Party composition

[dalkiel]

My current party:
Me (Ranger)
Monk (created)
Aerie
Jaheira
Korgan
jan

Aerie makes a good cleric/mage for now and jan combines mage/thief skills.
I'd like to add Viconia and Edwin to fill out the Cleric + mage combo but is it worth it? Aerie seems to be holding her own so far and I wont need 2 people to replace her. I was toying with the idea of dismissing Korgan once my monk is powerful enough and maybe even jaheira (if my romance renewal/cheat doesnt work).

Should i stick it out with Aerie?

Thoughts from the veterans?

[kmonster]

If you are happy with your party, there's no need to change it. With Aerie, Jan and Jaheira you have more than enough arcane and priest magic.
With the ranger, monk and Jaheira (use the strength spell) melee power isn't bad either, so you can even dismiss Korgan and play a party of 5.
I don't recommend evil party members. If your reputation gets higher than 18 they run away forever (unless you have already finished the main game and started the expansion).

[T2Bruno]

I'm assuming you are still in SoA (why else would you have Korgan instead of Sarevok?).

In SoA you could have problems with Aerie and Korgan. I would recommend you drop Korgan (since you're playing a good party). The only problem I have with either Aerie or Jan is they do not get level nine spells (or HLA spells) until very late in ToB. With the monk, ranger, and Jaheira you have plenty of tanking ability (make sure you side with the King in the underwater city). Jaheira and Aerie will give you ample clerical support. The only issue is the lack of high level arcane spells -- which can be solved by Imoen. The combination of Imoen, Aerie, and Jan is quite potent in the arcane department.

In ToB, there is no issue with Korgan and Aerie. However, the high level arcane spell issue is still there.

[dalkiel]

I'm posting here although I'm on SOA. The reason is the mod moved my recent posts here since I have TOB installed (but not played yet)

I was aware of a possible Aerie/Korgan conflict but so far (apart from a few snide comments) they're playing nice. I kept Jaheira because of the Romance bonus- although i may have managed to mess that up royally. Even using CLUAconsole I can't seem to rekindle it. I'll probably have to post another topic on that subject if the cheats dont work out. Does shadowkeeper help change the romance values?

I'm at a rep of 18 so I'll need to do something dastardly to drop the rep down a point.

I had Yoshimo as the primary thief/trap disabler until i switched to Jan. His skills were much higher and mage skills are always welcome. I was considering Viconia because of the false sunlight spell. The most annoying foes I've encountered are vampires with their level drain ability.

I'm still at the early stages of SOA- havent started chapter 3 yet. The highest level reached by my party is 12-13. What level would I end up if i completed all quests/annhilated all foes by the tail end of the game? 18? 20?

Thanks for your input

[Master Leo]

you should seriously consider adding a dedicated magician to your team, because both jan and aerie are mutlclassed and thus have slow spell progression, and their spells are generally weaker (at least those based on class level)

you should think about adding either nalia or imoen into the team (edwin would be perfect but he is evil)

viconia, again she's a great character but she's evil which makes her less useful in a good party (and some great clearic spells are alignment based, like smite evil and holy word)

personally i'd much rather go with anomen - sure, he's very annoying but he fits well into your party i think

[kmonster]

With a party of 6 you'll reach more than 3,000,000 XP per character in SoA if you try to do most quests, with ToB over 6,000,000, so near the end of the game Jan and Aerie will both be able to cast spells of the highest mage level.
But even level 6 spells should be enough to keep the game from getting too hard.

Cleric spells of the highest level can be cast by Aerie much sooner, no need to add an additional Cleric.

Vampires are nasty, but beatable with the right tactics. If AC is good enough they shouldn't hit too often, and lesser restoration easily cures drained levels.

I'd rather dismiss Korgan than lowering reputation, high reputation is very beneficial for shop prices and tricking around with reputation decreases feels just silly.

[Stu]

If you drop Korgan and Aerie and grab Nalia and Anomen, you should be pretty set, you'd end up with:

Pc (Ranger) - Tank (long swords*)
Monk - Tank (fists)
Jaheira - Tank/druid spells (scimitars)
Anomen - Tank/cleric spell (flails/maces)
Nalia - High level mage spells (short bows)
jan - thieving/supporting mage (crossbow)

*could be anything really, though long swords tend to have the best abilities.

That should leave you with a very powerful good aligned party with all bases covered. 4 of the members can tank, and the other 2 can specialise in ranged weapons.

Of course go with the members that you want, and this is just a suggestion from someone who doesn't really think Aerie is too great.

[dalkiel]

Eventually Imoen will return so Korgan will probably be the first to go. I'm using the gauntlets of ogre strength for jaheira but her armour isnt that high- so far. Korgan and I do most of the offensive assaults followed by the monk.

In BG1 I used a "good" party so I wanted to mix it up a little.Money isnt an issue thus far so I'm not too worried about the discounts. By the end of BG1 I had over 106,000 of unspent gold - thats after buying all the best weapons/missiles/potions etc.

[T2Bruno]

Having money after Irenicus captured [charname] is just wrong.