Bad rap for poor Haer'D

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I know this has been done to death, but why the heck does everyone seem to hate Haer'D? I've got him in my (Monk driven) party with Imoen and he makes a great backup spell flinger. Between the two of them they can whip out a pretty devistating barage of fireballs or magic missiles and so forth.

Also, while I wouldn't want to front-line the guy he makes a great flanker. My tanks blast away at the front and good old H'D runs in (when he's done zapping spells at folks) and offensively spins the snot out of whoever is bugging me the most. Since the bad dudes are usually looking at Minsc and me, H'D rarely gets hit which makes his low hit-point issues rather minor.

Add to that his decent lore and great pickpocketing and he definately pulls his weight in my team. I wouldn't have him if my main character were also some flavor of bard, but he makes a good deal of sense for my party.

 

I agree. I like H'D myself. I think he will be leaving for Imoen, he or Nalia, I can't decide. I've invested a lot of spells in Nalia though, so unfortunately, H'D's tenure was short lived.

 

I could never hold Nalia more than... well, her initial dialog

Her obsession with poor annoys me enough and... Haer'D be so much more fun AND use (cute pickpocket + spells + nice thac0)
Take him, leave Nalia to her sour destiny

 

Why I hate him?
Because he likes Aerie an awful lot, While I like her too!
And becasue he is supposed to be a pretty good fighter, becasue of the
Bard kit, but he is terrible. If you need a fighter, get Keldorn or Korgan, if you need a mage, defenitely (sp?) go for Aerie or Edwin and else for Nalia.
Haer'Dalis, pfuh! Puny little Wimp...!

 

Haer'Dalis wasn't pain in the ass in my party like those fighter kits!

Anyway, he is probably hated because of his lowsy HP. That haven't bothered me. When I took him, he was in the party till the end of the game (and Viconia). Aye, my raven!

Others I just abused for a short time then kicked out. Real wimps, I'd say.

[This message has been edited by Extremist (edited April 30, 2001).]

 

I will rather have have other people then having H,D in my party. I never liked chaotic neutral or any evil alignment and H,D is in one of my lowest list of unwanted charater.

 

H,D would probably be more fun to be stuck around a campfire with, and I'd pick him to share a round of drinks with any day.

But when it comes to guarding my back against a squad of Demons . . . sorry HD, lets chat when we get home.

This isn't to say that I'm not sympathetic to the kit. Heck, I thought about playing a Blade my first time through. Unfortunately the kit has better writing than execution! Oh well!

 

I'd like to hold on to H'D, and Nalia gets on my nerves as well wwith her fake class consciousness, but she is effective. Imoen as I recall knows few spells, and I don't have a good inventory to give her for her lvls, so I can't get rid of Nalia yet. I have Korgan and Keldorn, Minsc, Nalia and H'D. It has to be H'D at this point, which depresses me a bit. I really wanted to develop his character, but I'm afraid if I dump Nalia, I lose most of my spell power at present.

 

As I've said time and time again... Nalia is just a poor man's Imoen. She dual from a thief at a lower class and Imoen gets mysterious bonus spells (see that thread I posted) that is an extra spell at each level. Whilst both are female and annoying Imoen is better, both from the aesthetic viewpoint being an integral part of the plot and to play with (just give her all your spare spells to learn from yuor spellcase).

 

Hmm, I never used the offensive or defensive spins but I like Haer'dalis... Probably just a matter of personal preference, as I like characters who can both fight and cast spells (my fav character which I'm currently playing is a swashbuckler/mage, got to love the 3 slots in dual wield )

Oh yeah, she has about 53% of the party kills even though I got people like Minsc and Keldorn in the group... Celestial Fury is a bit helpful and her ac actually is 7 lower than my best fighter's

[This message has been edited by Volar Blackmane (edited April 30, 2001).]

 

Volar Blackmane, a few questions if you have the time?

- Which weapons does your swashy/mage dual wield? Celestial Fury and Dak'kon's Zerth Blade perhaps?
- What is she wearing to get her AC as low as you say?
- What level(s) is she at?
- What is her Base THAC0?
- How high is her Strength?

 

Bruce: What are you talking about!! Chaotic Neutral isnt evil, its NEUTRAL. And it is THE coolest alignment there is, the only character i dont use it with is the paladin.
I play it because its the only alignment which allows you to do what you like without getting in conflict with your alignment.
So you can do good things if you feel in the mood, or evil things if you like, so thats why i think its cool.

 

Yes, you're right about the weapons

Dex 18, bracers of ac 3, dak'kons zerth blade and the swashbuckler additional ac bring it down to -10 (no items of protection +2, I have two rings that give more spells)

level 16/20, yes I removed the exp cap seeing it as an artificial limit. (And please, no comments about me being a cheater removing the exp cap or similar, I played it through several times with the exp cap on and wanted to try out level 9 spells and a more powerful character.)

base thaco 13

strength 14

No uber-character but the additional levels help quite a bit. (Those extra liches in Shadowlords dungeon were a real pain though.)

 

How we play the game is our own business. AFAIK the cap was meant to stop the serious unbalancing that comes from casting 9th level spells. Never mind that, on to the subject instead...

A Swashbuckler-11/Mage-17 (IMO best choice)
has Base THAC0 15.
A Swachbuckler-11/Cleric-20 (IMO best choice) has Base THAC0 8.
Quite a difference, no?

This (and not getting any extra attacks/round) is reason enough not to use the Swashy/Mage in melee. Don't be fooled by the ability to put proficiencies into Two Weapon Style!

Didn't You choose to play a Swashy/Mage for his AC bonus and thief skills?

 

Thief skills were one reason yes, ac was there as a bonus. The main reason was that a swashbuckler/mage dualwielding katanas would be incredibly cool (I changed the avatar to an elven sorceress, looks just right)

Hmm, weird, my swash/mage is at least as tough as Minsc or Keldorn... Just today I assigned all my fighters (Chandra, Keldorn, Minsc and Anomen) against some lizardmen in the planar sphere. Keldorn seemed to have a tough time killing that lizardman, until my character came and chopped it to foe-shaped chunky bits! (Yes, literally.)

Also today, seeing her change to an iron golem and wading through the enemies (str 24 as a golem ) was very rewarding. (Ahh, nothing better than caring for your character and watching her/him grow in strength...

The only regrets I have is that she cannot backstab and the only person available for her is Anomen

For anyone interested, my party is (in this order)

Chandra
Minsc
Keldorn
Mazzy
Anomen
Yoshimo

Poor Yoshi will be traded for Imoen so I can get some more magical support (and I've never had Yoshi with me to spellhold yet).

And yes, my only spellcaster always walks first, taking on the enemy directly... Mad? Perhaps. But she can take it