First, I will say that I did read the old thread where it was discussed whether to change Imoen or Nalia to sorcerer. I think that was before IA 5.0. Obviously Imoen was changed, and I'm cool with that. She rocks.

Nalia, however, wasn't changed in any way except for redistributing her thieving abilities to make her better as a lock-picker and trap disarmer.

I have a suggested change that may have been mentioned before, but really sounds reasonable to me. There's a few reasons why that I'll detail below. This is an appropriate discussion now since we're also discussing Nalia's weapon proficiencies over in the vanilla game bugthread.


The change: convert Nalia to a Swashbuckler/Mage. Swashbuckler level should be somewhere between 5 and 7.

Rationale:
1) As I've seen others mention, I believe that Nalia shouldn't be able to backstab. It's just not a "noble" thing to do.

2) Swashbuckler could be rationalized by thinking of a noble upbringing - dancing, gracefulness, blah blah blah. That sort of nimbleness of movement might translate well into the sorts of combat manuevers that a swashbuckler can do. I'd have to think that Nalia is smart enough to use whatever skills she has for the best possible advantage in combat. She does have an 18 dexterity after all.

3) As for levels, obviously it'd be really beneficial to be at least 5th (swashbuckler, for the +1 to hit/damage and the additional -1 armor class.) Furthermore, it adds 25 more thieving skill points.

Since the 3 remaining NPC thief choices all have differing reasons why they're reallly not very useful long-term, I suggest that Nalia be boosted as a thief (swashbuckler) to level 7. This won't add any new weapon proficiencies nor swashbuckler skills - past what she gets for Swashbuckler level 5 (above) - but it will add some much needed thieving points (75 more than current.) These extra thieving skill points should be used to further help her pick locks (too low currently IMHO) and maybe some on move silently/hide in shadows (she DID 'sneak out' of the fortress after all.)

Even if her Swash level is increased as high as 7, she could still join the party as a 7/8 Swash/Mage (130,000 XP), or even possibly Swash 7/Mage 9 (175,000 XP) depending on how much experience you want her to start with. Anomen, by comparison, is at least a 7/8 Fighter/Cleric at the same point (174,000 XP.)

Also a side note: Thief-7/Mage dual is exactly what Imoen was before she was converted to a sorcerer. I've also heard it said that Nalia is nowhere near as powerful as Imoen later in the game, despite her nice ring upgrade. Giving her a bit more usefulness from her first profession will serve to make her more useful and complete. IMO.

4) Finally, proficiencies. If she's a swashbuckler, she can take ** in a weapon. She got 3 weapons as a Thief/Swashbuckler - assuming at least level 4 but not level 8. I'd suggest Shortsword ** and Shortbow *. Then, as a mage she gets an initial weapon (probably quarterstaff *), and another at level 6, possibly the single weapon style (*) that others have suggested.


What do the rest of you think of this idea? And what does the 'lord of all he surveys' think?

G-

I like very much the idea. I agree with you that to be a Swashbuckler is much better from role playing view than to be a thief. She is a noble and it fits much better to her background.

My list of proficiences for her:

- short sword (it is more suitable for a girl then a long sword)
- dagger
- two-weapon style ++ (she has a very high dexterity, so she could be very talented in two-weapon fighting)
- quater staff

I think I'd get hit if I said something like that in my house.

Does it mean that your wife is skilled with long sword?

I hate it when my wife leaves the house with a long sword she obviously can't wield properly.

Anyway, doesn't seem like a bad idea, doesn't change much though. Nalia will still be useless compared to a fully-fledged sorcerer. Buuuut then again it's not necessarily about making everything comparably powerful and from a roleplaying point of view I'd say it makes more sense.

So yeah, I give it a thumbs up.

GO NALIA!!! For the neeedy!!! Whacking her way, dual-wielding celestial fury and boneblade dagger, under tenser's, girdle of strenght + imp.haste. For the neeeedy!!!

Is there anyone that doesn't dual wield, aside from the 2-handed users? Or at least doesn't want to?

Dual-wielding would be nice but I don't think it reflects who Nalia is. She isn't a fighter and shouldn't really be wanting to get into combat. I don't think she's learning her weapons saying to herself "Someday I'm going to cast Tenser's Transformation, PfMW, Improved haste, pull out my 2 weapons and go kick some butt!"

Specializing in 1-2 weapons makes more sense to me, particularly shortsword. It seems fitting, even moreso than the longsword I'd suggested when bringing up the missing proficiency. And maybe she should have single-weapon style; I don't think anyone else knows it. Maybe Yoshimo...? And who uses him?

Well, I would go for dual wielding or staffs any day over sword and buckler or singe weapon style which is practically useless, even more so for any mage-type with all their protections. Critical is nice, but you only get two attacks with haste, and with her 14 strenght it's pathetic. Only good weapons are actually spectral brand for level drain prot and such items with various protections. I use mages with staffs, they're probably most useful and most powerful weapons in IA. and there are 4 very useful staffs to get, so you'll have plenty.

Please correct me if i'm wrong, but doesn't single weapon style beat 1h/shield in the long run for AC as the cap is 2 higher for single weapon style (assuming ** proficieny)

I know this negates any non ac bonuses granted from a shield