Comment on Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?
zerofk@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Baldur’s Gate 2 Shadows of Amn. I’ve been agonising about there being so many interesting companions and only five slots.
I suspect that’ll be my answer for many months to come.
Coelacanth@feddit.nu 1 week ago
What is your current lineup? And are you using any mods?
zerofk@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Just one mod, to add more portraits to speaking NPCs.
I’m a sorcerer (dragon disciple) and I’ve got Minsc, Jaheira, Jan (just picked him up to replace Yoshimo), Aerie, and Nalia.
In BG1 I had two rules: no evil or lawful characters, and no male characters. I did that just for fun after I noticed 5/6 were female and I had a certain belt.
I don’t think I’ll be able to follow the same rules now if I need s good thief and a warrior. Besides, Aerie is lawful but too cute to let go. I do seem to have a surplus of wizards though.
Coelacanth@feddit.nu 1 week ago
If you’re ever doing a second playthrough I highly recommend the Tweaks Anthology, which has some fixes and tweaks to companions that I think are just improvements. Specifically “Happy Patch - NPCs can be angry about reputation but never leave” and “NPCs Don’t Fight” are two that I highly recommend, as it lets you do mixed-alignment parties without people eventually killing each other or leaving, and the mixed alignment groups have some of the best inter party dialogue and funny banter in the game. Both Edwin and Viconia are very iconic characters, and the Viconia romance is particularly popular. Though I think the Jaheira romance is also pretty great.
As I’m sure you’re starting to notice, the class distribution among the available companions is not the most diverse, which is unfortunate. I usually recommend Yoshimo for a first playthrough as he’s a great guide around Athkatla and has some story connections, but Jan is of course very entertaining. Nalia is probably my least favourite of the original cast actually, but even she does have her moments.
You didn’t say whether you’re playing the Enhanced Edition or the original game, but presuming it’s EE I would also advise against using Neera, Dorn, Rasaad or Hexxat on your first playthrough. They are all written by Beamdog and inserted with the Enhanced Edition, and don’t fit neither the vibe nor the writing standard of the original cast in my opinion.
zerofk@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Thanks for the info! I am indeed playing the EE. I quite liked Neera in BG1, but we’ll see how it goes. And yeah Nalia is a bit grating already.
As for Yoshimo, I kind of messed him up by putting all points in traps, which meant he sucked at opening locks. After Imoen was taken I had no-one to open harder locks. Although with the amount of mages I could go for Knock… Jan’s burping is annoying me already.