Another opinion poll
FredN
Member Posts: 716
After an epic siege, we finally liberated Naliya's Keep. After returning to town, I decided to rearrange the party members. We currently have Moi, Jeheira, Anomen, Naliya, Minsc and Aerie. Oh yes, can't omit Boo!
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1) Minsc absolutely has to go. I can't stand him personally as a character. Not only is he a moron, he is totally insane. Aerie is his "new witch", which means if she dies (and she is horribly fragile), he goes berserk. Unlike real berserkers, he can't be controlled in combat, and can on occasion even attack other party members. And "Boo" takes up one of his three active item slots. Unacceptable!
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2) Aerie is rather useful with both clerical and mage spells, but she falls over dead if an enemy so much as looks at her cross-eyed. Nalia willl function well as the pary mage, while Anomen and Jaheira together cover the clerical duties. (Anomen doesn't have raise dead yet, but Jaheira has Harper's Call.)
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3) But if I boot Minsc from the party, we have no real warrior. No one else in the group, for example, can wield Lilacor, or use the Elven Court Longbow. Quite the dilemma. I can't think of any available NPCs who can use both those items properly. Am I missing someone? Yes, I plan on recruiting Valygar for the Planar Sphere mission as Minsc's replacement, but that's only remporary.
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4) I can recruit Korgan; yeah he's evil but his personal quest line involves killing other evil thugs. So that's sort of OK with me. Unfortunately he's into axes, not two handers. Well, I can give him Frostreaver at any rate. I can recruit Mazzy later on; she's into archery. Unfirtunately, if I recall, her specialty as a halfling is shortbows, not longbows. You folks have any preferences one way or another as to whom I should recruit?
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5) This leaves me with one slot to fill. I can recruit Edwin, at least temporarily. I need him to get me to the attack on Maer'Var. As a thief, that will be my stronghold. Later on, once I have that secured, I can replace him with Neera.
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1) Minsc absolutely has to go. I can't stand him personally as a character. Not only is he a moron, he is totally insane. Aerie is his "new witch", which means if she dies (and she is horribly fragile), he goes berserk. Unlike real berserkers, he can't be controlled in combat, and can on occasion even attack other party members. And "Boo" takes up one of his three active item slots. Unacceptable!
..
2) Aerie is rather useful with both clerical and mage spells, but she falls over dead if an enemy so much as looks at her cross-eyed. Nalia willl function well as the pary mage, while Anomen and Jaheira together cover the clerical duties. (Anomen doesn't have raise dead yet, but Jaheira has Harper's Call.)
..
3) But if I boot Minsc from the party, we have no real warrior. No one else in the group, for example, can wield Lilacor, or use the Elven Court Longbow. Quite the dilemma. I can't think of any available NPCs who can use both those items properly. Am I missing someone? Yes, I plan on recruiting Valygar for the Planar Sphere mission as Minsc's replacement, but that's only remporary.
..
4) I can recruit Korgan; yeah he's evil but his personal quest line involves killing other evil thugs. So that's sort of OK with me. Unfortunately he's into axes, not two handers. Well, I can give him Frostreaver at any rate. I can recruit Mazzy later on; she's into archery. Unfirtunately, if I recall, her specialty as a halfling is shortbows, not longbows. You folks have any preferences one way or another as to whom I should recruit?
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5) This leaves me with one slot to fill. I can recruit Edwin, at least temporarily. I need him to get me to the attack on Maer'Var. As a thief, that will be my stronghold. Later on, once I have that secured, I can replace him with Neera.
Post edited by FredN on
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Comments
Aerie should not be getting hit! I generally find she needs the least healing of anyone in the party. As a secondary mage and cleric, she spends a lot of time casting. Occasionally using sling.
I don’t think Edwin has anything to do with the Thief stronghold? I mean, I know that’s where he hangs out, but I think it’s Renal Bloodscalp offers you the stronghold? Admittedly this is a bit outside my knowledge, haven’t tried it in years. It’s all a bit twisted for a “good” run.
But for a main mage, unless I’m running one of my own, I just use Nalia until I go rescue Imoen. Neera would work just as well.
Jaheira, Anomen and Minsc/Keldorn would be a completely adequate front line. No need for any other.
2) As I recall, Edwin is needed to get the "Kill Mae'Var" mission, which I need since his HQ will become my Stronghold once his guild has been defeated. Once that is achieved. Edwin can be booted. He can't be in the same party as Neera in any event. Actually, I may not even have to recruit him; just talking to him might get me the quest. I forget exactly what is needed.
I have tried pumping up her magical defences, having her cast Improved Invisibility, etc. But the is incredibly fragile ... she literally has less than half the health of my Swashbuckler, 40 vs 84 ... and in the fight against the trolls, she kept getting clipped by this or that; we had to raise her twice. Which did not go over well with Minsc. Nalia, by contrast, has 64 health.
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As for Imoen, I have a lot of things I want to do before sailing off to Spellhold. I have something like 9-10 other quests pending. I know that a lot of folks advocate rescuing imoen ASAP, but I'm perverse that way. I like to do all the other pending quests first.
All three of those are shortbows. None of the longbows in the game come close. The Elven Court Bow is painfully mediocre; it has no damage bonus whatsoever, and especially for a warrior the damage bonus is what matters.
If you recruit Korgan, you will have to manage your reputation and assure it doesn't get too high - he'll leave permanently if reputation goes up to 19 or 20 during the SoA campaign. Keep him around into ToB, and that's no longer a problem; he sticks around no matter what in that campaign.
Korgan conflicts with Aerie (he eventually bullies her into leaving, at which point a bug sends her into an inaccessible void beyond the confines of the circus tent) but doesn't have any specific issues with the rest of your party.
Regarding Aerie's survivability ... if it's physical hits, that's what a Stoneskin is for. Twelve-hour duration, so one cast is likely to cover the entire adventuring day, unless the mage gets hit too many times or dispelled/breached. And the threats in the keep that you just finished are overwhelmingly physical; that's the obvious defense to go for in almost every fight. I'd only pull out stuff like Improved Invisibility or Minor Spell Deflection when the umber hulks or yuan-ti mages show up.
What I would do with her is spend some spell slots on long-duration defensive buffs. There's only one Stoneskin with twelve-hour duration, but there are a host of spells with turn/level duration that you can realistically keep up for a whole series of encounters.
You can do your quests before or after you get Imoen. But no matter, you can use any of the substitutes as well.
.....I also need to buy some of the scrolls for the spells that you mentioned that would be needed to make Aerie more combat-worthy. I'm still not convinced that it would be worth while as a long-term investment. As a multi-class, she will gain levels ... and thus higher level spell slots... more slowly. Yes, I know there are advantages to multi-classing also; everything is a trade off. I'm still debating. There are only so many members I can have in the party, after all.
When it comes to Aerie, did you think I was referring only to her arcane spell slots? Her divine slots also allow you to pick buffs, and those don't require any scrolls. (The big turn/level buffs are Death Ward and Chaotic Command at spell levels 4 and 5. Lower spell levels are good for some shorter-duration stuff like Armor of Faith, Resist Fire and Cold, and priest Protection from Fire.)
And I think it’s a mistake to be too reliant on *stuff*. Don’t get me wrong, collecting the right items will make your team stronger. But no one thing, no one weapon is that critical. You know I’m pointedly doing a “mediocre” team right now. Even with lousy scores, and some “sub-optimal” choices on proficiencies you can build a capable and dangerous team. There are good weapons of every sort. And an amazing array of things to enhance your characters. Don’t be a slave to doing things a particular way.
.....I had forgotten how diverse and involved all the plots and subplots os SoA could be. Lot's of different quest line choices, as opposed to the rather narrow and linear plot of ToB.
The XP cap for BG2EE is achievable. Your characters absolutely will hit 6 million XP before the end. Two-class mages will get those level 9 mage spells. It'll just take a lot longer than full mages (either single class or early duals into mage).
The default I often find myself returning to? One full mage (Edwin, Imoen, Nalia, Neera), one multiclass mage (Aerie, Jan). It's a solid balance between having reasonably quick access to the high levels and having the endgame power of multiple mages.
Oh, and do remember that Edwin and Neera are incompatible. Neera will absolutely not tolerate working with a Red Wizard.
.....Then there's Anomen's trials which have come due, recruiting Valygar, all the Trademeet nonsense, Jaheira's Harper quest ... I haven't even gotten started on the campaign vs the Vampires. There are a number of quests all clamoring for my attention at the same time. And yes, I will be bringing Aerie along for some forays. But I want to have the optimal mix for any given quest. For example, someone cautioned me against having Korgan and Aerie in the same party. But his berserking ability makes him immune to level drain, which would be useful fighting the vampires. If I do draft him into the group, Aerie will have to sit all those combats out. I have a whole bunch of decisions to make.
.....I might decide not to recruit Korgan, in which case Aerie will be in the crew after all.