I am not sure about when to recruit him as usually the NPCs get their xp level depending on Charname's xp at the moment he first interacts with them, with the thresholds (if I remember correctly) being Charname's xp at 0.5 , 1 , 1.5 and 2Mxp.
With Haer Dalis you have to free him, then you can recruit him immediately or (better) after the planar prison, so if you want him as powerful as possible you have to do that quest late, and it makes sense as he is a single class that levels fast while both you and Aerie being multi level each class slower, so are more xp hungry. But this poses 3 problems:
1: the Planar Prison is the first place where you can loot some speed boots that make stabbing tactics way easier, you don't have to waste potions or spells to haste the FMT when what matters is only speed reaching the back of the enemy and running away after the stab.
2: one of the advantages of a Bard is that he levels up fast so his level depending spells are more effective, this is very true in early SoA, when your 2 multi arcane casters will have low mage levels while his remove magic will often work, his fireball will do more damage, his haste spell will last longer. You will also loose his defensive spin when it can make a difference, in my last run with him he tanked with it all the vampire encounters in the streets and they could hit him only on critical hits (I was lucky, it never happened), later your party will have more defensive spells and they can be untouchable, but early game defensive spin and stoneskin on let him be the perfect tank.
3: recruiting late lets your other characters get more kills xp, but the characters that you recruit late will loose all the quests xp, that is not shared but a fixed amount for each party member.
It is possible to do all the kills of most of the quests and wait to cash the quest xp after you recruit all the party so you avoid the problem n.3, you get him at high level and he then gets the xp from most of the quests, but you have to play even more without him as also Charname don't get it before recruiting him so reaches later the xp tresholds.
So to take him early or late really depends on you, and also on how you are able to do the planar prison early with a party of only 2. As I am quite good at stabbing and using my thief I usually do the planar prison ASAP, the only really difficult part for a competent thief with enough stealth is the very first battle, then once you free one of the flashy pods you are set in for easy victory as the thief can use them to hide and can stab most of the enemies or deplete most of the caster ones spells and I highly value having speed boots early if I play a stabbing thief. So I would probably solo the starting dungeon, telling Imoen "wait me here" right at the beginning, discovering Jaheira and Minsc only when I came back to rescue her after clearing both the levels of the dungeon, then I would solo some easy quests for more xp and only then I would recruit Aerie and him. It is also possible to call Jan and have him steal all the scrolls you can possibly buy then after dropping him Charname can scrbe and erase them for xp saving just 2 scrolls of each spell for Aerie and Haer Dalis later. This way Charname can have maybe 1M, maybe 1.5M xp and both Aerie and Haer Dalis will start levelled to it. Is a PG strategy but it is possible and you get the best of all, higher level NPCs, most of the quests still to do, speed boots early.
But also taking early Aerie and waiting to do the Planar Prison late is a strong choice, you loose the early access to speed boots and to Haer Dalis spins and better level depending spells, but a FMT and a CM can do most of the quests without problems.
At the end a trio of FMT, CM and Blade is extremely capable, or utterly ineffective, it completely depends on how the player is able to use its synergy, the perks of each build and sometimes not conventional tactics (the one I already told about, Aerie in spider form with clerical buffs trough sequencer and stacked webs vs large groups is only one of the many possible), they have a lot of synergy and versatility, but they lack of number and APR, so you have to discover what they can do and adapt your way of playing.
In this their being over levelled is only part of the equation, and not the most important one.
The joining XP breakpoints in SoA: 125K, 250K, 500K, 750K, 1000K, 1250K. If you've got more than 1.25 million total XP, just recruit your party now; any delay at this point will only slow their progression.
Did you read the thread about her, you have the link in the first page of this thread?
There you will find tactics for her, also at low levels.
At low levels she will lack of Thac0 and her combat buffing spells will be not strong, but with a STR enhancing item or with the mage's spell Strength (lev2 lasts 1 turn/level) and then casting DUHM she will get good STR and better DEX so she can use a sling effectively and even go mlee ( only MH weapon, she will DW later, when she can cast Holy Power, Righteous Magic and DUHM ) using a good shield and protected by stoneskin and mirror images. Using an enchanted sling and enchanted bullets she gets bonus damage from launcher and bullet enchantment and also from STR, so even if she has only 1 APR, 2 when hasted, she will do some good damage, while having the time to also cast a spell in the same round. If you want more APR from her early game she must polymorph into spider (you have to use the combat buffs after changing form trough sequencer) and works very well with stacked webs or she can use the troll form of the Cloak of the Sewers, with it she can buff offensively and then change form, the sequencer is not needed. In spider form she will poison and in troll form she will regenerate hp. Holy Power sets her STR overriding every item or spell, so when she can cast it has to be the first offensive buffing spell that she cast, DUHM and Righteous magic add STR to the value set by HP, that makes her Thac0 the same of the one of a Fighter of the same level of her Cleric one.
Early game her lev 4 divine spell slots will not be much so you have to decide if to use Holy Power to send her to mlee or use those slots for other useful spells like Call Woodland Beings, Death Ward, Free Action or Protection from Evil 10' Radius.
Steal the regeneration ring from Ribald and use the potions while in combat, don't waste her spells for healing until she can cast the lev 6 one that heals completely, as a trio you will have plenty of potions, use her divine slots for something more effective.
At low levels her task will mainly be to protect the party before the battle with her divine protective spells like Chaotic Commands, to use the sling and cast in the same round, to draw the attention of the ranged enemies while using the shield that reflects the arrows to the enemies (sold by Ribald) and sometimes to tank with arcane protections, when the FMT and the Blade have depleted their protections and need a back up. Your party will lack of the punch that a 6 people party with at least 3 proper warriors (good thac0 and apr) has, so you have to fight smart, with the FMT stabbing, all 3 casting offensive spells or anti mage ones each round and then attacking and even so it will be more a war of attrition, you will prevail because you can tank really good with the arcane on self protections, not because you have the raw physical damage capability to kill them fast before they can hurt you.
Fight smart, when it is possible start the battle with some summons ready, summons are mainly cannon fodder that buy you some time until you have the skeletal warriors or the mordy swords, notable exception is spider spawn used together with web or even better stacked webs (even high level enemies fail the save often vs 3 or more stacked webs), try to begin the fight with a stab that kills the mage or more dangerous enemy, or with 3 fireballs or skull traps, as long as your FMT can spot the enemy not spotted it is fair (while continue nuking from the FOW enemies that don't react is not fair at all, is a lame cheating tactic), then let the enemy approach you while you throw arrows and bullets at them, positions your designed tank in a way that the enemies will focus on him. It really depends on the particular battle.
The point is not having particular tactics for a certain toon, but to have them work together as a team, at low levels the only one that can really have his own tactics and can clear entire dungeons using stabs and traps is the FMT, at higher level all 3 will be able to solo a Dragon, each one in his own way, but at the beginning is the team that wins the battles.
I strongly suggest you to save often and try your own tactics, find your own style of playing a small all arcane capable and versatile party, there are so many ways to do it, don't be afraid to loose and reload, you will win anyway as each time you will gain some knowledge about what the party can do and what, at least at that level of progression, does not work. I even often reload after winning to try different approaches to the same battle (this is one of the reasons why my playtroughs last forever ...
...use those [level 4 divine] slots for other useful spells like Call Woodland Beings...
Uh ... what version of things are you playing, exactly? Call Woodland Beings is not available to clerics; it's a druid-exclusive spell. Fantastic, but not relevant to Aerie.
Level 4 cleric slots, for a character that isn't wading into combat, are going to be all about defense. What do you want to defend against right now? Physical attacks? Defensive Harmony. Effects that slow or immobilize? Free Action. Electric damage? Protection from Lightning. Instant death? Death Ward. Level drain? Negative Plane Protection.
And then, there's the spells I didn't mention above.
Protection From Evil 10' is basically two points of AC and saves against everything evil creatures do, for the whole party, lasting up to four hours. Unless you've got some other source of PfE available, you'll want this up any time you can afford to have it.
Cure Serious Wounds, Neutralize Poison, and Lesser Restoration are the healing spells for this level. The first is just hit points, and not enough of them to be interesting. The second is more worthwhile, for the fast-casting poison and disease cure with a bit of healing tacked on; it's basically an elixir of health in spell form. And finally, restoration is the cure to level drain. Which fatigues the caster, so you'll want to rest if you have to use it. Note also that it's available in scroll form and usable by anyone with 9 INT regardless of class; there are easily enough of those scrolls in BG2 to cover your needs without needing a cleric specifically.
Animal Summoning 1 is a rather unimpressive summoning spell. If you want numerous fodder, just use a wand of summoning (equivalent to Monster Summoning 2). If you want a creature that can actually fight, cast Animate Dead instead.
Mental Domination is essentially identical to the level 5 mage spell Domination; while the description claims it's a weaker form of control, that's not true in-game. The only actual differences are the casting time (faster for the priest spell) and the spell level (relevant when interacting with spell protections).
Poison is a single-target damage spell that does nothing on a failed save and has to contend with the most common damage type immunity. I've never been tempted by it.
Holy Power is a combat self-buff. If you're trying to get something out of Aerie's attacks, you'll want it ... but buffing her one attack per round is not a high priority compared to everything else you could be doing. You might not even get that one attack in with all the spells you keep casting.
Cause Serious Wounds is a damage spell that must be delivered with a melee attack. That you only get a +2 attack bonus on. And it doesn't even do very much damage; about the same as a Magic Missile with caster level 9+. Pass.
Farsight is a utility spell for scouting, that's also on the mage list at the same level.
And finally, Cloak of Fear is basically Horror. Except that it's a point-blank AoE instead of something you can aim, it takes much longer to cast, and it's twice the spell level. Nope.
Well, um ... that's a vastly overexplained look at the level 4 cleric spells. Maybe you'll get something out of it.
Uh ... what version of things are you playing, exactly? Call Woodland Beings is not available to clerics; it's a druid-exclusive spell. Fantastic, but not relevant to Aerie.
You are right, my bad, even my Aerie can not cast it...
Which of the wands and summoning items are worth keeping and how do you use them?
All the wands and summoning items are useful in a 3 people party, even the wand of magic missiles that in BG2 is really not effective compared to the spell cast from the spell book, it does very little damage, but if you want a MM only to disrupt an enemy caster can be effective and can save you some spell slots. Wands can be used when one of your characters use an armour for better AC or other bonuses (like more stealth for the FMC or the fire resistance from the red dragon scales) that disables normal casting, Aerie with armour can still cast all her divine spells and use wands. If you sell your wands and then steal them you will have them at full charge, if you repeat with a fence you get quite a lot of money, a fully charged wand sells for a high price.
Later in the game they become very situational, but early game are really useful for a party that has 3 casters, but must use some of the spell slots for self protection and buffing lacking of proper traditional tanks, warriors with a lot of hp and the best armours they can have.
Maybe the strongest wands you find early game are the one of fireball, Agnarzar's Scorcher and Fireball are quite powerful early game and you can have them without spendings spell book slots, the wand of monster summoning, cannon fodder for free sparing spell slots, and the wand of cloudkill, good to disrupt mages, kill low level enemies and damage high level ones. it is not easy to protect the party from the cloudkill so the tactical use of it, opposed to nuking form the FOW and abusing the weak AI of the enemies, is not easy, but each of your characters polymorphed into jelly form is immune to it so if also protected by stoneskin and mirror images, with a second stone skin or later a PFMW in the contingency can tank in the cloud for quite some time while the other 2 use spells and ranged attacks from outside the cloud kill aoe.
The best summoning items probably are Ras, the summoned sword is a lesser mordy sword that you can have early, and the golem manual, the clay golem from it is immune to slashing and piercing damage, is a fantastic tank vs everything that does not deal crushing damage, you need Cespenar to upgrade it so is ToB only, even if you can get the manual and the page in SoA, possibly is wise to never upgrade it further as you get more powerful golem forms, but you loose the tanking capablility against piercing and slashing.
Also the staff of fire and the one of air are good summoning items, the one of fire lets you summon 20 fire elementals that can be useful vs beholders and other foe and the one of air an elemental/day, you never deplete the charges. they skip the 2 rounds mental fight mages have and are always friendly. Also the staff of the woodlands Shambling Mounds are good summons, not game breaking as you get it at the end of SoA, both the FMT and the Blade can use it with UAI.
By the way the best "summoning" item in the game is possibly the staff of command, technically it does not summon anything but it allows you to dominate an enemy without save each day and very few enemies are immune to it, so in many battles it is possible to dominate the most dangerous of the enemies and use it as if it is one summoned creature, with it you can "summon" a very high level mage or warrior that will fight at your side instead of pelting your party with dangerous spells or attacks.
It is possible, but is also possible to have them both without them leaving.
I don't remember exactly how it works, but it should boil on 2 similar dialogues in which she ask you and ask him if you are really involved in the romance. If I remember correctly if she ask it to you first all will be fine, he will not be pleased, but will accept it without leaving and you can continue the romance. To get that option probably you have to sleep often (not after every battle, but don't wait every time to have all the party tired to sleep, should be enough) as some romance talks are tied to rests.
If she ask first at him there can be problems, he will answer yes, she will tell that she needs to check also your feelings and then the thing can go in different ways, one of them is a possible duel between you and HD, duel that Aerie will not like at all and will cause her, or maybe both, to leave.
This is what I remember, but Is a long time since I romanced her with him in the party so I am not 100% sure, I hope that some one else can be more precise about it. Maybe it is still possible to save the romance without anyone leaving giving the correct answers, but is better to have her ask you first about your feelings and it should not be a problem as long as you sleep enough often and you deal with the romance in the correct way, after she will become aware of her power and strength, but at the beginning she is a fragile creature that had some really bad happenings and needs all the support you can give her.
Anyway be always polite with her, never rude and
politely refuse when she will ask you to sleep together for the first time, this surely breaks the romance, being HD in the party or not
,
By the way did you begun the play trough? How it is going?
planning the next BG adventure is always fun, but living it is even more fun
I am doing the quests in Atkathla now, was hard in the beginning when Aerie didnt have many spells but now it gets easier.
Rescued Haer Dalis and got lots of money from Roger the fence.Am now doing the unseeing eye quest
was hard in the beginning when Aerie didnt have many spells but now it gets easier.
Rescued Haer Dalis and got lots of money
The more she progresses the more she is useful and versatile, make good use of the money, you can buy a +5 sling for her, the one that does not need bullets, but can be used with enchanted ones in the tougher battles, the RoV, the 19 STR belt, the +4 staff for stabbing, the AC3 bracers, the anti beholder shield (I never use it), the helm that gives you a simulacrum are probably the most useful for your party. Also don't sell the short sword that gives you a sort of free action even if no one of the party uses swords, is very useful when you use web as lets who uses it to walk in the web and webbed enemies will be automatically hit every time so is not even needed to have pips in it.
... Huh. I didn't realize that detail before. [Edit: wrong due to bugs. See my next post]
In the current EE, the auto-ammo slings don't deal bonus damage from strength when used in launcher mode with real ammo. But they do deal bonus damage from strength when used without real ammo. So, if you have good strength, there's very little reason to ever use that launcher mode. Unlike the auto-ammo bows and crossbows, which are the most damaging weapons of their type in the game when used in launcher mode.
And then you do the math, and realize just how bad the auto-ammo slings are compared to a conventional sling that can stack launcher and ammo bonuses. The Sling of Everard with its 35K price (before reputation and charisma modifiers) is worse than a +2 sling and +2 bullets that you can shoplift from Gorch:
Sling of Everard with no ammo: +5 to hit, 1d4+2+STR damage, +5 enchant.
Sling of Everard with +2 bullets: +7 to hit, 2d4+5 damage, +2 enchant.
Sling of Everard with +4 bullets: +9 to hit, 2d4+7 damage, +4 enchant.
Sling +2 with +2 bullets: +4 to hit, 1d4+5+STR damage, +2 enchant.
Sling +4 (Arvoreen/Erinne) with +4 bullets: +8 to hit, 1d4+9+STR damage, +4 enchant.
Basically, if you're willing to actually get the enchanted bullets, conventional slings are much better than the Sling of Everard. The only real advantage for the Sling of Everard is its high enchantment value, available well before you get reliable access to +3 and +4 bullets.
Thank you @jmerry , in my EE installation, that is not the last update, i am pretty sure that the Sling of Everard takes the STR bonus also with real ammo. Still having the money to buy it IMHO it is worth as there is plenty of enchanted bullets, but are not infinite, with good STR it allows you to hit for 1d4 + 7 + STR bonus (+6 with the Hands of Takkok, later more with a good str belt) and is useful with foe that requires high enchantment, in SoA there are no +3 bullets if you don't go into WK.
This is 15.5 average damage and Aerie will not need very high levels to reach 25 STR with her buffs so the average becomes 23.5 that is not bad at all as you don't waste bullets and can hit almost anything not immune to piercing.
Then when some more damage is needed to switch to Arvoreen/Erinne is fast and with the proper buffs and best bullets she gets something like 27-28 damage, with fighter like Thac0, Thac0 bonus from DEX (DUHM) and launcher + bullet enchantment, so a well in the negative numbers one. Sadly she can not have more then 1 APR, but with regular (or improved, it is the same) haste she will do 54-56 damage/round, hitting almost every time. Not comparable to an archer, but really useful in a 3 people party as she will also be able to "sling" a spell in the same round. Late game even her simulacrum can do it, so she has a potential of more then 100 dmg/round ranged + 2 spells/round without improved alacrity that is more then some warrior types can get when using ranged weapons. She will need very high levels to have her clone with enough levels to buff properly, but as the clone don't freeze her is possible to give her the best STR belt and equipment just for the time she cast Simulacrum, then she can give them back to the party members that normally use them, it helps the clone to reach 25 str even if his level is too low ( in this case he has to skip Holy Power in his buffing as it overrides the belt), it will have worst thac0, but will still be useful in some battles where high ranged damage is needed or where she goes mlee dual welding while the clone helps ranged with the sling and wands/spells.
Enchanted bullets are effectively infinite, if you're only using them for a caster's low rate of attacks. I mentioned shoplifting from Gorch; that's 400 bullets just from him. And if you want, you can restock merchants by selling ammo back to them (as long as they still have at least one stack in stock), at a 40 to 1 rate.
As for the damage, that merits a bit of testing...
Create two half-orc barbs with 19 STR and sling proficiency (but not specialization). Bump them to level 13, for the 2 APR. Give them helmets. Have them sling some bullets at each other, both conjured and real.
With regular bullets: Listed damage 11 to 14. Actual damage 16, 12, 17, 14, 17, 16. (reduced by 1 each time by 10% resistance).
With conjured bullets: Listed damage 10 to 13. Actual damage 11, 11, 12, 12, 10, 11, 11.
OK. This one's outright bugged. The way it's listed in the ITM file for the two seeking slings, there's a "ranged" ability with the bonus strength damage flag set, and a "launcher" ability without the flag. The ranged ability does 1d4+2 damage, and the launcher ability deals 1d4+2 damage; that latter would normally stack with the ammo.
First, the display bug I knew about already: if the "launcher" ability has dice and the ammo does as well, the damage on the character screen only takes one set of dice into account and displays improperly. So those regular 1d4+1 bullets add to the 1d4+2 bonus for that ranged attack, dealing a total of 2d4+3 - 1d4 more than the display.
And then there's the gameplay bug I didn't know about: despite not having the strength damage flag on their launcher ability, you still get that strength bonus for those two slings when you use them with real ammo. My regular bullet test was clearly dealing 2d4+10 total damage rather than 2d4+3.
So then, the humble Sling of Seeking +1 that you can buy on day 1 for a reasonable price deals more damage than the Sling of Arvoreen that you won't find until chapter 5. And the Sling of Everard is good for the highest damage and attack bonuses until you can upgrade the Erinne Sling to +5. Oof. I was wrong. You absolutely want the seeking slings, and you should always use them with real ammo unless you absolutely need the higher enchantment against this particular enemy.
And if you want, you can restock merchants by selling ammo back to them (as long as they still have at least one stack in stock), at a 40 to 1 rate.
I did not knew the trick, really useful, thank you.
Thank you also for the testing, really interesting, I did know that the S. of Everard was really good and added the STR bonus by trial and error, but I never did a test like yours, also the Sling of Seeking +1 seems a really interesting option for those that can not afford the Everard one.
Sling of Everard with +4 bullets: +9 to hit, 2d4+7 damage, +4 enchant.
Sling +4 (Arvoreen/Erinne) with +4 bullets: +8 to hit, 1d4+9+STR damage, +4 enchant.
So Aerie with the Sling of Everard with +4 bullets: +9 to hit, that means -9 Thac0 as soon as she reaches Cleric 21 with Holy Power 2d4 always 8 if Righteous Magic is active+7 damage+14STR bonus = 29 dmg/hit
with Erinne +5, same bullets the thac0 is the same but the damage is 4+9+14=27dmg/hit
The Everard one seems to be the most damaging one also when Erinne is upgraded and -9Thac0 and 58 dmg/round ranged with regular haste and the Cleric's offensive buffs is crazy good as the sling has also 0 speed factor so she will have almost the whole round to cast and relocate if needed.
End of EDIT.
By the way a character with a good sling and the shield from Ribald's shop that reflects back to the enemy the ranged attacks (it works also with the fire arrow spell, but not with MM) is really useful when there are ranged enemies around, if you position him in a way that the ranged enemies attack him they will kill themselves while he can use the sling to support the mlee fighters.
There are not many issues when this is really useful, but sometimes can be useful, i.e. Tarnor in the Temple Sewers is a dangerous one, but positioning the guy with that shield in the right place is no more a problem.
Further experimentation on the seeking sling stuff...
I can fix that bug with the strength bonus and have the two attack abilities be genuinely different by switching their order in the ITM file. But this comes at a cost; if you do that, you can't attack with unless you have bullets. Even if you're not actually using those bullets. So, no really good solution here.
IMHO your proposed fix to the bug would completely defeat the purpose of having "retuning" slings so is not a good solution.
I think that the Everard one is good as it is now, after all even if you can buy it early is behind a huge pay wall and among the items sold by the former optional merchants, the ones that was not there in the original SoA only game, is surely not the most OP item, the RoV is, and other items from those merchants share its power, like the anti Beholder shield.
With the Sling of Seeking, even if the slings are limited to 1 APR I see the problem, it is affordable, you can get it early and with bullets and good STR is better then other slings you can only obtain later.
But somehow is not the only retuning weapon the EE changes overpowered, in the original game the SoS added the bonus, but had to use always regular bullets, only the regular SoA returning Axe got the STR bonus, the anti undead one missed it, and among the Daggers only the Boomerang one got it, in EE both get it and the enchantment level of the Boomerang one has been rise, you had to choose between a better weapon without the STR bonus and a worst one that got it.
Even having the Seeking one and (with a good thief in the party) the Everard one available early I don't feel that the sling is OP as ranged weapon, the potential of high damage/hit is balanced by the low APR and the very limited amount of bullets with elemental damage, while the arrows and bolts have ammo that dispel, poison, explode, do different elemental damages and so on.
Also the high damage comes to a cost, to get it you need STR and the STR items are rare, to equip a full party with them you must give up crafting Crom, only few Charnames and the Clerics can get high STR by other means that are not the rare potions, and there is not +1APR weapon clerics can use, also they can not use the other ranged weapons.
It is true that late in the game a FC or FMC can get an outrageous ranged DMG output with the Sling of Everard, 31 dmg/hit with +4 bullets, the bracers that give +2 dmg and buffs + GWW = 310 dmg/round, "only" 300 with the +3 bullets, but at that stage the not Cleric Warriors have vorpal weapons that with GWW are just as powerful and they could use +1 APR weapons trough all SoA.
In the end I think that the way slings work balances them compared to the other ranged weapons (but Darts...) and that the EE Seeking one is maybe not balanced with other slings you can only get much later, but it helps to keep them balanced compared to the other ranged weapons. Anyway before you can get Arvoreen/Erinne the party has few STR items, that will probably be used by higher APR mlee fighters so only few characters in a 6 people party (like the Clerics, at the cost of buffing) or a Mage Charname with natural high STR, or maybe early dual F>M with GM in sling, lev 7 Fighter and 18/00 natural STR can use really abuse it.
In small parties like the one of this Thread it is different, but small parties in spite of their levelling faster lack of raw physical power, and late game the full party will catch up with levels, so also there I see balance. 1d4 more is only 2.5 on average for everybody but the Clerics with Righteous Magic and the Blades with offensive spin.
The main things to know about illithids:
- Illithids use psionic spells against you, of which the most common and dangerous is "Psionic Blast" with an AoE stun. Magic resistance and conventional spell defenses are useless versus psionics, but everything can be negated by spell saves or blocked by Chaotic Commands.
- Illithid attacks deal minimal physical damage but drain 5 INT per hit. If that reaches zero, you die. And while their THAC0 isn't great, they get a lot of attacks per round. Be careful with melee; if you do get drained, consider waiting a few rounds for that to wear off before pushing to the next encounter.
Also potions of genius can give more buffer to your party members as when a stat is brought to 0 the character dies. This does not protect if the toon is stunned as the Flyers will automatically hit and only 5 hits are needed to bring to 0 a 25 INT toon, but can be useful.
Most of the vanilla Flyers, if not all, can not see trough invisibility, making a stunned companion invisible with the lev2 arcane spell (lev2 and fast to cast) should make them ignore him as they don't see him. Invisibility, from spell, potion, Staff of the Magi or ring, can also be useful to you FMT if he has enough stealth ability: he can approach them hidden in shadows, stab to death an illithid and then go immediately invisible to avoid retaliation. Hasted movement and correct timing are crucial, haste is needed to escape fast from the area of effect of the stun and you must time the stab in a way that the round when he did hide has expired so he can go invisible with a magic action (spell, potion and ring), with the SotM this is not crucial, you simply equip it to go invisible and equipping a weapon is not regarded as a magic action. A FMT can stab to death a whole dungeon of vanilla illithids if he knows how to do it.
With your party vanilla illithids should be a joke, you have only 3 people to protect with Chaotic Commands and Aerie has enough slots to do it, your FMT can stab them, but can also spot them unspotted so you can start the battle nuking them with 3 fireballs, that are better then Skull Traps as have no delay and larger AOE, you can protect all your toons with PFMW that completely negates their physical attacks, while Stoneskin negates only the physical damage and not the INT drain, so you can stab them all, soft them with a pre-emptive nuking, kite them hasted while you kill them with ranged attacks or defeat them mlee, it is really up to you. They are among the enemies where having a small all arcane casters with some divine capability party like yours gives the most advantage. Also luring them into an already cleared room, having some summons blocking the door and killing them with ranged attacks while they are killing the summons may work, you need enough summons as they will kill them fast and you have to keep them busy enough time to kill them ranged. With the last tactic the FMT traps are also useful as they can be set in the passage between the rooms so as they follow the toon that lured them they will take some damage and if they survive they will be killed faster with ranged attacks.
Possibly also stacked webs and a toon polymorphed into spider form can work, kill them all by poison (I actually never tried it with the Flyers, but they should not be immune to web and poison afaik).
If you're relying on spell saves for protection, the key thresholds are 1 and -3. A spell save of 1 is enough for guaranteed success against Psionic Blast, so you don't get stunned. A spell save of -3 is enough for guaranteed success against all psionic status spells; some of them have save penalties of as much as -4.
Oh, and a fun fact which is useless to you: Hexxat is immune to death by stat drain. She can charge into battle, get stunned, and come out of it just fine. As long as you counterattack with your other party members, and don't let the enemies wear down her HP with enormous numbers of attacks. And there aren't umber hulks attacking her, because those do serious physical damage.
Some summons are particularly useful here. Magical swords and Shaman spirits are immune to all psionics and to INT drain. Skeletons are immune to psionic status effects by their standard undead immunities, though psionic damage spells (basically unused in vanilla) and INT-drain attacks still work on them.
The death spell, arcane, lev 6 and party friendly, instantly kills the Umber Hulks in a 30ft radius, it has a casting time of 6 so only 1 if someone is equipping the RoV + AoP, once the party has a caster with lev6 spells, lev 12 Mage or 16 Bard is needed so Haer Dalis will be the first one to get it at 1.32M xp, Aerie will need 1,5M total xp, is a good way to get rid fast of those annoying helpers. Before that stoneskin and mirror images should protect the party from their high damaging attacks long enough to let you prioritize on the more dangerous flyers. Chaotic Commands, that you should anyway use to avoid the psionic stun, protects also from their confusion spell that is really dangerous if Flyers are near by. I don't know which spell save is needed to have guaranteed success against their confusion if you go for the ST tactic, surely @jmerry knows it...
Umber Hulk confusion has a zero for its save modifier. If you're protected from psionic blast stun, you're protected from the confusion as well. In an illithid/umber hulk encounter mix, the umber hulks' threat is all about the physical damage they deal.
Most versions of Umber Hulks have 6 HD, which puts them in range of not only the Death Spell instant-kill effect but also the Cloudkill instant-kill effect. I'm quite fond of using the latter (usually from a wand), though that spell isn't party-friendly unless you're really committed to poison immunity. The only exceptions there are the 10 HD "Umber Hulk Elder" found in ToB. If you want to insta-kill those, you need to upgrade your tool to Deathblow.
Death Spell would work against 8 HD standard mind flayers, but they're 90% magic resistant so you'll only get that kill a tenth of the time. Nonstandard mind flayers may vary, like the group in the encounter that's part of the Ust Natha questline; that bunch inexplicably lacks MR.
I agree, cloudkill from a wand is a cheap way of killing the regular hulks and some other enemies in other encounters and a fully charged wand will last a long time, while early game the lev6 spell slots will be rare and valuable for that party.
The hasted party can then relocate outside the area of effect of the cloud and fight the fliers without the distraction from the hulks.
I really appreciate how this thread, that was born as suggestions about a small party composition, is becoming a place when we can share tactics and options that a small party, all capable of arcane casting, has. It is a concept that I find more interesting and fun to play then the usual 6 people party with a tank, a couple of physical damage dealers, a thief, a mage and a healer that brings to less variations in the possible tactics, with the battles usually fought killing the enemy mages fast and then the rest before they can kill your tank. With this small and capable party you can really tailor the tactic to the enemies that you face and they are so versatile that almost always the same battle can be fought successfully with completely different tactics.
Yes, very easy task, at least the SoA ones, the ToB ones have way better ST so are a more tricky, but at that moment you will have plenty of levels to do it.
First of all you have to protect the party from the particular dragon breath, with firkraag you need protection from fire, easily done with mage and cleric spells (+ potions and items), for the shadow one you need protection from level draining, the AoP and the upgraded mace give it, so at least 2 toons will be immune and it is plenty enough.
You need also some summons to draw his attention, avoid to send them all at once from the same direction or a single buffet will send them away, send them one by one and try to encircle him with your summons, their only purpose is to buy you some time.
It is better if the summons and the party are hasted, that gives you the mobility, your party should also have memorized ways to take down his magical resistance and ST. For the MR the cleric spell sets it to a value related to the cleric level, value that is way less of the natural one of the dragon, then a couple of arcane lower resistance will complete the job, maybe 1 is enough.
Then you have to cast Doom and Greater Malison to lower his ST. All this can be done in 2 rounds, 1 if you use sequencers, with your casters dancing around the big lizard and always casting from a position from where there is no risk that they are disrupted by an attack, breath or buffet.
At this point the battle is almost won, you have only to pelt him with feeblemind, flesh to stone, finger of death or whatever spell you want. I usually go for the flesh to stone route as then you can turn him back to flash and kill him with a single MM, he will be 1hp, and you get double kill xp, you can even repeat it many times to get more xp, but be aware that your summons has to be withdrawn immediately or they will kill the dragon when in stone form (I don't know if this makes you loose the loot in EE, but anyway you loose the double xp), select them all and keep sending them away or the AI will override your command and they will turn back towards him.
Feeblemind completely incapacitates the dragon, then you can do what you want, breach him and kill him ranged, turn him to stone and then to flash many times or whatever, he will not react. When I go for multiple flesh to stone I never feeblemind him as it is infinite xp without any risk, while turning to stone a 1hp dragon without killing him accidentally needs some skill and tactic so I feel I am actually earning that xp.
This is only one of the many possible tactics with dragons, probably the most effective for your party, they should win without even get a single scratch if you do it in the right way, in 2 or 3 rounds he is down while he is still focusing on your summons.
But usually I also reload and send my FMT, Aerie and Haer Dalis solo against the dragon, it is a little trickier but they are all capable to kill him in a solo setting with the xp they get in a 3 people party if you don't hurry that encounter.
Or you can fight in different ways, lower the MR and ST is always better, as it is protect your toons, but then they can also breach him and take him down with a combo of physical attacks and damaging spells while they protect themselves with stoneskin and mirror images, again use the mobility, avoid to have more then one toon attacking from the same side, use summons as meat shield and cast when you know you will not be interrupted. If you want to use physical damage Aerie should buff.
Traps can also be used, if your FMT has some skill in setting them, with both of them you know that you will fight them so you can set the traps far from the dragon and then lure him into them with an hasted toon.
As you see your group has many options to fight a dragon, he can not damage your toons if they protect themselves and use mobility to stay away from his buffets, and you have many ways to damage or incapacitate him.
Comments
With Haer Dalis you have to free him, then you can recruit him immediately or (better) after the planar prison, so if you want him as powerful as possible you have to do that quest late, and it makes sense as he is a single class that levels fast while both you and Aerie being multi level each class slower, so are more xp hungry. But this poses 3 problems:
1: the Planar Prison is the first place where you can loot some speed boots that make stabbing tactics way easier, you don't have to waste potions or spells to haste the FMT when what matters is only speed reaching the back of the enemy and running away after the stab.
2: one of the advantages of a Bard is that he levels up fast so his level depending spells are more effective, this is very true in early SoA, when your 2 multi arcane casters will have low mage levels while his remove magic will often work, his fireball will do more damage, his haste spell will last longer. You will also loose his defensive spin when it can make a difference, in my last run with him he tanked with it all the vampire encounters in the streets and they could hit him only on critical hits (I was lucky, it never happened), later your party will have more defensive spells and they can be untouchable, but early game defensive spin and stoneskin on let him be the perfect tank.
3: recruiting late lets your other characters get more kills xp, but the characters that you recruit late will loose all the quests xp, that is not shared but a fixed amount for each party member.
It is possible to do all the kills of most of the quests and wait to cash the quest xp after you recruit all the party so you avoid the problem n.3, you get him at high level and he then gets the xp from most of the quests, but you have to play even more without him as also Charname don't get it before recruiting him so reaches later the xp tresholds.
So to take him early or late really depends on you, and also on how you are able to do the planar prison early with a party of only 2. As I am quite good at stabbing and using my thief I usually do the planar prison ASAP, the only really difficult part for a competent thief with enough stealth is the very first battle, then once you free one of the flashy pods you are set in for easy victory as the thief can use them to hide and can stab most of the enemies or deplete most of the caster ones spells and I highly value having speed boots early if I play a stabbing thief. So I would probably solo the starting dungeon, telling Imoen "wait me here" right at the beginning, discovering Jaheira and Minsc only when I came back to rescue her after clearing both the levels of the dungeon, then I would solo some easy quests for more xp and only then I would recruit Aerie and him. It is also possible to call Jan and have him steal all the scrolls you can possibly buy then after dropping him Charname can scrbe and erase them for xp saving just 2 scrolls of each spell for Aerie and Haer Dalis later. This way Charname can have maybe 1M, maybe 1.5M xp and both Aerie and Haer Dalis will start levelled to it. Is a PG strategy but it is possible and you get the best of all, higher level NPCs, most of the quests still to do, speed boots early.
But also taking early Aerie and waiting to do the Planar Prison late is a strong choice, you loose the early access to speed boots and to Haer Dalis spins and better level depending spells, but a FMT and a CM can do most of the quests without problems.
At the end a trio of FMT, CM and Blade is extremely capable, or utterly ineffective, it completely depends on how the player is able to use its synergy, the perks of each build and sometimes not conventional tactics (the one I already told about, Aerie in spider form with clerical buffs trough sequencer and stacked webs vs large groups is only one of the many possible), they have a lot of synergy and versatility, but they lack of number and APR, so you have to discover what they can do and adapt your way of playing.
In this their being over levelled is only part of the equation, and not the most important one.
There you will find tactics for her, also at low levels.
At low levels she will lack of Thac0 and her combat buffing spells will be not strong, but with a STR enhancing item or with the mage's spell Strength (lev2 lasts 1 turn/level) and then casting DUHM she will get good STR and better DEX so she can use a sling effectively and even go mlee ( only MH weapon, she will DW later, when she can cast Holy Power, Righteous Magic and DUHM ) using a good shield and protected by stoneskin and mirror images. Using an enchanted sling and enchanted bullets she gets bonus damage from launcher and bullet enchantment and also from STR, so even if she has only 1 APR, 2 when hasted, she will do some good damage, while having the time to also cast a spell in the same round. If you want more APR from her early game she must polymorph into spider (you have to use the combat buffs after changing form trough sequencer) and works very well with stacked webs or she can use the troll form of the Cloak of the Sewers, with it she can buff offensively and then change form, the sequencer is not needed. In spider form she will poison and in troll form she will regenerate hp. Holy Power sets her STR overriding every item or spell, so when she can cast it has to be the first offensive buffing spell that she cast, DUHM and Righteous magic add STR to the value set by HP, that makes her Thac0 the same of the one of a Fighter of the same level of her Cleric one.
Early game her lev 4 divine spell slots will not be much so you have to decide if to use Holy Power to send her to mlee or use those slots for other useful spells like Call Woodland Beings, Death Ward, Free Action or Protection from Evil 10' Radius.
Steal the regeneration ring from Ribald and use the potions while in combat, don't waste her spells for healing until she can cast the lev 6 one that heals completely, as a trio you will have plenty of potions, use her divine slots for something more effective.
At low levels her task will mainly be to protect the party before the battle with her divine protective spells like Chaotic Commands, to use the sling and cast in the same round, to draw the attention of the ranged enemies while using the shield that reflects the arrows to the enemies (sold by Ribald) and sometimes to tank with arcane protections, when the FMT and the Blade have depleted their protections and need a back up. Your party will lack of the punch that a 6 people party with at least 3 proper warriors (good thac0 and apr) has, so you have to fight smart, with the FMT stabbing, all 3 casting offensive spells or anti mage ones each round and then attacking and even so it will be more a war of attrition, you will prevail because you can tank really good with the arcane on self protections, not because you have the raw physical damage capability to kill them fast before they can hurt you.
Fight smart, when it is possible start the battle with some summons ready, summons are mainly cannon fodder that buy you some time until you have the skeletal warriors or the mordy swords, notable exception is spider spawn used together with web or even better stacked webs (even high level enemies fail the save often vs 3 or more stacked webs), try to begin the fight with a stab that kills the mage or more dangerous enemy, or with 3 fireballs or skull traps, as long as your FMT can spot the enemy not spotted it is fair (while continue nuking from the FOW enemies that don't react is not fair at all, is a lame cheating tactic), then let the enemy approach you while you throw arrows and bullets at them, positions your designed tank in a way that the enemies will focus on him. It really depends on the particular battle.
The point is not having particular tactics for a certain toon, but to have them work together as a team, at low levels the only one that can really have his own tactics and can clear entire dungeons using stabs and traps is the FMT, at higher level all 3 will be able to solo a Dragon, each one in his own way, but at the beginning is the team that wins the battles.
I strongly suggest you to save often and try your own tactics, find your own style of playing a small all arcane capable and versatile party, there are so many ways to do it, don't be afraid to loose and reload, you will win anyway as each time you will gain some knowledge about what the party can do and what, at least at that level of progression, does not work. I even often reload after winning to try different approaches to the same battle (this is one of the reasons why my playtroughs last forever
Uh ... what version of things are you playing, exactly? Call Woodland Beings is not available to clerics; it's a druid-exclusive spell. Fantastic, but not relevant to Aerie.
Level 4 cleric slots, for a character that isn't wading into combat, are going to be all about defense. What do you want to defend against right now? Physical attacks? Defensive Harmony. Effects that slow or immobilize? Free Action. Electric damage? Protection from Lightning. Instant death? Death Ward. Level drain? Negative Plane Protection.
And then, there's the spells I didn't mention above.
Protection From Evil 10' is basically two points of AC and saves against everything evil creatures do, for the whole party, lasting up to four hours. Unless you've got some other source of PfE available, you'll want this up any time you can afford to have it.
Cure Serious Wounds, Neutralize Poison, and Lesser Restoration are the healing spells for this level. The first is just hit points, and not enough of them to be interesting. The second is more worthwhile, for the fast-casting poison and disease cure with a bit of healing tacked on; it's basically an elixir of health in spell form. And finally, restoration is the cure to level drain. Which fatigues the caster, so you'll want to rest if you have to use it. Note also that it's available in scroll form and usable by anyone with 9 INT regardless of class; there are easily enough of those scrolls in BG2 to cover your needs without needing a cleric specifically.
Animal Summoning 1 is a rather unimpressive summoning spell. If you want numerous fodder, just use a wand of summoning (equivalent to Monster Summoning 2). If you want a creature that can actually fight, cast Animate Dead instead.
Mental Domination is essentially identical to the level 5 mage spell Domination; while the description claims it's a weaker form of control, that's not true in-game. The only actual differences are the casting time (faster for the priest spell) and the spell level (relevant when interacting with spell protections).
Poison is a single-target damage spell that does nothing on a failed save and has to contend with the most common damage type immunity. I've never been tempted by it.
Holy Power is a combat self-buff. If you're trying to get something out of Aerie's attacks, you'll want it ... but buffing her one attack per round is not a high priority compared to everything else you could be doing. You might not even get that one attack in with all the spells you keep casting.
Cause Serious Wounds is a damage spell that must be delivered with a melee attack. That you only get a +2 attack bonus on. And it doesn't even do very much damage; about the same as a Magic Missile with caster level 9+. Pass.
Farsight is a utility spell for scouting, that's also on the mage list at the same level.
And finally, Cloak of Fear is basically Horror. Except that it's a point-blank AoE instead of something you can aim, it takes much longer to cast, and it's twice the spell level. Nope.
Well, um ... that's a vastly overexplained look at the level 4 cleric spells. Maybe you'll get something out of it.
All the wands and summoning items are useful in a 3 people party, even the wand of magic missiles that in BG2 is really not effective compared to the spell cast from the spell book, it does very little damage, but if you want a MM only to disrupt an enemy caster can be effective and can save you some spell slots. Wands can be used when one of your characters use an armour for better AC or other bonuses (like more stealth for the FMC or the fire resistance from the red dragon scales) that disables normal casting, Aerie with armour can still cast all her divine spells and use wands. If you sell your wands and then steal them you will have them at full charge, if you repeat with a fence you get quite a lot of money, a fully charged wand sells for a high price.
Later in the game they become very situational, but early game are really useful for a party that has 3 casters, but must use some of the spell slots for self protection and buffing lacking of proper traditional tanks, warriors with a lot of hp and the best armours they can have.
Maybe the strongest wands you find early game are the one of fireball, Agnarzar's Scorcher and Fireball are quite powerful early game and you can have them without spendings spell book slots, the wand of monster summoning, cannon fodder for free sparing spell slots, and the wand of cloudkill, good to disrupt mages, kill low level enemies and damage high level ones. it is not easy to protect the party from the cloudkill so the tactical use of it, opposed to nuking form the FOW and abusing the weak AI of the enemies, is not easy, but each of your characters polymorphed into jelly form is immune to it so if also protected by stoneskin and mirror images, with a second stone skin or later a PFMW in the contingency can tank in the cloud for quite some time while the other 2 use spells and ranged attacks from outside the cloud kill aoe.
The best summoning items probably are Ras, the summoned sword is a lesser mordy sword that you can have early, and the golem manual, the clay golem from it is immune to slashing and piercing damage, is a fantastic tank vs everything that does not deal crushing damage, you need Cespenar to upgrade it so is ToB only, even if you can get the manual and the page in SoA, possibly is wise to never upgrade it further as you get more powerful golem forms, but you loose the tanking capablility against piercing and slashing.
Also the staff of fire and the one of air are good summoning items, the one of fire lets you summon 20 fire elementals that can be useful vs beholders and other foe and the one of air an elemental/day, you never deplete the charges. they skip the 2 rounds mental fight mages have and are always friendly. Also the staff of the woodlands Shambling Mounds are good summons, not game breaking as you get it at the end of SoA, both the FMT and the Blade can use it with UAI.
By the way the best "summoning" item in the game is possibly the staff of command, technically it does not summon anything but it allows you to dominate an enemy without save each day and very few enemies are immune to it, so in many battles it is possible to dominate the most dangerous of the enemies and use it as if it is one summoned creature, with it you can "summon" a very high level mage or warrior that will fight at your side instead of pelting your party with dangerous spells or attacks.
Will one of them leave?
I don't remember exactly how it works, but it should boil on 2 similar dialogues in which she ask you and ask him if you are really involved in the romance. If I remember correctly if she ask it to you first all will be fine, he will not be pleased, but will accept it without leaving and you can continue the romance. To get that option probably you have to sleep often (not after every battle, but don't wait every time to have all the party tired to sleep, should be enough) as some romance talks are tied to rests.
If she ask first at him there can be problems, he will answer yes, she will tell that she needs to check also your feelings and then the thing can go in different ways, one of them is a possible duel between you and HD, duel that Aerie will not like at all and will cause her, or maybe both, to leave.
This is what I remember, but Is a long time since I romanced her with him in the party so I am not 100% sure, I hope that some one else can be more precise about it. Maybe it is still possible to save the romance without anyone leaving giving the correct answers, but is better to have her ask you first about your feelings and it should not be a problem as long as you sleep enough often and you deal with the romance in the correct way, after she will become aware of her power and strength, but at the beginning she is a fragile creature that had some really bad happenings and needs all the support you can give her.
Anyway be always polite with her, never rude and
By the way did you begun the play trough? How it is going?
Rescued Haer Dalis and got lots of money from Roger the fence.Am now doing the unseeing eye quest
In the current EE, the auto-ammo slings don't deal bonus damage from strength when used in launcher mode with real ammo. But they do deal bonus damage from strength when used without real ammo. So, if you have good strength, there's very little reason to ever use that launcher mode. Unlike the auto-ammo bows and crossbows, which are the most damaging weapons of their type in the game when used in launcher mode.
And then you do the math, and realize just how bad the auto-ammo slings are compared to a conventional sling that can stack launcher and ammo bonuses. The Sling of Everard with its 35K price (before reputation and charisma modifiers) is worse than a +2 sling and +2 bullets that you can shoplift from Gorch:
Sling of Everard with no ammo: +5 to hit, 1d4+2+STR damage, +5 enchant.
Sling of Everard with +2 bullets: +7 to hit, 2d4+5 damage, +2 enchant.
Sling of Everard with +4 bullets: +9 to hit, 2d4+7 damage, +4 enchant.
Sling +2 with +2 bullets: +4 to hit, 1d4+5+STR damage, +2 enchant.
Sling +4 (Arvoreen/Erinne) with +4 bullets: +8 to hit, 1d4+9+STR damage, +4 enchant.
Basically, if you're willing to actually get the enchanted bullets, conventional slings are much better than the Sling of Everard. The only real advantage for the Sling of Everard is its high enchantment value, available well before you get reliable access to +3 and +4 bullets.
This is 15.5 average damage and Aerie will not need very high levels to reach 25 STR with her buffs so the average becomes 23.5 that is not bad at all as you don't waste bullets and can hit almost anything not immune to piercing.
Then when some more damage is needed to switch to Arvoreen/Erinne is fast and with the proper buffs and best bullets she gets something like 27-28 damage, with fighter like Thac0, Thac0 bonus from DEX (DUHM) and launcher + bullet enchantment, so a well in the negative numbers one. Sadly she can not have more then 1 APR, but with regular (or improved, it is the same) haste she will do 54-56 damage/round, hitting almost every time. Not comparable to an archer, but really useful in a 3 people party as she will also be able to "sling" a spell in the same round. Late game even her simulacrum can do it, so she has a potential of more then 100 dmg/round ranged + 2 spells/round without improved alacrity that is more then some warrior types can get when using ranged weapons. She will need very high levels to have her clone with enough levels to buff properly, but as the clone don't freeze her is possible to give her the best STR belt and equipment just for the time she cast Simulacrum, then she can give them back to the party members that normally use them, it helps the clone to reach 25 str even if his level is too low ( in this case he has to skip Holy Power in his buffing as it overrides the belt), it will have worst thac0, but will still be useful in some battles where high ranged damage is needed or where she goes mlee dual welding while the clone helps ranged with the sling and wands/spells.
As for the damage, that merits a bit of testing...
Create two half-orc barbs with 19 STR and sling proficiency (but not specialization). Bump them to level 13, for the 2 APR. Give them helmets. Have them sling some bullets at each other, both conjured and real.
With regular bullets: Listed damage 11 to 14. Actual damage 16, 12, 17, 14, 17, 16. (reduced by 1 each time by 10% resistance).
With conjured bullets: Listed damage 10 to 13. Actual damage 11, 11, 12, 12, 10, 11, 11.
OK. This one's outright bugged. The way it's listed in the ITM file for the two seeking slings, there's a "ranged" ability with the bonus strength damage flag set, and a "launcher" ability without the flag. The ranged ability does 1d4+2 damage, and the launcher ability deals 1d4+2 damage; that latter would normally stack with the ammo.
First, the display bug I knew about already: if the "launcher" ability has dice and the ammo does as well, the damage on the character screen only takes one set of dice into account and displays improperly. So those regular 1d4+1 bullets add to the 1d4+2 bonus for that ranged attack, dealing a total of 2d4+3 - 1d4 more than the display.
And then there's the gameplay bug I didn't know about: despite not having the strength damage flag on their launcher ability, you still get that strength bonus for those two slings when you use them with real ammo. My regular bullet test was clearly dealing 2d4+10 total damage rather than 2d4+3.
So then, the humble Sling of Seeking +1 that you can buy on day 1 for a reasonable price deals more damage than the Sling of Arvoreen that you won't find until chapter 5. And the Sling of Everard is good for the highest damage and attack bonuses until you can upgrade the Erinne Sling to +5. Oof. I was wrong. You absolutely want the seeking slings, and you should always use them with real ammo unless you absolutely need the higher enchantment against this particular enemy.
Thank you also for the testing, really interesting, I did know that the S. of Everard was really good and added the STR bonus by trial and error, but I never did a test like yours, also the Sling of Seeking +1 seems a really interesting option for those that can not afford the Everard one.
EDIT: So Aerie with the Sling of Everard with +4 bullets: +9 to hit, that means -9 Thac0 as soon as she reaches Cleric 21 with Holy Power 2d4 always 8 if Righteous Magic is active+7 damage+14STR bonus = 29 dmg/hit
with Erinne +5, same bullets the thac0 is the same but the damage is 4+9+14=27dmg/hit
The Everard one seems to be the most damaging one also when Erinne is upgraded and -9Thac0 and 58 dmg/round ranged with regular haste and the Cleric's offensive buffs is crazy good as the sling has also 0 speed factor so she will have almost the whole round to cast and relocate if needed.
End of EDIT.
By the way a character with a good sling and the shield from Ribald's shop that reflects back to the enemy the ranged attacks (it works also with the fire arrow spell, but not with MM) is really useful when there are ranged enemies around, if you position him in a way that the ranged enemies attack him they will kill themselves while he can use the sling to support the mlee fighters.
There are not many issues when this is really useful, but sometimes can be useful, i.e. Tarnor in the Temple Sewers is a dangerous one, but positioning the guy with that shield in the right place is no more a problem.
I can fix that bug with the strength bonus and have the two attack abilities be genuinely different by switching their order in the ITM file. But this comes at a cost; if you do that, you can't attack with unless you have bullets. Even if you're not actually using those bullets. So, no really good solution here.
I think that the Everard one is good as it is now, after all even if you can buy it early is behind a huge pay wall and among the items sold by the former optional merchants, the ones that was not there in the original SoA only game, is surely not the most OP item, the RoV is, and other items from those merchants share its power, like the anti Beholder shield.
With the Sling of Seeking, even if the slings are limited to 1 APR I see the problem, it is affordable, you can get it early and with bullets and good STR is better then other slings you can only obtain later.
But somehow is not the only retuning weapon the EE changes overpowered, in the original game the SoS added the bonus, but had to use always regular bullets, only the regular SoA returning Axe got the STR bonus, the anti undead one missed it, and among the Daggers only the Boomerang one got it, in EE both get it and the enchantment level of the Boomerang one has been rise, you had to choose between a better weapon without the STR bonus and a worst one that got it.
Even having the Seeking one and (with a good thief in the party) the Everard one available early I don't feel that the sling is OP as ranged weapon, the potential of high damage/hit is balanced by the low APR and the very limited amount of bullets with elemental damage, while the arrows and bolts have ammo that dispel, poison, explode, do different elemental damages and so on.
Also the high damage comes to a cost, to get it you need STR and the STR items are rare, to equip a full party with them you must give up crafting Crom, only few Charnames and the Clerics can get high STR by other means that are not the rare potions, and there is not +1APR weapon clerics can use, also they can not use the other ranged weapons.
It is true that late in the game a FC or FMC can get an outrageous ranged DMG output with the Sling of Everard, 31 dmg/hit with +4 bullets, the bracers that give +2 dmg and buffs + GWW = 310 dmg/round, "only" 300 with the +3 bullets, but at that stage the not Cleric Warriors have vorpal weapons that with GWW are just as powerful and they could use +1 APR weapons trough all SoA.
In the end I think that the way slings work balances them compared to the other ranged weapons (but Darts...) and that the EE Seeking one is maybe not balanced with other slings you can only get much later, but it helps to keep them balanced compared to the other ranged weapons. Anyway before you can get Arvoreen/Erinne the party has few STR items, that will probably be used by higher APR mlee fighters so only few characters in a 6 people party (like the Clerics, at the cost of buffing) or a Mage Charname with natural high STR, or maybe early dual F>M with GM in sling, lev 7 Fighter and 18/00 natural STR can use really abuse it.
In small parties like the one of this Thread it is different, but small parties in spite of their levelling faster lack of raw physical power, and late game the full party will catch up with levels, so also there I see balance. 1d4 more is only 2.5 on average for everybody but the Clerics with Righteous Magic and the Blades with offensive spin.
- Illithids use psionic spells against you, of which the most common and dangerous is "Psionic Blast" with an AoE stun. Magic resistance and conventional spell defenses are useless versus psionics, but everything can be negated by spell saves or blocked by Chaotic Commands.
- Illithid attacks deal minimal physical damage but drain 5 INT per hit. If that reaches zero, you die. And while their THAC0 isn't great, they get a lot of attacks per round. Be careful with melee; if you do get drained, consider waiting a few rounds for that to wear off before pushing to the next encounter.
Most of the vanilla Flyers, if not all, can not see trough invisibility, making a stunned companion invisible with the lev2 arcane spell (lev2 and fast to cast) should make them ignore him as they don't see him. Invisibility, from spell, potion, Staff of the Magi or ring, can also be useful to you FMT if he has enough stealth ability: he can approach them hidden in shadows, stab to death an illithid and then go immediately invisible to avoid retaliation. Hasted movement and correct timing are crucial, haste is needed to escape fast from the area of effect of the stun and you must time the stab in a way that the round when he did hide has expired so he can go invisible with a magic action (spell, potion and ring), with the SotM this is not crucial, you simply equip it to go invisible and equipping a weapon is not regarded as a magic action. A FMT can stab to death a whole dungeon of vanilla illithids if he knows how to do it.
With your party vanilla illithids should be a joke, you have only 3 people to protect with Chaotic Commands and Aerie has enough slots to do it, your FMT can stab them, but can also spot them unspotted so you can start the battle nuking them with 3 fireballs, that are better then Skull Traps as have no delay and larger AOE, you can protect all your toons with PFMW that completely negates their physical attacks, while Stoneskin negates only the physical damage and not the INT drain, so you can stab them all, soft them with a pre-emptive nuking, kite them hasted while you kill them with ranged attacks or defeat them mlee, it is really up to you. They are among the enemies where having a small all arcane casters with some divine capability party like yours gives the most advantage. Also luring them into an already cleared room, having some summons blocking the door and killing them with ranged attacks while they are killing the summons may work, you need enough summons as they will kill them fast and you have to keep them busy enough time to kill them ranged. With the last tactic the FMT traps are also useful as they can be set in the passage between the rooms so as they follow the toon that lured them they will take some damage and if they survive they will be killed faster with ranged attacks.
Possibly also stacked webs and a toon polymorphed into spider form can work, kill them all by poison (I actually never tried it with the Flyers, but they should not be immune to web and poison afaik).
Oh, and a fun fact which is useless to you: Hexxat is immune to death by stat drain. She can charge into battle, get stunned, and come out of it just fine. As long as you counterattack with your other party members, and don't let the enemies wear down her HP with enormous numbers of attacks. And there aren't umber hulks attacking her, because those do serious physical damage.
Some summons are particularly useful here. Magical swords and Shaman spirits are immune to all psionics and to INT drain. Skeletons are immune to psionic status effects by their standard undead immunities, though psionic damage spells (basically unused in vanilla) and INT-drain attacks still work on them.
Most versions of Umber Hulks have 6 HD, which puts them in range of not only the Death Spell instant-kill effect but also the Cloudkill instant-kill effect. I'm quite fond of using the latter (usually from a wand), though that spell isn't party-friendly unless you're really committed to poison immunity. The only exceptions there are the 10 HD "Umber Hulk Elder" found in ToB. If you want to insta-kill those, you need to upgrade your tool to Deathblow.
Death Spell would work against 8 HD standard mind flayers, but they're 90% magic resistant so you'll only get that kill a tenth of the time. Nonstandard mind flayers may vary, like the group in the encounter that's part of the Ust Natha questline; that bunch inexplicably lacks MR.
The hasted party can then relocate outside the area of effect of the cloud and fight the fliers without the distraction from the hulks.
I really appreciate how this thread, that was born as suggestions about a small party composition, is becoming a place when we can share tactics and options that a small party, all capable of arcane casting, has. It is a concept that I find more interesting and fun to play then the usual 6 people party with a tank, a couple of physical damage dealers, a thief, a mage and a healer that brings to less variations in the possible tactics, with the battles usually fought killing the enemy mages fast and then the rest before they can kill your tank. With this small and capable party you can really tailor the tactic to the enemies that you face and they are so versatile that almost always the same battle can be fought successfully with completely different tactics.
First of all you have to protect the party from the particular dragon breath, with firkraag you need protection from fire, easily done with mage and cleric spells (+ potions and items), for the shadow one you need protection from level draining, the AoP and the upgraded mace give it, so at least 2 toons will be immune and it is plenty enough.
You need also some summons to draw his attention, avoid to send them all at once from the same direction or a single buffet will send them away, send them one by one and try to encircle him with your summons, their only purpose is to buy you some time.
It is better if the summons and the party are hasted, that gives you the mobility, your party should also have memorized ways to take down his magical resistance and ST. For the MR the cleric spell sets it to a value related to the cleric level, value that is way less of the natural one of the dragon, then a couple of arcane lower resistance will complete the job, maybe 1 is enough.
Then you have to cast Doom and Greater Malison to lower his ST. All this can be done in 2 rounds, 1 if you use sequencers, with your casters dancing around the big lizard and always casting from a position from where there is no risk that they are disrupted by an attack, breath or buffet.
At this point the battle is almost won, you have only to pelt him with feeblemind, flesh to stone, finger of death or whatever spell you want. I usually go for the flesh to stone route as then you can turn him back to flash and kill him with a single MM, he will be 1hp, and you get double kill xp, you can even repeat it many times to get more xp, but be aware that your summons has to be withdrawn immediately or they will kill the dragon when in stone form (I don't know if this makes you loose the loot in EE, but anyway you loose the double xp), select them all and keep sending them away or the AI will override your command and they will turn back towards him.
Feeblemind completely incapacitates the dragon, then you can do what you want, breach him and kill him ranged, turn him to stone and then to flash many times or whatever, he will not react. When I go for multiple flesh to stone I never feeblemind him as it is infinite xp without any risk, while turning to stone a 1hp dragon without killing him accidentally needs some skill and tactic so I feel I am actually earning that xp.
This is only one of the many possible tactics with dragons, probably the most effective for your party, they should win without even get a single scratch if you do it in the right way, in 2 or 3 rounds he is down while he is still focusing on your summons.
But usually I also reload and send my FMT, Aerie and Haer Dalis solo against the dragon, it is a little trickier but they are all capable to kill him in a solo setting with the xp they get in a 3 people party if you don't hurry that encounter.
Or you can fight in different ways, lower the MR and ST is always better, as it is protect your toons, but then they can also breach him and take him down with a combo of physical attacks and damaging spells while they protect themselves with stoneskin and mirror images, again use the mobility, avoid to have more then one toon attacking from the same side, use summons as meat shield and cast when you know you will not be interrupted. If you want to use physical damage Aerie should buff.
Traps can also be used, if your FMT has some skill in setting them, with both of them you know that you will fight them so you can set the traps far from the dragon and then lure him into them with an hasted toon.
As you see your group has many options to fight a dragon, he can not damage your toons if they protect themselves and use mobility to stay away from his buffets, and you have many ways to damage or incapacitate him.