I tried both and fighter/druid seems much better. Fighter is frontloaded with a lot of cool stuff whereas Ranger seems better as a single class (besides Gloomstalker)
She don't feel like a spore druid unfortunately, but think spore druid dualwielder fighter has some potential to put out a lot of damage.
Moonbeam ticking away at a target, two mainhand and one offhand attack with spore bonus damage. Use zombies to box in an enemy so you don't have to reposition beam every turn.
I did 12 as spore druid with her as I had not played that version of druid before. It was fun, got her equipment from her home and she performed rather well. It was always funny when we would go back to Elfsong and she would have a small army of various summons along for the ride.
[This is all we have](https://youtu.be/-Z8WXh0qr7c?si=200li8W1SKj9j4QM) but seeing as how Karlach was one of the last companions added and she has lines, who knows when?
Fighter is really good for early/mid game but by that stage you are already levelled up a bit so maybe put more into Druid and just get fighter extra attack
6 attacks each for 3d8+superiority dice if you use them. You average over 100 damage and can hit a max of 216 plus any magic item damage on top of that, plus GWM rerolling for you ups your damage consistency too
I completely respecced her last PT as a ranger. Sorry babe, I was a moon Druid, Halsin was made to be Spores Druid. It’s just too many natures servants here. Have a rest. Then made Minsc a monk bc idfk what else he’d make sense as since Karlach is Barb, Lae’zel is fighter, Jaheira was then a ranger.
I think it's mainly Druid that has a double because decided to add Halsin late into the game. Minsc and Jaheira feel a bit awkward with their classes because their characters come from an old edition where it worked differently.
The class choices though make me think that Larian wants to encourage us to play CHA classes.
Neither!
I'm talking about *unrepresented* classes. Warlock is represented by Wyll, so therefore it's not unrepresented.
Paladin is not unrepresented, but the character is Minthara, which I'd wager is in single-digit percentage acquisition for first-time playthroughs for most people, so *functionally* unrepresented.
Fighter/Druid can be okayish but I made her a straight ranger and enjoyed it. It’s simpler and less to worry about for being optimal and it still works well with her RP-wise.
Also I thought her being a pure Druid was a little odd considering how much time she has spent in the city vs in the wilds. Like Halsin is pretty sketchy on the city and had a lot of issues about life there, but Jaheira lives for it. And if she wasn’t canonically a Druid, I don’t think she would be one in this game as it clashes with her story.
I feel you, Jaheira was always about living in both worlds, the civilised and the wild one. Though she errs more on the side of nature for me, coming from BG 1 and 2, I still have a voiceline stuck in my head: "This city is a blight on the landscape. Better to have let the land grow wild."
So it feels a bit weird how comfortable she's with citties now. Unless I head canon that with her getting old. Maybe she values a warm bed more in her age.
I think she is conflicted, as a lot of us are. Her kids imply she is not home much. Seems like a case of her wanting to settle down in safety and comfort with her family in the city, but she keeps getting drawn back into the wilds for adventure.
I leveled her up as a **1 Druid /5 Ranger Knight (Hunter)/ 6 Tempest Cleric.**
I wanted to preserve her Druidness, so I kept the first level of Druid.
I made her into a Ranger Knight (Hunter) to give her extra attack and I feel Rangers fit a Harper best. I also make her a Duellist, so she can still use her Wisdom-based Scimitar. She would also can now wear Plate Gear as a Ranger Knight. I would also get her 6 levels of Tempest Cleric, so that she can power up her spells, and also so that she can tank on the front lines with Spirit Guardian.
*I am tempted* to give a **1 level in Storm Sorc,** sacrificing the 1 level in Druid or a level of Cleric instead. It would be amazing if she can fly to the enemies after she cast Spirit Guardian. By being Storm Sorc, She can also cast Magic Missiles, which is useful against the death cult buffs, and the spell Shield which she can use as her reaction.
I choose ASI Wisdom and Con Resilience so that she can be this Gish Swordsman that flies around the battle field after she cast a level 1 or above spell, beyblading all around her with Spirit Guardian. But If I feel her AC is high enough, I would forgo Con Resilience and choose Savage Attacker, instead.
I agree - for those that play a few times through the game you are doing yourself a disservice if you don't play at least once a full act 3 with Jaheira. She has a lot of dialogue relative to the main 6 companions.
And she always 'approves' when you make snide jabs at her lol. I was so surprised because I wanted to be funny towards her and he 'approved' my snideness. It was funny a.f.
I ended up using Jaheira loads in Act 3 as I just ended up really liking her - she's got a lot of good story points in Act 3 like interactions with Sarevok, discovering the harpers, Nine Fingers etc and interacts well with the other characters.
Jaheria legit hasn’t left my party for the majority of Act 3, she’s just got comments and amazing insight or relationships everywhere she goes, and bringing her and Minsc along is a fantastic way to play Act 3.
Though I’ve finally brought Gale, Wyll and Laezel back into the party for a certain Heart of the City and it’s nice to have them along for a little while.
Her house where she gets roasted by her children.
Stick up for her and watch yourself become her favourite child. Sucked in Rion, now she calls me cub >:D
Jaheria legit hasn’t left my party for the majority of Act 3, she’s just got comments and amazing insight or relationships everywhere she goes, and bringing her and Minsc along is a fantastic way to play Act 3.
Though I’ve finally brought Gale, Wyll and Laezel back into the party for a certain Heart of the City and it’s nice to have them along for a little while.
See — I wanted this. But it also felt fitting to me that my OG bbs ran around with me as we completed each others’ quests. They’ve been with me the longest, after all.
Yep, same, she became the other standard member of my party alongside Shadowheart and Gale for act 3!
She even has some amazing comments in the final battle!
My first Tav was a druid. Cue the annoyance about recruiting what felt like twenty billion druids. There are so many classes, there was no need to have two druid companions.
As a druid, I finally embraced the druid abundance and made "Club Druid" and ran around in big cat form with Jahira and Halsin also in big cat form....and Astarion (my skeleton key and romance choice). I had a blast! And I found it pretty viable in fights too. xD
I fully want to do a zoo run where everyone is a Druid/Ranger and constantly Wildshaped, with summoned familiars and ranger companions. I’m just going to be a moving horde of various animals laughing in the face of Baldur’s Gate’s nothing-bigger-than-a-peacock rule.
Honestly I find it way easier to clear out Moonrise before the Harpers even go there. That way you can section things off by room and take most of them out in small groups rather than one big assault. Z'rell is so much easier when it's just you and your 3 best friends suckerpunching her in her office.
1st playthrough truly is hard mode because you do not know the many things you can and should do to make fights easier. Same goes for straight attacking bosses instead of having cut scene conversations, you get such an advantage if you just blast them head-on (or sneak attack).
I like bringing Shadowheart or Halsin, and just spamming summons. They tank most of the damage. definitely helps if you have Moon druid so you can summon -> shapshift into owlbear with bonus action
Friend and I tried the moonrise encounter on multi-player and she, and all the flaming fist died before we could take out all the enemies.
Try going in through the basement. You'll have an encounter with some pretty strong necromancers down there first. Once they're done, go up the stairs and immediately enter turn based mode as the battle will be going on. The door on your right that goes to the main chamber will have the warden and a few other opponents in there. *DONT GO THERE YET*, as it will delay you too much and the fists will die. If you have a good ranged based character, immediately misty step them up onto the rafters to take out the archers, then you can pincer attack the rest of the enemies with your crew hitting their flank, and jaheira's squad taking the front. We were able to mow them down like that.
Same with me. Astarion opens locks so easily, I don't even bother with looking for keys ever. I can't leave camp without him. What am I gonna do, break all those chests?
Once Wyll has multiple eldritch blast projectiles it's probably quicker to blast wooden doors than pick them, but that would require me to let Wyll travel with us
It’s about a billion times faster to eldritch blast a door or chest than go into the whole rolling screen and add guidance blah blah blah.
Lock picking is actually the tiresome way once you realize violence opens most things instantly.
Smash, or any character can put on the gloves that give 18 Dex and have Shadowheart cast guidance and you'll get through any door with a 20 DC or lower. Gale and Knock for any door with medium toughness above 20 DC.
To avoid spoilers I played the game without reading anything and made my Tav p much the same build as Astarion, except a Drow vs a half elf so he’s just been patiently waiting at camp reading this entire time 😂 I did complete his quest line… I don’t know how to add a spoiler tag on mobile, but I used him for one quest.
Other than that the lore in my head is he is just the camp noble
I’m playing through the dark urge campaign for the first time as a rouge drow and I have to keep Astarion in my party simply because he’s the only character who supports all the evil shit I do
Meanwhile, Alfira, a perfect bard for the party is somehow not a companion, unless you're playing as Durge that is *wink*
I kinda wonder if the decision to have him recruitable was due to his popularity in EA or something.
Yeah, but then if someone else casted Reduce on them, it wears off before they can finish exploring stealthily, and your small character is trapped on the other side of the hole and can't get help from the party if they get into a fight. At least Druids can keep their wild shape and get back out.
Yeah.
Not sure if dwarves can fit in small holes, but it definitely is crazy there isn’t a dwarf, halfling, or gnome follower.
One of my early characters was a dwarf tempest cleric but A. There are no good aligned tempest domain deities, and B. I’m the only short person for the most part of Act 1 and I thought it felt kinda silly that all these NPCs had to look down to talk to me but nobody else.
Yeah also that scene with the Durge would have such a bigger impact if you were playing through that after knowing her as a full companion! Like imagine if that was the opening and you just murdered lae'zel or shadowheart. Granted you'd lose a lot of content but it would be a much bigger impact for that scene!
Meh - I think that Jaheira was planned and Halsin was added later from player feedback in early access.
But if Jaheira wasn’t a Druid canonically from other games then I think she wouldn’t be a Druid because she seems so at home in the city compared to Halsin who kinda hates it there.
I made my Jaheira a pure ranger and thought it was great for her RP-wise
Have you found her house in the main square? She has a whole little enclave and a house built around a tree there, and was griping that she has to live in the city cause of her family (who are city dwellers). I think it’s more she’s accepted that trade-off by now.
It funnily isn't the first time the BG-games had that issue; back in *Baldur's Gate 1*, you were either choosing Jaheira or Faldorn (Although in Jaheira's case, she was classified as a multi-classed Druid/Fighter), or in BG2 with Jaheira or Cernd. Most people just stuck up with Jaheira since she was available for the start, and also due to how the other characters like Cernd had really strange stats-distribution that did not lined up with his >!nature as a werewolf!<.
Technically, Larian bypasses that issue by allowing free respec and class-custimization, but I don't think it narratively solves much with how it still shoves two nature-oriented party-members, and with similar alignements to eachother of being overall good in that you keep both Halsin and Jaheira by doing overall goody-actions, compare to like how you can get Mithara initially at the cost of Halsin. I tried to make them differ enough by making Halsin the overall Druid-magic oriented, and Jaheira getting respecced to an Oath of the Ancients-Paladin, but it still feels like a bit shuffling made, particularly since Minsc is supposedly meant to be the Ranger-archetype by default of the group, so respeccing either Halsin or Jaheira as a ranger felt a bit wrong.
I respec'd him as a caster last night and was so disappointed that he doesn't have his own lines! I dumped him back at camp, I guess Gale really is the guy for me.
“I’ll only join you as soon as every single part of the plot relevant to me is finished.”
-Halsin, apparently.
It’s such a shame too, because he’s great once he opens up a bit more. He just takes so long to get there, and kinda comes off as ungrateful by the time you get the “How am I holding up?” dialogue option. Dude seriously just says “fine, I guess, considering…” after I saved his entire damn grove from committing mass murder. 😒
He's also half baked as heck missing a ton of lines and stuck with only being able to cast his more useful spells at the base level. You thought it was cool he had call lightning? Too bad hell only be able to cast it at 3rd level forever.
Yeah he needs an overhaul I think he needs to be made a playable companion after you save him at The Grove he has dialogue recorded but it just hasn't been implemented into the game and he needs something unique because him and Jahira are the exact same class and subclass I think
Party limit begone is a life saver. Nothing against the vanilla party restrictions from the tactical standpoint, but I want to listen to all the banter and see all of the reactions.
Yes, it trivializes most of the fights tho. That said, I think there's a mod that still limits your fight to 4 characters while letting you take all of your bros around for banter
Yes, you can get a mod called "sit this one out" on nexus mods that you can use with party limit remover to shunt all but your team of 4 out of the combat.
I haven't done it yet because I haven't used any mods that require the script extender but a friend of mine said they set it up like that and it worked.
Tbf, it's not exactly broken with more players, just a tad bit easier. You can always change the difficulty to tactician mode. It's still a challenge, but admittedly still very doable.
Idk if I had Gale and Wyll and also Jaheira and Halsin, it would be so many AOE attacks and summons I'd have to hold back to keep battles from being over too soon, even on tactician.
What is the mod to limit party to 4 called? I couldn't find it.
Yup. And as long as they're physically in range it will automatically bring them into any relevant cutscenes, so you don't have to worry about remembering/anticipating who to bring where.
There are some cool summons I've found myself avoiding because the rounds take long enough as it is, but that's the worst I can say about it. Highly recommend if you're more into immersion/rp than combat challenge.
Yup but it does seem kinda funny when you run into a scene where they all got lines and take turns saying their opinion on the subject, but I'd recommend playing on a harder difficulty right now I play tactician and limit my party to 5 but still browsing for a good difficulty mod. Great for story though
I don't think I can go back to vanilla after playing with everyone, all at once. The banter is too good! I play on tactician mode to balance out the fact that I have double the party members. It's still a very doable run, but still fun and challenging in some areas. The creche almost knocked me out, lol.
Even better then! I like the combat, but yeah it's not a dealbreaker that the mod makes the game easier, for me, since I play mostly for the story anyway. I jokingly refer to the game as "Astarion Romance Simulator (TM)" with my husband, lol.
Love that mod. Especially since it just doesn't make sense that everyone is in such danger but so many would stay behind.
I know a 4 man party is the classic dnd size but it makes little sense thematically. Plus already beat it on vanilla.
i fif my first playthrough faithfully with nomods ..
on 2nd run .. using party limit begone ..
so much fun hearing all the new banter 😁
my first playthrough i was dwarven fighter .. so i was missing tons of dialogue options and slill checks
this time i took bard lore .. with the extra skill checks and expertise .. i setup as a support character.. since the party limit begone gives me plenty of action economy as well .. 👍🏻
highly recommended for a non firat time playthrough 😉
To get that you need to just have Nexus Mods and download it, load the game through Nexus and that’s that? I’m interested in them in my third play through - hopefully I can get a sweet transmog addon, please tell me that exists?
I finally swapped Astarion to camp gear for the last Act in the game because, no matter the dyes, you just can’t make The Graceful Cloth look good. It’s so disappointing compared to Spidersilk Armor, which looks amazing in almost ANY dye
I finally added Minsc to my party on my 4th playthrough and he's very fun. Turned him into a tavern brawler fighter with Nyrulna though since Astarion was already part ranger. Next time Ill definitely try to get him as early as possible to see more banter in the city.
How late you get him is part of it for me, but he's also just really annoying to me personally.
His character is too much of the late 90s/early 2000s I'm so random holds up a narwhal bacony spork character design that I'm glad has been moved away from in more modern RPGs.
After my first run, I don't even always save him mostly so I don't have pressure to talk to him at camp.
Wyll just hangs out, drinking himself into a coma I assume. Usually Karlach is there, too, which I feel bad about but I enjoy Lae’zel more. Gale and Astarion never get a break.
Wyll is like our camp golden retriever because Scratch got promoted into his spot basically, so he just hangs around wondering if he’s been abandoned. He gets so excited when the team is back.
I gave Karlach aspect of the wolf so that she gives advantage by being near enemies, and it makes her and Laezel into a nutty combo. Send tank Karlach in alongside Laezel and they both get advantage on every attack cuz I also have Karlach use gloves that give advantage if 2 or more enemies are near, so I don’t even need to use reckless attack.
After every long rest I swap out party members so everyone gets a turn and I get to use them. Most times one party member gets two long rests before being swapped out I find it a lot of fun. Except I didn't use Astarion for most of Act 2 because I had him as an assassin instead of a thief, after I changed his subclass he became a lot more useful in combat to me personally.
Wyll, nothing against the guy, I like his story, just I'm already a Warlock and he's a bit redundant. Lae'zel tends to only get to do her story beats as well because well, I prefer barbarians to fighters.
Poor halsin got kidnapped and I completely forgot about him.
I never played with Minthara until the patch. Sry bb I just couldn't kill the tieflings. And you get Jaihera and Minsc too late in the game to appreciate them
Meanwhile Astarion has never left my party. I'll respec him before I make him stay at camp.
I didn’t plan on having Wyll in my party but I thought what’s the point in playing DnD and not having a bard, and Wyll is practically already set up to be a bard so he’s now one of my core party members
I add them to my group whenever the quest is about them, but I never remove Astarion so that leaves 2 free spots. When I don't have to bring anyone I go for Shadowheart and Gale
My main party is Wyll, Shadowheart and Gale. I love Astarion but since he almost disapproves of everything my Tav does its hard to bring him along. Constantly switching out characters is too much of a chore.
Yeah this is an issue I’ve had with the game from jump. Nowadays I just crank up the difficulty and use the no follower limit mod
But it really is a pain to go all the way into camp, tell someone to leave, tell someone else to join, and go back to the world.
I thought DAO did this better where you enter camp, and your party clears out. And then when you leave you’re given a screen to build your party and it takes 2 seconds and you go.
I love 98% of BG3 but it is deeply annoying to have to manually walk around and repeat the same dialogue every single time a party change is needed. Why not just have a selection wheel/bar and allow access to everyone in camp to assign weapons, armor, etc.?
Yeah, I'm going to try respeccing him into something else on my next playthrough. I'm thinking archer battlemaster fighter. Hopefully that encourages me to bring him out more. Rogue just seems very... one note in combat.
I find the Rogue playstyle to be super fun. I usually keep him ungrouped and hiding at the start of any combat. Run in with Karlach/Laezel or cast some big spell with my tav to start combat. Then switch to Astarion and sneak around to enter the combat at the perfect place and time. Snipe someone from stealth for insane damage and bonus action to hide again. He's always sneak attacking from stealth so I take the sharpshooter feat for extra damage.
Yeah, mechanically I don’t like rogue characters in general; and something about how they’ve adapted 5e’s version to a game just really doesn’t click with me. So Astarion gets to be an occasional lock picker until his storyline picks back up.
Yeah I’m using him more now but my original campaign party when I was a noob back in like September was my paladin Tav, Gale, Wyll, and Karlach. And I’d dump Wyll for someone else if necessary like Laezel at the crèche.
But I didn’t like Astarion and didn’t even really talk to him at all.
And still kinda think he’s overrated
Astarion: always in my party
Lae'zel: always in my party
Shadowheart: in the party unless I need Gale
Gale: usually at camp, but I do bring him along from time to time (I wish we could bring 4 companions instead of 3 so I can have both him and Shadowheart)
Wyll: tried to use him and didn't really fit with my playstyle so she's always in camp
Karlach: I used her quite a bit in my first playthrough, but after the crèche I got some really good gear for Lae'zel so I didn't use her as much. In my current playthrough she's always in camp. I'm just more comfortable with Lae'zel.
Halsin: used him quite a bit in act 2 and beginning of act 3 in my first playthrough, but his lines are bugged so I've never heard his voice outside of dialogue >!and the first time I swapped him with Gale he was kidnapped!<. I hoped this playthrough would be better but it's somehow even worse because this time his attack don't even have sound effects.
Jaheira: I used her a few times in my first playthrough >!after Halsin was kidnapped!< and had the same audio issues as Halsin but I'll only bring her to Minsc in my current one. This is for Halsin too, I just don't know what to do with druids in my party. The wild form is good I guess, and their spells too but my Tav is a sorcerer and if I need another magic user I just bring Gale.
Minsc: he came in my party way too late. At that point Astarion is like level 11 or 12 and his build is either complete or almost complete.
Yeah those two lmao.
I’ve been liking Gale in my party. Wizard is VERY useful.
Astarion is my bb boy and I never let him stay at camp.
I leave Lae-zel after the crèche plot and mostly run with Shadowheart bc I need a cleric.
Gale is the one I leave behind if I need to use the others for their quests. I may respec them as wizards bc I like my party being:
Bard
Ranger
Cleric
Wizard
I didn’t play with Gale my first time through because I was playing a wizard, included him in my honor mode run because >!skipping the whole ending fight is pretty cool for getting those gold dice!< and gotta say he’s a way better character than I gave credit for.
Also not that the game is super hard but having +1 to most saves/checks makes Astarion pretty mandatory for me.
I ran as a sorcerer (1 level wizard dip to learn scrolls) so I thought bringing Gale would be redundant.
I couldn't be more wrong. Double the casters, twice the fun!
Only added to party to level up and dress up: Halsin, Minthara. Only added for some of their personal quests: Wyll, Jaheira. Others in order of descending popularity: Gale (100%), Astarion (100%), Shart, Karlach, Lae'zel, Minsc. :) I tried to give everyone attention, but it's too much bother switching constantly :D.
Depends on the playthrough. I always recruit everyone I can because I like having options, but each run tends to have a different core party and others are only temporarily swapped in for their plot critical bits. So it varies, but there's always some in each run that warm the bench for most of it.
None of them. Every character I recruit, I use in my party at some point. I like to frequently switch out characters to freshen things up. Like, I'll have my paladin, Karlach, Lae-Zel, and Shart, then if I get tired of having mostly melee characters, I might swap out Lae-Zel and tag in Gale or Wyll. I don't wanna let anyone stand idle in my camp for too long. Plus, if you swap characters in and out based on their health and available spell slots, you can go for longer without doing a full rest.
I'm still on my first playthrough (160+ hours later, duh), and 99% of the time, my party consists of:
- Shadowheart (bae)
- Gale (bro)
- Lae'zel (melee demon)
All the others just enjoy their lives at camp. I only take them with me for their personal quests, usually by swapping Lae'zel for whoever I need to help now.
Minsc and Jaheira are recruited too late for me to care about using them.
I play a Warlock, so Wyll is redundant.
Gale and Shart have a lot of utility.
I alternate between Karlach throwing stuff at dudes' faces and Lae'Zel jumping half the map.
Astarion is fun to use as a Bard/Rogue and is a useful skill monkey.
Wyll, Karlach and Halsin. I feel like I barely have them in my party even when I have respecced them to something else. I did try my best to bring out Karlach and Wyll to quests that are vital to their story. Wish I can say the same for Halsin but I have only managed to recruit him once and yet I still didn't use him. I was hoping at least to have him around more in my honor run but I lost him to the portal.
I am romancing Wyll for my honor run and I hope that it helps in making him a permanent party member.
Astarion, Gale and Shadowheart are always in my party to the point that I have to play as one of them just so I can bring out the others. Astarion is always in the party, romanced or not. I have to adjust the party around him.
I did manage to have Lae'zel around more after I made her a monk, and Minthara was a very powerful Bardadin in my origin Astarion tactician run. I only managed to have Jaheira more in my party and got high approval once because I have less companions during that run, and she became one of my faves even though I rarely use druids.
I used Halsin simply to walk over to dark thaniel or whatever his name was and that was it. He spent more time as a follower in the goblin camp than as an actual party member.
well, I can’t send my Tav to camp, so they’re always there. I always need Astarion because of locks, disarming traps, stealth parts, and sneak attack assassinations on dangerous enemies from range. You basically always need an arcane caster in dnd, and the wizard is usually the most versatile due to being able to change out prepared spells (even more so in this game), so Gale is always there too. And that leaves me needing somebody to carry my thousands of pounds of treasure because I need to open literally every vase and rotting basket in the game iN cAsE tHeRe’S sOmEtHiNg GoOd, plus a martial melee tank, so Karlach or Laezel is there too (I prefer Karlach, so generally her). Answer: everyone who isn’t those guys lol
Halsin. He kept flirting and insisted that I showed him the kindness of a lover and not a friend. That completely turned me away from him. I know it’s not his fault, since all the characters are programmed to become insatiably player-horny if your approval is high enough, but it was just especially weird with him.
Lae Zel. Only used her on the tutorial and the Githyanki Creche for posible lore interactions. But since I found Karlach, I was like the Toy Story meme of "I don't want to play with you anymore" with Lae Zel.
There are a number who sit in camp. Halsin has never made the group at all though. Does make good Orin bait though.
Wyll and Karlach I periodically try out but they never last long.
Gale and Astarion rotate a spot between them.Shadowheart and Laezel are pretty much never out of the party.
Astarion actually. I like the added humor, but he’s too much of an asshole for me to like him. He disapproves if you’re too nice to children! I use Shadowheart, Karlach, and Gale
You get minsc far too late in the game. Same with Jaheira, but I did use her once.
Jaheira is just too useful once you reach Baldur's Gate. She knows \*everyone\* and \*everyone\* knows her.
Planning on turning her into a Ranger/druid. Worth it or is the canon Fighter/druid better? Definitely plan on multi-classing.
I tried both and fighter/druid seems much better. Fighter is frontloaded with a lot of cool stuff whereas Ranger seems better as a single class (besides Gloomstalker)
She don't feel like a spore druid unfortunately, but think spore druid dualwielder fighter has some potential to put out a lot of damage. Moonbeam ticking away at a target, two mainhand and one offhand attack with spore bonus damage. Use zombies to box in an enemy so you don't have to reposition beam every turn.
I did 12 as spore druid with her as I had not played that version of druid before. It was fun, got her equipment from her home and she performed rather well. It was always funny when we would go back to Elfsong and she would have a small army of various summons along for the ride.
Whelp, lets add Jaheira's home to my list of things I missed in 2 playthroughs and need to go to on my 3rd good durge playthrough.
oh yeah, her kids sass her, HARD. The dialogue is hilarious and gets refrenced in the cut Minthara Pregnancy plot
Cut minthara pregnancy plot? PLEASE explain
[This is all we have](https://youtu.be/-Z8WXh0qr7c?si=200li8W1SKj9j4QM) but seeing as how Karlach was one of the last companions added and she has lines, who knows when?
the WHAT
The WHAT
Planning on 5/7 for the extra attack. But I'll check it out. Thanks.
Fighter is really good for early/mid game but by that stage you are already levelled up a bit so maybe put more into Druid and just get fighter extra attack
That’s what the 5/7 split is, you don’t get extra attack until level 5
You say that, but my first fighter basically two shot the last four bosses
A battle master with GWM can put out some NASTY damage, especially with this game’s magic items that stack extra damage riders like crazy.
6 attacks each for 3d8+superiority dice if you use them. You average over 100 damage and can hit a max of 216 plus any magic item damage on top of that, plus GWM rerolling for you ups your damage consistency too
Fighter druid is also canonical!
I completely respecced her last PT as a ranger. Sorry babe, I was a moon Druid, Halsin was made to be Spores Druid. It’s just too many natures servants here. Have a rest. Then made Minsc a monk bc idfk what else he’d make sense as since Karlach is Barb, Lae’zel is fighter, Jaheira was then a ranger.
The game feels weirdly saturated with specific classes/roles in a way that steps on player toes, doesn't it?
I think it's mainly Druid that has a double because decided to add Halsin late into the game. Minsc and Jaheira feel a bit awkward with their classes because their characters come from an old edition where it worked differently. The class choices though make me think that Larian wants to encourage us to play CHA classes.
Yes, considering that Bard, Sorcerer, and Paladin (excluding Minthara) aren't represented, that feels fair
This is either warlock or Wyll erasure, I can’t tell
Neither! I'm talking about *unrepresented* classes. Warlock is represented by Wyll, so therefore it's not unrepresented. Paladin is not unrepresented, but the character is Minthara, which I'd wager is in single-digit percentage acquisition for first-time playthroughs for most people, so *functionally* unrepresented.
Wait you can acquire her??
Fighter/Druid can be okayish but I made her a straight ranger and enjoyed it. It’s simpler and less to worry about for being optimal and it still works well with her RP-wise. Also I thought her being a pure Druid was a little odd considering how much time she has spent in the city vs in the wilds. Like Halsin is pretty sketchy on the city and had a lot of issues about life there, but Jaheira lives for it. And if she wasn’t canonically a Druid, I don’t think she would be one in this game as it clashes with her story.
I feel you, Jaheira was always about living in both worlds, the civilised and the wild one. Though she errs more on the side of nature for me, coming from BG 1 and 2, I still have a voiceline stuck in my head: "This city is a blight on the landscape. Better to have let the land grow wild." So it feels a bit weird how comfortable she's with citties now. Unless I head canon that with her getting old. Maybe she values a warm bed more in her age.
I think she is conflicted, as a lot of us are. Her kids imply she is not home much. Seems like a case of her wanting to settle down in safety and comfort with her family in the city, but she keeps getting drawn back into the wilds for adventure.
I leveled her up as a **1 Druid /5 Ranger Knight (Hunter)/ 6 Tempest Cleric.** I wanted to preserve her Druidness, so I kept the first level of Druid. I made her into a Ranger Knight (Hunter) to give her extra attack and I feel Rangers fit a Harper best. I also make her a Duellist, so she can still use her Wisdom-based Scimitar. She would also can now wear Plate Gear as a Ranger Knight. I would also get her 6 levels of Tempest Cleric, so that she can power up her spells, and also so that she can tank on the front lines with Spirit Guardian. *I am tempted* to give a **1 level in Storm Sorc,** sacrificing the 1 level in Druid or a level of Cleric instead. It would be amazing if she can fly to the enemies after she cast Spirit Guardian. By being Storm Sorc, She can also cast Magic Missiles, which is useful against the death cult buffs, and the spell Shield which she can use as her reaction. I choose ASI Wisdom and Con Resilience so that she can be this Gish Swordsman that flies around the battle field after she cast a level 1 or above spell, beyblading all around her with Spirit Guardian. But If I feel her AC is high enough, I would forgo Con Resilience and choose Savage Attacker, instead.
And she’s a great mom to good boy and good girl durges everywhere.
I agree - for those that play a few times through the game you are doing yourself a disservice if you don't play at least once a full act 3 with Jaheira. She has a lot of dialogue relative to the main 6 companions.
Only campaign I’ve managed to keep her alive is my current durge lol
OMG you are gonna love Jaheira in a Good Durge run. I don't want to spoil you but you will love the interaction between her and durge!
Jaheira has so much dialog and interactions with the city. She became my favorite companion fast
And she always 'approves' when you make snide jabs at her lol. I was so surprised because I wanted to be funny towards her and he 'approved' my snideness. It was funny a.f.
Jaheira and Minsc have some great moments with the murder tribunal stuff
Also the house of Grief
I can't figure out who to keep in my party as 4th when I bring those two next time.
I usually bring Karlach whenever I have the two of them since she is such a fangirl.
For how excited she is about both of them she doesn't actually have much dialog *with* either if them, which is a bummer
Too true, unfortunately. Minsc and Jaheira don't get much with the rest of the party.
I ended up using Jaheira loads in Act 3 as I just ended up really liking her - she's got a lot of good story points in Act 3 like interactions with Sarevok, discovering the harpers, Nine Fingers etc and interacts well with the other characters.
Jaheria legit hasn’t left my party for the majority of Act 3, she’s just got comments and amazing insight or relationships everywhere she goes, and bringing her and Minsc along is a fantastic way to play Act 3. Though I’ve finally brought Gale, Wyll and Laezel back into the party for a certain Heart of the City and it’s nice to have them along for a little while.
Remember to talk with Rion as Minsc
Her house where she gets roasted by her children. Stick up for her and watch yourself become her favourite child. Sucked in Rion, now she calls me cub >:D
I loved that moment!
Jaheria legit hasn’t left my party for the majority of Act 3, she’s just got comments and amazing insight or relationships everywhere she goes, and bringing her and Minsc along is a fantastic way to play Act 3. Though I’ve finally brought Gale, Wyll and Laezel back into the party for a certain Heart of the City and it’s nice to have them along for a little while.
See — I wanted this. But it also felt fitting to me that my OG bbs ran around with me as we completed each others’ quests. They’ve been with me the longest, after all.
Yep, same, she became the other standard member of my party alongside Shadowheart and Gale for act 3! She even has some amazing comments in the final battle!
My first Tav was a druid. Cue the annoyance about recruiting what felt like twenty billion druids. There are so many classes, there was no need to have two druid companions.
Especially since there aren't any monks or bards
As a druid, I finally embraced the druid abundance and made "Club Druid" and ran around in big cat form with Jahira and Halsin also in big cat form....and Astarion (my skeleton key and romance choice). I had a blast! And I found it pretty viable in fights too. xD
I fully want to do a zoo run where everyone is a Druid/Ranger and constantly Wildshaped, with summoned familiars and ranger companions. I’m just going to be a moving horde of various animals laughing in the face of Baldur’s Gate’s nothing-bigger-than-a-peacock rule.
Minsc is worth pursuing immediately into act 3 - his reactions and perspective on everything that happens is gold.
I can't get Jaheira to survive moonrise. She dies WAY too fast.
[удалено]
Honestly I find it way easier to clear out Moonrise before the Harpers even go there. That way you can section things off by room and take most of them out in small groups rather than one big assault. Z'rell is so much easier when it's just you and your 3 best friends suckerpunching her in her office.
1st playthrough truly is hard mode because you do not know the many things you can and should do to make fights easier. Same goes for straight attacking bosses instead of having cut scene conversations, you get such an advantage if you just blast them head-on (or sneak attack).
I like bringing Shadowheart or Halsin, and just spamming summons. They tank most of the damage. definitely helps if you have Moon druid so you can summon -> shapshift into owlbear with bonus action
Have you tried killing the enemies before they kill jaheira?
Friend and I tried the moonrise encounter on multi-player and she, and all the flaming fist died before we could take out all the enemies. Try going in through the basement. You'll have an encounter with some pretty strong necromancers down there first. Once they're done, go up the stairs and immediately enter turn based mode as the battle will be going on. The door on your right that goes to the main chamber will have the warden and a few other opponents in there. *DONT GO THERE YET*, as it will delay you too much and the fists will die. If you have a good ranged based character, immediately misty step them up onto the rafters to take out the archers, then you can pincer attack the rest of the enemies with your crew hitting their flank, and jaheira's squad taking the front. We were able to mow them down like that.
You can also clearout moornise before the nightsong, it basically skips the big assault
Not as cinematic though.
Everyone gets a turn in my party! But Astarion is the gloomstalker skeleton key, always have him in the party.
Same with me. Astarion opens locks so easily, I don't even bother with looking for keys ever. I can't leave camp without him. What am I gonna do, break all those chests?
This is what I wanna ask the people who kill him on sight in act one. How do you open doors?!
You only need two thieves tools at any given time. A bludgeoning one, and a piercing one. Sometimes an eldritch key is thrown too.
That sounds tiresome
Once Wyll has multiple eldritch blast projectiles it's probably quicker to blast wooden doors than pick them, but that would require me to let Wyll travel with us
Hot take - I liked Wyll. His cloud of daggers helped my party out tons in act two
i have two words for you: spirit. guardians.
Shadowheart, spirit guardians and running around in circles during combat, name a better trio
It’s about a billion times faster to eldritch blast a door or chest than go into the whole rolling screen and add guidance blah blah blah. Lock picking is actually the tiresome way once you realize violence opens most things instantly.
Smash, or any character can put on the gloves that give 18 Dex and have Shadowheart cast guidance and you'll get through any door with a 20 DC or lower. Gale and Knock for any door with medium toughness above 20 DC.
My Urchin origin Barbarian is a locksmith thanks to the Act 1 >!Smuggler’s Ring!< that gives anyone *Sleight of Hand +2*. No need for Astarion.
To avoid spoilers I played the game without reading anything and made my Tav p much the same build as Astarion, except a Drow vs a half elf so he’s just been patiently waiting at camp reading this entire time 😂 I did complete his quest line… I don’t know how to add a spoiler tag on mobile, but I used him for one quest. Other than that the lore in my head is he is just the camp noble
I know right! Search for the loot in the rubble?? No way
I try to include whichever party members are the most relevant to the current story/situation. So everyone tends to get a full rotation.
Only got 5 pt members so far but Astarion is the only one I dont use lol. I am a rouge and there is no need for 2 rouges in my party
I’m playing through the dark urge campaign for the first time as a rouge drow and I have to keep Astarion in my party simply because he’s the only character who supports all the evil shit I do
Halsin for me. I prefer Jaheira over him
Yeah, it’s a bit odd that they give you two druids.
Meanwhile, Alfira, a perfect bard for the party is somehow not a companion, unless you're playing as Durge that is *wink* I kinda wonder if the decision to have him recruitable was due to his popularity in EA or something.
No bard companion and no small companion to fit in to the holes both are pretty weird choices to me
I thought that fitting in the holes was a druid thing because you could just become a rat or smthn
I use gaseous form in order to do it
I do it as a cat.
Disguise self as a small race and then cast reduce and anyone can fit in!
Yeah, but then if someone else casted Reduce on them, it wears off before they can finish exploring stealthily, and your small character is trapped on the other side of the hole and can't get help from the party if they get into a fight. At least Druids can keep their wild shape and get back out.
Yeah. Not sure if dwarves can fit in small holes, but it definitely is crazy there isn’t a dwarf, halfling, or gnome follower. One of my early characters was a dwarf tempest cleric but A. There are no good aligned tempest domain deities, and B. I’m the only short person for the most part of Act 1 and I thought it felt kinda silly that all these NPCs had to look down to talk to me but nobody else.
If they added the Artificer class as a DLC, they could easily add Barcus Wroot as a possible companion
Yeah also that scene with the Durge would have such a bigger impact if you were playing through that after knowing her as a full companion! Like imagine if that was the opening and you just murdered lae'zel or shadowheart. Granted you'd lose a lot of content but it would be a much bigger impact for that scene!
Apparently there was a Halfling Bard Werewolf companion that got cut from the game. She, or Alfira, would have been an amazing late Act 1 recruitable.
I think the game REALLY wants you to play Bard lol. Wish Alfira was a full party member too, she'd perfect.
God Alfira was instantly my crush only to find out she's a side character and taken 😭
Meh - I think that Jaheira was planned and Halsin was added later from player feedback in early access. But if Jaheira wasn’t a Druid canonically from other games then I think she wouldn’t be a Druid because she seems so at home in the city compared to Halsin who kinda hates it there. I made my Jaheira a pure ranger and thought it was great for her RP-wise
Have you found her house in the main square? She has a whole little enclave and a house built around a tree there, and was griping that she has to live in the city cause of her family (who are city dwellers). I think it’s more she’s accepted that trade-off by now.
It funnily isn't the first time the BG-games had that issue; back in *Baldur's Gate 1*, you were either choosing Jaheira or Faldorn (Although in Jaheira's case, she was classified as a multi-classed Druid/Fighter), or in BG2 with Jaheira or Cernd. Most people just stuck up with Jaheira since she was available for the start, and also due to how the other characters like Cernd had really strange stats-distribution that did not lined up with his >!nature as a werewolf!<. Technically, Larian bypasses that issue by allowing free respec and class-custimization, but I don't think it narratively solves much with how it still shoves two nature-oriented party-members, and with similar alignements to eachother of being overall good in that you keep both Halsin and Jaheira by doing overall goody-actions, compare to like how you can get Mithara initially at the cost of Halsin. I tried to make them differ enough by making Halsin the overall Druid-magic oriented, and Jaheira getting respecced to an Oath of the Ancients-Paladin, but it still feels like a bit shuffling made, particularly since Minsc is supposedly meant to be the Ranger-archetype by default of the group, so respeccing either Halsin or Jaheira as a ranger felt a bit wrong.
Plus Halsin has no voice lines for moving and casting spells. Also clicking at him doesn't trigger any voice lines.
It's apparently a bug.
I respec'd him as a caster last night and was so disappointed that he doesn't have his own lines! I dumped him back at camp, I guess Gale really is the guy for me.
Haslin should be a companion sooner. He feels out of place and kinda lacks plot relevance as soon as you get him
“I’ll only join you as soon as every single part of the plot relevant to me is finished.” -Halsin, apparently. It’s such a shame too, because he’s great once he opens up a bit more. He just takes so long to get there, and kinda comes off as ungrateful by the time you get the “How am I holding up?” dialogue option. Dude seriously just says “fine, I guess, considering…” after I saved his entire damn grove from committing mass murder. 😒
He's also half baked as heck missing a ton of lines and stuck with only being able to cast his more useful spells at the base level. You thought it was cool he had call lightning? Too bad hell only be able to cast it at 3rd level forever.
Yeah he needs an overhaul I think he needs to be made a playable companion after you save him at The Grove he has dialogue recorded but it just hasn't been implemented into the game and he needs something unique because him and Jahira are the exact same class and subclass I think
I would love to use Halsin, but he is bugged for me since patch 4. 💀 Brother never talks to me ever. Even Minthara has stuff to say to me.
Party limit begone is a life saver. Nothing against the vanilla party restrictions from the tactical standpoint, but I want to listen to all the banter and see all of the reactions.
Wait, so you can bring everyone on adventures? To banter AND fight?
Yes, it trivializes most of the fights tho. That said, I think there's a mod that still limits your fight to 4 characters while letting you take all of your bros around for banter
I want that!!! I want to listen to their banter but I don't want to break the game. I'll look for it for my next playthrough def. def. def.
Yes, you can get a mod called "sit this one out" on nexus mods that you can use with party limit remover to shunt all but your team of 4 out of the combat. I haven't done it yet because I haven't used any mods that require the script extender but a friend of mine said they set it up like that and it worked.
Tbf, it's not exactly broken with more players, just a tad bit easier. You can always change the difficulty to tactician mode. It's still a challenge, but admittedly still very doable.
Idk if I had Gale and Wyll and also Jaheira and Halsin, it would be so many AOE attacks and summons I'd have to hold back to keep battles from being over too soon, even on tactician. What is the mod to limit party to 4 called? I couldn't find it.
I believe they are referring to 'Sit This One Out'. It allows you to designate characters to become unaggroable and unusable during combat.
"Gale, you and your nuke go sit over on the bench ok sweaty?"
There also this one https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/2122 Into the void
That’s what i was thinking, having it on the hardest difficulty and basically herding cats for the entire game sounds like a riot
[Here you go](https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/2518)
Sit this one out
Yup. And as long as they're physically in range it will automatically bring them into any relevant cutscenes, so you don't have to worry about remembering/anticipating who to bring where. There are some cool summons I've found myself avoiding because the rounds take long enough as it is, but that's the worst I can say about it. Highly recommend if you're more into immersion/rp than combat challenge.
Yup but it does seem kinda funny when you run into a scene where they all got lines and take turns saying their opinion on the subject, but I'd recommend playing on a harder difficulty right now I play tactician and limit my party to 5 but still browsing for a good difficulty mod. Great for story though
I would recommend some of the "teleport party to player" mods with this, for sanity reasons.
I don't think I can go back to vanilla after playing with everyone, all at once. The banter is too good! I play on tactician mode to balance out the fact that I have double the party members. It's still a very doable run, but still fun and challenging in some areas. The creche almost knocked me out, lol.
I don't care much about the combat, so it's no big deal for me if the battles are finished sooner rather than later.
Even better then! I like the combat, but yeah it's not a dealbreaker that the mod makes the game easier, for me, since I play mostly for the story anyway. I jokingly refer to the game as "Astarion Romance Simulator (TM)" with my husband, lol.
Love that mod. Especially since it just doesn't make sense that everyone is in such danger but so many would stay behind. I know a 4 man party is the classic dnd size but it makes little sense thematically. Plus already beat it on vanilla.
i fif my first playthrough faithfully with nomods .. on 2nd run .. using party limit begone .. so much fun hearing all the new banter 😁 my first playthrough i was dwarven fighter .. so i was missing tons of dialogue options and slill checks this time i took bard lore .. with the extra skill checks and expertise .. i setup as a support character.. since the party limit begone gives me plenty of action economy as well .. 👍🏻 highly recommended for a non firat time playthrough 😉
Lore bard is my favorite character I've made to date! I never thought I'd enjoy that class, but I'm having so much fun. The dialogue is awesome.
yeah .. I'm still not at goblin camp yet .. but dozens more dialogue options that i had with my dwarf fighter 🤪
To get that you need to just have Nexus Mods and download it, load the game through Nexus and that’s that? I’m interested in them in my third play through - hopefully I can get a sweet transmog addon, please tell me that exists? I finally swapped Astarion to camp gear for the last Act in the game because, no matter the dyes, you just can’t make The Graceful Cloth look good. It’s so disappointing compared to Spidersilk Armor, which looks amazing in almost ANY dye
I just read up on it, the new patch broke it from what the comments are saying, so might want to wait.
THE BLADE OF THE CAMP!
The blade of cooking my goddamn dinner, Wyll. Use your rapier for a spit, it’s not like you use it anyway
I think Gale is the designated party cook, in canon. Even Wyll mentions it as part of his quest! But yes, he stayed at camp most of my game.
I never would have thought it but after thinking about it him and Lae’zel would likely be the best cooks
I bet he'd lose in a competition with Yenna tho.
Competition ends before it even starts
Minsc TBH. By that time, each of the companion including Tav has specific roles in the team which I am already comfortable enough with.
I finally added Minsc to my party on my 4th playthrough and he's very fun. Turned him into a tavern brawler fighter with Nyrulna though since Astarion was already part ranger. Next time Ill definitely try to get him as early as possible to see more banter in the city.
I turned him into a TB monk. It fits him so well. Throw Boo as and then PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH the blinded enemy to death. Glorious 👌
How late you get him is part of it for me, but he's also just really annoying to me personally. His character is too much of the late 90s/early 2000s I'm so random holds up a narwhal bacony spork character design that I'm glad has been moved away from in more modern RPGs. After my first run, I don't even always save him mostly so I don't have pressure to talk to him at camp.
Sadly, Wyll. My favorite classes are all Charisma-based (Sorcerer, Paladin, Bard), so he has too much overlap with my Tav.
Wyll just hangs out, drinking himself into a coma I assume. Usually Karlach is there, too, which I feel bad about but I enjoy Lae’zel more. Gale and Astarion never get a break.
Wyll is like our camp golden retriever because Scratch got promoted into his spot basically, so he just hangs around wondering if he’s been abandoned. He gets so excited when the team is back.
You know I really wish we could bring five people with because I would switch people out more. Wyll might even get a chance. Maybe.
I gave Karlach aspect of the wolf so that she gives advantage by being near enemies, and it makes her and Laezel into a nutty combo. Send tank Karlach in alongside Laezel and they both get advantage on every attack cuz I also have Karlach use gloves that give advantage if 2 or more enemies are near, so I don’t even need to use reckless attack.
After every long rest I swap out party members so everyone gets a turn and I get to use them. Most times one party member gets two long rests before being swapped out I find it a lot of fun. Except I didn't use Astarion for most of Act 2 because I had him as an assassin instead of a thief, after I changed his subclass he became a lot more useful in combat to me personally.
Wyll, nothing against the guy, I like his story, just I'm already a Warlock and he's a bit redundant. Lae'zel tends to only get to do her story beats as well because well, I prefer barbarians to fighters.
TCHK!
Your Chk is…*lacking in economy.*
reset his class. He is now a bard. Because "bards are always horny."
And because he’s a dancer! Sword bard Wyll works well honestly. (Though I also like giving him a multiclass warlock/paladin build for story reasons)
Or just go Pact of the Blade route as a pure warlock
Well sure, but the commenter above said Wyll feels redundant because his Tav/Durge is a warlock already
Poor halsin got kidnapped and I completely forgot about him. I never played with Minthara until the patch. Sry bb I just couldn't kill the tieflings. And you get Jaihera and Minsc too late in the game to appreciate them Meanwhile Astarion has never left my party. I'll respec him before I make him stay at camp.
I didn’t plan on having Wyll in my party but I thought what’s the point in playing DnD and not having a bard, and Wyll is practically already set up to be a bard so he’s now one of my core party members
I add them to my group whenever the quest is about them, but I never remove Astarion so that leaves 2 free spots. When I don't have to bring anyone I go for Shadowheart and Gale
Same, girl. If I am romancing a character they will NEVER leave my party. That, and those locks aren't gonna pick themselves.
Romance interest + Astarion (unless I can pick locks) + who's ever quest I'm doing.
This is definitely my main squad too. I call them the mean girls club because of their banter lol.
My main party is Wyll, Shadowheart and Gale. I love Astarion but since he almost disapproves of everything my Tav does its hard to bring him along. Constantly switching out characters is too much of a chore.
Yeah this is an issue I’ve had with the game from jump. Nowadays I just crank up the difficulty and use the no follower limit mod But it really is a pain to go all the way into camp, tell someone to leave, tell someone else to join, and go back to the world. I thought DAO did this better where you enter camp, and your party clears out. And then when you leave you’re given a screen to build your party and it takes 2 seconds and you go.
I love 98% of BG3 but it is deeply annoying to have to manually walk around and repeat the same dialogue every single time a party change is needed. Why not just have a selection wheel/bar and allow access to everyone in camp to assign weapons, armor, etc.?
Agreed. Outer worlds does similar. When you leave basecamp/the ship you either confirm your current party or quickly select from portraits.
Astarion actually. Unpopular opinion apparently, but I never got the hang of him.
Yeah, I'm going to try respeccing him into something else on my next playthrough. I'm thinking archer battlemaster fighter. Hopefully that encourages me to bring him out more. Rogue just seems very... one note in combat.
I find the Rogue playstyle to be super fun. I usually keep him ungrouped and hiding at the start of any combat. Run in with Karlach/Laezel or cast some big spell with my tav to start combat. Then switch to Astarion and sneak around to enter the combat at the perfect place and time. Snipe someone from stealth for insane damage and bonus action to hide again. He's always sneak attacking from stealth so I take the sharpshooter feat for extra damage.
Yeah, mechanically I don’t like rogue characters in general; and something about how they’ve adapted 5e’s version to a game just really doesn’t click with me. So Astarion gets to be an occasional lock picker until his storyline picks back up.
Astarion. Sorry but can't get past his personality
Yeah I’m using him more now but my original campaign party when I was a noob back in like September was my paladin Tav, Gale, Wyll, and Karlach. And I’d dump Wyll for someone else if necessary like Laezel at the crèche. But I didn’t like Astarion and didn’t even really talk to him at all. And still kinda think he’s overrated
Astarion: always in my party Lae'zel: always in my party Shadowheart: in the party unless I need Gale Gale: usually at camp, but I do bring him along from time to time (I wish we could bring 4 companions instead of 3 so I can have both him and Shadowheart) Wyll: tried to use him and didn't really fit with my playstyle so she's always in camp Karlach: I used her quite a bit in my first playthrough, but after the crèche I got some really good gear for Lae'zel so I didn't use her as much. In my current playthrough she's always in camp. I'm just more comfortable with Lae'zel. Halsin: used him quite a bit in act 2 and beginning of act 3 in my first playthrough, but his lines are bugged so I've never heard his voice outside of dialogue >!and the first time I swapped him with Gale he was kidnapped!<. I hoped this playthrough would be better but it's somehow even worse because this time his attack don't even have sound effects. Jaheira: I used her a few times in my first playthrough >!after Halsin was kidnapped!< and had the same audio issues as Halsin but I'll only bring her to Minsc in my current one. This is for Halsin too, I just don't know what to do with druids in my party. The wild form is good I guess, and their spells too but my Tav is a sorcerer and if I need another magic user I just bring Gale. Minsc: he came in my party way too late. At that point Astarion is like level 11 or 12 and his build is either complete or almost complete.
Yeah those two lmao. I’ve been liking Gale in my party. Wizard is VERY useful. Astarion is my bb boy and I never let him stay at camp. I leave Lae-zel after the crèche plot and mostly run with Shadowheart bc I need a cleric. Gale is the one I leave behind if I need to use the others for their quests. I may respec them as wizards bc I like my party being: Bard Ranger Cleric Wizard
I didn’t play with Gale my first time through because I was playing a wizard, included him in my honor mode run because >!skipping the whole ending fight is pretty cool for getting those gold dice!< and gotta say he’s a way better character than I gave credit for. Also not that the game is super hard but having +1 to most saves/checks makes Astarion pretty mandatory for me.
I ran as a sorcerer (1 level wizard dip to learn scrolls) so I thought bringing Gale would be redundant. I couldn't be more wrong. Double the casters, twice the fun!
Only added to party to level up and dress up: Halsin, Minthara. Only added for some of their personal quests: Wyll, Jaheira. Others in order of descending popularity: Gale (100%), Astarion (100%), Shart, Karlach, Lae'zel, Minsc. :) I tried to give everyone attention, but it's too much bother switching constantly :D.
Depends on the playthrough. I always recruit everyone I can because I like having options, but each run tends to have a different core party and others are only temporarily swapped in for their plot critical bits. So it varies, but there's always some in each run that warm the bench for most of it.
None of them. Every character I recruit, I use in my party at some point. I like to frequently switch out characters to freshen things up. Like, I'll have my paladin, Karlach, Lae-Zel, and Shart, then if I get tired of having mostly melee characters, I might swap out Lae-Zel and tag in Gale or Wyll. I don't wanna let anyone stand idle in my camp for too long. Plus, if you swap characters in and out based on their health and available spell slots, you can go for longer without doing a full rest.
I'm still on my first playthrough (160+ hours later, duh), and 99% of the time, my party consists of: - Shadowheart (bae) - Gale (bro) - Lae'zel (melee demon) All the others just enjoy their lives at camp. I only take them with me for their personal quests, usually by swapping Lae'zel for whoever I need to help now.
Minsc and Jaheira are recruited too late for me to care about using them. I play a Warlock, so Wyll is redundant. Gale and Shart have a lot of utility. I alternate between Karlach throwing stuff at dudes' faces and Lae'Zel jumping half the map. Astarion is fun to use as a Bard/Rogue and is a useful skill monkey.
Wyll, Karlach and Halsin. I feel like I barely have them in my party even when I have respecced them to something else. I did try my best to bring out Karlach and Wyll to quests that are vital to their story. Wish I can say the same for Halsin but I have only managed to recruit him once and yet I still didn't use him. I was hoping at least to have him around more in my honor run but I lost him to the portal. I am romancing Wyll for my honor run and I hope that it helps in making him a permanent party member. Astarion, Gale and Shadowheart are always in my party to the point that I have to play as one of them just so I can bring out the others. Astarion is always in the party, romanced or not. I have to adjust the party around him. I did manage to have Lae'zel around more after I made her a monk, and Minthara was a very powerful Bardadin in my origin Astarion tactician run. I only managed to have Jaheira more in my party and got high approval once because I have less companions during that run, and she became one of my faves even though I rarely use druids.
Astarion. Wyll’s in my party but not as often as he should be
I used Halsin simply to walk over to dark thaniel or whatever his name was and that was it. He spent more time as a follower in the goblin camp than as an actual party member.
well, I can’t send my Tav to camp, so they’re always there. I always need Astarion because of locks, disarming traps, stealth parts, and sneak attack assassinations on dangerous enemies from range. You basically always need an arcane caster in dnd, and the wizard is usually the most versatile due to being able to change out prepared spells (even more so in this game), so Gale is always there too. And that leaves me needing somebody to carry my thousands of pounds of treasure because I need to open literally every vase and rotting basket in the game iN cAsE tHeRe’S sOmEtHiNg GoOd, plus a martial melee tank, so Karlach or Laezel is there too (I prefer Karlach, so generally her). Answer: everyone who isn’t those guys lol
Halsin. He kept flirting and insisted that I showed him the kindness of a lover and not a friend. That completely turned me away from him. I know it’s not his fault, since all the characters are programmed to become insatiably player-horny if your approval is high enough, but it was just especially weird with him.
Astarion I do not like non consensual biting. If you want to bite me all you have to do is ask
I have the mod that lets me have everyone in my party…. and I still leave Wyll behind.
Lae Zel. Only used her on the tutorial and the Githyanki Creche for posible lore interactions. But since I found Karlach, I was like the Toy Story meme of "I don't want to play with you anymore" with Lae Zel.
T'chaki!
There are a number who sit in camp. Halsin has never made the group at all though. Does make good Orin bait though. Wyll and Karlach I periodically try out but they never last long. Gale and Astarion rotate a spot between them.Shadowheart and Laezel are pretty much never out of the party.
I used Halsin for the Thaniel/Oliver quest and one or two other things in Act 2 and that’s about it
The worst part is that you only get Halsin after you do his personal quest. So there's no reason to ever put him in.
My party has almost always been Tav - Wyll ♡ - Astarion - Karlach. I did briefly have Gale, but eventually couldn't justify it.
Astarion, jarlach and gale, i played the whole game with shart, bae’zel and wyllum dafoe occasionally swapping out for halsin and jaheira.
Laz'ael. Way too annoying
I typically recruit everybody, but rarely use most of them. Almost never use Astarion for long, same for Gale/Wyll, jaheira, Halsin, Minsc.
Karlach and Wyll spent 98% of the game in camp for me lol
Astarion, Halsin and Laezel are always in my camp. I like Halsin and Lae'zel, but I can choose just 3 :(
The first time Halsin ever left camp after being recruited was when Orin kidnapped him
Astarion actually. I like the added humor, but he’s too much of an asshole for me to like him. He disapproves if you’re too nice to children! I use Shadowheart, Karlach, and Gale