Currently I have Minsc, Yoshi, Aerie, Anomen and Nalia (and I play a mage). I'm considering swapping out Nalia for Jan and replacing Anomen with Keldorn. Would love to hear your pro's/con's.

Nalia at level 10 is several levels above Jan and I love her Cloudkill. But I'm concerned by her 9 in wisdom which means a 20% chance of spells failing - isn't that a career limiting stat?

Keldorn is a better fighter than Anomen so with Aerie's Cleric abilities I think I'm covered.

I contemplated swapping Jan for Yoshi but Yoshi is a marginally better thief who can double as a tank.

<font color="red"><h2>WELCOME TO IW, MATE! [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img]
[img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img] </font></h2>

<font color="gold">Hmm, I absolutely agree with you of changing Anomen to Keldorn.
Keldorn is much better, (my opinion), and is nicer.
But I dont think you should replace Nalia with Jan, actually.
I would actually go for Haer'Dalis instead of Nalia. Cause then you'll get an npc with a few mage spells, great bard-abilities and a doable tanker.</font>


see ya!

Spell-failure due to low wisdom only applies to clerics and druids, not wizards, so you can rest easy on that one.

Nalia is basically a pure mage. The only thing her 4 level as a thief really do is enable her to use a short bow. So you clearly don't have to keep her for her thieving skills. She is however IMO a better mage then Jan, who is multiclass and thus levels up slower and reaches his cap at a lower level. You've got Yoshi, and I assume you'll replace his with Imoen in Spellhold. Imoen is adequate enough with her thieving skills to last to the end of the game (ToB included), so you don't really need another thief. I'd say keep Nalia, if you can go without Jan's funny stories and wisecracks.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by DreamU:
Currently I have Minsc, Yoshi, Aerie, Anomen and Nalia (and I play a mage). I'm considering swapping out Nalia for Jan and replacing Anomen with Keldorn. Would love to hear your pro's/con's.

Nalia at level 10 is several levels above Jan and I love her Cloudkill. But I'm concerned by her 9 in wisdom which means a 20% chance of spells failing - isn't that a career limiting stat?

Keldorn is a better fighter than Anomen so with Aerie's Cleric abilities I think I'm covered.

I contemplated swapping Jan for Yoshi but Yoshi is a marginally better thief who can double as a tank.<hr></blockquote>

The low wisdom only applies to priests casting spells, just as it only applies to priest bonus spells, not mage. It does however give her a -10 to lore, but if your char. is a mage with a decent wisdom it should be that much of a problem.

Keldorns is much less annoying than Anomen, and his true sight ability is very nice, not to mention a high level dispel magic.

However Anomen will be able to get high level priest spells long before Aerie, but it's your choice (I would ditch him, but that's just me).

Yoshi is a very good thief character
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but he eventually leaves your party regardless of what you do, so you could swap him with Jan.


BTW Welcome to the board

[ 01-11-2002: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]</p>

<font color = "lightblue">@DreamU, welcome. I hope you'll stay around a while, and enjoy yourself while you do. [img]smile.gif[/img]

If you're assessing the effectiveness of various characters to power play, then I would agree: drop Anomen for Keldorn. But remember, so long as you have a good front line melee type, a cleric, a mage and a thief, you'll probably do well in the game. Nearly any configuration is a winner, and the most important thing is to enjoy all the color and imagination that Bioware has lavished on this great game. :D

Concerning Jan and Nalia: the latter advances faster as a mage (she's dual-classed), but she's the worst thief in the game. Jan is the best thief around, and if you plan to do any shoplifting or pickpocketing, he's someone you'll want to keep. His mage skills advance slowly and top out at level 6 (I believe) due to being a gnome, but he's also got those blaster attacks which can actually stun anything if you get a foe's magical resistance low enough.

As you've already got a mage in your party, I'd personally go with Jan. He's more fun than Nalia, and more versatile. But the choice is yours. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Hi DreamU,

I think your old party was fine, but your proposed party (with Keldorn and Jan) will be amazing. Nalia is a better mage than Jan, but Jan is the best thief in the game. Yoshimo (and later Imoen) will serve you well enough, but won't be able to gain abilities like Jan will.

Jan can grow to become great at pick-pocketing, stealth (& backstabbing) and setting traps, all of which Imoen is frozen out of. If you have ToB installed, Jan will get all the cool thief High-Level Abilities.

Haer'Dalis is a very interesting option if you have ToB installed. He'll very effectively take the place of a high-level thief (with his pick-pocketing and trap-setting skills) and a backup mage, and at high level his Improved Bard Song will make you very, very happy. However, if you're trying to romance Aerie, he might not work out.

So, the Nalia or Jan decision: Nalia can cast Cloudkill, but Jan can pickpocket to recharge a wand of cloudkill ... they're both quite good.

-- Nifft

Thanks to everyone who posted. Keldorn was a clear favorite and due to the number of posters who liked Jan I put both of them in my party. While I think Yoshi was a better thief I will appreciate Jan's loyalty and his humor has been more entertaining.