Baldur's Gate 1 Companion Guide
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- Опубліковано 21 жов 2022
- Companion guide for BG1. In this video we go over how strong companions are as well as take into account their stats, proficiencies, where you get them, and how they perform early and end. I had a lot of issues making this video my ee keeper has crashed 57 times trying to edit files to display equipment and spells so I just have to "talk" about them. My apologies for that. Thanks for watching friends, God bless.
/ davaeorn
/ davaeorn
Only click patreon if you hate money. - Ігри
Tierlist (credits for timestamps to Dagoth Ur)
"S Tier"
20:50 Coran
32:05 Edwin
1:04:59 Kagain
1:08:43 Khalid
1:21:56 Montaron (One of favourite companion)
1:46:42 Viconia
2:01:03 Baeloth
"A Tier"
1:55 Ajantis
9:52 Branwen
15:08 Alora (One of favourite companion)
23:37 Dynaheir
43:47 Feldorn
1:01:43 Jaheira
1:12:43 Kivan
1:33:38 Shar-Teel
1:42:44 Tiax
1:49:40 Xan (One of favourite companion)
1:53:02 Xzar
"B Tier"
55:30 Imoen
1:15:50 Minsc
1:25:19 Quayle
1:29:39 Safana
1:56:43 Yeslick (Far away starting location, if modified he is A Tier)
2:04:39 Dorn
2:11:20 Neera
"C Tier"
37:25 Eldoth
52:03 Garrick
1:37:32 Skie
"Role Play Tier"
2:16:46 Rasaad (The worst character in game)
Can we get a pin on this
preach brother, preach! thanks!
Awesome...this guy can talk ...and talk....and talk...and talk. He needs no friends, he can talk to himself for days on end lol
Thanks for making this list!
As a new player I despised rasaad. Immediately traded him for viconia
Davaeorn, thank you for single-handedly made the BG series way more approachable for an entire generation. I'm in my 20's and love playing older games - Fallout 1, Divine Divinity, and Deus Ex are some of my favorites of all time. Even so, blindly diving into BG1 was overwhelming. All your guides have helped me experience another one of the all-time masterpieces that so many others will never get to enjoy, so just wanted to say I appreciate you my dude
Baldur’s Gate is a classic
Just don't think you have to use the very best companions if you're not playing on the ridiculous difficulty settings that he is. Most shortcomings don't matter as much, and for example Minsc's or Dorn's offensive melee niche is much more useful. So just use whoever you like!
Damn I forgot about divine divinity I'll have to give it a try.
Fallout 2 is great too. Back then truly was the golden age of gaming, or at least of rpgs. Unpolished in just the most memorable way while replayable as hell.
This guide is S tier all the way, 10/10, there isn’t really anything else to say about it, very very strong guide, bar none, can’t say enough good things about it. Finally, I want to impress upon you that you CAN get good information from other guides no matter how dogshit they are. God bless!
The world's your oyster, my dude!
much love my friend
You do you
@@Davaeornlol I think S+ . What a berserker video :D
I could listen to Davaeorn talk about baldurs gate every day. Its just the perfect blend of learning and relaxation. Thank you!
You said it, mate!!!
I have sleep problems. Since 5 months I am using this guys awesome voice to fall asleep, it never fails..
Nothing else helped!
Definitely, I hope he posts more videos to UA-cam...absolutely love his videos
Also, don't forget the sassiness! Case in point, class review: monk
Perfect mix of learning and roasting Eldoth
1:55 Ajantis
9:52 Branwen
15:08 Alora
20:50 Coran
23:37 Dynaheir
32:05 Edwin
37:25 Eldoth
43:47 Feldorn
52:03 Garrick
55:30 Imoen
1:01:43 Jaheira
1:04:59 Kagain
1:08:43 Khalid
1:12:43 Kivan
1:15:50 Minsc
1:21:56 Montaron
1:25:19 Quayle
1:29:39 Safana
1:33:38 Shar-Teel
1:37:32 Skie
1:42:44 Tiax
1:46:42 Viconia
1:49:40 Xan
1:53:02 Xzar
1:56:43 Yeslick
2:01:03 Baeloth
2:04:39 Dorn
2:11:20 Neera
2:16:46 Rasaad
I was waiting for this video & this comment
Thanks! Would love it if you'd include the rating as well. I've watched the whole video but when I forget I could quickly check here :-)
Good work.
This guy is all heart!
1:33:38 Don't you mean Safana? lol
8:00 Xan's "ability" to stop party infighting only applies to Ajantis. Honestly it's worth a playthrough with Ajantis, Xan, and an evil character just to see the snarky dialogue Xan has that outright prevents his Purge Evil script. But don't take this line exactly as Dav says, Xan will not stop any other conflicts like Kagain/Yeslick, Jaheria/Xzar, Khalid/Montaron, etc.
Also worth mentioning regarding Ajantis: he's the most efficient healer in the game. As was explained to me by people who have ripped the source code apart, Baldur's Gate applies a character's class and kit after they're recruited into the party, every time they're recruited. What this means is that when a character is booted from the party and re-recruited on the spot they get all their class abilities back. Try this sometime - after using Ajantis's Lay On Hands, kick him, re-invite him, he has it back, along with all his daily uses of Detect Evil and Protection from Evil. Also applies to any thieves and their daily uses of Set Snare, and to a much less useful extent Rangers and their Charm Animal ability. Also works on Dorn so he can basically have Poison Weapon, Absorb Health, and Aura of Despair up every fight. But Ajantis being able to full-heal a team without risking rest-ambushes in a dungeon is extremely valuable in BG1 and extremely cheesy. But for what it's worth, it's there.
59:54 It's important to note that dualing Imoen should *never* involve Level 8 Thief. If she duals at 7 she can get 8 levels of Mage and still function as a Thief->Mage, however since Mage is one of the most powerful classes if you're really keen on getting the most out of her then you can dual her at level 6 and have a couple thief skills really high on her. Personally I don't have a problem with this, BG1 has so many Thieves it's ridiculous. Dual-classed Imoen takes a while to cook before she can regain her Thief abilities but once she hits Mage 7 she can be a Mage with higher HP and better weapons. Not for someone's first run, but definitely something you can plan on, especially if you wanna run a meme team of all mages.
Also strangely (and quite possibly to preserve her flexibility) while every companion in the Enhanced Edition can join the party with up to 32k XP, only Imoen and Baeloth disregard this rule. Baeloth joins with 40k every time, but Imoen will join with only up to 1,304 XP, and that's only if you run away from her the second you get out of Candlekeep.
1:35:00 Shar-Teel holds the unique ability to be the only BG1 character, at all, ever (at least as of the Enhanced Edition) who can hit Grandmastery in a weapon. It's a lot more asinine and painful than dualing Imoen _but_ if you recruit her at level 6 (32k XP, handy if you used Basilisk cheese to speed-level) and dual her, then _don't_ level her up past 3 until she has the XP necessary to immediately jump to Thief 7, the way the game is programmed you cannot put that last point of proficiency into a weapon to get Grandmastery unless you have at least one class at level 9. Shar-Teel starts with 2 points in Longswords, and can pop a third point into Longswords. After dualing, she will get a proficiency point at Thief 4 and Thief 8. However, if you put points into Longswords before Shar-Teel has levels to Thief 7 she'll lose those points when they overlap after her Fighter levels are online. If you hold off on leveling up until you have the XP for Thief 7 (allowing you to at least use her as a level 3 Thief for a while) then you can put that point you got from Thief 4 into Longswords because the game acknowledges her Fighter class is online and you can start stacking proficiencies. Then you hold off leveling her up again until she gets the total 110,000 XP needed for Thief 9, and then the proficiency point from Thief 8 can be put into Longswords, reaching Grandmastery.
It's a huge pain in the ass but the payoff is a woman who can dual-wield Longswords with impunity, has just as much APR as any other Warrior in the game, but 9 levels of Thief skills and her really high DEX, and she can multiply all that Grandmastery damage with a Varscona backstab.
2:15:00 I checked up on the Wild Surge table. That useless belt of Adoy's only actually gives you a -5 bonus against _one_ of the Wild Surges. That's it. And you're not gonna wear that against Basilisks even on casual save-scum mode because you _will_ roll low and die, so you're gonna use Protection from Petrification.
I have yet to experience the Imoen experience bug in the first game. In the past she had always scaled to 32k exp for me, just like the others (except Beloth). Granted, I have not recruited any companions there since 2.5. I could no longer stand all the pathfinding issues and losing all the hidden over the cap experience after importing my character to BGEE2. I do not use any mods except the Imoen 4ever mod for the second game.
I posted here pretty much the same thing regarding Shar-Teel. However, the last time I checked, she still started with 2 points in dualwielding, 1 in daggers and 1 in long swords, same as seen in the video. This would change her leveling choices slightly, but the final outcome would not change much. She can still earn grandmastery in either daggers or long swords. I do believe Davaeorn is aware of the grandmastery gimmick, but does not hold it in a high regard. He mentioned it briefly earlier, while discussing a different companion. I only noticed that part after I earlier comment. I wish I had saved the timestamp of it, because finding it now could take a while.
Ages ago I looked at the stone gaze attack through NearInfinity. From what I remember, it was treated as a level 0 ability with a -3 saving throw penalty. The level 0 part would explain why the gaze went through the Protection From Magic Scroll. As result, it killed my ill prepared Wizard Slayer solo character, in a no reload game. Either way, other characters should be able to get their saving throws low enough to negate the gazes at all times. The adoy's belt could come handy, even if it is not as efficient as other options.
that's all so interesting, thanks for sharing!!
Ty for this. Dual into thief is one of the easier ones since u need like half the xp to catch up levels.
I had a really bad accident a few months ago and watched your videos in the hospital to help distract myself it helped alot thanks for your content pal
I love how many companions this game has... The better the game technology gets, the less party member options we have nowadays cause they have to animate and voice so much stuff... loved having such a big roster to play around with
They just cheap out honestly. Back in the day game programmers loved their jobs. Now it's all about profit.
@@MrBottlecapBill Except that's literally not true? In bg1 companions don't have nearly as much reactivity as they have in later bioware games (and many other rpgs even from that era tbh) and most of them aren't even involved in the main story. Take bg3 for example (not a bioware game but the most recent big rpg which perfectly illustrates my point), where you have only 5 main companions and 4 additional, but even additional once have major roles in the story, and at same time the story has to account for them dying at any point. That's not cheaping out, that's literally as expensive as it gets.
You can't have 20 companions and have them all react to everything in the game, be important to the story, have everything voice acted and have the same graphical fidelity as bg3.
A game like that would have to have a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars, and AAA games are already bloated enough as they are
Fully voice acting games has killed modern rpgs for me
Yo man I watched the whole thing and you're absolutely right. Monk is overpowered.
the real late game powerhouse
Wow, I didn't expect sun soul monk to be this good! Never thought to use Rasaad this way!
I mean he’s a bit weak early but wait till endgame, he’s a real late bloomer!
Yeah especially the Sun soul monk is S++ tier. It's in its own unique tier because nothing else comes close.
We win late game
Love every time a new Davaeorn vid drops. Hell yes.
Agreed
My man is an international treasure.
+1
👍 same here
12:25 talks about cleric spells he uses
28:28 talks about wizard spell selection
48:26 feldorn druis spells used
I'd just like to point out an important thing about Dav's BG1 setup which I don't think he mentioned? Dav's installed a mod which gives Jaheira her BG2 dex score of 17, giving a -3 bonus to her ac, while her original BG1 dex score is only 14, which provides no bonus to ac. Without the mod installed she's easier to hit and would need the dex gloves to make up for it, which directly conflicts with Dav saying she doesn't need them. That means she can't use the strength gloves and needs the belt from Rasaad's quest instead, and now you're using two stat-boosting items on one character.
This is a great video overall though
She can still be your main tank in vanilla core rules unmodded BG1, but like you said, you have to commit to it. She needs the dex gloves as well as your best armor and shield. Since I usually only have a single "main" tank in my BG1 parties (because of equipment scarcity before lategame,) that means Khalid is best used (in my opinion) as an archer instead of a tank. Both Khalid and Jaheira can tank, but only Khalid (of the two) can use longbows. Jaheira's stats are "fine" in BG1 unmodded, but they're nothing special. She's like a worse Ajantis, except she can use druid spells.
Since Jaheira comes together with Khalid, having Jaheira slinging rocks and casting spells in the back rows while Khalid tanks is totally fine imo
@@toprak3479 Her damage and accuracy are rather bad, especially compared to what a longbow specialist like Khalid can do. I mean, you can do it. I just think it's better the other way. She gains Druid levels so slowly that it takes an age before she obtains even basic offensive Druid magic.
Also Viconia is modded, she has 15 wisdom and fewer spells to cast than shown here (18)
Loved this. Loved every minute. I'm surprised the mod that moves NPCs to more convenient locations didn't move Skie, or rather, allow Eldoth to sneak into Baldur's Gate and retrieve her. But then having said that she's still a budget Imoen, but I personally find her voice lines funny, especially in a party with Xan. Don't forget though that Imoen wasn't an original NPC, they chucked her in at the last minute because all the thieves available were either psychos or late game.
@CRPG Quest Totally, they even wanted to kill her off in Spellhold in BG2, hence Nalia existing. But the fanbase wouldn't let them, annoyingly.
What really? Baldurs gate really wouldn't be the same without imoen
@@shadowlord1418 yeah it's true! Same reason why she isn't in the novel
Well the novels were trashy schlock so that's fine with me lmao
You can get a magic dagger in Candlekeep at level one in exchange for a quarrel of crossbow bolts if you have 18 charisma.
Came here to say this. It’s the earliest example I know of where the NPC reaction changes the reward like that.
Maybe not if you are elf, I had to pickpocket it with a elf.
@@freefall9832 The only thing that matters for the dagger is having 18 Charisma
@JvstmGaming you're right, just checked and I only have 17. I left room for the book that raises charisma. I forgot about that
@@freefall9832 I always to that myself. I even stopped caring about my Fighter's exceptional strength because I'll have 19 before the end of the game anyways haha.
Xan has 16 cha and also I think the highest average combination of int, wis and cha of anyone in the OG game (only equal to the drow guys in later versions, but I think none above him). He could be a master manipulater if he wanted, like he's not good aligned and clearly still got the moon blade approval, when you also consider that he's an actual freaking enchanter and also LAWFUL neutral, he's got the means AND the motivation to keep the party cool and balanced when he wants to. They really made the stats make total sense with his personaily and his abilities with this one, it's a pity they didn't bring it over to the other games, he could've been a freaking awesome character if they had continued what they did with him. (...But those mods though)
I consider an empty slot a better companion than a monk in BG1. All that Rasaad does is leaching XP and carrying stuff.
I think you’re the only person who’s ever made a super in depth guide for original Baldur’s Gate companions. I’m not sure if that makes you crazy or super helpful. But I’m grateful nonetheless.
Edit: My theory for why Kagain has 15 intelligence is probably similar to the reason Anomen has a point in spears: RP flavor. He is a successful shop and business owner despite being a surly dwarf in a human city.
It makes him one of the greatest human beings on the planet.
The effort you put into your presentations is appreciated and its amazing to realize that even after two decades of playing BG, there is still so much to learn. Well done.
high quality. thick consistency. what a guide. can't say enough good things about it.
Rasaad has superior move speed when compared everyone else, so he's better at kiting shit before you have go fast boots or doggo cloak. Unfortunately he also has superior move speed, so he's better at getting himself blown up by running face first into danger.
Baldurs Gate 1 NPCs were so goofy
Ton of characters, too many thieves, and way too many you find super late
Great analysis on the monk. Even if he had maxed out stats, he would still be inferior to Kagain. I believe it was Josh Sawyer who pointed out the same problem with Baldurs Gate.
I don't see a problem with that. All classes don't have to be equally strong. With careful positioning a monk is completely viable throughout the game although ofc not being the strongest possible character.
From an immersion standpoint, a barefisted unarmored dude being significantly weaker than the average schmuck with a sword and armor makes perfect sense. But playing with Rasaad or Garrick/Eldoth stinks way too hard.
Here’s to hoping we get a full item guide (armor and accessories)! Great work as always
A potion guide would be really useful
I waited so long for this video! Thank you so much for making this! Waiting for a walkthrough of the game to complete the set 😉
I ALWAYS thought Ajantis was the blonde portrait with shiny platemail, since my dad used his portrait for the PC. Kinda makes sense.
It was pretty mindblowing to learn the truth (for me it is still headcanon). Anyone else with this experience?
I used to think that Anomen's picture was Ajantis in BG2 because I used to always use Anomen's picture for my main character. I was shocked back in the day when I bought a guide book and saw Anomen's portrait.
Loved your video.
Basically best party:
Kagain because of 20 constitution. Coran because of his 20 dexterity. Baeloth as the best sorcerer in the game (his ring).
Montaron as the best backstabber/thief in the game. And Viconia as the best healer, cleric in the game.
Worst party:
Skie (all thief skills are random). Garick (despite finishing the game with him) his lack of constitution and late game contribution is nothing). Eldoth (he is nothing compared to Coran). Quale (nothing special about him either) and Rasaad (nothing particular useful about him).
It's like they want you to play an all evil party
My man, every video drop warrants a new playthru from me! Keep at it dude, love it
Amazing vid once again. I consider myself knowledgeable in terms of Baldur's Gate and AD&D but I am always humbled when I watch your vids.
10/10, can't say enough good things about it. S+ tier video.
Good to know, I'm playing for the very first time and I finally called it quits on Rasaad, he was dying like every fight. Even when I manually kited him around he sometimes just took an arrow too the head and died.
I Appreciate all of the hard work and time you have put into these guides, Albeit you didn't do it for me I have benefited from your guides and so I say thank you!
I'm on my 4th play through of BG1EE. I keep importing my character from the last save when facing Savorek. So, from my character's point of view, he's locked into a Groundhog's Day loop where just when he thinks he's going to win, he restarts - unable to save Gorion and no matter what he does different the end is always the same.
Oof rough timeline indeed
@@Davaeornlol
Honestly, I think I may have just turned BG into a Ravenloft module by accident.
I was so preoccupied with if I could, I never stopped to wonder if I should.
@@Dream0Asylum hmm i think i just found my next adventure idea
I love that. I technically already started another playthrough even though I am still on my own 4th playthrough, finally doing the whole game with a solo fighter/mage/thief, and I removed the XP cap, so suddenly I am also very tempted to do this exact thing and see how high I can stand to get my character just repeating the first game before moving on, haha.
Thanks for the guide, Dav. I'm going to make a full party of Wild Mages now and only cast Nahal's every combat. I learned a lot.
Hell yeah some new Dav content
P.S. Tiax is S+ tier companion due to his voicelines alone and him not being in BG2 as a companion is amongst the biggest tragedy in gaming history.
BG2 did disgusting injustice to almost every BG1 companion. Tiax is rotting in spellhold, Xzar is suddenly rude and narcissistic like Edwin, Faldorn is a complete comic book villain, Ajantis has to die without you having a chance to identify him in any way, Jaheira is horny for her niece figure mere days after his husband's death... At least Viconia got a massive improvement in personality.
@@toprak3479 it always rubbed me the wrong way that jaheira is romanceable 💀💀💀 nalia would make so much more sense
@@gingergreenmashups Nalia would make sense too but Mazzy or Haer'Dalis would be absolute bangers.
I just stumbled on you channel and I have been watching all your BG videos. Keep up the great work!
46:01 is one of the many reasons I appreciate these videos. Info drops like this are what im looking for when i go to youtube for a game.
As usual, golden quality content love to watch and apply in the gameplays!
Bards are actually fairly good in EE. Song gives +1 luck and has unlimited use. +1 luck in low BG1’s levels is actually quite huge, it gives +1 to attack and dmg rolls of other 5 party members. I did some math, and dmg output from this varies from middle to top physical dmg dealers in the game (obviously it depends on other party members/target enemy). On top of that you get incoming dmg reduction and immunity to fear. AND you can use wands just like a wizard. Definitely not tier C chars.
Just did a run through with garrick for most of the game just because I've only done 1 run through bg1 and bgee and I took mostly new characters like down and Neera. So I wanted to try new characters for this run and garrick while most of the time I was saying to myself why do I have him and eventually traded gim for yeslick. I miss alot of what he did.
The fear negation was so important.
Having 2 wand casters was also op
Giving him the army scythe he did decent ranged damage and 2 apr
THE LORE. OMG THE LORE. having him just auto identify almost everything was huge, I never realized lore even existed on my first playthrough.
Not to mention having someone who can cast sleep when dynahier can't, and I can use his spell slots to buff the party before a fight and then throw armor on him and go in.
I was sad to let him drown in the cloakwood mines for yeslixk :^(
Back when I was playing the original version of Baldur's Gate 1, I liked to have Imoen max out find traps, then dual to an illusionist, then I'd recruit Coran for open locks (and being a fantastic archer).
My dude I am so happy to see another one of your crazy in-depth guides!
First can I just say thank you for including vanilla and EE Baldur's Gate along with the mods? I don't play with any mods and love being able to still get amazing info from you. So thank you!
Also, damn bro, you are like my video encyclopedia for BG- Always got your videos handy lol.
Thank You and Merry Christmas.
I haven't played BG1 for a long time. This video inspired me to run through it again and try some different companions.
Unless I'm mistaken, Luck gives you a bonus to both damage and minimum damage rolls. When you roll a d6 with +2 Luck, you can never do less than 5 damage. At least, that's how I remember it.
That's +damage. Luck is minimum roll. So 3 to 6. 3 assuming u rolled a 1 it's probably placebo high since a 2 roll is 4, 3 roll is 5, 4-6 roll is 6. So technically u get 5+ damage more than half the time. Luck is honestly such an insane stat. I wish there was some you can get some on the mc. Sod has the belt of luck and a ring I believe that gave bless, and another accessory that gave permanent chant. It's so op to have permanent buffs when they are normally short buffs with long cast
I really love your videos! I'm actually one of the few who actually liked Dorn in BG1. Even though it was pretty simple I liked the idea of a revenge story, it's actually better than his quests in BG2 where it's mostly doing evil for the lols, while in BG1 he actually has reasonable motives to hunt down his former teamates. Makes him looked more like a plausible evil dude roaming around the Sword Coast who you can encounter during your adventures. His 14 Con is terrible I agree, but I always using that to my advantage by putting on him the Claw of Kazgaroth. The Con penalty doesn't affect his hp at all and he gets a lot of defenses that makes him way more durable. And since it's a curse item that sticks on him, I can argue that it makes senses to manually import the item when you encounter him in SoD and BG2.
Thanks for the video Dav, looking forward to the Insight. Thumb up pressed.
I wish I could get this kind of rundown on something like Kingmaker or Wrath of the Righteous. Loved it.
Hope you keep posting content. Just found your channel and love your no-BS attitude. Refreshing on sanitized YT.
So glad you finally made this video, thank you
The one redeaming quality Rasaad has is that his quest gets you a cursed belt of hillgiant strength. So after you get to Baldur's Gate, grab him, do his quest, and kick him out for someone who can wear armor.
Definitely going to like every video you put out before I even get a chance to put play because your content is top tier!
I really need to get back into this game.
Whenever I play Baldur's Gate 1 SCS I always go with a more melee heavy party:
Ward - Inquisitor
Jaheira - fighter/druid
Yeslick - fighter/cleric
Branwen - cleric
Dynaheir - mage (Invoker)
Imoen - lvl6 thief / lvl9 mage
I remember fighting against the Ogre Magi with all his level 5 protection against magical weapons and spell shield at the bridge...such a fun battle!
Able to get Greater Malison off on him to set up for Hold Monster is a 10/10 experience when he came so close to killing my PC who was doing a pretty good job holding his own.
But he's so tanky that it took like 2-3 rounds from the entire party just to kill him after hold monster was placed on him. That's how much of a beef tank that ogre magi was lol.
Tks man. I will enjoy this new work for sure now even more that I get BG1 again cause I will play bg:sod for the first time.
Helpful guide! Halfway through the video so far and I noticed both Jaheira and Minsc both are listed with their BG2 Stats, not their BG1 stats.
Greetings from Brazil my friend, I love your videos and I hope you are well and are able and motivated to bless us with such good content.
thanks for your good work
I'm not that much of a power gamer. Most of my parties were more role play oriented.
I took Kivan a few times because I wanted to have his revenge.
Safana because her interaction with the male characters are funny.
Minsc because c'mon, he is Minsc. Way too funny to not take him.
I have alot respect for you sticking it out with bg. You are hilarious man and sure if it was about views you'd be owning jamming something newer. Keep it og, loved the video.
Really nice video :) Haven't played BG1 for a long time, but used to play it like crazy back on early 2000's. Pretty much agree on all the comps, kinda used to have Vinck with me for some reason, though :)
Thanks man you always deliver!!!
DEWaeorn, you as always charming, love to see new vids from ya, good job and god bless you!
Love the list, would like to throw in some input on how I utilize my thieves, because I believe some of their value can be changed by swapping them in and out for BG1 Thief skill builds.
With EET installed, using the same ruleset for No Reload, I have a long term, 4D Chess BigBrain strat for how I build my group and characters. In BG1 I utilize Safana, Imoen and Coran specifically unless something goes horribly awry or CHARNAME is some form of Thief. For Imoen, I give her Set Snare high enough to cap with the Dex book If not otherwise being utilized, Lum +1 Dexterify, and Mercykiller Ring (3 levels with some spare points). I'll also cap Detect Illusion (4 levels) and fill in Find Trap (2 levels), leaving Open Lock for rings to and the odd Knock to shore up. For some weird reason, dual classing Thieves does NOT stop their baseline traps from scaling, so she gets her Big Dick traps still lategame.
Since Imoen is going to be gimped for most of the playthrough, I snatch Safana early on and she's my Lock/Trap monkey until I get to the Cloakwood and pick up Coran. I do give Safana enough Detect Illusions to cap with Zaviak's goggles for the Shadow Aspect. Coran will have enough points to dedicate to the jobs, while of course, being a combat monster until he takes off after Korlasz' Tomb.
Moving into BG2 is pretty flexible, so I'll usually just nab Hexxat for her bag and boot her while keeping Yoshimo until Imoen is back. My plan does change lategame when I can resummon Hexxat, and slap a few levels on her and turn her into an Alchemy monkey to swap in/out. I'm really looking for a mountain of Superior Healing/Regeneration/Speed Potions, but the bonus Perceptions can be used by Imoen for any oddball Backstab, Lockpick or Pickpocketing she needs to do.
Baeloth combat rating: S++
Baeloth character rating: F minus
Over under how many times I will listen to this - 4.5
Some followers have crap stats, but their dialogue and personalities are so damn good that I take ‘em.
I love how you still keep making those videos. 20+ years old game and all but community is still alive.
I needed this one because the biggest barrier to me in bg1 is none of the companions stand out much to me and its kind of a giant timesink to try them all out. At least hearing about their strengths can help me a ton.
I don't have that issue in bg2, somehow the companions felt like they had more personality
1:57:10
You mention here about dispel magic not being available before the city of Baldur’s Gate with the exception of Yeslick or a Sorcerer. I seem to recall a bandit named Neville in the area just north of Gnoll Stronghold, the area with the big river going through the middle and a polar bear at the bottom of the zone.
Neville is in the north east corner of the map with a few hobgoblins that ambush you and I’m pretty sure he drops a scroll of Dispel Magic(unless Enhanced Edition changed it).
You can also play a inquisitor
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, neat! I wasn't expecting this, thank you!
These Vids are awesome My dude
39:20 "I don't know if he's squinting here because he's actually blind" fuckin got me. lol
The whole Eldoth roast was hilarious
Great vid Dav. Appreciate it.
I have to say, every time I play with KIVAN, I always use him as a ranger specialist. that dude is almost always the best archer in my party. He always has the most kills in the party and he seems to hit every time he shoots. I would give him another shot solely as the archer. He gives Coran a serious run for his money.
I don't know why but that face at 55:39 had my sides hurting from laughing so much.
Hey great video!
Some of it has been said, but I thought I'd add my 2 cents as well.
First and foremost (though mostly addressed in the video) there are actually a lot of differences between the EE and original version of this game. It is therefore Important to note, that these characters were made with the intent to be played in the originals settings. This has some major changes as I will try my best to note in this comment. However, I think my intent is to communicate my disagreements (though I agree with the majority of this video ) and add worthwhile commentary as I see necessary with the following characters:
Ajantis: Another bonus perk about ajantis is that his morale break score is tied for the lowest(lower is better) in the game (excluding dorn and baeloth but they were added) he actually almost never fails a morale check. Couple this with his paladin bonus +2 to saves and he really is a reliable companion. He is also the best user of the sword of balduran for what that's worth.
Alora: alora is actually really bad in the original and is probably tied for the worst character in the game (with skie). The ring slot being taken up hurts a lot and getting nothing in return is worse. Of course there is the already mentioned late acquisition which is the actual deal breaker though. She still gets +2 to all saves as a shorty though.
Coran: absolutely S tier. However I just want to say that having 20 dex over 19 does practically nothing. The only thing it impacts is your thief scores. I think it gets way over hyped just because you can't normally roll that high on your own. Though you can give him the time of dex if you want to receive another bonus to AC and to hit with ranged weapons, making him even more disgusting. The rest is spot on.
Dynaheir: She can't use any enchantment magic at all which means no sleep which is hands down the most powerful level 1 spell in the game. Wouldn't mover her a tier, but she doesn't have everything. Her web makes up for it though as it almost always works on everything.
Jaheira: she isn't nearly as tanky in this as you have modded stats. She only has 14 dex in unmodded versions which is obviously WAY worse. I drop her to B tier personally.
Kaigan: Kaigan is pretty much God tier if it existed. In addition to everything you said, 20 con also gives regeneration, albeit it's very slow. However! In BG 1 I cannot stress how amazing it is. Us og players remember that when you rested you used to recover ONLY 1hp (no setting for fully recover ho when resting). Kaigan however, would recover ALL his hp back. This became especially useful if you intended/needed to rest more than once at a time since monsters appearing to disturb your rest became a lot more common an occurrence and you could just have Kaigan tank with no real consequences.
Khalid: just noting that his morale break isn't that much worse than anyone's. Though it is tied for worst still in the game. It isn't COMPLETELY unwarranted. Being intellectually honest, it is a 6 instead of a 5(every original character other than minsc and ajantis had either of those values). So yeah, I agree with you.
Kivan: Being able to use composite longbows right from the beginning of the game is very valuable and he can hit very well. He's not as good as coran, but you don't have to play through half the game to get him.
Minsc: Also tied for lowest morale break score (though I think it always is a berserk when it happens, might be true for Ajantis as well[confirmation required]). The stats you used are incorrect for unmodded BG he actually has one less in dex and con. However, I think you did him an injustice. His berserk ability is actually really good. It makes him immune to a large number of status effects and increases his strength and con by 2 points in addition to increasing his thaco and damage by 2 each as well. Many early game wizards(almost all of them) cast horror which minsc doesn't care about when berserking. Using two handed swords is great actually. Minsc isn't intended to be a main tank, but a damage dealing Frontline. Ideally you would have your main tank in front of him while he swings his big sword behind them. I've never had a problem with it. All this being said, I'm not arguing his placement, but I think he has more merit than you described
Montaron: gets +3 bonuses to all saves with his con. He isn't the best backstabber in the game though, that honor goes to dual class Shar-Teel. To be fair though, increasing Str isn't really that hard and after that it really doesn't matter between the two. Also, halflings get a bonus to hit with slings so those 2 pips in it is pretty nice for him.
Quayle: he actually got buffed in EE with an extra point in dexterity. He is absolutely horrible regardless though.
Shar-Teel: Shar-Teel got done really dirty in EE. In original BG she is definitely S tier. She had 2 pips in large swords and small swords. Combined with 18/58 Str and 17 dex this made her the best throwing dagger user in the game and she was REALLY good at it. It only got better the more pips she put into small sword. Then you could dual her thief to make her the best backstabber in the game as well. Honestly, she was so good.
Viconia: you have modded stats she only has 15 wisdom unmodded and only 50mr. I would definitely drop her a tier(despite her being one of my favorite characters).
EE characters:
Baeloth: has no morale break. Just makes him even better.
Dorn: in addition to the principles I described with minsc he has a +2 to all saves and has the lowest morale break in the game(1). Albeit, he also has the lowest morale recovery in the game as well. I've never seen him have a failure, but theoretically it would last seemingly forever (confirmation required). I would place him in A tier.
I think that sums up my thoughts pretty well. Thanks for the video!
Blessed be thou, Dav.
Rasaad also spends a good chunk of the game being unable to damage anything that needs +1 or greater weapons without just turning him into a dart turret. In fact he may only get counts as +1 at level 7 or 8.
OMG you actually did it ! :D Actually made this video, you are great!
You’re back!!! Hope you’re good
Man I can not wait for your videos. Automatic like.
A couple weeks ago, I finally finished IWDEE, and decided afterward that it was finally time to give BG1 a proper shot. This video was a big help throughout the whole playthrough, so I guess I got lucky that you uploaded it soon after I got started (or rather, got over my restart-itis lmao)!
Though I have to say, I'm not sure if it's because I'm a first-timer/playing on Core Rules and not a really hard difficulty, but is it uncommon for the party to be so... revolving-door-ish? Like, usually in RPGs I settle on a team ahead of time and that's that. But with Baldur's Gate, I've changed my party up at least once every chapter so far, and the strangest/coolest part is that it's never felt, like... "out-of-character"? Like, either through luck, oddities, or just interpretation, every removal or addition has felt totally natural. I'm not sure I've ever experienced something like it in an RPG before, hah!
57:30 -- Quick sidenote about dual-classing into specialist mages in vanilla BG1. All you need is the minimum extra stat of the specialist mage, not the 17 requirement that dual-classes usually request. So you could actually dual-class Imoen to Conjurer without the Tome. You can also dual-class Safana to an Enchanter with the Int Tome (how appropriate).
Pretty sure you can trigger conflicts even with high charisma character by making someone with low charisma a party leader for a while.
Shar-Teel will come to blows with Eldoth and it's the most hilarious one in the game. Also i'm pretty sure Xan only stops Ajantis from fighting evil characters, he won't stop others conflicts, but it's been a while since i last played it so i might be misremembering it.
I can never bring myself to play through the baldurs gate games (though ive got early access BG3, hopin it turns out well), but I've watched most every one of your vids multiple times over. You explaining the game is prob more enjoyable than me actually playing it
Not sure why I watched the video when I play solo, since I absolutely hate handling 6 people who often I don't even like and are leeching my exp, but it was entertaining.
Foreskin saved. 10/10 no cap fr fr
16:30 the Rabbit's Foot in original Baldur's Gate gave +2 Luck but it didn't say anything in the description (like Edwin's Amulet did). The way luck works is it adds 2 to basically all rolls, including the "hidden" 1d8 you get when rolling thief skills. This in theory is supposed to add 5% to your thieving skills, but it doesn't actually show up. Looks like BeamDog took this literally and added the 5% manually, as well as buffing her AC.
Can't wait for the "Baldur's Gate" 3 Companion Guide
The tier list would strongly depends on the types of sexual deviations you possess
Awesome! :D
Please mate, make some bookmarks or something to see where you talk about which companion :)
thanks for the great content 👍
Yo Davaeorn! How about an Icewind dale play through? You could custom the ultimate 6 man party (or you could even do the Black Pits from either BG1 or BG2). I’m sure a lot of people would love to see you take on these dlc/game
Hope your doing well got worried a min with no stream for a few days but vids are just as good :"}. May Cthulhu bless you with his tentacle appendages ~{*.*}~
Yeah! I'm going to enjoy this.
Thanks for making this content Dav : ) I love these videos.
Branwen having 9 int-it actually is somewhat relevant, since it allows her to use wands and scrolls without needing to be buffed with potions like yeslick does. Wand of the heavens is quite nice for single target fire damage, and she can also use wand of fear if you want her to. Various cleric scrolls, or the generic protection scrolls, are things she can use with 9 int, but yeslick can't since he has 7 at base. Viconia is still definitely the best cleric in the game, but branwen does have her uses
A dav vid? On a Saturday? It’s Christmas come early.
Love your barty combanion guides
Love your videos
The best thing about this video is that I hadn't even expected you to do a BG1 companion guide. Thanks.
This is awesome! Can you do a party build suggestion video if you haven't already?
This is true about Minsc. But missing info. And not correct about the reason to play him. He gets +4 bonus to hit and to damage on enemy types for the mission he is needed for. And he is deadly with a Composite Long Bow. Which also happens to be the reason to use him. For that mission.
OMG love your vids!!!