BG2 Evil party?

Played BG2 alot, always end up being a good guy, so decided on this run through to try and do every single quest I get, and be evil, with an evil party

Sick of Jaheira and her spouting nature shit and Aeries makes me want to gouge my ears out

So could anyone suggest a good evil party make up? I managed to get Viconia and....shit forget her name, a fighter from the prison in the Govt district in Amn

Any advice appreciated

 

Korgan - the best fighter in the game, Viconia - the only pure cleric, Edwin - the best mage in the game.
Evil party is so much better, but to get most from banter/party conflict add some good chars. For example Korgan and Mazzy form an awesome relationship of hate, Aerie is also great in such a party, she gets kicked often.

 

There are only three evil characters, Edwin, Viconia and Korgan. That narrows down the possible parties a bit.

Also, good evil.

On a sidenote, I'm also replaying BG2 the "evil way", and I ended up making three evil characters to have a full evil party.

 

Well, since BG2 decided it's better to have party members that won't shut up and all have some inane quest that must be done RIGHT NOW than have lots of possible party members, you're stuck with Viconia, Korgan and Edwin + whoever or maybe leave it at four. The good thing is that they are the best cleric, fighter and mage in the game.

Or alternatively, create your own party in multiplayer mode, you lose nothing by doing that (maybe still pick up Edwin since he has some amulet only he can use that doubles his spells).

 

Hmmm interesting never knew there were so few evil characters, thanks for the advice though will pick those other two up

By making your own party, won't you lose the inter-party banter? I mean that doesn't really bother me to be honest but just out of curiosity

 

You can take a good character or two; they won't leave unless your reputation gets down to 2, which is stupid to do anyway. Just take two NPCs you've never used before.

If you make your own party, you don't get any banter, and since that's one of the best features of BG2, I wouldn't do that. Also, you should get the banter pack mod if you don't already have it.

 

Yes, the self-made characters are all blissfully silent.

 

Yeah thats my aim to use two NPC's never used before bit tired of Minsc and the usuals

 

*spoilers*

I seem to remember doing something like:

- Recruit Korgan in Copper Coronet
- Travel to Government District, sneak around the edge, pick up Jan
- Intervene in public burning and pick up Viconia
- Travel to Docks District, start Thieves' Guild quest, pick up Edwin

... and from there even ditch Jan if you're playing as a rogue. The smaller your party, the faster they'll gain XP, so a party of only four (the three Evils + the PC) isn't such a bad idea. If you can survive the first few quests and get a bit of equipment, you're well on your way.

 

I did a run as a warewolf druid, kept Viconia, Edwin and used others just for their sidequests, killed all others, and made two npcs myself, a pure archer and some fighter type.

So you get the banter but not too much and you have two or three made companions.

I also used Valen NPC mod, which gives you a vampire to join you if you follow Bodhi path.

And you can use Solafein mod that lets you recruit a drow fighter mage npc from the game, in underdark.
(so you can ditch Edwin if you want to.)
Both have some not to bad sidequests to them too.

 

The vampire mod sounds REALLY interesting

I am using the BIG WORLD mod collection does that have the Valen NPC Mod in it, if anyone knows off the top of their head, or I will go research to find out

EDIT: Did some research I believe it does have him in it

Ooo I would love to play a VAMPIRE PC

 

Oh right, sorry I will not hire that NPC because you told me so......but the baby exploding makes it REAAAAALLY hard to resist

 

Sick of inane NPC whining about their personal life?

Sinck of having to share the gold, itamz and most importantly, XP?

Sick of having to micro the little fucks all the time because the pathfinding always sends your fighters the longer way and your squishy mages walk right into a wall of Sahuagin with Biting Bolts?

Solo is the answer, baby. Solo.

 

Valen is a she.
A Bodhi vampire captain you do meet in the game.

It was nice having a (female) Warewolf (with druid spells - crashes almost anything), a Vampire, evil cleric (Viconia) and stuff...

Though going through as Fighter/thief/mage half-elf with only two or three npcs can also be fun if you played it in all other ways.
Also

"Dungeon be gone" is mandatory.
And "Unfinished business" - restores a lot of original content and sidequests.


- edit Soloing the whole of it makes it too boring and too long grind.

 

Grind? In BG? What the hell are you on about?

 

rly.

yeah, ive been doing that one lately.

 

I've heard Haer'dalis can be very useful if played right - not evil, but chaotic neutral and with a personality that isn't glaringly out of place with an evil party (he's there for the babes and action, and cause hanging with an evil crew gives him art-cred). Unfortunately, I've never been able to find a good fit for him in my parties, so my first-hand experience is limited. I tend to play a swing-man role myself in BG2, using a fighter-mage, ranger-cleric, kensai-mage (cheese, I know), etc, I've usually got another dual or multi-class in the team somewhere, I prefer taking Viconia because her full-time healing allows me to dump Aerie, Edwin is too good to pass up (and I need a straight mage, as my other two casters are backups), meaing that of the next two roles I need a straight tank and a thief for locks and traps (and unlike 3.5, in BG2 bards aren't practiacl for locks and traps duty.

By 'swingman' I mean a dual or multi-class character that can 'swing' (depending on situation) from front lines to backlines. So it includes a druid/fighter with barksin, iron skins etc allowing limited toe-to-toe, who can then drop to the backline for some entangle, lightning, healing. The obvious one is fighter/mage or the cheesed kensai/mage - except I'm only counting those spell selections that enable you to go up front and off-tank for periods (via blur, stoneskin, mirror image, and the 'tenser's giant middle figure to dedicated fighter players by giving a mage temporary fighter class'). It doesn't include a multi or dual build aimed at sitting in the backrow the entire time switching from archery to spell-casting. And it doens't include a cleric or cleric/fighter build sitting in the front lines with plate and buffs the whole time while turning to heal your comrades. Whist tank/mage is the obvious 'swingman' class, another classic in the IWD series was the ranger/cleric allowing you to switch from dual-wield-cleric-buffed-fighting-class upfront, then hopping back for the more backline druid spells.

Which makes my 'standard' BG2 party:
1 tank (Minsc, Korgan, Keldon, depending on clashes and taste),
PC swingman (mage/tank or ranger/cleric)
1 dedicated healer (Viconia)
1 dedicated mage (Ediwn)
1 character on locks+traps, with almost dedicated mage ability (Imoen / Nalia - perhaps Yoshimo early if I want more melee)
Then usuallly Jaheria played as a swingman (hate her voice and dialogue, love her abilities).

I really don't like Jaheria, but I really DO like having 2 members that can fit well into both attack and casting roles depending on the encounter (monster resistances, strengths and vulnerabilities, need for CC, etc). There's a lack of swingmen in BG2, in my recollection (I could be wrong) - Anomen (annoyance aside) is a pretty straight-up buff-n-tank cleric. Maybe Haer-dalis could fill Jaheria's role - in 3.5 he clearly could, but bards don't have that front-n-back versatility in 2nd ed.

Is it possible to dual-class the ranger into a cleric? That might be interesting. None of the tanks make plausible dual-class material for druids or mages/sorcerors.

 

Yeah, but there's something - just something - about vampire player-mods that just screams the risk of a Twilight fan...or a buffy fan (and I admit liking Whedon - but I don't think a fanart bersion would really capture the idea of combining geek and popculture with a feminist retelling of coming-of-age), or an Anne Rice fan...and produce something that would send JRPG developers into fits of laughter at how unproductively emo it is (as in emo of the 'I love you, and you love me, but we can't be together because I'm a vampire, even though in this world vampirism gives no negative qualities apart from some bloodlust that I keep talking about, but is obviously just me talking myself up b/c I never fucking do anything about it apart from old stories about me and my 'Canadian girlfriend' killing some dude back in the day, like honest it really happened cause I'm TOO EMOTIONALLY INTENSE to make that stuff up! And despite me really just being a goth with superpowers, I'm just going to brood for the whole plot - I think 'brooding' means 'looking constipated' but I might check on that - because THAT'S GREAT LOVE DRAMA!!!' variety). Ok, a rant that long says more about me than about bad emo vampire fanart. Oops.

I'd like to see a vampire mod that was somewhat true to the rules of the BG2 universe. They'd have to bend them to allow the player free will, but he would have to feed or suffer VTM frenzy problems, and here feeding means killing. He'd be hunted, it would need to be effectively stealth driven. I can see a possibly fun combination of stealth and army-building - i.e.having to constantly feed, whilst also trying to infect people in positions of power. You'd need to build your vampire army without drawing attention until it's too late - the key would be to minimise 'lackies' aside from what is necessary to keep operations running, while selectively hitting politicians and royalty. The ultimate aim would be to infect the king, so he becomes your minion. GETTING to the king would be the test - especially b/c once others become aware of your presence, failure to kill them before they reach a public location would result in rumours and eventually knowledge of your existence, leading to anti-vampire checks on the king's bodyguard, checkpoints when travelling and entering major buildings etc.

Basically it would be vampire meet terrorist plot meet invasion of the bodysnatchers.

 

I played IWD first time with all party dual classed.
- that was... an experience.

Not at all in case of Valen who was created long before that crap.
And she doesnt draw the mind to any other pop culture vampirism tale either.

Gameplay wise, she is balanced by getting very weak during day, her stats get lowered so she cannot carry almost any equipment and her other abilities are turned off or weaker. And she has her own story and relations to Bodhi that develops in the Spellhold during Bodhis hunt section. If i remember correctly. And a tough fight against some vampire hunters too.

Comes voiced, and its very good voice over, with good additional dialogue.
And she keeps to herself if you dont bother her.
And can disarm traps.

 

Baldurs Gate 2: Shadows of Amn.

 

:wink:

 

What the fuck. What the fuck. Yes, that is the name of the game we are talking about. Fucking stupid pakistani.


Also, fanmade npc mods are for fags.