Valygar & Anomen/Viconia

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Does anybody have any suggestions on how to make Valygar a good tank? Since he can't wear anything better than leather. What items could I give him to beaf him up.

Anomen of Viconia? Which makes a better cleric?
My party:

Me, dualed berserker to druid (tank and anti-mage)
Aerie (romance, mostly offensive spells)
Anomen or Viccy (tank & healer/undead stuff)
Jan (mage & thief)
Minsc (tank)
Valygar (tank)

Would there be any problems with Viccy and Aerie, since they're on the opposite side of the elf scale and I'm romancing Aerie? Thanks a bunch.

*and it is possible for me to get the druid stronghold then the fighter one correct?*

 

Here's my biased opinion, for what it's worth...

Viconia is by far the best Cleric in the game. She will get far more cleric spells than Anomen is ever able to get (because of her wis). She is not a tank, but because she has great AC and high MR, she can actually sit on the front-line without taking many hits at all.

You have enough other tanks in your party to for-go Anomen. Whereas Anomen can destrory undead, Viccy can control them so you can get some undead fighting with you for a short time. I find this far more useful at times.

You will have no problems at all with Viccy and Aerie together. In fact take them both, romance them both and then decide who is the most fun to keep romancing. Viccy is great!!!!!!!!

Valygar can wear the Shadow Dragon Armor (AC1), which will help a lot. But why use him as a front-line tank? Have yourself and Minsc up front, with Valygar hiding in shadows (plus scouting) and backstabbing for awesome damage then you boys can just mop-up what's remaining.

With the strongholds; I would do the fighter stronghold first, say you aren't ready for it yet, go and do the druid stronghold, then go back for the fighter one and you will have both.

 

Actually I find Anomen's destroy undead ability far more useful than Viccy's control undead (you'll still have to fight them sooner - unless they are killed by your enemies in which case you miss out on xp).

Viccy can cast Unholy Blight instead of Holy Smite. Unholy Blight only damages good characters - and besides you there aren't a lot of good guys around.

Viccy gets more spells. And you don't really need another character with tanking potential. On the other hand you already have two divine spell casters so the extra spells from Viccy won't matter that much.

Like Bard says there's no reason to make Valygar a tank. Use him as backstabber, scout and archer. But if you insist on tanking him, give him the Shadow Dragon Scales + strength enhancing item and have him dual wield Celestial Fury and his own katana.

 

And to counter Ide like to point out that anomen will suit you fine. Not only do u have aerie for additional cleric spells, anomen only casts 2 less spells than viconia once he passes his test.

Furthermore anomen is a far superior fighter to viconia in every single way. This can be told just by his stats (namely con).

Finally I myself prefer good aligned clerics turn undead abilities more than evils. The reason for this is that evils controls the undead, which is cool, but then it really isnt because its too easy to lose control. On the other hand when anomen walks into a room and turns undead, the undead just get chunked and ure done with them.

Overall I prefer viconia as a cleric because she isnt as whiny as anomen, but for all intents and purposes hes a better character.

As for the valygar thing, I agree with Bard on all points. Remember to give him celestial fury though. And use malison and doom before he back stabs to stun them.

Your party is fine really, although it may be a little on the weak side with 2 multi classed mages, youll find your arcane ablities to be weaker than if you had taken nalia, imoen, or edwin.

 

A quick point about Valygar. He can't backstab with his own Katana, but can with any other (i.e. Celestial Fury) - because thieves can't use his katana therefore it cant be used for backstabbing.

By the way, Jaheira makes a better tank than Anomen and her Druid spells are awesome against mages (far superior to clerics for stopping any spellcasters in their tracks).

 

This has been fixed by Baldurdash. Have Valygar dual wield his own katana together with Celestial Fury and he's just fine on the front line. Simply arrange things so that your enemies are not targetting him directly. I personally think that his family armour is better than the Shadow Dragon Scale because it has more useful resistances.

Anomen / Viconia is simply a question of taste, although Anomen is a much more effective fighter and some of the clerical buff spells can turn him into a very powerful character indeed (e,g, Righteous Magic + Draw Upon Holy Might for 25 STR, max damage).

 

Valygar is probably the best backstabber in the game-just try Celestial Fury and a girdle of giant strenght-and a great scout. Viconia is indeed far better cleric than Anomen, but Anomen is the perfect candidate for wielding the Crom Faeyr, since he is a dual-classed fighter. If you have another cleric in the party-another with Wisdom 18, I mean, like yourself-you can discard Viconia in favor of Anomen. If you don't,take Viconia. I didn't do it because I wanted to have a high reputation-currently I have a Score of 20, without paying any tip at any temple-and I prefer Anomen's versatility instead. As to Valygar as a Tank...Well,if you equip him with the Celestial Fury and Boots of Speed, he can be quite flashy. But for a Tank, I would choose another character-

[ December 14, 2003, 11:51: Message edited by: Tronak el Karbaro ]

 

I always let Keldorn and Anomen tank, Valygar isn't even meant to be a tank, he's your backstabber. Aerie and Nalia provide the spell back-ups, and my swashbuckler either plays bodyguard or helps mop up after the front line.

And IMHO Anomen and Viconia are both pretty much equally valuable, it just depends on the make-up of the rest of the party as to which will fit in better.

 

Viconia has holy smite. (Evil, isn't it?)

And when with Aerie, you can turn the undead against each other (they will keep fighting even after they got red) and wait until Aerie blasts them.
Anyway, Viconia's turning has the advantage of not sending zombies and the like running - I hate to track them.