Anomen - Death magnet or what?!
ZeshinX
Member Posts: 88
Okay. This'll be ranty, but jebus.
I've been playing BG2 since it's first days until now, original and EE.
What the hell is up with Anomen?
I mean, it doesn't matter how good his saves are, how good his AC is, how many spell protections, how many items to ward off negative status effects....this guy, no matter HOW I protect him just seems to be an absolute death magnet. Constantly, and I mean constantly, getting hit with crits, failing saves...just...what the hell? For over 20 years now!!
Hahaha...it's just so odd. I mean I get certain monster AI..."go for the spellcasters". I get that. Fine lol. But come on!
I've created a character that basically mimics Anomen, just to see if it's something with Anomen, or it's just the stats or something...and the character I create...no problems. Oh sure, still the occasional crit, failed save, what have you...but nothing like with Anomen. It's like there's something under the hood that increases the likelihood of crits/failing saves/etc on him or something lol. Sure, he's an arrogant p....erson, but c'mon! Hahaha.
I just....what the hell? Phew...okay, rant over lol.
I've been playing BG2 since it's first days until now, original and EE.
What the hell is up with Anomen?
I mean, it doesn't matter how good his saves are, how good his AC is, how many spell protections, how many items to ward off negative status effects....this guy, no matter HOW I protect him just seems to be an absolute death magnet. Constantly, and I mean constantly, getting hit with crits, failing saves...just...what the hell? For over 20 years now!!
Hahaha...it's just so odd. I mean I get certain monster AI..."go for the spellcasters". I get that. Fine lol. But come on!
I've created a character that basically mimics Anomen, just to see if it's something with Anomen, or it's just the stats or something...and the character I create...no problems. Oh sure, still the occasional crit, failed save, what have you...but nothing like with Anomen. It's like there's something under the hood that increases the likelihood of crits/failing saves/etc on him or something lol. Sure, he's an arrogant p....erson, but c'mon! Hahaha.
I just....what the hell? Phew...okay, rant over lol.
2
Comments
Well I never romanced him, as I play characters he wouldn't romance (and generally do not care for the shmoop options in games anyway lol).
Globe of Blades, Aura of Flaming Death...and STILL he draws crits and saves failures like they're on sale lol.
Those spell saves are a real weakness in his build. Pure priests have the worst spell saves, only reaching 7 at max level. Then Anomen is likely to wear enchanted armor so he can't improve them with a protection item, and he doesn't have any personal equipment for them either.
Compare the other priest options ...
Viconia gets tons of magic resistance, and isn't a warrior so she's likely to stand back anyway.
Aerie is also a mage, and ends up with slightly better saves from that. She's also likely to stand back, wearing mage robes and a protection item.
Cernd gets a personal cloak with +1 saves, and has no reason not to wear a protection item because he can't wear body armor. Then, when he's transformed for melee mode, greater werewolf form gets a lot of magic resistance.
Jaheira is also a warrior, and ends up with slightly better spell saves because of that. Then she gets the Harper Pin for a massive boost on top of that.
So of course Anomen is going to fail saves. Unless you work very hard for it, his saves are just worse than other characters. In my case ... he had the Ring of Gaxx, the Amulet of Spell Warding, and consistent use of Spirit Armor.
Quite early you can easily have 35-45% resistance to physical damage on him, and you got protection from negative energy, deathward, chaotic commands and all kinds of ways to protect him against pretty much everything..
That 45% physical resistance and high AC alone makes him one of the best meatshields you can have until you get fighters with 3m+ xp
Not to mention he levels only as a cleric, so his caster lvl is high compared to many others and his turn undead can instagib a lot of enemies.
I'm not a fan of his obnoxious behaviour but given how easily he becomes very, very strong.. he's kind of allowed to be a bit full of himself
Well this is why enjoy using him in my parties. Once he hits high enough level, his turn undead can chunk even liches despite their ridiculous magical shields. Seeing all those shields go up, Anomen turns, then that satisfying "Splork!" sound as little lich-y bits go bouncing around....always a giant smile on my face (and Kangaxx and Watcher's Keep liches...upgraded Mace of Disruption/Runehammer and you go bye-bye now...with some help from a scroll of protection from magic purchased from the ever-helpful Ribald).
The ranty bit is that despite my best efforts to really tank him up (even when Keeper'ing his ability scores and other cheaty-but-not-godmode-level-stuff)....he just keeps drawing crits and fails saves...for over 20 years lol.
Hell, even goblins and kobolds continue to manage to land crits consistently and regularly on him...and out of all the joinable NPCs, I swear Anomen LOVES getting himself stunned/paralyzed/charmed (so much so I make it a concerted effort to put the Ring of Free Action/Helm of Charm protection on him as soon as I get them).
So, I changed that. I edited the various combat scripts (bdanomec, in this case) so that they would use Turn Undead even if only a single undead foe was near.
This led to amusing results like that two-lich fight in the Watcher's Keep final seal level ... my two mages start working through the process of tearing down all those defenses as I mostly ignore the rest of the party, when - splat. Oops, no need for that anymore. I didn't give the order, but I'm not sorry it happened.
If you really want a character that tanks with physical resistance... no, not Anomen. He's not a very good choice in the long run.
For one, Anomen doesn't have the proficiencies for that. He starts with no points in either flails or dual-wielding and only gains proficiency points once per four levels on the cleric schedule. Reaching grandmastery in flails and specialization in dual-wielding would take literally all of the points he gets over the entire game. Better to stick with a shield and build up one of the weapons he already knows something about.
But more importantly, he doesn't get Hardiness. And that 40% resistance is a big deal. I went with a paladin as my physical resistance tank - Armor of Faith, Hardiness, and an item all together. When you have 80% resistance going, you can do things like fight dragons without needing healing magic. Anomen can't ever reach that level unless you're a Wish abuser (one of the Wish options is party-wide Hardiness).
The winners here ... paladins, rangers, multiclass fighter/clerics, dwarven defenders, barbarians. Those warrior HLAs are crucial.
Also, I remember a thread here about Anomen:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/74776/the-most-powerful-soa-fighter#latest
(Due to a glitch of some sort I had access to Diedre but not Joluv for Defender of Easthaven. I checked a walkthrough giving the exact coordinates for finding Joluv and he wasn't there even after a re-install).