Not paying for magic license

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Does anyone know what happens if you don't pay the fee for the magic use license? I mean, I assume they Cowled Wizards send some guys to come get you - or try to. But, I also assume they can be killed... Do they just keep on coming without end? Can you actually finish a battle with them and WIN IT as opposed ot what happens with "Akranis Gauth" (sp?) where no matter what you do to him, you die in 6 swings of his sword?

 

They come and warn you once then attack some number of times.
Some people on this board have actually fought and won against the entire line, but I struggle winning agenst the first group with a souped up character
So I wouldn't recomend fighting them

Have you noticed that those you fight in the city and use magic never summon them and they seem a simple enough fight that they wouldn't have the gold to pay?
Do the inhabitants of Athkatla have immunity to the Cowled Wizard's rule?

 

What I HAVE noticed is that certain preists spelss can be cast outside safely and you can cast all spells, mage or priest, inside, in dungeons or int the Planar Sphere...

 

Only sorcerers and mages would be pestered for license problems.


Can't remember how many times they will dimemsion in, maybe five?

Whateverso, at last cowled ones will send several highlevel mages who can cast timestop and gate also have names with them to overcome you, if you survive this fight, you shall walk free in athkatala.

 

Took 'em down with the Staff of the Magi. Me alone - the wimpy little Sorcerer against thousands of Bigwizards... their timestops got are wasted against my summoned ones... their Gates turned on them because my staff never runs out of protection... my Project Image's cloudkills got'em one by one... if only they had no TRUE SIGHT!!!

 

I got the wizards when Jaheira cast call lightning.

 

You get some trouble when any character in your party uses magic. It deosn't need to be your main char. I had to find out when I played my legendary halfling cavalier.
I had Jan and Nalia in my party during the "cowled wizard fights" an the first one showed up when Jan used magic missiles on a vampire.
One possible problem is Keldorn's personal sword: It causes magical damage and this can call up the cowled wizards inopportunely ... actually it is pretty demanding to fight the githyianki raiding party *and* the final group of cowled wizards at the same time

Some SPOILERS and tactics:
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The first few parties are fairly easy, the tend to have some nice spell scrolls and jewelry with them. After a pretty disgusting fight vs. the first group I learned my lesson and tended to provoke their attacks by setting an anmbush with traps, glyphs of warding and guarding archers to get rid of them soon. Between the fights you have to rest to make tham attack again.

As for the ambush site: It is important to have a good field of fire for the archers; dispersing the party in a wider area was very useful due to escape enemy area spells and to use the inquisitor's diepell magic effectively without disabling your own protections; no civilians should be there - finally my preferred battleground was the corner near the right entrance of the docks district, my order of battle usually was a large half circle around the corner.
I usually casted protections while in a house before going to the ambush site to call the wizards by casting haste on the party (this also allows the mage to escape from the site - they always appear near the mage). Usually at least one of them dies immediately - considerably easing the fight, it is also very handy to cast cloudkill in the spawning area ... it seams to cause problems for spellcasters And an inquisitor's dispell magic destroys their protections effectively.

As for the final group (iirc the 4th or 5th), be ready for a demanding fight with imprisonment, time stop and other funny spells.

All in all: Paying the fee is a waste of money, it is much more fun to fight the wizards and to sell the loot

[This message has been edited by Ragusa (edited September 02, 2001).]

 

I've never paid, and I do just fine. If you need to cast a spell (like Haste) you can always duck into a building to do that. Pity it doesn't work with offensive spells. But the wizards *can* be a great source of EXP.

 

Oddly enough, when you have been "waylaid by enemies and must defend yourself" while in the city, using magic does not summon the wizards.

 

What could technically work is this:
*Spoiler*
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As you cast magic the first time, a Cowled Wizard will come a shake his finger at you. The idea is to pause the game before he disappears(or starts talking) and imply the "fake talk"-strategy(explained below).

*More spoilers*
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The fake talk works like this:

1)Pause the game while the circle around the enemy is still blue, and assign your character to talk to him.

2)He will stand there and wait for you to walk over and break the ice with him, during which you can select the attack button and reign terror on his arse.

3)Repeat before he turns hostile.

After that, since he can't come up and warn you, the wizards shouldn't come either.

Alternatively, you could fight them all, but that's just a pain in the ass, so why not just pay the 5000? It's practically nothing, you get around 15000 from the De'Arnise Keep quest alone.

[This message has been edited by Ursaj (edited September 02, 2001).]

 

[FAKE TALK]???

Have you been reading too much of Dan Simpson lately?

Run, and seek cover. You are about to be flamed to death.

Fake talk, huh...

You are new to this forum, and if you will care enough to read a few topics here, you will see, that people here don't exploit the game flaws. We think it does not make any sense - neither when roleplaying, nor when powergaming.

 

He won't get away from me neither...

IMHO your so called "fake talk" is no better than pressing CTRL+Y.
And at least with CTRL+Y you don't need to kick space key.

Who needs it anyway? Are you able to finish all cowled bastards without cheating? No? Bah!

 

I think the really bad part of Ursaj's suggestion was literally "imply the fake talk strategy"... I don't know how to imply any strategy in this game.. but if I did, I am sure that anyone implying any strategy would surely be much deader than someone else actually APPLYING a strategy...

Just a thought... and an attempt at humor.

[This message has been edited by Kailynne Johanne (edited September 03, 2001).]

 

First of all, I wouldn't name fake talk a strategy it is lame coward crap for fools that are to greedy to pay the 5.000gp while beeing afraid to have a serious fight.

The cowled wizards aren't that strong, except for the last group. So there is no need at all to exploit game flaws and betray yourself for (a) the loot, (b) the xp and (c) the fun of killkillkillkill ...

 

At the risk of getting flamed:
ArtEChokes "non cheating, non fake talking," 100% guaranteed extermination method for the cowled wizards:

you will need: 1 or more thieves, 1 wizard or bard, 2 or more fighter types.

1) have the thief (or thieves, prefferably a bounty hunter) lay out some traps (4 is optimum, if there's a bounty hunter involved, lay the 'special' traps as well*)

2) have your wizard, sorcerer or bard stand in the middle of the traps.

3) cast a spell

4) the incoming wizards get cut in half by the traps (nearly 100% kill ratio**), however the first guy that teleports in (the one that talks) ALWAYS survives, I don't know why, its a wierd bug thing. If you've laid 'special' traps, they usually stun or hold him - either way, have your whole party slam him as fast as you can.

5) repeat as is convenient.

Personally, I liked to pull this tactic on the way to an Inn before resting if I hadn't used my traps that day.

* Note, if a bounty hunter is 20+ level, DO NOT use the 'special' traps, the Maze will zap the wizards before the real traps lay out any damage, and when they return, you're screwed.

** Disclaimer, the last wave of wizards usually dies like the rest of them, however, once in a while one of the named wizards survives the initial blast. Just target them with an archer right away (they'll only have a few hp left) and he/she won't cause any problems.

Its cute, they die in a nice neat line.

 

hmmmmmm

i dunno, that sounds a little dodgy to me Art. You'd have to have done it a few times over to discover where they come at you from no? Sounds a little like exploitation, methinks... at least bending the honour code a little hm?

 

I think it's pretty realistic, after the Cowled Wizards teleport in the first time and warn you that next time you're toast, for your character to be able to figure out that they're probably going to show up similarly next time.

I can't help feeling like it's cheap to kill enemies just by laying traps, but it's certainly not cheating. In fact, my resistance to doing this makes thieves the weakest members of my party. I mean, Yoshimo is a bounty hunter. He was designed to lay traps. That's part of the character. I think it's lame and don't do it, but that's just because I'm not interested in the bounty hunter character's way of doing things, not because it's bad. Him setting traps isn't exploiting the game any more than Viconia resurrecting someone or Edwin casting 'breach' is.

 

Well, yes Julius, the fact occured to me when I got pissed off that the cowled wizards showed up while I was combating the Fallen Paladins. They're an annoying (and dangerous) pain in the #ss. I killed them straight out that time.

They come in right behind the offending spellcaster (no exploit there, they show up to punish the law breaker), its certainly not a bug.

Honour code?

So what's wrong with laying an ambush for your enemies and then baiting them into it?

Unless the 'honour code' is more of an 'idiot' code. WE MUST ALWAYS GO HEAD ON INTO THE ENEMY AAAARRHGHHH!

This isn't laying traps around the fully awake dragon that you just spoke to... its laying a perfectly legit ambush. And for you meat heads out there that always must SMASH!SMASH!SMASH! (like the guys that get pissed off that people use lower resistance against dragons...) You still get to stomp the first wizard into the ground yourself, so you can still feel like a TOUGH GUY.

Or you could just be a chump and pay the 5,ooo gold bribe.

 

Well said!

Later, and much later, however, traps can make battle almost ridiculously easy, if it even gets to the battle stage. Frankly I don't get people who consider it cheating, but I certainly understand the desire to have it out with different strategies.

By the way, Tal...what's IOTW?

[This message has been edited by Gonzago (edited September 03, 2001).]

Idiot of the Week. You don't want it, trust me.

[This message has been edited by Taluntain (edited September 03, 2001).]