my main caracter is a fighter/mage. now i am about to finish nalia´s quest for her castle. i was told that she will give it to me when i finish her quest. now i don´t know if i should take it or if i should take the mage´s stronghold instead later in the game.
how should i decide? what stronghold is better? mage´s or fighter´s?

Take the mage IF you get the choice, it's better, it's in the city and you'll use it more to store your stuff. De'Arnise Hold was a good idea, but it's out of the way and too much of a hassle to go in and out, back and forth to it.

Syl...

Percy my gnome fighter/illusionist had no trouble whatsoever with having BOTH strongholds...

Think about it like having a town house and a weekend residence on the countryside :D

i would take the keep if i were you. i read on another board about a BG2 review. i went into the strongholds section and it said that one of the later quests for the keep is that it gets stormed by a neighboring feifdom and you and your men-at-arms have to save the castle.

Fighting isn't that cracked up to be, personally. There is enough of it in the game that its enjoyable and having the Keep, I wanted to do something else. Why couldn't *I* invade another part of Amn to claim as my own? It's still fighting, but makes things a little more interesting.

At least with a Mage Stronghold, you get to make magical items, one being the Staff of Power.

Syl...