Bodhi's Headquarters

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I am about to go through there for the second time.(now with my stalker) I made it through last time, but it was quite bloody and inefficient. Does anybody have any specific tips or strategies?

My Party
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Aragorn- Level 12 Human Stalker
Minsc- Level 12 Human Ranger
Mazzy- Level 13 Halfling Fighter(I'm using her as a tank)

 

Two tips for you and some spoilers minor to major:

1)Give Minsc the Mace of disrupiton +1, if you have the +2 well give that to him.

2)Give Minsc the amulet that Linvail gives you, that gives protection from level drain. According to the amulet it says fighters and thieves I believe can't wear it. but it doesn't restrict rangers, but it does restrict paladins I think.

So unless you have a higher ac and also have a slot in mace, give Minsc the mace and the amulet if you don't have the +2 mace, and then beef Minsc up with the best armor you have in your party, boots of speed, ring of earth control, ring of gaxx, if you have it, etc, and have him cast bark skin, armor of faith, etc. He will seriously and I mean seriously wade through and also take out Bodhi, with that set up. Oh also give Minsc the Flail of the Ages, if you have it still, if not the Wyverns Tail morningstar.

But that's the best advice I can give you. Oh also give him 6 potions of extra healing, just in case for some reason with high ac he does take damage.

I hope that helps, but that's what I did with Minsc in that battle, I also had him with a helm of charm prot, so he didn't get charmed. I only had two probs with him, 1) Tanova, when she held him, which kinda bit, and 2) the room with all the spiked traps.

Oh, if you have those bottles of holy water, put them in the first blood pool, where you get the mace initially, and before you start laying into Bohi, put the bottles into one of the blood pools in the final battle. That will help.

As for the rest of your party ? Well, I left all of my party in the first room, away from all the vampires, but that vampire that appears in your first room after you walk up the corridor, well I justr sent Minsc back to dispose of him, when he appeared. I think one of my party members lost a level, but I had everyone weigh in and get rid of him quickly. No hope.

 

You get the mace of disruption from the blood pool in the sideroom to the left, right? I don't think Aran's amulet will work on Minsc.(or I would have put it on my main character)Where do I get helm of charm protection?(save killing Olaf)
Also, should I infiltrate the big cacoon or leave it alone? I left it alone last time. Is there any treasure I missed by not doing that?

 

you can also get alot of help from friends in teh battle too, you can get aid form the paladins if you go to the radiant heart, you can get help from drizzit (you should encounter him at some point in your travels), and you can get help from the shadow thieves.

 

Sorry, I guess I was not clear. This is my first time through the crypts in this game(I've been through there in a previous game)

 

Have you been to the City Gates district? I'm sure you'll find a certain sword that'll help you a bit.

 

Do you have to fight "The Big One" to get Daystar?
If so, then that won't work.

 

Who's this "big one"?

Spoiler

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If you're talking about Mr. Lich, it shouldn't be too much of a problem, seeing as how your characters are of, ah, adequate level. I don't remember if Protection from Evil is a spell available to Rangers, but if not, yeah, I correct myself and say that the Pit Fiend will probably take you out. Maybe you should just try to snatch the weapon, then make a break for it.

 

So does anyone know where I can get a helm of charm protection?(it works against domination, right?)And from what I've heard, I really think Kangaxx would totally waste me.

 

A Helm of Charm Protection can be found in the Harper's Stronghold. Not sure if it protects against Domination, though.

Kangaxx wasting you? Pffft.

 

Huh. I always heard that Kangaxx was big and bad. Do you know specifically where in the Harper Stronghold?

 

Big bad and bad? Yeah, he can... do death howl. Which so far hasn't worked on my character. And Imprisonment at will. And, uh, yeah. Did I mention Imprisonment?

But seeing as how you're playing with a trio of warriors, things are complicated. But get a scroll of Protection from Magic, and once you've gotten to the Demi-lich part, use that on (whoever) and have the other party members escape.

The Helmet in question is found on the first floor, northeast section of the Harper Stronghold. It's behind a portrait of an eye; watch out, it's trapped. If it doesn't grant protection towards Domination, I suggest using some potions.

[EDIT: Wait a second, can a Ranger or Fighter use a Scroll of Protection from Magic? If not, d'oh! I guess you outta just bring a Mage along for the ride in that case. ]

[ February 23, 2003, 05:26: Message edited by: C'Jakob ]

 

A couple notes and questions.

1. Could backstab be effective?

2. Which mage would you recommend?

3. What is death howl?

4. To do this, and thus get DayStar, I would have to assemble Kangaxx, wouldn't I? Would the sword be worth it to fight 5 liches and do the unseeing eye quest?(which I hate)

P.S. This has sort of gone off topic into a how to kill Kangaxx topic, hasn't it?

 

You only need to fight the lich in the City Gates to get Daystar. No other liches are necessary.

Death Howl, in my opinion, is like a Wail of the Banshee.

 

Okay, well since it's your first run of Bodhi's lair this time, and not the battle after you come back from Brynnlaw and the Underdark.

You should still have I think, at least the Amulet from Linvail, and if you definitely have this, which I'm 100% certain he grants you this as the cleaning up of Bodhi's Lair the first time, so you can go to Brynnlaw and Spellhold. PUT the amuelt on Minsc or your ranger, TRUST ME!. That's exactly what I did with Minsc, I did have the amulet on my mage, but swapped it to run Minsc through, and still sent him through I think until I picked up the mace in the first pool of water, with flail of the ages and the wyverns tail I believe. But given there are so few vampires in the first run through, you could quite easily just send your whole party up and take the vampires out, you'll lose a few levels if you're unlucky, sure. But you'll survive long enough, the only battle you have to worry about is the battle in the spiked pit room. But if you have Minsc, preferably, since you're not likely to have given your Ranger a rank in Mace, Minsc will seriously pulverise all of the Vamps on his own.

Possible Spoiler below:

Also, don't forget Minsc's berserk ability makes him immune to domination, charm, maze, imprisonment, hold, etc, etc, etc. Only prob is losing 15 hps at the end I think it is.

I hope this helps as well, I'd still apply what I suggested in my previous post to both run throughs of Bodhi's Lair, ie Chapter 3 and Chapter 6. Mainly still use Minsc for the one reason, he has two +'s in MAce when you get him in Johnny's dungeon. It's a bonus, and only Mazzy could equate to Minsc in your current party, and that would only be possible if you gave Mazzy mace proficiencies from the very start, which I wouldn't really see the point in doing in.

 

My stalker has a point in flail and the Flail of the Ages, and Minsc has 2 points in mace and a mace+2. If I can stick the amulet on Minsc, I can stick it on my stalker. What would work better?

 

1. Possibly. If you're using a +4 weapon or above.

2. Take your pick. Preferrably one you won't miss.

4. Getting Daystar involves fighting this random lich. It's not Kangaxx.

 

Heph, for the last time, sheesh man

Case 1) If for some reason you have the upgraded Mace of Disruption +2:
Give Minsc the mace, and give yourself the amulet, providing you can boost both of their AC's up to about -7 if not better.

Case 2) If you do NOT have the Mace of Disruption +2 and only have the +1:
Give Minsc the mace and the amulet and boost his ac up with red dragon armor or soemthing similar and spells.

Question: Why not give your main char the mace and the amulet, providing it's not the +2 mace of disruption ?

Answer: Because you will suffer I believe a -4 penalty to hit with the Mace due nto not having any proficiencies in the Mace, that's why you give the mace to Minsc, and give him the amulet as well, if you don't have the +2 MoD.

But, and I mean but, if you can't get the Mace of Disruption quickly, then by all means, send your main char through with the amulet, pick the mace up, go back to the entrance where you left your party, give the amulet to Minsc and then give him the +1 MoD.

Simply, Minsc is the best choice to send solo into Bodhi's Lair in Chapter 3 and 6.

Explanation for exactly these reasons below:

Possible Spoiler:

Black Isle/Interplay/Wizards-TSR/BioWare specifically set up chars even back in BG1 and BG1:TotSC, if you remember.

Example 1: Imoen, she was a thief in BG1, why give her such high int in BG1 ? Because they'd already planned on dual classing her in BG2. Mind you, if they'd left her as a straight thief, she would of been awesome, but I can understand why they dual classed her.

Example 2: In BG2:SoA specifically, they introduced racial enemies for rangers, which I don't think were in BG1, they may have been, but I think they also did some tweaking of weapon proficiencies between BG1 and BG2. This can be outlined through Minsc speicifcally, and your main char, whether it be a fighter, thief, nage or cleric, where you got to reallocate weapon proficiencies, thieving skills and spells.

Now the creators of BG2, designed npc's and the items out there around two things in particular:

1) SoA was specifically set up as a vampire chapter in the BG series; and
2) Has anyone noticed the amount of eq, and the amount of dragons you also fight in BG2:SoA and ToB, and what the paladin kits are ? They specifically set the whole of BG2:SoA and ToB, for your main char primarily to be a paladin. Just take a look at the items you can get Cromwell and your imp to make ? Paladin Bracers, Red Dragon Armor, etc etc etc, not to mention a +5 and then in ToB a +6 Holy Avenger, and the paladin kits ? Undead Hunter ideally set up for BG2:SoA, Cavalier for the dragons, the planar sphere, and the planar prison in SoA, and all the demons and dragons in BG2:ToB, Inquisitor I guess for all the hold and charm creatures who like attacking you and the true sight ability, due to how many illusions there are at times. (Okay i fall down on the Inquisitor explanation)

Anyway, I sidetrack on my point about Minsc. There is three innocuous things: 1) they made his racial enemy vampire; 2) they gave him maximum proficiences in mace and maximum proficiencies in two weapon style. Not to mention, what did they give him along with 2 +'s in Two Handed Sword ? 1 + in Axe and 1 + in Mace ? Again why those two ? Flail for the flail of the ages and the wyverns tail. Axe, gee how many good axes are there out there ; and 3) then there's Linvails amulet he gives you, which has negative plane protection which equates to level drain immunity, and who can wear it ? Rangers, Clerics and Mages. Fighters and Paladins can't. I'm not sure about thieves and bards. But I was definitely surprised when I found out Rangers could wear the amulet.

So given those three points:
1) Vampire racial enemy: Minsc is the man to fight them due to the extra to hit and extra to damage he can deal out to them;
2) 2 +'s in Mace: well unless you go in with a char and give him/her mace proficiency, or Minsc, or Anomen. Really, a fighter with mace proficiency is the only other option other than Minsc, Anomen practices more with Warhammer than anything I believe, I could be wrong about that; and
3) THE amulet: Well Minsc can use it, the other option is you give it to your cleric if you have one or your mage. Your spellcaster if you don't give it to Minsc is immune to Silence 15' radius, immune to level drain, and decrease spell casting speed, and if it's your cleric, let me see False Dawn, a couple of times, the Vampires will save against one false dawn, but saving against more than one in a row, yeah right. They're dazed, then send the fighters in thump. Or you have your mage throw off cloud kills or whatever.

But overall due to what they did to BG1 npc's in BG2, the creators expect the general player to have two people in their party:
1) Paladin(yourself, most likely the undead hunter) and 2) Minsc.

I think all the evidence specifically points to Minsc though, else they wouldn't of seen a need to give him vampire as his racial enemy. or 2 +'s in Mace.

As a final note, the other ranger in BG2, Valygar, what's his racial enemy ? Golems. I think that proves my point on how they've set BG2 npc's up. Two other good examples are: Imoen hey threw in every thieving armor they could make, and when you're almost through BG2, they put in elven chain mail for her to wear, so you can use her mage stuff again, but if you have the Collectors Edition you have her with the vecna robe; and Mazzy? Why give her so many pluses in short bow ? 3 Reasons: 1) Tuigan Bow in Copper Coronet - 3 shots a round; 2) Tasheron's Bow in Trademeet - requires no ammo, but will use ammo; and 3) Gesen Bow towards the end - requires no ammo but will use ammo. There are other npc's I can point to, but I've waffled way too long

 

Man, you have really analysed(sp?)this game. Thanks for all of your help everybody. I'm going to make the assault tonight.

EDIT: The amulet does not work on rangers or any warrior types. Also, I cannot open the secret door in the crooked crane. What strength does it take?

[ February 26, 2003, 01:50: Message edited by: Hephaestus ]

 

The easiest way to beat the stronghold is simply to use a scroll of undead protection. I don't think chars need to be a mage or cleric to use protection scrolls (though I could be mistaken). Throw the protection on your fighter of choice and watch the vamps sit still while you hack/bludgeon them to pieces.