A cautionary tale

Nikomakkos

Playing BG2 for the first time and before venturing out of Athkatla, not having completed nearly everything there, to deal with the de'Arnise Keep I figured I should maybe buy some gear for myself with the money I had accumulated. I really liked the look of the Reflection Shield. A shield that reflects missiles back at their attackers? Wow! This was just perfect for Aerie since she wasn't strong enough for most other shields.

I was really excited to see how well this would work and in each ensuing battle I carefully tried to see it in action. But she never seemed to get targeted much because she wasn't in the front lines and I wasn't gonna put her there just to get to see my purchase pay off.

After a number of battles I started to wonder if I had maybe wasted some money there when finally I got to see the awesome Reflection Shield in action - and it does work every time 100% of the time! Some foe confused poor Jan, well he was already quite confused to begin with so I didn't worry about it too much. Until I noticed he was taking damage. I didn't notice it until the fight was already over, and oh god, he was still taking damage. He must be poisoned! But no, he was shooting at Aerie and her shield was reflecting his bolts back at him.

sarevok57

there is tons of money to be had in SoA, if you finish every quest you can find you will have lots left over, if i complete all the quests i can before leaving for brynlaw i easily can accumulate over 200 000 GP (and that is AFTER i have bought all the cool goodies i want) so if you make the odd "bad purchase" of items, you should still be okay

very worse case scenario if you are truly getting strapped for cash there is lots of "infinite cash exploits" that can be used if need be ( although worse case scenario if you are playing an RP run, then you can use the exploit just so you can progress through the game )

if you want to know one easy exploit here is one:

there is a guy named Roger in the sewers in the temple district ( found near the bottom of the map ) he is a guy you can sell stuff and steal from and sell back your stolen goods to him, his steal difficulty is 47 which means if you have 148% in pick pockets, you will succeed 100% of the time, luckily he has 2 potions of master thievery and 3 potions of perception, so if you drink all of those down, you will get a +140% bonus to pick pockets, so no matter how inept your thief is you will pass without fail

so when your pick pocket is high enough, sell your awesome high GP items, and then steal them back, and then sell them back, and then steal them back, so on and so on, until you get the gold total you want

some may call this "cheating" but hey, its a legitimate game mechanic that was implemented so call it whatever you wish, but it can also help if you run out of quests and money and need to continue on with the game, this is one way of going about it

JuliusBorisov

About that exploit:

With each pickpocket attempt, there's always 1% of chance that the attempt will fail, no matter your skill.

Nikomakkos

I'm not actually worried about the money but thanks.

gorgonzola

that shield works also with some magic arrows like the flame arrow spell and the melf magic arrow spell.
and you don't have to give it to a particular character, you give it at the one that is targeted by enemy archers, unless you are able to place your party so well that you decide who will bo targeted.
surely if you send your mlee guys forward the archers see them and start to target them, try instead to send aerie forward to draw the attention of the archers and as they begin to target her make her go a little back as your fighters go to the mlee enemy fighters.

and aerie should have not strength problems, she should be able to equip everything. as you are walking from battle to battle she uses the mace that give 18str, and when she is fighting she has a cheap arcane spell to boost the str to 18.50, that lasts a long time, and clerical spells to boost it further up to 25 as she gets some levels. remember that she uses a sling and the sling gets the str damage bonus, and when she goes mlee ( not at the point you are now, but later she can be really good at it, with more than 100 dmg/round and thac0 well in the negative digits) she needs str even more.
if you play her with her base str imo you are not playing her well, she is a C/M, so can easily buff both her attack and her defense capabilities.
EDIT:
this is aerie ranged, 2 apr if hasted, look at the thac0 and at the damage, that actually is every time 27 as she has a spell active that give automatic maximum damage roll.

and this is aerie mlee version, 4 apr improved hasted, again the damage is always 24, not counting the elemental damage the weapons she uses give.

ok this is her ToB version, can not do it at the beginning of SoA, but it should give you an idea of what you should aim for...
her boosted by spells stats are str 25 and dex 23.
and you can see that my aerie has the shield we are talking about in her backpack, even if is in ToB, surely you have not wasted money...

gorgonzola

by comparison this is aerie at the same level with the same weapons and gear but not buffed, see how thac0, dmg, HP and ac drop. she really seems to be a different character now. if you want to use effectively a cleric or a C/M you have to learn how to use him, how to buff him. some players see clerics like people that stay in the back trowing some not so useful bullet with a sling and casting some healing spells, some other call them the healers. the truth is that they can heal, if needed, but they can do a lot more than that. and as each spell slot spent for healing spells is a slot wasted for buffs. i try to memorize the smallest number of healing spells that is possible and to rely on potions and items that give regeneration.
a properly buffed cleric can "heal" more killing enemies, so they can no more damage party members, then casting healing spells. i am not kidding about it, is the plain truth.

that is the reason why i say that aerie should be able to equip anything, if is not so there is really something wrong, you are taking only 10% of what she is capable to give.