High Level Abilities (BG 2 Vanilla)

Heindrich

My F/M Charname just got a double level up to become 14/14, I noticed that I couldn't just 'Accept' the level up, and after a moment, realised I had to select HLAs for the first time ever! It wasn't immediately obvious what was good, so I went for extra spells. I got some questions about HLAs...

1) When are you supposed to get them? I never noticed the 'Abilities' button before, and I am a bit worried I might have missed on picking HLAs for other characters before this. Anomen is already lv16 Cleric and Imoen reached lv14 Mage before Charname too, so I'm wondering why they didn't get HLAs already, or if they did and I just didn't notice.

2) Do HLAs allow u access to higher level spells that u haven't acquired naturally by mage levels? For example, if Charname isn't high level enough to acquire lv8 spells, can he get it through HLAs, or do HLAs only provide an 'extra' spell in a level you already got.

3) In addition to Charname, I got Imoen, Anomen, Aerie and Jaheira in my party. Any HLAs that are 'must have' for these characters? For Charname I already kinda regret not getting Greater Whirlwind. 10 attacks for 1 round sounds amazing, but I've been a bit desperate for high level spell protection removers, so went for more spells first.

etagloc

1) you get HLA's, when you reach 3mil+ xp and gets a level

2) all the HLA's mage spells fit into lv9 spell slots.

3) Aerie can't cast the mage HLA's unless you boost her int to 18.

It dosn't really matter what you pick, you will get enough levels to try them all out.

ryuken87

2) The bonus level 8th spell slot for example, will only appear in your spell book once you can cast level 8 spells.
3) While GWW is good, the 6th level spell Improved Haste can generate the same or similar results (9 or 10 apr) for a much greater duration, allowing you to combine all those apr with the Critical Strike HLA.
- For Anomen it doesn't really matter, you will eventually pick them all anyway and the cleric pool of HLAs is the worst of the four. Deva is probably the best of the bunch.
- For Jaheira, due to that wonky druid spell progression, you will only have a single level 7 spell slot until something like 6m exp so concentrate on the warrior abilities. Have her dual wield with Belm in the off-hand and use Imp Haste with Critical Strike, and pick Hardiness to improve her tanking.
- For charname on the warrior HLA side ignore Hardiness as your mage protections should make it obselete. Generate high apr with Imp Haste rather than GWW and combine with Critical Strike. On the mage side you can pick them all. Hopefully you have 18 intelligence otherwise there will be some serious competition between you, Imoen and Aerie to raise your intelligence.
- For Imoen, Improved Alacrity when combined with the Robe of Vecna and Amulet of Power is godlike. Dragon's Breath is incredibly damaging and ignores magic resistance. Planetar is the best summon in the game. Those should be the first picks.
- Aerie will have a tougher time getting to 18 int so you have some choices to make first in this regard.

Erg

etagloc said:

3) Aerie can't cast the mage HLA's unless you boost her int to 18.

@Heindrich1988

Considering that you are playing vanilla BG2, I feel compelled to point out that this requirement only applies to BG2:EE. In BG2 vanilla you don't need to rise INT to 18 to cast HLA arcane spells.

So, unless you want to restrict yourself by not taking advantage of this on purpose, you are free to choose and cast any HLA arcane spell with Imoen and Aerie without having to raise their stats first