Which mage with my party?

Kneller

I'll need a mage until I get Imoen back. I don't use a lot of magic, so I might be able to get away with a multi-mage. My party is currently, Cavalier, Minsc, Jaheira, Yoshimo.

1) Nalia. You get her soon enough and she's the only non-evil, non-multi mage, so she'll level faster than the others.
2) Aerie. I don't have a cleric, but Jah is doing a good enough job with that. Still, having some extra divine magic might be handy, but is it worth gimping the mage to do so?
3) Jan. His thief half is not as useful as Aerie's cleric half. However, he's just a swell guy. Seriously one of my favs in this game for personality. Also, while Aerie's quest (the circus tent) is quick to finish, Jan's will take time. All the more reason to keep him around a while. I'd use his thief abilities to make up for what Yoshi lacks.

Gallowglass

I don't think there's much point in Jan for your party, even though he's excellent for some other parties.

It's a closer call between Aerie and Nalia. I lean towards Aerie because there are several useful Cleric spells which Jaheira doesn't get as a (half-)Druid, and also Turn Undead can be handy (even at the realtively-low levels which Aerie can attain in the early Chapters). Nevertheless, Nalia would obviously be better as a Mage, so she'd also be a reasonable choice.

Caeria

I agree that you definitely don't need Jan. Two thieves is very redundant in BG2.

Personally, I'd take Aerie, just because I adore her and I like having a cleric. She does have access to some spells that Jaheira doesn't, though a few of them won't be useful early game, so there's that. That said, if you just want an Imoen stand-in Nalia's going to be the better choice as an (almost) pure mage.

Reticent

Nalia, because of the three she's the one whose banter you are least likely to have heard entirely already. She's also going to give you the most bang for your buck in the short term with faster access to higher level spells and pretty reasonable combat contribution with a short bow.

That said- Aerie isn't that gimpy and Jan is probably the best investment of the three if you are carrying the party into ToB.

MrNooby

I like have Aerie so I can use lesser restoration. Then again, I'm a BG noob, so I don't know much. And crazy as it sounds, I gave her the 18 str gauntlets to use with the +5 sling that has unlimited ammo.

sarevok57

MrNooby said:

I like have Aerie so I can use lesser restoration. Then again, I'm a BG noob, so I don't know much. And crazy as it sounds, I gave her the 18 str gauntlets to use with the +5 sling that has unlimited ammo.

I give her the 19 str belt when she is using that sling, mix that in with draw upon holy might and watch out, she can do some serious ranged damage

JLee

I think Nalia rounds out that party better. She will be more powerful than Imoen. I like Aerie and Jan a lot, but either of them (with Imoen as primary) would leave you with a more diluted arcane presence than I like to have by end game.

lunar

Jan's thief skills are not useful?
Frankly, Aerie's cleric spells are less useful. You can get restoration and raise dead from scrolls and rods, so why bother?
(In my game I modded the restoration scroll and rod of res to be usable by clerics only, just to make clerics relevant.)

However Jan's skills are superiour, he can pickpocket all shops with ease. After a potion of thievery, go loot Galomp the bookkeeper for all his 5th lvl scrolls and scribe/delete/scribe your spells for massive xp. Sell your expensive gear to a random merchant and steal them back for extra gold. Pickpocket every guard you see for potions and random treasures.
(In my game I modded the thievery potions to be non-stackable. This also makes high level thieves relavant. In the vanilla game even Nalia, with her puny 4 levels of thief, can gulp five potions of thievery and rob everyone blind.)

Jan can detect illusions, too. Very useful in most situations. With a few levels, he can set traps as well.
Jan is the single most useful party member in SoA, in my opinion.

However his personal quest is god-awful. When his cousin appears to approach the party I let loose with ranged attacks and he dies before reaching the party-and Jan does not care. He never gets his quest, so there. This saves me from a long and tedious quest with no reward.

Also, Jan is better at save vs spells (being a gnome) than Aerie and has a bit more hp too. He can survive most spells better. Only his save vs death/poison is weaker than Aerie, who by virtue of being a cleric, chosen of the gods, excels in that area, I will give her that. But with that hp!?

Jan also has more mage spells, for being an illusionist. Aerie has more clerical spells to cast, but I don't consider priest spells real magic-they do not change the course of a battle as often as mage spells do. An extra cast of stoneskin, chaos, pro from magic weapons etc. is more useful in battle than a bunch of cure light wounds, barkskins, holy smites, etc. IMHO. Also, mislead and backstab tricks work well for Jan, too.

brus

I'll say all of them.

Pantalion

Though I'm from a school of thought that Clerics who learn recovery spells are doing it wrong, I'd say Aerie any day. She's more survivable than any other mage (forget shields, helmets are where its at), and she can bust off some great spells from the cleric list if you're not wasting them on pointless cure and restoration spells.

Holy Smite and Animate Dead are awesome, Silence can win fights when it hits, Remove Fear saves having it on your mages, DUHM makes her a 1 APR bruiser, and her Cleric half has the second best THAC0 progression in the game, making her cover fire with a sling pretty decent, and turning is more or less free crowd control for dealing with some low level, but still annoying, things like shadows and other stat drainers. Later, things like Death Ward and Negative Plane Protection on your tanks can trivialise some nasty fights that might otherwise be pulling spells like restoration and raise dead.

On top of that, despite being a level or two behind the pure mage and the specialist, she'll still have more spells than either, thanks to having those cleric spells to fall back on.

Gallowglass

Several people here are giving exasperatingly irrelevant advice. Please note that the OP is contemplating ONLY a temporary addition to his party until he gets Imoen back, NOT a long-term addition. What could be done with these characters later in the game is missing the point.

Pantalion

Gallowglass said:

Several people here are giving exasperatingly irrelevant advice. Please note that the OP is contemplating ONLY a temporary addition to his party until he gets Imoen back, NOT a long-term addition. What could be done with these characters later in the game is missing the point.

Well, given the list of characters, I think we all know which party member is going to get dropped for Immy, and it's not the replacement mage, so you'll be stuck with them for at least a good portion of the later chapters.

Plus if they're anything like me, their CHARNAME could be sitting with 2m exp by the end of chapter 2.

Gallowglass

Pantalion said:

Well, given the list of characters, I think we all know which party member is going to get dropped for Immy, and it's not the replacement mage, so you'll be stuck with them for at least a good portion of the later chapters.

Obviously we know who Imoen replaces in the Thief role, but also there's no reason why the OP needs to continue the replacement Mage beyond that point. It may well be (and I suspect that it is) his plan to sack the replacement Mage immediately he gets Imoen back, i.e. leaving the replacement in the Asylum.

Pantalion said:

Plus if they're anything like me, their CHARNAME could be sitting with 2m exp by the end of chapter 2.

That's pretty extreme, if you're talking about a full party. Just about achievable, but you must be doing everything it's possible to do, leaving none of it for Chapter 6. Obviously it's your call how you play, but when I'm planning to keep Imoen (as the OP is) then I'll fetch her much sooner so that her XP isn't so far behind the others.

ifupauline

From a gameplay point of view, Aerie should be a better choice, but you stated that Jan is one of your favorite character, I would recommend you keep him just for the fun of it. Aerie banter with Jaheira is pretty damn annoying.

Giant2005

Why not dump Yoshimo for Jan and take one of the other two with the leftover spot? Or decide that Jan is all of the spellcasting you need for the interim and then take someone else entirely.

Fandraxx

Turnips

SionIV

A party without Jan Jansen, is like an Oreo without cream.

Nimran

SionIV said:

A party without Jan Jansen, is like an Oreo without cream.

As a enthusiast, I approve this message.

brus

SionIV said:

A party without Jan Jansen, is like an Oreo without cream.

It's like a bolt without it's crossbow.
Minsc without Boo.

sluckers

Go with Aerie for her abilities. You have a combat heavy party, which will benefit much from her ability to put cleric buffs in minor sequencers. Bless and chant are especially useful for a party at the start of BG2 with only average thac0.

If you are more swayed by personal reasons, then you should just go with your gut and don't worry.

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