Talk:Viconia DeVir/@comment-35434313-20200219054824/@comment-8506165-20200222142818

I mean, technically, any character can be considered "redundant" because you don't need any character/class/whatever to complete the game. People have completed the game solo with most of the classes out there.

Viconia isn't that useful in super-late game fights compared to a lot of other party members, that's true; she won't do much against Amelyssan. But the Amelyssan fight isn't the entirety of the game. Viconia is useful through BG for access to great early cleric spells like Command, Bless/Chant, Hold Person, Silence 15' Radius, Animate Dead and of course, just serving as the party healer. Into BG2 Animate Dead remains useful because it scales up to the 90% magic resistant Skeleton Warriors who can trivialise a lot of fights because a lot of powerful enemies rely on magic. Viconia also provides a number of god-tier buffs like Chaotic Commands, Protection from Evil 10' radius (lasts for hours, is effectively -2 AC for the entire party in most encounters), Death Ward, etc... and in both games despite her poor CON she's the tankiest cleric available between 19 DEX and Drow MR, so she's rarely disabled in a fight.

Her main drawbacks are only 10 STR (easily remedied), no access to Holy Smite (hurts, but you can make do without) and no fighter levels making her decidedly average when it comes to just attacking when compared with Yeslick or Anomen. But you can partially remedy this with self-buffs so she's not entirely useless, she just won't be swinging as hard as a dedicated fighter. Depends how much you value her tankiness and extra spell slots when compared with the NPC clerics who actually have fighter levels.