Bad characters you can't resist

Remove all ads!

Admit it; they're in your party:

Haer' Dalis, Jaheira, and all those second-rate characters who, for some reason or another, you just love.

Personally, I'm a Haer' Dalis fan. And you?

 

Well, I'm currently having Haer'dalis, Jaheira, Anomen and Jan in my party. How about that?

Although I do think that all of them are really good characters.

 

I have Jaheira and Jan in my party but I hate Haer'Dalis and Anomen. I realy don't think Jaheira and Jan are second rate though.

 

This isn't um "bad characters". I refer to "bad" as evil characters, who, in my case, are the best characters in the game. I like Edwin, Viconia, Corgan and the likes.

 

Damn, how'd you know?

I have Haery, Jaheira, Minsc, Keldorn and Imoen in my current game. But it seems that every game that I play Haery dies. A lot. Soon I'm gonna replace him with Viconia, like I do in every game . Heh.

 

Haer'Dalis dies because of Bioware.

The problem is the Drow Scimitar that kills bards (yes, class bard) with one stroke. It is a bug.

 

my favourite bad char is Anomen
Peace

 

Hey, which are the second rate characters?

 

Have you notived how hardly any "good" chars take the lead willingly (place into first slot on portrait bit) but ALL the evil chars do??

 

I REALLY like Anomen and Jan. I have only completed one game where i didnt have Anomen with me. I rarely take Jan to the end, because after getting Imoen back i really hate letting her go on her own.

 

I do not find Aerie annoying, like most people do; I actually (gasp) LIKE her voice. Other misunderstood characters I adore: Jaheira, Mazzy, Keldorn (have you HEARD the amount of anti-Keldorn or anti-Paladin stuff on these boards?)... and Imoen, but not many people hate her.

 

Jaheira's nowhere near second-rate. She's one of the toughest characters in the game if you use her well. In my last challenge quest, my (handicapped) party couldn't get through the final fight with Bodhi. I wound up sending Jaheira in alone. With two castings of ironskins, she killed Bodhi and *all* her vampire cronies all by herself. That girl is one formidable tank. Don't sell her short.

The one I still find kind of second-rate is Nalia. She's barely competent as a thief (missed traps right and left on me), and nothing too special as a mage. She does come with a ring of protection +2. Jan and Haerdalis are weak and die a lot, but they both have a lot of talents, especially HD.

Annoying is a different matter entirely. (-: I find Anomen and Aerie extremely annoying, but they're both definitely first-rate party members.

 

Anomen is really, really annoying when he starts going on about complete and utter crap. Hated him, even though he is a fairly good char.

 

Hi,

Never understood why Nalia gets such a bad press. She is the second best mage in the game and the best good one. Her stats are the same or better than Imoen ,lower wisdom and charisma but better strength, dex, int and con the same.
You get her early on and so can set her up how you want and she doesn't "lose" all those xp points like Imoen does. She is an obvious fill in for Imoen until you get her.
Her only disadvantage is that she is a useless thief.
However, if you are playing a thief then you don't need that feature.
My mc f/t doesn't need a thief and so Nalia is a great mage who wields a short bow of which there are plenty of great ones. Her AC and saving throws are helped by that ring.

Halfway through chapter 2 and Nalia is doing great.... my only problem as others have mentioned is her personality!
When I get to chapter 4 I'll have both Imoen and Nalia and the back row is sorted!
Just need to decide who else to take into spellhold with me.

Of course, I might completely change my mind about Nalia when I get further into the game but at present shes fine.

Cheers,

WittyNewt

 

Actually, Mr Writer, Jaheira took leadership willingly and she's a good character in the sense that when your rep=20, she doesn't leave, but rep=1-5 (ish), she kicks your ass.
And wittynewt, Nalia just sucks so much. I don't get it, the thief levels are a complete waste that limits her wizardry. She can't get through her own keep, and what's with her being a noble but is a thief. That's completely illogical.

 

I've always thought the name "Thief" for the class is not quite right, and that "Scout" would be better. I don't recall Nalia's thieving skills, but it would seem reasonable that given Nalia's personality she would have spent some time sneaking around the castle, slipping through the side entrance, poking her nose into other peoples' business without actually stealing anything (which I think is the raison d'etre of a thief). Put like that, of course, she would develop thieving skills rather slowly as a sort of multi-class, rather than her actual dual class which implies that she learned all her thieving skills first then switched to magic. But that's a limitation of the dual-class system which we can't get round. As for her thieving skills getting in the way, the amount of XP needed for 4 levels as a thief is so small that it makes no difference to the level she can attain as a mage, and it does make her slightly better at (missile) combat. I go with wittynewt - she's a good mage, and the best available for a good party; even now I'm well into ToB, she is still ahead of Imoen in power.

 

Hi,

Thanks for the reply RythmicB.

I agree that Nalia is a useless thief, I said as much, she is only level 4.
However if you already have a thief in your party then you don't need those skills and so you are left with a mage who can use thief stuff, notably a short bow, however a few other useful things come to mind as well such as any of the elven chainmails in the game, and a sword if she ever needed to defend herself in melee. I like to think of her short time as a thief as basically allowing her to use thief stuff and nothing else, hence she can get a better AC and use more effective missile weapons in support if required.

Her ring is great as well, +2 to AC and +2 to saving throws, plus 50% resistance to fire.
She only has 5000 xp in the thief class so that does not limit her in any way from achieving max lvl in SOA with the xp cap, she will get to level 17 mage fine.
She is as good a mage as Imoen, only losing out on wisdom, but a potion can fix that if you want to cast wish (you would have to use one on Imoen anyway with her 13 wisdom)
If you do most of the quests in chapter 2 before going to pick up Imoen then she we always be a couple of levels higher the Imoen.
If you don't have another thief in your party, then sure she is a bad choice. But if you do she is very useful.

Every character has their uses and strengths, some are obviously strong and will be great in any party, jaheira, minsc etc, others only excel in certain parties, nalia is one of the latter.

Anyway, she is great in my party at the moment. Shame about her personality.

P.S Bioware should have made her a swashbuckler/mage to take account of her noble upbringing.

Cheers,

WittyNewt

 

Hmm... I do believe that you've got a good point there, Maldir and wittynewt. But with the background given to Nalia, I don't think it's viable to make Nalia a swashbuckler/mage. Where would she get her swashbuckling skills. I believe she should have been a fighter/mage with her being surrounded by guards all her life.

 

Hi,

Yep maybe a lvl 4 fighter dualed to mage might have been better.
I thought swashbuckler because of Biowares little description of the class

"This rogue is part acrobat, part swordsman, and part wit: the epitome of
charm and grace."

and also if you take out the backstab and put all her skills in locks and f/r traps like swashbuckler then you are left with a fighter who picked up some rogue skills through mixing with some of the lower echelons of the castle hierarchy like Maldir described.

Moot point really.

Cheers,

WittyNewt.

 

Okay, I admit it, I have four "second-rate" characters in my party: Anomen, Jaheira, Nalia, and Jan. Separate, they each suck, but put them together with Minsc and a Paladin, and hoo boy, watta party!

Anomen: he's a fighter dual-classed to cleric at level 7, with a strength of 18/53, so unlike Viconia, Cernd, or Aerie, he's actually an asset as a front-line fighter instead of a liability. Give him a strong blunt weapon like the Flail of the Ages or Crom Faeyr and point the way. Add his Cleric spells on that...

Jaheira: not much of a fighter or a cleric, but she does have some good qualities. Equip her with a good sling and stick her in the back with the mages, slinging stones. I found she's just about the best slinger in the game. Also, equip her with a good melee weapon, because she can hold her own defending the mages against attack until the tanks can come to the rescue. She also has a few handy spells like Entangle, Call Lightning, and Summon Fire Elemental that a Cleric doesn't have.

Nalia: she's probably the best good-aligned mage in the game, because unlike Imoen, her thief abilities only go to 4000 exp points, which will only limit her to the second-highest mage level. Only Edwin can advance higher than her, but it creates too many issues mixing an evil NPC with a good party. Give her the right spells, and she's a powerful ally.

Jan: he's the only multi-class thief-mage in the game, so that means while he can't advance to the highest mage level, he's also the only thief that will advance to higher levels than Yoshimo, Nalia, and Imoen. The other thiefs in the game either die or are dual-classed to mage. His Illusionist school prevents him from learning certain spells, but he is a good replacement until you can get Imoen back.