The Dexterity isn't that important. You can give him the gauntlets of dexterity to boost it up to 18. The difference between 18-19-20 isn't anything except thief skills which none of them have. So him having 18 and her having 19 doesn't matter. You won't be using ranged on him anyway.
2.) 16 constitution Vs 8.
This is much more important than dexterity, and harder to fix. Yes you can give her the belt that raises constitution, but then she can't have a strength belt on her aswell.
3.) 18/52 Strength Vs 10.
Anomen doesn't need a belt at the start of the game to fight well. He can carry all the gear he wants and does very well in melee.
4.) 50 Magic resistance.
It's great, i'll admit that. It's one of the things that i really like about Viconia. But it isn't that hard to get high magic resistance in this game. And with Chaotic command, death ward and all other protection spells clerics have to pick, you can save yourself from most annoying spells. Also with Viconias low constitution, if she fails a save vs a high damage spell she'll get fried.
5.) Wisdom and spells.
Viconia has more spell and is the better cleric here, no doubt about that. But once you get to higher level the difference will be much smaller. End game there really is no difference here.
6.) Warrior / Cleric VS pure cleric.
Anomen can beat face in. He is a great fighter once you put his buffs up. Give him FoA or a hammer and he will destroy things. He has better fighting skills and more APR than Viconia. You can give Viconia 25 strength and some neat equipment, but she'll still be behind Anomen by quite a bit.
7.) Good Vs Evil turn undead.
I know some people like to control undead instead of destroying them. But IMO destroying undeads makes life so much easier. Sometimes i change Viconias alignment to neutral because i really don't like to take control over them. Yes you can wish a horde of vampires and control them, but the time it takes to do that you can as easily Horrid wilt them and they all die anyway.
8.) Holy smite Vs Unholy Blight.
Holy smite is much better in Baldur's gate because you don't fight that many good alignment enemies.
Viconia is the better cleric, no doubt about that. But as a whole package and as a character, Anomen is simply the better choise.
[Edited] :
There is no way that a blackguard will ever become better than an Inquisitor. In a game with that much magic (Baldur's gate 2) an inqusitor will always be the best out of them all.
I don't know why her strength is really that important here. Viconia is clearly best using ranged attacks and you can always give her a strength boosting item for any sling use you need out of her. Other than her constitution, which effects wise is really is no different than Aerie's or Cernd's, the biggest downside with Viconia is
you can't have Keldorn in the party with her for (at least not for the whole game). For me thats the big downside, not her constitution or strength. With Anomen you can at least avoid a conflict with Keldorn if you let him become a member of the order, though if you don't they will fight it out.
The downside of having both Anomen and Keldorn in the party though is only one can use the Gauntlets of Dexterity, though both really do benefit a lot from them.
I don't even think holy smite vs unholy blight comes into it, as even have her use holy smite because she isn't in the AOE when it comes down.
"But it isn't that hard to get high magic resistance in this game"
While there are items that give large bonuses to elemental resistances, there aren't that many items that give big magic resistance bonuses. Rings of Gaxx (which assuming you use the exploit and get 2 is a combined 20%), human flesh +5 (20% resistance but only usable by evil characters), then a few rings and amulets and a shield that give 5-10%. The fact that Viconia starts out SoA with 65% magic resistance in BG2 is very helpful at preventing the likelihood of her dying due to spells. It also means that as you gradually acquire these items you can give them to your other characters.
1.) Most of the difficult monsters/enemies are immune to missile damage. So ranged weapons are useless there. Anomen will deal alot more damage in melee than Viconia will do when she is ranged.
2.) Most people don't use cernd, and when they do he will be using Werewolf form. Greater werewolf/Werewolf form will change his constitution. Aerie has stoneskin, mirror image and so much defense she won't get hit anyway. Viconia doesn't have the defense of Aerie and she doesn't have the ability to change her stats like Cernd. Not to mention the cleric is an amazing tank and alot of people prefer to buff up their cleric and send him in to hold the enemies. This just isn't possible with Viconia
3.) Holy smite is such a great spell to use, and unholy blight is close to useless. The fact that she can use holy smite is a bug, but alas.
4.) The spell 'Magic Resistance' sets your resistance to 40% at level 20. This doesn't work on Viconia as it's "Set" so it would actually lower her resistance. But Anomen gets his 40% so from the start with no gear Viconia only have 10% more.
Reputation is an issue of its own: there are a lot of ways to increase it - hell, just bringing an old man a book is enough - while very few of decrease, short of rampant murder. If you want to roleplay a sophisticated villain who does not slaughter people on the streets, you will find your equally villainous companions leaving your presence soon.
This was very much a problem for me in my last playthrough. I don't ever play evil (ever), but I played a not-so-good guy for the first time, ever. (Yes, I'm usually a goody-goody.) I had been pretty careful not to raise my rep too high. I started the Cloakwood mines at 16 or so (can't remember exactly) and got the +2 because I saved the slaves. I think there was something else in there that may have given me some rep... Anyway, I had to shoot one of the slaves in the face because Dorn would have left.
The Dexterity isn't that important. You can give him the gauntlets of dexterity to boost it up to 18. The difference between 18-19-20 isn't anything except thief skills which none of them have. So him having 18 and her having 19 doesn't matter. You won't be using ranged on him anyway.
2.) 16 constitution Vs 8.
This is much more important than dexterity, and harder to fix. Yes you can give her the belt that raises constitution, but then she can't have a strength belt on her aswell.
3.) 18/52 Strength Vs 10.
Anomen doesn't need a belt at the start of the game to fight well. He can carry all the gear he wants and does very well in melee.
4.) 50 Magic resistance.
It's great, i'll admit that. It's one of the things that i really like about Viconia. But it isn't that hard to get high magic resistance in this game. And with Chaotic command, death ward and all other protection spells clerics have to pick, you can save yourself from most annoying spells. Also with Viconias low constitution, if she fails a save vs a high damage spell she'll get fried.
5.) Wisdom and spells.
Viconia has more spell and is the better cleric here, no doubt about that. But once you get to higher level the difference will be much smaller. End game there really is no difference here.
6.) Warrior / Cleric VS pure cleric.
Anomen can beat face in. He is a great fighter once you put his buffs up. Give him FoA or a hammer and he will destroy things. He has better fighting skills and more APR than Viconia. You can give Viconia 25 strength and some neat equipment, but she'll still be behind Anomen by quite a bit.
7.) Good Vs Evil turn undead.
I know some people like to control undead instead of destroying them. But IMO destroying undeads makes life so much easier. Sometimes i change Viconias alignment to neutral because i really don't like to take control over them. Yes you can wish a horde of vampires and control them, but the time it takes to do that you can as easily Horrid wilt them and they all die anyway.
8.) Holy smite Vs Unholy Blight.
Holy smite is much better in Baldur's gate because you don't fight that many good alignment enemies.
Viconia is the better cleric, no doubt about that. But as a whole package and as a character, Anomen is simply the better choise.
[Edited] :
There is no way that a blackguard will ever become better than an Inquisitor. In a game with that much magic (Baldur's gate 2) an inqusitor will always be the best out of them all.
I don't know why her strength is really that important here. Viconia is clearly best using ranged attacks and you can always give her a strength boosting item for any sling use you need out of her. Other than her constitution, which effects wise is really is no different than Aerie's or Cernd's, the biggest downside with Viconia is
you can't have Keldorn in the party with her for (at least not for the whole game). For me thats the big downside, not her constitution or strength. With Anomen you can at least avoid a conflict with Keldorn if you let him become a member of the order, though if you don't they will fight it out.
The downside of having both Anomen and Keldorn in the party though is only one can use the Gauntlets of Dexterity, though both really do benefit a lot from them.
I don't even think holy smite vs unholy blight comes into it, as even have her use holy smite because she isn't in the AOE when it comes down.
"But it isn't that hard to get high magic resistance in this game"
While there are items that give large bonuses to elemental resistances, there aren't that many items that give big magic resistance bonuses. Rings of Gaxx (which assuming you use the exploit and get 2 is a combined 20%), human flesh +5 (20% resistance but only usable by evil characters), then a few rings and amulets and a shield that give 5-10%. The fact that Viconia starts out SoA with 65% magic resistance in BG2 is very helpful at preventing the likelihood of her dying due to spells. It also means that as you gradually acquire these items you can give them to your other characters.
1.) Most of the difficult monsters/enemies are immune to missile damage. So ranged weapons are useless there. Anomen will deal alot more damage in melee than Viconia will do when she is ranged.
2.) Most people don't use cernd, and when they do he will be using Werewolf form. Greater werewolf/Werewolf form will change his constitution. Aerie has stoneskin, mirror image and so much defense she won't get hit anyway. Viconia doesn't have the defense of Aerie and she doesn't have the ability to change her stats like Cernd. Not to mention the cleric is an amazing tank and alot of people prefer to buff up their cleric and send him in to hold the enemies. This just isn't possible with Viconia
3.) Holy smite is such a great spell to use, and unholy blight is close to useless. The fact that she can use holy smite is a bug, but alas.
4.) The spell 'Magic Resistance' sets your resistance to 40% at level 20. This doesn't work on Viconia as it's "Set" so it would actually lower her resistance. But Anomen gets his 40% so from the start with no gear Viconia only have 10% more.
"Holy smite is such a great spell to use, and unholy blight is close to useless. The fact that she can use holy smite is a bug, but alas."
Absolutely it is a bug and at least until BG2EE comes out I'll be taking advantage of it.
"Viconia doesn't have the defense of Aerie and she doesn't have the ability to change her stats like Cernd."
Well she does have DOHM, so at the very least the stat that she can change that will make a difference defense wise is her dexterity. Plus she advances cleric levels at twice the rate of Aerie, which is great for those cleric defense abilities she does get up until level 20 (at which point the ones that improve by level don't get any better). Now that I think of it a simple way to address her strength from the get go is to just give her the mace+2 mauler's arm (gives 18 strength) from the Copper Coronet, that is if you are going to put her up close. As long as you cast DOHM after equiping it it'll give her a fair boost.
Viconia's innate magic resistance in BG2 is 65%. So comparing her resistance to the magic resistance spell is a difference of 25%. Since it improves at 2% a level you only get the 40% if you cast the spell at level 20. Obviously at lower levels there is a larger difference and Anomen doesn't start at level 20 (though he does get his great fire resistance/cold resistance family shield).
Jan rules. I felt bad that he didn't fit into my previous scientifically tailored parties, since Imoen was doing utility thieving, and I had enough mages. But this time I'm keeping Jan. His ramblings and dialogue with other npcs are brilliant!
Jan rules. I felt bad that he didn't fit into my previous scientifically tailored parties, since Imoen was doing utility thieving, and I had enough mages. But this time I'm keeping Jan. His ramblings and dialogue with other npcs are brilliant!
He fits well in any party and is quite versatile. For utility reasons and the banter I have him in my evil playthrough at the moment.
Well, many opinions here. Can't say that someone is right or wrong here, it's all opinions after all, i abide by mine in every aspect still, but then, others are doing the same apparently. Maybe that's the beauty of the variety.
Make a female lawful/neutral evil swashbuckler/shadow dancer. A female with a good looking face. Romance option for both male and female characters. Joinable in Athkatla, so people can get her early on. What you do in her story quest can make her stay as evil or she can become neutral.
Don't assassins take a hit to thief skills? Evil PCs need someone who can open locks and disable traps much more than they need a third damage-dealer - Dorn and Korgan can smash through pretty much anything...
In nwn2 assasin req you to be evil. But it seems like in bg it only req that you are not lawful good. So assasin cound also be a choice.
Then is all happy:P
Dont know what people wanna have most of swashbuckler/shadow dancer/assasin. Just that common thief is too boring to add and we got 1 bounty hunter. So best bid might be 1 of the 3.
Well, I want an evil thief in BG2. Because when I'm playing evil I either have to bea thief myself, or let certain abomination of a NPC join my party. That's not a fair choice, to be honest.
Well, I want an evil thief in BG2. Because when I'm playing evil I either have to bea thief myself, or let certain abomination of a NPC join my party. That's not a fair choice, to be honest.
In fairness, I'm rather sure that was Beamdog's rationale for adding the BG2:EE NPC in the first place.
Don't assassins take a hit to thief skills? Evil PCs need someone who can open locks and disable traps much more than they need a third damage-dealer - Dorn and Korgan can smash through pretty much anything...
By the end of the game, even an assassin has more skill points than she would ever need.
By the end of the game, even an assassin has more skill points than she would ever need.
Who cares about the endgame? I need someone to crack locked chests and disarm fireball traps in Athkatla.
You can have good open locks and find traps right off the bat with a level 10 assassin. It means that you can't put anything to hide in shadows/move silently, but there are are two rings that give you some kind of invisibility in the promenade area alone (Ring of Air Control in the Adventure Mart and Ring of Invisibility in the Den of Seven Vales). The latter of which is something you can get shortly after leaving Irenicus's dungeon (I'm not sure on how much the Ring of Air Control costs frankly). Those can cover your backstabbing needs until you find items to boost your stealth/grow levels.
Besides, boots of stealth and shadow armor (and later the gift of the night armor) will cover pretty well your points in stealth, no need to expend all your money... ops, skills , into stealth from the begin.
But then, it's an NPC, what mean that we does not control how he was build until we recruit him.
Who cares about the endgame? I need someone to crack locked chests and disarm fireball traps in Athkatla.
Like you said, evil NPCs already have enough damage-dealers, so you can forgo hiding and moving silently and putting all her points in lockpicking and trapfinding instead. It's pretty much enough from the beginning.
By the end of the game, even an assassin has more skill points than she would ever need.
Who cares about the endgame? I need someone to crack locked chests and disarm fireball traps in Athkatla.
You can have good open locks and find traps right off the bat with a level 10 assassin. It means that you can't put anything to hide in shadows/move silently, but there are are two rings that give you some kind of invisibility in the promenade area alone (Ring of Air Control in the Adventure Mart and Ring of Invisibility in the Den of Seven Vales). The latter of which is something you can get shortly after leaving Irenicus's dungeon (I'm not sure on how much the Ring of Air Control costs frankly). Those can cover your backstabbing needs until you find items to boost your stealth/grow levels.
Also, there's the Mercykiller Ring sold by Deidre (the bonus merchant) in the Adventurer's Mart adds 20 points to Move Silently, Hide in Shadows, and Set Traps, making it the quintessential Assassin's ring.
By the end of the game, even an assassin has more skill points than she would ever need.
Who cares about the endgame? I need someone to crack locked chests and disarm fireball traps in Athkatla.
You can have good open locks and find traps right off the bat with a level 10 assassin. It means that you can't put anything to hide in shadows/move silently, but there are are two rings that give you some kind of invisibility in the promenade area alone (Ring of Air Control in the Adventure Mart and Ring of Invisibility in the Den of Seven Vales). The latter of which is something you can get shortly after leaving Irenicus's dungeon (I'm not sure on how much the Ring of Air Control costs frankly). Those can cover your backstabbing needs until you find items to boost your stealth/grow levels.
Also, there's the Mercykiller Ring sold by Deidre (the bonus merchant) in the Adventurer's Mart adds 20 points to Move Silently, Hide in Shadows, and Set Traps, making it the quintessential Assassin's ring.
True though as I recall that one is really expensive. I mean like 8000+ (which is going to be more expensive when you are evil and is already expensive for just leaving the dungeon). Does she accept payment plans?
@elminster Which is all the more reason to do the Mae'Var quest: Stealth Boots, Shadow Armor, then the Mercykiller Ring with your reward money. ^.^ That's a total of +40 MS and +50 HS, which would allow an Assassin to put some skill points in OL and F/RT and serve as the sole thief the party.
In my opinion they should make double the amount of characters in BG2. They don't even really need a super story and a super quest, a bio is enough for me. But it would be nice to have original characters of áll kinds of classes in the game.. But we all know that is too much to ask anyway. We'll have to do with improvising with what we have.
And here I come off-topic and necroing.. I'm so badass sorry :b
I NEED an evil thief in BG2. Not want, NEED. If there isn't one, I shall have to concede tha the EE haters finally, albeit inadvertently, have a point.
Make a female lawful/neutral evil swashbuckler/shadow dancer. A female with a good looking face. Romance option for both male and female characters. Joinable in Athkatla, so people can get her early on. What you do in her story quest can make her stay as evil or she can become neutral.
I think so too, I would rather like to have a neutral thief. But perhaps if it's evil I will make a playthrough with evil alignment even if my favorite characters are good to neutral.
sorry, only helmets avaliable for this @DarkDogg! Besides, normally NPCs come with one or two unique items of them and we don't know what this new character will bring ! One thing nice at least, is that now i have a proper use for human leather armor, no other evil character on the game had a serious reason to use it as the armor ask for evil alignment and Viconia (cleric), Korgan (fighter) and
Sarevok
(fighter) have better armors to use while edwin (conjurer) can't use it.
Comments
2.) Most people don't use cernd, and when they do he will be using Werewolf form. Greater werewolf/Werewolf form will change his constitution. Aerie has stoneskin, mirror image and so much defense she won't get hit anyway. Viconia doesn't have the defense of Aerie and she doesn't have the ability to change her stats like Cernd. Not to mention the cleric is an amazing tank and alot of people prefer to buff up their cleric and send him in to hold the enemies. This just isn't possible with Viconia
3.) Holy smite is such a great spell to use, and unholy blight is close to useless. The fact that she can use holy smite is a bug, but alas.
4.) The spell 'Magic Resistance' sets your resistance to 40% at level 20. This doesn't work on Viconia as it's "Set" so it would actually lower her resistance. But Anomen gets his 40% so from the start with no gear Viconia only have 10% more.
Absolutely it is a bug and at least until BG2EE comes out I'll be taking advantage of it.
"Viconia doesn't have the defense of Aerie and she doesn't have the ability to change her stats like Cernd."
Well she does have DOHM, so at the very least the stat that she can change that will make a difference defense wise is her dexterity. Plus she advances cleric levels at twice the rate of Aerie, which is great for those cleric defense abilities she does get up until level 20 (at which point the ones that improve by level don't get any better). Now that I think of it a simple way to address her strength from the get go is to just give her the mace+2 mauler's arm (gives 18 strength) from the Copper Coronet, that is if you are going to put her up close. As long as you cast DOHM after equiping it it'll give her a fair boost.
Viconia's innate magic resistance in BG2 is 65%. So comparing her resistance to the magic resistance spell is a difference of 25%. Since it improves at 2% a level you only get the 40% if you cast the spell at level 20. Obviously at lower levels there is a larger difference and Anomen doesn't start at level 20 (though he does get his great fire resistance/cold resistance family shield).
A female with a good looking face.
Romance option for both male and female characters.
Joinable in Athkatla, so people can get her early on.
What you do in her story quest can make her stay as evil or she can become neutral.
That way will all be happy.
Then is all happy:P
Dont know what people wanna have most of swashbuckler/shadow dancer/assasin. Just that common thief is too boring to add and we got 1 bounty hunter. So best bid might be 1 of the 3.
But then, it's an NPC, what mean that we does not control how he was build until we recruit him.
And here I come off-topic and necroing.. I'm so badass sorry :b
Perhaps spoiler me a bit where I could find such a ring xDD
I can scratch you such ring in 10 minutes.
No big deal for the devs.