Nalia and Edwin

[Taran]

hello again. i am having trouble with nalias keep quest. i am pretty far in the keep, i have freed the aunt but i cannot find her father, it is terribly annoying!!!!!!

and as for Edwin, he is a great mage, on who helped my in my last party ( i always have 2 mages) i would really enjoy edwins company once more. i looked in the shadow thieves house but i could not find him. and nalia kinda sucks

also the quest for the shadow thieves, where i have to find work with mae'ver, where is he?!?! i searched his house but i couldnt find the cellar


help

[TheCrimsomBlade]

S-P-O-I-L-E-R
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go back to the room where you found Nalias Aunt (you didn't finish the Quest )when you get to that room in the castle where you found her Aunt Go across the room behind the bed there is a secret room behind a secret door that leads to the other third of the castle that you missed also there is a Dungeon entrance that is on the other side of that door at the end of the hall. Your toughest fights in this Quest are behind this door as well as alot of Powerful weapons,Gold and other booty to be gotten. Watch out and be prepaired for some BIG trouble,and some MIND bending fights. this is where we find out if your A Man or just another bowl of Dog chow for the Monsters of the Deep.

[SixOfSpades]

If you had paid attention to Nalia when you got to the second floor of the Keep, you would have noticed her saying, "We have to find my Aunt's bedroom. There's a secret door in there that leads down to the cellars."

"Nalia kinda sucks" in what way? As a Thief? Damn right she sucks as a Thief. Where'd you leave Yoshimo? There's another good Thief in Athkatla as well. If you think Nalia sucks as a Mage, however, you're wrong.

There are TWO Thieves' Guilds in the Docks District. One is run by Renal Bloodscalp, the other is run by Mae'Var. Two different buildings. Talk to Renal, gain access to Mae'Var's Guildhouse, and before you're done with the quest you will find Edwin.

Given that this is your first game of BG2, having 2 full-time Wizards in the party might be a little much--I warned you that all the spells would drive you insane, didn't I? I may have been exaggerating, but I wasn't kidding. How are you for physical combat power? (In short, who's in your party?)

[IronDragon]

Nalia is a lot of things but a thief is not one of them. I never think of her as a thief at all. Try thinking of her as a Mage who can wield a bow and can do so rather well.
Using a Bow, she can get 2 attacks per round and since she has 18 Dexterity she will get a +4 bonus using a Bow. Tuigan Bow +1 is a good Bow for her (3 attacks per round) which you can get really early in the game until you can give her something better like Tansheron's Bow or Gesen Bow. Since her AC isn’t that horrible (at least for a mage) give her the Bracers Of Archery instead of bracers of defense for even better bow usage.

Having a thief is just not necessary in either SoA or Tob. Any lock the MUST be opened can be bashed and most traps can either be avoided or countered with the third level Minor Spell Deflection. I never take a thief along unless it’s Imoen and I don’t suffer for their absence. ~snip~

Everyone says Edwin is the better mage but I have never been convinced of that. Edwin may have three more spells but he is a weak as a kitten and very low HP’s. With all the ways to get used spells back this is not really an issue at all. A little time with Staff of the Magi and everything old is new again. Edwin’s sole merit is his 18 intelligence compared to Nalia’s 17 but ~snip~ Edwin has a total of 74 points while Nalia has a total of 87, big difference.

Of course my big problem with Edwin is the fact he is evil. I just can’t stomach evil people and like any good person I find interesting and poetic ways to kill them. And if I have a resurrection spell handy; I kill them twice in hopes that either they will change their ways or serve as a lesson for other evil people out there.

[ 04-25-2003, 01:12 AM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

[SixOfSpades]

IronDragon, considering that this is Taran's very first game of BG2, your post is somewhat spoilery about things like ToB, certain items, ways to change stats, and Chapter 4. Please edit accordingly, if you'd be so kind.

And although it's true that Thieves are not absolutely neccessary, neither is any class, because every class has been Soloed. But for a well-organized party on their maiden voyage through the game, I would rank a good Thief at #2 in importance to the party--a good Tank is #1. Trust me, Taran; a good Thief will save your ass more times than you can count. Sure, you can Bash and Knock and Minor Globe your way through the game, but who the hell wants to do THAT???

Great stuff guys. Gave me a few ideas for my next game [img]graemlins/cheers.gif[/img]

[Taran]

My party consists of:

ME--archer
korgan--berserker
Arowen--fighter cleric
Minsc--ranger
nalia--thief/mage
jaheria--fighter/druid

[ShadowChild]

Quite a good party you got there Taran! Anomen even tho he can be really annoying at times is great (i take back my Anomen bashing of the past!), he's a good fighter and some of the spells he gets later on in the game are really handy! the same goes for Jaheira

Korgan and Minsc are great for tanking! i haven't actually used Nalia yet as i'm still playing it for the first time myself [img]smile.gif[/img]

Six mentioned that there is another thief in Athalka (who also doubles up as a mage), won't tell you where tho as if you stroll about a bit you'll find them.

I also found that Aerie was a good character to have, well until a certain RED someone used her as a plaything so i had to replace her. You'll hear alot about what characters are good and which are bad, best way to do it is to check them out yourself - in the end you'll get a party that you get quite attached to!!

[ 04-25-2003, 08:03 AM: Message edited by: ShadowChild ]

[SixOfSpades]

"The time in which you can edit your message has elapsed?" Huh? Weird.

Anyway, Taran, you've got a very solid Warrior lineup, which will stand you in good stead in the early stages of the game and against your run-of-the-mill enemies, but having Nalia as your only Thief is going to hamper your progress.

My "Ideal Setup" is roughly the following:
At least one full Warrior (you have 3)
At least two half Warriors (you have 2)
Half a Thief (you've got about 1/4th of a Thief)
One full Wizard (you have 1)
Another half Wizard (you don't have one)
Half a Druid (you have 1)
A full or half Cleric (you have a full one).

Druids actually get some very nice spells in BG2, so casting from both halves of the Priest Scroll will benefit you.

[Sazerac]

I agree with what is said as Nalia as a Thief. The main benefit of her being a thief dualled to mage is the ability to use a bow which, as was pointed out, she does extremely well. The "17 Intelligence" limitation on spells can be easily countered with a Potion of Genius when you're wanting to scribe more spells. However, I never really understood why they put two female thief-mages in the game (Nalia and Imoen) who are almost identical in abilities except that Imo is a slightly better thief. Personally, I think they should have left Imo as a pure thief such as in BG1 and then had Nalia as the "Good Mage" that you can take along.

For pure spell power, nothing beats Aerie, with the ability to cast all mage and cleric spells (albeit she is limited to mainly lower-level ones). She can also wear helmets with her Cleric abilities and wield some good weapons like the Mace of Disruption or the Staff of Rhynn +4.

I played one game with my main Bhaalspawn character as a berserker dualed to Thief, with Minsc, Anomen, Nalia, Aerie, and Imoen in tow. By the time I got to ToB, the mage power was almost ridiculous. Almost every battle could be won by having them cast their spells and having my "tanks" clear up the rubble that was left. After you get to higher levels, two mages is more than enough; three is insane. Next time I played, I left Nalia and Aerie out and took Keldorn and Jaheira (myself playing a "Wild Mage" [ToB only]), picking up Imoen later as a backup mage and thief, which was more balanced.

-Sazerac