Source
r/baldursgate•
ShinyPogs

Companion replacements, bgee to bg2ee

I just finished BGEE and while I had a grand time (with a second character partly planned) I'm a bit unsure how to go about moving on to BG2EE.

I'm not afraid of spoilers and I looked to see who was available as companions I the second game to see If I could keep most of my original team. I ended the game with. Charname: totemic druid, minsc, dynaheir, imoen, Branwen and faldorn. Team neutral was wonderful and I'm annoyed it's losing 3 members.

I need 2 replacements (3rd slot goes to the fucking recruitable bear because of course it does) and I'm not really sure who to pick that rounds out my team. Jehera is not an option because I hated her in the short time I had her in the first game.

Posted Jul 18, 2017, 12:51 AM UTC

37
juliet_lima•

Jan Jansen is the best NPC in BG2.

Roleplay-wise, of course :)

6
ZeltArruin•

You know, this reminds me of that time, waaaaaay back...

4
Retroroid•

Neera is Chaotic Neutral I think, and mages are always good to have with you. Some people don't like her character arc, but I think it's just fine, and that you should take a look yourself. Her wild surges make things a little more exciting imo. :)

Edwin is another good choice, albeit not of neutral alignment, but he's a fan favorite for his pretty good mage build, as well as his dialogue and interactions with many companions. Note that you can't have Neera and Edwin in a party together.

Jan's a possibility, though I don't really know much about him. I'll let someone else expand on him.

Cernd is great if you like personality drier than California's water supply. Boring character in general, but is decent mechanically, I guess.

Yoshimo is one of my favorite guys, though certain circumstances might render him difficult to keep in your party past a certain point in the story.

Just a few personal opinions.

1
Xiathorn•

You will want to pick up another front-liner, a thief, an arcane and a priest IMO.

If you want to play good, get Keldorn as a front liner. He's exceptionally good when you get him a certain paladin-specific weapon.

If you are OK with evil, get Dorn or Korgan.

If you want to stay neutral, you are sadly looking at Jaheira.

Alternatively, get the bear - but he isn't easy to get early!

For arcane : same situation really. Good means Neera or Aerie, evil Edwin. Edwin is the strongest single-class mage in the game. Neera is potentially the strongest some of the time, other times she will ruin things for you. Aerie is just straight up amazing, and interacts well with Minsc.

For thief, either get Yoshimo or Jan. I would advise Yoshimo because of plot reasons, but Jan is objectively superior.

For priest, depends if you went evil or not. Good means Amonen, evil means Viconia.

You've said you're not afraid of spoilers so I'll just tell you : Imoen is unavailable for parts of the game. She is thief/mage dualed and can be amazingly powerful (absurdly so), but you can't have her all the time. You want someone to cover her role, which is why you'll want a thief and a mage in addition to your others.

1
ShinyPogsOP•

Why do they have to keep fucking with my party :( I'm trying to avoid the more evil characters since I'm planning to do a lawful evil dragon disciple character on my next run through the series so I want to have as many different companions as possible. Thanks for all the suggestions and explanations, it will take a bit of fidding but I should be able to manage something workable without too much overlap. I should be able to handle front line till we get the bear, Minsc holds his own with buffs and as a totemic druid I have a filthy amount of summons that soak and deal damage. Jaheira can rot she's staying out of the party. I guess I'll grab Neera since i apparently need to start her personal to get to the bear anyways. I'll just be sure to quicksave often and if necessary ( and possible) I'll swap her with edwin later on. Not sure on Viconia vs Amonen.

Man I am gonna be grumbling when I do my evil playthrough as well since it seems like the game is determined to take at least half your damn party from you between games and make you play with the new companions. I like to plan out and bond with my team over games. I like trying new teams on new runs and often leave content undone so there's fresh stuff to do but I hate being forced to change my setup.

3
Iamnotarobotchicken•

You will definitely want to pick up jan jansen if for any reason imowen were unavailable. Honestly he's my all time favorite character anyways. Neera is a great neutral character. Keldorn is an awesome good pally, korgan is a great mele character if you don't mind an evil blood thirsty dwarf, yoshimo is a good thief although not my style, dorn of you want an absurdly evil blackguard. Tons of good options. Also, if it matters, korgan plays well with good characters. He doesn't mind only killing evil people as long as he gets to kill people. He is a dick if they are whiney, but that's about it. Your good characters will try to kill you if they are in the party for any of dorn's missions.

1
ShinyPogsOP•

Hehe thankfully Dorn is being saved for my next playthrough. Even playing through the first game as neutral was a bit of a nuisance in terms of juggling people's reactions but thankfully no one left or turned on me. Worth it to be a druid though, fav class forever in these types of games and actual PnP.

1