46 ответов в этой теме

[mrblack]

Hey I'm running through the game at the moment, and I find it hard to justify Khelgar in my crew now that I have Shandra as a warrior.  My PC is a rogue, I have also taken Qara and Grobnar.  Khelgar is the odd class out now since Shandra is a warrior, so I could either keep Khelgar or exchange him for a priest or something else.  I am awful fond of Khelgar however.

 

However I find some of the NPCs hella annoying.  Who's your favorite party members to have with you in your group?  Please no spoilers or if you gunna make a spoiler tag it as it's my first play through.

[unclejoe1917]

Qara Uber Alles!!!  Both for her character and her nuclear offensive prowess which would make the Pentagon blush. I like Neeshka almost as much personality-wise, but she doesn't bring a whole lot to the table for me otherwise.  I like Zhaeve mostly because of the way she precedes many of her statements with "Know that..." which I catch myself doing in real life. Bishop is good for a laugh.  I can't even bear to hear Grobnar talk.  I will never take him along for even a second as long as it can be avoided.  Khelgar's a good guy.  Even when playing evil, I always appreciate his willingness to swing first and sort later. 

[Tchos]

I switched up my party many times during the OC.  When I had Shandra, yes, Khelgar took a break, though he becomes quite a different character if you take him through the monk quest to change his class.
 
For others, I tended to like to keep Neeshka, Elanee, Qara, and sometimes Grobnar in my party, depending on what was going on.  Occasionally I had Zhjaeve for her priest abilities, but her speech patterns rubbed me the wrong way.

 

I suppose my choices aren't particularly combat oriented, but they all contributed unique skills and abilities to the party.

[Dann-J]

Shandra doesn't count as a party member as far as the party size limit goes, so you might as well take Khelgar along as well. You can never have too many meat shields.

 

I never considered Shandra much of a fighter, with her low strength and focus on shortswords. Sure she could take Two Weapon Fighting, but I prefer my tanks with shields, and to hit hard rather than often. I pretty much gave Khelgar a dwarven waraxe, a tower shield, and some fullplate, then left him to his own devices.

[mrblack]

Shandra doesn't count as a party member as far as the party size limit goes, so you might as well take Khelgar along as well. You can never have too many meat shields.

 

I never considered Shandra much of a fighter, with her low strength and focus on shortswords. Sure she could take Two Weapon Fighting, but I prefer my tanks with shields, and to hit hard rather than often. I pretty much gave Khelgar a dwarven waraxe, a tower shield, and some fullplate, then left him to his own devices.

 

 

 

 

Can always use a frost giant strength belt.  I specced her into great swords

[GCoyote]

I actually enjoy Sand just for the constant stream of sarcasm. He says it but I was already thinking it.

[mrblack]

I actually enjoy Sand just for the constant stream of sarcasm. He says it but I was already thinking it.

 

Yeah but I feel he can't really match Qara in terms of power, I probably would take him instead of Qara if he was a sorcerer aswell

[unclejoe1917]

For others, I tended to like to keep Neeshka, Elanee, Qara, and sometimes Grobnar in my party, depending on what was going on.  Occasionally I had Zhjaeve for her priest abilities, but her speech patterns rubbed me the wrong way.

 

Know that for this shard bearer, her speech patterns were considered a benefit to our adventure. 

[Tchos]

I know, you said so.  For this one, it was the opposite.

[Arkalezth]

+1 for Tchos' team. +1000 if I could vote more than once.

Mechanically speaking, several companions have poor stats and/or builds for their classes. From the top of my head, and IIRC, Khelgar, Casavir, Qara, Sand, Elanee are OK. Zhjaeve is meh as a cleric and so is Grobnar as a bard. Bishop is not gonna be spectacular as an archer either, especially if you let the AI control him, and Neeshka is a rogue, and rogues have problems in some parts of the OC (and also require micromanagement to work properly).

Spoiler

I don't remember what invocations Ammon Jerro has, only that you get him late and don't have much room to customise him. He should be fine stat-wise, at least. Can't remember much about the iron golem or whatever metal it is, but Khelgar is probably better.

Khelgar might be stronger as a fighter than as a monk. RP wise, though, the latter gives a closure to his story.

It also depends on what class your main character is. For example, if you can't disable traps yourself, you may want to bring Neeshka (or just run over them).

[Thorsson64]

Yeah but I feel he can't really match Qara in terms of power, I probably would take him instead of Qara if he was a sorcerer aswell

 

Sand is my favourite character and Qara vies strongly for least favourite. Sand is useful overall, because he is a useful buffer unless you are a Wizard yourself.

 

OTOH I never have (and never would) play the Campaigns as a Rogue (SoZ is a different matter), so my outlook might be different if I did.

[GCoyote]

I started with a rogue on my very first play through years ago. No matter what I wanted to do, one of my companions was almost always better at it making the experience somewhat lacking. My last play through was an arcane archer who pretty well tore through everything. Currently playing again for the first time in a few years with a Favored Soul/Divine Champion.

Once you've understood the game mechanics, you can play pretty much as you like.

[mrblack]

I started with a rogue on my very first play through years ago. No matter what I wanted to do, one of my companions was almost always better at it making the experience somewhat lacking. My last play through was an arcane archer who pretty well tore through everything. Currently playing again for the first time in a few years with a Favored Soul/Divine Champion.

Once you've understood the game mechanics, you can play pretty much as you like.

 

 

I'm doing my first ever play through as rogue, hopefully I just won't notice :S

[Groove Widdit]

Qara has become essential to me as I have built her into my off-shore nuke platform, like I always do with sorcerers--and they have other quotidian utility as well. I always run with three characters on the premise that they get more in the xp split and I want higher-level tactical units. I always create a third fighter with spells. I love Kelgar and I have to ditch him, for this reason, when the farm-girl is forced into the party. I love the oc before that, but then it gets pretty lame for a while, partly because of that.

[Dann-J]

I replayed the OC again recently, after there was a thread that asked whether arcane casters were necessary in the party. My argument was that a rogue with a high Use Magic Device skill could compensate via wands and scrolls, so I decided to put my money where my mouth was.

 

I built a Halfling rogue / ranger / shadow dancer / shadow thief character who specialised in slings, taking skill focus in UMD early on in the game. He more than compensated for a lack of arcane spellcasters - although I'll admit that having at least one divine caster in the party helped. I was surprised how many wands and scrolls are thrown at the party. I ended up selling a lot of them, as I was acquiring them faster than I could use them. Eventually my Tempertuppin's +5 holy ever-thrower (infinite 1d6 fire bullets, +2d6 magic damage vs evil) proved more effective than any wand or scroll when Improved Rapid Shot was active.

 

I gave Elanee the Zen Archery feat as early as possible and equipped her with a composite longbow (keeping her out of harms way). I specialised Neeshka in heavy crossbows, having her take Rapid Shot. I tended to take Khelgar along as a meat shield to keep the hordes at bay while the party's archers did their thing, a role he performed admirably. I gave him exotic weapon proficiency, so he usually had a katana or bastard sword, along with a tower shield.

 

Later in the game I got rid of Neeshka (my character had enough rogue skills) and built Zhaeve as a melee fighter, giving her exotic weapon proficiency as well. The only time I took an arcane caster along was when I had no choice - Grobnar to recover one of the construct components,  Sand while looking for plot-related evidence, and Qara to gain a plot-critical scroll. I find all of the arcane casters in the OC to be varying degrees of annoying, so I was glad to be rid of them. I can't quite fathom how Grobnar and Qara can have such high charisma scores, yet manage to be so unlikable.

 

And my favourite party member? Probably Khelgar, as he was always up for a fight and kept his whining to a minimum. Unlike many of the other party members who had secret agendas of their own (revealed only if you could be bothered improving your influence with them), Khelgar was up-front about his motivations. In fact he shares his intentions with you from the first moment you meet, without any of that 'secret squirrel' nonsense.

[Tchos]

I was surprised how many wands and scrolls are thrown at the party. I ended up selling a lot of them, as I was acquiring them faster than I could use them.

 

You can say that again.  With as many unused wands and scrolls as I had in my inventory in the OC, I felt like we'd gone on a heist at the wand and scroll factory.  Meanwhile in a pen & paper game I've been in, our characters were drooling over our newfound wealth when we came across a cache of wands, knowing the value of them.

[unclejoe1917]

Qara has become essential to me as I have built her into my off-shore nuke platform, like I always do with sorcerers--and they have other quotidian utility as well. I always run with three characters on the premise that they get more in the xp split and I want higher-level tactical units. I always create a third fighter with spells. I love Kelgar and I have to ditch him, for this reason, when the farm-girl is forced into the party. I love the oc before that, but then it gets pretty lame for a while, partly because of that.

Qara is unparalleled in my opinion.  If you were to read through my posts on this board, you might be worried that I have a creepy obsession with her though. Lol. 

I seriously do find her to be the most indispensable NPC in the game when it comes to winning fights. Kelgar is a heavy swinger and does some respectable damage, but he functions as much as the classic meat shield to keep enemies distracted from Qara and me doing whatever I need to do. 

[Dann-J]

When I replayed the OC recently, I found my PC was halfway to level 21 at the final fight. That was with a full party most of the time (four or five). I wonder if I would have reached level 21 had I restricted my party to no more than three?

 

Not that I'd really bother doing so. The XP comes thick and fast in the OC, and a lot of it seems to come as quest rewards, for which party size is irrelevant. I'd rather benefit from the wide range of skills and abilities that comes from having a full party, than try to scrounge a few more experience points. I would have liked the SoZ party chat conversation style though, so I could have benefitted from the skill ranks of other party members.

[Arkalezth]

Pretty sure the OC is capped at 20.

[GCoyote]

...

 

Not that I'd really bother doing so. The XP comes thick and fast in the OC, and a lot of it seems to come as quest rewards, for which party size is irrelevant. I'd rather benefit from the wide range of skills and abilities that comes from having a full party, than try to scrounge a few more experience points. I would have liked the SoZ party chat conversation style though, so I could have benefitted from the skill ranks of other party members.

 

Isn't there a SoZ makeover for the OC?

[Dann-J]

Pretty sure the OC is capped at 20.

 

Even with MotB installed? My character was half way to level 21, so if there's a cap it wouldn't seem to be in the form of an experience cap. Maybe I'll reload the save from just before the final fight and use the console to add a bit more XP, just as an experiment.

[Groove Widdit]

 

I replayed the OC again recently, after there was a thread that asked whether arcane casters were necessary in the party. My argument was that a rogue with a high Use Magic Device skill could compensate via wands and scrolls, so I decided to put my money where my mouth was.
 
I built a Halfling rogue / ranger / shadow dancer / shadow thief character who specialised in slings, taking skill focus in UMD early on in the game. He more than compensated for a lack of arcane spellcasters - although I'll admit that having at least one divine caster in the party helped. I was surprised how many wands and scrolls are thrown at the party. I ended up selling a lot of them, as I was acquiring them faster than I could use them. Eventually my Tempertuppin's +5 holy ever-thrower (infinite 1d6 fire bullets, +2d6 magic damage vs evil) proved more effective than any wand or scroll when Improved Rapid Shot was active.
 
I gave Elanee the Zen Archery feat as early as possible and equipped her with a composite longbow (keeping her out of harms way). I specialised Neeshka in heavy crossbows, having her take Rapid Shot. I tended to take Khelgar along as a meat shield to keep the hordes at bay while the party's archers did their thing, a role he performed admirably. I gave him exotic weapon proficiency, so he usually had a katana or bastard sword, along with a tower shield.
 
Later in the game I got rid of Neeshka (my character had enough rogue skills) and built Zhaeve as a melee fighter, giving her exotic weapon proficiency as well. The only time I took an arcane caster along was when I had no choice - Grobnar to recover one of the construct components,  Sand while looking for plot-related evidence, and Qara to gain a plot-critical scroll. I find all of the arcane casters in the OC to be varying degrees of annoying, so I was glad to be rid of them. I can't quite fathom how Grobnar and Qara can have such high charisma scores, yet manage to be so unlikable.
 
And my favourite party member? Probably Khelgar, as he was always up for a fight and kept his whining to a minimum. Unlike many of the other party members who had secret agendas of their own (revealed only if you could be bothered improving your influence with them), Khelgar was up-front about his motivations. In fact he shares his intentions with you from the first moment you meet, without any of that 'secret squirrel' nonsense.

 

I did the same thiing with Kelghar--dual-weild katana. I can'tt wait to ditch the farm girl and get him back. I hate Sand, too.

[Dann-J]

I usually have Khelgar and Shandra in the party at the same time. Two meat shields are better than one (especially when the PC is a Halfling slinger).

[Groove Widdit]

I always have a few monster-summon spells to throw up the shield of meat. Thing about summoned monsters--they don't get xp. That way I ran roll with two fighters and and sorcerer and divvy up between only 3.

[unclejoe1917]

   

I did the same thiing with Kelghar--dual-weild katana. I can'tt wait to ditch the farm girl and get him back. I hate Sand, too.

I can get a chuckle out of Sand in small doses, but he's pretty much useless to me since I want nothing more out of my caster than to rain damage down from the heavens. Laughs don't kill monsters. I always get hung up on letting Kelghar follow his destiny and take that war hammer.  I should just forget that nonsense since war hammer sucks anyway and build him to kill **** with real weapons like bastard swords.