Aerie

FredN

.....I initially didn't want Aerie in my party because she kept dying too readily, and wasn't advancing fast enough for my taste. Other posters scoffed, and said I was undervaluing her or using her improperly. I am forced to admit they were right; she just needed the proper gear and training. She's now level 11 mage, level 10 cleric, and can cast up to level 5 spells in each profession. With 88 health, an AC of -3 and a bunch of self-cast protection spells in effect, she is quite useful indeed.
.....As for gear, she has a bunch of wands, and the Sling of Everard if I want her to toss some missiles at someone. And of course healing spells and buff spells which she can cast on other party members. She's still the most fragile member of the party, but with spells like improved invisibility and haste in effect, the odds of her getting hit have been minimized.

FredN

Mind you, at higher levels she will be at a disadvantage; the progression of multi-class characters does slow down. However, for all practical purposes, that becomes really significant in ToB. At that point she will be very slow to reach the top tier spells. I'll have to decide at that point whether I want to keep her around or replace her with someone. But as I said, that's an end-game problem. For now, she is quite useful.

FredN

Just for laughs. I fired up ToB and recruited some folks. Aerie was level 13/13, which compared well witj Jaheira who was the same levels. However, the rest of the group was higher level. I was a level 19 Priest of Tyr, Imoen was a better mage, Keldorn was level 16 and Sarevok was level 18. I wanted Jaheira because her Insect Plague is able to disable entire groups of mages. We are just a the cusp of where Aerie will start to fall behind. Not entirely sure whom I would replae her with, however. Haer D'Aelis is one possibility. As a high level tiefling Bard he has some interesting skills. Or I could keep Aerie and see if her slower spell progression would seriously hamper her ability to contribute. Well, that question won't arise for quite some time in my present game. What do you folks think?

atcDave

You know I always use Aerie to the end. It is not uncommon in a big battle for Aerie to finish as the least injured member of the team. Of course she has the tightest margin, so she better be! But it’s not hard, she has about the least reason of anyone to ever melee, and some of the best options for avoiding it (any mage or cleric spell/item is open to her). I’d also mention, by ToB, you can easily spare a Girdle of Giant Strength for her, and then her sling is doing serious damage!

Multi-Class characters do have a different growth curve late in the game. I often have Jaheira right in the front rank to the end. It can get tricky because yeah, she won’t have the hit points of a single class warrior. But in all cases, you can make their versatility a strength. I know there are gamers who make a tank of Aerie late game. I don’t, I don’t buy it for role playing reasons if nothing else. But the multi- CAN do it.

FredN

Yes. Aerie will still be valuable in a support role, and with the right spells and gear can tank fairly well. But I did look into Haer D'Aelis, and as a Tiefling he has some combat abilities that other bardic types don't. His HLAs, namely improved Bard song, Use any item, and Magic Flute are nice. I also gave him the Harp of Discord and bardic armor. He's really nasty in combat with all those spins. Imoen or Edwin can take over as party mages, while Jaheira works as healer/buffer. IMO, it's pretty much a toss up. I will say that Haer D'Aelis has an interesting quest in BG 2, namely the Planar Prison (not to be confused with the Planar Sphere). It's moderately challenging with some unique aspects. I recommend doing it at least once.

atcDave

The problem with Haer D'Aelis is every time he opens his mouth I want to break something, and keyboards start getting expensive...

I guess I feel about Haer D'Aelis the way you feel about Minsc!

FredN

OK, I actually created a Blade myself. Being Human, I wasn''t as good with wepons as that Tiefling was, but with the proper .gear and skills I was pretty effective. I ended up level 30.