it depends on the party composition and the leveling strategy, i usually close to the end of the game have her with 2 lev 9 slots and she cast lev 8 in soa, but i run small parties and often solo the first part of the game to get the npcs at higher level. When i use also some quest mods she level up even faster.
@DJKajuru a good mid level combo is melf minute meteors, holy power to get fighter's thaco, DUHM to boost her dex so her ranged thac0. a mid level aerie hits quite often also enemies with good ac this way, with improved haste the apr is doubled, and MMM are fast to cast again when consumed. her cleric spells in this case make her the better user of MMM, that is the most damaging spell of the game if compared to the level it is cast, but as every meteor has a to hit roll used by the other mages is almost effective against mages and webbed/stunned foe as in that case the hit is without roll. using MMM she is not effective as an archer, but is way better then a neera or nalia as ranged support. 10D4 + 30 +30fire is an average of 85 dmg round, if all the meteors hit, if also righteous magic is added as it works as the kai if all the meteors hit the damage is 100/round.
the cleric buffs and the improved haste last enough to let her use all the lev3 slots as MMM and more so she can cast spells at every time she wants in a long battle then go back to the melf machine gun.
when all the mmm are used she can continue with a sling for 2 apr with even better thac0 and with the buffed str added.
is true that much of her strength is to merge arcane and divine spells and to have a lot of slots as she gets 2 different pools of magic, but to boff her correctly so as she cast she can also be a good ranged support make her an even more strong and useful caster.
an other good mid level combo is to buff her for good mlee thac0 and then have her use harm, she can take down a dragon with a single hit and a magic missile if his MR is lowered (and her cleric spell that set the magic resistance + an arcane lower resistance do the trick), if is doomed and his protections are down.
after the harm attack, if its roll make it hit, a single magic missile is enough to end the work.
sometimes i use a mid level aerie with the best shield equipped, stoneskin on, armor of faith to get some dmg reduction and holy power + duhm, then she turns into a troll with the cloak of the sewers and then i haste the party.
at 800k xp she get negative thaco, 4 apr, 21 str and on top of the stoneskin and the dmg reduction she get an impressive regeneration, quite tanky and damaging, on average she should do a little less of 60 dmg round at that level.
at a higher level, but still in the mid range, she can be improved hasted for 6 apr and her str, hp and ac become even better.
a CM with the needed level can put 3 clerical animate dead in a sequencer, while a mage needs the trigger as he has to use the arcane version that is 2 level higher even if the effect is just the same.
a really strong CC is deva and 2 elementals on self at enemy seen, a deva and 2 elementals are granted but it doubles the chance that an elemental prince is spawn instead of an elemental, in the latter case only the prince and not the prince ans an elemental is spawn, but the prince is much stronger then an elemental so when it happens is a really good thing. even if the planetar is the strongest summon the deva and the elemental prince are really strong and a planetar can not be summoned with a CC.
aerie and her army, cast time is very fast, this is what happens if a prince is not gated in.
@DJKajuru
globe of blades is a really interesting mid level choice, the lower the level you use it the more the enemies have bad ST so fail the save to the damage. every cleric can use it, both buffed for mlee or casting after it sanctuary to go next to the enemies and watch them take damage without even reacting.
Aerie is special in that because she can stack the globe with the 2 arcane fire shields while in mlee and protected by stoneskin.
if you use the troll version of aerie i was talking before with the globe and the fireshields active against a group of enemies you see the enemies melt as they try to damage her.
as she regenerates but can not cast again the stoneskin a contingency with stoneskin at 50% health and a minor sequencer with armor of faith (damage reduction) and mirror image are a great help, also the defender of easthaven in the oh (in the mh would be overridden by the troll weapon, can help. also some invisibility potions can be used, in little more then 1 round her regeneration bring her at full health again, but she has not to be hit when she is low health and with the stoneskins consumed, she has not the korgan's hp pool...
don't use PFMW with this combo as is short lasting and the fire shields need her to take hits to do damage.
with the stoneskin the hit counts so the shields cause damage to the enemy, but she takes no damage as the skin absorbs it, so if the battle is long is better to have her in the natural but buffed form as she can cast more skins, a lev 10 stineskin protect her only from 5 hits, a lev 20 one from 10 hits, so at mid level and with only the contingency to recast the skin she can take only 10-14 hits before she begin to take damage, then she has to survive only on regeneration, potions and damage reduction.
i am not sure if the mirror image can be used in the combo, is quite a long time ago that i experimented the tactic, and now i don't remember, but you can easily test it just sending her or a mage with a fireshield and the images against an enemy and seeing if the shield damage is active or not when the enemy hit her.
a tactic that i am lately using with a high level aerie is implosion + physical attacks.
she can memorize up to 4 implosion, that do some good damage (50% if saved), but mainly stun for a round, no save, and ignores MR. while the other divine casters have a casting time that takes almost half round she, with RoV and AoP has 0 casting time, it is immediate.
so as long as she is buffed, and at high levels a trigger with HP, RM and improved haste is enough to give her, DW, 4 apr, 25 str and kai like maxed damage roll, she can cast implosion on an enemy, stunning and damaging him, then do the 4 physical attacks, that automatically hit as the enemy is stunned, and as the next round begins she can cast an other implosion, faster then the time the enemy, recovering from the previous stun has time to do anything, and repeat.
every other party member also automatically hit, so you can have imoen welding 2 speed weapons and improved hasted at her side doing 8 attacks and hitting every time, even if her thac0 that way is horrible, but aerie alone does very close to 200 dmg round if the enemy does not save against the implosion, probably 150 if he does, about the double if she also uses a simulacrum, and has 4 rounds to do it.
as the combo ignores MR and the stun is without save i find the combo extremely powerful against single powerful enemies or in situations where other party members can keep occupied lesser helpers and she focuses on a powerful boss.
i also did some testing in the pocket plane vs a high level sarewok witht he vorpal halberd and GWW, he falls in the second round without being even able to land a single hit.
no other divine caster can do something similar, anomen and viconia can have a lot more implosions, but loose a big part of the round to cast, and this makes the enemy not stunned for 4/10 of each round after the first one even if they use the AoP, jaheira could use implosion then GWW, so stun and kill with 10 attacks, but she can not as she can not cast and activate a HLA in the same round.
From other divine casters implosion is still very powerful, as the cleric/druid can cast it, then has some attacks and a fighter with GWW can do the rest, so most of the enemies will any way fall, but only a CM (or a CT with UAI) can chain implosions that way.
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@DJKajuru a good mid level combo is melf minute meteors, holy power to get fighter's thaco, DUHM to boost her dex so her ranged thac0. a mid level aerie hits quite often also enemies with good ac this way, with improved haste the apr is doubled, and MMM are fast to cast again when consumed. her cleric spells in this case make her the better user of MMM, that is the most damaging spell of the game if compared to the level it is cast, but as every meteor has a to hit roll used by the other mages is almost effective against mages and webbed/stunned foe as in that case the hit is without roll. using MMM she is not effective as an archer, but is way better then a neera or nalia as ranged support. 10D4 + 30 +30fire is an average of 85 dmg round, if all the meteors hit, if also righteous magic is added as it works as the kai if all the meteors hit the damage is 100/round.
the cleric buffs and the improved haste last enough to let her use all the lev3 slots as MMM and more so she can cast spells at every time she wants in a long battle then go back to the melf machine gun.
when all the mmm are used she can continue with a sling for 2 apr with even better thac0 and with the buffed str added.
is true that much of her strength is to merge arcane and divine spells and to have a lot of slots as she gets 2 different pools of magic, but to boff her correctly so as she cast she can also be a good ranged support make her an even more strong and useful caster.
an other good mid level combo is to buff her for good mlee thac0 and then have her use harm, she can take down a dragon with a single hit and a magic missile if his MR is lowered (and her cleric spell that set the magic resistance + an arcane lower resistance do the trick), if is doomed and his protections are down.
after the harm attack, if its roll make it hit, a single magic missile is enough to end the work.
sometimes i use a mid level aerie with the best shield equipped, stoneskin on, armor of faith to get some dmg reduction and holy power + duhm, then she turns into a troll with the cloak of the sewers and then i haste the party.
at 800k xp she get negative thaco, 4 apr, 21 str and on top of the stoneskin and the dmg reduction she get an impressive regeneration, quite tanky and damaging, on average she should do a little less of 60 dmg round at that level.
at a higher level, but still in the mid range, she can be improved hasted for 6 apr and her str, hp and ac become even better.
i gave other hints for the use of the CM here
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/75404/contingencies-and-sequencers-what-do-you-use
i post the link instead of to use copy and paste as that thread is really interesting and informative beyond my contribution focused on the CM.
aerie and her army, cast time is very fast, this is what happens if a prince is not gated in.
globe of blades is a really interesting mid level choice, the lower the level you use it the more the enemies have bad ST so fail the save to the damage. every cleric can use it, both buffed for mlee or casting after it sanctuary to go next to the enemies and watch them take damage without even reacting.
Aerie is special in that because she can stack the globe with the 2 arcane fire shields while in mlee and protected by stoneskin.
if you use the troll version of aerie i was talking before with the globe and the fireshields active against a group of enemies you see the enemies melt as they try to damage her.
as she regenerates but can not cast again the stoneskin a contingency with stoneskin at 50% health and a minor sequencer with armor of faith (damage reduction) and mirror image are a great help, also the defender of easthaven in the oh (in the mh would be overridden by the troll weapon, can help. also some invisibility potions can be used, in little more then 1 round her regeneration bring her at full health again, but she has not to be hit when she is low health and with the stoneskins consumed, she has not the korgan's hp pool...
don't use PFMW with this combo as is short lasting and the fire shields need her to take hits to do damage.
with the stoneskin the hit counts so the shields cause damage to the enemy, but she takes no damage as the skin absorbs it, so if the battle is long is better to have her in the natural but buffed form as she can cast more skins, a lev 10 stineskin protect her only from 5 hits, a lev 20 one from 10 hits, so at mid level and with only the contingency to recast the skin she can take only 10-14 hits before she begin to take damage, then she has to survive only on regeneration, potions and damage reduction.
i am not sure if the mirror image can be used in the combo, is quite a long time ago that i experimented the tactic, and now i don't remember, but you can easily test it just sending her or a mage with a fireshield and the images against an enemy and seeing if the shield damage is active or not when the enemy hit her.
she can memorize up to 4 implosion, that do some good damage (50% if saved), but mainly stun for a round, no save, and ignores MR. while the other divine casters have a casting time that takes almost half round she, with RoV and AoP has 0 casting time, it is immediate.
so as long as she is buffed, and at high levels a trigger with HP, RM and improved haste is enough to give her, DW, 4 apr, 25 str and kai like maxed damage roll, she can cast implosion on an enemy, stunning and damaging him, then do the 4 physical attacks, that automatically hit as the enemy is stunned, and as the next round begins she can cast an other implosion, faster then the time the enemy, recovering from the previous stun has time to do anything, and repeat.
every other party member also automatically hit, so you can have imoen welding 2 speed weapons and improved hasted at her side doing 8 attacks and hitting every time, even if her thac0 that way is horrible, but aerie alone does very close to 200 dmg round if the enemy does not save against the implosion, probably 150 if he does, about the double if she also uses a simulacrum, and has 4 rounds to do it.
as the combo ignores MR and the stun is without save i find the combo extremely powerful against single powerful enemies or in situations where other party members can keep occupied lesser helpers and she focuses on a powerful boss.
i also did some testing in the pocket plane vs a high level sarewok witht he vorpal halberd and GWW, he falls in the second round without being even able to land a single hit.
no other divine caster can do something similar, anomen and viconia can have a lot more implosions, but loose a big part of the round to cast, and this makes the enemy not stunned for 4/10 of each round after the first one even if they use the AoP, jaheira could use implosion then GWW, so stun and kill with 10 attacks, but she can not as she can not cast and activate a HLA in the same round.
From other divine casters implosion is still very powerful, as the cleric/druid can cast it, then has some attacks and a fighter with GWW can do the rest, so most of the enemies will any way fall, but only a CM (or a CT with UAI) can chain implosions that way.