Popularity Contest

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Bored of watching too many talent shows and reality crap, I decided to bring the mundane to the fantasy setting. You can vote for more than 1, but for fairness, limit yourself to 3 votes please!

 

3 fave NPCs

Imoen for sentimental reasons and usefulness to the party. #1 if I could only choose one...

Aerie for usefulness to the the party and for most growth and development of an NPC.

One for a mod; Keto for writing and content. Xan for BG2 is a very close second though, for the same reasons.

 

Edwin 'cause he's a badass and has a hilarious quest. Jan 'cause he has brilliant banter and the most intriguing quest (his is the only one I really wanted to find out more about). and Yoshimo 'cause his banter is excellent, his personality is almost identical to mine, and he is deeply tied to the main plot.

I like others a lot (Haer'Dalis, Jaheira, Korgan, Minsc, Valygar being other favourites), but the above three have definitely been top for a long time.

 

Korgan - Hands down the funniest. He is a brutal, disgusting pig of a dwarf. Definitely my favorite.

Mazzy - Halfling inspired to be a Paladin? That's a great storyline in itslef.

Xzar - Part of the BG1 NPCs in SoA mod. The modder created some excellent dialogue for him. Rather sadistic.

 

The Good, The Mad, and The Ugly: Keldorn, Minsc and Jan.

These three make nice banter together, especially Jan.

Keldorn has nice special abilities and is a good warrior
Minsc is a great warrior and is just kickass crazy (Often with Lilarcor)
Jan is too much fun and is usually my main rogue and fine backup wizard.

If I had to pick just one, I would be hard-pressed to choose between Jan and Minsc

 

Yoshimo and Imoen just for plot purposes. After that would be the romance npc and Sarevoc.

 

Edwin. Because he's Edwin.

Haer'Dalis. "Jack-of-all-trades" and dependable, character-wise - I prefer schemers in my party to be more open with the fact. Everybody has his/her own hidden agendas, but HD makes his intentions known which makes him invaluable as an ally, imo. He also has a lot of interesting things to say about everyone, hinting at other people's hidden personal beliefs/values/motivations. In the end he's usually right.

Viconia. A good, dependable cleric and excellent character development in BG2. Unlike other drow who escaped from the Underdark she goes through hell because of people who may just have real-life counterparts (Drizzt and Liriel were too darn lucky with their friends, imo).

Nalia. Good spells and she can use a bow. Excellent banter (To Isaiah Roenall: "Oh, to the Hades with the manners he's a complete bastard! And calling him that insults bastards everywhere!"). She starts off a bit naive but she doesn't change her ideals despite having matured in ToB. I also like how she's more proactive than Aerie and she's actually planning ahead, something not a lot of other NPCs in the game seem to do.

On the fence regarding Imoen. I like her and her personality, but sometimes it just feels like she's been through enough. If I could protect her by not letting her join then I'd do that. The game never tells you what happens to NPCs you don't bring with you though.

 

Well strangely enough one of my favourites is Anomen. I know what people think about him. He can be quite annoying, but in Polish version he has some really good voice acting that I really like. Recently I purchased English version on GoG and oh my... with that annoying voice there is no way I'm keeping him in my party.
Another one is Viconia. She is great character, her romance is really good, and again... one of my favourite voice actresses, the same as Fall-from-grace in P:T.
And last one is Mazzy. I like her because she is really good fighter and she has the best personality. Her banters with evil characters are so good
I also like the idea of Cernd but his kit is so terrible that I would have to SK it away...

 

My 3 votes went to Edwin, Jan and Minsc. I'm a sucker for any kind of comedy.

 

• Edwin -- superb spellcasting paired with the "Edwina" incident make him priceless.
• Keldorn -- well written character with excellent abilities.
• Nalia -- I know, I know. But as naive as she can be, the fact that her heart's in the right place and is a useful and interesting character helps a lot.

Obviously, Jan deserves an honourable mention, too, but he's not as effective at comic relief as Edwin simply because the writers are trying to hard to be "zany", whereas Edwin's humour just is.

 

You want the favorites, right? Not the best ones. Because that's kind of a given.

I like Korgan, Minsc and Viconia the most.

Jan's jokes are also welcome, of course. Imoen & Aerie and a bunch of whiny b*tches. I can bear Nalia... barely.

 

The crazy, the Bad, and the Amazing roller
Minsc, Edwin, Sarevok.
Honorable mention goes to Jan.

 

Jaheira is the only one that I take along the ride whether I'm playing good, evil or anything in between, so she gets my nod.

Imoen and Jan get honorary mentions in being the characters I usually dedicate most singular attention to due to their thieving abilities, but they still don't get the IRL playtime as Jaheira does.

 

Imoen, Jan, Yoshimo, and Mazzy are my all time favorites.

Yoshimo is great in many ways. He is actually a more powerful character than you think as bounty hunters are actually very strong in SOA. If you buff his trap skills he can be nasty in boss fights or in ambushes (one of my favorites is the fight in the sewers against that party that tries to take your money or your life). His stats are great and he is your only non-main character thief option. As for character I really like his character arc (though I wish it could be extended/expanded) and his personality is interesting. For most members of the party he is actually a good fit and the few that he isn't he has some high quality banter with his wit.

I love Jan for the funny banters. He is a fair character mechanically but you can do better (he is still powerful though don't underestimate him). His banters are the best and every once in a while you can see through the mask of comedy he wears (such as in his quest).

Imoen is great because of her relationship to you . What few banters you get are good and make me wish she had more. I also enjoy how effective she is in both of her classes (she is a usable thief even into ToB especially if you get all the thief boosting items) and she has high quality stats. Make sure you get the mods that give her Bhaal powers eventually as it adds to her power AND her character. Lastly I enjoy how she was developed as she was not originally going to be in the game (she was put into the game last second with scrap dialogues and the like when they decided they wanted to have a non-evil/psycho thief in the early game of BG1).

Lastly we have Mazzy who I enjoy her character arc. She is feisty and fun. I just wish she would have a quest where she tries to join the Order of the Radiant Heart as I think that would be a great quest and I think it speaks to her true character. She is also a very effective warrior as her spell abilities are a big help and she has fast XP progression and grandmastery. I start her off with bows but late game I often switch her to axes or halberds to chop off heads. Sadly some of her best conversations take place with Korgan (who is evil and does not fit into my parties) and Valygar who I like but sadly lost most of his banters when they dropped his personal quest and so is a very boring character to keep around.

 

I voted without playing with many mod characters.

I tend good party and picked Aerie, Nalia, & Misc.

I'd give an honorable mention to Keldorn & Mazzy-though I often don't finish with him as I let him go back to his family (often while carrying Carsomyr... unless I use a specific cheat to recruit a paladin that isn't supposed to be part of my party). I really like Mazzy & often have her in the party-though I get annoyed that she comes focused so much on short swords when-as a fighter-she can use better weapons (yes I get the background reasons for the focus but still..)


Aerie-Heart in right place plus a dual-use spellcaster, heals and fireballs.

Nalia-soft spot for naive idealists, plus her ability to use bows means she doesn't go useless if she runs out of mage spells. As a side note as she matures she actually becomes more likely to use those ideals in a way that could last.

Minsc-Minsc is Minsc is Minsc! (He is and should be at the top of this poll) Good fighter and playing BG2 isn't complete without having him in your party at least once.


Almost forgot to mention that Viccy shows a great deal of character change if romanced but I wonder if the change should be matched buy belief changes as well (I know there is a mod out there that does this so someone else noticed this too.

 

Wow, Cernd isn't getting any love at all
I voted for Edwin, Jaheira, Jan, Minsc, Sarevok & Viconia.
The only mod NPC i ever brought along was kelsey, and while i had fun with him i didn't feel like he could stack up against the vanilla NPC's.
Jaheira and viconia are interchangable, depends on which one of the 2 i am romancing. If i'm not romancing either i prefer taking viconia.
I've allways liked edwin mos out of all the wizards, even in BG1, no contest there.
Jan is top notch for his interjections - probably the best thief you're going to get too.
Same thing with minsc, i just love his banters - for an all out evil party i usually replace him with korgan though.
Last but not least, Sarevok is a beast and welcome addition to any party. if anything i wish i could get him right at the start of irenicus' dungeon.

I know this is the subforum for the vanilla bg2, but as a nod to the enhanced edition, i'd probably add dorn here as well. i like him best out of all the new npc's and i think he and (evil) sarevok would hit it off.

 

I only play good, so I never take Edwin, Korgan or Viconia.

Playing enhanced I truly love Neera, she is so funny, and a blast to have around.

Favorites:
Jan: He is funny, and you get thieving and mage combined.
Aerie: She is funny, annoying and you can get both cleric and mage spells out of her, making her a powerhouse.
Keldon: Just drop a strength belt on him and a holy avenger and go to town.

This time around, I am going to go with Jaheira, I have never really given her much of a chance due to her low strength.

My standard party was Player F/T, Minsc, Anomen, Aerie, Nalia, Imoen for quite a few times through. I would wield the holy avenger once I got use any item ability.

 

You do know you can redeem Viconia?