Well met, traveler! Pull up a stool, the ale is terrible but the company is great.

I'm Anna. I'm 21, I'm in the dental hygiene program at a college here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I am completely, hopelessly hooked on Baldur's Gate. My boyfriend Andrew gave it to me for Christmas last year, which he now says was a mistake, because he hasn't seen me on a weekend since. I've played it all the way through four times, with four completely different parties, and I've been playing Tales of the Sword Coast since the week it came out this spring.

Here's the thing about Baldur's Gate: the story is great, the fights are great, but the reason I keep playing it is the people. There are twenty-five characters out there in the Sword Coast who'll join you, and every one of them has a personality, and some of them cannot stand each other. Who you bring along changes everything. So that's what this page is about. Who to take, who to leave in Beregost, and why.

I named it after the Friendly Arm Inn because that's where my first party really started, with Jaheira and Khalid standing in the courtyard. Every game since, I've stopped there on the first night just for luck.

Your party is you plus up to five companions. That's it. Six people, and you'll meet way more than five you like, so you have to choose. Here's what I think every party needs:

	Two people who can stand in front. Fighters, rangers, paladins, anybody with good armor and lots of hit points. They hold the line so the squishy people don't get hit.
	A healer. A cleric or a druid. You will not believe how fast you go through healing potions without one.
	A thief. Somebody has to find the traps and open the locks. Walking your fighter onto a trap in a dungeon you could have seen coming is a lesson you only need once.
	A mage. Weak at the start, but by the end of the game a good mage wins fights all by himself. Be patient with them.
	Somebody with a bow. Or two somebodies. Shooting things before they reach you is the whole secret of this game.

Some companions come in pairs, and you can't really split them up. Jaheira comes with Khalid. Minsc comes looking for Dynaheir. Xzar comes with Montaron. And some of them join with an errand they want done, and if you take forever doing it, they get grumpy and may just walk off.

Your party has a reputation, a number from 1 to 20 that shows how the people of the Sword Coast feel about you. Help people, finish good quests, and it goes up. Steal and get caught, kill innocent people, or do shady stuff for shady people, and it goes down.

A high reputation is nice: shopkeepers give you better prices and people treat you like a hero. But here's the catch. Your companions have opinions about it. The good ones get upset if your reputation sinks too low, and the evil ones get upset if it climbs too high. Push it far enough either way and somebody's going to complain, and then leave.

So you can't really have a party with Ajantis the paladin and Viconia the drow and keep them both happy. Pick a direction. My four parties so far:

	Game 1, the "first time" party: Imoen, Jaheira, Khalid, Minsc and Dynaheir. Very good, very safe, very nice. This is the party I'd tell anybody to start with.
	Game 2, the bad guys: Viconia, Edwin, Kagain, Montaron and Xzar. My reputation went in the toilet and I felt terrible the whole time. Edwin is hilarious, though.
	Game 3, the archers: Imoen, Kivan, Coran, Branwen and Yeslick. Nothing ever got close to us. My favorite party for fighting.
	Game 4, the weirdos: Tiax, Alora, Xan, Quayle and Shar-Teel. I did this one on a dare from Andrew. I beat the game. It was very, very hard and I laughed the whole way.

It's not just reputation. Some of these people have history with each other, and if you put them in the same party, it comes out.

Jaheira and Khalid vs. Xzar and Montaron. Jaheira and Khalid are Harpers. Xzar and Montaron work for the Zhentarim. In the Forgotten Realms those two groups hate each other, and if you keep both pairs around long enough, they will settle it themselves, with weapons, and you'll lose two of them. I found this out in Game 1, when I picked up Xzar and Montaron early on "just to try them." Never again.

Edwin vs. Dynaheir. Edwin is a Red Wizard of Thay, and he wants Dynaheir dead. That's the actual reason he's out there. Taking them both along is asking for trouble, and Minsc is not going to be calm about it either.

Everybody vs. Edwin. Not really. But he's very rude.