At last. Spoilers Inside.

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After 3 months of playing, about six different parties taken to various chapters from 4 to 6, I FINALLY BEAT BG2!

I did it yesterday with my solo Ranger/Cleric.
It took me 45 days game time and 4 days real time.
I played it in the Insane difficulty.

I suspected, but now I am sure that a Ranger dc Cleric is one of the best chars in the game, if not the best. playing that game was WAAY easier than the previous ones (maybe I am not so bad at BG2 either) - I never reloaded a Dragon (out of three slain), Twisted rune was a piece of cake, I only had to reload Kangaxx once due to a bad tactics chosen.
Basically when you reach lvl 15 and you get 5 Skeletal Warriors,a Pit Fiend or a Shield of Archorns, 4 Iron Skins, 3 Heals or Fire Elementals, 2 Holy Powers, Death Wards, Defensive Harmonies, etc, etc.
AND you have a THACO of 3 (no spells), your AC is at -7 without the Shield
you are pretty much and invincible.

Well, for the char:

Heleina: Ranger 8 Cleric 20
STR: 18/00 (lucky Roll)
DEX: 17 (Good path in Hell)
CON: 18
WIS: 19 (Good path in Hell)
INT: 8 (Was 9 but -1 after dream)
CHA: 4 (Was 3 but Good path...)
Magic resistance: 35% (20 from Hell)
Fire resistance : 50% ( tough guess...)
Resistance from Magic Damage : 50%
Main hand THACO: - 5
Off hand THACO : - 5
AC : -10
Worst Save Throw (spells) : - 3
Best Save Throw (polymorph): -12
Number of attacks: 4
Hitpoints : 110
Total number of spells memorized: 53

Equipment:
Crom Faeyr
Flail of Ages - on of the best weapons in the game
Helm of Balduran
Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise
Amulet of Power
Red Dragon Scale
Ring of Gaxx
Ring of Protection +2
Boots of Speed
Belt of Inertial Barrier

Beaten Irenicus near the Tree with the help of the Shield of Archorns and a Protection from Magic Scroll, for the Demons and The Slayer I Gated in two Pit Fiends and the three of us (I was buffed up and Improved Hasted) had a lot of fun.

 

Wow.. that is awesome! I am at the end game--did not go solo---took minsc, valgar (the best npc in the game if you give him crom faer and celestial fury to dual-wield..hehe), imoen (weak), aerie, and jaheria..

I am a level 18 half-elf kensai with 18/75 18 18 (now 17).

Note: kensai is certainly a tough character to play due to very very poor AC. Can deal out massive damage quickly but tends to die very quickly also. (btw, my THACO with my +4 2-handed sword, grandmastery and 2 points in 2-handed weapons is -13!!!!!!!!!!!!!)


questions:
1. how do you cast protection from magic using a cleric/ranger? did you buy the scrolls and cast them on yourself? are these cleric spells? I assume you used them to avoid imprisonment by Kangaxx.

2. how did you avoid direcharm and mindflayer brain eating?

3. how did you 'breach' the dragon defences? this spell seemed so important to early dragon death.

way to go!

 

Modjahed;

A couple questions;

1) Is a Ranger/Cleric dc better than mc? Why or Why not?

2) Did you keep someone to carry extra stuff?

3) Do you have a life??? (j/k ) Seriously, I would pay good money to get a week of vacation just to relax and hack my way through a game!!!! Not gonna happen!

 

Whatever man, congratulations! That's at least to say.

 

Mathetais: ->
1) dc is WAAYYY better. by FAR!
- if you mc your max Cleric level is 14 IIRC, that means you only get one 7th level spell, AND your skeletons are not upgraded (very bad, because Skeletal Warriors have magic resistance, are immune to mind blasting and to Normal Weappons).
- the Holy Power spell sais "... the priest gets the THACO of the fighter of the same level..." meaning that am mc would get the THACO of a 14 lvl fighter, and the dc 8/20 will have the THACO of a 20(!) lvl fighter.
2) No, I didn't keep anyone. As it was said in some previous post, you just have to improve your management
3) I do have a life. I study at the University AND work half day. We in belarus were lucky to get a 4 day holiday break, so I stuck to the computer and kicked the crap out of BG2.

Btw, my next run through will be with a:
Dwarven Priest of Talos
Mazzy
Jan Jansen

 

Cotman: -> Sorry, didn't read your post carefully the first time. Now with the answers:
1a)cast it from a scroll, had to drink a couple of potions of Genius though. the scrolls can be used by everyone with sufficient WIS and INT (AFAIK).
1b) about kangaxx. no, i didn't have to use the scroll, I beat gaxx in chap 3. I used the Mace of Disruption +2. The trick is that kangaxx doesn't start casting imprisonment until the second or third round after you start beating him - you have 6 hits to destroy him - more than enough.

2) there is a very nice Shield of Harmony "available" at Trademeet. Or just cast Chaotic Commands. For the brain eating there are potions of Genius and Skeletal Warriors cannon fodder. You can also use a Pit Fiend with Chaotic Commands but that is an overkill.

3) Well, I don't need to Brach him. Dragon tactics were the following:
- summon 4 Skeletal Warriors and a Fire Elemental.
- buff up (plus I had 90% fire resistance from items), cast Prot. from Evil 10'.
- start the fight with the elemental, and the Dragon uses his Death Spell on it.
- Skeletals rush in and start "distracting" the Dragon. Believe me, they are SOO good at it.
- meanwhile I run from behind, and Gate in a Fiend. Two of us with 7 attacks per round - no need to Breach.

 

Congratulations, Modjahed!

It looks like you're well qualified as a BG2 guru.

 

Btw, Earl Grey, did your solo Fighter/Mage make it to the end? I don't remember if you wrote about it.

 

Yes, he did.
He ended up with 9,327,559 xp (checked in ShadowKeeper), ok for a Fighter-9/Mage-17. If that xp would carry over to ToB he'd max out directly since the cap there is "only" 8,000,000.

By the end of chapter 3 all quests are finished because I think it's nicer to keep a high tempo once you leave Athkatla. After that it was like a hot knife going through butter.

He switched between using either Staff of the Magi or Celestial Fury + Shield of Harmony (later Crom Faeyr).
I kept Daystar in a quick weapon slot for the special ability it gives... nice!

Skeleton Warriors are fabulous, aren't they?

Oh yeah, since that was my first solo, I clearly haven't tried a dc Ranger/Cleric yet, but that sure looks like a superb character.

[This message has been edited by Earl Grey (edited April 28, 2001).]

 

Congrats to you too, man, you are also qualified for the guru status (j/k)