How good is Jaheira?

Remove all ads!

How good is Jaheira? Check the stats, how big is her kill %? Compare it to another fighter, like Korgan or Minsc.

 

Yeah, but that's not always accurate, depending on your playing style. Maybe you use her more for buffing and protection. Maybe you use her for summoning to soak up damage, rather than to kill things for you. Maybe you use her to weaken enemies and defenses, and then send in the bigger hitters to finish the job. In all of these cases, you're kill percentage is irrelevant. That's only an effective way to measure her if you just use her for straight-up fighting...and she's too versitile to waste on melee alone.

 

Actually I don't normally take Jaheira or Minsc either one in the BG1 game. I like Kagain (with DEX gloves), Kivan, Shar-teel and Coran. Shar-teel = power.

In BG2, Jaheira = power.

Jaheira needs STR enhance item which are plentiful.
Minsc needs DEX enhance item which is unique.

Korgan, Keldorn and Minsc all 3 need DEX enhance item, so among those 3 guys, I will usually only ever take 1 of them in the same party.

 

Jaheira is a natural killer. (spear of piercing (+10 dmg one)/staff of woodlands)

Anyway, you must not give her the worst equipment because she's MC. For example, I always give her the first STR girdle, improving the front line better than if it was given to someone with bigger strength.
No need to say how evil the iron skins are (she has died two times - fingers of death).
Druid spells are not that useful (at least low level ones), but that is the reason you don't have full druid in the party. Sadly she doesn't have all the beneficial speels clerics have, but they don't have ironskins and those are better.

Well, in my party is most of the killing provided by me, but she's great protector of the party, killing every third enemy.

P.S. DON'T GIVE HER SLINGS - WASTE OF POTENTIAL

 

Giving her the sling of Seeking would not be a loss of potential if she has a belt of strength or is using a potion. I love that sling. I never waste it on Aerie -- even if she's hopped herself up via spells to 25 strength, she still has a sucky Cleric's THACO, while Jaheira has a fighter's THACO. As a distance weapon, that beats most darts.

 

1) But jaheira would be more efficient with meelee weapon as she would get STR bonus to hit. No way with sling of seeking

2) Clerical buffs (at least two of them) give thac0 of warrior of the same level. Aerie won't have sucky clerical thac0. She'll get sucky MC fighter one (about 6).

 

I thought that the Sling of Seeking specifically gives the strength bonus... perhaps I am wrong?...

 

Sling of seeking certainly does add strenght bonus to damage. Until recently i didnt know what that means, but now i think i've got it worked out.
It just adds the strenght bonus damage to damage done by the bullet.

And i certainly doesnt thing slings are wasted on Jaheira at all.


To me she's great. Wearing a heavy armor and tower shield with that much dexterity bonus she has as much AC as any fighter would have. In this aspect she's equivalent to fighter.
Her THAC0 is not all that great as a fighter in SoA but in ToB she gets the same as fighter one. THAC0 is limited to 0 for all classes and Jahiera being a multiclass fighter/druid gets to that limit pretty fast. Then her to hit chance is as good as fighters.


The only disadvantage she's got compared to a clear warrior is her weapon limitation. But there are quite some good examples of those weapons she uses. Impaler for instance. Staff of woodlands. Belm. Spectral Brand. Fire tooth....


P.S. Dont be so mean with your summoning spells
Dont you realise that summoning a ally drags him from his home and gets him to your side. If he dies (when does he not?) he is GONE.

 

Not necessarily, Gothmog. Elementals send an essence over that creates a body on this plane -- something similar to a deity's avatar. Same thing goes for devas and planetars. Other summons, well, you're right, but life is cheap!

That doesn't sound very LG, does it? Maybe more neutral?

Anyone who uses Jaheira -- or anyone -- as only a front line fighter is a little silly, (and yes, I know I have done it myself) -- ranged fighting is smart fighting. Cavaliers can use axes, as can Kensai, IIRC, and discretion is the better part of valor!

 

It has been universally recognized that Jaheira is pretty much the most useless NPC. Get used to it.

 

* steps over the corpse of the banned idiot *

Ahem.

@ Dep

I agree. Relying almost exclusively on melee muscle isn't the best way to go at all. That said, it's much harder to do it in BG2 vs. say, IWD1. The monsters in IWD1 moved very slowly for the most part, so you could pelt them a round or 3 worth of missiles before they even get to you. Most of the BG2 monsters move much faster, but you should have a round or two at least. I say unless they're pelting you long range or protected from missiles, let them come to you first.

Same principle with Jahiera. Like said above, I've used the Sling of Seeking with her to devastating effect. Her fairly high dexterity improves your thac0, and with the Belt of Hill Giant Strength you're getting a +7 damage bonus per bullet. 1d4+1+7 = 9 - 12 damage with normal bullets. Not incredible, but 5 or 6 of those pills in 2 rounds will significantly weaken anybody, making it easy for your tanks to move in and finish the job in a swing or 2.

Thoughts?

 

I must say, to me, she has never been very good or usefull. So I never use her. But, listen to what others say, his is just my two cents.

 

I played with her in both ways. As pure slingshooter and spearfighter with boots of speed. Her main advantage in the latter case was the enemy stopping, but her overal effectivness was much greater (more damage, more kills). And as I already said, she DON'T die.

Anyway I was using SoS with Viconia, because that 4th level buff spell gives her fighter's thaco, str of 18/00 and she has 19 dex. I had her cast it for every major battle (optionaly with draw upon holy might, which made her thaco and damage better than anyone other's).

 

That depends what you mean when you say How good?
*evil grin*

 

Another lawyer! God save us!

 

Beren. All the best in all your endeavours.

I meant that I was surprised because I know of your "feelings" for Jaheira!

I reckon she is the most realistic of the 3 romance options. If I knew a person called Viconia I'd call her a ***** to her face and smash it! If I knew a girl called Aerie I would vomit then run over her in a steamroller!

Jaheira I could live with. She's mostly normal.

 

@dmc

I have the modified Shapeshifter patch as well, and was wondering: do you get his Werewolf Attack as an equipable item as well? I'm certain this must be a bug, regardless it quite obviously is totally broken as he can then shapeshift at will and regains hit points everytime he does so, effectively giving him an unlimted Heal at will. Considering this you're right. Cernd is much better than Jahiera, if you can stand the cheesiness of it.