in next version of SoA fixpack. Until then... :-X :p ;)

*thwap self* That's why it took so long to kill him in my first game... I just thought he had an awesome regeneration rate, like those trolls that stay long on 'near death' before finally falling over :p

Sometimes he gains an unlimited regeneration rate. That's the problem. That's the bug.

Thanks Bioware for making our gaming experience so thrilling!!!

[This message has been edited by Extremist (edited April 23, 2002).]

Volar,

Mazzy is a pure fighter, so she can carry four weapons (without dual wielding). Its pretty obvious when you are facing a stun capable critter so you can just switch to the sword of Arvoreen as needed. She can use another sword or the Gesen Bow at other times. Since Stun is one of the worst things that can happen to you (short of outright death), I find it invaluable to have a powerful fighter that has unlimited immunity to it (berserkers only have limited duration immunity).

[This message has been edited by Vormaerin (edited April 24, 2002).]

She can carry five weapons *looks at the shield slot*

yes, that is why is said "four weapons (without dual wielding)". :rolleyes:

Personally, I don't have Mazzy dual wield because she can't equip the Gesen or Tansheron Bow in that case. In ToB I pretty much ditched archery completely, but gave her one of the kickass shields instead.

Aloha
Vormaerin

I always forget to use any of my items' innate abilities, checking them only when I've run out of useful spells (i.e. when facing dragons or high level mages), I really don't want to fiddle around with weapons/other equipment simply so one fight becomes easier. The reason for this is that after a few hard fights and some reloading, I usually notice I've forgotten to switch back to the good weapons...