Is it me or is Nalia useless?

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Yes, Edwin IS the best mage of all of them. He is supposed to.

 

I always scoffed Nalia didn't dual to mage from a swashbuckler - that way her four (then better 5) thief levels would have made sense, but so ...

She is a mage with some more or less useless thieving skills, a nice ring and more weapon options compared to a standard mage. *shrugs*

I only take her for her quest and then kick her again.

 

Just curious but why does everyone who not like her take her for the Arnise hold quest? You don't need her for it. Just tell her to keep out of harms way, easy enough.

 

There all greedy XP grabbing hooligans like me
just wanting a piece of Isaea's ass to kick - or is that just me??

 

I guess the real reason is because there is the "flair O many heads" for grabbing.

 

@arian I ACTUALLY do take to that quest because it's quick and relatively easy in comparison to long side quests such as Watcher's Keep and Windspear Hills. But I almost always kick her out after the hold quest. If I need a mage that early I take Aerie or Edwin, depending on alignment.

 

It is unfortunate that both Imoen and Nalia have dual-classed at such low levels. It sort of cripples the point of doing so. Yes, Edwin is a better mage, but he is evil. Haer D'alis is great, but bards are severely handicapped when it comes to arcane spells.

So, in summary, no-one is hopeless, and on-one is outstandingly good. That's balance.

(That's also why I play with the Xan mod. What a mage... what an attitude... he's great!)

 

To tell the truth, the only reason i liked Nalia was the 10,000 gp reward I got for finishing her starting quest.

 

This topic has been done many times, but I always like to weigh in. Nalia can be just as good a mage as Imoen or even Edwin. Her combat potential exceeds that of Edwin as she can use light armor, bows and swords if necessary, her spellcasting can be augmented by items and her spellbook can be made to be every bit as varied as any other mage. Her personality is kind of fun sometimes, too, and as has been mentioned, you can have her for a lot longer than Imoen, which gives you more time to develop her. The only downside to her that I see is her relatively weak thieving ability, but in a pinch that can be altered as well with items or potions. It's how you use her!

 

Nobody has said that at higher levels Edwin eventually gets tt cast 5 level 9 spells!!!!! That's awesome - he's literally the best mage that you could possibly have, even the PC can't rival him.

I think the makers deliberately made the evil NPC brilliant because evil is always the easiar option. It does KILL me though not to take Edwin but role-playing is role-playing, plus Keldorn can't stand him.

 

I find Nalia is quite usefull with the simulacrum spell. Load her up with defense stripping spells to start, then when her sim comes into play, you'll be stripping enemy defense's like no body's business.

As for her theiving abilities....she's all thumbs!! Stick to the magic!

 

In TOB she's ok. She has a much better personality there, and she has become a little scary with her spells too.

 

Nalia is not useless.

This plaque is so demeaning, to label a great mind such as mine as "idiot of the week" with such nonchalent disregard shocks and baffles.

I think that the two ressurections I made were valid. Nobody had mentioned Anomen's Wisdom stat increase or made the obvious jape regarding "Order" and the paladins of SoA. I object to this title and request for its immediate withdrawal, subject to the fact that I am so obviously not an idiot and for my years of loyal service to Boards O' Magick.

 

Yay, first post

Now on to the topic. I've always found Nalia to just be an average mage who can use a shortbow and longsword. I noticed it was mentioned that she can cast any spell Edwin can, this is incorrect, she dosen't have 18 INT and thus can not access level 9 spells. Sure you can always buff her later with the machine. But then you can do the same for Imoen or even Sarevok if you want to dual him to a mage (portrait suits mage far more than fighter). Sarevok with any type of elven chain gives you one hell-of-a Fighter/Mage if you can be bothered working his mage level up (however kicking everyone in your party bar him and the PC to learn spells will grant you those levels pretty fast [freedom is a cheap spell for a level 9er]).

 

*is really getting sick of posting this*

Nalia can cast any spell Edwin can. Int is irrelevant for max level of spells, I don't care what the manual says. This is a rule that was supposed to be in the game and wasn't.

That said, I always found Nalia to be a good placeholder for Imoen, but as I've never used her past the asylum, I can't comment on her usefulness past that point.

 

Yeah Nalia is coolwith me! If anyone is not satisfied with the spells she has when she joins the party, invest money into buying scrolls for her. She became extremely useful for me once I did that. And then I dropped her for Yoshimo (because I knew how it would pan out) who I then had replaced by Imoen.

 

I did not know that. However I enjoy playing by the rules. I find changes to the rules like that rather cheesy.

 

The reason Nalia is better than Edwin is that she can cast timestop, use imp. haste, stoneskin, and mirror image and then tensor's transformation. Then she can pepper him with arrows of dispelling and arrows of detonation,

"But what about when timestop ends and she cant cast spells?"

Spell Sequencer with blur, haste, and improved invisibility.

If she is wearing the cloak of nondetection, he can't dispell the invisibility, all the while, she peppers him with arrows of dispelling or detonation. If he attacks her, she can just melee him with celestial fury.

 

Unless you're playing a thief, or using Jan, you really need Imoen more than Nalia.

Lock picking and traps finding skills are really important, IMO.