GoatBoySteve: Imoen vs Nalia - Imoen has more thief levels, enough that between the various magical items you will rarely need to use potions for thief skill enhancement. She's also the more likable of the two for my money. To her credit, Nalia has a VERY nice ring that only she can wear and she is available very early in the game. They are functionally similar though, Neutral Good aligned, short bow wielding, more or less pure class mages. Edwin - Edwin is, as most people can agree, the single strongest mage in the game. He's even got what most consider to be the best of the mage kits, the Conjurer kit. He also gets more spell slots than even a normal Conjurer. His only draw backs are that he is evil and is ONLY good at casting spells. Jan, Haer'dalis, & Aerie - These three are your secondary casters, unless you're going with a smaller party. They all sacrifice casting power for versatility, but that's works for a secondary caster. Jan, as a gnome, can only be a mage of the Illusionist kit, but this is a bonus, as due to this gnomes are the only race that can multiclass a mage kit. He is also a damn fine thief and can get Thief HLA's. Haer'dalis isn't really a mage at all, but can cast lower level mage spells and at a level higher than mages due to his level progression being as fast as a thief's. He also has his bard song, thief HLA's and with some buffing can be pretty good at combat. Aerie is nice in that she is basically a secondary mage and a secondary cleric all in one. Being half cleric allows her use of helms and shields, which is also nice. Being able to load cleric spells into mage sequencers and contingencies is fun too. Note: Jan and Haer are Chaotic Neutral, Aerie is Lawful Good. It's up to you which you prefer, but I might take Nalia up until you get Imoen back and then swap her out. And of course, have one of the secondary casters along as well.
Wow. Thank you so much for that comprehensive response. I will take all of that into consoderation
Cullen12: there aren't too many guides that tell you the chosen subkit of various mage npc's. Is that even a thing? Do I need to worry about specification when choosing my mages?
anamorphic: Not really. Missing a few spells is not an issue if you have two mages anyway, since the primary can pick up the slack. I've had short sessions with every caster except Edwin (I'll be getting him for my EVIL play through), but I eventually settled on
Jan Jansen. He has since become perhaps my favorite NPC. He loves to tease everyone and rambles on with long pointless stories that go wildly off-topic, much like myself. As a multi-class, his Thief abilities keep improving, getting 5x backstab, while being
invulnerable with the help of spells. And if you add proficiency points to set traps, does huge damage before the enemy even knew what hit them, followed by
massive damage with HLA traps. He makes unique crossbow ammunition that stuns and insect swarms enemy mages. His armor gives 25% physical damage resistance, and with the right items can get at least -5 AC, practically on par with my front-line fighters. And as an Illusionist, gets the extra spell per level and lots of "white" spells to complement his sneaking. Downside is he cannot learn Necromancy spells, and he levels rather slowly, so you really do need a single/dual class mage as the primary. (Edited: I've been spelling his name wrong this whole time!)
Anamorphic, thank you once again for your informed responses. I will take all of that into consideration.
I'm assuming it will be the case that, once I finally rescue Imoen, she will not have leveled in any significant way, though?
