So we return full circle. Are you looking for a cleric or a fighter?
Why not both? If you can get everything a cleric gets while also having the benefits of 7 levels of fighter (which is almost everything a fighter gets), you don't have to choose between them.
A dual-classed Fighter->Cleric like Anomen is not "a poor combination," but a great fighter and a great cleric in the same package, because not only do you have nearly all the benefits of either class on its own, you have the synergy of being able to combine a cleric's combat buffs with a fighter's higher APR.
You can like Anomen but he is not a "great fighter". Korgan is a "great fighter". Anomen is a medium-bad fighter. And a medium-great cleric. With both, you have a good bastard. But he is still a medium-bad fighter and a medium-great cleric. But versatile yet.
So out of curiosity why do you think Anomen is a medium-bad fighter?
So we return full circle. Are you looking for a cleric or a fighter?
Why not both? If you can get everything a cleric gets while also having the benefits of 7 levels of fighter (which is almost everything a fighter gets), you don't have to choose between them.
A dual-classed Fighter->Cleric like Anomen is not "a poor combination," but a great fighter and a great cleric in the same package, because not only do you have nearly all the benefits of either class on its own, you have the synergy of being able to combine a cleric's combat buffs with a fighter's higher APR.
You can like Anomen but he is not a "great fighter". Korgan is a "great fighter". Anomen is a medium-bad fighter. And a medium-great cleric. With both, you have a good bastard. But he is still a medium-bad fighter and a medium-great cleric. But versatile yet.
So out of curiosity why do you think Anomen is a medium-bad fighter?
Because he is a 7 level fighter who cannot get more levels in that class. In advance game, in tob, he is weak too weak to use in attack vs a lot of enemies. My experience.
Viconia's 65% magic resistance makes hardly any sense lore-wise. Her in-game biography actually states that her drow powers have diminished since coming to the surface (as one would expect) but somehow this increased her MR by 15% rather than decreasing it by 15%, like one would expect =/
In BG1 she has 50 MR, like one would expect. That she has 65 in BG2 might actually be a bug.
Because he is a 7 level fighter who cannot get more levels in that class. In advance game, in tob, he is weak too weak to use in attack vs a lot of enemies. My experience.
Anything more fighter levels would get you, Holy Power can provide; and then there's Righteous Magic, and Draw Upon Holy Might, and Shield of Faith, and so on, and so forth.
So we return full circle. Are you looking for a cleric or a fighter?
Why not both? If you can get everything a cleric gets while also having the benefits of 7 levels of fighter (which is almost everything a fighter gets), you don't have to choose between them.
A dual-classed Fighter->Cleric like Anomen is not "a poor combination," but a great fighter and a great cleric in the same package, because not only do you have nearly all the benefits of either class on its own, you have the synergy of being able to combine a cleric's combat buffs with a fighter's higher APR.
You can like Anomen but he is not a "great fighter". Korgan is a "great fighter". Anomen is a medium-bad fighter. And a medium-great cleric. With both, you have a good bastard. But he is still a medium-bad fighter and a medium-great cleric. But versatile yet.
So out of curiosity why do you think Anomen is a medium-bad fighter?
Because he is a 7 level fighter who cannot get more levels in that class. In advance game, in tob, he is weak too weak to use in attack vs a lot of enemies. My experience.
Thats exactly why he has spells to buff him.
Armor of Faith (cleric level 1 spell). 10-25% resistance against any type of damage (amount of resistance depends on what cleric level Anomen is). That includes not just physical damage but also magical and elemental damage.
Holy Power (cleric level 4 spell): Gives Anomen the same Thac0 as a fighter of his same level, 18/00 strength, and a health boost.
Draw Upon Holy Might (cleric level 2 spell): Boosts strength, dexterity, and constitution between 2-6 to Anomen (amount of boost depends upon level).
Righteous Magic (cleric level 5 spell): Boosts Anomens health slightly and strength is boosted between 2-6 depending upon Anomen's level. Anomen now does maximum damage each hit.
Renegeration (cleric level 7 spell): Anomen now will heal by 18 health per round for between 7 rounds to a turn.
Theres also Blade Barrier, Globe of Blades, and Aura of Flaming Death.
I'm not saying Korgan or Anomen is better but you may find using some of the above spells helps when playing Anomen.
Because he is a 7 level fighter who cannot get more levels in that class. In advance game, in tob, he is weak too weak to use in attack vs a lot of enemies. My experience.
Anything more fighter levels would get you, Holy Power can provide; and then there's Righteous Magic, and Draw Upon Holy Might, and Shield of Faith, and so on, and so forth.
So, you say he is a good character with a good combination of abilities. But still, not a great fighter nor a great cleric. A great character. We agree.
The problem I have with Jaheira is her weapons. I can't find any good scimitar until tob (without mods). Only +2 scimitars... Jaheira can't deal enough damage in the advanced game. But as an anti-mage character, she is great.
As others have pointed out you're not limited to scimitars. Clubs are a good bet for her and she already comes with specialization. If you think she can't deal enough damage later on you should try giving her the Club of Detonation and Belm. Mmm, fire...
Because he is a 7 level fighter who cannot get more levels in that class. In advance game, in tob, he is weak too weak to use in attack vs a lot of enemies. My experience.
Anything more fighter levels would get you, Holy Power can provide; and then there's Righteous Magic, and Draw Upon Holy Might, and Shield of Faith, and so on, and so forth.
So, you say he is a good character with a good combination of abilities. But still, not a great fighter nor a great cleric. A great character. We agree.
A fighter>cleric dual is a great fighter, because the cleric buffs can make up for the lack of fighter levels.
So, you say he is a good character with a good combination of abilities. But still, not a great fighter nor a great cleric. A great character. We agree.
At the experience cap in ToB, Anomen is a level 38 cleric, which happens to be the point where they stop getting more spell slots, ergo Anomen is just a good a cleric as any single-classed cleric. With 7 levels of fighter, Anomen has everything a fighter will ever get save a handful of hit points and THAC0, which Holy Power convenient provides, and fighter HLA's, which the rest of the cleric buffs more than compensate for. So I disagree with your assertion that he is "not a great fighter nor a great cleric." He is both a great fighter and and great cleric. We agree that he is a great character (mechanically, at least).
1) She has the best personality of the clerics 2) Her high DEX makes her AC immense, far surpassing that of any other character in the long run 3) She has magic resistance, making her the best character in the game full stop to take the brunt of lich and high level mage assaults 4) There are a wealth of STR boosting items in the game to counteract her low strength, but only one pair of DEX gauntlets 5) Even though Anomen gets more attacks per round, there is no real need to rely on your cleric to do your damage - if they are soaking up hits -and- casting lots of buffs and protections, they're already out-performing their job description, and nothing Anomen nor any other cleric can do will put them on par with a fighter's damage output
@Aranthys With shapeshifters re-balanced Cernd is quite a powerful and capable NPC, of course without it you're quite correct that he lacks a certain use, namely any at all.
@booinyoureyes Indeed, Edwin truly cannot be improved upon by making your own mage, sadly his amulet of "i wish i could steal that" is just too much of an advantage, especially to an already very good conjurer (arguably the best school specialization, and by arguably i do mean most people will argue that it is despite having no one arguing an alternative point)
So we return full circle. Are you looking for a cleric or a fighter?
Why not both? If you can get everything a cleric gets while also having the benefits of 7 levels of fighter (which is almost everything a fighter gets), you don't have to choose between them.
A dual-classed Fighter->Cleric like Anomen is not "a poor combination," but a great fighter and a great cleric in the same package, because not only do you have nearly all the benefits of either class on its own, you have the synergy of being able to combine a cleric's combat buffs with a fighter's higher APR.
You can like Anomen but he is not a "great fighter". Korgan is a "great fighter". Anomen is a medium-bad fighter. And a medium-great cleric. With both, you have a good bastard. But he is still a medium-bad fighter and a medium-great cleric. But versatile yet.
So out of curiosity why do you think Anomen is a medium-bad fighter?
Because he is a 7 level fighter who cannot get more levels in that class. In advance game, in tob, he is weak too weak to use in attack vs a lot of enemies. My experience.
Thats exactly why he has spells to buff him.
Armor of Faith (cleric level 1 spell). 10-25% resistance against any type of damage (amount of resistance depends on what cleric level Anomen is). That includes not just physical damage but also magical and elemental damage.
Holy Power (cleric level 4 spell): Gives Anomen the same Thac0 as a fighter of his same level, 18/00 strength, and a health boost.
Draw Upon Holy Might (cleric level 2 spell): Boosts strength, dexterity, and constitution between 2-6 to Anomen (amount of boost depends upon level).
Righteous Magic (cleric level 5 spell): Boosts Anomens health slightly and strength is boosted between 2-6 depending upon Anomen's level. Anomen now does maximum damage each hit.
Renegeration (cleric level 7 spell): Anomen now will heal by 18 health per round for between 7 rounds to a turn.
Theres also Blade Barrier, Globe of Blades, and Aura of Flaming Death.
I'm not saying Korgan or Anomen is better but you may find using some of the above spells helps when playing Anomen.
Not to mention Anomen benefits a lot from Harm and Slay Living due to his impressive THAC0. Only real problem I have with Anomen in terms of combat prowess is that he doesn't get Fighter HLA's due to being a dual class.
She is a girl that posed for playboy in 1990+, and Viconia's portrait was based on her, totally based on her, but only for BG2. Her name was something like Zdenka IDK-what, she's russian.
I dislike comparing Viconia to Jaheira and Cernd, I should add. I much prefer her to Aerie and Anomen - largely due to their personalities, but my only gripe about her mechanics is that she only gets 1 attack per round. Aside from that I can find nothing to fault about her performance. Jaheira is on par with Viconia for me as the best tank NPC: she does more damage at the cost of 1 or 2 AC points; she doesn't have the same abundance of buffs, but Iron Skins and Defensive Harmony more than suffice, and she gains some nice CC (insect plague and storm of vengeance), not to mention fighter HLAs, although that is a veeeery long time benefit. Cernd is a much more specialised character to employ effectively, but he gravitates between hard-hitting pseudo-tank and CC&Support Spellcaster. He has to be one of the least conventional characters to use in combat and takes a lot of getting used to. I wouldn't really compare him to any of the other NPCs due to just how unique and specialised his style is. He requires a lot of micromanagement, however, and this is probably one of the reasons people can't be bothered with him.
@recklessheart I agree with most of what you said but I don't know if I'd use Viconia as a tank. Aside from her magic resistance, which is always useful, I see no reason to put her in the front line. It depends on your party composition and strategy but if you have a pretty standard one, with a couple fighters in the front and a couple of casters behind them for support, the majority of your damage comes from the guys with the weapons. While AC is all well and good, spots on the front line are at a premium because they're the highest DPS spots and plunking in someone who doesn't die but can't make use of the melee range is a bit of a waste.
Viconia's 65% magic resistance makes hardly any sense lore-wise. Her in-game biography actually states that her drow powers have diminished since coming to the surface (as one would expect) but somehow this increased her MR by 15% rather than decreasing it by 15%, like one would expect =/
In BG1 she has 50 MR, like one would expect. That she has 65 in BG2 might actually be a bug.
In 2nd edition PNP drow have 50% base resistance to magic and gain an additional 2% every level, or their highest level if multiclass, I am guessing there was no way for the devs to code this to Viconia without creating an entirely new race just for her. A lot of people in the past have made comments as to her living on the surface and they are incorrect, MR is one of the innate drow abilities that they do not lose by living on the surface, and only forgotten realms drow lose any abilities at all living on the surface.
@Manzor I agree that Spectral brand is hard to get right at the beginning of the game, but there is Usuno's Blade a +4 scimtar available on the first level of watchers keep that is quite easy to get.
She is a girl that posed for playboy in 1990+, and Viconia's portrait was based on her, totally based on her, but only for BG2. Her name was something like Zdenka IDK-what, she's russian.
According to Wikipedia, she posed for Penthouse, not Playboy, and she's Czech, not Russian
@Aranthys With shapeshifters re-balanced Cernd is quite a powerful and capable NPC, of course without it you're quite correct that he lacks a certain use, namely any at all.
Shapeshifter rebalanced mod turn shapeshifters into invincible juggernauts of cheeseness. I mean, look at the stats it grants : - Permanent 3hp per second regen (Lulz !) - Saves so low it makes me laugh - Able to cast spells even while shapeshifted (Lulz !)
Current shapeshifted druid is actually pretty fine, but could use a small boost (Paws made a +3 weapon for example)
@nano That's so interesting! I thought Viconia was universally acknowledged as being one of the best tanks! I must really be living in my own world :P Even if you put her in the back with a sling she's only going to be hitting once per round, max, so I see no real reward from leaving her there. With the Flail of Ages or Crom Faeyr you can at least hope that the one hit per round she can make will do something around the 20damage mark. In BG2 I never really cared much about HP - most characters all roughly come off about the same in the 70-90HP region. And there's just no way around it for me: Viconia can have -7AC before you've even paid off Bohdi/Gaelan Bayle. Add Draw Upon Holy Might and her magic resistance to that and she's pretty much proofed against all forms of damage save for critical hits! I think she's wonderful. Although I concede that having her up front taking the attention off my dual-wielders and 2-handed weapon users does mean I use her spells a lot less. Do you find her magic is very useful mid-combat? If so, what spells do you use?
Comments
Vicky fights with Boobs in the way and everything and still wins sometimes.
Anomen fights like a Boob, gets in the way and everything and still wins sometimes.
If you note in the above sentence, Vicky's sentence reads far more attractively... So I would go with Vicky.
On the other hand, if you just want one Boob, Anomen is the way forward...
Armor of Faith (cleric level 1 spell). 10-25% resistance against any type of damage (amount of resistance depends on what cleric level Anomen is). That includes not just physical damage but also magical and elemental damage.
Holy Power (cleric level 4 spell): Gives Anomen the same Thac0 as a fighter of his same level, 18/00 strength, and a health boost.
Draw Upon Holy Might (cleric level 2 spell): Boosts strength, dexterity, and constitution between 2-6 to Anomen (amount of boost depends upon level).
Righteous Magic (cleric level 5 spell): Boosts Anomens health slightly and strength is boosted between 2-6 depending upon Anomen's level. Anomen now does maximum damage each hit.
Renegeration (cleric level 7 spell): Anomen now will heal by 18 health per round for between 7 rounds to a turn.
Theres also Blade Barrier, Globe of Blades, and Aura of Flaming Death.
I'm not saying Korgan or Anomen is better but you may find using some of the above spells helps when playing Anomen.
2) Her high DEX makes her AC immense, far surpassing that of any other character in the long run
3) She has magic resistance, making her the best character in the game full stop to take the brunt of lich and high level mage assaults
4) There are a wealth of STR boosting items in the game to counteract her low strength, but only one pair of DEX gauntlets
5) Even though Anomen gets more attacks per round, there is no real need to rely on your cleric to do your damage - if they are soaking up hits -and- casting lots of buffs and protections, they're already out-performing their job description, and nothing Anomen nor any other cleric can do will put them on par with a fighter's damage output
Her name was something like Zdenka IDK-what, she's russian.
Jaheira is on par with Viconia for me as the best tank NPC: she does more damage at the cost of 1 or 2 AC points; she doesn't have the same abundance of buffs, but Iron Skins and Defensive Harmony more than suffice, and she gains some nice CC (insect plague and storm of vengeance), not to mention fighter HLAs, although that is a veeeery long time benefit.
Cernd is a much more specialised character to employ effectively, but he gravitates between hard-hitting pseudo-tank and CC&Support Spellcaster. He has to be one of the least conventional characters to use in combat and takes a lot of getting used to. I wouldn't really compare him to any of the other NPCs due to just how unique and specialised his style is. He requires a lot of micromanagement, however, and this is probably one of the reasons people can't be bothered with him.
@Manzor I agree that Spectral brand is hard to get right at the beginning of the game, but there is Usuno's Blade a +4 scimtar available on the first level of watchers keep that is quite easy to get.
And don't tell me you haven't - ahm - done it;)
- Permanent 3hp per second regen (Lulz !)
- Saves so low it makes me laugh
- Able to cast spells even while shapeshifted (Lulz !)
Current shapeshifted druid is actually pretty fine, but could use a small boost (Paws made a +3 weapon for example)
Even if you put her in the back with a sling she's only going to be hitting once per round, max, so I see no real reward from leaving her there. With the Flail of Ages or Crom Faeyr you can at least hope that the one hit per round she can make will do something around the 20damage mark. In BG2 I never really cared much about HP - most characters all roughly come off about the same in the 70-90HP region. And there's just no way around it for me: Viconia can have -7AC before you've even paid off Bohdi/Gaelan Bayle. Add Draw Upon Holy Might and her magic resistance to that and she's pretty much proofed against all forms of damage save for critical hits!