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I remember allways killing the fellow with ranged attacks too.

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Just finished the mines + Nimbul. Arrows + hold person first. Then Melee. Easy kill. I think it was Edwin that did the final blow. Hit him with a slingshot.

 

Nimbul has +5 AC against missiles weapons. For low level characters that's a massive AC bonus. Compare to a melee attack with zero penalties. Unless you're relying on critical strikes, only higher level warrior-types are going to hit that AC and even then you'll need a bit of luck.

Melee-ing him down is more straightforward, just have bard song/fear immunity up and spam command/missile wands. He's a pretty easy character to beat because he relies on single-target non-instant attack spells, to counter just have his target run into a building for cover (as any person probably would in an actual setting) and he will whiff his spells. Or you can have everyone gang up on him from the start since command has a pretty good chance of working on him. Even if command doesn't connect, once he runs out of spells Nimbul is pitiful in terms of physical combat.

 

And when Nimbul just comes into view, starting to cast his first spell after the dialogue, how many arrow/bolt/sling shots are you going to get off before you reach him in melee? All of which can disrupt his spell, causing zero action by the caster. You only need one to get through. You are damaging him faster AND disrupting his first spell, giving your mage or cleric time to hold/comand him. And then there are other factors to consider..... most of your charactes(especially non-warrior types) only get one melee swing with no bonus. Which will mean needing a high die roll to hit. Imoen and Garrick are the perfect example. They double their attacks with Bows. They can also spread out to minimize the range/AoE of enemy casters spells when engaging in missle combat. This is true for most battles with enemy spell casters. for examples.....avoiding mutliple characters getting hit by Aganzzar's Scorcher, avoiding/minimizing any effect of the various AoE spells, etc...

That is why Missle weapons rule the day in BG1.

 

Hold Person+Arrows+Magic Missile = No Nimbul

Speaking of which, the first time i encountered him ( yeah, waaay back ) I thought he was a mega bad-ass the way he sounded. Turned out to be another one with a too high opinion of himself!

 

Command has a casting time of 1 and goes through mirror images. I keep mentioning the wand of missiles because anyone can use it for disrupting spells and it doesn't require you to roll vs AC. Anyway Hold Person/command connecting is more or less game over for him, it removes dex bonuses and adds a penalty to AC. Edwin himself could easily solo a paralyzed Nimbul with a dagger.

1 attack per round in melee can easily be better than 2 ranged attacks per round with a +5 penalty, depending on party composition and party level. There's not much point in having one extra attack if it means lowering your chances of hitting him down to 5% (a critical hit). But if almost everyone in your party is a higher level fighter-type stacking *'s in bows, for example, feel free to pin-cushion him to death. And Nimbul is a special case - no other caster is easier to kill with melee weapons than with ranged weapons.

 

See the links in my previous post for guides to all the NPCs, that way you don't have to remember them all. If you want to know who interacts with who, check out the 2da file "interact.2da" with Infinity Explorer or on the Infinity Engine Structures Description Project.

http://iesdp.gibberlings3.net/files/2da/2da_tots/interact.htm