Well, okay. I'll keep going. Where am I supposed to go, anyway? I just began chapter 3.
I'm just finishing up chapter 3 right now on my current playthough. I haven't done all of the sidequests, but I've spent long enough on this chapter to have reached the end of the romance talks with Viconia. I'm not really a fan of where romances in RPGs have gone, but I think this one was pretty well done.
Not sure if you're still playing or how far you've gone, but since it's all still fresh in my mind:
I did the d'Arnise Hold first in Chapter 2, as it was one of the easier big quests to raise that first 15,000 gp. Make sure that you got all three heads for the Flail of Ages, as it's one of the best early game weapons.
If you haven't done them, do the major quests in Umar Hills, Trademeet, and Windspear Hills. Wait until later in the game to tackle the
You can earn a lot of XP just doing quests in the city itself. These tend to be a lot shorter than the ones that you travel across the map for.
If you're playing the EE or if you have TOB installed, you can do a good chunk of the first floor of Watcher's Keep for some useful stuff. One of the NPCs at the entrace sells a bag for storing your potions, which helps with inventory management.
Don't put Cernd in your party. He is by far the most useless companion in this game.
The 5th level spell Breach is essential. Make sure all of your Mages have it memorized at least once, if not twice.
As a Fighter/Mage dual, buy the Bracers of Defense AC3 that I mentioned, as well as the Robe of Vecna from the merchant in the back of the Adventurer's Mart. It gives you +10% magic resistance but it also reduces the casting time of your spells by 4, which really helps with casting spells in melee.
Always use
Stoneskin. It lasts for 12 hours, so as long as you're not traveling overland, you can cast it on yourself, rest, and still have it available to cast when this one wears off. Jaheira can cast
Iron Skins as a 5th-level spell, which is essentially the same thing. If the game strictly followed the AD&D rules, she should actually be resticted to leather or hide armor, but because she's a Fighter/Druid, the game lets her wear any armor. She can be one of the best tanks in the game, especially if you give her the Gauntlets of Ogre Power or the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength (~19,000 gp at Ribald's).
The party lineup that I've settled on for most of this playthrough is:
Me (half-elf Fighter/Mage)
Jaheira
Minsc
Viconia
Jan
Anomen
Viconia's innate magic resistance is awesome. I had her in my party throughout all of BG1 as well for this reason. Give her a couple of items to boost her MR, and you can often send her in solo to engage a magic-user in melee. He'll waste all his best spells on her, then you can send in everyone else.
Minsc is pretty great for his versatility. It may seem like a downside to not be able to put more than two points into any single weapon skill, but I've been frequently switching him between archery, dual-wielding battle axes, dual-wielding warhammers or maces, and using a two-handed sword.
I've never bothered with Anomen on previous playthroughs, but he's actually pretty good. I got him in my party after I finished Valygar's quests, with the intent of dumping him once I finished his own NPC quests, but I think I'll actually keep him. He was actually a higher level cleric than Viconia when he joined my party, and right now he can cast 7th level spells while Viconia isn't quite there yet. He's annoying and self-righteous, but so are a bunch of other NPCs.
I had never really used Jan before either, but he's actually pretty good. He benefits from the "shorty save" bonuses, so he'll resist a lot of spells that my main PC doesn't. He's a good substitute for Imoen at this point in the game.
Who's in your party?
'd gentleman, and use Level1NPCs to try out weird character builds while still enjoying NPC sidequest content.
