Playing BGII for the second time

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You can use potions of invisibility.Vampires can't see invisible except from Bodhi.
If you don't have potions,you can use rings or even cast a quick invisibility spell.Immediately after you rest,pause the game and start casting the spell.Screen goes black and after Bodhi have finished speaking, you will have already casted the spell.
Use only your R/C,equipped with amulet of Power, to kill the vampires.

 

Oh it is easier than you thought:

A sunray will quickly kill vampires, or ready a spell sequencer before resting. Put three 3 skull traps on it. As soon as you see vampire chicks, hurl the spell sequencer, and watch them die, (suprise!) Bodhi may resist the blasts but she is easier when alone, and will be hurt most likely.

You can stick 3 Holy Smites on a spell sequencer if you are afraid of hitting your own party with skulltraps, though damage done will be lower, but I guess they can still KO a vampire!

 

None of my casters have a spell sequencer.

 

^Aww that is a shame.

[ March 17, 2006, 11:47: Message edited by: Silverstar ]

 

Well, we're now in the fearsome Underdark and our latest challenge (other than Jan continually failing to scribe scrolls) has been one of those characters from that sphere thing. This is one of those instantly-immune-to-everything guys that then casts Timestop and somehow manages to cast about 7 spells in that time, which always seems to result in Jan being dead at the end of it. Then none of Aerie or Imoen's dispelling spells seem to have any effect. What a nightmare!

 

If Jan is failing to scribe scrolls then have him drink a few potions of genius or mind focusing to give him a temporary INT boost. To get the most value from your potions (after all they're a finite and valuable resource) you can wait until you've got a batch of spells to learn and scribe them all in one session.

As for the Soul Gem, you could look at it this way;

You're in hostile territory and you run into a tough and aggressive group of Drow. Once their dust has settled it looks like they were guarding an elaborate prison the facets of which bear the legend "push the button to release a soul" (or words to that effect). It would seem, to me, to be reasonable to assume that the inmates of this Underdark oubliette are likely to be;
A: powerful
B: cranky

So I think you can prebuff your party and pretrap the area and still be roleplaying rather than powergaming.

So what can your lot do?
Jan can (hopefully) set a few traps. If his skills are a little low then the mercykiller ring or as many potions of mind focusing as needed for 25 dex.

Once battle is joined have him detect illusions.
Liam, Jaheria, Aerie and Imoen can all potentially have true sight/seeing active. So you should be able to keep your enemies visible

You need weaponry that will go through stone skin or go under protection from magic weapons.
So the elemental damage from FoA, the bleeding damage from the Corlatha blade, Sunstone? bullets or elemental arrows should do the first, and unenchanted weapons for the second.

Jan has practically no hitpoints at the best of times which leaves him vulnerable to Powerword and symbol spells which are probably what's killing him, so death ward and or SI:Conj, (SI:Nec if hes going down to Finger of death or ADHW).

 

If it is the lich Alchotra or something Dacotta or something, well, he is a lich, so don'T expect any spells lower than 6th level will touch him.

True Sight and some cannon fodders are essential. If your summonings are close to caster when he goes a Time Stop, summonings can soak up all the heaviest spells. This is my favourite strategy even against fearsome improved liches. Wand of Monster Summoning is extra handy since it spawns nice enough critters and casted instantly. Beware that most mages have one death spell memorised though.

How does Jan die? Mirror Image will protect from area effect spells. He is a gnome illusionist so he has the best save vs spells, he can hardly fail a save vs spells.

If you can give us a little detail we can help you better.

PS:You don'T need to kill the human mage guy from the cube. Just cast a HEAL spell on him to restore his sanity when he turns hostile. This SOMETIMES works and he rewards you too!

 

Rudiger - good point about Jan's traps. I had forgotten about them and should have remembered to use them. But how to get him to detect illusions? I have never done that. How does it work? I also never thought of using the Corlatha blade.

Silverstar - I can't tell what is killing Jan. That guy casts about 100 spells while we're timestopped so it's impossible to tell what is doing what. Anyway, your mirror image idea seems to have saved him. I almost never use summons any more now that I have a six person party. I only really used them when I had a 2 or 3 person party to help make up the numbers. With a whole party it all just seems too crowded with summons. The only summons I really liked was Cerebus the Moon Dog but we seem to have lost him along the way somewhere (maybe he ran out of charges or something?)

 

It's the same button as Detect Traps. It has a much shorter range, however, nearly point-blank. As an alternative, his custom headgear can cast the spell Detect Illusions once per day.

 

Does that have a better range? Is it better or worse than True Sight?

 

Nothing is better than True Sight as far as Divination goes. However, thief skill DI is very useful since it is a free-action (no spell casting) and it can bypass the Sıivination; which is neat for smart-a** mages. AFAIK, nothing can stop thief skill DI.

 

Detect illusions is also a thief skill that requires that points be allocated to it before you can use it, just like pickpocketing or any other thief skill.

True Sight is an awesomely useful ability, which is what makes Inquisitors so valuable. The high-powered dispell magic is great too, but its True Sight with a speed factor of one that fuels my addiction to Uncle Keldorn

 

I just fought Alchra Diagott myself, he cast

PfMW and Spell Trap in the first round,
then a Time Stop which he filled with
Spell Triger: True sight, Dispel Magic, Death Spell
symbol stun
symbol fear
symbol deathA
the Time Stop ends and he casts Sunfire.

At this point he was taking enough damage to trigger a chain contingency which held Mislead and Spell Turning.

Kelsey cast true sight quickly enough that the Mislead was dispelled and AD himself killed before he could do anything else.
He did have a contingency containing PfMW, but he was dead by the time it triggered.

 

Oops. The Aerie romance is off. Actually, I thought the Aerie romance had ended ages and ages ago because nothing has happened with it since probably the Umar Hills - but now it has definitely ended after she got in huff about Phaere forcing Liam into submission in her private room. What else was Liam supposed to do when pretending to be a drow male?

 

That's Aerie for you. "I've made you put up with all my wing whining and forced you to give me a reason to live, but if you think that excuses you from doing something just so we won't all be found out and executed on the spot, you're out of your mind, buster! (stamps foot)"

 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, you're an idiot. There are plenty of ways to blow her off, including but not limited to pretending to be a eunuch, or telling her that you're promised to someone else and letting her fill in the blanks incorrectly. She's right to smack you around if you didn't even put up a fight on her behalf.

 

Yeah, but aren't those choices charisma-related, Fel? I seem to remember from Dan Simpson's walkthrough that you had to have a high enough CHA to make Phaere fall for it. What's a homely guy to do?

 

"I can't" will get you three choices:
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1. If you have an INT of at least 17, you can try to say that you've sworn an oath to Lolth; a CHA of 13 is necessary to pull it off.
2. If you have an INT of at least 15, you can try to say that you have a curse on you; a CHA of 15 is required to pull it off.
3. You can try to say that you're a eunuch; it takes a CHA of 17 to pull it off.

Your other choice, telling her that you belong to someone else, OTOH, only has an INT requirement on the part of the player, not the character. You'd have to be a complete dolt (or jerk) not to try to blow her off by saying that you were promised to someone. And after she threatens to kill your love interest, I can't think of any reason why you wouldn't want to throw her off the scent by doing a 180 and saying it was someone else she didn't know. Then Phaere assumes it's a Handmaiden from Ched Nasad that has you collared, and you're off the hook. It works every time.

I do believe that's what the RoHI is for. Seriously, if you're going to use CHA as a dump stat, at least use the damn ring.

 

Oh I bow to your mighty genius for failing the player INT test. I thought Drow men had to whatever Drow women told them to so I didn't want to risk blowing my cover. And anyway, Aerie has not said a word to Liam since the whole "show you my body" incident so I thought the romance was all over anyway. In any case, how did Aerie find out about what happened anyway? Wasn't it in a private room?

 

What made you think that? Was it Solaufein's mouthiness? Was it the many options you have to talk back to various females throughout the Underdark (with no consequences, I might add)? Was it the surprising number of choices of ways to refuse Phaere?

Presumably with thin walls. And yes, the romance was actually over (as in, no more SoA LoveTalks) if you'd gotten the body-showing one. But it would have resumed in ToB; now you won't get them. Not a terrible loss, I guess. I hope you at least got the most out of the whiny wingless freak while you could.

EDIT: Tried to stay silent...couldn't. Sorry in advance if any feelings are hurt.

More like failing the romantic test. You're married, right? Do you think that your wife would approve of you sleeping with another woman for expediency's sake? Or for any reason, for that matter? (Even done for the best of reasons, like saving the spouse's life, it can create some extremely conflicting emotions.) At the very least, her faith would be shaken and you'd have some serious issues to work out; that is, if she didn't leave you outright. Now imagine if you'd done that while you were still dating! 10 to 1 odds says she'd have never married you.

If you'd really loved Aerie, you'd have taken on the entire Drow city, the demon they summon, and the silver dragon all at once just to stay true to her. Consider yourself dumped with rightful cause, you whore.

[ March 28, 2006, 07:01: Message edited by: Felinoid ]