I've heard a lot of great things about Baldur's Gate so I decided to buy it and try it out. I'm about 15 hours in and I'm just now entering Naskel. I wanted to make sure I got a party that I would like and I've kind of been obsessing over it to the point where I just want to get a party together so I can play the game!

Anyways, here's what I've come up with.

1. Alderack - Fighter (My Character)
2. Minsc - Ranger/Fighter
3. Viconia - Cleric
4. Imoen - Thief/Mage
5. Edwin - Mage
6. Kivan - Ranger

Basically,

2 fighters, 2 mages, 2 rangers, 1 cleric, 1 thief

What do yall think of this?

Also, Is it bad to kill Drizzt? Will it affect the story line or anything else down the line?

I assume you've already dualed Imoen into a mage? If not, just bear in mind that you'll lose her thief abilities for a while after the switch (she'll get them back when her mage level surpasses her thief level). The thing that really jumps out at me, though, is that you have Minsc AND Edwin. If you've already dealt with Dynaheir, then that might be able to work; otherwise, they'll both pester you until you go find her. Since Edwin wants to kill her and Minsc is sworn to protect her.... Well, you're gonna have to lose one of them. I'd recommend switching Edwin for Dynaheir, since Minsc is such a great heavy-hitter and Dynaheir's a perfectly serviceable mage. You could also drop Minsc and add Kagain, since you don't seem to care about building a party of mixed alignments. Kivan's a great archer, Imoen can be a good mage (and the only NPC mage capable of learning any school), and Viconia is hands-down the best Cleric in the game. The Minsc/Edwin conflict is the only problem I see. Just remember to keep your reputation from getting too close to either extreme, or people'll start leaving.

As for killing Drizzt, it has no impact on the rest of the game, aside from the good weapons and armor he drops; just bear in mind that he is by far the toughest fight in the game if you try to take him head-on. I've only been able to beat him with a max level party or by taking advantage of the game's poor pathfinding.

It can be quite interesting in Baldur's Gate 2 if you kept his weapons/equipment...

Having both good and evil aligned characters can be annoying. Consider replacing Viconia when you find a good aligned cleric. There's no need to keep evil Edwin either when you've Imoen for casting mage spells. Dualing her to illusionist instead of mage will yield more spells per day.
It can be annoying when you don't have enough thieving skill in your party to handle traps and locks.

The whole reputation thing just clicked for me. Thank you! Everybody is saying Edwin is the best mage, so I said I want him, but only if I keep my reputation down. (I'm Lawful Good and my reputation is about 16 right now). So Viconia and Edwin will probably leave sooner or later.

Alright, Edwin gets ditched for Dynaheir and Viconia... well I really want her. If I had to replace Viconia, who should I replace her with? Yeslick? Branwen? Aren't they mid to late game though. Will I survive without a cleric?

@KMONSTER
By annoying, do you mean they attack each other? Because that would be bad. Or is it just constant spewing of hate between them?

You can get Brawen quite soon, just travel to Naskel, the ... circus event thing and the guy near her statue will sell you cure petrify scroll usable by anyone.

Don't know how good she actually IS as a cleric, I just really like her because of the NPC mod

If you manage to get rid of Dynaheir without Edwin and Minsc killing each other they won't fight any more.
If your reputation gets higher than 18 evil characters will leave, with 16 rep (it will increase when you do quests) they should already be unhappy and complaining. High reputation is beneficial, having to lower it is annoying.

There's a happy party mod which lets NPCs stay regardless of reputation.

I'd take Yeslick as Cleric, neutral characters get unhappy with more than 18 reputation, Branwen can get really annoying but she's a good replacement until you find Yeslick. The game is harder without a cleric.

I don't like Dynaheir, I'd rather find another thief and dual Imoen.

I guess I need to decide between Yeslick and Branwen. I went ahead and dueled Imoen at level 2, so I need another thief too.

I think I have a pretty good idea on my party.

Thanks Fenixp, Shadowsetzer, and kmonster! Your advice was very much appreciated!!

just do yourself a favor and get one from the local church in advance. Those carnival people are only trying to rip you off! :D

Isn't it possible to romance Viconia and change her alignment to good? Or am I misremembering?

*edit* Actually, I think that's in BG2.

BG2 yes, but her alignment only changes to True Neutral.

Until then (or if you fail to get her to change) she can leave if your reputation is too high (above 18 I think?).

I had a terrible situation once where she wanted to leave all the time (it's a random chance) and had to reload every time to avoid that until I could get her alignment changed!

its not bad to kill dritz.. But good luck with that.. : P


edwin isnt the best mage... there really is no best mage/character in this game, just ones people seam to use more.

alora, kagian, branween, xan, shar teal.. Is a group that is definatly as good as you listed.. just like you could also have a lotta fun with (forget his name, dwarf cleric) tiax, garret, saphana and dynaria. thats the wonderfull thing about this game you can really mix and match any characters and have a great party if you gear them right. You definatly dont need any set combos. Ive fun partys with all bards and theives and it was a lotta fun.

Personally i love to mix/match good/evil the party bantar is priceless, and its always fun to see a fight break out in the party.. worst comes to worst you either A reload, Or B go back to town and pick up another NPC.


dont freat about reloads, the way this game is its almost impossible to never have to reload. Even vets that have been playing it for 10 years. there are just way to many varriables.. Like just this last new game i started, I hit a random theif ambush on the way to freindly arm.. all lvl 1 characters and about bandits with long bows and dogs.. needless to say i didnt even get a chance to drop a single one before my party was completely wiped. I just laughed.. and said,, so glad for autosave on zoning !

As someone noted upthread, it's really easy if you exploit the pathfinding.

its easy if you use cheats too.... But you can play the game fair and not take advantage of things.. its a hugely tough battle.. i like to try it as a end game battle.


I also have found that path finding set to 400000 and setting cash at 400, im having very good results.

A cheesy but non cheat way to slaughter Drizzt is to give everyone ranged weapons, summon hordes of creatures to aid you and buff everyone up to the max. Haste spell is very important here.

This won't work quite as well if you're using the BG2 engine, as it limits the number of summons you can create.