How should we protect Aerie?

Hello,

While playing BGII - SoA, I've noticed that Aerie is always at greatest
risk of being injured, if not dying, during combat, no matter what the
party mix. I haven't done much experimenting with gear, as I've been
focusing mostly on combinations of spells between casters for
protection, so I put it to all of you: what items are ideal in
protecting Aerie during combat, while not hampering her spellcasting
ability?

Thanks and happy gaming,
Eric

"Eric P. Peterson" <ericp06.DeleteThis@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:ericp06-FB21D5.09171131082007@newsclstr02.news.prodigy.com...
> Hello,
>
> While playing BGII - SoA, I've noticed that Aerie is always at
> greatest
> risk of being injured, if not dying, during combat, no matter what
> the
> party mix. I haven't done much experimenting with gear, as I've been
> focusing mostly on combinations of spells between casters for
> protection, so I put it to all of you: what items are ideal in
> protecting Aerie during combat, while not hampering her spellcasting
> ability?

(1) The spell Stoneskin. NEVER let her be un-Stoneskinned. If she is
hit enough times that the spell breaks, recast it IMMEDIATELY as a
first priority, and set your toughest fighters on her attacker to
distract or kill him.

(2) Good positioning, which is far more important than items. Control
her position manually so she does not walk near the monsters. Control
your fighters' position manually so they walk nearer to the monsters
than your mages, and are thus more likely to be targetted by both
melee attackers and spells. In corridors, keep her behind the rest of
the party, and when engaged, have her take a few steps backwards if it
does not bring her out of range.

(3) Spell of Haste, cast on the entire party. Acting faster = killing
faster.

(4) If you can summon monsters, DO SO. Animating the dead (Aerie can
do this) is excellent. Using summons as your front line troops is even
better because you can quite safely push them so far forward that they
may even draw the fire from area-effect attacks, which your *careful
positioning* of Aerie (and other low-HP characters) will keep her out
of the way of.

(5) In the "Unseeing Eye" quest below the Temple sewers, it is
possible to get a belt that casts a Constitution increase, up to 16,
once per day. This will get Aerie 2 hit points per level up to a
maximum of 20 HP. However, don't expect to get this until you have
finished the quest. (It is possible to complete this quest "the easy
way", straight off, by going in fighting against the human boss and
his minions and only meeting the one Monster-type boss, or "the hard
way" by playing through to the end, getting into two deeper
underground dungeons, and fighting far more monster minions. Either
gets the belt, but the latter nets far more experience and far greater
risk and far more other nifty items.

(6) If you happen to get enough Potions of Fortitude, use them.

(7) Don't expect scripts to do anything for you. Micromanage, and
always have her wielding a sling so that she can attack *from
distance* if she has run out of spells or wants to save them for
tougher monsters.

Jan Jansen, the gnome, can be similarly at risk, also having lousy hit
points. The other mages Edwin, Imoen and Nalia both have 16
Constitution, and are thus considerably more robust than Aerie or Jan.
(Interestingly, Viconia, despite a cleric's superior hit points, can
also be somewhat frail - not helped by the fact that she so often
wants to cast Holy Smite against crowds of Evil alignment enemies, but
this results in her being badly damaged by her own spell: and Unholy
Blight wouldn't hurt them.)



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