Baldur's Gate Question

[Jon Miller]

I have Minsc, The Husband and Wife Team (druid and fighter), Imoen, and Kivan

I just 'ran' into the girl who Minsc was trying to save

she is a mage (Starts with D)

oh, me personally? I am a wuss who can't do anything (elf mage/theif 1/2, 6 hitpoints)

Jon Miller

[General Ludd]

Yes.

[Jon Miller]

oh, the question?

I think it is fairly obvious, I have 6 people I want in te party

and I can't get rid of myself

so it is Who do I get rid of

Jon Miller

[Apocalypse]

Get rid of the husband and wife team. They both suck. I'm not too fond of the girl Minsc wants to save either, but she is alright and you can easily win with her. You can use your final slot to pick up a guy named Coran later. Kivan and Coran are by far the two best archers in the game. Later in the game, together they can take out many creatures before they even come close to you.

[Jon Miller]

I currently have the bard with the other 5 (he is not that good, but at elast he is someone)

Jon Miller

[Apocalypse]

Honestly, you don't need 6 people at all times and it can even be counter productive as you're dividing xp quite a bit.

[Dis]

yeah but don't you hit the exp. cap anyways? In BG2 that is less of a concern because if you have the expansion you can keep on levelling forever.

I'm still in the middle of my BG1 game. This post reminds me I need to finish that.

I like Dynaheir (Minc's witch he wants to save) as she is a straight mage (as in non multi or dual classed- not as in hetero ). I prefer straight mages, or mages multi-ed with thieves.

I did dual Imoen to a mage. But I think I'll go back to a save to undo that. As I am a bard, and I really don't need that much mage power. And I'm worred that I won't have enough thief skills to finish the game. So I'll probably leave Imoen as a thief.

I'm also using the Paladin guy and Minsc of course. My cleric is the one you free using a stone to flesh scroll or whatever.

I wanted to form my part early, so I can mold them to my liking. I do think I'll stick with this party. I hear there are a few other good thieves in the game near the end, but I probalby won't pick them up.

[SCG]

i kinda like the husband/wife team - Jaheira is a healer that i don't have to worry about too much - she runs around healing people who get hurt and the goodberry spell is a nice and cheap way to heal, and Khalid is rather versatile fighter who i usually have teamed with Imoen in archery. She does get a little annoying once the party's rep gets to heroic (podering stealing something and bribing a flaming fist to get it off of 20 although the better bargaining on the gold is nice while you are trying to aquire the eq for your party )

I also like to mold my party from the beginning rather than constantly change everyone about since the alignments affect whether a char will come back or not if you ask them to leave to complete various parts of the game. ATM I'm using Xan and Branwen as the other 2 which gives a good mix of clerics and fighters and chars with ranged fighting ability, with a good single class mage and single class rogue. Still debating on some of the other chars out there.

don't like Minsc, and he attacks you if you dally too long, don't like the bard with the evil thespian, and haven't figured out a couple of other chars i've run into like the druid in the forest, the dark elf and a couple of the fighters, but don't have the time i used to to play it

btw, which one is Kivan?

[Dis]

Kivan is in an area west of Beregost. It's near that big stone structure the wizard studies in the middle of nowhere. He is protected by flesh golems.

I hear he's a good archer as well. But I like to have fighter types use swords and axes.

[Traianvs]

Of course all of this is relative, you can finish the game with any character...

Minsc is the second best fighter (well he's a ranger) in the game, especially with a 2 handed sword he slaughters pretty much everything in the game.

Jaheira is good in that she's your healer, and on top of that she can wield a good powerful staff/mace etc.. and she can wear heavy armour (druid/fighter) whereas branwen for example is pretty vulnerable.. In BG1 magic is less important than in BG2.. you can finish the game without spellcasters if you want..
Xan is good in that he can wield a decent sword in melee (only he can wield his moonblade) but due to low skill and low HP that's not much of an advantage.. which spellcaster you pick up doesn't really matter anyway (don't take clerics, always use the fighter/cleric combo)

i'd say get minsc and jaheira and kivan, the rest is optional.. (khalid is a bit weak for a fighter, he's an elf after all )

[NeOmega]

If you are a thief, stay with imoen. I played as a thief also, it is great to have two thiefs, since most of the time you will be assasinating, you will need someone who can detect traps, so you can continue to hone your stealth skills for the backstab.

I later traded the bard for Xan, Minsc is OK, but better will come. Much later you will aslo find Coran, another thief, the more the merrier I say!

One other thief is a bit too evil for my tastes, and too weak, ignore her (unless you are evil).

To answer your question though....

Minsc and Branwen will give you more party flexibility.
Having to have Jaheiria and Kivan is too annoying, IMO.

I chose the weapons shop in Beregost as my headquarters, and that is where I kept all my other party members....

If I found someone new, I would take my party to the weapons shop, drop off a person, and go pick up the person I wanted in my party.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Jaheira is annoying.. dump her .

Coran is awesome. IIRC, he's the only one in the game with 3 stars in the bow. Super accurate.

[Dis]

In my current game I have myself (a bard- not real useful in BG1 but I want to continue her in BG2), dynaheir, minsc, branwen (she's not too hard to keep alive- she's only died on me once), Imoen, and adjantis (a paladin)

adjantis seems to take the brunt of the punishment for some reason. I kind of would like to have a regular fighter, but I don't know where any are.

[Traianvs]

there is a female fighter somewhere in the neighbourhood of the awesome basilisk infested map you could use early on..


btw don't forget that if you take someone in your party, they will always have about the same level, skills etc as your other party members...
If you drop them, and recruit them again afterwards, they will still be at the XP and level they had when you left 'em... if you have gained a lot of experience in the meanwhile this means these characters are useless...

[Dis]

oh yeah, I met her. I reloaded though, those basilisks kicked my ass. They are difficult for my level 5 guys. I can't seem to resist their attacks.

I will have to use those potions probably to resist their gaze attacks.