How do you play Xan?
Brude
Member Posts: 560
I've never run with this guy before, but recently @sandmanCCL talked him up a bit so I gave him a proper rescue from the Nashkel mines.
First thought: "Wait ... Whaaaa? No missile? No orb? ENCHANTERS SUCK." Then I realized that he comes with Melf's Acid Arrow and can load up on level one CC spells.
So my question is, how you play him? That sword suggests allowing him to melee a bit, but his low CON makes me hesitate. I'm looking for spell, gear, and party build recommendations around this character.
He seems useful (mostly because he's easy to get and is neutral, and not attached to any other NPC) but I figure there's got to be more to it than that. Like a compelling reason to keep him in a good/neutral party and not just dual Imoen to fill the main caster role.
Tips?
First thought: "Wait ... Whaaaa? No missile? No orb? ENCHANTERS SUCK." Then I realized that he comes with Melf's Acid Arrow and can load up on level one CC spells.
So my question is, how you play him? That sword suggests allowing him to melee a bit, but his low CON makes me hesitate. I'm looking for spell, gear, and party build recommendations around this character.
He seems useful (mostly because he's easy to get and is neutral, and not attached to any other NPC) but I figure there's got to be more to it than that. Like a compelling reason to keep him in a good/neutral party and not just dual Imoen to fill the main caster role.
Tips?
0
Comments
As for using him, I usually just stock him up on CC and Conjuration based damage spells , normally use him as a back up caster to Edwin or to a Cleric/Druid heavy group.
Seriously, though, I would bring both Xan and Edwin. They can complement each other's spell selections, and also: more magic = more fun.
Foes that are unconscious/asleep have a 100% chance to be hit. This applies to held enemies too (although I don't THINK it applies to webbed enemies).
Can still cast Melf's Acid Arrow, Flame Arrow, Haste and Horror.
The sword IS a +3 enchantment. Also he can cast strength on himself to give himself 18/50 str (it helps SOME, but not much).
Blinded enemies have -4 AC.
He's definitely NOT Edwin or Dynaheir when it comes to a sheer damage powerhouse, but he packs a lot of utility into a depressing gloomy outlook body that is being a lot more honest than most of the rest of the NPCs. He can still cast skull trap, which is better than fireball (granted that mainly starts to apply at high levels). But in general, as I grow up as much as I love magic missile and chromatic orb, he still easily fits better into the niche that BG1 mages fulfill even better than Dynaheir. While their damage at level 8 and 9 starts to get into that area of wizard awe inspiring, mages ARE (much as I loath to admit it) best served in the role of controller and debilitator letting your warriors and archers bring in the pain.
Now in Dynaheir's defense while she can't cast charm person (I never use it personally), sleep (this is a huge hit as I've come to find out), hold person (Doesn't matter as much if you bring a cleric), confusion (ain't got Xan high enough to cast this yet but I remember it being great in IWD and BG2), Chaos (Herm, this is where Edwin shines because he can cast this or Cloudkill. Xan only gets this, Dynaheir only gets Cloudkill).
That said I am playing with a regular BG1 game not a Tutu or Trilogy game.
CROWD CONTROL. It is the nature of Xan's game. Doesn't really matter if you're dealing with Mage thac0 when you're attacking enemies that are disabled. You can't miss. There is no dice roll. You can't even get a critical failure against a sleeping/held target.
Spam sleeps, blinds and holds, and set up all your level 2 spells as Strength and all of your level 3 spells as Haste/Hold Person. The point of Xan isn't to win with raw damage spells (though you still can). Drop Strength on Xan and let him go to town against disabled enemies. He'll hit for 7-14 damage with his sword. Everyone but Minsc and Shar-Teel cry in jealousy of a freakin' mage.
The only spells you miss out on as enchanter are Magic Missile, Chromatic Orb, Fireball and Cloudkill. Still can cast Skull Trap if you need AOE damage (yay, necromancy!), and Sleep is a better spell than Magic Missile til you reach the city limits anyway. Even then, I prefer at least on Xan to load up on Blind anyway because it's awesome.
He pretty much dies if he gets targeted, though. He's a lot like Xzar that way. Until you get some archmagi robes, Armor should never not be up. I also recommend leaving a level 2 spell slot for Mirror Image because you can shlep that up quickly. When you're going into heavy archery infested areas (like the Bandit Camps), make sure you hang him really far back from your party unless you've got a Protection from Normal Missiles spell to sling on him. Probably a good idea to give Xan both the Boots of Avoidance AND Cloak of Displacement because arrows tend to make him dead.
Xan is the sole reason I realized just how unnecessary nuke-type mages are. A mage who supports his fighters and archers with buff spells while focusing on CC ends up being way more effective, in my eyes. Not only do your fighters become more efficient death machines, any other party member with sub-obtimal combat stats ends up being pretty effective too.
As for how to supplement him in a good/neutral party (which takes Edwin out of the equation), is to dual-class Imoen anyway and have her be the support mage. She won't have as much spells as Xan (she has to catch up in levels and she can't be a specialist mage in Tutu or BGT, though she can be in vanilla), but she can supplement Xan with Evocation spells.
My favourite first-round tactic against enemy mages is Imoen cast Magic Missile for a quick disruption of the opening spell of the enemy mage and Xan casts Melf's Acid Arrow for disruption continuing in the following rounds. If there's more than one mage, they each can target one.
A nice further supplement is with a PC Bard (or kitted Bard, if you play Tutu or BGT) for those spells that increase damage per level or spells that require a save, if you've added the 'save penalties for higher levels' tweak (part of the Gibberlings3 tweakpacks (BGTweaks or BG2Tweaks for Tutu/BGT)).
Add a cleric (Branwen or Finch) and a warrior in the frontline (either Minsc or Ajantis), plus Coran in the archery role and you got a party that handles everything well. Taking Coran (instead of Kivan, whom I like as well but takes another party-setup than the one I'm suggesting) means you have thieving skills while Imoen is dualing and you can have each thief specialize in an area of your choosing.
Honestly the party I'm running Xan in right now is just kinda silly anyway. 4 Elves (PC, Xan, Kivan, Coran) and 2 Half-Elves (Khalid, Jaheria) with Kivan and Coran probably doing about 60-70% of the damage in teh party at a minimum. And most of the rest comes from my main character. Its honestly really silly. I wonder how silly it would be if I took the no using a ranged weapon restriction off my main character oO
Yes, ranged weapons rule in BG1.
Potion of Fortitude. Xan should be carrying one of these to quaff the moment something hits him. That extra 2 HP per level it grants practically doubles his HP.
Speaking of which anyone know if they are fixing the wand usage for specialists? Kinda weird to be able to use a wand when it's spell type is restricted by your specialty.
Wands are simply magical devices. What they end up shooting is the end result. Any trained wizard can use any wand. In PNP, the only thing specialization would bar you from when it came to using wands is simply being able to create them, as you need to be able to cast the spell to charge it up. That isn't implemented in BG, obviously.
I use him as a melee fighter with CC magic. Works good and making him a fighter/enchanter just makes the game that much more fun. I his sword actually has a use, though his low constitution makes a little fragile.
Totally willing to admit my memory fails me! That could have just been a house rule me and my brothers used.
Was mostly off memory myself.... vaguely recall it .... could be wrong.
If you want to use him for wizardy things, he's best as support/CC. He knows a few good damage causing spells, but mostly, you want him to buff your friends and control and/or debilitate the hell out of your enemies. He gets way more powerful at later levels.
Personally, I'll buff him up before a fight, have him buff the party a little, do some support or CC spells for the first and second rounds (sometimes just the first), and then have him go get up close and personal with the enemy using both his Moonblade and various touch spells.
And. I have done this quite often. Well I guess that's kind of an understatement. I've...never done a playthrough where Xan wasn't on the party.