BG2 NPC Rundown

General Information

Thankfully BioWare realized to really utilize a character, they need to be meta-gamed a little bit due to their own game engine and therefore all the NPCs are quite good in their own way (except for Cernd, who rivals Garrick in terms of uselessness). However, as the dialogue is much more character-driven this game around, many of them fight against each other so viable party strategies are somewhat limited. I know for a fact Minsc and Edwin will eventually try to kill each other, and going the chaotic neutral route with Anomen conflicts with a large majority of the good aligned NPCs. Generally speaking, stick to a given alignment type with few exceptions.

Good-Aligned NPCs

You have the greatest number of options when rolling good-aligned simply due to the larger variety of characters you can recruit. All of them are quite good but will rebel against you if your reputation dips too low.

Imoen

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
9	18	16	17	11	16	Human	Thief(7)/Mage(8)	Neutral Good

Special Abilities: None.

Required Actions: None.

Your faithful sister, Imoen returns as one of the better NPCs in the entire series. Her strength is one point too low for her to really hold a lot of equipment but that's just a minor inconvenience. She's the best good-aligned mage and has the charisma to be your face character. If you're not going to use Jan Jansen, you are basically forced to bring her along unless your player character is a thief. Thankfully, the 7 levels in thief she has were put into the proper places in terms of thief skills and she'll be able to open any door or disarm any trap you encounter even throughout Throne of Bhaal. Plus, she has good HP for being a mage.

If she already wasn't good enough, Imoen will never betray you even if you do decide to go on a murderous rampage, never comes into conflict with any other NPC, and starts gaining Bhaalspawn powers in Throne of Bhaal. Basically, the guys at BioWare assumed you were going to use her in every playthrough.

Minsc

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
18/93	16	16	8	6	9	Human	Ranger(8)	Chaotic Good

Special Abilities: Berserker Rage once per day, similar to the Barbarian ability. Ranger racial enemy "Vampire."

Required Actions: Release him from his cage at the beginning of the game.

Minsc returns as the berserker warrior badass he was in BG1, with the addition of a dexterity and constitution. He isn't a great raw tank because you're going to want to set him up either with two-handed weapons or dual-wielding and 16 dexterity is still not perfect, but he's good enough in a pinch to take a hit. The key to Minsc is his versatility: you can make him fight however you need a guy to fight depending on the rest of your party's make up. His racial enemy and starting proficiency in Mace helps him wield the Mace of Disruption to lay down some big hurtin' on the Vampires you encounter, some of the more difficult and annoying enemies you'll encounter. He's also pretty good with a bow. Once he starts picking up divine spells, rig him up with some buff spells to watch him go to town. Just make sure to keep him at range during fights with Mind Flayers because they kill him extremely quickly due to his low intelligence.

Aerie

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
10	17	9	16	16	14	Elf	Cleric(7)/Mage(7)	Lawful Good

Special Abilities: Impossible character creation combination (elves cannot multi-class cleric/mage.)

Required Actions: Rescue her from the circus tent in Waukeen's Promenade.

Aerie proves it doesn't really matter what your stats are if you roll a cleric/mage. Her INT is one point too low to reliably learn mage spells so you'll need to guzzle Intelligence-increasing potions when you want to actually write new magic, but that is her only real fault. Low HP is not a big issue because you're not using Aerie to tank. She's just there to have a ridiculous amount of spells. The fun thing about being multi-classed is you can devote more of her cleric spells to healing than usual because you can use her mage spells for buffs and damage. She's a solid replacement for Imoen right out of the gate as her location is right after you finish the starting dungeon, plus she's the only good-aligned divine spellcaster until you finish Anomen's quest.

Nalia

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
14	18	16	17	9	13	Human	Thief(4)/Mage(9)	Chaotic Good

Special Abilities: Equipped with "D'Arnisse Signet Ring", essentially a combination of a Ring of Protection +2 with the added bonus of giving 50% fire resistance. Note you can still equip other rings or amulets of protection and the armor bonuses will stack.

Required Actions: Meet her in the Copper Coronet in the Slums district.

If you're looking for a thief, look elsewhere; if you're looking for a better Imoen, you found her. The 4 thief levels Nalia possesses are largely superfluous outside of giving an expanded weapon selection, as her Find Trap and Open Locks skills are terrible. Still, with enough thievery potions, you can utilize her to disarm a lot of dangerous traps and just use the spell "Knock" to open up anything you can't pick. Her unique ring is pretty awesome. Stacked with another ring of protection and some Bracers of AC or the Armor spell, she can have great armor class which helps keep her alive if some enemy archers decide to ignore your tanks. Her important stats are identical or superior to Imoen's until early ToB, and she can be picked up immediately. She is not the best mage in the game, as that title belongs to Edwin, but she will level up faster than Aerie and Jan, and unlock higher-level spells than Haer'Dalis. Nalia makes a solid pick as a spellcasting-focused replacement-Imoen.

Keldorn

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
17	9	17	12	16	18	Human	Inquisitor(9)	Lawful Good

Special Abilities: Equipped with Firecam Full Plate and "Hallowed Redeemer" two-handed sword.

Required Actions: Simply talk to him in the upper-left corner of the sewers below the Temple District.

Keldorn is fairly good, but requires a lot of augmented items to really shine. He out-right requires the Gauntlets of Dexterity in order to be viable, and because his strength is only 17, you'll really want to boost it with some of the strength belts you find. However, with those items he becomes the best good-aligned tank in the game. Unless you also roll a paladin, Keldorn is the only character who can equip the Carsomyr sword you get off Firkraag, the most powerful two-handed weapon until some of the more absurd things you can get in Throne of Bhaal. It's worth keeping his default weapon around, for the record, even once you get something better. The damage it returns to people who land blows on Keldorn is magic damage and very few enemies are resistant to this. In fights against enemies with high resistances, you can simply let Keldorn tank with the Hallowed Redeemer as you spam heals upon him until things die. This strategy is probably the most reliable way to kill Demogorgon.

Valygar

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
17	18	16	10	14	10	Human	Stalker(9)	Neutral Good

Special Abilities: Equipped with Corthala Family Armor and Blade. Ranger racial enemy "Golem."

Required Actions: Confront him in his house in the Umar Hills region. Let him join you rather than killing him, obviously.

Valygar is easily the most dangerous offensive fighter you can recruit outside of Korgan, and for entirely different reasons. While he is limited to two proficiency points in weapons because he is a ranger kit, he can stealth and backstab for large numbers. Stalker is my personal favorite Ranger kit for those reasons plus the fact they actually have useful divine spells to cast at 3rd level. Give Valygar some sort of strength-enhancing item like the Belt of Hill Giant Strength and the Boots of Speed to quickly run in and out of battle for restealthing purposes, and giggle as you backstab creatures for serious damage. If simply being a Stalker with good stats wasn't enough, he comes equipped with armor you never really need to replace and a good sword to utilize against casters. The bleed effect on it essentially shuts down their ability to do much of anything.

Mazzy

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
15	18	16	10	13	14	Halfling	Fighter(9)	Lawful Good

Special Abilities: Equipped with Sword and Bow of Arvoreen; 2 casts per day of self-buff Strength, Protection from Fear, Lay on Hands, and Haste.

Required Actions: Rescue her from the Temple Ruins as part of the Umar Hills quest line.

Mazzy is ridiculously good on many levels. First, she can self-buff her strength twice a day to 18/00 that lasts for 1 turn/level, which also gives her a flat +4 THAC0 bonus, which DOES apply to her ranged weapons. This means she basically has more strength than any other NPC because it lasts long enough it is nearly always up. She can also grant herself immunity for fear twice a day, can heal herself twice a day as per the base paladin ability Lay on Hands, and can just Haste twice a day for no reason. Add on top she's a true fighter so she can gain grand mastery in weapons, and her halfling bonus to saving throws, and you have an extremely solid NPC for both ranged purposes and to tank with. With the Tuigan Bow and Improved Haste, she can hit 10 attacks per round right out the gate. Her only drawback is she is in a fairly difficult area to get to early in the game so she cannot join for awhile. As a final added bonus, she doesn't get into fights with any of the evil NPCs despite basically being a paladin herself. However, many of the evil choices in the game will cause Mazzy to drop group and turn hostile, so beware if you enjoy evil playthroughs.

Neutral NPCs

The neutral NPCs can augment any given party you create because none of them are hostile to either good or evil aligned NPCs, and will not leave your group regardless of reputation though they will whine about it if you are on one extreme or the other.

Jaheira

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
15	17	17	10	14	15	Half-Elf	Fighter(7)/Druid(8)	True Neutral

Special Abilities: Can cast "Harper's Call" as a level 5 divine spell, giving a Raise Dead ability to a druid (whom normally do not have any).

Required Actions: Release her from her cell in Irenicus' Dungeon at the game's outset.

If only Jaheira had that 17 Dexterity in BG1. She makes a fairly good tank character with her ability to equip heavy armors, her naturally good dexterity and constitution, and the druid-only spell "Iron Skins." That said, she is kind of bland in terms of ability compared to any of the other divine spellcasters because Druids just are not very good. The fact they basically cap at level 14 and she's multiclassed in it so hitting that 15th level takes a million years hurts her significantly. At least you get her early enough you can adapt her to any particular role you want her to fulfill, and as far as I know doesn't have any significantly adversarial relationships with other NPCs.

Yoshimo

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
17	18	16	13	10	14	Human	Bounty Hunter(9)	True Neutral

Special Abilities: None. Equipped with his personal +1 Katana.

Required Actions: Recruit him into your party after getting to the second floor of Irenicus' dungeon.

Yoshimo betrays your party and dies permanently as part of the plot. That said, he's still a good character for many hardcore runs simply because he's one of two character whose thieving skills actually increase with levels. Until you get Imoen back, it's between either Yoshimo or Jan Jansen for your thieving needs. Despite his kit revolving around setting traps, his Set Traps skill is abysmal at 20%, and his thieving abilities are generally worse than Jan's, who also brings his gadgets and magic to the table. Yoshimo's preference for katanas and his 17 Strength make his backstabs slightly more deadly than most single-classed thieves of the series, however. Note that you can dual-class him to Fighter but there is largely no point in doing so because by the time you'd actually regain your thieving skills with him, he dies as part of the plot. You can take advantage of this by dual-classing him right before he betrays you to make the fight against him a cakewalk. If you plan on using Imoen, it's worth bringing Yoshimo with you until she rejoins so you can enjoy a fat 200k XP bonus for giving his heart to any priest of Ilmater back in Athkatla.

Anomen

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
18/52	10	16	10	12	13	Human	Fighter(7)/Cleric(8)	Lawful Neutral

Special Abilities: Equipped with "Delryn Family Shield." Alignment changes to Lawful Good (along with a boost to 16 Wisdom) upon completing his personal quest the "good" way, or changes to Chaotic Neutral upon completing it the "bad" way with no accompanying stat boosts.

Required Actions: Speak to him in the Copper Coronet and tell him you are looking for honor and such.

While his personality is rather annoying, Anomen is capable of becoming just about the most "perfect" NPC in the game in terms of raw stats. His strength is really good, his Constitution is rather good, and if you finish his questline to get knighted, his wisdom gets boosted to 16. Equipping him with the Gauntlets of Dexterity after that gives you 18s and 16s in literally every stat that matters for a fighter/cleric. He has enough fighter levels for really good HP and thac0. Plus, his personal shield is useful in a pinch for when he is tanking ranged enemies. Add into the mix the physical 'roid spells Clerics get, and you have a really solid NPC. For a hardcore run, it's highly recommended you get him knighted rather than kicked out of the Order of the Radiant Heart because Chaotic Neutral Anomen has a tendancy to flip out and attack other party members if not you personally. When Anomen is in the party in the Enhanced Edition, he will turn hostile and attack you if you choose to recruit Dorn. This can be resolved by finishing Dorn's questline up until the "Kill Terpfen" quest, and then recruiting Anomen again.

Jan

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
9	17	15	16	14	10	Gnome	Illusionist(7)/Thief(8)	Chaotic Neutral

Special Abilities: Comes with Jan-only armor, gloves, and spectroscopes which boost his thieving skills. Can create 5 "Flasher Master Bruiser Mate" ammunition per day, which affect all enemies in 9 ft. of the explosion, dealing 1d2+1 damage and stunning them for 2 rounds on a failed save vs. spell. The Flasher ammo's explosion is party-friendly.

Required Actions: Speak to him in the Government District and don't turn him over to the authorities.

Besides having a bunch of hilarious stories, Jan is a good NPC to have around as he's the only thief in the game whose skills actually continue to increase. (Imoen and Nalia are dual-classed and Yoshimo dies.) His stats leave a little to be desired but they are still passable. His Jan-only stuff gives him things to equip in slots mages don't have a terrible amount of gear to select from for quite awhile, so that's always a positive. He also gets slight bonuses to saving throws for being a Gnome. The fact he is multi-classed is offset somewhat due to the Illusionist in him giving an extra spell per level. Jan's biggest weakness is that he fails to scribe spells very often due to his low Intelligence and because he's an Illusionist, which decreases the chance of scribing non-Illusion spells by -15%. He requires Potions of Genius AND Mind Focusing to be used together, and even then the success rate for scribing non-Illusion spells would be 84%. Despite this, Jan is easily the best thief in BG2 and gains Thief and Mage HLAs in ToB.

Haer'Dalis

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
17	17	9	15	13	16	Tiefling	Blade(10)	Chaotic Neutral

Special Abilities: Equipped with two personal short swords "Entropy +2" and "Chaos Blade." Illegal Specialization (++) in Short Swords, normally not obtainable as a Bard class. If picked up at level 15 or later, he is also Specialized (++) in Longswords. Has Tiefling damage resistances.

Required Actions: Rescue him from the clutches of Mekrath, behind a hidden wall in the upper-left side of the sewers in the Temple District.

Haer'Dalis is proof the Blade kit is really, really good. While his stats aren't anything overly amazing, they are still passable enough Haer'Dalis can 'roid himself up with buff spells and then go to town. The added proficiency to Short Swords and Longswords guarantees those are the weapon types he'll use, and that's totally okay because some of the best weapons in the game are swords. His default weapons are passable for a really long time, too, up until you need +3 or better to inflict damage. However, short swords deal piercing damage, which means many monsters are either completely immune to it or have massive damage resistance to it, forcing you to put points into other weapons. His constitution leaves much to be desired so his tanking ability is somewhat limited, but he can always drop into defensive spin when he needs that extra AC to not die. His bard levels mean his mage spells will last longer with greater effect, and his passive damage resistances combined with the Girdle of Fortitude allow him to frontline far longer than a fighter/mage of similar experience. Potential combos include Melf's Minute Meteors plus Offensive Spin, and using Vhailor's Helm to summon a singing Simulacrum that can also protect itself against anti-illusion magic. He will never be on par with Korgan for physical damage and can't sling as many spells as Edwin, but Haer'Dalis often forms the lynchpin of a party since he makes the best magical tank and can also do a little bit of everything.

Cernd

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
13	9	13	12	18	15	Human	Shapeshifter(10)	True Neutral

Special Abilities: Equipped with "Cloak of the High Forest" and "Staff of the High Forest."

Required Actions: Speak to him in the jail of Trademeet and agree to help him uncover what is going on with the druids.

Cernd is the only NPC who rivals Garrick for total uselessness as an NPC in the BG series, made all the worse that it's in BG2 instead of BG1. If you haven't read up on our summary of the Shapeshifter druid kit over on the Classes and Kits page, do so now. Because you won't ever want to spend time in werewolf form, Cernd is essentially a druid (worse than Clerics!) with awful dexterity and constitution (no bonuses to either!) who can't wear armor (meaning his AC is terrible!). To utilize him with any sort of success, you'll need to prepare a whole bunch of castings of Barkskin to help his terrible AC, equip a ring of protection +2, and simply pray he never gets targeted as his HP is bad. Unless literally every other NPC is perma-dead somehow, there is no pressing reason to use Cernd.

It's best to pick him up at level 13. If you do he actually will have more health than if you pick him up at a lower level and then level him up. The other benefit of picking him up at level 13 is that he can change into his Greater Werewolf form from the get-go. Offensively the form isn't great but the good thing about it is that it has a really low AC (by SoA standards), a good amount of magic resistance and elemental resistance.

Alternative View: As the only pure Druid NPC in the game, and as an NPC with 18 wisdom, he can be a quite competent caster. You really need to have him with Bracers of Defense and Iron Skins active for this. At level 15 he gains access to a significant number of high level spell slots and at this point he's going to be a better caster than a melee character. Before then, you may want to have him use spells like Insect Plague, Iron Skins, Earthquake and Regeneration before transforming into the Greater Werewolf.

Alternative View 2: Pure druids in the game excel at being particularly powerful at low levels and after they beat the level 13-14 XP hump. As early as level 7, for example, druids gain access to Call Woodland Beings that allows them to summon wood nymphs that have access to spells beyond what a wizard at the same XP (or even a couple levels higher) can cast. The nymphs also have the Mass Cure spell which makes druids the best healers for most of the game. Druids are also able to summon Greater Fire Elementals, which are strong enough to hit even enemies like Kangaax, and they can potentially shut down enemy casters with the insect summoning line of spells. Combined with buffs like Protection from Lightning (for Wand of Lightning spammage) and "I win button" spells like Nature's Beauty, druids are actually more than competent characters in BG2.

Evil-Aligned NPCs

The Evil NPCs are arguably the best at every position, because they are all straightforward single-class and have "perfect" stats in the important areas that matter to each of them. However, there is only 3 for Shadows of Amn! You'll need to dip into the neutral pool to round out a full party of 6, or risk running with some good-aligned NPCs and starting a fight. They also bail on your party if your reputation goes above 18, which means you won't be able to fully capitalize on the discounts associated with that. A pretty minor penalty, but still worth listing.

Korgan

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
18/77	15	19	12	9	7	Dwarf	Berserker(8)	Chaotic Evil

Special Abilities: None.

Required Actions: Speak to him in the Copper Coronet.

Korgan is the tankiest character in the game in terms of raw HP. Plus he's a dwarf, so he gets a huge +5 bonus to saving throws vs. death, wand, and spells from his 19 CON. The other three contenders for Gauntlets of Dexterity are all personality conflicts or utterly fail NPCs (Anomen, Keldorn and Cernd) so you can safely assume Korgan will be using those, which gives him perfect stats for a raw fighter. He's got a lot of profiencies dumped into axes which satisfies both his melee and ranged needs. Korgan's only downside is the fact he will force just about every good-aligned NPC to flee the party, a minor thing considering you won't want any of them in your party if you go evil anyway.

Viconia

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
10	19	8	16	18	14	Drow	Cleric(10)	Neutral Evil

Special Abilities: Innate 65% Magic Resistance. Bringing her into the party causes a -2 Reputation hit which is reverted if you have her leave.

Required Actions: Save her from the fanatics in the Government District.

Viconia is the perfect support cleric. While her strength and constitution leave much to be desired, her dexterity is insane so she rarely misses with a sling. Her magic resistance is actually fairly significant so AoE spells you're likely to be pelted with during mage fights don't necessarily kill her as they would if she was a normal elf. The +2 Chain "Mail of the Dead" you find in the beginning dungeon is the best armor you'll be able to equip on her for awhile without totally bogging her down with weight so I recommend doing that. Stacking magic resistance boosting gear on her, such as the Human Flesh Armor and Amulet of the Seldarine, allows her to hit 100% magic resistance, making her immune to most spells in the game. While she has personality conflicts with a lot of the good-aligned NPCs, you can usually keep it from coming to blows if you are in a relationship with her. Eventually in Throne of Bhaal, it's possible to make her become True Neutral through the romance anyway, so keep that in mind if you decide you want her over Sir Anomen.

Edwin

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
10	10	16	18	10	10	Human	Conjurer(9)	Lawful Evil

Special Abilities: Equipped with Edwin's Amulet, which confers on him 2 more spell slots per spell level. It is not possible to make a player-character with as many spells per day as Edwin.

Required Actions: Finish the questline "Prove Mae'Var's treachery" for the Shadow Thieves in the Docks District.

Edwin is incredible. He only loses out on divination spells for an extra two casts per day at all levels. He's also the only single-classed mage meaning his magic progression is slightly faster than the rest of the mages. While he is bristly with a lot of the good NPCs, he only comes into severe conflict with the rangers. In the Enhanced Edition, Edwin will outright refuse to be in the party with Neera because she's being hunted by Red Wizards and will force you to choose between him or her. If you are neutral or evil-aligned, it's recommended you grab Edwin ASAP for his ability to spam summons to tank for you.

Sarevok

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
18/00	17	18	17	10	15	Human	Fighter(18)	Chaotic Evil

Special Abilities: 3% chance on hit to trigger "Deathbringer Assault" for 200 slashing damage. 10% chance to stun enemy on hit for 2 rounds (save vs. spell at -4 negates).

Required Actions: Give him a piece of your or Imoen's soul when you encounter him in your pocket plane in Throne of Bhaal expansion.

Considering he only joins for the ToB expansion, Sarevok is the most dangerous fighter-type character. You don't even need to give him strength-boosting gear as his default 18/00 is phenomenal. He also won't ever betray you even at 20 reputation. After all, you're the reason he's not just a wandering soul any more. If you really want, you can dual-class him to thief or mage. Mage is not recommended because you probably won't recover your fighter skills until maybe the last 4th of Throne of Bhaal, and Edwin or Imoen should be more than enough for your caster needs at that point. Thieves gain levels so rapidly he'll gain his fighter levels back by a decent time, and ultimately thief HLAs are significantly better than just raw fighter ones. Backstabbing with the thac0 of a fighter with 18/00 strength who has a chance to randomly outright kill anything he hits already is pretty funny. If you leave him as a fighter, give him the Silver Sword out of the gate and eventually re-equip him with the Ravager halberd. Combined with his chance to do Deathbringer Assault, the instant-death procs on either of these weapons means Sarevok will constantly outright kill enemies.

Enhanced Edition NPCs

The release of Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition brings back three familiar NPCs from BG1EE, as well as two brand new ones. The returning NPCs' stats and abilities remain unchanged unlike their BioWare BG2 counterparts.

Dorn

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
19	16	14	10	15	16	Half-Orc	Blackguard(8)	Neutral Evil

Special Abilities: Illegal race-class combo (Half-Orc Paladin). Equipped with Rancor +1, which gives an extra non-stacking +1 THAC0 bonus when it kills something.

Required Actions: Speak to him outside the Hall of the Radiant Heart and help him crash a wedding by murdering all present.

Dorn Il-Khan returns with his first quest beginning your evil party's descent into depravity. Picking him up lowers your reputation by 2 like Viconia and his quest line further lowers your reputation. Only a truly evil party or one committed to having him in it can utilize Dorn. You cannot have Anomen or Keldorn in your party at the same time as Dorn - you must choose between the holy knights or Dorn. Anomen and Keldorn will turn hostile and attack if you choose to accept Dorn into the party. However, advancing Dorn's quest line until after the "Kill Terpfen" quest will allow you to use Anomen and Keldorn at the same time as Dorn.

Mechanically Dorn is an offensive monster! His 19 strength and preference for greatswords mean he'll be hitting for big damage. He can be a mage-killer like Keldorn but in a different way. While Keldorn dispels all of their protections so the party can move in for the kill, Dorn can prevent them from casting anything at all by poisoning them. His Poison Weapon ability was recently nerfed in v2.3 which vastly reduces its previous effectiveness. Targets can now only be affected by Poison Weapon once per round and the damage over time allows a save vs. death to negate, but the save gets a penalty as Dorn levels up. Dorn will start to receive priest spells which can augment his already impressive combat ability to stupidly effective levels. A must for any evil party, despite Poison Weapon's nerf.

Rasaad

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
16	16	14	11	14	14	Human	Sun Soul Monk(8)	Lawful Good

Special Abilities: Equipped with Glimmering Bands and Moonlight Walkers, which give an extra +2 unarmed THAC0 bonus and +2 AC, respectively.

Required Actions: Watch his encounter with the monks in Trademeet near the big fountain. Walk away and he will find you.

With the opportunity to gain more levels, Rasaad finally comes into his own in BG2EE. When he hits level 14, he gains 42% magic resistance right off the bat and that is when he really starts to kick butt. With the Belt of Hill Giant Strength, Rasaad is a rather good frontliner with all of his monk immunities and Sun Soul powers. Just lead him into the fray after your main tanks and fighters and watch the fists fly. He can stand directly behind a tank and deliver blows since his fists' range are comparable to that of a halberd or spear. His AC still isn't the best and his HP is still subpar as well due to his 14 CON, but you could swap out the Hill Giant belt for the Girdle of Fortitude and the Glimmering Bands for Gauntlets of Ogre Power. Rasaad will turn into a one-man army in ToB and it is worth keeping him around to see him flourish.

View on higher difficulties higher than Core: Don't bother. If you're looking for somebody that can't cast spells or melee, Rasaad is your boy. Put him in melee with his awful stats and no way to protect himself from critical hits and watch him explode into itty bitty pieces in pretty much every fight in the game. Combine this with the fact that his kit removes both Stunning Blow and Quivering Palm and you're looking at one HELL of a worthless companion.

Neera

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
11	17	14	17	10	11	Half-Elf	Wild Mage(9)	Chaotic Neutral

Special Abilities: None. Equipped with a +1 staff that does +1 fire damage on hit 10% of the time to either her target or herself. Equipped with Adoy's Belt, which gives +5 to saves vs. polymorph.

Required Actions: Witness her encounter with Red Wizards in the northern end of the Bridge District. Leave the area, speak to her, and then meet her in the Wild Forest.

Neera is back and her wild magic is just as unstable as ever. She should be used as a nuker with some disabling spells. The perk about being a Wild Mage is that she can cast spells that are beyond her ability to cast yet via Nahal's Reckless Dweomer, like Horrid Wilting or Incendiary Cloud. Sometimes casting spells this way can be highly effective if she rolls a "No Saving Throw" or "Spell Cast at Double Level" wild surge. Other times, it's highly effective at roasting your party with by rolling "Roll Twice More", "Fireball Centered on Caster", and "Spell Cast Twice." Her intelligence is still only 17 and she flubs scribing scrolls irritatingly often, so she should down a Potion of Genius or Mind Focusing before going at it. She has her own questline which is rather difficult due to the improved AI who will now drink potions and use wands intelligently. She can get a robe that gives her a Chaos Shield effect while worn which can help offset the otherwise ruinous effects of wild magic. Overall she is a worthy addition to any party if you can handle some randomness, but Edwin will refuse to be in a party with her so you cannot use both of them at the same time.

Hexxat (Clara)

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
14	16	14	12	10	14	Human	Thief(8)	Neutral Evil

Special Abilities: None. She's just the only evil thief in BG2.

Required Actions: Speak to her in the Copper Coronet and agree to go to Dragomir's Tomb with her. She's in the corner near Lehtinan, behind the staircase.

The lack of evil thieves in BG2 has been taken care of now, though this version of Hexxat is rather mediocre at it. Her points are spread mostly evenly so she doesn't excel in any one area. Her awful overall stats just make this worse. She doesn't get a bonus to anything from her stats except Dexterity and, debatably, Charisma. Outside her thieving abilities, she's as worthless as Garrick and Cernd without Shapeshifter Rebalancing. "Upgrade" her to the Vampire version of Hexxat ASAP if you plan on using her in any meaningful capacity.

Hexxat (Vampire)

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
20	20	14	14	12	18	Vampire	Thief(8)	Neutral Evil

Special Abilities: Counts as Undead, specifically a Vampire. Equipped with "Hexxat's Amulet" which provides her undead immunities. Domination ability. Blood Drain ability. Children of the Night ability. Extremely high STR and DEX! Burns up in direct sunlight. Cannot dual-class. Possesses Dragomir's Cloak, Dragomir's Casque, and Dragomir's Respite. Refuses to wield weapons that are especially effective against undead (Daystar, Runehammer, Foebane, Mace of Disruption, etc.)

Passive Abilities: 1 HP/round regeneration. Immunity to Charm, Domination, Panic, Berserk, Bleeding, Sleep, Level Drain, Paralysis, Poison, Poison Damage, Disease, and Fatigue increments (via Haste, etc.).

Required Actions: Take Clara/fake Hexxat to Dragomir's tomb and defeat Dragomir.

Mary Sue: the NPC. An NPC stronger than Dorn and as dextrous as Coran!? Hexxat is arguably the best thief in the whole series just because of her outrageous stats. Her thieving points are still spent rather evenly but they are amplified by her 20 Dexterity. Her strength is absolutely insane and her backstabs are on par with a PC Assassin's, but the Assassin will eventually outclass Hexxat at this. Her Charisma is great and she can be your face-character throughout the Underdark. She has several vampiric abilities. She can Dominate enemies as per the 5th-level wizard spell, and she gets more uses of these as she levels up. Blood Drain is a unique ability which lets her drain 1d4 CON from a target and knock them unconscious for 5 rounds (Save vs. Death negates both of these). Children of the Night is another unique ability she has which lets her summon some creatures depending on her level. 1-10 = 1d4 rats. 11-20 = 1d4 wolves. 21+ = 1d4 shadows. These creatures aren't particularly effective in combat, but you can use them as cannon fodder or as a distraction for mages so they waste their spells. As Hexxat gains levels, the chance of getting 4 creatures summoned with Children of the Night increases. The fact that Hexxat does not have a kit is a bit disappointing since straight-up thieves tend to fizzle out in combat in epic levels compared to warriors and spellcasters. If she does die, though, she'll turn into a mist cloud and float toward the PC and respawn after 8 hours. You still have to pick up her equipment. On the plus side, she is incapable of being permanently killed through physical damage and most spells. Disintegration and the shattering of her petrified body are the only methods that will prevent her from respawning via her cloud, which allows you to be extremely reckless with her assassinations even on a hardcore playthrough.

Hexxat requires more micromanagement than most party members. She gets vaporized in direct sunlight so you have to put Dragomir's Cloak on her, which nerfs her stats to make them identical to Clara/the fake Hexxat. She can only withstand about 10 seconds of sunlight before sublimating into a cloud of mist and dying. It's not permanent and she'll come back just fine after 8 hours. At night or in interior areas, you can take off her cloak and she'll be back at full power. Dragomir's Casque takes up a permanent slot in her inventory until you finish her quest line in SoA. Dragomir's Respite is interesting because its basically a free Bag of Holding except you can't take her coffin out of it. Like Dorn, Hexxat is essential if you're doing an evil playthrough. No longer will you have to roll an evil thief yourself to round out the party. Many of the good-aligned party members will object to having Hexxat in the party so she isn't really an option for good playthroughs.

Wilson

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA	Race	Class	Alignment
19	9	18	4	4	4	Bear	Grizzly Bear(9)	True Neutral

Special Abilities: Is a freakin' bear. Equipped with claws and bite; gains +1 to their enchantment level and his proficiency points in them every 6 levels. Gains a 1/2 attack/round and -2 Base AC every 6 levels up to -2 AC at level 24. 15% chance to Hug enemy for an extra 2d6 crushing damage every hit. Can go into a rage once every 6 levels. Strength and Regeneration rate improve by 1 every 8 levels, starting at 19 STR and 1 HP/turn. Can drink healing potions but nothing else. Cannot wear anything. Cannot initiate conversations manually.

Required Actions: Start Rasaad's quest in the City Gates district and get to the Heretic Temple. South of the front door of the temple there are monks fighting animals. Talk to Wilson while he's in his cage and promise to free him. Pay Wilson's handler 1000 gold or kill him. Wilson will run away, but go back to where you first entered the map and you can have him join your party.

Just like Baeloth, Wilson is an easter egg character by the folks at Beamdog. Except he's a bear. There's really not much to say about Wilson other than the fact that he is the most eloquent and radical bear who ever lived.

Alright, all joking aside, Wilson really isn't that great. His AC is awful and his regeneration isn't enough for dungeon crawling, though he will fully heal upon resting or traveling. His rage is a less-powerful version of the Berserker's as far as immunities go. It only gives +2 THAC0 and damage and immunity to charm, fear, confusion, hold, stun, sleep, and Feeblemind for 1 turn; it does not protect against nastier status effects like Maze, Level Drain, or Imprisonment like the Berserker's rage does. He may be a better two-weapon fighter than Minsc or Valygar but that doesn't mean squat if he's not alive to deal the damage. Not being able to wear equipment or drink other potions just hurts his fighting ability so much that it's hardly worth the effort of using him in the party. According to Ardanis, a Beamdog developer, Wilson was made to fill in a Kensai's role but he certainly doesn't live up to it. Even Rasaad is just plain better at DPS than Wilson. He's not quite as useless as Clara or Cernd but as it stands, Wilson is mostly a joke character and should not be used for serious playthroughs, though he has immense role-playing potential for rangers and druids if you're into that. He is definitely the weakest of the melee-types. Too bad he can't wear rings and amulets like Okku the Bear King from Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer.

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