Haer'Dalis any good? What's your verdict?
Ihatememes
Member Posts: 29
To me he seems like bad fighter and bad mage. Even at high level with like 20 str and 2x +3 weapons he'll still hover around 2-1 Thac0 (while real fighters are like -5 -10). Meanwhile mages are getting Dragon's breath, Spellstrike and Timestop and he's stuck with lvl 6 spells (Tenser's Transformation disables his spins as well).
What's your take on him?
He seems like a cool dude, but from a powergaming perspective (Insane or Legacy of Bhaal difficulty).
What's your take on him?
He seems like a cool dude, but from a powergaming perspective (Insane or Legacy of Bhaal difficulty).
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Comments
Also, Defensive Spin can be very useful in certain battles, when you need someone to hold back mobs or particularly strong opponents.
As far as Mages go, yeah, they're also not meant to replace a proper Mage, since they have no spells above Level 6. But when you have a Mage to dish out damage and crowd control spells, Bards can do wonders with spells that buff and protect themselves and the rest of the party.
High-level Blades also finally reach 100+ Lore score which is good to identify every item in the game.
And if all else fails, the Improved Bard Song can do wonders in a battle.
In conclusion, Bards (even Blades with their enhanced melee ability) are supposed to be utility characters. They aren't supposed to replace any of the main classes, but to augment your party's efficiency and to generally make life a bit easier by being secondary fighter/casters and the party's face, if necessary.
(Using Time Stop Trap, popping Offensive Spin and going nuts with your bard is one very effective tactic.)
TL;DR - Haer' Dalis is good, just don't use him as your primary Fighter/Mage, but more as a secondary, versatile party member.
So while your fighters are still desperately trying to get their first +4 or better weapon or feigning annoyance at having to wait for your mages to cast Haste/Improved Haste to "unlock" their potential, Haer Dalis and blades in general are happily destroying trash mobs using spells/buffs they don't really need against the big bads anyway.
Playing bards requires a certain finesse. Unlike most classes, playing a bard means having to employ roundabout methods to get (potentially amazing) results because in the end, playing a bard is about knowing your options. In this way they are very similar to FMTs in SoA, but they become very different classes in ToB.
For example, it's easy to say that a fighter will have significantly higher THAC0 than a bard in theory. Except in practice, the bard can simply use his pickpockets/stealing to outfit himself and his party mates with high end gear within minutes after the party escapes Irenicus' Dungeon. Bards can use most items, so while a fighter has to wait for his particular time to shine (ie, there will be times where you have zero contribution) a bard always has something he could be doing. He could be summoning minions, nuking, buffing, debuffing or simply using wands. Bard spellcasting is unique in SoA because bards gain levels faster than other arcane casters, and there are dozens of ways a player can utilize this to his advantage. Finally, as an arcane caster, HD is also a source of (potentially massive) extra XP from scribing scrolls.
All bards kits have their own specialty, and what makes HD and blades unique is that on top of everything else, they can actually also tank stuff with Defensive Spin/buffs and they also have access to the mini-whirlwind, which can leave fighters in the dust for most of SoA and helps tremendously when you're in dire need of burst damage.
ToB is where the blade really shines. Besides the obvious (the sheer availability of powerful gear and items like Potions of Heroism, which means that HD should have no trouble destroying trash mobs), in ToB damage, THAC0 and AC are just numbers to a blade thanks to conjured images + Enhanced Bard Song.
Which BTW, also affects everyone else in the party
HD is very easily one of the strongest NPCs in the game.
HD biggest problem is that being a plane-hopping demonic Doomguard thespian he racks enough special snowflake points to make him utterly insufferable.
Edit: Forgot to mention, Blades tend to be a popular choice for soloing, even on insane with Ascension installed. Don't forget they can use scrolls for when they need to cast spells higher than level 6.
Aside from everything already mentioned here, he also comes with innate resistances unique to him, as well as (iirc) extra proficiency points not normally available to his class.
They get less melee power (no backstab, less APR, no whirlwind) however.
But you get the idea. Bards are very underestimated in BG2, and actually quite strong, nearly on par with FMT. And among them, blade is the best kit, and Haer'Dalis is a good one, for an NPC. Their versatility is what makes them very good, though it is as well what can make players that are not experimented with bards think bards are underwhelming.
He only really begins to fall off in ToB when mages hit their highest level spells and fighters get access to their uber-strong HLAs, then I use him more as an assistant mage (throwing out the dispels and the party buffs mostly) and for Improved Bard Song, though he can help out in melee too.
As for his personality, I used to dislike him until I used him for an extended period of time. He actually has some really interesting banters with Yoshimo, Viconia and others (can't remember off the top of my head). He's a great NPC overall.
He's so open about what he does that it actually gets to a point where he shows disdain towards NPCs who are hiding some sort of agenda, and in the end you found out that he's right about them too.
Not much of a fighter until mid-game, but he'll make for a nice secondary mage because bards level up fast. He can do the essential stuff like greater malison/breach/lower resistance which is all I really need.
With this setup i can try out Yoshimo as well, two characters I've never had a full playthrough with. At last a full party with the legitimately cool partymembers only. This'll be a joy!
Thanks guys.
By the time I can safely take down the Planar Prison in a no-reload run, my party is already mostly built.
I suppose you could also kill Mekrath, have HD join you and then just leave the gem alone.
Edit:
I did a search and apparently it only becomes an issue if you kick him out of the party before giving the gem back to Raelis. He takes the gem with him and disappears forever (possible bug).
Also, Use Any Item lets him use the holy avenger.
Especially at high levels.
If you grab him the ring of free action in Spellhold, he can use defensive spin and move around.
If you give him UAI as a HA he can use Vhailor's helm in combination with mislead spell & Improved bard song, then you can effectively have 4 singing bards on the screen giving your party insane negative AC. Useful in dragon battles.
He's typically the guy I send up against Kangaxx. I give him Daystar and have him go to town on both forms with his offensive spin and spell immunity: abjuration cast on himself.
If that doesn't work, my mage who's standing back will blast the skull version with a ring of the ram & a horn of blasting whilst Haerry keeps it busy.
His constitution is a bit crap, sure. But if you have mirror image, blur, stone skins on etc, his survivability is much improved. You can give him that constitution belt too you from from the eyeless cult quest too.
High level traps are available to him too.
His lore is decent, he can use wands etc, toss the odd spell. Has better than normal fighting skills and some elemental resists. Plus his personality/background is unique.
Michael Bell is a great voice actor too. Really brings the character to life.
My current run through is the only one I've had where he's not in my party because I have never had both Jaheira and Viconia in my party together before.
I wouldn't waste vhailor's helm on him, but singing bard song through an image is a sweet idea.
So HD can stop singing, engage OS, and enjoy all the benefits of his song on top of the OS bonuses...
Because of the Improved Bard Song HLA alone, I usually have HD in my party if I'm not playing a bard myself.
Mislead is supposed to act like more like Invisibility + spontaneous image creation though, the perma invis while the the clone exists-thing is a unique take on the spell.