Throne of Bhaal: Newbie Thoughts

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Did you decide to keep Sarevok's sword from the very beggining of SoA? IIRC, you get a little extra dialog if you have it when he first becomes mortal again.

 

@Minh So: The trouble was that HB got HD really late, so he was behind in xp by about a million or so points...so by the time he would have got HLAs, he'd have been a dead weight on the party, and when he takes off, there isn't much game left.

Hence, the dump.

 

Just a question HB: when you get the dialogue in the pocket plane to summon NPCs, does the option "my lover, the fighter/cleric Anomen" come up? (Heh, truly the romance made in hell...)

 

So, how we doing HB? Have you progressed to the next major...ahem...checkpoint?

 

Bion - no we did not get that dialogue option.
Kitrax - do you mean the Sword of Chaos? No, sold that thing off when Minsc got Lilacor.
Faraaz - not sure what you mean by 'checkpoint'. We've killed Grimlock (or whatever his name was) and now we have to go and find out the secrets of Yura Shuga's achilles heel.

 

Gromnir. Not that it matters. I think you'll find that ToB plays pretty fast. 2/5 of the Five down in a single day...

 

Ouch. Just got completely nailed by a Master Wraith and various assorted wraiths. Had to reload half a dozen times. Main problem was that any Negative Plane Protection cast before the battle was zapped by the Master Wraith whilst in Gorion mode - and Viconia only has so many available to cast. Plus some of those wraiths move pretty fast. Luckily, Viconia is immune to level drain (and it doesn't affect Arya too badly - losing a few Thief levels is not as bad as Nalia losing wizard levels)

Eventually only made it through by calling up loads of summons to take the hits. I'm not sure I was putting the right buffs on Nalia because we spent most of the time trying to protect her as we needed her to keep removing the master wraiths protections.

 

That is indeed a nasty battle the first time through. Caused me a lot of grief as I recall. The right tool for the job is Sunray, preferably from the Helm of Brilliance. Anyone know why the Sunray casting time on the Helm of Brilliance is less than that of Daystar?

 

Somewhere back in SoA, Nalia aquired an Amulet of Power, which did not seem that good except for the the Immunity to Level Drain it confers. It kept Nalia at full power when I got to this bit. My PC is an Undead Hunter ans is also immune to such drain. Minsc and Aerie lost a few levels in the fight but it was not that bad.

If you do not have the Amulet, someone must know the code to call up a few. Sorry - I can't help on that one.

 

@ Harbourboy

Did you notice that the wraiths kept chasing only your mages, turning invisible N-times after attacking? Increbidly annoying if you do not use it against them: boots of speed and running in circles would had done it somewhat easier for your other party members, if had summons keeping the master wraith busy.

 

That would somewhat defeat the purpose of playing this game for me. Anyway, Viconia is wearing that amulet as she is the one I most need to protect from Level Drain so she can go around protecting and restoring everyone else.

This is exactly what Nalia ended up having to do. Was useful for keeping a few wraiths busy (all very Keystone Kops or Benny Hill) but it meant she couldn't get her breach spells off as quickly as we needed (unless she ran behind a wall of tanks for a breather)

 

Gah! Stoopid RL is putting a serious dent in my SP time, so I just noticed you dumped Haer Dalis. Trust me - he really is very good, but he needs some micro-management in order to get the most out of him. He makes a good back-up mage, a decent tank with Offensive Spin, and once he gets the Improved Bard Song HLA, he becomes even more worthwhile.

 

Harbourboy, did you pick up the mace of disruption back in SoA? That's another way to get immunity to level drain. Anyway, the only other good way to clear that fight out is with a limited wish. Otherwise, you're going to limp out of that fight every time.

 

Exactly.

 

Next time through the Master Wraith bit, HB, you might want to use a character with an active romance; it just adds a little more to the game and the romance.

I echo Eric's comments - Limited Wish is a godsend against level-draining undead, so long as your mage doesn't (ahem) tend to ask for the wrong things... However, and probably a really stoopid question: have you tried using Viconia's "turn undead" ability in that fight?

 

Heh. I always forget to do that. She's darn good at it by ToB, too.

 

So your thief has not reach 3M exp yet ? Use all item lets you wear the Amulet of Power and even a Full plate + Shield if you want

 

I think that would defeat the whole point of being a Kensai-Thief...

 

No, Arya, is on 3.6m XP but only 2.6m of those are in Thief levels. After our very poor showing at the hands a few measly wraiths, we have decided to take a detour and follow up on rumours of powerful magic items to be found in the Watcher's Keep that we can use in the battles with Yura Sugar.

So far so good, Minsc (who has just picked up Greater Whirlwind), Sarevok, and Arya have been able to handle all the monsters themselves so far. Most underused character at the moment is Nalia who is yet to cast a single spell in the Keep.

 

Whoa...Watcher's Keep is a dungeon to outshine...or outgloom all other dungeons!!

You're gonna love it, especially near the end. It gets to be good fun! And the most important bit of advice after Watcher's Keep...go STRAIGHT to Cespenar and have him look through your stuff...