Spellcasters and Party Members (Spoilers)

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

Gangrell's trying to decide between Aerie and Talia... I know nothing about Talia, but Aerie is good, Jahiera is neutral (but gets along well with good chars), Imoen is good... Edwin wouldn't be consistent with this party's alignment. Although he is powerful.

Edit- Rereading this thread, I have no choice but to admit defeat and step down gracefully.

[ 01-27-2004, 12:23 AM: Message edited by: Illumina Drathiran'ar ]

[Dayhawk]

i guess aerie just irritates me, and i dunno talia, so i wanted to present a 3rd option. edwin wouldn't clash with anyone majorly. even nalia wouldn't really do that horribly with him. it's only the real do gooders like minsc or anomen who piss edwin off. for the last class, i'd suggest viconia/anomen depending on what type of party you want, good or evil.

[Gangrell]

Originally posted by Illumina Drathiran'ar: Gangrell's trying to decide between Aerie and Talia... I know nothing about Talia

Tashia I meant (where did I get Talia from?) is an elven sorceress mod NPC.

[Userunfriendly]

that of course changes the entire complexion...

that's a much harder decision, between a sorceror and cleric mages...both are almost equal in pure power...cleric mages are slightly weaker due to spell progression...tashia will become uber powerful very very very soon...but even at low level, aerie and spell sequencer and divine spells can be incredibly deadly...

[Lord]

My suggestion is to take Keldorn as your last guy. His dispel magic and other abilities are very handy. Plus he can use Carsomyr, so you just have to take him [img]smile.gif[/img] .
I dunno what Talia's class is, so I can't help you out there. I've run through the game wither Aerie 3 or 4 times, and I'm tired of her. She dies way too much, so much that it's not even worth the power she can bring to your party. She got chunked many times in my party, so that just led to constant reloading.
And if you chose an NPC you don't like, don't forget that you can ditch them

[Dundee Slaytern]

Between a Cleric/Mage and a Sorcerer for a party, I will take the Cleric/Mage.

Remember... Aerie is half Mage too. Do not be distracted too much by her Cleric half. Individually, the Mage is more offensive, but together, it is a fearsome combination.

Spell Trigger with 3 Mass Healings as ONE simple example.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Originally posted by Lord: ~~ I've run through the game wither Aerie 3 or 4 times, and I'm tired of her. She dies way too much, so much that it's not even worth the power she can bring to your party. She got chunked many times in my party, so that just led to constant reloading. ~~

? Considering Aerie has access to Sanctuary, Stoneskin, Mislead, Shadow Door, Invisibility, etc... The odds of her dying in combat is lower than that of Minsc.

Aerie is one of the most defensive and aggressive NPCs in the BG2 game.

Her class alone speaks for itself.

[Armen]

my $0.02 on the 'don't need healing spells' is that for my party its worth it to avoid constant resting between battles which BG2 makes it too easy to do . . . also if your PC (or other fron-liner but especially the PC) gets held or stunned and is taking damage and can't drink a potion then a combat medic keeping him alive is a good thing, especially if you're trying to keep the reloads down!

[Gangrell]

Originally posted by Dundee Slaytern: Spell Trigger with 3 Mass Healings as ONE simple example.

Heh, keep forgetting spell trigger works with cleric spells too, I'll have to keep that in mind Dundee.

Overall, I think Aerie probably is the better NPC to have and for several reasons which slipped my mind last night. She can use Crom Faeyr and the Flail of Ages making her a great tank combined with mage/cleric spells such as Stoneskin, Spirit Armor, Aura of Flaming Death and so forth in her higher levels, pretty much unstoppable I think

Now for a 6th NPC, I figured a cleric or another front liner so it's either going to be Viconia or Keldorn.

P.S.- Please don't mention Anomen, I've been in that Cleric arguement too many times before in the past. He may be superior to her, but like most people have said to this post, most people such as myself go by likeness for the characters and their skill, and he just happens to annoy the hell out of me [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[wally p]

re: being held

I think that someone curing a stunned person is the least tactically sound responses to the situation.

the best would to *not* be in that situation: there are lots of items in the game that grant immunity to that sort of thing.

beyond that, you should also take care to lower saving throws as much as possible, as I believe only Power Word: Stun, and the like, will do so without a save.

failing that, it is often quite role-playingly sound to cast free-action in places where the adventurers might suspect that something like that would be necessary.


one step up from the healing solution would be remove the paralysis and then drink a potion. there's not point in tying up 2 characters just because 1 of them is stunned.

Also, why would one want to use spells to heal someone when Rods of Resurrection can be used by any character and performs a full heal? Money is plentiful in Amn, and it doesn't make sense to have a character who only becomes useful when someone is stunned and can't drink a potion.

I find that there are only a couple healing spells that are tactically worth using, and as such, one divine spellcaster is more than sufficient. If that's contrary to taste, then it's contrary to taste, but clerics (particularly second clerics) are not as essential to a party like, say, a thief capable of detecting and disarming traps would be.