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Thinking about a party with only Aerie as my priest. I'm thinking she'll be enough, but I'd like to get everyone else's opinion on the matter. Whaddaya think?

Well, she has to be. I just like the characters I have too much. Me - Kensai/mage dualled at lvl 12, Keldorn (Carsomyr obviously), Minsc (NO BG without him and his giant space hamster), Valygar (love archers), Jan Jansen (his comments are funny especially with Minsc in the party) and Aerie. Don't want to take Viconia mainly because of the alignment issue but also because I took her portrait for my main character and have been told that she then will get Dynaheirs portrait from BG.

I had her has my only priest. It worked out great. She is a real good character (although she can be anoying) becuase of her being a mage/priest. U only really need more priests if u play bad (memorize the wrong spells...). HEr mage abilities are a BIG PLUS compared to a only mage or priest character

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beer-for-love

Aerie makes a competant cleric especially if you give her Vecna Robe, Ring of Holiness paired with a Ring of Acuity or Wizardy, and add on a Alduran Staff. It'll make her even better. The only downside I could see from having her and not going with Edwin/Viconia combo, besides the Alignment question, would be her 16 wisdom and 16 intelligence. Clerics get more spells with higher wisdom and they are cumulative with each level. Mages you know.

I thought Aerie was only alright as a priest; Jaheria or Viconia work much better. If you're going for mage power though, Aerie and Nalia are a good combo, but Aerie's limited intelligence hurts in the long run by comparison to Nalia.

Aerie was too much cleric, I found. I dumped Jaheira as quickly as I could, so for most of the game Aerie was the only priest I had. Even then, I rarely used her spells, later in the game you just don't need priest spells. I would have dumped her long ago and had no priests, but I felt too guilty leaving her all alone in the world . BG2 makes wizards much more powerful, in my opinion. As for her intelligence, it's enough to cast 8th level spells, and getting her to a high enough level to cast ninth level spells would require the XP cap remover and a lot of time (I don't even think it would be possible with a party of six going through the game once). With the XP cap, she'll only get level six spells, so you'll want at least one other mage (I've got three plus Aerie ), but she's priest enough for sure.

Priest spells becoming obsolete in late game?? What are you talking about? Are we talking about the same priests in BG II??

What about Bless, Chant, Lesser Restoration, Sunray, Animate Dead, Dispel Magic, Negative Plain Protection, Protection from Evil 10' Radius??

Not useful?!? I would reconsider ... these spells are way too useful to ignore.

hmm...im not tha save every second guy so i need a priest for his/her raise dead, restoration, healing and chant (Man that spell rulez). Ever wanted a pitfiend to rip your enemy's apart???? Perhaps its a good idea to let your priest give ya some protection.

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beer-for-love

Sunray and Bolt of Glory are two examples of excellent priest spells they often work through Spell shield and other protective magics. (can be especially useful against Kangaxx )

Priests have greater fighting abilities, and more weapon selections as well as being able to use shields, the list goes on of why priests kick ass.

For some reason, I never really got Bolt of Glory to work properly. It used to say

Viconia - cast spell: Bolt of Glory

and then nothing! No damage, no effects, no nothing! Yes, I'm casting it against a person (I don't even know if you can target it anywhere else), I see an object flying from the cleric to the target, and the person is alive upon impact. But nothing happens!

Am I missing something here? Perhaps mis-read the spell text?

It shoots a bolt like a crossbow bolt and once it hits the target it should show the same animation as Sunray. THats the best description i can give you

Mm ... perhaps it only works against a certain number of hit dice, and not beyond or something ... I will check out the spell description somewhere soon.

i have the same problem with bolt of (no)glory. My friends told me that it kicks ass but it doesnot seem to work, exept against tiny goblins (yeah woeha)

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beer-for-love

It would be advisable, IMHO to take another cleric along

some nice spells include

silence 15' radius ( my fav. )
heal
animal summoning ( i think they are better than monster summoning of equivalent lvl )
insect swarm ( druid )

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When hope has no champion, evil conquers all.

As i understand it you can not cast rest until healed without a cleric/druid.

I haven't played BG2 without at least one priest in my party, so I can't say for sure, but if it works like IWD, it'll be like this:

You *can* rest until healed, but it will take a ridiculously long time (up to 30 days sometimes). Can anyone confirm how this works in BG2? Same as IWD or different?

In BG2, rest until healed does not take that long ( mebbe a day at most ), in IWD, I also had 12 days for my party to rest until healed.

So BG2's option is more logical

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When hope has no champion, evil conquers all.

Nagash, perhaps you understood what I meant. But just to be sure, let me ask...is that for parties with no cleric or druid in them? If you had any priest of any sort in your party in IWD, it would take 16 hours to rest until healed. But the long resting periods I'm talking about are for when you have no priest-class party members.

Well, sorry can't help u there Hazim ( I have three priest )

Anyway, u can always put on the ring of gaxx and regen to speed things up rite??

BTW, in IWD I had a druid and a cleric with lots of healing memorized

I think that in BG2, they cast their healing spells once they gain it, unlike IWD, which just did not use the spells at all during the rest periods



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When hope has no champion, evil conquers all.

There's an Ioun Stone as well which regens your character as does the aforementioned Ring. I just passed them from each char to the next till they are suitably ready.