Yeslick > Branwen > Viconia
Soido
Member Posts: 338
I mostly play with Branwen but I think for BG1 game Yeslick is best while Viconia is outright the worst.
Plus Yeslick comes early enough in Cloakwood Mines to pursue max level by endgame.
Branwen does have more spells at her disposal but in reality you don't use them all of them (any spell other than healing). I do use all healing spells with her if needed but the thing is Yeslick has them too.
While argument can be made in favor of Yeslick or Branwen, I don't think Viconia is anywhere close to them she is so poor. Branwen has very good special ability Chaos Battle, while Yeslick punches really good as a cleric/fighter. But Viconia oh wow she has nothing to offer, is terrible.
Plus Yeslick comes early enough in Cloakwood Mines to pursue max level by endgame.
Branwen does have more spells at her disposal but in reality you don't use them all of them (any spell other than healing). I do use all healing spells with her if needed but the thing is Yeslick has them too.
While argument can be made in favor of Yeslick or Branwen, I don't think Viconia is anywhere close to them she is so poor. Branwen has very good special ability Chaos Battle, while Yeslick punches really good as a cleric/fighter. But Viconia oh wow she has nothing to offer, is terrible.
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I do have a soft spot for Branwen as well by Valkur's strapping buttocks!
Speaking about best companion powerwise, that would be Coran the Fighter/Thief. Although there area few of them - Edwin, Dorn.
In my last game Dorn just made 55% of all kills. He is weak early game but late game is a monster (give him shield and bastard sword endgame).
My last game finished with a FAILURE with my elf thief. Because I play no-death only I had to die in the dukes fight in the palace because little I knew how fast the dukes die there and it is mandatory to cast Web in that battle. Technically I didn't die but scripted death due to bad balancing by design. What I mean is that battle is random, one of the duke sometimes doesn't even cast mirror image on herself and dies in literally few rounds. The doppelgangers randomly decide who to attack initially, sometimes they gang on the dukes, sometimes they attack the guards and you cannot control it. There is one certain tactics there for a no-death run - cast Web. I am actually little bit concerned with the dukes fight. Even if you eliminate the doppelgangers, Sarevok fights for few rounds and my concern is that if he randomly hits any of the dukes it is game over.
No-death runs require good deal of metagame knowledge due to scripted deaths like this. But until then the run was smoothless with my elf thief, very strong party if not the best for BG1 - Coran, Dorn, Kagain, Branwen, Edwin, and self. Next run replace Branwen with Yeslick midgame.
Dorn can be replaced with Ajantis something I might try too because I tend to prefer good alignment due to better shop prices and being heroic. But then Edwin is a problem and I think if I run with Edwin again or take Xan instead because Edwin has one weakness - his specialization is not good conjuration, Xan is better specialized in Enchantment for +2 bonus and wields cool dagger, Edwin is also quite annoying sometimes.
ANd finally if I do a good aligned run, I have to find replacement for Kagain. Who that be ? Shar-Teel, Kivan ? None of them is as good as Kagain, endgame Kagain's save versus magic is 2. Basically immune to status effects
There are quite a few reliable strategies in the palace fight, though it's very punishing on solo play; the action economy works hard against you. With a full party properly leveled, you can just fall on the doppelgangers with fairly normal tactics and expect a win.
Liia actually has spells memorized that would keep her alive for a very long time, and quite possibly win the battle without player intervention. Two instances of Protection from Normal Weapons - that's 32 rounds of immunity to doppelganger attacks, if she used them. Power Word, Stun - that's 2d4 rounds of stun with no save on even a full-health enemy, long enough for the guards to chop it up. Symbol, Stun - that has a save, but it'll probably catch one or two enemies and completely take them out of the fight (And it's the NPC version of the spell which is party-friendly). Three instances of Domination, to turn the tide. Three instances of Stoneskin, to last even longer. And a bunch of single-target damage spells.
The problem is that she doesn't actually cast these higher-level spells; her combat script is incredibly brain-dead and doesn't know how to use any of the spells she has memorized above level 2. She knows how to cast Mirror Image, Melf's Acid Arrow, and Magic Missile. That's it.
As for Sarevok at the end of that encounter, he's scripted to prioritize attacking the protagonist. Get in his face, and he'll turn his attention to you rather than anyone else nearby. But really, I haven't had much trouble with him. He attacks whatever for a few rounds, and then he leaves. The way I play, there are usually enough guards around to keep him busy.
Can you recommend me a mod where the AI uses their memorized spells ?
But I don't like SCS mod because it makes no sense to start battle prebuffed. It doesn't work like that and there is no element of surprise and is also unrealistic.
I just need moderate mod that makes AI use their given spells but by the rules, round for round starting from round 1.
If the duke fight was coded properly I would be now playing BG2. Yet I have to start over because of stupefying programming. Not my fault I would have defeated the doppelgangers easily but the dukes can't hold their ground for even 1 turn. The dukes died like amateurs, how come one becomes a duke in the Forgotten Realms with pathetic level 2 spells which even can't cast properly. Even farmland gnolls fight better than this, and yet they made it to dukes with level 2 knowledge of spells and fighting and all their wealth with pathetic gear.
There's a tweak for it in my collection; "Liia knows how to cast her spells"
Basically, I just give her a script from a Flaming Fist mage in SoD.
Dumb sloppy programmers who couldn't program half-decent dukes.
Not my fault for game over. It is your fault as sloppy programmers who can't even prioritize duke spells; while I prioritize and survive whole game for tens of hours playing it no-death and sloppy programmers magically teleport some insta death mage.
Who mage you later find lying on the ground in a toilet or something corridor. Yeah survived the duke fight with my party and duke's palace with flaming fists everywhere. Sarevok walking around the halls of palace armed to the teeth yet dukes attending the meeting in pajamas and underwear to meet Sarevok. Ridicilous programming and plot writing from Beam dog
Hahaha I am like a little Beamdog Karen
Well, in reality it is my own fault not to cast Web. And even without Web, this is shocking, I did not even lay the thief traps (at level 9 bounty hunter). No excuse for my failure, very sloppy. It was past midnight and I wanted to go to sleep and was rushing, my brain was sleeping and I played the duke fight lame and casual braindead; I had two Webs memorized, 4 traps ready and didn't use any of them facepalm
It is what it is, it is a game, forget it. I am considering to actually not give up the progress and continue to SoD. I feel would be stupid to start over just because of no-death run. Because I have done several no-death runs in other games and I can say that it brings nothing really memorable or substantial as an achievement. What remains memorable is the fun of the game, the content, the exploration, the story. Not the achievement, I have done no-death runs of several games - Wasteland 2, Dragon Age Origins, Darkest Dungeon, Divinity Original Sin, and maybe few more I can't remember anymore. What remains is the fun of the game itself and not the achievement so I am considering to forgive and forget and continue because my elf thief build looks quite satisfying and there is much more to play in SoD and BG2 and it would be stupid to start over.
I am surprised that Kagain actually failed his save again Web and got rooted. Kagain is at Save against spells 2 and still got entangled. This shows you how unreliable shorty saves is really.
Yeslick is arguably the best frontline tank among all the companions, even better than Kagain, I'd argue. Simply because the rewards of an uber good playthrough outshine what the evil companions bring to the table. He takes advantage of one of the game's best weapons. And his cleric spells mean he can augment his defense in ways others can't.
I've found Branwen super clutch in the early game in playthroughs. Her stats are modest but they all add together to give her a tiny boost in all the things she needs. Command is such a boss spell for killing everything from Greywolf to early casters.
On the flip side, Viconia's dexterity looks impressive at first but it's not all that much better than an 18. Moreover, you're unlikely to use her often on the frontlines, meaning that uber dexterity is just used on a once-a-round sling attack. She's still an above average companions, so I agree with others that say they're all great.
Of course that item is a life saver in a number of the game's hardest moments.
He needs a little love to shine, but is awesome when done right.
Give him the cursed belt of hill giant strength + the dexterity gloves, and watch him go. He can on top of that cast draw upon holy might and get the fighter perks of a level 7 specialised fighter in the end game. Add the usual cleric buffs and he can take on the end game bosses in BG in style.
Gentlemen, we should be ashamed for not giving some love to the lady.
She is not entirely useless for a cleric class, say for example if you don't have any cleric for some reason she still can do the job of a cleric. But it seems her strength is elsewhere and requires specialized tactics. She is a drow and has innate 50% fire resistance. Give her the Batalista ring for 100% fire resistance and devise sinister tactics around this.
She can take fireballs and sneeze. I have heard that if you somehow get over 100% fire resistance, fireballs will actually heal her. Any kind of fire, explosions, fiery potions, meteor swarm, what else.
I am not proficient with SoD and BG2 but I suspect Viconia can become advantageous in hard fights when building her around fire tactics. I leave to those with experience in BG2 to confirm if this stands true.
But even in BG1 I can already see good use for her around fireballs. Just an example comes to mind, there is one notoriously hard battle in Durlag's Tower on a chess board. She can drink a potion of electricity resistance augmented by boots of electricity resistance for 100% and rush to the other side and aggro all enemies around her. Then throw everything fire at her from fireballs, to explosive arrows to fire necklaces, and fiery potions for truly massive fire damage nothing can survive tons of d8 rolls, maybe we are looking at something like 30d8 or even 40d8 fire damage at a single round. This is outstanding amount of damage and plain evil. This is a battle that can easily wipe out the whole party, yet single Viconia shines in these type of scenarios.
Any 100% elemental resistance tactics you're thinking of would work just as well with anyone else.
So how does magic resistance actually work ? 50% magic resistance, does it mean you have 50% to evade a fireball, or does it mean you receive half the damage from fireball ?
So it is evasion I checked the wiki. The Cloak of Balduran provides extra 25%, but this still leaves 25% chance which is a lot. There is substantial risk for Viconia even at 75% magic resistance.
There is some armor called Silver Dragon Scale for 15% MR. Not sure if she can use it.
In such a case any character can use Batalista ring plus potion of fire resistance to achieve 100% fire resistance. And better be one of the tanks like Kagain so he can take some punishment before all fire spells trigger.
As for Viconia she probably starts to shine in BG2 when she stacks her MR to 90% with the Silver Dragon Scale. But we are talking BG1 so she still not better than the rest.
Viconia can equip more magic resistance gear in BG2; there's the Human Flesh armor for +20% (if you kill the first silver dragon Adalon), there are some amulets for +5% or +10%, there's the Silver Dragon Scale armor if you kill the pair of silver dragons in Dorn's ToB quest, there's a shield with +5%, there's the Ring of Gaxx with +10% ... you can probably reach 100% eventually, especially since Viconia's BG2 version has 65% base resistance. (The Cloak of Balduran isn't available in that campaign)
Also, a note: the ring of fire resistance (Batalista's Passport) is +40%, not +50%. You need a third source of resistance for 100%.
I've done a fire-themed run; with a combination of general equipment, personal NPC gear, and kit/class abilities, I was eventually able to reach full fire immunity for the entire party in BG2. Being able to just start battles by casting a triple Incendiary Cloud chain contingency centered on my protagonist was great fun. And very good at killing things.
For the BG1 portion, I had to settle for a fire-immune front line; an Avenger in fire salamander form and Jaheira wearing fire resistance gear as my front-line tanks so I could cast fireballs into melee whenever I wanted. But the rest of the party had to stay back to avoid getting burned.
I have heard sorcerer is capable of solo runs. Though that duke battle can be tricky solo.
Worth noting that magic damage resistance also does exist in the game and is separate from this, just something to note if you're trying to get 100% of either on a character. And magic damage resistance does indeed function like the elemental resistances.
For the party Enhanced Powergaming Scripts - Morpheus has done a fantastic job on these.
FWIW I usually have Viconia in my party (even with Good aligned) - as the tank on point.
Just put her in the heaviest armour you have with a shield and as mentioned above boost her MR. Yes her STR (and to some degree CON) is rubbish but later you can give her a boost or just use potions (even just basic 'Strength' ones) when you are expecting ongoing action and do your buffing, then add her cleric buffs as they become available... Later on I find I can give her a STR boosting item usually okay (whether GoOP or GoHGS or whatever) without it being detrimental to other party members or overall party combat effectiveness... (certain magic armours give good AC while being light so her base STR isn't an issue).
By about ¼ of the way into SoA she's then got Crom Faeyr (so STR 25) and around same time has reached an AC of -12 to -15, etc.
P.S. When I don't have Viconia in BG1 EE and I want a cleric to supplement Jaiheira it's Branwyn (she's vaguely similar to the type of build I'd probably do if ever playing a single class cleric again). Never ever used Yeslick because as others mentioned, comes latish (i.e. can be almost ½ way through campaign depending on your exploration sequence) and have largely settled on the party by then.*
* The Tweaks Anthology mod is good for this though as it has the options to move potential companions to more convenient locations so they can be found relatively early in the game without going to quite distant remote wilderness areas (originally from the NC Project & SCS Mods). i.e. Viconia & Eldoth are in areas south of Beregost, Tiax in Beregost, Shar-Teel & Quayle near Nashkel, and Alora in Gullykin. Unfortunately Yeslick is one that's not relocated by this – possibly due to the storyline in Chapter 4 with the mines, etc?
They have low apr and is better to benefit of that +14 damage from 25 STR more then a single time each round, Viconia, hasted, when using a shield will attack 2 times each round (28dmg from str), a fighter DW, if Crom is used MH or OH does not matter, at lev 13, with specialization in the MH weapon and improved hasted will have 7apr so 98 dmg by STR in the same round, 126 dmg if he has GM.
And the Cleric is the only class that can bring STR to 25 with their spells, giving them the only item that brings the same effect is not an effective choice, better 2 with maxed STR then one, soI probably would also don't give it to Anomen that is a Cleric with good apr.
The only reasons I see to equip a party Cleric with Crom are not knowing how to buff a Cleric or being too lazy to buff before the battles that matter, and if so there is nothing wrong, some players hate to spend time to buff and as long as they have fun it is perfectly fine.
But certainly, a cleric will not have DuHM running 24/7. It’s fairly short duration, and generally only useful for those fights you know are coming. While wielding Crom Feyr is something they can do ALL the time.
Add to that, my warriors, with all their high mastery bonuses, have plenty of other strength devices available to them. And given my fondness for paladins, likely have DuHM themselves. But to the point, I give them the potions, the gauntlets, the girdles, and late game, the other weapons that boost.
But Crom Feyr remains a cleric weapon for me. They’re (officially) limited to blunt weapons, and with an excellent warhammer available early in BG1 that often ends up being the weapon of choice anyway. So often my clerics are dual or multi with fighter too, and really ready to rock and roll with that beast.
And yeah, I’m often scolded by the power gamers for making a bad choice. Don’t care, I love it. Crom Feyr is the ultimate Cleric weapon.
What I have found in this game is that the choice you like trumps always the best power choice. Sure, sometimes the best power choice is also what I like, but usually not.
Sometimes it is about the thematic decision and not the best cost-benefit decision. I guess that is its own cost-benefit decision!
The only bad choice around that hammer is making it and not using it.
I would like to double down on this and I play similar. There is nothing wrong to equip Viconia with hammer of strength, except there is better and more efficient wielders - fighters.
It very much depends on party composition though. Imagine you are not running with a fighter, or said fighter already is maxed STR by alternative ways - like drink a potion of storm giant. Then Viconia can wield that hammer sure.
But in the long term, you would better equip this weapon to a high APR class in order to maximize efficiency. Of course you can equip the hammer to Viconia and let your fighter use a potion of STR, but again in the long run those potions are limited. So they are better saved for Viconia to drink while you give the hammer to the fighter.
the big fisted belt was made for yeslick but you have to give him the brawling gloves and burn int potions to equip wands (with you had to do even b4 the belt) after level ups. dual hammers is sick with that gear esp. if you steal 1 of those hammers early on.
Viccie with 18-00str + buff spell is wicked with a sling and i tend to use her as range with more spell support.
branwen is my fav and perhaps the most versatile due to her EE skills, she is the least dependant on magic items freeing them up for other characters.
Although I had one short-lived run once when after I recruited Xzar and Montaron and went to the FAI to meet Jaheira and Khalid, these peoples started a deadly fight between them. The 4 of them got into a brawl just 15 minutes into the game.
It never happened before and I think the reason was because my character was not at the top of the roster as a team leader and it was Khalid I think with low charisma, which triggered the fight. My theory
Note also that Yeslick is good aligned, Branwen neutral and Viconia evil, so each compliments a different party alignment type. Also this affects some of the spells they can use (but not much). Also Vic can control rather than turn undead, which is quite useful.
I agree in BGEE at least Vic works better as a ranged attacker and spellcaster. Provided you have some decent tanks this tactic works well. Yeslick (with his fighter skills) and Branwen (with her buffs and special abilities) could work well in either ranged or melee. 3x Spiritual Hammer is not to be sniffed at, especially at lower levels.
What about Quayle and/or Tiax as party clerics? Personally I don’t use them much as they turn up late, but I can see that they could both be reasonable choices.