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For those who have played through the entire series (and thus know everything about the plot/background etc):

Who was the Child of Bhaal? (Your main character).

My take:

Human, Half-Elf or Elf (Gnome, Dwarf etc. just doesn't work- we all know that the 'romance' with Jaheira/Aerie/Viconia/Anomen doesn't work if you're one of them)
Lawful Neutral (he/she was raised by a Harper- i.e. balance, but leaning towards good)
Fighter. The reason I thought this was because of the 'ideal' party you were established to have at the beginning of Baldur's Gate 2: You, Imoen, Jaheira, Khalid, Minsc and Dynaheir- clearly, a combatant of some sort is required. Not to mention being some piss-weak spellcaster or thief or something just doesn't blend well with the fights against Sarevok and the numerous Bhaalspawn in ToB, though a mage is an acceptable foil to Jon Irenicus (though not Bodhi)- I just don't like the idea of letting my party kill my 'own' foes so to speak. In the boss fights, when all the other enemies are dispatched, I usually order my party to back off and duel the bad guy mano-e-mano.

Paladin: doesn't work: Gorion would never have raised such a goody-two shoes.
Ranger: possible, but that's Minsc
Mage: Dynaheir
Cleric: not a strong enough fighter
Druid: Jaheira (even though she's a Fighter/Druid)
Bard: oh PLEASE, who the hell wants to be some singing pansy?

Hence why I thought fighter. Baldur's Gate 2 seemed to reinforce this for me, because the 'good' party doesn't have a pure fighter at all: the only good fighter in SoA is Korgan, and in ToB Sarevok is added: they're both evil. As we all know, it's very hard to have evil members in a good aligned party.

Anyone have a better view?

I was also wondering if anyone had ideas as to a good Evil party- I've never played Evil on the game and I'm considering it- keeping with my Fighter template I was thinking

Me
Korgan (fighter)
Viconia (cleric- evil romance)
Edwin (mage)
Yoshimo/Imoen (Imoen will stick with you no matter how evil you are)

Problem is there's a combatant missing: I can't think of a single credible front line fighter type to take that won't cause party conflicts (e.g. Keldorn hates Viconia, Minsc hates Edwin, Valygar hates Edwin IIRC).

Of course, I have to construct an evil party for the original too, but that's not as hard (more options, less character interaction)

Just a suggestion...Why not take a fighter/mage?

The Elven chain you get given (basically..you have to kill a whole load for it) ensures that you can actually mirror a 'bladedancer'...as well as it being fucking good armour.

There's more than enough longswords too...for example celestial fury and the equalizer in two, the lady's wrath..(the +2 longsword +1 cold damage) in one...and a whole shit load of cool swords in tob

I don't like the 2nd edition leveling system though...but eh...what you gonna do?

I always tended to go spellcaster heavy...
Here's what I usually had..

Me (Elven...It makes sense that your 'divine soul' is stolen then...Either fighter/mage..(So sickeningly powerful in soa) or paladin)
Minsc (It's minsc and boo!)
Keldorn (built in true sight is just too fucking handy)
Aerie (despite being a whiny bitch...she rocks as a spellcaster)
Jaheria (I would have preferred Cernd for the werewolf abilities...but I couldn't stand him)
Nadia/Imoen (Nadia for the first half to provide thieving abilities...then told to get lost for the second half when you rescue Imoen...the bhall spawn powers she gets eventually are just too useful..)

Usually I stuck with that party for Tob too....no sense in breaking up a winning combination..

I rather like Mazzy as a fighter. Mazzy and Keldorn are a good combo

Coaan wrote:Just a suggestion...Why not take a fighter/mage?

The Elven chain you get given (basically..you have to kill a whole load for it) ensures that you can actually mirror a 'bladedancer'...as well as it being fucking good armour.

There's more than enough longswords too...for example celestial fury and the equalizer in two, the lady's wrath..(the +2 longsword +1 cold damage) in one...and a whole shit load of cool swords in tob

I don't like the 2nd edition leveling system though...but eh...what you gonna do?

I always tended to go spellcaster heavy...
Here's what I usually had..

Me (Elven...It makes sense that your 'divine soul' is stolen then...Either fighter/mage..(So sickeningly powerful in soa) or paladin)
Minsc (It's minsc and boo!)
Keldorn (built in true sight is just too fucking handy)
Aerie (despite being a whiny bitch...she rocks as a spellcaster)
Jaheria (I would have preferred Cernd for the werewolf abilities...but I couldn't stand him)
Nadia/Imoen (Nadia for the first half to provide thieving abilities...then told to get lost for the second half when you rescue Imoen...the bhall spawn powers she gets eventually are just too useful..)

Usually I stuck with that party for Tob too....no sense in breaking up a winning combination..

Human Monk

All that save agains magic sure comes in handy.

I've played through the game in it's entirety with a Paladin (Cavalier). Party was

Me
Minsc
Imoen
Anomen
Aerie
Jan.

Magic heavy party, with each caster devoted to a certain area of magic. Aerie was summoning, Imoen damage spells, and Jan breaching and illusion.

On the cleric side, all the healing had to be left to Anomen, as most of Aerie's cleric slots tended to be stuffed with summon spells.

There were a few bastard hard encounters with this party, the most notable were the Improved Abazigal and Improved Balthazar. Abazigal was the hardest though, what with having to cope with two dragons, a bunch of drakes and the odd Frost Salamander. All at once.

I'm actually planning a trip through with a Kensai soon, with the BGTrilogy mod (ports the BG1 content into BG2, for upgraded graphics, and the expanded class/kit/race choice right from Candlekeep, and adds a new scene after the TOSC part which dumps you in Jon-boy's care). Just waiting to see if they mend the TOB Sendai encounter before going ahead with it.

Hmmm the Fighter bit does work out...though I agree with Coaan's thought that Fighter/Mage may work better(given it's CandleKeep). Also Mazzy is a good fighter (literally)

For extra Evil...could use Mazzy(she gets a little noisy but not much)

As for my bestest party

Me(Kensai/Mage)
Aerie(annoying but powerful)
Imoen
Keldorn
Mazzy/Sarevok
Minsc

Me: Elf Fighter/Thief (Kensai/Thief if I feel like cheating a bit) or Half-elf or Human Ranger (Stalker in BGII), usualy Chaotic Good allignement.
My brother: Elf or Half-elf Mage or Sorcerer, usualy Chaotic Good allignement.

Never used those NPCs.

I fgure on an either human or elf Mage/sorcerer. After all, you are the child of a fucking god, magic coursing through your viens(and I just love mages)

A human dual class(Monk at Sorccer is handy, Augment yourself with all those nice Bhallspawn abilitys till they get yanked and by then your new calling(Soc) with give you handy skills making you an excellent tank

A Mirror imaged, Blurry, Stoneskilled Monk with a nicely 25 STR, 25 DEX thanks to spells with a familiar sitting in the backpack providing a nice 20-30hp bonus makes you one tough cookie, and when your up aginst anything the 1D10s can't handle you got all those spec points to use something like the fail of ages or some other nice handy weapon instead(Your abit restricted but not that bad)

Pity you can't Dual a monk into anything at all without cheating then, innit?

If you want a sick dual class, try Kensai/Thief or Kensai/Mage.

Kensief gets the thief HLA Use Any Item, which completely destroys ALL the Kensai class restrictions, and gets to use Kai and Backstab at the same time. With a great THAC0 and Grand Mastery from the Kensai levels, Can you say "Ouch"?

Kensage doesn't lose the class restricitions, but you do get to do hideous amounts of damage with things like Horrid Wilting + Kai.

Ah lots of magic- magic always bored me. It seemed too fiddly and frustrating (nothing worse than a wasted spell). Spell trigger, contingency, etc etc- only spells I ever used:

- fireball
- chromatic orb
- chain lightning
- magic missile
- dispel magic
- khelben's warding wip
- summon monsters/devas/gate etc etc
- comet
- dragon breath
- cloudkill
- true sight (Keldorn has it as innate)
- breach
- pierce magic
- every healing spell (druid for Jaheira and cleric for Aerie)

we were definitely combat orientated- my human fighter was a longsword grandmaster with a shield- though by the end of SoA and the rest of ToB he was a grandmaster with both longsword and flails, and used Angurvadal +5 and Flail of Ages +3/+4/+5 in his off-hand (3 points devoted to two weapon fighting). Minsc had a pair of hammers- Crom Fayer and Runehammer (the ranger cloak you get in ToB meant he had -14 THAC0 with each- well, haven't finished ToB yet so it'll go higher)- Keldorn was Casomyr +5/+6, Jaheira was Spectral Brand, and Imoen and Aerie would just hang back chucking above spells and using Gesen's Bow in Imoen's case and some pansy sling in Aerie's case.

Human Male Chaotic Good Kensai/Mage munchkin - had to use a spreadsheet to figure out how many levels I could take without fucking it over - with 18 in the first 4 attribs, 3 in wisdom and about 10 in charisma - had I known about the CHA ring I would have switched them, but I just didn't want a ugly-ass char. Also, dual weapons.

I was able to get 9 lvl spells IIRC. When you have a fighter with stoneskin+mirror image + weapon&spell immunity, the enemy is in trouble

(so was my own party, specially like WIS 3 (later 2) virtually guarantees he WILL be charmed every 5 minutes)

My party was something like this:

-Minsc (greatest character ever in the history of roleplaying) with the vorpal blade, I think it was a two-hander? And the charm-proof helmet.
-Keldorn (too bad he wasn't an undead hunter... I love laughing at vampires' faces)
-Viconia (she's hot and evil. and horny. who doesn't like that?) with some thingy that gave her like 19+ str, she carried the Mace of Disruption + anti-negative thingy combo, and the Flail with acid and fire and cold. Wearin an armor made of human skin...
-Crazy Gnome (forgot his name) with all his hi-tech stuff
-Yoshimo (yes, I cheated too - didn't take him to the island so I had a free slot for Imoen, then joined him back before he had his heart attack so I could resurrect him... AND I saved his soul for extra XP. Yipee! )
-Nalia. Not much to say, guess I grew kinda fond of her.

Also I'm officially THE person who figured out how to uncharm the guy in the castle (here)without killing him. I feel so important.

You can only play from the begining with this char if you use one of the different programmes to move BG1 into the BG2 engine, but being the son of the god of murder, I couldnt help but lean towards the chaotic end of the alignment scale. Though with good to accompany it thanks to the influence of Gorion. As for class, what better than a mage? And what better kind of mage than a wild mage? When the shit hits the fan your level 1 mage can "accidently" summon a demon. Doesnt that just scream Bhal Spawn?

Slartibartfast, how'd you have Keldorn and Viconia in your party at the same time? I wanted the glory of Casomyr and the hot horny Drow as well, but Keldorn's a racist fuck.

Well, they bitched a lot at the start but apparently it never came to blows.

Slartibartfast wrote:Well, they bitched a lot at the start but apparently it never came to blows.

That's it, Jaheira's out, Viconia's in.

Though how an evil party like the one I'm trying to construct is supposed to support a Paladin I have no idea.

Dammit I need a third fighter ... it looks like my only choice is that Haer'Dalis Bard punce.

Vympel wrote:

Slartibartfast wrote:Well, they bitched a lot at the start but apparently it never came to blows.

That's it, Jaheira's out, Viconia's in.

Though how an evil party like the one I'm trying to construct is supposed to support a Paladin I have no idea.

Dammit I need a third fighter ... it looks like my only choice is that Haer'Dalis Bard punce.

Could always use Mazzy.

As for Vic/Keldorn...I think it also has to do with maybe your charisma or just dumb luck. Because I've had both. One game wherein they just yabber a bit, another wherein Keldorn kills Viccy.

My first time through I played a chaotic good human berserker. I got a sick roll on the stats, so I wound up with:

18/76 STR
16 DEX
17 CON
11 INT
11 WIS
17 CHR

He was a grandmaster with the two-handed sword, so he used to hit for some huge numbers. I think I had Minsc, Valygar, Jaheira....Imoen because I was forced to (I hate Imoen so much), and.....that stupid rich girl.

I started playing an evil party, and boy howdy, is it fun! I have a lawful evil necromancer as my character, and I'll tell you what, it sure is fun to be a total dick to everyone.

Ghost Rider wrote:
Could always use Mazzy.

As for Vic/Keldorn...I think it also has to do with maybe your charisma or just dumb luck. Because I've had both. One game wherein they just yabber a bit, another wherein Keldorn kills Viccy.

Can Mazzy use the Holy Avenger? I'm going to be really fucking evil ... like I mean BAD.

Vympel wrote:

Ghost Rider wrote:
Could always use Mazzy.

As for Vic/Keldorn...I think it also has to do with maybe your charisma or just dumb luck. Because I've had both. One game wherein they just yabber a bit, another wherein Keldorn kills Viccy.

Can Mazzy use the Holy Avenger? I'm going to be really fucking evil ... like I mean BAD.

Unfortunatly no...only Keldorn can(which I've taken him on the evil route and all he did was bitch...with Viccy the only one truly getting his scorn).

She is though actually a good fighter(some decent stats).