I first asked about Aerie, but what about Nalia??

roguekiller · Post by **roguekiller** » Thu Sep 20, 2001 4:38 am

I am thinking about taking Nalia, I know she has puny thief abilities but what about her Mage abilities??

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Thu Sep 20, 2001 4:48 am

Consider Nalia as a pure Mage - no kit but also no restrictions. She has spent 5000 XPs (next to nothing) in her Thief class, which gives her the ability to use Thief weapons and armors. She has a low AC thanks to high DEX and her Family Ring, which also adds 50 % Fire Resistance. Finally you can get her from start.

Quitch · Post by **Quitch** » Thu Sep 20, 2001 6:15 am

A poor choice. If you want a pure Mage, Edwin is better, if you want a Thief, Jan is better. Think of Nalia as a poor Imoen.

Plus, I assure you, she whines like no one else. If you were even mildy irritated by Aerie, Nalia will have you headbutting the screen.

"For the needy!"

*shudder*

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Thu Sep 20, 2001 8:35 am

Originally posted by Quitch:
A poor choice. If you want a pure Mage, Edwin is better, if you want a Thief, Jan is better. Think of Nalia as a poor Imoen.

I remember a quite interesting arguement at this board about whether Nalia or Edwin was the better Mage. Surprisingly many persons actually preferred Nalia.

Nalias advantages over Edwin:

Much better AC (DEX and Family Ring)
Ability to use Thief weapons and Armor
No spell restriction
Good aligned (I can't see why, but many persons find this important)

Nalias advantages over Jan:

Not multiclass - this make a huge difference
No spell restriction (and many of the Necromantic spells are very good, too)

Nalias advantage over Imoen:

Can be used as your Mage from start
Will have a higher level than Imoen when you meet the latter
Possible to scribe desired scrolls right away

The others all have their advantages over Nalia as well. However, I don't think it's such an easy choise as Quitch wants you to believe. Also, I normally use more than one Mage so why not go for, say, both Nalia and Jan?

Yuusuke · Post by **Yuusuke** » Thu Sep 20, 2001 11:26 am

Nalia is a better choice over Aerie, in my opinion. Her famly ring though, I feel is more of a problem than a free gift since you can't remove it and there are better things you can put in that slot than her ring. Her thieving skills are useless.

BUT she has absolutely no conflicts with anyone in the party, she will never leave because of someone in your party, she will never get in a fight with someone in your party. And I don't feel she complain all that much. Except thhe one time she gets arrested which could cost you some time if you're far away from town.

Aerie is too weak in combat and she can't use a short bow like Nalia, really handy in alot of the dungeons.

Nalia's advantages over the other NPC mages have already been mentioned and I quite agree, so no need to repeat it.

Overall, Nalia is just an easier mage to use than the others.

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Thu Sep 20, 2001 1:49 pm

Aerie or nalia or nalia or imoen? two diff topics. aerie is not really a mage, she is a jumpered up cleric with all the advantages and disadvantages of the cleric mage multi.

her real worth is she is the only cleric in my party, and she can chain cleric spells together. a clerics role is to fight unnatural, demonic creatures. he/she gets specail spells and abilities to do that. a mage is interested in being able to handle everything, so the spells are not nearly so selective. but combine both and you get someone who geets specialized attack spells of the cleric with the utility spells of the mage, triggers and such.

nalia is much more irritating than imoen, who is always cheerful and fun, while nalia is a communist. sigh.

anyway, I agree with you about the stinking ring, if you play sorc you get the sphere, and end up with 2 ring of wizardry, the second best ring in the game. you get the second as loot from harper quest.

I gave regen ring to aeire and wiz ring as she is my second best mage, and gave the remaining ring of acuity to imoen after yoshimo died.

the spell enhancer equip ment i too valuable to be sitting around in a bag of holding, make sure you have enough mages to use them all the time!!!

roguekiller · Post by **roguekiller** » Thu Sep 20, 2001 9:39 pm

What about if i took all three (Aerie,Nalia and Imoen)?

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Fri Sep 21, 2001 12:50 am

Originally posted by UserUnfriendly:

nalia is much more irritating than imoen, who is always cheerful and fun, while nalia is a communist. sigh.

Completely off topic and without the intention of starting a political discussion:

First, not all who aren't communists are cheerful and fun. Second, I believe there exist communists who are cheerful and fun. Finally, communism isn't defined by "helping the less fortunate" - it is, like all idealogies, *a bit* more compexe than that.

Valyissiun · Post by **Valyissiun** » Fri Sep 21, 2001 2:24 am

Nalia ..oh no

"For the needy!" ..oh no

Junky Drew Barymor portrait ..oh no

Level 4 Thief ..oh no

Bland script ..oh no

again, "For the needy!" ..plz no

Valyissiun

Sojourner · Post by **Sojourner** » Fri Sep 21, 2001 4:38 am

Originally posted by roguekiller:
What about if i took all three (Aerie,Nalia and Imoen)?

Play with any party combo you like. I am currently playing a game with both Aerie and Nalia in my party. Aerie is awesome for her ability to load clerical spells into sequencers and triggers, plus she can get her armor class really low. Have her cast blade barrier and tenser's and watch her slice and dice! Nalia, on the other hand, is my main dragon and illithid killer. They're both outstanding if played right.

Catcher · Post by **Catcher** » Fri Sep 21, 2001 6:08 am

Of course, who you take depends on the rest of your party. Nalia is a fine mage if you don't really need her thieving skills. If she is your only thief, then she becomes a bit more of a challenge since you can only use one ring on her at a time and the best way to boost Nalia's thief abilities are thief rings. Aerie has the power disadvantage of being multi-class, which will limit how soon she'll get the higher level spells. There are several combos of mage and priest spells besides the contingency series that she can pull out. For example, MINOR SPOILER
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When the mob of shadows pops-up at the top of the Shade Lord Dungeon, Nalia and aerie were standing alone near the crystal shard that you rotate to get light. Aerie cast Improved Invisibility while Nalia (with Stoneskins up) covered. When Aerie worked free, she placed a Holy Smite that covered most of the board, killing 8 of the suckers. Then she fired off a Chromatic Orb to kill off one that was smacking Jahiera. She is the ultimate in utility.
Imoen has some of the same powers as Nalia, with fewer of the downsides. The biggest problem with her is simply the XP gap after you free her from Spellhold. If you have a way to address that, then she would be a great replacement for Nalia since she has better thieving skills and both ring slots open.
The benefits of having all three in the party at the same time are fairly obvious: you have a wide range and number of spells to choose. The disadvantage is that none of them are particularly robust in the physical combat department. Getting enough bracers, rings, cloaks, robes, etc. to go around might be a bit of a challenge. The rest of your party will probably need to be weighted accordingly. Hope this helps.

dimon37 · Post by **dimon37** » Fri Sep 21, 2001 6:14 am

I have Nalia. on level 12 I gave her dart proficiency and she is using Cromson Dart+3. She hits with it surprisingly often. I will probably give Imoen Tuigan bow and quiver of plenty+1 (later to become +2) Tuigan maight actually be the best bow because if its high fire rate. Nalia's backup weapons are short bow+1 and some dagger+3 (I think it's pixie pick) Her main role is casting breach after Edwin casts secret word. So far, not many mages managed to last for more then a couple rounds. Even the Unseeing Eye was dead in 2 rounds (It did manage to kill Jaheira with its powerword, Viconia was saved by her MR)

DraySkullan · Post by **DraySkullan** » Fri Sep 21, 2001 6:37 am

OK, yes, "For the needy!" is kinda lame, I personally like it better than "I-i-i-i-if you're sure...". Actually, the main reason I like Nalia over Aerie is her stats, mainly intelligence. One point isnt much, but you can get more spells in your spellbook that way. Also better dex and str too. And I just absolutely hate Edwin. Pompous piece of crap. I like Nalia for a pure mage, who can use theif weapons, I use her now with the boomerang dagger, but if you need to you can use tensers transformation and a good shortsword or longsword

Yuusuke · Post by **Yuusuke** » Fri Sep 21, 2001 7:27 am

Yeah, "Fore the needy!" is definitely one of the lamest sound bites in the game. "It's almost beneath me." is kind of stupid also. You can always just turn NPC speech to Never, but you'd miss out on alot of other great stuff.

Quitch · Post by **Quitch** » Fri Sep 21, 2001 8:57 am

For the needy, oh Dear God. Her sounds annoyed me so much I was glad when I could ditch her for Imoen. Then again the Nalia soundset changes in ToB.

Jaheira has the worst sound though "Weapon has no effect!" is terrible.

BTW, be careful in comparisons with Imoen. Imoen will contribute a lot more to the story than Nalia.

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Fri Sep 21, 2001 11:57 am

Astafas, sorry about the communist remark, and i have met funny, cheerful communists in college.

here is the break down if you go strictly by ability.

nalia-worse thief than imoen, cannot use shields like aerie

can use bows, really well, and has enough theif abilities to be use ful.

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Fri Sep 21, 2001 1:01 pm

"For the needy!"

You can shut up specific quotes by placing appropriately named empty .wav files in your Sounds folder.

BTW, y'all spoiled, you know that? Nalia is quite a good Mage, only the other BG2 Mages are quite good as well. Compare Nalia to what Xan, Dynaheir or Xzar would have been like, had they been BG2 NPCs, and she totally rocks. Level 4 Thief a disadvantage? Compared to Imoen, yes. Compared to a single class Mage, of course not!

Valyissiun · Post by **Valyissiun** » Fri Sep 21, 2001 6:06 pm

Fair enough, shes a "good" mage... but do you realy want to have her take up a slot when there are other not only good mages but feindishly good mages (Edwin), fun mages (again, Edwin, Jan) and plot mages (Imoen - infact shes just a parody of Imoen [worse stats, scipt, skills]).

"For the Needy!" I cant stess it enough...

Valyissiun

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Fri Sep 21, 2001 8:44 pm

Sorry about interrupt, here is what I was going to say. think in terms of equipment!!!

aerie vs nalia, do you plan to get gesen bow and tansheron bow? and you already have viccy for cleric?

get nalia

nalia vs imoen dead heat, they both can use bows but imoen is a slightly better thief, but this becomes irrelevent if you have jan or edwin. or if you are a spell caster yourself. becomes a matter of rings...imoen can use more thief enhancers.

taking all thrree...you have 3 slots left for another cleric and/or druid, and at leaaast 1 tank.

there are several good bows in the game but only two outstanding slings, everard and avoreen. the one that can drop asonic boom.

also, do you have enough people to carry shileds for you? I like the comfort of having aerie in sec slot, even though that is a bad slot for someone as fragile as aerie, because she carries the shiled of bladuran. or the reflection shiled, depending on my mood. depending on your loadout, your specialized fighters should be in dual mode, to get maximum damage per round, with belm or kundane in off hand. two shields provide a lot of good protection, and are part of my standard equipment, the reflection shield, and baldys shield.

I like having two front rankes with those shields up at all times.

Quitch · Post by **Quitch** » Sat Sep 22, 2001 4:16 am

nalia vs imoen dead heat, they both can use bows but imoen is a slightly better thief, but this becomes irrelevent if you have jan or edwin. or if you are a spell caster yourself. becomes a matter of rings...imoen can use more thief enhancers.

Sorry, but the soundset of Nalia ("For the needy!") and the plot relevance of Imoen, tip the scales firmly one way.

Anyway, for those of us who played through all of BG with Imoen (great NPC), it's not even a choice you have to think about.

"For the needy!" You decide