Usefulness

Say something nice about Siege of Dragonspear. I'll start
>this character portrait for vico is pretty bitching

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She has no HP and useful elven chain mail doesn't come up until near the end.

No.

That's why you hide her at the back with stoneskin on at all times (and probably a few other protective spells like globe of invulnerability and mislead too).

Beamdog is guilty of a number of different crimes. Here are the major ones.

1. The Enhanced Editions are essentially a collection of free mods that had existed for nearly twenty years. Beamdog gathered them all up, slapped "Enhanced Edition" on it and resold it as a new product. There's very very little in the Enhanced Editions that wasn't already out there, and most of it is stuff you don't want (like obnoxious character outlines).

2. The games didn't sell so well and the originals were still far outselling them, even twenty years after their release, so Beamdog had EVERY digital distributor stop selling the originals and ONLY sell the Enhanced Edition. If you want to buy a digital copy of the originals now, they're "bundled" into the Enhanced Edition. Now these scumbags can claim sales from people just wanting to buy the originals as their own.

3. The infamous 600+ bugs on launch. The game is still riddled with bugs (as even a perfunctory glance over their forums show) but the fact that it took nearly two years for them to get a game that had been working fine for 20 years to reach playability after launch is telling of their wild incompetence.

4. This is where we get to the ones that really piss people off. Beamdog couldn't just remaster the game, they had to fuck with the content too. New dialogue for existing NPCs like Jaheira, Viconia, Safana, Kivan, et cetera was written in to make the characters more progressive and leftist friendly. Beamdog shills will argue that "adding content isn't changing content XDDD" but it is when the new content changes the core personalities of the existing characters. This is in addition to adding a slew of their own LGBT (hitherto there were none in Baldur's Gate) NPCs, all flooded with OP attributes and magic items to encourage people to play them despite their cancer.

5. Siege of motherfucking Dragonspear.

6. warosu.org/vr/thread/5402232#p5408278

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the whole underground necromancer cult thing was pretty cool, especially if you free the lich there

None of you can play this game for shit
Pure fighters are bad, especially Sarevok, his dogshit saving throws, his bad proficiencies and his couple of lacking million XP compared to the rest of your team
Any mage multiclass is busted
Jan has some amazing utilities if you boost his melee thac0, mislead backstabs at 8 attacks per round are insane damage
Nalia is pretty good and her ring is a nice touch
Cleric mage is beyond busted, literally cant die
Pure class druids are insanely powerful
Creeping doom best spell in the game
Jaheira has bad proficiencies but fighter/druid has an insane late game
Shapeshifter is an amazing kit
Pure thieves like Yoshimo are completely worthless
Rangers are shit

Play Sword Coast Stratagems it will make you git gud and its fucking amazing

If you keep her adequately buffed she literally cant die
Really if you keep her adequately buffed she wont even lose a single HP
Also she can melee pretty well with a couple cleric buffs while having enough spells to keep your entire party protected against literally anything
And when she finally gets Shapechange she can kill almost everything in 3 hits tops at 8 attacks per round and -20 thac0
Aerie is a beast

Going thru BG1 for the first time with SCS and its fucking great. That bandit camp battle was insane fun.

Edwin is the best party member and a better mage than even the MC can be.

davaeorn pls go

not a good fighter
not a good druid

>Shapeshifter is an amazing kit
lol

Good enough at both. Druids have some pretty great exclusive spells and her fighter levels give her some extra utility outside of spellcasting.

>S Tier

Jaheria, Viconia, Aerie

>A Tier

Minsc, Jan, Imoen, Yoshimo

>Why even bother tier?

Everyone else

PC, Minsc, his 3 wives and Jan -> Yoshimo -> Imoen was the kino and correct way to play the game.

Especially since everyone can get lv9 spells even without 18+ Int/Wis, there's no need to min-max beyond that.

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Based

It unironically is
Wolfwere and greater wolfwere have some pretty damn good resistances
If you gear him up accordingly it's pretty easy to reach 100 in all elemental resistances without any other buff than armor of faith while transformed
Thac0 is alright, APR are a bit lackluster but improved haste should put him at 5 iirc
Using SCS or the tweaks anthology that turns the shapeshifting spell into an equippable token really makes it shine (can cast a spell and turn in a single round, pretty cool).
It's really solid honestly. Doesnt hit as hard as a fighter/druid but at the same time has a much better XP progression. Have been using Cernd in a couple SCS insane runs and he is definitely worth a slot.

Late game beast.
Greater earth elemental transformation + hardiness + armor of faith as soon as she hits 3 million xp
Shes a much better mid-late game melee option than any pure class fighter companion, and I would argue than pretty much any other unmodded companion tbqh.

I guess you get to waifu Viconia there.
It's pretty lame, but it's something at least.

Korgan and Jaheira are at the top for me because of the voices. Dark Anomen isn't annoying either. But gameplay-wise Keldorn should be at the top with Edwin and Korgan, and Jan is the the best skill monkey.

Yeah better calls for help are one of my favourite things about it
BG2 with it is honestly the greatest shit I've played

That's the thing, she needs to hit 3 million xp as a druid while being multiclassed. If she's removed from the party for any significant length of time she's not going to make it, which is fine if you know to plan for it.

Is having Jaheira, Branwen and Viconia at the same party in BG 1 viable or is it completely retarded?
I can't decide which healer do I want to run with and my autism is getting the best of me.

thank you for posting this holy shit i was feeling like my head was about to implode from reading the retardation in this thread

Honestly, if you dont fuck up by constantly moving party members in and out you can reach 3 million XP with a full party before Spellhold. Even if you didnt minmax XP you can reach it before that under dark. If you minax XP a bit you can get your first HLAs late in chapter 2 with a full party. And she has some nice tools to survive until then, ironskin is great amd available very quickly and the gear I mentioned is available early too, you just need to do Trademeet which is pretty much designed to be knocked down early.
And she only needs 3 million xp total (so 1,5 as a druid) to get the greater earth elemental transformation and just a bit more for her first hardiness and other fighter HLAs. Sure she will be amazing at 6 million, but she can tank well and inflict heavy damage long before that.

It's retarded but doable depending on how familiar you are with the game.

having branwen and viconia in the same party is stupid
you can do jaheira + branwen or jaheira + viconia, or you can just choose to go with 1 out of the three

Shit I actually forgot to mention the gear, but you can give her belm in offhand early, there are some really nice clubs to get in Trademeet for a main hand, girdle of hill giant strength is available immediately for quite cheap at the adventurers mart
The only issue is her lackluster WIS but it doesnt impact her spell pool too much either

So, I am curious - who is your "canon" BG 1 to BG2 party and your "canon" waifu ?

The canon BG1 party is Minsc, Dynaheir, Imoen, Jaheira, and Khalid.

The start of BG2 tells you what the canon BG1 party is.
For BG2, Minsc, Jaheira and Yoshimo -> Imoen are all pretty obvious "canon" companions.
For my first playthrough I took Aerie and Keldorn for the other two slots so they feel right to me (especially Aerie) and I think Aerie is most fitting as the "canon waifu" even if I prefer Viconia.

I like the evil party members better in general, cant have a party without at least one
In BG1 I often go with Shar-Teel and/or Montaron+Xzar, Edwin almost every time, Kagain, Viconia (I often made her into a fighter/cleric but reduce her magic resistance to 25%). Only good aligned characters I take on the regular are Kivan and Coran (and the last one ends up as chaotic neutral more often than not)
Branwen is my favourite NPC project romance
In BG2 I really have my favourite party, Viconia (fight cleric waifu), Aerie (for bullying), Edwin, Jan and the last spot is either Haer Dalis, Keldorn, Jaheira or Cernd. Also use that slot for companion quests. But I almost always roll with the 4 firsts no matter what PC I roll, and replace them if they permanently die.

Also the actual canon party is boring as fuck

I always thought it was gay how they force the "canon" companions down your throat

Don't forget the Enhanced Editions of BG1 and BG2 are so well received that there are mods to UNFIX the enhanced editions.

NAME ANOTHER FUCKING ENHANCED EDITION THAT IS SO LOVED THE FANBASE TOOK TIME OUT OF THEIR OWN FREE TO TIME TO

UN

FUCKING

FIX

YOUR SHIT ASS ENHANCED EDITION

BEAMDOG

FUCKING NAME IT

> Not going through with six custom min-maxed dwarves.

You did it wrong.

The best thing about that portrait is you don't have to own Dragonspear to use it. It's a good portrait. No complaints. That Portrait is the only competent thing they did with all of Dragonspear.

Yeah, I know. I was just curious in what is your personal canon party, not the official one. Maybe the question was badly formed.
I always rolled with Jaheira/Kivan, Minsc, Imoen/Coran, Dynaheir (it's not that I like her, but I always wanted to give this romance of hers a try) and Viconia for the most part for BG1.
I always hated this "paired companions" idea. It usually fucks up my party composition.

>BG2 has all these based companions that interact and react to one another and even killing one another
>BG3 will severely hamstring this because it'll be aimed at coop players taking origin characters

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The EE companions wouldn't be as cancerous if Beamdog didn't shove them down your throat at every opportunity. I think it gets even worse in BG2. They are always smarter, wittier, wiser than OG companions and this bullshit with Bodhi (she doesn't kidnap the romanced EE companion because they are just that awesome) is just insulting.
Yeah, Dorn is so cool he can intimidate Bodhi into fleeing and Hexxat can shittalk Viconia and Korgan with no comeback from them.

Viconia is a great Cleric to have along, but she's only really useful for players with particular party set ups and who are going to make particular choices, otherwise she'll live. I do really like her in play throughs I can actually use her though.

Aerie is surprisingly useful. Not the most useful, but I remember going into BG knowing her reputation. I thought she'd be a lot worse. I actually think she's somewhere between Good and Meh tiers.

I don't like Jeheira. In BG2 I leave nearly all of the companions from the intro behind, and solo my way out.

Imoen is perfectly useful but not always available.

Yoshimo is actually a bad ass. He may be what he is, and there's availability issues with him, but for the time he's there, he's fucking there.

I never understood why people freak out for Minsc. I always found him more annoying than entertaining.

I don't think they are forced THAT much honestly
It's pretty easy to just drop them and recruit whoever you want
Only thing that always bugged me is the BG2 intro that needs some serious mental gymnastics if you went evil party, but it's only the intro, no big deal.

Who's the gay option in BG3, why is he evil, and how badly is he gonna mess up team composition?

There is no BG3 user. There never truly was. Just accept that BG3 is some wholly unrelated game and treat it as such. Stop comparing it to BG. There's no point. The story and characters from the BG series prior all completely wrapped up and done with.

There's a tweak from the tweaks anthology to easily separate pairs without having to murder anyone or abandon them in a building

The new companions are not really shoved down your throat. You only notice it if you're familiar with the original because they stand out to you. They're pretty strong, yeah, because they're a selling point, the game has already been solved, and there's no point in deliberately making new companions with horrible stat spreads and 0 story impact.

He's talking about Dorn, a character added in EE.

B-but
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur's_Gate_III:_The_Black_Hound
Never ever
;_;

It's not even that hard. The game looks like DivOS3, plays like DivOS3 and feels like DivOS3. I have to physically remind myself that this is BG3, because there is nothing that's even reminiscent of previous D&D games.

Absolutely insufferable retarded shit
What were they thinking

Don't even compare BG to BG2. BG was a mess. The main story could be accidentally completed in mere hours, the good side quests were hidden unintuitively, and they really should have skippes the early levels. Especially that last point. Low level d&d does not translate well to vidya. It's horribly boring because you can't think outside the box to work around your lack of abilities and squishiness. Devoting an entire game to those levels is madness. BG2 was infinitely superior for a reason.

Look, duting our initial meeting I had to tell Neera to fuck off 4 times, before she got the message. And it was after she suckered me into an inescapable fight that I had no dog in. EE really loves to shove their companions down your throat.

No, this is utterly false. They stand out. Their intros are unlike any other character in the game, and, on top of that, they're "fully" voiced which makes them stand out even more. The writing is also a red flag, people can make all sorts of claims, but the writing style is just different. The same thing happens anytime they "add to" or "change" the old characters and dialogue. It's not the same voice.

They also all come up to you when almost none of the vanilla companions do