Defense of Xan

[Miah]

I see a lot of comments on here that (unfairly, in my opinion) dismiss Xan, say he sucks, or the like. Now, as an Edwin fan myself, I think if you compare him to the likes of Edwin, yeah, he's going to look pretty bad. However, that's judging him based on criteria he's not well suited for, rather than looking at his own merits, which is what I'll attempt to do here.

The first two things that stand out to people who look at Xan are the Moonblade and the Enchanter: Moonblade being a sweet +3 Long Sword Dagger exclusive to him that also gives a bonus of 1 to his AC and 50% Fire Resistance, and Enchanter being "that awful" subclass that keeps him from casting Magic Missile and Fireball. My argument is people underrate the former, and overrate the later.

Let me show first why Enchanter is not as bad as people say it is, as I think it'll make the awesomeness that is the Moonblade that much sweeter. Depending on how quickly you acquire him (it's perfectly reasonable to beat Chapter 2 still level 1 if you know what you're doing), there's still plenty of time to teach him Sleep, and between a single memorization of Armor and filling the rest of his slots with Sleep, that's the ideal spell list of most early-game Mages anyway when Magic Missile isn't pulling its weight yet. He's not barred from using Protection from Petrification, so can assist in basilisk Hunting, and really isn't losing a whole lot thus far. Come Mage 3, he's able to cast Glitterdust, an AoE party-friendly blind. He can still cast Melf's Acid Arrow to further counter Mages. He can still cast Web. He can still cast Mirror Image. He can even cast Strength, if you feel so inclined. There's not a spell he loses at this tier that he cares about losing. Mage 5, however, is when a lot of people argue he loses the almighty Fireball, and descends into "sucks".

So what? Xan can't cast Fireball. He still gets Skull Trap, Haste, and Invisibility 10' Radius. He also has a more unique niche than casting a spell most of the Mages and Bards in the game can cast.

- and it all comes back to Moonblade. Without a single spell cast, as early as you can recruit him, you can have him equipped with Moonblade, Batalista's Passport, and a Mage Robe of Fire Resistance. That's 110% Fire Resist. That's healing from Burning Hands, Aganazzar's Scorcher, and Fireball. That's how you use him.

Combat starts. He's casting Glitterdust because any combat able to be trivialized by Sleep isn't worth discussing. Meanwhile, your other mage is casting Aganazzar's Scorcher on Xan. Now he's constantly healing and every enemy between him and your other mage is taking fire damage. Your enemies are now blinded, and it's pretty safe to go in and engage in melee, especially with Armor (spell) or Bracers of Defense AC 7 on. He's perfectly capable of casting Strength and Haste on himself. He's perfectly capable of casting Protection from Fire on himself if you wanted to rock the Robes of the Neutral Archmagi. He now gets to use that sweet weapon while your other Mage freely nukes the front with Burning Hands and Fireballs without fear of friendly-fire. Got a Fighter? Icingdeath, Gift of Peace, and a second Batalista's Ring are all obtainable in game. Now you've got your frontline, immune to fire, and ready to let your party use all the Fireballs they could ever wish to.

Fireball is a lot better when you don't have to worry about friendly-fire. Unless you're an MC Dragon Disciple, Xan is your only option for a second character immune to fire damage without spending spell slots. Xan may not be able to cast Fireball, but he sure does love it. Xan rocks.

Oh, and he also lets you use Ajantis in evil parties, if you ever wanted to do that. Xan will talk him out of killing them, so that's neat.

[Immortal Reaver]

I was about to permanently recruit him so thanks for fire-healing strategy, will try it.

[Turkusowy Sen]

People think he is the worst for good reasons. His spellbook is terrible, he doesn't have access to many strongest spells in the game. This is the main factor. His only reedeming quality is magic blade, but as Xan is no fighter, he sadly can't make use of it, sending Mage to the frontline is suicidal. Edwin is 10x stronger simply. I sometimes play him for fun as Im veteran and game is not hard for me anyway but it's a fact that he is one of the worst characters in game when judging by raw spellpower.

[biogoo]

You cant heal from over 100% resists anymore.
But I agree, knowing fireball spell is overrated, as there are plenty of wands of fire available.

[red255]

yeah people swear by skull trap and I typically can get more wands of fireball than I'd ever need from the shop in baldur's gate which has like 200 charges of fireball all told? maybe more.

that said I prefer a bard if I'm just using it as something to use wands and identify things.

oh and if you want fire resistance without using a spell slot, scrolls and potions exist in large numbers, I use them for the final fight in siege.

[Miah]

His spell book is perfectly fine, as the above post already states. He has access to all the best spells in the game. You don't need to be a fighter if your enemies are blinded or unconscious. He's in no universe worse than Dynaheir.

[Lord Holland of Wessex]

he has a really annoying voice but i found him useful.

[Lord Holland of Wessex]

Originally posted by biogoo:

You cant heal from over 100% resists anymore.
But I agree, knowing fireball spell is overrated, as there are plenty of wands of fire available.

When did this happen? - took a break from game and about to start anew. the fire resist thing i mean

[biogoo]

Cant say for sure, but it is at least over a year now.

[Lord Holland of Wessex]

Originally posted by biogoo:

Cant say for sure, but it is at least over a year now.

I will test - sure you could still a few months ago but could have been baldur;s gate 2

[Gustuv Wynd]

Truth be told...the most fun I have with him is to keeper him into a bezerker with fighter stats using his moonblade and dagger of poisoning.

[Hempz]

Talking about Xan, everyone forgets about the advantages of being an enchanter.
They get -2 saving-throw penalty against their Enchantment spells. Let's see which ones exactly:
Charm Person - s/t with +3 bonus, Dire Charm - no s/t bonus, Domination - s/t with -2 penalty.
Thus you can see that enchanters cast 5th level "Domination" spell on 5th level of exp instead of 9th. That is huge. If you haven't used charm spells much, you should certainly try, that's a lot of fun.
The same thing goes for 4lvl Confusion and 5lvl Chaos spells. S/T penalties for them are -2 and -4 respectively, but when cast by enchanters, penalties are -4 and -6. Hence enchanters get as powerful Confusion on their 7th lvl (60k exp) while normal mages get it on 9th lvl (135k exp).
Finally, when we use another spell of enchantment school, we start to understand what his Moonblade is for. The spell is Hold Person. The normal -1 s/t bonus becomes -3, and hold lands on most BG:EE humanoids very very well. Once Xan has held anyone, his attacks are automatically successful, which is what his powerful sword (or dagger) is for. You can even let him dualwield Dagger of Venom (or katana) for max damage.
This may not be a great deal on core rules, though still reflects a viable playstyle, but on LoB difficulty Xan is very potent since disabling enemies becomes more important than just smashing them.

[Gustuv Wynd]

Once an enemy is held or sleeping you could send Garick in with a rusty dagger and mop them up. Honestly it is pointless that the spells don't just auto kill them because they are dead and just don't know it yet.

So no matter how you look at it, the moonblade is a complete and total waste on a mage...a low level one at least. Though there isn't many NPCs in BG1 that aren't completely messed up in some way. So it fits the theme to have a powerful melee weapon on a mage.

He is still a good mage and does indeed make higher difficulties easier, but give him throwing daggers and toss that moonblade.

[mike_hanna211]

The reason people tend to not like Xan is simply, power gaming. People don't really like Dynaheir either, and she's an Invoker which gets all the really good damage-dealing spells.

Any mage, even a Diviner, is a viable mage in this game.

[John's Myth]

How do you fix his attitude?

[Jaxom]

I don't think he is terrible - You just only have so many roster spots and if you're going to have a caster there are just better options. If your only answer is "well i can use wands" LOTS of other characters can use wands and bring more to the table. His dagger/sword is strong but mages at lower levels just arn't that good. If he was a character in BG2 he would be a lot better as ALL casters get better.