Some Newbie Questions! (revived, edition2)

[Player Offender]

Ok my friends well I made a swashbuckler. Hes good now, level 16 or 17, i forget. But now i have some intermediate level questions now that I have outdone my newbiehood.

First, the aerie romance. im already just past the mind flayers, and have not yet gone to the next objective after (done spoil it please). Now, my problem is Aerie is not in 'full romance' mode with me yet. she hasnt asked me to do the horizontal mombo yet, and if i remember correctly the last dialogues i ad with her have to do about how she doeent know how to live without wings, and then the one right after where she apologizes for getting mad.

Now i know that SOMETIME in the udnerdark i face bodhi and have the 'resurect your lover' quest. However im worried that if aerie doesent become my romance before that the romance will die. So approximatly how long do i have till the quest comes?

Now some more questions. Im already looking to the future at what my next game will be. one of the major factors in my decision is what stronghold do i want, the theatre or the planar sphere. Now i know the theatre is supposed to be more fun, but a mage sounds like almost a more fun class to be if you forget about the theatre. SO i ahve a few problems i need answered.

1) If i am gonna be a bard of some sort, what should i be? I keep hearing skalds rock cause their songs make your party tons better? Is there somethin im missing? Is tere a better bard kit?

2) Mages. Iv just enver gotten along well with having mages in my group. I know they are necesary. But i almost enver use them for ANYTHING but damned utility spells that are mandatory occasionally (like breach for that vampire with all the super protection spells). To me it just seems like spells are usually worthless. I mean all the spells that seemlike they would be good, such as fear ect, are too low level to work on anything, i mean even the dumb goblins in the starting dungeoun resist horror and confuse type spells. But almost all the direct damage spells damage the whole area, including your party. I mean other than those super high level death type spells, pretty much the only few spells that do direct damage to one person are like, melfs acid arrow, chromatic orb, and magic missle, which all kinda suck.

But say i send the mage ahead of the partyor something. When they see the enmy, shoot off a fireball or something, they have to run back to the party and sit in back slinging bullets at te enemy for the rest of the fight. They become almost useless. It almost seems like amges are meant to solo or something, since so few of their spells seem meant for party cooperation.

Am I just missing something? Is there some tactic about using magic i just dont see?

Mages with spells like protection from magic weapons, and spell turning etc can go ahead of the aprty and often do encounter by themselves useing thier magicks. SOme spells which dont affect the party incluede abi-dalzeems horride wilting,Chaos,Prismatic spray, death spell,chain lightening and others. also try single target spells like lightening,finger of death and others.

------------------
Welcome to see my ability
I promised to follow the light
Remember the way to infinity
Hear my voice and cry

[This message has been edited by Dramnek_Ulk (edited 09-19-2001).]

[Gabriel]

1) Skalds song does make your party better but your character will have just stand there close to the battle and not really do much at all as nearly any action breaks the spell (Playing one at the moment, just finished with my own Swashbucker too ) I suggest you try the jester kit, their spell confuses the enemies and is really good (or so I hear.)

2)Mages low level spells are good for getting rid of annoying low level monsters and with some protection spells (turnings, proction from eneregy, etc) they are good mage kills on their own. But the only uses in my party at the higher levels are as summoners or to weaken tough monsters (Abizled Horrid Wilting is pretty much the only spell I use for this in SoA). My advice would be to use a mages spells agaisnt the strongest oppents in battles to soften them up for your melee fighters.

Romace wise I can only suggest waiting around for it to finish before you go face Bohdi, do some quest if you have not done them all already, sorry

------------------

[floyd]

I'll answer what questions I can.

I've heard good things about the Blade and Skald Bard kits, but haven't tried either. Both will be fairly underpowered until ToB, when they should be decent.

As for the Romance, your romance will continue even if your lover isn't turned into a vampire by Bohdi (i'm pretty sure). The real problem comes when you finish SoA, if the romance isn't at a certain point, it won't continue AT ALL in ToB. I learnt that the hard way...

As for mages, have you ever heard of summoning spells? Early on, and later in the game, they can help alot. Also, say there is a large group of enemies around the corner (say the warden in the planar sphere). Cast improved invis. on your mage, then cast two web spells where you know the warden to be, then greater malison, followed by stinking cloud to knock him out, followed by cloudkill to kill his umber hulks, and hurt him, and follow that with a fireball to finish him off. If he's still alive hit him with a magic missle for fun. Your tanks won't even get in the battle. The main thing with a mage is the fun of strategizing the perfect spells for the job. Thats why I prefer mage to sorceror - much more spell choice.

[Neb]

How I use mages: For killing foes from afar or hurting large groups with area-effect spells, only useful spell to cast on party that I've found so far is Haste.

What spells to memorize: Any offensive and Identify, possibly a summoning spell or two, the absolutely BEST summoning spell in the game(Unless you have the expansion) is the 7th lvl Mordenkainen's Magnificent Sword spell, it summons a sword which can hurt foes normally hit only by magical weapons and attacks and it can be wounded only by Iron/Adamantium Golems's breath weapon or Level Drain attacks.

How to make mages useful in combat WITHOUT spells as well: Get them a pair of good bracers of AC(3 or 4 recommended), one Robe of the Archmagi which fits their alignment and the Staff of the Magi, this works for any mage, but multi-class or Dual-class mages have other options, for example, Aerie(CLeric/Mage) can be given the Shield of Reflection +2 and the Mace of Disruption along with the other stuff except the staff, to make her a juggernaut, and Jan(Illusionist/Thief) can be given a powerful longsword to make him useful as well.

Stats to make high when creating a mage: Dexterity and Intelligence, others don't matter, unless you are planning on using him in close combat as well, Wisdom is useful for saving throws though.

------------------
Worshipper of Tiax.

Wielder of the ancient Lawyer spells.

Member of the HADB clan.





Ally of the Fluffy Queen and the Dreaded Red Fluffy

[JackOfClubs]

Some notes on using area of effect spells (strategy spoilers):

1. You can equip your fighters with missile weapons so that they don't run into the area of effect. I find that a combination of web and cloudkill/deathfog are very effective for killing off large groups. Death fog automatically dispells summoned (but not gated) creatures.

2. Equip melee fighters with heavy fire resistance (above 100%) and fireball will not hurt them.

3. If you have a hasted character run into the middle of a cloudkill then turn invisible the monsters will run to the point where he disappeared and stand there and take damage. This works best if it is the same person who cast the cloudkill because sometimes the monsters will know who it was and come after them.

4. You can run around the edge of a cloud and the monsters will run through it trying to catch you, taking damage all the time.

Finally, negative plane protection is essential for fighting vampires (though the duration is short) and chaos for fighting mind-flayers.

[mistral4543]

Hello,

I'm only going to touch on lower level spells, since that seems to be your grouse.

Actually, the level 1 spell chromatic orb gets pretty good as your mage levels up; at higher levels, it has a chance of stunning opponents (ie, you can attack 1 more round and the poor victim is just standing there waiting to be struck). Level 2 melf's acid arrow is extremely useful against trolls, so I wouldn't say it sucks either. Other lower level spells I have been using quite frequently: level 3 melf's minute meteors (this acts as a +5 weapon, so it's really very powerful against certain creatures and you can throw the meteors at enemies from a distance without being injured at the frontline).

The lower level (up to level 4) spells I usually memorise are: chromatic orb, vocalise, identify, magic missiles, melf's acid arrows, melf's minute meteors (earlier, it was flame arrow but I've since replaced it), stoneskin, improved invisibility, greater malison and secret word.

Now, for battle. I don't usually send my mage forward but this happens and I spot enemies, usually he/she will quickly cast chaos at non-spellcaster enemies; chaos will slow them down a bit since there is a chance they will start attacking one another. I will then follow up with a breach (remove combat protections) on enemy mages. As my fighters charge forward to deal melee damage, my mage continues casting more attacking spells against enemy mages from a safe distance (eg, secret word which removes spell protections). After that, he/she has all the time in the world to continue raining spells on the enemies who are busily warding off my fighters.

So, the mage is really quite useful (especially for breach spell) and far from useless. If you prefer more effective melee combat, then you'd have to start with a fighter then dual to mage so that your mage is more capable in that aspect.

My only dissatisfaction with mages is that they keep having to rest once they run out of spells. Slows down the game quite a bit...

[Zbyszek]

Originally posted by floyd: As for the Romance, your romance will continue even if your lover isn't turned into a vampire by Bohdi (i'm pretty sure). The real problem comes when you finish SoA, if the romance isn't at a certain point, it won't continue AT ALL in ToB. I learnt that the hard way...

Could you spoil me about it? I am running romance with Jaheira and after happy end I plan to start romance with Viconia. Will I have problems with it? Should I finish that second one before final battle?

Zbyszek

[Player Offender]

A big mistake i need help with:

Well after restarting so ever many times, iv finally gotten my swashbuckler group to the underdark. My problem, is when i started my quests that leave the mainland, i didnt realize how necesary a good mage was. so basically, now my aprty is:
Me(swashbuckler)
keldorn
anomen
aerie
Valygar

the problem is aerie is multiclassed, so she gains her amge stuff very slowly. Now that i recognize how good mages are, i need a good one.
So when i DO get back to mainland, i need to get a mage, and get it to a decent level.

Now i sent imoen back to the coipper coronet (dumb move). So now if i want a mage, thats like a mage that will level ONLY in magery, who do i get?
Imoen? Nalia?
whos comaptible with my aprty, and how do i get them to a defcent level and casting ability?

[Mitro Jellywadder]

Nalia's a good mage. I went to the end of ToB with her
and I think she ended up around 27th level. She also in
a dual classed mage, so she only advances in the one class