Tactical advice needed for a Stalker

Remove all ads!

I'm giving Valygar a try for the first serious time. Any and all tips are welcome!

 

Good topic Klorox

I am going to do the same and I have no idea how to use a Stalker best

 

I presume that you are playing a game with no tactical mods installed. Here are my tips for such a game. If you have game enhancing mods such as Improved Anvil, the tips will be more and different. In that case tell me and I will give you more hints.

1- Use Valygar's stealth ability everytime you can. He can explore the map for you in many areas and return to report what lies ahead. He is a scout.

2- Haste Valygar or give him Boots of Speed and then in particular circumstances he can clear up an entire area for you. I have actually cleared the entire shadow temple with Valygar alone very easily for several times. The way to go is this:
2a) Use stealth and go to backstab/kill the first enemy. Then retreat back to behind a wall or somewhere far from the site of the second enemy. You are hasted and quick. Now hide in shadows again and go back to bakstab the second enemy and go on till every one is killed. This methods works in some areas such as shadow temple which has lots of walls and rooms.

2b) If the second enemy is far or slow you can even play with more risk and fun. While the enemy is still far, shift to long bow and fire missiles. When the enmey gets closer retreat to somewhere out of his site and hide in shadows. The enemy will follow Valygar to the deadly backstab trap. (Note that Valygar should be your first candidate for wearing boots of speed.)

3- Give Valygar a batch of invisibility potions for cases he can't retreat to hide in shadows. He can quaff potions for doing more backstab attacks.

4- You can even summon a few monsters to occupy enemies while Valygar backstabs->retreats->hides-> and gets back to backstab.

5- The important point about stalker is that he backstabs with the THAC0 of a fighter. This is a big advantage over a thief. Hence, you can rely on Valygar's backstabs much more than you can reply on your thief's.

6- Valygar's katana injects poison and will kill trolls automatically. Hence you won't need to worry about casting fire or acid on a troll. Valygar rocks in Nalia's keep, backstabbing trolls and killing a troll per hit. With the first hit the troll falls and then the poison autamatically kills it. The poison may even cause 'spell failure' to enemy spellcasters.

7- Give Ilbratha, Short Sword to Valygar. The mirror image will help him stand against a big number of attacks if needed or if cornered.

8- Valygar is also immune to charm which is an advantage by itself. He can also cast Haste (from a certain level) if you don't have boots of speed.

9- Let me repeat item priority for Valygar: Boots of speed, potions of invisibility, Ilbratha short sword, ring of invisibility. At later stages of the game, you can Improved Haste him for more efficiency or give Ring of Gaxx to him for this purpose.

I will say more if I remember more Valygarian tactics.

EDIT: Some typos fixed

[ October 08, 2006, 18:32: Message edited by: Sikret ]

 

Valygar's a flanker, but a tough one. Flankers are best used coming in when tanks or meatshields have already engaged the enemy, so that they won't be targetted. They're generally all offense and no defense. Stealthy flankers make flanking easier because they don't have to charge in, but instead can hide behind an enemy while the tanks charge. Valygar's a bit of a mix between flanker and tank, because he can actually stay in the battle after his first backstab, particularly if equipped with Celestial Fury to make sure he takes less damage.

 

Sikret and Fel have both made good points about Valygar. I have found him to be exceedingly effective when dual-wielding Celestial Fury and his personal katana. CF's stun ability considerably lessens the damage he takes and his katana's bleeding effect is potent as the damage builds up on an opponent.

Boots of Speed are vital to get him out of trouble if the backstab goes wrong, which will happen at some point.

He is also good when used in conjunction with an invisible thief- Valygar can pop out of the shadows to backstab a mage, likely stunning or bleeding them if not killing them outright. As the enemies turn to face him, the thief can perform a second backstab to take out an opposing cleric, for example. The thief can likely escape to the safety of your advancing party as the enemies concentrate on Valygar- who, with the Boots, will likely evade their attacks. At this point, you have disabled your opponent's casting ability, enabling Korgan and Jaheria (or other appropriate NPCs) to engage the enemy warriors with impunity.

 

So he's kinda like using a Kensai, but with stealth and backstabbing. Neat!

 

Great tips guys!

Thanks a lot!

 

A few things I noticed in my game (ditched him in ToB though, so I can't say anything for that part of the game)

- his katana can't be used for backstabs, at least in the version I tried it in (unmodded, last patch). AFAIK if a thief can't use a weapon, it can't be backstabbed with.
- he doesn't have great staying power, as his AC is a bit high. Use him sparingly, and make sure he stays out of trouble for the big fights
- good backstab weapons would be those with a speed of 0 so they kick in before the auto-stoneskins when you're backstabbing mages (the best part of backstabbing, imo). There aren't that many such weapons, though, and most are low-damage ones like short swords (Backstabbing, Cutthroat) or daggers, as well as one very quick scimitar). The only katana with a speed factor of 0 is hindo's doom when upgraded. CF has a speed of 1, so it should be a matter of chance (stoneskin has a casting time of 1, and I presume the AI casts it when you attack it). Good low-speed weapons are the +4 Bone dagger, cutthroat, and even a few of the "weaker" daggers that offer special effects, like the pixie lance and the demarchess stiletto. In ToB Angurvadal, Usuno's blade and a few other weapons also have a speed of 0.
- If it can't be backstabbed, it can still be pincusheoned. Unfortunately, Valygar doesn't have a str. of 18+ to carry the heavy bows - but interrupting spells can be done with any good longbow anyway. Keep one around, even when you're not using it.
- get him spells (he's a ranger, after all) that can be useful even without a high casting level. Slow poison's my personal favourite, but even entangle could prove in handy in a hunch... not to mention haste.

 

Stealth and backstab, haste if available.

There's your stalker tactics.

Here's a better one: get a better character than Valygar. Mazzy's a better archer, even Minsc is a better tank.

 

Valygar is WAY more powerful than Mazzy or Minsk if played properly, believe me.

His katana can be used for backstabbing. I wonder why you were not able to backstab with it in your game, The Shaman. It's very strange.

 

Valygar's Katana can't be used for backstabbing in the "all official patches" Version. This is fixed with G3's Fixpack or Baldurdash.

In my case, for example, I didn't want to install the complete baldurdash or fixpack, because I was in the middle of a game and CamDawg hinted that there might be troubles with my saved game. So I only installed the Valygar backstab fix, which can be separately downloaded here

http://www.baldurdash.org/ToB/Fixes/TOBfixes.html

Next time I started ToB I could backstab with his Katana. Hope this helps.

 

Play him like a thief...backstab and all that. Also, he is similar to thieves in that his melee presence all by himself isn't spectacular...I mean to say, he can't use full plate, and he's most probably dual-weilding so his AC will suffer. Just get him to backstab for a big hit to the enemy's HP, then let him continue to beat on them while your primary tanks take over the damage soaking.

Valygar's way better than normal thieves as he gets the full attack schedule and has MUCH better THAC0...that's about all there is to him really.

 

The general presumption is naturally that people should have installed either Baldurdash or BG2 fixpack. The Shaman didn't mention that he had not installed one of them.

I know of your case, Erumaro. And I also told you that you would need to start a new game after installing Baldurdash (or BG2 fixpack) if you remember. This thread is a different one, though.

 

Just a couple of points:

While it is a good idea to prevent him from being the first to be targeted, I'm not too sure about the AC problem. While at first I found his to be quite high, after leaving the Underdark in my current game, his AC was -8. Even Anomen, with the lowest AC in the group, was only at -9. While he can only wear leather, it need not be his own for the entire game- bear in mind that he also has a natural 18 Dex, thus freeing the Gauntlets of Dexterity for another character.

Bah! Unless you are playing a rather warrior-heavy party, you'll likely and up with a spare strength-enhancing item not too late in the game. While I believe his main strength is with two katanas, it is a simple matter to pick up the Gauntlets of Strength if you feel the need.

 

Basically, Valygar is a limited-proficiency fighter with reduced backstabs. A 13/X kensai/thief utterly destroys him in that regard, especially one with 5*/3* weapon/dual wield profiencies (compared to Valygar's hybrid fighter cap at 2* per weapon). As mentioned, his limited Strength also keeps him from using some of the best bows without using a strength item...which would be much, much better used on a tank.

If you've never used backstabbing before, I can see why Valygar might seem so impressive. However, having a consistently great archer who can have 5* in a ranged weapon (Mazzy or CHARNAME archer), or a consistently good tank (Minsc isn't that good, but even he can wear heavy armor) is worth a lot more in the long run, and requires less micromanagement if that means anything to you.

A kensai/thief can serve as both a solid frontline tank and a better backstabber than Valygar will ever be. If you're having fun with Valygar regardless, then that's great too.

 

The idea that a Kensai/Thief is a better tank than Valygar is ludicrous, unless you are talking late ToB and UAI. A better backstabber, perhaps. A better backstab multiplier certainly, but Valygar's thac0 will be better for a long time, and unless your Kensia/Thief concentrates solely on stealth for his thief skills, better stealth as well.

 

And there is no Kensai-Thief among the game's NPCs. The initial question was about choosing one of the game's own NPCs.

 

One thing that I noticed with stalkers that I didn't expect, the extra mage spells that stalkers get are not innate abilities. They must be memorized like mage spells, meaning they take up the same spell slots as your druid spells.

Protection from normal missiles is useful if you want your stalker scout to kill from range - no counterattack.

 

In my very first game, I used Valygar as a regular fighter...and he died a lot. Then again, most of my NPCs died a lot at my first run.

I think others already gave good advices, just listen to them, backstab is a neat trick for starting a combat. Stock on invisibility potions and rings of invisibility. Haste if needed. Go and backstab that mage BEFORE his protections come up! Valygar will be overjoyed!

 

Thanks again guys.

For me its very valuable advices.

Oh its going to be fun to play Valygar!