Creating potions?

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I am stuck, once again, at trying to create a potion to destroy the Viciscamera. I picked up the reagents, tried right and left-clicking all of them, put them and the notebook on the alchemists table, and tried to do the same thing while they were there...I'm STUMPED! Would someone please lend this idiot a helping hand? Thanks!

 

On the left side of the room, IIRC, there are 3 tables... one to the left, one towards the top of the screen, and one to the right. left-Click (IIRC) on the one to the right with the person with the alchemy skill and it should start a "conversation"...

 

how much skill?

How much alchemy skill does my character need for this to work? Thanks!

 

Only 3 points in Alchemy are required to do the visicamera potion.

 

Only 3 points, crucis?

That's interesting.

I usually have a wizard in my party with high Alchemy, so I didn't knew that.

Thanks.

 

Yep, only 3 points. I looked it up. It does seem rather low. However, I suppose that it's worth noting that I'm not aware of an alternative to brewing the potion. Oh, yes, you can simply attack the visicamera directly, but IIRC that's a relatively tough battle (though it's been a while since I actually tried to kill the VC without using the VC poison).



You do need more points to upgrade the healing potions or do a couple other things on that same alchemy bench, but only 7 or 9 points (depending on what it is you want to do).


You do need 16 points in Alchemy to brew that potion in Dragon's Eye. However, it's worth noting that there are 3 possible ways to obtain that potion, and brewing it yourself is only one of those ways. (The other two ways do not require you to do it yourself and thus do not require you to have any alchemy skill.)

 

As an extra note, seems like Paladins refuse to interact with the "evil" laboratory in the Underdark.

My trusty Rogue(2)/Paladin(1)/Illusionist(x) tank hasn't ever been able to even interact with the laboratory, nevermind brew any potions, regardless of his Alchemy score. Any other character WITHOUT paladin level(s) never seemed to have this problem.

 

I tried doing it the first time, before I even knew about the poison. And god, that was a challenging fight! Two people of the party died, if memory serves and the rest were badly wounded. I later reloaded and found me poison, which made everything a little easier.

Still, despite being a hard fight, it's also one of the best and most fun. If you manage to win that one you can really pat yourself on the back. I might have even managed it, wouldn't I be down on my resources pretty badly by that time.

Wonder how it will work in HoF mode...

 

That's odd, Rechet. I just checked and there are no dialog conditions that prevent any class from interacting with the lab bench. The only conditions are for a couple of dialog options that allow Transmuters to do certain things.

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I have a question that pertains to the drider area lab that I'll hide in the spoiler tags... .

Spoiler

There's a lifeless golem in this lab that I know can be reanimated with a certain potion you brew, and supposedly with a "jolt of electricity". But what's the value or use of the re-animated flesh golem? Do you simply kill it for the XP? Or does it become your mindless ally? Is it useful in the big final drider battle in the visicamera room?

Oddly enough, I've never re-animated the golem because I thought that you had to be a transmuter. But from what I've seen in the Lab bench's dialog, you do NOT need to be a transmuter to create the potion required for the golem.

 

I agree, big fights are the best part of the game. I just fought Barud Barzun & company in the monastery basement last night and it was a lot of fun--my Decoy was buffed with Improved Invisibility and everyone else had Mass Invisibility, and as soon as the decoy opened the door and had his chat with the duergar, everyone else snuck past the duergar (you never want to get sandwiched), Mass Dominated the duergar at the gate, and used them as cannon fodder to fight off Barud Barzun. Ah, the joys of ranged attacks.

BTW, when doing the eight challenges, I found that Shadow Conjuration is a lot better than Shades or Create Undead because a casting time of Four is always enough time to finish before anyone hits you. Then you run around until they start focusing on your conjured creature, and if necessary cast Invisibility on yourself too. Sorcerers rock.

@Crucis:

Spoiler

IME it acts like a "free" summoned creature for the fight w/ the viciscamera driders. It's more useful in normal mode than in HoF, when you already have plenty of summoning spells/items.

-Max

 

Mass Dominate is one of my favorite spells (though mostly for HOF mode, of course). Nothing beats forcing your enemies to become your allies, and changing the tactical situation from the enemy outnumbering you to you outnumbering the enemy (or at least having numerical parity).

As far as the deurgar outpost, there seems to be something going on there (that I haven't investigated in the scripts) that causes them to go hostile after a certain amount of time if a non-deurgar dwarf enters the complex. At least that was the case with my most recent party. I got caught in the middle of the main chamber, without any buffs or decent formation, when they all went hostile. My party held on for a LONG time, but in the end were overwhelmed, because it was essentially impossibly for my sorc to use any nuking spells without nuking party members.

When I refought the battle, I was able to get outside of the outpost before they went hostile, and was then able to use the terrain to my advantage. However, I've often fought the deurgar from the inside, by first attacking the clerics and fighters in their little chapel, and then fighting a defensive battle in the corridor with lots of Grease, Web, and nuking spells.

Part of the trick with the duergar is that they have a fair number of clerics in their midst that you have to focus on disrupting.

I think that it depends on the room. Some rooms seem better for clerics or druids. I think that a pure druid might have the easiest time in the spider room, since they should be immune to poison by that time. (In my last party, I just had my cleric of Lathander cast a Fire Storm spell in the middle of the room, and then ran thru the middle of it. She took plenty of damage, but burned up a LOT of spiders in the process.)

OTOH, I'm thinking that perhaps sorcs are best for the final room, as long as they have the right spells. That said, in the final room, it's all well and good to use a fast-casting spell that's done before you get hit. The problem is that the fire blasts will kill the summoned creature pretty easily. That's why I usually summon a Fire Elemental, even at the risk of a long casting time. The FE will be completely immune to the fire blasts, and is always more than able to deal with the 2 monks by itself. Of course, you do need to go invisible so that the FE attacks the monks and not you... details, details...

 

I think a druid is always a handy one for the 8 rooms

 

Well, yeah, Silvery, any character that can summon allies can be useful for the 8 Chambers. I just mentioned druids because their immunity to poison at Level 9 makes them particularly well suited for the room with the spiders. (IIRC, monks also gain a poison immunity at level 11. But of course, the chambers are a monk challenge, so it makes sense that they should do well...) Any other class that doesn't have a poison immunity can find itself in serious trouble if it fails its CON save and gets hit with the poison, particularly the poison that also causes a confusion effect.