Recommended Class for Canon Party

[mike_hanna211]

Was looking for suggestions or advice on a good class to fill-out a canon party playthrough.

For clarification, the 'canon' party is (and what I plan their roles to be):

Imoen (thief, ranged support; Open Locks and Find/Remove Traps focus)
Khalid (fighter; primary tank, sword and board)
Jaheira (fighter/druid; melee and ranged support, 2-handed, and healer OR controller)
Minsc (ranger; melee and ranged support, 2-handed)
Dynaheir (invoker; damage-dealer OR controller)

So party composition is 3 that can melee, 1 thief, 1 healer (druid), and 1 mage. A 2nd thief is probably not required. And with 3 characters than can melee, I don't think any classes of the warrior archetype would be needed. I'm leaning towards a cleric or mage.

If I take a cleric, I would be primary healer and support and Jaheira can focus on more offensive druidic spells (controlling enemies, summons, etc.).

If I take a specialist mage, I would probably go towards controller, since Dynaheir specializes in Evocation.

Suggestions?

[Armanz]

Wrong forum, but a specialist mage sounds pretty good in this composition if you know what you're doing.

[fauxpas]

I personally like a multi fighter/thief, used as a midline fighter, but a fighter/cleric would probably work better.

[frdnwsm]

OK, I take it you are going for a full play through? BG1, SoD, SoA and finally ToB?

If so, take a berserker. Not to give anything away, but Khalid is not available in SoA or ToB, so your "tank" will have thrown a tread. You might want to give yourself a high Int to dual over to mage later on; I preferred to go all the way as a berserker kit, so I picked half-orc as a race rather than human. Berserkers have ridiculous immunity to a number of status effects.

On the other hand, if you are only interested in finishing BG1, then I'd suggest elven fighter/mage. A pure mage will get killed a depressing number of times before getting high enough level to have decent protections. As a level 1 mage, you can have, at most, 6 HP with no armor; you will die if a goblin archer so much as looks at you.

Fighter/cleric is of interest, as you can heal yourself and fellow party members. Not as many buff spells, though. Also, your weapon choices are quite limited (clerical weapons only).

[frdnwsm]

Also, I can't stand Minsc. He's obnoxious, not to mention totally insane. I'm stuck with him for a while in SoA, but I dump him ASAP in town and never use him again. If you can stomach his nonsense all the way through the series, Kudos to you.

[danconnors]

Having spent time as a kensai I find myself agreeing with you on the berserker. The kensai is the pure offence, the murderer, but the berserker is a very good killer, too. The berserker is a better survivor, and is much more independent than the kensai.

And agree with Minsc. Minsc is very hard to keep alive, is very easily mentally overcome. He is a very poor fighter. He is supposed to be "cute". But I see nothing appealing in a fighter that can't fight his way out of hardly any situation.

[red255]

yeah.

so the party has imoen dualed to mage, and dynaheir. thats 2 mages and a partial thief
its got Minsc and Khalid and Jahiera, thats 2.5 melee and a .5 healer.
so I sort of feel the PC should be a Fighter/cleric. or a fighter/thief.

mage is a big no.

regarding Kensai vs beserker. a kensai in BG1 is something you feed potions of defense to.

in BG2 you cast barkskin on. its fine. potions of defense are given out like candy.

[frdnwsm]

One final comment. Minsc supposedly has berserker abilities, however, once berserk, you cannot control his actions, which is pretty annoying. In SoA, Minsc will become fixated on Aerie as a replacement for the dead Dynaheir. If Aerie dies ... which happens a LOT since, for a cleric/mage, her HP total sucks big time ... he goes berserk. I stick them both in the Copper Coronet as soon as we get there, never to emerge again.

In SoA, the berserker has one huge edge over the Kensai; while berserk, they are IMMUNE TO LEVEL DRAIN. Considering how, in Athkatla, the fight against the Vampires is a giant portion of the plot, this tips the scales in the Berserker's favor.

With certain gear that is available later on, the Kensai indeed becomes a murder machine. During the Hell Trials at the end of SoA, among other things I picked up 15% magic resistance and immunity to normal weapons. I then improved some stats using the Machine of LtM. By mid ToB, I have the Cloak of Mirroring, Paws of the Cheetah, Amulet of Seldarine and the +6 version of Ravager. With Grand Mastery in Halberds, I have a THACO of -22. Using Greater Whirlwind, enemies just evaporate. But it took a LOT of work to get to that point.

As mentioned, berserkers are equally OP in the end game, and are more durable in the mid game. I completed my first run through ... BG1 through ToB ... with one.

[AlexMBrennan]

they are IMMUNE TO LEVEL DRAIN. Considering how, in Athkatla, the fight against the Vampires is a giant portion of the plot, this tips the scales in the Berserker's favor.

Given the easy availability of the IMoD (which confers the same immunity) it seems very shortsighted to pick a class to specifically counter some of the easiest enemies in the game.

[frdnwsm]

Oh please, immunity to level drain is just one of the status effects to which a Berserker is immune. The full list is absurdly long. I simply mention drain immunity as a particlarly useful bonus in one section of the game. There are other means of immunity to level drain, such a negative plane protection spell (too short lived to be practical in an extended combat) and the amulet of power, but these are more limited in scope. You can even turn Slayer, once you get that ability, but that comes with a hit to reputation.

Also, the procedure for getting the IMoD is not that obvious, and players new to the game might well not even be aware that such an item even exists, while the Berserker immunities are spelled out in the descrption of the kit.

In any event, having two characters immune to level drain can only be a benefit. Give the mace to a clerical type with a spec in maces and have your Berserker join him/her, and you will have two front liners able to melee level draining undead.

[James_M]

Try Cleric/Ranger if you've not yet tried. Good healer, and can self-buff to be an excellent fighter.

[red255]

Originally posted by mike_hanna211:

Was looking for suggestions or advice on a good class to fill-out a canon party playthrough.

For clarification, the 'canon' party is (and what I plan their roles to be):

Imoen (thief, ranged support; Open Locks and Find/Remove Traps focus)
Khalid (fighter; primary tank, sword and board)
Jaheira (fighter/druid; melee and ranged support, 2-handed, and healer OR controller)
Minsc (ranger; melee and ranged support, 2-handed)
Dynaheir (invoker; damage-dealer OR controller)

So party composition is 3 that can melee, 1 thief, 1 healer (druid), and 1 mage. A 2nd thief is probably not required. And with 3 characters than can melee, I don't think any classes of the warrior archetype would be needed. I'm leaning towards a cleric or mage.

If I take a cleric, I would be primary healer and support and Jaheira can focus on more offensive druidic spells (controlling enemies, summons, etc.).

If I take a specialist mage, I would probably go towards controller, since Dynaheir specializes in Evocation.

Suggestions?

I thought a canon party was a party that focused on ranged attacks lol.

so thats the canon party for the END of BG1. its missing a cleric really, so Id suggest a fighter cleric multiclass for BG1. also the game gives you 3 tomes of WIS so its really favoring a WIS playthru class.

BG2 we are going to need to replace 2-3 of those members with more or less temporary slots.

Imoen is replaced with Yoshimo,
Dynaheir is replaced by Aerie.
Khalid is replaced by whatever NPC you are doing a quest of until you finally replace him in ToB with the guy you get for the duration of ToB.

leaving you without a dedicated high level mage unless you rush the main quest to restore Imoen into your team

Meaning a Fighter/Mage would be more appropriate for BG2.

Obviously you could pick a less canon party and do with some other class. RPG choices etc.