Alena, Halfling Priest of Lathander, Canon Party Run: Mae'Var's Guild Hall- Anything You Can Do Aerie Can Do Better
Having defeated the fallen paladins and those lovable kidnappers, we were almost ready to leave the bridge district. We just had one more chore to attend to, stealing an anhkeg shell. When the subject is thievery, it's sensible to think of a thief. Sensible, but wrong. Clerics are better thieves than thieves because of Sanctuary, and cleric/mages are better thieves than clerics because of knock.
Sanctuary. Knock. Find Traps. Skull Traps, Glyphs, and Symbol Spells. Aside from backstabbing, Aerie has all the thief skills covered. What's that you say? Harm? Right! I forgot about that. Aerie is a better thief than a thief, isn't she? There are no exceptions.
And so it was fitting that Aerie led the way in our infiltration of Mae'Var's Guild Hall. Aerie was hesitant at first, but she took to the task. After all, stealing from Talossans is a lot more exciting than any circus.
Even though the EE gutted Polymorph Self, it's still a usable spell. Our plan for the mephit encounter was to buff Aerie against fire and cold, and then let her go to town polymorphed. I was debating between the flind and the sword spider, when I noticed David had overhauled the spell. I was all.
We've gone from the original adventure's flind with 3 APR and a +3 halberd, plus a sword spider with 5 APR, poisoning without a save, to the EE's 2 APR each, with the sword spider poison offering a save. Huge change, right? And now David has overhauled it again. The flind and his halberd are gone. So is the ogre and his awesome backstabbing weapon. Now we have a giant with a spear and an ogre mage? Maybe I'll come around on this but as of right now, I'm not happy. The EE nerfed Polymorph Self so much that David had to buff it and now David's buffs have made it unrecognizable. Whatever: Aerie wasn't about to let that get her down. She's ok with being a giant.
After the mephit fight, Aerie was a little peaked. She needed a pick me up. How about a Red Bull?
Oops. Sorry, Aerie. It's not, like, literal. How about a double macchiato instead?
With Aerie taking a breather on the golem floor, things didn't go as smoothly. We just let the golems wail on Jaheira until her Iron Skins peeled. Unsubtle, unsophisticated, inefficient, but also all we needed.
I don't know about you, but I think you're supposed to insta-kill Rayic Gethras. It's a thieves' mission. You use thief skills for Mae'Var's other task, and this mission is unambiguously an assassination. Plus, these days Rayic isn't even rocking Stoneskins. It's an invitation to a backstab.
Or, in our case, a Harm -> Victor charge. Jaheira handled this one, but once Aerie has an L6 this task with slide over to her portfolio. Her arcane buffs make her better suited to it.
Onto Edwin's documents. Once again, Aerie handled this. Now that she has the Nymph Cloak to go with her Ring of Human Influence, Aerie doesn't even need Friends for missions like this.
Back to the guild hall, and Mae'Var's test of thief skills. Having a little trouble there, Yosh? Don't worry, I'll take care of it.
Thieving. Tanking. Casting. Debuffing. Summoning. You name it and Aerie is the best at it. Ok, Jaheira is better at backstabbing right now, but wait a few levels and Aerie will be queen of that too.
Aerie did get one thing wrong in this fight, but that's on me, not her. I accidentally repositioned her while she was casting True Sight. That was regrettable, what with all the thieves on the field.
That's ok, Yoshi doesn't need to see them to Special Snare them. And check out Minsc, using his range 2 weapons from behind that impenetrable wall of witch. You've got it, Minsc: keep those MIs up and let Aerie take the lead. That's the way forward for you. In fact, it's the way forward for all of us. All we need to do is get behind Aerie and we'll make it to the promised land.
Best,
A.
