@belgarathmth I play no reload, and while I haven't yet completed BGEE yet because of that, on balance I like Wild Mages at low levels far more so than I did at high levels. At low levels, being able to toss a high level spell can salvage an encounter that otherwise might be game over.
Plus, if you're really out of options, tossing Nahals' (yes plural) acts as a desperate man's improved alacrity; that is, Nahal's doesn't count as your "one spell a round." You can toss them out as fast as the casting times allow.
A good tip is to put two chaos shields in the sequencer you find in the Iron Throne. If you do so, they actually stack.
I just rarely cast spells with Neera. She's a trump, not an every down player, but can be devastating if you harness the risk appropriately.
They didn't fix the stacking of Chaos Shields via sequencers/contingencies exploit in Enhanced Edition? In that case, Neera is officially the most powerful spellcaster in the entire trilogy, so you should be nice to her.
I also meant to say that while I respect the "no reloads" philosophy, you can't really judge a character exclusively through the lens of a deviant playstyle. It is common knowledge that any form of randomness in a role playing game is inherently unfavorable for the players (encounters are generally designed assuming that the PCs will win, so greater variance in the outcome is always bad) but psychology has shown that humans respond much more favorably to randomized reward systems. In other words, while we know that randomness is bad for us, it's also more fun. After all, Baldur's Gate is a game, and I will usually choose losing a game in a fabulously memorable manner, over winning one that was a foregone conclusion. Especially when there is nothing stopping me from simply trying again.
What I find interesting about Neera is that her position is directly analogous to Charname's, though when you meet her it's too early to know this from an IC perspective. Like Charname, she is marked by a very uncommon, inborn ability, which she is rather ambivalent about. This makes her ostracized by those who are worried about the damage she might cause, and a target for evil people who want to dissect her and appropriate her power for themselves. I'll smile if there's a lovetalk in BG2:EE that says something to the effect of "After I got the boot from Baldur's Gate because they didn't trust me and Irenicus captured and tortured me to try to get at my power, I suddenly understood what you had to deal with."
"After I got the boot from Baldur's Gate because they didn't trust me and Irenicus captured and tortured me to try to get at my power, I suddenly understood what you had to deal with."
I do mind summoning a demon from the abyss every other time I try to cast magic missile.
I mean, hell, that was do-able in Throne of Bhaal when the Wild Mage kit was released... or even Shadows because the starting level was something like 17. Facing off a demon at level 2? Gimme a break.
There is this thing called running away you know. I mean unless your character is a Paladin ... then I would certainly understand feeling the need to stick around from a role-playing standpoint.
I finished EE yesterday. In the final battle I had Sarevok surrounded with summons and used Neera to cast magic missiles on him. First magic missile resulted in a minor globe of invulnerability. By that time I had wasted all my dispel magic spells on Semaj. I ended up using two staffs of monster summoning to win the battle. One less monster summon and i was dead
Can't stand her. Just can't. I'm even greatly disappointed.
A Wild Mage roleplay opportunities are vast and interesting. But what did we get? A boring 20th century voiced kiddo with the "I fled from my home" generic story line (that I swear I never read before in my life!). She's just too... common. Voiced to sound too modern, even with the intonations expected from a modern city-life young woman. It's just horrible. Sorry... really sorry Overhaul And Nicola Elbro (it's not your fault. It's the script's) for being so rude on this one aspect of the game. But frankly, I just can't stand her. She breaks suspension of disbelief every time she speaks and her story... just *yawn*.
I'll quicker make my own Wild Mage protagonist, than I will ever have this one NPC on my party.
Marfig, i agree with you 100%. I can't stand her either. Tried her for a while since she was a "new" character, but her lines are incredibly annoying. Also, they failed creating her background. Wild mages aren't born with those powers, or gain them through an accident: quite the opposite. They have to study much harder than regular mages to be able to harness wild magic.
Here's what I would say to Neera if I really met her in a dangerous battle scenario: "Are you crazy? Do you even realize how many innocent people you're about to kill, including in all likelihood, my friends and me? You have no business practicing magic. If you insist on continuing to endanger the innocent, I will have to hunt you down and neutralize you myself - not because I bear you any ill will, but because you are a dangerous fool who doesn't care who she hurts, maims, or kills."
I wouldn't say she doesn't care. She wouldn't have run away after the flaming sphere incident if she didn't care about the damage she caused, and she wouldn't be looking for someone to help her control her magic if she was okay with the random mishaps it causes on occasion.
That said, I'm having a good time trying to decide what kind of alignment kills someone for damage they might cause. It's one that a wide variety of people employ against Charname.
If you can't lose Wild Magic, I'm not really familiar with how the rules exactly work in this setting, you WILL end up killing people over the years because of the spell effects.
So yes, you'd have to completely abandon magic as a wild mage.
I've only hated Neera twice. Once when I wanted her to cast sleep and she sunfire'd half my party to death, and another where her magic missiles somehow burned 80% of my gold (which, by the way, might be a bug? Seems like too much gold lost...)
Other than that, I like the variety and unpredictability. I've never rolled a wild mage, so this is the first I've been able to experience their style, and while from a power perspective I'd probably be safer with Edwin or Dynaheir, Neera isn't going anywhere in my game.
A boring 20th century voiced kiddo with the "I fled from my home" generic story line (that I swear I never read before in my life!).
Then again, the whole baldur's gate saga consists of cliche stories that you have heard many times in your life. Most of the quests are "save the princess from the bad dragon", "protect the villagers from an orc invasion" etc. There is nothing new or innovative here. If you don't like it then this genre is probably not for you
Voiced to sound too modern, even with the intonations expected from a modern city-life young woman.
This is it exactly. When I ran into her on the first time, I wasn't looking for her and the second her dialogue fired off and I said, "No way I'm ever letting that in my party." Her speech patterns are just so inconsistent with the world around you. Granted, the game is inconsistent with going from ye olde english to dropping it entirely at times, but she just stuck out like a sore thumb. *sigh*
I actually like Neera's voice acting and character, although I think it's maybe too close to Imoen's. I also totally understand why a lot of people have fun playing with the wild mage class.
It's just not for me, and also, my character would never put up with it. Once she actually started killing people, he'd have no choice but to stop her. And it was an interesting idea to roleplay babysitting her to make sure she doesn't try to work magic where people can get hurt, but I don't want to carry a mage that I have to keep from using any magic. With the kind of characters I play, there is just no way I can use her as a wild mage.
I do have a cleric-mage run going where I SK'd her into a sorceress so I could get to know her character and maybe do her special area eventually. As a sorceress, she's a viable party member, and I think it still fits her backstory as a mage school outcast.
Personally I find her hilarious and effective. The voice is mildly out of place, but I'm of the considered opinion that American accents have no place in fantasy unless they're actually set on the new world where isolation would permit the degradation of language to such a degree. But the things she says are usually rather charming or amusing.
They don't happen often, and they're not that severe the vast majority of the time, but Neera is still banned from casting any spell within ten feet of Dorn under pain of death. She hasn't ever really come into a situation where her magic might harm an innocent except once (a circus tent in Nashkel Carnival, it did not end lethally for anyone involved, but it certainly did not end *well*), and it was never, ever an issue not to use her in a case that might cause harm to innocents - there are remarkably few "street" battles in the game, and she's certainly no more lethal than your average "spray it with fireballs" Evoker.
Overall, I'm enjoying her wild magic so much, my next character may well be a Fighter/Wild Mage/Thief.
I, like many others, am trying out Neera in one of my nonevil playthroughs for a few reasons: 1.) New NPC, new quest, new loot opportunities 2.) Never tried Wild Magic, could be fun 3.) A romance in BG1? And with an elf (even part) that isn't so depressing? Potentially awesome!
So far, however, I am mostly disappointed. Wild Magic has been beneficial once, and harmful about 6 or 7 times. She is more obnoxious than expected, she seems to be Public Enemy #1 for skeletons and bandits (which means most of the time she is just running away) and the loot from her quest (up to the point I am at, there might be more) isn't worth 1/6 of my party's space.
In most games, I just take her gem bag (the one what holds rings an jewelry and takes up an inventory slot) and dump her.
Comments
"Failed."
Might have been because Imoen havent put any points in it though...
Plus, if you're really out of options, tossing Nahals' (yes plural) acts as a desperate man's improved alacrity; that is, Nahal's doesn't count as your "one spell a round." You can toss them out as fast as the casting times allow.
A good tip is to put two chaos shields in the sequencer you find in the Iron Throne. If you do so, they actually stack.
I just rarely cast spells with Neera. She's a trump, not an every down player, but can be devastating if you harness the risk appropriately.
"Target has no items"
I guess Ill have to kill the poor thing
A Wild Mage roleplay opportunities are vast and interesting. But what did we get? A boring 20th century voiced kiddo with the "I fled from my home" generic story line (that I swear I never read before in my life!). She's just too... common. Voiced to sound too modern, even with the intonations expected from a modern city-life young woman. It's just horrible. Sorry... really sorry Overhaul And Nicola Elbro (it's not your fault. It's the script's) for being so rude on this one aspect of the game. But frankly, I just can't stand her. She breaks suspension of disbelief every time she speaks and her story... just *yawn*.
I'll quicker make my own Wild Mage protagonist, than I will ever have this one NPC on my party.
Marfig, i agree with you 100%. I can't stand her either. Tried her for a while since she was a "new" character, but her lines are incredibly annoying. Also, they failed creating her background. Wild mages aren't born with those powers, or gain them through an accident: quite the opposite. They have to study much harder than regular mages to be able to harness wild magic.
So yes, you'd have to completely abandon magic as a wild mage.
Other than that, I like the variety and unpredictability. I've never rolled a wild mage, so this is the first I've been able to experience their style, and while from a power perspective I'd probably be safer with Edwin or Dynaheir, Neera isn't going anywhere in my game.
It's just not for me, and also, my character would never put up with it. Once she actually started killing people, he'd have no choice but to stop her. And it was an interesting idea to roleplay babysitting her to make sure she doesn't try to work magic where people can get hurt, but I don't want to carry a mage that I have to keep from using any magic. With the kind of characters I play, there is just no way I can use her as a wild mage.
I do have a cleric-mage run going where I SK'd her into a sorceress so I could get to know her character and maybe do her special area eventually. As a sorceress, she's a viable party member, and I think it still fits her backstory as a mage school outcast.
They don't happen often, and they're not that severe the vast majority of the time, but Neera is still banned from casting any spell within ten feet of Dorn under pain of death. She hasn't ever really come into a situation where her magic might harm an innocent except once (a circus tent in Nashkel Carnival, it did not end lethally for anyone involved, but it certainly did not end *well*), and it was never, ever an issue not to use her in a case that might cause harm to innocents - there are remarkably few "street" battles in the game, and she's certainly no more lethal than your average "spray it with fireballs" Evoker.
Overall, I'm enjoying her wild magic so much, my next character may well be a Fighter/Wild Mage/Thief.
1.) New NPC, new quest, new loot opportunities
2.) Never tried Wild Magic, could be fun
3.) A romance in BG1? And with an elf (even part) that isn't so depressing? Potentially awesome!
So far, however, I am mostly disappointed. Wild Magic has been beneficial once, and harmful about 6 or 7 times. She is more obnoxious than expected, she seems to be Public Enemy #1 for skeletons and bandits (which means most of the time she is just running away) and the loot from her quest (up to the point I am at, there might be more) isn't worth 1/6 of my party's space.
In most games, I just take her gem bag (the one what holds rings an jewelry and takes up an inventory slot) and dump her.