Xan's Number of Spells...?

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I just picked up Xan in the Nashkel Mines and was perturbed to find he only has 2 level 1 spells.

After consulting the manual p. 140 table 5a (special note) it seems like he should have a bonus spell since he's a "specialist" Mage.

What's up with that?

Any help would be appreciated!

[ January 23, 2005, 01:52: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

Is that 2 spells he can cast for that level in his spellbook? Or just his two memorized spells?

Xan really isn't worth the effort anyways, I would recommend ditching him and going with Edwin.

 

When Xan is found, he is a level 2 Enchanter, which is a Specialist Wizard. He can memorize 2 level 1 spells and zero level 2 spells...as shown it table 5a.

But the note in the manual says "Specialist Wizards get one extra spell per level but are prohibited from learning spells in their opposition schools."

Xan can't write Magic Missile since it's in his opposite school, so he definately gets the restriction of a Specialist, but I see no benefit since he doesn't seem to get a bonus spell.

Needless to say, the benefit of a Wizard with 2 spells is pretty limited!

Edwin will pose alignment problems for my group, so next up to try will be Dynaheir.

But I can't help but wonder what the benefit of a specialist Wizard is and if this problem will carry over to other magic users...?

 

I am currently using Dynaheir and she seems okay. There are some spells I've found she can't memorize. But the ones she knows seem to do okay for me.

 

Thadeus,

You are definitely correct that at level 2, Xan should have the ability to memorize 3 level 1 spells. I don't know why they only have him be able to memorize 1. As stated Xan is pretty weak as your only mage, because you miss out on the invocation school. The combination of Dynaheir and Xan however is pretty good, as they are opposite schools - Dynaheir can't memorize enchantment spells, so between the two of them, you should be set.

 

Thanks Aldeth!

That reply helps alot!

Of course, that doesn't give me much faith in Magic Users as they seem fairly worthless at low levels. If there's not some improvement as their levels increase, I can't even justify carrying 1 of them!

For that reason, I certainly can't justify 2 like Xan AND Dynaheir. Not at the expense of losing someone else like Kivan or Imoen.

But thanks for the advice nonetheless!

 

Xan should be able to memorize three 1st level spells when you find him, if he's second level. That doesn't mean he'll currently have three memorized though.

Xan's evocation restriction isn't so bad, if you don't mind not having magic missile.

There are plenty of wands of fire and wands of ice around, and both do a good job at "direct damage."

Xan's worth is a matter of whether you find his whining funny or annoying, because the whining will never stop!

BTW, I agree that carrying two low level mages isn't a very good idea, especially with an inexperienced player. My advice is to have one single-classed mage (or dual-class Imoen early on), and have either a multi-classed mage in the party, or a bard as a backup mage.

Any more than two spellchuckers is too much IMHO. I also don't think you need more than two divine spellcasters, and can even get away with one.

 

It would appear Xan (at Level 2) is missing a Level 1 spell slot. As mentioned by everyone else (just about) he should have 3 spell slots for Level 1 spells.

Visit www.dudleyville.com/dudleyfix/bg1_npcs.htm to see all the NPC bloopers and then visit www.dudleyville.com/dudleyfix/index.htm to download the fixes.

 

Dynaheir is better than OK, but Imoen dual-classed is better still. (Keeping Minsc, if you want him, is not an insurmountable problem.) Edwin is supposedly best of all, but like you I had an alignment problem.

 

There is a ring of wizadry(doubles number of first lvl spells that can be memerized) on the friendly arm inn map. If you want me to i'll dig up the co-ordinates.

 

In both BG1 and BG2 when you first pick up a character sometimes thier spell slots are mis-matched.

In BG2:
Minsc has no level 1 spells (a level 8 Ranger should have 1).
Nalia has an extra level 5 slot (level 9 mages should have only 1).
There are others I remember too but don't recall off-hand...

In BG1:
Most of the characters I've picked up and used in my two games were level 1 and no errors where detected.
But on my first run through I would take a NPC for a short time and reload, just to check out their stats. I do recall some of the level 2 or 3 spell casters had an extra or one missing spell slot. I think Xan was one of those...

In BG2 they all corrected themselves upon the first level-up of the character. I would guess that would happen in BG1 as well.

 

Edwin has too many spell slots if you pick him up at his lowest level. IIRC, he has as many as he should have at one higher level, so when you level up he doesn't gain any spell slots.

Due to the way IE works, all of these problems correct themselves automatically at level up, because instead of adding spell slots at each level the engine simply recalculates the spell slots per spell level (it's 2DA files, one for each class)

 

I gues you could always dual-class Imoen when you feel you have your thief skills at a suitable level, or when you're not due to hit traps for a while... presumably just before you've killed Davaeorn, but after you remove the traps near him.