Aerie or Anomen?

[Rhubarb]

I am midway through chapter 2 with the following party:
Charname - Elven Archer
Jaheira
Keldorn
Mazzy
Aerie
Jan

I'm debating whether to replace Aerie with Anomen because I'm a little worried about clerical coverage in SoA. I haven't had Aerie on before. Will her progression give me enough lvl 5 spells?
Jaheira will have only one Chaotic Commands because I have her on point with scimitars. And not even the one, should a situation arise where I would need an Insect Plague.
Running with just one mage might be OK. I tend to avoid mage battles and just use Haste, Imp Haste and summons. I might get Imoen in this case though, so as not to lose on Necromancy.
Here are my thoughts on the matter. Any input is greatly appreciated.

- Keeping Aerie -
PROS - Fast party buffs. Party buffs in triggers. 3 skeletons in a trigger. I remember last time I had a very hard time with Tahazzar, when you go through that chamber that clears all your magic. Insta casting defenses would be of great help in situations like that, I think.
Also, Before GWW gets online, having two mages on Imp Haste duties might be helpful.
CONS - Unclear whether she will be enough of a cleric. Wasting half the exp on levelling up her mage.

- Taking Anomen on -
PROS - Plenty of coverage. Good Turn Undead. I could have two people on point immune to level drain vs vampires. Or I could get him to GM in slings and SoE.
CONS - Long pre-buffing time. No clerical triggers.

Thank you for your help!
R-

[Zotliatlicor]

Anomen can get a weapon proficiency at lvl 12, 16 and 20. I guess he starts with two in slings when you get him? I forget, as i never play with him theese days. When he is lvl 20 Cleric i dont think you will be using him much as a Slinger, he is by then a Front line Combat Cleric. That is what he does best.

And he has no Dex, so he will not be a good Ranged combatant. And you also have Keldorn, with no Dex, so you have two characters that tie for the Dex Gauntlets. I would use them on Keldorn i think.

Anomen annoys me greatly, both his scripts, his talks, i am just tired of them. I have played through TOB two times with Anomen, with and without Romance. Every cleric will eventually rise to power, Anomen too. The biggest issue for me is wasted Proficiency point in Spear. How could they (devs) ever dream that one up i cannot understand.

But if you play a Front Line Attack Party style, he will perform good. If you give him some Dex boost.

Aerie is special. I have played through as both a Cleric/Illusionist and a Fighter/Mage/Cleric as protagonist, and Cleric/Mages are awesome. But they are awesome very late. It takes time to get there, and on the way Aerie will always be a backup Person. Once you get to several castings of Cleric 7 and Mage 8, and a few castings of Mage 9, she is your goddess.

The ability to use both Cleric and Mage magiks in sequencers is extremely cool, and opens up a lot of new tactics for you.

Aerie is very weak for the beginning, but if you prep her she is no wimp. I use her on some LOB games and she is just fine.

I would get Aerie. And swap Jan for Imoen, to get a "true" mage. You will be hampered by having two Multiclass Mages. Plus the Story with Imoen is always a nice touch (she beeing your half-sister n' all).

[Rhubarb]

Thank you for your answer.
If I take Anomen on now, he will have one peep in spear. How the devs thought that one up is indeed a mistery.
The conflict for the Gauntlets of Dex is an issue I hadn't considered. And a troublesome one at that.
Hhmm... decisions, decisions.

[Giblets]

If you're an Archer why bother with Mazzy? you don't really need two archers.

[=M$= Oroberus]

Ditch Mazzy and take Anomen in, I usually play a bit on the dark side but having 1.5 or 2 clerics gives you way more potential in the mid to late game then a second range DD, I even played some mixed groups which had Viconia, Aerie AND myself as a fighter-cleric, combined with Korgan, Edwin and Minsc, ths absolutely obliterates any encounter and it's a lot of fun seing all of them hating on each other xD

[Rhubarb]

Originally posted by Giblets:

If you're an Archer why bother with Mazzy? you don't really need two archers.

Originally posted by =M$= Oroberus:

Ditch Mazzy and take Anomen in, I usually play a bit on the dark side but having 1.5 or 2 clerics gives you way more potential in the mid to late game then a second range DD, I even played some mixed groups which had Viconia, Aerie AND myself as a fighter-cleric, combined with Korgan, Edwin and Minsc, ths absolutely obliterates any encounter and it's a lot of fun seing all of them hating on each other xD

But I love Mazzy! And she's an archer only temporarily. She's going to be tanking with Jaheira as soon as she has enough peeps in warhammer. That should work, shouldn't it?Besides, I love how you can easily disrupt spellcasting with archers. The final battle in Rasaad's quest was a breeze this time around. And I have yet to cast a single Chaotic Commands.

Tbh, I'm quite disappointed by Keldorn's performance so far. He's not a good fighter. He has nothing to compensate for his lack of weapon mastery. His armor's free action is a curse. I tested him with Lilarcor (gauntlets of dex already on) against an adamantine golem. He got beaten to a pulp.
I'm actually thinking of ditching him for Anomen.
Uber dispell is good, but sometimes a little too good. The elemental lich didn't even get to cast time stop. It felt cheesy tbh.
For a fighter-oriented type of party, Breach is good enough.

[Gustuv Wynd]

Yeah, Mazzy is probably my most favorite fighter NPC...I ussually keeper her skills to melee skills right away. I don't think using a bow really matches the personality they gave her...I mean her god even gave her a rather awesome short sword, but the bow is just a plain old +2 bow that will soon be for sale everywhere.

Though for sure take Aerie over Anomen...even though her stats kind of suck, a cleric/mage is the best "fighter" in the game when their buffs are up. Plus there is all sorts of cheese that can be done with spell sequencers. Anomen is basically just a cleric that is slightly better with some weapons without buffs. Though if you already have Aerie and Jaheria I wouldn't drop Keldorn for him...you already have a lot of divine casting. Keldorn shines against other casters...not golems. Though get him the right gear and he is pretty good for that too.

[Zotliatlicor]

OP: Did you forget to boost strength on Keldorn? You don't fight Admantine Golems with a 17 STR. Full Plate + 18 DEX from Gauntlets should make him just as good as any other Fighter you may have. Just slap on the Giant Belt or have him drink a potion.

[ÄmJii]

Originally posted by Rhubarb:

I am midway through chapter 2 with the following party:
Charname - Elven Archer
Jaheira
Keldorn
Mazzy
Aerie
Jan

I'm debating whether to replace Aerie with Anomen because I'm a little worried about clerical coverage in SoA. I haven't had Aerie on before. Will her progression give me enough lvl 5 spells?
Jaheira will have only one Chaotic Commands because I have her on point with scimitars. And not even the one, should a situation arise where I would need an Insect Plague.

Alright, here's my take: You really don't need a pure cleric to handle "clerical coverage" as you put it. Even a single multi-classed cleric will suffice just fine, even moreso with Jaheira in the group. Jaheira gets to summon risk-free fire elementals, Ironskins (more or less the same as Stoneskins) and the Elemental Prince HLAs are only second to Planetars (and you get to have BOTH of them active at the same time!).

Anomen makes good use of clerical self-buffs and at best hits like a truck, but Jaheira fills the same role and she brings more flexibility into your spell repertoire. Plus, pure clerics & dual classed clerics really hit their peak around lvl 15, but the difference between lvl 20 <-> 40 cleric is... miniscule, at best.

Originally posted by Rhubarb:

Running with just one mage might be OK. I tend to avoid mage battles and just use Haste, Imp Haste and summons. I might get Imoen in this case though, so as not to lose on Necromancy.

And this is where you got it backwards imho. You're currently using two multi-classed mages. Multi-classed mages are lucky to reach 9th level spells by the end of ToB, let alone two castings of 'em. Much as I like Jan, in your case I'd recommend swapping him out for Imoen when she becomes available again.

TL;DR: Keep Aerie and Jaheira, ditch Jan in favor of Imoen (or Nalia if you're still in early-SoA).

Originally posted by Zotliatlicor:

OP: Did you forget to boost strength on Keldorn? You don't fight Admantine Golems with a 17 STR. Full Plate + 18 DEX from Gauntlets should make him just as good as any other Fighter you may have. Just slap on the Giant Belt or have him drink a potion.

For the record, going 1v1 against Adamantine Golem is a horrible idea, even in ToB. Keep 'em distracted with summons or pelt them with Lower Resistance + Magic Missile spam.

[Rhubarb]

Originally posted by Zotliatlicor:

OP: Did you forget to boost strength on Keldorn? You don't fight Admantine Golems with a 17 STR. Full Plate + 18 DEX from Gauntlets should make him just as good as any other Fighter you may have. Just slap on the Giant Belt or have him drink a potion.

I will admit, that might have been a piece of hasty testing on my part. I gave all the goodies to Jaheira, and it turns out, she doesn't like to share! :)

I did a proper test a few rooms over, and he did manage to kill the adamantine golem no problem.
Incidentally, I found out that if you equip his armor after he's been hasted you retain both the extra attack and free action. Is the same thing true for FoA+5?

[Rhubarb]

Originally posted by Gustuv Wynd:

Yeah, Mazzy is probably my most favorite fighter NPC...I usually keeper her skills to melee skills right away. I don't think using a bow really matches the personality they gave her...I mean her god even gave her a rather awesome short sword, but the bow is just a plain old +2 bow that will soon be for sale everywhere.

Thank you for your answer.
How do you normally build her? I initially gave her a second peep in short sword intending to then switch to something else, but now I'm considering whether to add a third. The Short Sword of the Mask is quite good. I could head directly for double-wielding Kundane.
Or start right away with either flails or hammer. What do you think?

[Zotliatlicor]

Normally when i go to get her, she is 5 Short Bow and 1 or 2 in Short Swords. I find it takes to long to build up different weapons, i seldom have another dedicated Short Sword user (the mages dont't count in my book), so i make her a SS specialist.

I use her as i would use an Archer, i script her for ranged and stay away from Meele, and i like to build up Two weapon fighting on her (the first two stars) quite fast. I have always given her long sword in addition, cause there are so many to choose from. I always end up using Crom Feyr on another party member.

To be prepared for monster resistances, it would make sense to give her 2 points in a blunt weapon. Many good choices.

[Gustuv Wynd]

Originally posted by Rhubarb:

Originally posted by Gustuv Wynd:

Yeah, Mazzy is probably my most favorite fighter NPC...I usually keeper her skills to melee skills right away. I don't think using a bow really matches the personality they gave her...I mean her god even gave her a rather awesome short sword, but the bow is just a plain old +2 bow that will soon be for sale everywhere.

Thank you for your answer.
How do you normally build her? I initially gave her a second peep in short sword intending to then switch to something else, but now I'm considering whether to add a third. The Short Sword of the Mask is quite good. I could head directly for double-wielding Kundane.
Or start right away with either flails or hammer. What do you think?

Heh, well...as I said I cheat a little bit and just move her pips to something else. I typically do flails and she is my main flail of ages user so GM in flails and then the rest starts getting dumped into two weapon fighting and scimitars.