How should I build Mazzy?

Lambstar

So I wanted to try out Mazzy through this playthrough, since I've never actually gotten around to using her and she looks fun. I'm aware that she's a "project character" and I picked her up at level 8 so that I can assign that precious 9th level proficiency, but I'm at a loss as to what weapon to choose for her. Here's my roster:

Charname (Bezerker/Mage, 2H Sword Spec)
Jaheira
Yoshimo/Imoen
Anomen
Rasaad/Keldorn

I'm considering just going with Longswords, as my party will need a lot of belts and the STR 22 sword will come in handy, but their might be an argument for going Katanas for Celestial Fury/Hindo's Doom. Short swords are a maybe, although I will miss giving Charname the upgraded Sword of Grief if it comes to that. Suggestions (bearing in mind that she'll just be rocking the shortbow until at least level 12)?

BronxH

I usually train her using Halberds, there are some really good ones.
Strength is not a problem for Mazzy, she has a long duration Strength spell.

nano

I'd put the points into Flails or Warhammers. Exciting, I know, but as a pure fighter I'd give her the best weapons because she can make the most use out of them. I lke Crom Faeyr here because I'm pretty sure Critical Strike doubles the damage from your strength bonus as well, so if you have those fighter HLAs more strength = even better. Then again since she can get whirlwind she can use the FoA +5, so that's a possibility as well, though I'm guessing you're giving the FoA to Annie.

booinyoureyes

I actually used Eekeeper to maker her a Cavalier in my game, and she is gonna use Carsomyr
I think its hilarious to see a tiny little halfling lass wield a massive sword or halberd.

I actually like using her as an archer, since you have a lot of frontliners already. It may get crowded up front with Anomen, Keldorn/Rasaad, Jaheira and possibly your charname.

elminster

Long Swords or Bastard Swords.

velehal

Flails or Hammers. Reasons are obvious: Flail of Ages and Crom Faeyr.

elminster

velehal said:

Flails or Hammers. Reasons are obvious: Flail of Ages and Crom Faeyr.

In this party setup that the FoA and Crom Faeyr are the kind of weapons Anomen should be using. Mazzy has a lot more options when it comes to weapons.

nano

Annie doesn't have much use for Crom Faeyr so I think it'd be fine to put it on her.

velehal

elminster said:

In this party setup that the FoA and Crom Faeyr are the kind of weapons Anomen should be using. Mazzy has a lot more options when it comes to weapons.

So Mazzy will pick the proficiency which Anomen will not use (I think that at the end of ToB he can be (almost) grandmaster in both but at this point Mazzy will have so many proficiencies that she will not know what to do with them). But I would suggest Flails for Mazzy. Anomen has not access to Greater Whirlwind and 10 attacks with (non IR) Flail of Ages = dead opponent (or at least slowed and so dead).

Lambstar

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone. I think I'm gonna give Crom Faeyr to Anomen and train Mazzy up in Flails. The halberd suggestion was definitely a consideration, but the Flail of Ages is better than any of the longswords in SoA and charname is just gonna be in the back spellslinging with Imoen by the time ToB happens, so I'll want a solid front line.

elminster

velehal said:

elminster said:

In this party setup that the FoA and Crom Faeyr are the kind of weapons Anomen should be using. Mazzy has a lot more options when it comes to weapons.

So Mazzy will pick the proficiency which Anomen will not use (I think that at the end of ToB he can be (almost) grandmaster in both but at this point Mazzy will have so many proficiencies that she will not know what to do with them). But I would suggest Flails for Mazzy. Anomen has not access to Greater Whirlwind and 10 attacks with (non IR) Flail of Ages = dead opponent (or at least slowed and so dead).

In this kind of a party setup I'd personally prefer to use Foebane with her. The +3 version will outdamage the flail of ages +3/+4 against a lot of the games more difficult creatures (the exceptions being dragons and golems). The +5 version of Foebane only takes a little bit more time to get than it takes to get the +4 flail. The +5 flail is a pretty late acquired item and it has the strategic downside of countering the boots of speed. One of the nice things about the +5 Foebane is that it casts minor drain on hit. With GWW its possible to give Mazzy 40 extra health each round (the health gain lasts a turn). You are still getting the benefits of the flail (the elemental damage and slow effect) with Anomen, and with say 5 APR (with dual wielding, improved haste, priest buffs, and specialization) he will still hit often enough to cause slowness.

If you go bastard sword its also possible to get the Purifier, which can be good if you want to have Mazzy with a high amount of magical resistance or if you want her to be able to hit liches (which technically neither the flail +3 nor Foebane can do).

Skaffen

With your setup I would use Jaheira as a tank and Mazzy as an archer with GM in crossbows.

CrevsDaak

@elminster why do you delete all your posts?? It is a-m-u-s-i-n-g! Man, did it was so wrong? Or it was against the rules?

As I've got her in a not-so-early-game (we didn't have more than 900 gold, but everyone was around 1,5 Millions of XP :P), she had ++++ in Short Swords, so she was the piercing-damage dealer of the party, I gave her a shield and some good stuff, she was one of my 4 frontliners (SoA has very few front liners if you ask me, and it has plenty of M/T that are a shit like Nalia and some that are only useful now in the EE like Imoen, there is a character that brakes on everything: Sarevok, he can dual class and become one of the best NPCs of the game (talking of metagaming, he is the best NPC in the game, but I do not like him in other ways).

elminster

I delete all my posts? Thats news to me.

Belanos

Lambstar said:

I'm considering just going with Longswords, as my party will need a lot of belts and the STR 22 sword will come in handy, but their might be an argument for going Katanas for Celestial Fury/Hindo's Doom.

No, no, no. Mazzy is a monster with a bow, give one to her that gets a bonus attack per round. You find one very early in the game, I won't tell you where. I never played with her before a friend of mine suggested I take her a long as my party's main archer, and I can no longer see playing the game without her now. Especially using an enhanced AI mod that makes good use of ranged characters. Consider that she only has a Strength of 15 yet a Dexterity of 18, with proficiency in Short Bow. She's going to suck as a front line character, but she'll be able to rain death with arrows.

kryptix

There's enough str items to make her a front liner too though...

I think my next play through will use her with foebane or axes or scimitars... Doing ranger cleric so spectral brand + belm will be available for her...

Itstucktwice

Lambstar said:

Consider that she only has a Strength of 15 yet a Dexterity of 18, with proficiency in Short Bow. She's going to suck as a front line character, but she'll be able to rain death with arrows.

Mazzy is as good of a a front liner as any character in this game if you pick her up early enough so that she doesn't have too many points wasted in shortsword. It takes her a bit to catch up proficiency-wise, but there reaches a point where it doesn't matter anymore because all fighters have more points than they will ever use.

Her strength is never an issue because she has a self buffing strength spell and there are plenty of strength modifying items to toss her way, much like how every other frontliner NPC in the game needs the dexterity gauntlets to be effective. In fact Mazzy has an advantage in that area because there is only 1 pair of dex gauntlets but several strength belts.

Thrasymachus

I would use her as an archer. There are some excellent short bows in BG2, and that's Mazzy's forte (with grand mastery in short bows right away).

She can melee when necessary, and do it very well (with her Strength ability), but I personally would use other PCs as my standard front liners.

Belanos

Thrasymachus said:

I would use her as an archer. There are some excellent short bows in BG2, and that's Mazzy's forte (with grand mastery in short bows right away).

I totally agree. I was truly impressed with her archer abilities the first time I tried her out. With a bow that gave her an extra attack per round, I was having a hard time keeping her equipped with enough arrows. I used an AI package that had her go after the enemies in the back row, and they were constantly falling to her volleys. It would be a waste of points trying to get her up to grand-master in any sort of melee weapon, when she already has so much proficiency with bows.

[Deleted User]

Belanos said:

I totally agree. I was truly impressed with her archer abilities the first time I tried her out. With a bow that gave her an extra attack per round, I was having a hard time keeping her equipped with enough arrows. I used an AI package that had her go after the enemies in the back row, and they were constantly falling to her volleys. It would be a waste of points trying to get her up to grand-master in any sort of melee weapon, when she already has so much proficiency with bows.

On the flip side, what else are you going to put her points into? She comes with grandmastery in shortbows and ranged weapons don't benefit from weapon styles, so there's no way to spend points to make her a better archer. Might as well spend your pips building her into a melee cuisinart. She can use bows in the meantime and abandon them once their damage falls utterly behind what she could do in melee.