I've searched around on the forum, and have not been able to find a good thread on this. There will be some spoilers in this message.
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I just completed TOB with a swashbuckler. I have now created an half-elven LE conjurer for BG1, and plan on taking him all the way through to TOB.

I want to put him in an all-mage party through SOA-TOB.

I am asking for feedback on which mages I should consider using, and if there are any mages worth control-q'ing (Xar?).

I want six mages, including my character (Lysander). I want to create at least one additional character in multiplayer. So which four mages should I take from SOA? Additionally, what kind of secondary player generated mage should I bring along - should I consider the sorcerer?

the mages from SoA? Imoen, Nalia, Edwin, Jan. There really aren't many of them..... and secondary wizard character? Sorceror or Wild-Mage are very good, I like them. The BG1 Mages I think should probably be Edwin, Xzar, Xan, Dynaheir, and dual Imoen to mage as soon as you can. Those are my picks!

-Jafin

In SOA:

Main character (conjurer)

Edwin, Aerie, Imoen and Jan...
Plus I can CTRL-Q Xar, amongst others...
Plus a self-generated character...

I'm thinking:
Main Character Conjurer
self-generated Wild Mage
Edwin
Xar
Imoen
Aerie

Substitute Nalia while Imoen is gone

What does "Ctrl-Q" do?

CTRL+Q, with cheat keys enabled, forces any "blue" scenery character to join the party. This can have amusing results.

Why not do

Wild Mage PC
Edwin
Nalia/Imoen
Kelsey
Tashia
Aerie

?

I would do a wild mage PC, but am starting the character in BG1. Would I be able to switch kits when I transfer him into SOA?

Give me some background on Kelsey and Tashia, I have only played through once, and am not familiar with those two names.

Yes, you can make your straight Mage a Wild Mage in BG2, but only if you have ToB installed.

Kelsey and Tashia are MOD characters, characters written by the game's USERS, not the game's PROGRAMMERS. You can find, download, and install their respective MODs, and then the characters will appear in your game as if they had always a part of it.

My reccommendation for your 2nd party slot: An Elven Thief/Mage. I happen to be a big fan of Thieving skills, and there are some things that Mages simply can't do, like Detect & Disarm Traps. Either that or include Jan in your party, as he's just as good.

A party of:
You (be a Sorcerer--you already have a damn good Conjurer in Edwin)
Jan
Aerie
Edwin
Imoen
Nalia
will get the job done and cover all the bases--except for the total lack of any Tanks, that is. Has anyone mentioned that you're absolutely insane for trying to run an All-Mage party on your 2nd trip through BG2?

I was going through a second time with a chaotic evil priest of talos.
Had a great time. Torturing Hair Dallas with cursed items and such. Letting my rep wallow at 1. Fireballing cowled enforcers in the city streets. Charming amnish soldiers and sending them after women...children...Hair Dallas.

But then I attacked the shadow thieves- after siding with them - CTRL-Q'd Arkanis Gath, and instructed him to use his fist so that he could no longer kill me. Now Aran Linvail is angry. No one will take me to Spellhold. And destorying everything just got boring after a while.

But I remembered an old thread on BG1 about an all-mage party, with low-level mages running away from diseased gibberlings. I thought that sounded like a nice counterpoint to Korgan and Iberius Ixtasatol (CE talos preist) stomping on everybody while edwin rained fireballs down.

Sixofspades - are either Kelsey or the other add-on NPC worth downloading?

I find an all-mage party to be a little dangerous... because it takes Aerie a while to level up to a good ressurection spell, basically it causes undue hassles. I find an ALL MAGIC party to be slightly better... currently I have my PC who is a Mage, Aerie, Viconia, Imoen, Edwin and Nalia. Aerie doesn't really cut it as a cleric early on and she levels up too slowly, so I had Viconia join. We basically do no melee. And everyone has lower resistence spells so we never need to ;) I don't think I could do an all mage party.... I much too muchly like Holy Smite. I only joined Edwin recently, and since he's hitting on all my women I think very soon he'll be joining Anomen and Haer'Dalis in being repeatedly dead.

<join [them] in being repeatedly dead>

I like that turn of phrase.

Am I missing a key factor in running an all-mage party. Most traps can be disarmed by running cannon fodder over them. Various resistances can help with other traps, as well as otilukes resilient sphere, etc.

The raise dead thing will be annoying - but i won't be spending a lot of my ill-gotten gains on jacked-up armour and weapons, so I'll be able to afford priests at first.

I am trying to think back over the course of SOA, are there any fights where melee is absolutely necessary?

I meant to put a quote in there from your message Asynca: "join [them] in being repeatedly dead."

That is the phrase I like. I think I will apply it to Hair Dallas right now.

Both Kelsey and Tashia are add-on NPC sorcerers.

Kelsey, my project, is a male human sorcerer. Neutral Good. Nice guy, I think. Banters with everyone in your party, has his own mini-quest, optional romance for female human, elf, half-elf or halfling PC. Is aware of the Anomen romance, and the two of them fight over her. Optionally, as of v1.0.4, is aware of and complains about the Solaufein mod romance as well. Full original soundset.
http://www.forgottenwars.net/kelsey

Tashia, NOT my project, is a female elven sorcerer (sorceress). Romance for male PC, I forget the exact requirements. Minimal (ripped) soundset. Some romance conflict with the in-game Bioware romances.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/sentinelsx/

[ 06-11-2002, 09:49 PM: Message edited by: jcompton ]

Cool. I'll download Kelsey and check him out. I've never used a sorcerer before, any reccomendations on strategy.

You said that you would be Ctrl-Q'ing so why don't you get a lich, a copy of Jon Irenicus (i don't know the code), a Rakshasa, Aerie, and Jan

i would say get irenicus to join your team [img]smile.gif[/img]

I wouldn't mind CTRL-Qing one character into the party (I like the interaction of the NPCs, but one CTRL-Q is fine).

However, I was fooling around with CLUA one day, and did bring in Irenicus. It may have just been the version of Irenicus I brought in, but he had no spells in his spell book.

The thing about using protection spells and Summons to bypass the Traps is that it's cheesy to prepare for a Trap that you know is there (because you Reloaded), but your character does not.

And Tanks aren't exactly an absolute neccessity, but even ONE can make a world of difference--even though you can get some pretty nice Summons, they can't really replace a Tank, especially since you can't lend them all the cool gear you've been finding. Trying to fight a Dragon with an All-Mage party would be a pain--one Fireball, and there go all the spells you were casting.

There are multiple sorcerer strategy guides out, including here: http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/game/25804.html

Basically, I would recommend this:

- Pair Kelsey up with a single straight mage. Jan is okay, but it's "easier" on you if you have someone who levels up as a mage full-time. You shouldn't need more than that (so, say, Kelsey with Nalia or Imoen is more than sufficient.)

- Kelsey comes with a decent spell selection to start with, but you'll have to make the choices for his remaining 4th level spells and upward. You now have to decide what he's going to be. I tend to like to use the straight mage as the "status changer" (let them carry the load of lots of Breach, Pierce, etc. style spells) and then let the sorcerer be the damage-causer. (Cloudkill, Chain Lightning, etc.)

- Save the game before you level up. If you make a spell pick accidentally, or after 10 minutes decide you really wish you'd taken something else, you can go back.

- Don't take Minor Sequencer as a fourth-level pick--we have a nice item later in the game that will alleviate the need.

- Don't be afraid to cast lots of spells. He has lots to spare. [img]smile.gif[/img]

MINOR SPOILER (TRAP LOCATION)
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I can avoid cheese in all-mage trap avoidance techniques if one of the mages (Aerie) is also a Cleric. Then I could cast find traps, use the fodder, etc.

But then the party wouldn't be all mage.

Additionally, some traps do not go away after brutalizing the first across... like the crushing walls traps, and the poison trap on the short stairs in the slaver ship.

I posted that last one while you were posting jcompton. Thanks for the advice. I'll dl Kelsey and put him in the party. It'll be interesting using a sorcerer, and having a new NPC to boot. Though he'll have to wait till I get my PC mage through BGI.

I'm currently going through bg2+ToB with an all mage party

Kensai lvl 9 - dual to mage
Aerie
Jan Jansen
Nalia
Edwin
Imoen

all I had to do is memorize protection-spells for my character - protection from 'you-name-it', so that he could withstand almost any attack.

Then have the rest of the party attack from the rear and use plenty of summoned monsters.

CTRL+Q, with cheat keys enabled, forces any "blue" scenery character to join the party. This can have amusing results.

Why not do

Wild Mage PC
Edwin
Nalia/Imoen
Kelsey
Tashia
Aerie

?</font>[/QUOTE]It doesnt have to be blue my friend, however, i do agree with the chioces of characters you've made...

CTRL-Q'ing is fun .. but it has its drawbacks ...
Not completely sure, but i think that you cant lvl-up a CTRL-Q, since the game will crash if you do try to.
Further more, Irenicus indeed has no spell slots ... he uses mostky contingenies and such, Irenicus isnt a "legal" mage so to say, he performs a lot of pre-programmed actions and spells. So as a CTRL-Q character, he's pretty useless ... dont know if that applies to liches and such though.

An all mage party might be a bit hard in the beginning, but they'd be incredibly powerfull in the end.

P.s. I've never been able to make a summon set off a trap .. how do you do this ?

That's true, you can CTRL+Q an enemy. Good way to take them out of the fight. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Wild Mage PC
Edwin
Nalia/Imoen
Kelsey
Tashia
Aerie

Sounds pretty good to me. Might drop Nalia/Imoen for a self-generated specialist mage. That way aerie would be the only non-pure class magic user.

You can only level up Control Q'd creatures that heva a class, or your game will crash. For example, if you control q a 3rd level fighter you can level him up, but you cannot level up creatures that don't have a class (peasants, animals, things like that). I would recommend Ribald. He can memorize and cast 9th level spells in SoA, without ToB. Liches are cool, too. Dradeel (In spellhold) and those other mages in there are pretty cool to control q, cowled mages also.

Ribald Bartelman (sp) is a magic user? I didn't know that.

When you CTRL-Q a character, he shows up without a portrait. How do you give that character a portrait?