When to recruit Haer'Dalis

Gallowglass

I've recently noticed an interesting feature of which I wasn't previously aware, even though I've been playing BG for years. I'm sure some others will have noticed it before, but I assume that I'm not the only one to whom it may be useful news, so I reckon it's worth mentioning.

Anyone who likes using Haer'Dalis (and I believe he's quite popular) will already be aware that he comes with a second proficiency point in Short Swords, which is normally disallowed for a Blade (i.e. you can't allocate weapon specialisation to him yourself, nor can you allocate it to a Blade protagonist). That's fine, several NPCs have some "special ability" which isn't normal for their class, and the specialisation in Short Swords is Haer'Dalis's special ability. As a result, most of us probably keep him using Short Swords most of the time to take advantage of his enhanced proficiency, even though for late-SoA and ToB the choice of +3/+4/+5 Short Swords is rather limited.

HOWEVER, what I've now noticed is that if you leave it until Chapter 6 to rescue Haer'Dalis (i.e. until when you come back from rescuing Imoen, by which time you'll obviously have gained several levels), then when you recruit him you'll find that he now has a second "illegal" specialisation, this time in Long Swords. There are several +3/+4/+5 Long Swords, and they have a wider variety of bonus effects than Short Swords, so this considerably enhances the usefulness and flexibility of Haer'Dalis. Recruiting him at this stage, Haer'Dalis will be level 15 and have 1.2M XP, so he still won't be far (if at all) behind the rest of the party.

In future, when I want Haer'Dalis in my permanent party for late-SoA and ToB, I'm going to delay rescuing him until Chapter 6. His (eventual) slot in the party can then be used in Chapters 2 and 3 for rotating through various NPCs to complete their personal quests (which may be especially convenient if I'm not also holding a vacancy for Imoen).

Tresset

Interesting. I would probably just keeper him to have that though, especially now that I know about it.

Gallowglass

Obviously that's your call, @Tresset, but I prefer to get to the desired result by strictly in-game methods. Each to his own.

[Deleted User]

You don't necessarily need to wait until Chapter 6 if you want his level 15 version with long sword specialization; npc recruitment level in BG2 is based on your average party level. Any time after your party's average level is 15 or higher you should be able to grab him with those extra pips.

Since he shouldn't be getting any pips between levels 13 and 15. you might even be able to pick him up at that earlier point and still have the specialization; I can't confirm that since my install is modded with BG2 Tweaks' "ToB-style NPCs" (which mods the higher level versions to simply have more XP than the lower levels so you can level them up yourself). Then again, he clearly has more pips than he should at any given point, so who knows? Someone with a clean install and Near Infinity might be able to confirm.

Mathsorcerer

I have no mods and I never use Haer'Dalis (well, okay...I may have had him in the party once years ago). If the protagonist is 15th level before you recruit him then he definitely has ** in longsword, having gained * at 13th level.

elminster

I believe the reasoning for the specialisation in short and potentially long swords is to recognise him being a doomguard (in the planescape setting these are normally granted +1 to attack rolls when using swords). Its obviously not a perfect match but it does the trick.

Also by being a tiefling he is granted a number of other resistances people might not be aware of. As a Tiefling he has 15% inherent physical damage resistance, 25% fire and electricity resistance, and 50% cold resistance.

If you take him at level 15 instead of level 13 then you'll also get some additional health on him from it (even factoring in what he would get leveling from 13 to 15).

OzzyBotkins

I very rarely use Haer Dalis but I will try grabbing him after level 15 now.

bob_veng

can haer'dalis have two pips in longswords in 2.0?

Lehigh96

Although having two proficiency slots in long swords is nice, I prefer to get Haer' Dalis as early as possible in order to maximize his lore value for indentifying items. Regarding weapons, I always have him dual wield Kudane +2 (short sword) & Belm +2 (Scimitar) because both provide and extra attack per round. Combine that extra attack per round with his offensive spin ability that deals max damage on every hit, it should easily outperform a second specialization in long swords. In my experience, the further you go in the game, the weaker he gets. His offensive spin is great against low level flunkies but you really need to utilize tenser's transformation for him to engage in boss battles.

bob_veng

he doesn't get much weaker because you get the HLA song (dependent on the situation, but if you have at least three other physical attackers it's great) and other abilities which enables him to use items your party can't use because of various restrictions

Lehigh96

bob_veng said:

he doesn't get much weaker because you get the HLA song (dependent on the situation, but if you have at least three other physical attackers it's great) and other abilities which enables him to use items your party can't use because of various restrictions

I like the immunity to confusion with the enhanced bard song, but the immunity to fear is kinda useless and redundant because I'm so programmed to cast resist fear anyway. The bonus to AC doesn't do much against most of the enemies in ToB who have ridiculously low THACOs anyway. The use any item HLA is fun but not really that great. My problem with him is that his hit points and THACO just make him too squishy vs most ToB enemies and it basically forces you to rely on using Tenser's Transformation to keep up. For that reason, I usually switch him out with Sarevok at the start of ToB, but it does depend highly on party makeup and what class your charname is.

Side note, the bard hat that allows him to continue singing the song 2 rounds after he stops and engages is a very cool item.

bob_veng

+4 damage bonus is really good. it's easy to overlook this but it adds up to a lot of damage if your party attacks a lot

unavailable

Lehigh96 said:

Although having two proficiency slots in long swords is nice, I prefer to get Haer' Dalis as early as possible in order to maximize his lore value for indentifying items. Regarding weapons, I always have him dual wield Kudane +2 (short sword) & Belm +2 (Scimitar) because both provide and extra attack per round. Combine that extra attack per round with his offensive spin ability that deals max damage on every hit, it should easily outperform a second specialization in long swords. In my experience, the further you go in the game, the weaker he gets. His offensive spin is great against low level flunkies but you really need to utilize tenser's transformation for him to engage in boss battles.

That isn't a problem, someone has to deal with the flunkies. Anyway, he has black blade of disaster scrolls for hard times. I used them in watchers keep, abazigals base and the throne battle in the end.