Canonical BG2 Party

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In a one-on-one fight the fighter has an advantage. The ability to heal and cast spells make the paladin more versatile and potentially more powerful depending on the situation. The additional save bonuses make the paladin overall more survivable against a variety of opponents. Being able to wield holy avengers (such as Carsomyr) narrows the fighter's advantage even more.

In IWD the presence of Pale Justice made the paladin the more powerful warrior at the end of the game.

 

I agree. I like to use Pallys in most parties, but my reasons are for a Tank with variety as I thinkthey more fun to play and rpg reasons. Plus always looking out for Pally only items.

Though the point I was trying to make is that Paladin is not a necessity in a party, any warrior type will fit your party needs as the tank. Until BG2, Mage had no substitute and in your first playthrough Sorcy is not really as viable, as your limited in spell selection, so you are more likely to fail on the first run through with a Sorcerer by choosing the wrong spells needed for end-game bosses, making the Mage more of a necessity.

I find it amazing that after all these years members can joust about what is best in BG2. Not that I'm complaining, I love BSing about it. Just goes to show how AWESOME the game was....

 

In the books, the main character is a fighter. also if you start tales of the sword coast, your player character is a human fighter. So i guess Human fighter is the cannon main character.

Minsc, Jaheira, Yoshimo\Imoen. The rest might be Edwin and Viconia, since the player allready knows the pair.

 

Since the PC is most likely good aligned I doubt that Edwin or Viconia (or any of the evil NPCS) would be in the canonical party.

And didn't the PC have an affair with Bodhi in the books? Maybe we should take the books with a grain of salt...

 

The main character is mentioned in The Grand History of the Realms (sourcebook for the forgotten realms setting). His name is Abdel Adrian. Same as in the book, so I guess human fighter is cannon. Add to the fact that if you start a tales of the sword coast game, your main character isa fighter named Abdel. That pretty much seals it.

 

Even if your love of Jaheira aside, there's no real way to argue against Jaheira. Other than Imoen, she and Khalid are likely the first "good" NPCs you encounter to join your group in the original BG.

I do agree with Blades points on mages vs. sorcerers. For general questing, a sorcerer is the superior choice, but for boss fights are overall versatility, I'll take a mage. I particularly like wild mages to maximize that versatility, but if I had to pick a specialist, there are two fro me that really stand out: Illusionist and Summoner. Not because there's anything I love in particular about those two schools, but rather because of the opposition schools that you lose, which are Necromancy and Divination, respectively. While there are certainly useful spells in all schools, there aren't many "must have" spells in either school. My least favorite specialists are Invokers and Enchanters. Invokers lose Enchantments and Summoning - way too much to give up - and Enchanters lose Invocations and Evocations, where are the best direct damage dealing spells in the game.

 

I love Jaheira's gams and all, and of course she is canonical, but man is she ever a pain in the butt. I never really let her get to me before, but she really pisses me off. In fact, I've done a few games over the past few months, and I've decided that ALL the romances piss me off. I am SO not interested in the whining of ANY of the romanceable NPCs. So much so that I ditched out Jaheira for the first time ever, right in the first chapter. I told her she was a quitter and didn't really have much devotion to Khalid. I'd never done that before, and was I ever surprised (happily, however) that she just up and walked on me.

I've used her lots in previous games, but IMHO she's not as tough as Anomen because she can't buff herself the way he can and her weapon choice doesn't appeal to me. I replaced her with Cernd, as melee wise he is one tough cookie (at the beginning, anyhow) and later on he gets the good druid spells (I'm not fond of the druid spell selection at lower levels in BG2)

To be honest, Anomen also annoyed the hell out of me these last few runs through the game. In terms of ROLE playing I'd kick his arse out of the party real quick. He's such a whiny bugger! If I were good I'd go with Keldorn, and if neutral I'd select Korgan, as he is one tough MOFO and he never really whines. He's a fun guy.

One thing that really aggravates me is the lack of a really good archer NPC. Yoshimo is pretty good, but you only have him for a while, and he's still not a warrior. Minsc is OK, I guess, but really, he's so much better suited as a melee character. All three of your mage/thief combos have low THAC0s compared to warriors. I loved using Coran in the original series, and thought he was uber cool. It sucks you can't get him in BG2.

I usually play a cleric/mage or a fighter/cleric/mage. I like versatility. I have one game going now where I'm playing a thief/mage. It's kind of cool, I can use edged weapons and bows, as well as totally customize my skill selection. It also means I can ditch other thieves if I so desire and get more magic mayhem on my side -- Edwin levels so nicely and has SO many spells.

The only sucky thing is that I'm done pretty well EVERYTHING I can do before Spellhold and yet if I go I lose my stronghold. Grrr, shoulda got on that thing sooner!

 

As Montresor points out, Mazzy is the best archer in the game. 5 starts in short bows using Tuigan and she fires 5(!) arrows per round. From a damage perspective, she can keep up with many melee characters, not because arrows do that much damage, but just through sheer volume of arrows. And good god do you go through the arrows! There were actually a couple of times I had to buy arrows! How often do you have to do that? Usually you have a few hundred on hand at any time.

If longbows are your thing, then the best NPC for that is probably Valygar. Less strength and higher dexterity than Minsc make him more suited for missile, and less suited for melee combat. Plus he starts with two proficiency points in longbows, which is the most you're going to get unless you make the PC use longbows.

Game time doesn't stop completely, but it appears that there is a fixed amount of time that passes in Chapters 4 and 5, irrespective of how long it takes you to do those chapters. I tested this once with the thives guild, paying the quartermaster, and then immediately getting on the ship to spellhold. I then rushed through Chapters 4 and 5 - completing them in a couple of days of game time, exculding travel on the boat, as that doesn't seem to count in game time. As soon as I exited the Underdark, I got the "quartermaster awaits his due" message - much earlier than had I not gone to Spellhold.

Then, I reloaded one of the last saves I had in the Underdark, and just kept resting repeatedly so that a couple of weeks had passed. Again, as soon as I left the Underdark, I got the "quartermaster expects his due" message - much later than had I not gone to Spellhold. So it would seem to me that regardless of how long you spend in Chapters 4 and 5, about of week of game time passes as far as your strongholds are concerned - so you won't lose your stronghold just by proceeding to Chapter 4.

One thing that is problematic is actually finishing some of those strongholds. Like the bard's stronghold. You really have to take your sweet time to get done with that one. It seems that Stronghold requires many more visits than the rest of the others.

 

I might turn that around a bit and say that developers assume a first-timer will take the first NPC's encountered (because I think that is generally the inclination) and therefore ensured that those NPC's will generally give you a well-rounded party, particularly if your PC is a warrior. Nalia is the only one of the CC NPC's that will actually seek you out, and she is the best choice of the three if the PC is a warrior.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that, if you didn't take Yoshimo in the dungeon (maybe because you already have a thief in Imoen), he is also in the CC. But if you decide to take Nalia, you might not want Yoshi, so that leaves another spot to be filled. If your party is Jaheira, Minsc, Aerie and Nalia, and assuming your PC is a warrior, that really leaves the last spot wide open. With Jaheira and Aerie, Anomen is redundant, and you might not want Korgan (either because he's evil, or you don't want another tank), so that opens the door for NPC's you haven't encountered yet.