POLL: Who is the best mage?

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I like Aerie's versatility personally.

Greater Malison + Doom + Finger of Death contingency: saving throw made at -10 to avoid instant death. Excellent.

 

Kelsey Sorcerers > mages.

Poll, Edwin. Lotsa spells, sits at the back of my party summoning various nasties. If only he could have a familiar (imp most definately), damn that would be such a hoot.

 

Cleric/mages are indeed powerful... but I wouldn't make my PC one. I did once, of course, to test the limits of amazing versatility, but the downside is a significant hampering of total abilities. I'll take a Wild Mage or a Sorcerer over them any day, and live without the spell triggers, which were most definitely the best aspect of it. In fact, I am willing to venture a theory that a fighter/cleric/mage would be an incredibly powerful class as a result of this. Storing Tenser's Transformation, Improved Haste, and Righteous Magic in one spell trigger... brutal.

 

While I'm not the skeleton, I'll try to answer the question:

Nalia is a better mage because she'll have more XP (by the time you get to Spellhold) than Imoen. Therefore, unless somebody dies during a battle, Nalia will always be a better (higher level) mage.

Edwin is by far the most powerful mage. He's got both ring slots open (unlike Nalia), and can use both "spell boosting" rings. He also gets bonus spells from his amulet and his specialist mage status. The only drawback to his specialist status is that he misses out on "Identify," and eventually his Lore gets so high this doesn't really matter (Just get some glasses of ID and you're set).

I don't really like Edwin, though. He's evil (I like good guys), and he's a single classed Mage. I know mages are the best at casting spells, but you just can't cast a spell everytime, and I don't like just sitting there doing nothing either. I pick Imoen as the best mage. She's very versatile, and can fill the thief role in any party (if you only care about the essentials). She's got a better THAC0 than Nalia (which helps with all those arrows), and she's your sister (great RP reason to bring her). Nalia's got a great ring, but it leaves her without the ability to use the two best mage rings in the game (can't remember the names of them, but they both grant bonus spells).

Jan is an awesome backup, and I like having Aerie around (you can have some awesome spell sequencers). While I can live with a multi-classed character as my cleric in a group, I feel that I need a single (or dual classed) character as my main Magic User. Jan and Aerie just don't fit the bill.

 

I don't think Nalia has any XP advantage at all.

I don't know what the various starting xp's (based on the relation of your own characters xp score to hers) are, but I am willing to bet that it is well and truly possible to get Imoen in Spellhold using a full party, before you can get more xp then her leving her at a higher level(without even using cheese like the sell/steal to bring a bunch of high level items with you to basically make you about 3-4 levels worth of power higher, at the very least.)
I might try to prove this myself but it's sunday, I wont be able to use the computer for a few days after tonight and I want to get a mod finished off, so if someone wants to go and find out and let us know if it's possible or not, then go ahead.

As for the quests, there is nothing stoping you from going back and doing them later.

 

I tried doing the Slavers quest (least XP for your $15,000) and then starting chapter 3 with a full party. Imoen was still slightly behind the other chatacters in experience, but those characters did not include Nalia.

I know I've read (but never tried it out) that in BGII (w/o ToB), Nalia can reach a higher Mage level than Imoen. As I said, I've read this, I don't know if it's true.

 

Edwin gets the most spells, though he can't use divinie spells. So if you're only going to have one person who can cast spells, I'd go for Imoen for three reasons: Access to all spells, higher thief-level than Nalia, not as annoying as Nalia.

 

Imoen is only massively behind the rest of the party XP-wise if you do most of the 2nd and 3rd chapter quests before you go to Spellhold. Head there as soon as you can (the slavers quest will net you just about enough gold for this) and she'll be the same level as the rest of the party when you rescue her. This also has the added advantage that you get to pick up a lot of decent items from Spellhold, the underwater city and the Underdark that you otherwise wouldn't get till much later in the game. Okay, it's a lot harder as well because your level is a lower but the rewards more than make up for it.

 

Among the best answers is because she has the best starting spell list in the game.
Cloudkill, Polymorph Self, Chromatic Orb, Haste (some people complain that her not having magic missiles is pathetic, not considering it is the cheapest and most common spell scroll in the game)... and you can get her the earliest. (accounting to much more XP going into her)
As proof to this, try going through De'Arnise Keep with Edwin, Aerie, and Nalia with their starting spells alone. Nalia will surprise you with her list's versatility, and she'll help you get through the keep the easiest.

She also has a nifty ring which gives her better stats than any other spellcaster until mid-game starts, and she's part thief. It doesn't matter if her thieving skills are poor - what matters is that she has them, and the potions and items will do the rest.
Nalia is also the only Mage at earlier levels who can manage very well even without her spells. Give her the Tuigan bow+1 and the right items and she'll more than enough make up for Edwin's additional slots.
This advantage is lost once Edwin reaches higher spell levels, however.
Nalia also has profs in short swords, and so Arbane's sword usually ends up with her. The sword's property allows the wearer immunity to hold-like spells, so imagine a spellcaster-Keldorn.

Up until mid-game Nalia's the best mage you can get. The fact that Edwin can cast two more spells per level doesn't start to help until you find him the right spell scrolls to go into those slots, unless you delight in fireballing your party alot at 9-12 level, and unless you decide to get him very early and level him up as quickly as you can.

 

@Scythesong: Nalia's theiving ability is rather pale in comparison with Jan's or Imoen's...

I think that Edwin is the real Sorcerer Supreme in the entire game world, and if given a fair fight against that damnable Harkle Harpel(sp?), I think he could vapourise the little mageling to dust...

But I think everyone seems to forget good ol; Jan, the evergreen Ill/Theif...
pair up the two, Edwin and Jan, and I think you will get a good mix of power and theivery plus all the goodies of good NPC interaction.

 

It's not. Without ToB, both will max out at level 17.

I'd argue that either Imoen's or Aerie's is better, but chalk that up to personal preference. I'd say that Imoen is a better mage than Nalia.

 

But the problem is that Imoen's not going to be around for a while, as most people prefer to do most of the sidequests before rescuing Immy. For the time being, you'll need a good Mage, and M/T Nalia more than accurately makes up for the slot.

Aerie has more spells to choose from, and they're all pretty useful, but Nalia's intial list is much more destructive than hers. Edwin's beginning list is just about as powerful as Nalia's, though not as diverse. He can easily be the better Mage, but at the game's earlier points this isn't what you would need. A character who can cast enough powerful spells, do a bit of thievery, use a wider variety of weapons and who can stay in the back and shoot arrows is easily a better choice than Edwin could ever be at lower levels, so at some point Nalia is the Best Mage in the Game... this is my point. Aerie is the main contender, but Aerie is more defense than offense.
That all the other Mages can surpass her at some point later on, or whether they can potentially be x times a better Mage than she can ever doesn't change that she's the best Mage you can have at lower levels.

 

To answer the question about getting Imoen quickly, in my last run through the game, I did the bare minimum of quests before leaving for Spellhold - I did the slaver quest, and also Harper Hold - but only because I happened across the poisoned Harper - and then the quests in chapter 3. In this scenario, Imoen was still behind everyone by about 250,000 XP (not counting multi-classed characters of course). So basically, if you rush off and do Imoen quickly, she won't be worse than one level behind Nalia.

 

i personally like Edwin a lot because he had better mage spells IMO and i love his dialogue and how evil he is (and yes you guessed it im evil myself) but there isnt anything wrong with being a bit bad

 

Utility wise, Imoen is awesome...just give her Gesen's bow when she isn't chucking spells around and she can pretty much hold her own.

Edwin however is pure magical power! He gets tons of spells per level and with HLAs especially (which can really eat up those 9th level slots as you can never get enough of Time Stop AND Improved Alacrity, or Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wilting or any good stuff really...

It depends, if you've got other Mages in the party, Imoen is the way to go as she can be your thief as well. If you already have a thief and are light on mages, then get Edwin!

But in a faceoff, Edwin will definitely pwn Imoen!