That's a good way of playing for a challenge and some RP value. You can even include your main guy and have a rule not to abuse save/load to make it pure hardcore. It gives the game a lot more replay value.
@@sursomsatan1225 i can understand that but I'm the type of player who wants to use anything the game will allow me to have including glitches for my own fun
Alora is my favorite companion in the whole game, something I didn't discover until 20 years after my first playthrough because like you said, she appears a bit late in the game. But I picked her up just on a whim once a couple years ago and now I try to include her in every run. She's just so cute and I love her personality, and her Rabbit's Foot makes her the best thief in the game. I don't even feel bad about ditching Imoen because I just drop her off in Baldur's Gate to begin her magic studies.
I picked up bg1 for the first time after the announcement of Bg3 in 2019. Yes it was overwhelming as i was completely new to dnd 2nd edition (or dnd in general) but this series won me over hardcore. Ive played 400 hours of bg1 and 800 hours of bg2 since then.
i am in awe of people getting into bg these days without any idea what awaits them with the 2nd edition shenanigans and not only they endure it, but thrive in it as well. When i played the EFF out of these games waaay back, we were playing essentially the "same" campaigns with the "same" rules, it was easy. Clearly goes to show how good these games still are. My brothers i salute you.
Playing in Story mode helps! Haha. What I’d really like to have, as another new player, a list of which companions to get and in what order. What I’ve learned from the BG subreddit so far, is you want 4 people in your party. Also, a beserker mage is OP but a Cavalier is also good as a first class
Faldorn is a beast. A pure druid in BG1 is really strong. Insect plague alone will mess up final bosses in the game. Great for a hard-core no reload run. But yeah overall Jaheria is a better fit.
@@mj6258 iirc you can not recruit Dorn at the inn, he will just tell you to go away. But after meeting him for the first time he will appear in a unique "waylaid by enemies" event near nashkel
I’d suggest to anyone curious enough that there is another NPC guide that is really good - Davaeorn’s. The guy has an encyclopedic knowledge of the game and it’s a really fun watch too.
Alora is by far the strongest thief in the game, thanks to her rabbit's foot. Luck has such a huge impact that I would always take her. With the strength belt from Rasaad's quest, she turns into a powerful backstabber as well. Xan is pretty useful for mixed-alignment groups; with him in the group all non-scripted alignment conflicts do not come to blows. Also, saving throws against several of his cc spells are harder to pass, which is quite useful in LoB runs. The fire resistance from his blade allows for some pretty cool tactics when combined with other gear or potions. Faldorn is often overlooked; she is very powerful though because (unlike other divine spellcasters) she gets access to lvl 5 divine spells, insect plague is absolutely devastating.
Alora is the best thief at using thieves skills, but Coran is the best thief at shooting, and Montaron is the best at tanking and/or backstabbing. Also Montaron is better with slings than Alora
Dorn II-Khan slaughterings the people who wronged him : my crew : me when i recruit him because i think he deserves revenge and find him out : my crew : *disappointed* "You did a bad choice man ! Don't even think of leaving the guy from the party okay ? you're going to get stabbed in the back !" My ass : "Okay chill !"
Best way to get rid of Khalid and Dynahir is to send them into a house or different floor then drop them from the party. As long as you don't go into that house or floor, Jahera or Minsc won't leave the party.
I just had a thought while watching this, you said “why do they out so many thieves later in the game” Well thieves were basically useless in earlier d&d computer games. The creators probably anticipated people avoiding them so they stuck a few good ones in the late game just in case you started thinking you needed one
4:51Divination is the 4th most importan class in magic as it detects invisible, and you will get attacked by back-stabbing hide-ers On that note: 1st Alteration, 2 Illusion, 3 Abjuration are your other 3 must haves, invisibility provides a scout so you know what comes, Simularcrom copy's you mage and you active sleep book with it, its godlike magic, Alteration has Haste and time stop, one makes a warrior a death-god, the other your wizard :D Abjuration is to disable enemy spell caster, if you cant do it you die In world where stone skin and ilusion lke mirror image or invisibility are the defense of any decent wizard you need to counter them for no one else will, well maybe you pore rouge or Moon monk if you spend 100+ skill point on it (i think the most give up-able magics are Enchantments as much i love them, and Necromancy, even if horrid wilting is the best damage spells of the game with incendiary cloud but the latter replaces it )
You can separate them by having the person you want to kick stand some distance away from the party, inside a house. Then, when you kick them, you gtfo of the house and voila, the other person is still there. If you enter the house again you will lose both though, until you recruit them again, so be careful to put them somewhere you will not be returning to.
@@petermaasz it works in EE, if putting companions inside of a building isn't working then just send them to a corner of a map that you don't have a reason to revisit, far away from your main party.
Thanks for the video. Very informative. Suggestion for a future video: best good party and best evil party. I have looked online but haven’t found any videos on the subject.
Kivan always was a killer sniper in my good party. 100% agree with Yeslick. Super solid. Most hilarious - Tiax. Shame that there is no option to save him from the mental asylum in BG2. That would be a great quest! Missed opportunity. He has the best lines in the original BG period. 🤣
My most fun playthrough of the game involved Tiax and taking advantage of his Cleric spells to enhance his thieving abilities. Combined with his banter he is my favorite NPC in the entire series barring Jan Jansen.
Shar-Teel is also a great pick as she can be put alongside good characters and remain part of the team. As a neutral player at this moment, I just pick interesting NPCs evil, neutral or good. Compatibility comes into play. My current frontline fighter. I believe Xan can calm down fights between uncompatible NPCs, but I haven't experimented with that.
Also, the problem with bards, monks and druids is that their skills don't really kick in until after the XP cap (which I always mod out). It's a shame, too, because once they get high enough, they are a blast to play!
Man, was just watching this video after finishing the first Baldur's Gate and seeing who I missed and I feel like the only person to find Dynaheir and use for my entire run and NEVER finding Minsc. Which honestly feels like a huge shame starting 2 since he's right there at the start and I have no clue who this guy is despite the fact he's a fan favourite character.
Draw Upon Holy Might means Tiax low strength doesn't really matter? DUHM does bupkis for his strength. DUHM is not useful for strength unless the cleric already has high strength or is at a high caster level.
Good Video, and i agree with 90% of your explanations. But i think when it comes to Clerics there is a difference between the original game and the EE. In the original game yes, Viconia for Evil Groups, Yeslick for Good groups. But with the EE Branwen shits on both of them :D. You can easily boost her strenght to 20 with her special ability and draw upon holy might + other buffs while having a fighter THAC0 and become an invincible warmachine. An you can potentially also take her in any group composition due to her neutral alignment. And if u wanna really top it, you give her the dex gloves to max it out and reach AC below -10 with perfect equipment. anyway, guess overall its personal preference at the end :P
Any mage is pretty amazing, especially if you don't lose stone skin. Necro and conj together is fine for evil party, comes with a good thief and great cleric option. Pick up the best tank and whatever you want for player. Or run baeloth, he's great too if you want player tank. For good the options are fine too. Arcane is weaker but still really good, druid summon at level 4 is good, or you can just arrow spam lol. I don't think monks ever catch up to alternatives, not even in bg2
nice guide thanks I finished BG1 and 2 several times and I havn't met like 75% of these NPCs lol i'm such a noob I always take jaheira khalid and minsc
Always have 18 or 19 in cha. High cha stops infighting . My main party has always been safana , coran , Shar-Teel Dosan , xan and viconia. I always recruit safana and coran at lvl 2 Also pro advice about Dynaheir ... If you ignore to pick up minsk you will never need to kill minsk or Dynaheir. Just ignoring minsk on the map and never talk to him Dynaheir will not leave your party
At least in EE moral is countered by charisma and bard songs work in any version So if your leader has high CHA Kalid isn't going to dip on you. Although a bard signing isn't a bard doing anything else so there's that. But from my experience I did take Kalid through EE 3x and he never ran on me but I was palying a character with 16+ CHA each time. I'm also not really convinced on how good monks are. I mean monks and bards scale much better at higher levels but really a lv 30 monk can have worst AC than a lv 1 fighter using basic gear. Plus quivering palm isn't that great when you hit tob and you get weapons that can just do the same thing per hit. Or your fighting things that straight up can't be killed with it. It feels like monks have a very niche moment across 3 games where their good then they lose that. But to be fair, those problems get worst on higher difficulties, and you are forced to focus on certain things.
The issue with monk is they start weak but grow to be strong, but the threshold where they go from weak to amazing is the same level threshold that BG1 and BG2 meet at meaning by time your hard work pays of you've already beaten the game.
@@An_Ian Eh I didn't find them great in BG2 either and they are pretty horrible in TOB. Like I said, they never have the AC, they can't be hasted, and really THACHO wise they don't outclass a fighter. You're trading all of that for stuff that's not that great. Like immunity from non-magic weapons at lv 20. I can't think of many guys that don't use magic weapons in BG2. Like a fighter using critical strike is just going to do more with improved haste up and has a better chance of not turning into red mist when a fire giant looks at him funny. Now I like their MR and stunning blow is fun (although it has a lot of the same problems), but really the only time I found them outclassing other classes in anything was this really niche moment for maybe 1/2 of BG2 depending on how you're playing, where your fighters don't have the right gear and mages, clerics, and druids don't have the right spells. After that point it nose dives. But I'm talking meta and the higher difficulty you're playing on the more the monk problems show up.
@@dagonofthedepths You are right, Monk sucks, its probably the worst class in the game, they do not hit hard enough since they cant get hasted and they are absurdly squishy. People should make a mod that buffs monk, I love the idea of one dude defeating hordes of heavily armored people with only their fists
There are work arounds to the edwin/minsc issues and the reputation issue with edwin. go deal with dynaheir and don't even recrute edwin until after thats done. You don't have to kill her yourself, just let her die in a fight with random enemies. Minsc will go berserk for a minute but then he'll be fine and he won't blame edwin for killing her. Keep your reputation at a tolerable level for edwin until he completes his personal quest and he will stay with your party regardless of your reputation after that.
@@yannis.p Honestly no, I'm not sure whether any level is too high, it's been a decade or so since I played. I am sure that I have played through several times with Edwin as my mage and my protagonist is an undead hunter 😀
Great video and very useful! Just a few comments on my end: 1- I find Montaron is a pretty awful front liner as he dies very easily in my experience. I would keep him away from melee using a sling; 2- Xzar is actually pretty solid, he is my number 2 mage pick after Edwin. Also, his dialogue lines are way better than Edwin's; 3- Coran has a very low find traps ability when you get him, so you'll need to keep another thief around until he levels up at least twice! 4- you cannot get Skie unless Eldoth is in your party; 5- if you want an NPC that comes in pairs but not the other, just send the one you don't want to keep in an empty building on his own and remove him from the party. No need to kill him.
You should talk about roles in the party: Tank (Ajantis/Kagain) DPS (Jaheira/Montaron/Minsc) Archer (Khalid/Coran/Kivan) Cleric (Viconia/Branwen) Thief (Alora/Imoen/Montaron) Mage (Baleoth/Edwin/Imoen)
From a power gamer's perspective, this is probably the best thing to do. But I think the best thing about Baldur's Gate is the NPC interaction and you miss out on a lot of that making your own party members.
Unless you play with mods and insane difficulty, you dont have to power game that hard to beat it as bg1 is pretty easy. I'd say go with the npcs that stand out with you for the best experience.
Yeslick and Monti are not not an F-Tier - as well as Neera, Baeloth and Dorn from EE. Khalid isnt that bad either. The problem of most companions is the late pick up time, as Pathulhu already said.
@@steffenk1371 And it is precisely why everyone else is F tier. They are "serviceable" but that does not make them worthwhile. Most of the better characters you can pick up in the first hour of game. Also EE new characters writing is pure shit.
Monti is at the veeeery least A tier, and Viconia is definitely S tier. She is incredibly good with her insane MR, high dexterity and perfect wisdom. Kivan is definitely not S tier. His con is trash, so he is a bad melee fighter, which makes him a worse version if Khalid.
Except Kivan doesn't go all 'better part of valor' all the time. I take Jahera and Khalid and then take all of Khalid's stuff and walk him out to get killed by hobgoblins first thing.
I would suggest that almost ALL of these NPCs no decently built and played Party will ever NEED! Except maybe for a specific quest or event. Then the NPC can be dropped. But the NPCs do add options - and that's their purpose. I have NEVER TAKEN A CLERIC. EVER! Waste of a Party slot. I tried to load a BG MOD today but couldn't do so, due to "ERROR". I followed all the instructions. Can you please do a video on installing MODS? Thanks. M 🦘🏏😎
