Aerie ROCKS!!!

[DEADMAN]

Well since we have another Aerie thread. She is a great character, people who usualy that have a problem using her forget this fact....She is a spellcaster, they die in a hack&slash situation till you tool them up. (try her with a elven chain +2,girdle of giant strength, and a good weapon [img]smile.gif[/img] ). I personaly like her, she is sweet and innocent.

[Memnoch]

Don't you guys ever get tired of talking about the same thing? [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img]

As long as you are *discussing* Aerie's relative value to a party in a productive game context this thread will be fine. But if it degenerates into a slanging spam match with comments like these...

come on! Aerie is just too sweet to drop out of your party! and if you do so, i will go like minsc does: AERIE, NO-OOOOOOOO... *goes berserk and slashes all who are against her*

Aerie whines WAY too much! Viconia is MUCH hotter!

...don't be surprised if all of a sudden you can't post to it anymore.

[Nifft the Nimble]

Okay, Memnoch, no SPAM battles... but Aerie has some very good points!

My favorite Aerie trick is to put healing spells in her Contingency slot. Stoneskins are all mages get, but those aren't a pain in the butt to cast -- healing spells take much longer. Similarly, I live putting two healing spells in a Minor Sequencer.

Okay, Aerie in combat: she can wear the good stuff that a thief/mage can (elven chain) but also she can wear a helmet and shield. With a strength-boosting item (like the Strong Arm mace or a strength girdle), good helm and great sheild like the Fortress, she'll be able to withstand battle, though she won't excell at it.

Bad point: her low Int means that she'll hit her spell-memorization limits early. However, since she has access to all Priest spells, she won't need every Mage spell. For example, she can ignore Animate Dead, Detect Invisible, True Sight, Dispel Magic, Prot. from Fire, Prot. from Lightning, Prot. from Petrification (because of Death Ward), etc.

She's not going to be the one who grabs the Mace of Disruption and Amulet of Power and cleans out a vampire nest... but she could!

As to the inevitable question "what's she got that Vicky hasn't got", the answer is: Fireball, Magic Missile, Lightning Bolt, Greater Malison, Emotion, Melf's Acid Arrow and Minute Meteors, (Minor) Spell Sequencers and (eventually) Chain Lightning, Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, etc., etc.!

-- Nifft

[Professor]

Aerie has always been in my parties at the end of the game. 'Nuff said.

[D*Ranged]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Memnoch:
[QB]Don't you guys ever get tired of talking about the same thing? [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img]

As long as you are *discussing* Aerie's relative value to a party in a productive game context this thread will be fine.

Well...that's what I wanted to discuss: Aerie's value AS a party member and AS a solo cleric. If she could hit lvl 14/15 in mage/cleric lvls respectively, she'd have been EVEN greater than now. Her low HP? Give her ANYTHING that gives her more HP bonuses. I have a friend (now in Korea) who raised Aerie's HP to almost 100 when she was lvl 12/13 using all the HP boosting items. Honestly.

[Glorfindel]

quote:

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Originally posted by D*Ranged:

Give her ANYTHING that gives her more HP bonuses. I have a friend (now in Korea) who raised Aerie's HP to almost 100 when she was lvl 12/13 using all the HP boosting items. Honestly.

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I dont thiink so.... i seriously dounbt that even with all the HP boosting items (even the ones that she cant wear) she wouldnt reach 100... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Glorfindel]

On the other hand.... with ToB she can get 2 100HP much easier ... or if u r a cheating type person an Xpcap remover would get her there 2 [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[F. Gottwald]

i fail to understand how one could regard aerie a strong character. it´s not the hit points i´m concerned about since you can have stoneskin up 24/7... it´s her spellcasting abilities. sure, she has a lot of low-level spells... but she loses out the only things that make wizards worthwhile (project image and spell sequencer/trígger),

comparing aerie to a straight wizard would be difficult, because wizards can´t heal and aerie can´t recycle her spells/unleash them en masse with sequencers, both of which are very significant disadvantages. so it would make more sense to compare aerie with her chief competitor (strictly in terms of gameplay ), viconia.

total number of spells and their levels aren´t that far apart when you reach the xp cap (13/13/12/9/7/4/1 for aerie, 11/11/10/10/8/6/2 for viconia). aerie benefits from greater versatility, viconia from a higher casting level. so what does aerie have what viconia doesn´t?

- several low-powered but fast damage spells.
- equally fast area disabling spells
- first rate self-protection like mirror image and stoneskin
- anti-magic spells like pierce magic and breach
- minor sequencer for a speed advantage in a pinch
- contingency for, well, congingencies
- ability to use mage items
- good utility spells (eg otiluke, polymorph self)

viconia however has a number of advantages as well:

- better ac
- better thaco
- more hit points
- magic resistance
- better ´heavy artillery´ (fire storm, flame strike, glyph of warding etc)
- better summoning ability (skeleton warriors and pet fiends)
- better dispelling ability due to higher level

while aerie has access to a few types of spells viconia doesn´t, she can´t cast more spells in total (and her spells are generally less powerful because of her level). her better protection and anti-magic spells hardly begin to make up for her lack of magic resistance, worse ac and lower hit points. being able to use the robe of vecna or staff of the magi (imo the most powerful item in the game) is very nice, but most parties will include at least one full-time wizard who could make as good use of it. her major advantage lies in the casting speed of her wizard spells, cleric equivalents, while often as powerful or more, tend to be slow.

aerie is the only npc in the game that doesn´t do anything well:

nalia/imoen: marginal thief/good wizard
jan : bad wizard/good thief
anomen : reasonable fighter/good cleric
jaheira : reasonable fighter/good druid
aerie : bad wizard/reasonable cleric

moreover, without the higher-level sequencers and project image, there is little synergy between the cleric and wizard class compared to other combinations, which are truly more than the sum of their parts: jaheira and haer'dalis (i know haer'dalis isn´t multiclassed but he plays similar to a fighter/mage) fulfill their roles as fighters much better because they have access to various buffing spells, jan can hide by magic in between backstabs (staff of the magi and a strength girdle turn him into a veritable killing machine). aerie on the other hand remains just your average cleric with a few mage spells thrown in.

[Dundee Slaytern]

I have never gotten Aerie to 100+ Hp before, but I have boosted her to 98 Hp before, in ToB.

Screenshot.

The thing about Aerie is that she versality. She is very good as a support spellcaster in SoA, and becomes a spellcasting Goddess in ToB.

I also question the idea that Anomen is a reasonable Fighter. If you buff him up with all his clerical spells, he becomes a good fighter. Aerie is not a bad wizard, she still has Greater Malison, Magic Missile, Emotion, Lower Resistance, Mirror Image, Flame Arrow, etc... ...

Sure... she may not have level 7-9 spells, but bear in mind that, that is because she also has Clerical spells. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Low INT is not an issue, simply drink Potion of Geniuses to memorise every single scroll.

In fact... I bet Aerie can solo the game easily. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Glorfindel]

quote:

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Originally posted by F. Gottwald:
i fail to understand how one could regard aerie a strong character. it´s not the hit points i´m concerned about since you can have stoneskin up 24/7... it´s her spellcasting abilities. sure, she has a lot of low-level spells... but she loses out the only things that make wizards worthwhile (project image and spell sequencer/trígger),

comparing aerie to a straight wizard would be difficult, because wizards can´t heal and aerie can´t recycle her spells/unleash them en masse with sequencers, both of which are very significant disadvantages. so it would make more sense to compare aerie with her chief competitor (strictly in terms of gameplay ), viconia.

total number of spells and their levels aren´t that far apart when you reach the xp cap (13/13/12/9/7/4/1 for aerie, 11/11/10/10/8/6/2 for viconia). aerie benefits from greater versatility, viconia from a higher casting level. so what does aerie have what viconia doesn´t?

- several low-powered but fast damage spells.
- equally fast area disabling spells
- first rate self-protection like mirror image and stoneskin
- anti-magic spells like pierce magic and breach
- minor sequencer for a speed advantage in a pinch
- contingency for, well, congingencies
- ability to use mage items
- good utility spells (eg otiluke, polymorph self)

viconia however has a number of advantages as well:

- better ac
- better thaco
- more hit points
- magic resistance
- better ´heavy artillery´ (fire storm, flame strike, glyph of warding etc)
- better summoning ability (skeleton warriors and pet fiends)
- better dispelling ability due to higher level

while aerie has access to a few types of spells viconia doesn´t, she can´t cast more spells in total (and her spells are generally less powerful because of her level). her better protection and anti-magic spells hardly begin to make up for her lack of magic resistance, worse ac and lower hit points. being able to use the robe of vecna or staff of the magi (imo the most powerful item in the game) is very nice, but most parties will include at least one full-time wizard who could make as good use of it. her major advantage lies in the casting speed of her wizard spells, cleric equivalents, while often as powerful or more, tend to be slow.

aerie is the only npc in the game that doesn´t do anything well:

nalia/imoen: marginal thief/good wizard
jan : bad wizard/good thief
anomen : reasonable fighter/good cleric
jaheira : reasonable fighter/good druid
aerie : bad wizard/reasonable cleric

moreover, without the higher-level sequencers and project image, there is little synergy between the cleric and wizard class compared to other combinations, which are truly more than the sum of their parts: jaheira and haer'dalis (i know haer'dalis isn´t multiclassed but he plays similar to a fighter/mage) fulfill their roles as fighters much better because they have access to various buffing spells, jan can hide by magic in between backstabs (staff of the magi and a strength girdle turn him into a veritable killing machine). aerie on the other hand remains just your average cleric with a few mage spells thrown in.

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I Love Vic way betta than Aerie 2.... but unfortunately you are comparing them in the wrong way... I have 3 words for u.... Robe of Vecna. [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img]