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This is just a rant, so ignore as you please, but...

I have read several posts in several threads that casually dismiss Mazzy. Between the 15 St. and the short sword points, people are prone to write her off. Too bad.

It seems pretty clear to me that Mazzy is intended to be an archer...the best one in the game. She has grand mastery in short bow when you meet her. "Short bow?" you say, "why not long bow or crossbow? Don't short bows suck by comparison?" Well...no, not in BGII. In fact, the best range weapons in the game are all short bows. When I had her in my party, I had bows in all but one of her weapon slots...a bow for any occassion, so to speak.

Also, she seems to be built for speed. That is, both short bows and short swords have very low speed factors. Kinda comes in handy with all the mages you meet.

As for her strength, it's nothing one of the giant belts can't handle.

Obviously, she'll never be your front line, but no NPC in the game can come close for range support.

[This message has been edited by Hazim ibn Gorion (edited 12-06-2000).]

Actually, I have to agree and disagree with that. While she is a fantastic archer, there is no way I will ever use her in that capacity. When I got her, her only profiencies were in shortbow which meant I could put the rest into whatever weapon I wanted. I ended up picking on short sword anyway since it looks good on her. And her HP can be good. I found that if you get the NPC later in the game, they have better HP than if you had gotten them earlier and leveled them up. Her 15 strength doesn't mean a whole lot since most armor, shields, weapons, etc. that you get are magical and weigh less than normal. Even if she doesn't have that extra to hit, she is a single class fighter so her thaco is always getting better. Her special abilities can also help, and if that strength is crucial, it can always increase it to 18/75 whenever you want. I always take Mazzy into my party because she always performs like a whirlwind of destruction. Right now she has a number of attacks equal to 7/2 because I have her dual-wielding a shortsword +3 and the shortsword +4.