I am planning on beating BG1 with a elven Ranger. And now i am wondering about how my party shall look like. Many peple talk about this Kivan, but since he is en elven ranger and I am a elven ranger, he is out. My chaotc good ranger has the stats: 18/81,19,17,11,14,17.
I have a suggestion to a possible party. Say what you think of it:
Me (Ranger)
Minsc
Jaheira
Imoen
Coran
Yeslick

there are three persons thats always will travel with me, and thats jaheira, Minsc and Imoen. I don´t like any of the other "good" mages, so I like to dual imoen to a conjurer pretty fast. So it is the thief role that is the problem. Many people say that Coran will not make it as my thief. That I get him to late, and that his trap skills sucks. Someone has also suggested Safana. What shall I do about it?
Any other suggestions?

there are three persons thats always will travel with me, and thats jaheira, Minsc and Imoen. I don´t like any of the other "good" mages, so I like to dual imoen to a conjurer pretty fast. So it is the thief role that is the problem.

IMO, mages aren't all that necessary in BG1. (BG2, however, is a different story. ;) ) Before I played BG1, my mages were usually the first to die on the battlefield, and were easily chunkable (non-resurrectable) to boot. Until level 4 or so, there wasn't a spell a mage of mine could cast that wasn't overshadowed by the damage my fighters were doing.

You might want to dump all of Imoen's thieving points into Find Traps and Open Locks, keep her as a thief through Chapter 3, and dual her right before the bandit camp.

Many people say that Coran will not make it as my thief. That I get him to late, and that his trap skills sucks. Someone has also suggested Safana. What shall I do about it?

There are two NPCs in the city of Baldur's Gate, and all happen to be whole or part thieves. One is Chaotic Good and can be found in the High Hall of Wonders at night, and the other is Neutral/Chaotic Evil and can be found hanging around the Flaming Fist Headquarters. If you still have your heart set on having Imoen cast spells, you can wait until Chapter 5 to dual her, and she'll still get enough experience to be a decent mage (even more so if you do all the quests, and if you have the expansion pack installed).

Safana's a decent thief, but I find her voice to be so husky and sultry that it's annoying. Coran's not too bad, but there are always Potions of Master Thievery and Potions of Perception to increase thief ability scores.

If the problem with Coran is that I get him too late, than I will not even consider taking those in Baldurs Gate, witch I get even later.
But will Coran manage to do the thiefs tasks. I don´t want to be helpless without potions. Will he or will he nott be a problem?

Actually there are three, and the one you haven't mentioned is a full thief, and a reasonable one at that - Skie. She is also neutral which would be appropriate for your group. The downside to Skie is you have to have Eldoth to get her (I think? I've never managed to get her without him) but you can have him killed or get stuck in a house as soon as you get her. She's no less annoying than Safana and it is possible to get to Baldur's Gate at a reasonably low level. I just have, I think we were around level 3-4 pretty much going straight through the main quest and not doing too much on the way so Skie and Eldoth wouldn't be too behind and Skie wouldn't have given herself too many pickpocketing points ;) . However I like Coran as well, and you do get him before any of the BG thieves. You don't really need a full thief, a multi one is fine, and with Coran you get the bonus of a really good fighter as well. I remember him really caning with a bow when I had him [img]smile.gif[/img]

Coran will definitely make it as your Thief, provided that you get him before he pours all of his points into Stealth. (With the Boots and the Armor, who needs Stealth?) Rushing to Coran is not out of the question, especially since you want to get Yeslick too. If you zip through the first 3 Chapters as quickly as you can, you can get Coran when he's as low as Level 3.

Now, there's the 'problem' of Coran being a Multiclassed Thief, and therefore unable to handle all of the Thieving duties by himself. Guess what: NONE of the Thieves in BG1 are able to handle all of the Thieving duties by themselves. I have found that a combination of Coran and Imoen->Mage works perfectly, provided that you've planned ahead and had Imoen learn up to 100% in a particular skill, and had Coran concentrate on the others.

I have never found a use for Safana. Nothing but a cut-rate Imoen, if you ask me.

when you get coran he's got stealth and locks - get imoen to the traps you want - dual her before a session wilderness bashing and when you have coran use them as a scouting pair - coran in stealth all the time and immy detecting traps all the time

oops - missed that - sorry

great minds eh . . . . ? ;)

YEAH, ELVIN RANGERS ROCK WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, i always go with 2 mages though