Killing Tarnesh, the wizard in the Friendly Arm

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First of all, welcome me to the BG1 boards. I just got BG1!! It's not as sophisticated as BG2 (yes, that's right, I played that one first), but it's fun, and from what I see, the continuity is great!

Down to my second (and most important) order of business: HELP!!

I got to the Friendly Arm without too many problems (the ogre with the belts killed me once, and then I memorized Command for my Cleric/Ranger and killed him easily. That was all). But now that wizard/assassin guy, Tarnesh, who is in front of the friendly arm, keeps killing me. Help!!

I did search for other threads on this (keyword "Tarnesh"). I didn't find them. So....

 

When he greets you, you can move away from him and head towards some roaming guards for extra melee firepower. They will attack him when the battle begins. Do you have any NPCs in your group?

 

It's me, as a multi-class half-elven ranger/cleric with excellent stats (I roll better in BG1 than I did in BG2?!), and Imoen. Since I'm chaotic good, I couldn't very well pick up Xzar and Montaron, could I? Yes, the guards attack him. Not that they're that powerful....

 

Imoen can backstab the man and kill him before he even gets to you and throws up mirror image. Now you can say that is wrong because how would you know that guy is trying to kill you or you could reason that you were attacked twice in Candlekeep and you saw people attack and kill your foster father, and now you see some guy coming at you with ominous intent. I'd say it's fair for you and Imoen to be a bit jumpy

 

True...but they may get lucky and take out a couple of his mirror images. I had only Imoen as well while I was a paladin. My paladin and Imoen peppered him with arrows since you have a higher THAC0 with a bow.

 

My problem isn't "the ethics and role-playing of backstabbing". It's Imoen's Hide in Shadows percentage.... It's HARD to get her to succeed in hiding!

 

A good start is to use all those potions that Imoen brings along. Imoen is great with potion of speed and the bow. Cast shillelagh as a weapon. And the command word on him too.

 

It's unnecessary to use potions, they are worth lots of many and money is spare at that part of the game. I easily killed him by just using ranged attack on him with all. Give Xzar the wand of missiles and let him cast a missile and a Larnochs Minor Drain. Backstabbing is useless, for Hide in Shadows and Thaco is very low. just use ranged.

Wait till there are 2 or 3 guards close to the stairs. Do some steps forward with the main char and when the mage saw you and walks forward do some steps back and let the fight begin.

 

Tiamat, I completely feel your pain, in some ways, that's one of the hardest fights in the game...

Like the others said, lure him towards the guards, and as soon as his conversation is done - the second it ends - pause the game and get Imoen taking a shot at him. If you wait for her AI to kick in, it will be too late... In this way I've been able to disrupt his mirror image spell before he cast it.

Then he's pretty easy to take down.

If that doesn't work, you could always run past him into the Inn, get Khalid and Jaheira and come back out for his ass!

 

Headbanger Tiamat doens't have Xzar in the group. I just found a solution that wasn't Cheesie

 

Well I sorry you guys are unlucky. Imoen backstabbed him for me with 1 try and did like 11 or 12 damage to him and he died. He's really pathetic in terms of hp, it's those dang spells of his that make him a pain .

 

The chance of a succefull backstab attack is sooooo small. First, at that point you are only level one. You have to try many times before you are succerfully hided in Shadows.
When you finally succeedded to hide in shadows, you have a very bad chance to hit on first attack with that thaco of 20 or soemthing like that. I never tried to beat him with only two players... I suppose you have to load/reload some time or just go first to Beregost and Nashkel to pick up some more NPC's.

 

What can I say, Tymora's luck maybe???

 

no offense anyone but this guy is rather easy, first you have no need to initiate dialog, so have Imoen do it, and if your charism was highenough you can equip her with a dagger +1 or just a regular short sword will do, no u stand back aways about one space behind the tree and ready a range weapon, then wait for a couple of gaurds to be there have imoen initiate dialog and pause immediatly,use wand of magic missiles to inturupt mirror image then just kill him

 

Right. Wand of magic missiles. WHAT wand of magic missiles? ^_^;; In any case, he's dead. Very dead. I didn't pick up any NPC's (especially ones that I'm not planning to use). I found out that the best tactic to use on him is to hit him early and to hit him often (the hardest thing is to whack him before he gets his mirror image up). My ranger/cleric's "Command" spell did half the work for me.... On the previous time, he saved against it. (Actually, on the previous time he cast Magic Missile.... Wonderful luck, it wounded me badly but didn't kill me; then he cast another one at AMAZING speed and killed me. Gah.)

Slightly Irrelevant Question: Do you need need Khalid/Jaheira or Xzar/Montaron to get into Nashkel, or can you do it on your own?

 

get khalid and jaheira... it's pretty hard to get all the way down to nashkel on your own... you might just find some others on the way, but still... there's no harm in picking up temporary members, and dumping them later on.

 

No you do not need them in your party to make it to Nashkel. This is so you don't have to take them if you don't want to. Just start heading south, as if you talk to anyone they will tell you Nashkel is south, further south than Beregost Be careful it's a big world out there

 

I had BIG problems with that Friendly Arm Inn-guy, too. But in our last multiplayer game we had too much luck for it to be true: We set up 3 ranged attackers and one to lure him down into their arms. The wiz came down, we shot and ran away. The luring one slowly went back to the stairs and... the mage... dead. One archer hit with a critical hit (about 8 damage), that was enough. Yahoo!

 

Good job, i remember when I first got the game and haddent figured out that you could pause at all. (Yes I am one of those people who try to play and then read the manuel) I think he maneged to cleen my clock about 6 times before I got lucky and killed him. so I could definatly relate to your problem, as for the wand of majick missiles I think Imoen has it but maybe Xzar or his buddy has it.

 

you get the wand from imoen, you have to be nice to her during your conversation and level 1 at candle keep