Most useless character

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:46 am

As has been said, best Clerical Divine caster is Vici, most powerful character who has divine spells is Aerie. Best Tank (taking offensive melee power into account) is Jaheira, sorry but she'd kick Anomen's derriere in a straight contest. She's slice him, dice him, and never be nice to him; meanwhile his first ten attacks do nothing, in terms of Clerical spells vs Druidic spells, well since the clerics got royally screwed when the Wazzocks of the Coast started introducing kits, no contest.

jouke1988 · Post by **jouke1988** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:10 am

galraen wrote:As has been said, best Clerical Divine caster is Vici, most powerful character who has divine spells is Aerie. Best Tank (taking offensive melee power into account) is Jaheira, sorry but she'd kick Anomen's derriere in a straight contest. She's slice him, dice him, and never be nice to him; meanwhile his first ten attacks do nothing, in terms of Clerical spells vs Druidic spells, well since the clerics got royally screwed when the Wazzocks of the Coast started introducing kits, no contest.

Jaheira is, according to me, a logic choice for most of us, at least when you are a real roleplayer. Most of us would have used her in BG1 and because you can't get Branwen back, without mods, she would be a logic choice. But I do agree with other people about Anomen, with the Flail of the Ages he really is quite a pain in the ass for opponents.
Aerie is a must have, especially when she becomes high leveled. Cernd is a very big questionmark for me, I think he really is, in comparison with other characters, very underpowered.
I can't say anything about Vic because I never used her, I am a really good player so I don't take Vic with me normally.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 10:46 am

Anomen is without doubt good tank, just not as good as Jaheira. He's permanently stuck as a 7th level fighter, whereas Jaheira, even with the level cap, gets a lot higher and gets fighter HLAs, which Analman never gets. So he can be a nuisance with Flail of Ages, so can a lot of characters; Vici is not exactly a pushover when wielding it and Defender of Easthaven either.

PS I have had Vici in a good party, in fact the very first time I ran through the game with her it was with a good protagonist, he was determined to 'save her soul', well what would one expect from a Cleric, succeeded too.

Jordoo · Post by **Jordoo** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:33 am

galraen wrote:Anomen is without doubt good tank, just not as good as Jaheira. He's permanently stuck as a 7th level fighter, whereas Jaheira, even with the level cap, gets a lot higher and gets fighter HLAs, which Analman never gets. So he can be a nuisance with Flail of Ages, so can a lot of characters; Vici is not exactly a pushover when wielding it and Defender of Easthaven either.

PS I have had Vici in a good party, in fact the very first time I ran through the game with her it was with a good protagonist, he was determined to 'save her soul', well what would one expect from a Cleric, succeeded too.

Hmmm ....... my good Berzerker on my very first run through BGII had the same experiance with Viconia and I actually think that thats how its set up to be. The other NPC's in your group (other than those who simple blindly hate all drow) even make comments to lead you to saving her and then keeping her in the group. I beleive Minsc says she is now the parties responsibility after saving her.

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 6:24 pm

For the role of the party priest Anomen is the most powerful. He levels as fast as Viconia and can even turn a demilich, but has more than double fighting power. The low wis doesn't matter since high level clerics don't need low level bonus spells. Multiclasses are better when soloing (Aerie is extremely powerful), but in a party it's not very important to be able to do a second thing worse then another party member.

Druids can't buff the other party members like clerics can, therefore I consider clerics more useful. A good party has both of course.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 6:46 pm

I will admit that the first reason I rejected Anomen was because of the low wisdom, it wasn't until I realised that spell failure hadn't been implemented and that the 10% XP bonus wasn't either that I even gave him a chance.

Aqua-chan · Post by **Aqua-chan** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 9:04 pm

I took Cernd in my party twice. Once when I encountered a bug that had him on permanent greater werewolf, the second after I used Shadow Keeper to modify him into an Avenger druid. That was it. Talk about a waste of a promising NPC. I would say based on the fact that he doesn't have most of those special druid perks and can't wear ANY armor that he's the worst healer of the lot.

I... intensely dislike Jaheira, perhaps even to the level of Nalia, so I rarely take her in my squad and can't fairly compare her to the others. There are so many grunts in this game with a viable choice of healers, there's really no reason why anyone should take a character they don't mesh with based on class. Anomen is a stunted fighter at level 7 and I wish they would have let him go up to at least 13-15, but as it stands he's still a monster. Cleric is probably my favorite class to have on board because they're just so versatile so I'll typically take Anomen and Aerie on a play through (Unless I'm playing a male PC in which case they both become unbearable. In that case I'll just bring Viconia.

)

jouke1988 · Post by **jouke1988** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:32 am

All right, we've discussed who doesn't add anything to BG2.
Next question, wich character/type of character would you have wanted to add to the game, legally, no mods?

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:02 pm

Not sure I understand the question, but my answer is simple, my original BG party, which for some obscure reason got completely left out of BG2 apart from one cameo appearance (Coran).

PS and apparently Ajantis also makes a walk on and die appearance.

wise grimwald · Post by **wise grimwald** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:07 pm

A number of people have said how much they dislike Aerie, but have you played with both Aerie and Korgan? Their conversations with each other are most entertaining.

wise grimwald · Post by **wise grimwald** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:09 pm

galraen wrote:Not sure I understand the question, but my answer is simple, my original BG party, which for some obscure reason got completely left out of BG2 apart from one cameo appearance (Coran).

PS and apparently Ajantis also makes a walk on and die appearance.

At least with mods you can have him in your party now.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:11 pm

galraen wrote:Not sure I understand the question, but my answer is simple, my original BG party, which for some obscure reason got completely left out of BG2 apart from one cameo appearance (Coran).

PS and apparently Ajantis also makes a walk on and die appearance.

I have to agree on this, I'd love to see Coran as a recruitable NPC in BG2, he was always one of my favourite BG characters.

Jouke wrote: All right, we've discussed who doesn't add anything to BG2.
Next question, wich character/type of character would you have wanted to add to the game, legally, no mods?

I'm not sure I know what you mean either...

Jordoo · Post by **Jordoo** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:20 pm

I'd love to have Coran in BGII, although his archery ability wouldn't be as powerfull as it was in BGI he would be the only Fi/Th multiclass NPC in the game and would still be advancing in both classes. He would become a powerfull backstaber with a strength boosting item, plus he would get both fighter and theif HLA's!!! Coran was one of my favorite NPC's in BGI.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:34 pm

Jordoo wrote:I'd love to have Coran in BGII, although his archery ability wouldn't be as powerfull as it was in BGI he would be the only Fi/Th multiclass NPC in the game and would still be advancing in both classes. He would become a powerfull backstaber with a strength boosting item, plus he would get both fighter and theif HLA's!!! Coran was one of my favorite NPC's in BGI.

And sadly, even though he appears in one of the major overhaul mods, he hasn't been made as a stand alone mod, to the best of my knowledge anyway, and I've searched around Google pretty extensively.

Berethor · Post by **Berethor** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:18 pm

galraen wrote:
PS and apparently Ajantis also makes a walk on and die appearance.

Yeah, I read this on a walkthrough somewhere and was surprised. There is no mention of it when you kill those enemies...

Unless you have Anomen with you. Perhaps Keldorn points it out too, but I don't think so.

jouke1988 · Post by **jouke1988** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 12:11 am

dragon wench wrote:I have to agree on this, I'd love to see Coran as a recruitable NPC in BG2, he was always one of my favourite BG characters.

I'm not sure I know what you mean either...

I mean wich kind of character would you have seen in BG2 like a wild mage or a sorcerer, an extra evil character, do you understand?

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 12:26 am

jouke1988 wrote:I mean wich kind of character would you have seen in BG2 like a wild mage or a sorcerer, an extra evil character, do you understand?

Oh, I thought that's probably what you meant, wasn't quite sure though.... because there are so many NPC mods out there covering a wide range of classes/races etc.... so the question seems kind of... redundant in some ways?

That being said, I suppose I wouldn't have minded being able to recruit a wild mage... I don't even think there are any wild mage NPC mods, I might be wrong though.
Equally, a monk could have been interesting... that would probably make for a complex and intriguing character.

Or maybe a ranger/cleric (I often change Jahaira to an R/C) ?? ? I generally find them more useful than druids... Druids in BG2 are somewhat weak when compared to those in IWD. IMO anyway.

Siouxie Sioux · Post by **Siouxie Sioux** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 5:18 am

Sain wrote:Jahiera(shifting her into a wolf perfectly sums up my feelings), Annoy-man(Arogant self-rightous "insert insult here")

Hahahahaha... yeah. Viconia is FAR better cleric than Anomen, plus give her the girdle of 19ST and she kicks far better then him, plus awesome magick resistance/armor class/dex that she has... nuff said. And one more thing, PC spends double points on Anomen. For WHAT? I mean if I have a multiclassed member in my party he should be worthy of it. Like Jan, if you use him fully. As for Anomen, same for Jaheira. Druid abilities later are awesome, but I'd skip her.
I'd skip Mazzy as well because of not so good stats, Korgan or even Minsc is better than her.

Nightmare wrote:I never use Cernd or Valygar, since they're both incredibly dull. The latter is only useful to bring along if you have Mazzy, and then again, her dialogue is better with other NPCs (like Korgan ).

Cernd is awful in any sense, I see most people say it as well, but I disagree about Valygar. I dunno, to me (and many players) he is cool in his own way, however you may not like him but he is awesome in melee fight with his 3 attacks and good thac0. That is to say, he is far from being useless.

Keldorn is far more dull than ANYONE and if there was no Carsomyr I think 99% of the players would never have him in the party...

CoM_Solaufein · Post by **CoM_Solaufein** » Mon Aug 16, 2010 1:43 am

Cernd, his personality equates that of a rock and I find shape shifters to be one of the most useless classes.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Mon Aug 16, 2010 5:08 pm

Siouxie Sioux wrote:Hahahahaha... yeah. Viconia is FAR better cleric than Anomen, plus give her the girdle of 19ST and she kicks far better then him, plus awesome magick resistance/armor class/dex that she has... nuff said. And one more thing, PC spends double points on Anomen. For WHAT? I mean if I have a multiclassed member in my party he should be worthy of it. Like Jan, if you use him fully. As for Anomen, same for Jaheira. Druid abilities later are awesome, but I'd skip her.
I'd skip Mazzy as well because of not so good stats, Korgan or even Minsc is better than her.

Cernd is awful in any sense, I see most people say it as well, but I disagree about Valygar. I dunno, to me (and many players) he is cool in his own way, however you may not like him but he is awesome in melee fight with his 3 attacks and good thac0. That is to say, he is far from being useless.

Keldorn is far more dull than ANYONE and if there was no Carsomyr I think 99% of the players would never have him in the party...

Can't say I agree with you regarding Ano VS Viccy. Much as I like Viconia's character, I often find Anomen to be the more versatile NPC. Sure, you can equip Viconia with a strength girdle but she still has the Constitution, THACO and weapon specs of a cleric, not a fighter. Anomen on the other hand, annoying though he tends to be, can blow undead into tiny pieces, smash just about anything into tiny pieces, and he's a pretty decent healer once he passes his test.

It's really about personal preference though, I've played the game countless times with probably every possible party combo out there, and you can easily beat the game no matter which you choose. So, for a long time I've based my NPC choices on whatever group provides the best banter. Korgan, Mazzy, Jan, Aerie, Viconia and Edwin are all great choices for a talkative group.

Now Mazzy is actually a single-classed fighter, and as such, she has maximum weapon specialisation, THACO etc (unlike Viconia). She also has excellent Dexterity. Give her a strength item if you want her on the front lines, or equip her with a bow for some very nice ranged damage.

I quite like Valygar myself, so agreed there. I just wish they'd have fleshed out his personality a little more, there is huge potential here for a very interesting, complex character.

I can't say I like paladins very much as a general rule, but I do find Keldorn can add some good dialogue, depending on group make up.

Cernd.... Ugh...
Boring with a capital B, and not all that useful in battle. He definitely gets my vote for least appealing.