BEST COMPANIONS: Baldur's Gate 1, Baldur's Gate 2: Ranking, Tier list (2024)

Baldur's Gate companions are recruitable Baldur's Gate NPCs in BioWare's cRPG series of 1998-2001, Baldur's Gate.

• Edwin(gets moreVancian Magic Systemspellslots)
• Imoen(whendual-classed to Conjurer)
• Khalid(melee+ranged)
• Coran(THAC0 Lord, Dex 20, good thief and archer)
• Kagain(Supertanker, Con 20 = regen)
• Kivan(ranged, good archer)
• Shar-Teel(whendualed to Thief)
• Xzar(whendualed to Cleric)

• Ajantis
• Minsc(Boo!)
• Branwen
• Dynaheir
• Eldoth Kron(poison arrows)
• Faldorn
• Garrick
• Jaheira
• Montaron
• Safana
• Viconia DeVir(magic resistance)
• Xan(fire resistance)
• Yeslick

Companion Pairs in BG1

The vast majority of companions are recruited as individuals, but there are also four pairs:

Once recruited, these companions won't adventure without their other half unless that other half falls in combat or is intentionally killed off by the player and has their corpse kicked out of the party.

Baldur's Gate Companion Quests

In Baldur's Gate 2, companion quests are longer and contain a lot more dialogue. All companion quests are covered in the relevant article on the companion.

Baldur's Gate Companion Guide

In BG1, un-recruited companions scale to party level in thresholds. For example, a first level party can recruit a first level Edwin with almost nothing to his name (some Exp, a few spells scribed to his spellbook); or a sixth level party can recruit a sixth level Edwin who has already earned over 40,000 Exp and scribed eight scrolls to his spellbook, including Haste (in Dynaheir's case, Fireball).

It is best to recruit non-mage companions early in order to control their proficiencies and HPs, whereas it can be advantageous to delay our recruitment of mage companions until we reach sixth level. That way, mage companions will already have some good spells such asFireballandHaste, which are not easily found. On the other hand, it is inconvenient to not have mages in the party for the first six levels.

The intent of companion scaling is to ensure that companions remain somewhat useful in the advent their services are required later in the campaign, but meta-gamers may choose to remain solo or only adventure withImoenuntil the sixth level is reached, and onlythenrecruit a party, thereby dodging the experience point leach of having five other companions around for those first six levels (both quest & kill Exp is divided "evenly", more or less, amongst the party members).

Apart from needing foreknowledge in order to solo the first six levels [1], the downside is the inability to control companion proficiencies and HPs, though it's a small price to pay for such a huge advantage.

Best Companions Baldur's Gate 2

• Aerie(multi-class)
• Jan Jansen(multi-class)
• Jaheira BG2(multi-class)
• Edwin BG2(+spellslots, but for good players they are superfluous)

Mid-tier BG2 Companions

Bottom-tier BG2 Companions

Baldur's Gate Companion Reactivity

Baldur's Gate companion reactivity consists in reputation, reaction, faction and personality.

Readers are referred to cRPG reactivity for a general overview of the concept of reactivity.

Remember that our Reputation score can be increased or decreased by way of quest outcomes, temple donation (up to 18), theft in front of a witness, slaying of neutrals or Slayer transformation (BG2 only).

We should ask ourselves the following when assessing a companion's worth: