Using Xan
messy
Member Posts: 35
Xan is so frustrating. He has one of the coolest weapons in the game but can’t put it to good use. His physical stats aren’t good, he’s not multiclassed, and he isn’t able to dual class.
Is there any way for Xan to use his moonblade effectively?
Is there any way for Xan to use his moonblade effectively?
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Comments
- Later on, cast Emotion: Hopelessness and then chop up those who lost hope with your Moonblade.
- Combine Moonblade with another source of fire resistance, lure enemies towards Xan, and then drop Fireballs in Xan's general direction. Even Xan can join in with the Wand of Fire!
- Hold Moonblade. Look cool. Be more difficult to hit.
But his class actually benefits the most from the saving throw bonus, since virtually every enchantment spell has a saving throw. Load up on those spells. The great thing about them is they don't have friendly fire. Stock up on all the area-of-effect enchantment spells, and even the single-target ones, and just have him use those. In addition to the other normal great spells like Blindness.
The upside of his moonblade is really its fire resistance, as King says above. Greatly helps his survivability in the later stages of the game. Don't think about using it to attack, it's simply not worth it. But, what is good about it is that he starts with the best mage weapon proficiency, daggers. And he's one of only two mages to do so. So use throwing daggers with him. Won't do much, but it adds a little extra punch (more than you'll get from most other mages) and interrupt options.
He pairs very well with Garrick, who is grossly underrated imo. Garrick can take those evocation spells that are blocked from Xan. And since many evocation spells scale by level, Garrick does very well with them.
Pairing him with Garrick I guess could work to fill this gap but there are more potent combos, like Dynaher, Edwin or Neera. Garrick is super useful but parked in the Friendly Arms Inn and staying there for identify items after a long quest. Saves quite a lot of money.
Really ? I didn't know his dagger protects him from fire. This is much needed because it takes just a single fireball to drop even if he makes a save because he very very squishy. I don't recommend sending him ahead though even with spirit or ghost armor. Things can go very bad for him and if you want to fireball bomb the enemy better option would be to cast protection from fire on your tank, drink potions, or yet equip two fire resist rings for 80%.
Main advantage of Xan is his extra + 2 save v/s Enchantment both offensive and defensive. Dynaher can't use enchantment and matches well with Xan to complement each other. He would also gain + 2 using wands of confusion or wands of sleep from his favorite school.
He is an elf for 90% resistance to charm effects and I find it curious that he is a short guy very untypical for elves who tend to be tall.
Ultimately if you play along with Xan depends on your party. If you have a high dps and high survivability party (like fighter dominated party) then Xan is really not needed because. But if the party is weak and can't aggro toe to toe enemies then his spellbook of enchantment becomes very important to crowd control.
There is enough fireball wands for damage, and grease is a good alternative to web. Glitterdust is also a nice AoE debuff.
Hé can still cast skull trap if needed, and his level 4 and 5 spells slots should be reserved to confusion and chaos.
Not to mention turning enemies into your tanks. Xan, for all his failings, could probably solo BG.
that's a very powerful and fun cloak. breath at -1 and used at range without instantly breaking stealth, and works vs any i mean any creature. i snuck in charmed a big wyvern and collected bets from my party members. i charmed a BG and immortalized the mad gnome in mid spell casting. such irony such fun. cursed items are fun too, try turning monty and xan into zombies and then statues to delight and frighten carnival goers from near and far!