Viconia - Spoiler

[davfrahen]

Why is Viconia so weak? I just finished SOA and TOB with her and she kept getting walloped. She has strength 19, dexterity19, constitution 18, hit points of 137 and armour class 13.
Another disadvantage are her HLA. After a while, all she can get is scribe or make potions.
But I had to keep her behind me and limit her to using a catapult. For mellee she used club of detonation and shield style.
I know she has some fine spells, but I was forever protecting her. She was a nightmare in Watchers Keep.
I stuck with her because this is the first time I followed her romance all the way through and in my opinion, hers is the best romance of all.
I loved the way her character gradually changed and I would like her in my party all the time - so what am I doing incorrectly?

[Klorox]

You're not doing anything wrong. All classes and class combinations reach a plateau of sorts at a certain point. Single classed characters reach that point much sooner than duals or multiclassed characters. Clerics are one of the more boring classes at high levels.

There's a mod out there that allows you to change the NPC classes (only if you haven't met them yet... this doesn't help you much). I've used it to change Viccy into a C/T. It represents her very well and makes her more useful.

If I'm not using mods, I'd take Anomen for his fighting skills any day over Viccy. If I'm playing evil, I'd just fail his test for him.

[Faust]

While I would agree that single class characters plateau a bit earlier than multi-class characters, I don't think clerics are useless at high levels. They are still extremely powerful. Make sure you're using buff spells and the like. If you utilize the cleric's spell list to its fullest, you should have a potent character in Viconia.

You might check out the Divine Remix mod. It reconfigures Divine Magic to be more in line with P&P rules, and assigns a kit to various NPCs. In general, it's a well balanced mod. You might like the Nightcloak of Shar Kit assigned to Vic. I'll list it below:

Originally Posted by Divine Remix ReadMe

NIGHTCLOAK OF SHAR: Shar is the goddess of darkness, night, loss, and forgetfulness. Her main aspect is worshipped by those who deal in the night (such as thieves), who hate the light (such as goblin races and their allies), and who feel bitterness and loss. Her symbol is a black disk with a border of deep purple.

Shar's mortal enemy is the goddess Selûne and the two fight on a number of levels throughout their immortal lives. There is a continual war between the two faiths and jihads against Selûne and her followers are common where Shar is strong.

Clerics of Shar are called Nightcloaks. They exist outside the standard church hierarchy. Shar has no main temple, but instead has a scattering of cells and secretive places throughout the Realms. The Nightcloaks of Shar serve as contacts, messengers, and enforcers of the Dark Lady's will.

Nightcloaks of Shar can only be of Neutral Evil, Lawful Evil, Chaotic Evil, and True Neutral alignments.

Abilities:
- Spiritual Weapon: Chakram - 'Disc of Night' once per day
The Disc of Night is the spiritual weapon of Nightcloaks. The chakram is treated as a returning dart and is wielded as if the caster had grand mastery in the weapon. The chakram is a regular weapon at levels 1-5, +1 at levels 6-10, +2 at 11-15, +3 at 16-20, +4 at 21-25, and +5 at levels 26 and above. The spiritual weapon lasts for one round per level of the caster, up to 20 rounds.
- Immune to all forms of Blindness.
- From level 7 can cast Confusion once per day, as fourth level mage spell of the same name
- From level 9 can cast Feeblemind once per day, as fifth level mage spell of the same name
- From level 11 can cast Invisible Stalker once per day, as sixth level mage spell of the same name
- From level 14 can cast Power Word, Stun once per day, as seventh level mage spell of the same name

Sphere Access:
- Major access to the spheres of all, charm, combat, divination, guardian, necromantic, protection, and thought
- Minor access to the spheres of creation, elemental and healing
- No access to the spheres of animal, chaos, law, numbers, plant, summoning, sun, war, wards and weather

[fable]

You might also find Aerie more to your liking. At high levels she has all the mage and clerical spells, which means mage-based triggers that can use both types in tandem.

[Dummy]

i for my part dont think vicci is "weak"
she has a very good magic resistance, which makes her really strong vs mages, esp. with silence or miscast magic.

she is an elf after all that makes her quite fragile but buff her, use sanctuary and armor buff magic
and you can use the defender of easthaven, this will help her a lot she is not like Korgan or Big S a real tank but she can dispell magic, buff your party, and cast some very nice spells

i for my part would not change her for 3 annoymens

[davfrahen]

"for my part dont think vicci is "weak"
I buffed her with every spell she had but she just has to be protected. Like I said, I know she has great spells, but she was my only other companion, and this made things tricky - especially in those wretched magic-less rooms in Watchers Keep.
I shall investigate the other suggestions regarding a different kit.
I have Aerie with me this time, but I really enjoyed the storyline with Viconia`s romance. It was very well written (Flirt Pack installed).

[davfrahen]

"There's a mod out there that allows you to change the NPC classes (only if you haven't met them yet... this doesn't help you much). I've used it to change Viccy into a C/T. It represents her very well and makes her more useful."

You wouldn`t happen to remember where, would you?
I have searched but without any success.
C/T would be ideal.

[fable]

Originally Posted by davfrahen

"There's a mod out there that allows you to change the NPC classes (only if you haven't met them yet... this doesn't help you much). I've used it to change Viccy into a C/T. It represents her very well and makes her more useful."

You wouldn`t happen to remember where, would you?
I have searched but without any success.
C/T would be ideal.

He may be referring to the G3 BG2 Tweak Pack. If you check here, you'll see that one of the tweaks is:

A number of joinable NPCs that are in Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II have slightly different stats in both games. This component allows the player to use either the BG or BG2 stats for Viconia for a consistent experience. The changes will only show up in your game if you have not met Viconia yet.

Use BG stats - gives Viconia 15 Wisdom, as she has in BG
Use BG2 stats - gives Viconia 18 Wisdom, as she has in BG2

That doesn't change her class, but some of the other joinable NPCs do get that option. Khalid, for example, can be made an F/M, while Montaron becomes an assassin. But Viconia stays as she is.

That said, you can always go into Shadowkeeper and change her profession with ease.

[Celacena]

Vicky weak? have you said that to her face?

she has a lot of very nice abilities and I have her armed with the sling of arvoreen and the RuneHammer - with the right buffs she kicks a in a toe to toe fight.

I have her summon skeleton warriors a lot, plus storm of vengeance and a few other spells. crank her up with a few mass heals too. i don't find that she dies early in many fights.

her unbuffed ac is -7 or better and she's pretty useful. don't see the problem.

she's well into her 20s level-wise, but she was a good team member from the off.

[fable]

When still evill, you can also use her (when she levels sufficiently) to command undead she turns, instead of destroy them--a nice feature.

[Coot]

@Davfrahen: Viccy is arguably one of the most powerful npc's in BG. But, she is a cleric and should be used as one. That means casting spells to buff, heal and protect your party. Don't use her for melee combat. Give her a good sling instead and keep her in the back. If you keep your fighters in the frontlines there shouldn't be any problems.
Btw: her HLA's shouldn't be '...scribe or make potions'. Those are thieves HLA's.

[Klorox]

Originally Posted by Coot

@Davfrahen: Viccy is arguably one of the most powerful npc's in BG. But, she is a cleric and should be used as one. That means casting spells to buff, heal and protect your party. Don't use her for melee combat. Give her a good sling instead and keep her in the back. If you keep your fighters in the frontlines there shouldn't be any problems.
Btw: her HLA's shouldn't be '...scribe or make potions'. Those are thieves HLA's.

Yes, using her as such would be fine. I guess it's my playing style: I like it when Clerics can fight!

[Gorlam]

Originally Posted by Klorox

Yes, using her as such would be fine. I guess it's my playing style: I like it when Clerics can fight!

Just make a custom Cleric. Either a cleric/fighter multiclass or a beserker/cleric dual class character. I prefer to dual class myself. Then go dual wielding warhammers and you are set to go.

[Klorox]

Or I could just use Anomen.

[davfrahen]

My main problem is that she is my only other companion, so it isn`t always possible to keep her in the back line.
Her HLA were ok at first, but as there were only two of us in the party, and XP easyt to come by, all her useful ones were quickly used up.
A fighter has GWW which can be added on forever without the choice being used up.
Viccy`s HLA can be used once and then that particular one is no longer available.
I finished that game now and next time I shall take your advice and use Shadowkeeper to make her a Cleric/Thief and with my Fighter/Mage I think it will make a nice balance.