Party Composition, Here we go again... Options

[Zarathustra]

For a new game (having messed up my first, highly educational one), I'd like to form a very strong party composed of Bioware NPCs (with minor or appropriate tweaks, e.g. Anomen -> Priest of Helm or Minsc -> Berserker). In the hope that I'm not bothering anyone, I'd like to submit the following for the resident experts' 'approval'.

PC Vagrant - axe, long sword, flail, club
Minsc (SK'ed to Berserker) - greatsword, halberd, spear
Anomen - hammer, mace, flail
Haer'Dalis - short sword, scimitar, dagger, long sword
Cernd - staff, spear
Nalia -> Imoen - staff, dagger

Now, I have two problems with this party: first, it contains two characters who will never be able to do anything much in melee, and one who will shine defensively but not do much damage. (In my last game, two straight warriors and two semi-warriors seemed barely enough, even when buffed to the rim.) Secondly, while I would like a sorceress at least from Chapter 4 onwards, that would mean wasting much experience on Nalia.


So my questions are:

(1) Is a Berserker (with Minsc's stats and two-handed weapon focus) preferable to Valygar (with his powerful equipment in late SoA) or even Keldorn (I am quite wary of him in IA)?

(2) Is the party as a whole capable of enough melee havoc, in your opinion?

(3) Is Nalia preferable to Imoen in the long run? I'd have them both again, but that seemed like overkill (then again, I didn't make it all that far...).


Of course, any quite unrelated or unorthodox advice on party composition is welcome!

This post has been edited by Zarathustra: Feb 3 2008, 08:28 PM

[Zarathustra]

Thanks for the advice. I have decided to tamper with Jaheira's and Minsc's classes anyway, because minor dialogue inconsistencies don't bother me; a Ranger/Cleric calling herself a Druid occasionally is acceptable, in my opinion. I have dropped the Viconia idea, not least due to the 20 rep issue, which I had just forgotten about. Next time, maybe.

Anyway, so far (approx. 300k XP) I have:

Vagrant
Minsc (Barbarian)
Anomen
Jaheira (R/C)
Nalia

Normally, I'd follow Sikret's advice to use both Nalia and Imoen at the drop of a hat; but in my last game, I used a very similar party composition (Valygar instead of Minsc and Jaheira unmodified) and felt the need for a proper arcane tank, or just generally more melee power. So right now the plan is to pick up Haer'Dalis ASAP, use Nalia until leaving for Spellhold, then take Yoshimo (for the extra XP in Chapter 6) and replace him with Imoen soon afterwards.

If I used Keldorn instead of Haer'Dalis, I would indeed feel better about two dedicated arcanists in the party, since he would be a considerable melee boost. However, not only can he apparently be turned, but I am unsure about the value of his Dispel Magic and True Sight: the former has been - quite rightly - nerfed, it seems, and anyway could create more problems than it solved in a game as buff-dependent as IA; meanwhile, True Sight will in IA often fail to affect those I most want it to affect, namely enemy mages. With his special abilites and Carsomyr tuned down, and an added liability to be turned, he seems sub-optimal.

So basically, what I am considering as Plan B is whether to use Keldorn OR Valygar instead of the Blade, thus 'allowing' me to take both Nalia and Imoen (instead of Jaheira, perhaps). Thoughts?

This post has been edited by Zarathustra: Feb 4 2008, 02:15 PM