Has anyone beat that dark elf wizard in there with anything else other than a dark elf AT THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME. That is, at level 1. I have only managed it with a dark elf, and then he is a pushover, but High elves are weak against fire, so they suck, I couldn't do it as a lizard man, cat person or Imperial. I guess the Bretons would be effective against them, but I've yet to try that, and it gets boring. If anyone has beaten him, could they give strategies? I have managed to make him run out of Firebites (or magicka) but only as the dark elf when I beat him anyway. All the other times I have failed 'cos I died too early.

Remember, I'm talking at LEVEL ONE, so I don't want any strategies that start with, "Train and level up...blah blah blah." I know that I could easily do that, but the cave is good experience and so is useful at the beginning.
Thank you for bearing with me! Sorry if I sound rude or demanding (or both!). I greatly appreciate any help! Thanks!

EDIT: Grammar and spelling! :D

[ 03-07-2003, 06:15 PM: Message edited by: slicer15 ]

Well, his dependence on Magicka is his weakness. I would try and dodge his ranged spells, and try and run away from his firebites until he runs out of Magicka. Then he will be easy prey.

He's very easy to beat if you take the time to acquire a little sneak training. He turned my Breton to a crispy critter several times before I even thought to try it. You can sneak up close and then either whack him or whatever.

[ 03-07-2003, 06:33 PM: Message edited by: Rhea ]

IF he require some sneak training yes. But he said 'I don't want any strategies that start with, "Train and level up...blah blah blah.' Sooo...

dodge his fireball and kill him with your weapon. easy as pie. even at level 1.

Yep, been there, done that. With a level 1 Redguard. I admit i got pretty beat up, but in the end i came out as the victor.

Run towards him until he sees you, then strafe right and hide behind the wooden support beam with the torch on it. He`ll waste his mana shooting fire at the beam (nope, it isn`t combustable mr. mage) then he`ll whip out a little dagger. This is when you come out from behind the beam and smash his brains in with your iron hammer. [img]smile.gif[/img]

The above strategy also works against any other projetile casting enemy - particularly daedra! Just side step a bit so that their fire hits the corner of a wall, a tree, or something between you and them. Let them drain their mana and watch bemusedly as their fireballs keep exploding in their face.

Thanks a lot for your help! And yes, I wouldn't be able to afford sneak training at the time yet, but I could try that on later opponents. The hiding behind obstacle tactic seems quite good, I'll try that some time!

Thank you very much! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

Easy!

Just dodge his magic or hide behind something until he runs out of magicka. If you just take a quick peep at the enemy ( or stay half-hidden) when you hiding behind something enemies with ranged attacks usually attacks you, but rarely hit. [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
One time he just stood there halfway up the stairs and shot his magic right on the ground. Man, he´s stupid.

BTW my character: level 1 Nord.

dodge, dodge, dodge. Then crush him. Everybody said that.

Just one tip, which is useful in general: when casting ranged spells, creatures and NPCs tend to lead fire, just like you (should) do when firing at moving targets. This means, they judge your motion & speed at the moment of casting and shoot the place where you should be if you continued your movement.

So here's the strategy: stay far away from the hostile, to allow for a longer fireball traveling time, and strafe left and right as a pendulum, trying to keep your movement as wide and fast as possible. Don't move forward. What you need to do is stop and reverse movement as soon as the spell is cast - it will go wide. Repeat until enemy mana is over then kill him. Jumping sideways can be a good idea as well - makes you faster and makes the spell go high as well.

This was the first fight my nord got into and i don't see how it could be so troublesome.

It isn't that troublesome if you use a warrior, planty of hp and a good chopping axe... but if you happen to be a sneak or a wizard, than all that fire might burn you.

I don't see any trouble when you use any race as well, warrior and thief class wouldn't have troublee with him. but mage might have as you don't have enough mana.

I find it kinda easy, it takes me about 2 or 3 tries but either fire at him with a bow while dodging his fireballs. If he runs up to you and tries using that annoying touch spell, use a spear.

I think you probably have the answer you wanted, but if you are like me and don't have the coordination for dodging stuff, another good trick is to take the sign of the Atronach. Use up your mana taking out the guy in the front room, then go straight after the caster. He'll just recharge you.

Or you do like this: there is a ledge above the path where the wizard is coming from. As soon as he comes runnig after you just go up the ledge path as far as you can go until you come to a rock. The wizard will just be running up and down the stairs and you can take him out with ranged weapons or magic. Or just move a little left while facing him and if you stand in the right spot he will fire his magic at you but it will hit the rockwall to the right of you instead. [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

[ 03-09-2003, 10:11 AM: Message edited by: Stratos ]

with all those help I think he wouldn't have trouble with any monsters in the game. :D

I would sidestep down the stairs until he saw me, then run onto the ridge and jump down on him. Then I would click as fast as I could and hope he only sucessfully cast one fireball. It took me quite a few tries to get him that way. The fireball would always seem to lower my health to 1/4 its maximum, or kill me.

well don't forget that when you are level one your weapon skills aren't good and you miss most of the time

I didn't realize that meant NO training at all. I like to steal some stuff, sell it, train a little on sneak, and then it's dead easy.

The mage is devastating when you're low-level, but sneaking up on him also gives you the advantage of a critical hit, and he is really low on HP.

or if you start out with a couple spells run up and cast them so to drain his health, and then run away and dodge his spells

This doesn't work all the time, but I have successfully managed to get the last bandit to follow me into the water near the platform you've mentioned (with the corpse and the rusty chest). The bandit followed me in, got into some difficulties negotiating the underwater elements of the very short passage and drowned! Ha, ha. You might have fireballs mate, but you never learned to swim. ;)

After all, fire and water don't match...interesting solution, but too complicated. Just dodge dodge dodge and then kill him... like you do in first person shooters when yu are caught reloading.

That's going to depend on your character. But yes, you can beat him at level one.

First, he likes to cast fireball spells. Get yourself where they won't hurt you. Dodging helps. Second, he likes a "touch" ranged fire attack.

So, a little resist fire might help. I think there may be a scroll for that in the first tomb, just up the coast. Also, drinking healing potions while being attacked helps. I do that. Or one of those regeneration scrolls.

But, it can be done at level 1, as I've done it.

The way i got started in the game, was that I became a dark elf (they have a good balance of power) and went to vivec. In vivec I went to the Redoran plaza. Once in the plaza, I went into one of the houses (can't remember which one) and stole the key to the Redoran tresury, the key unlocks the second vault. Once in front of the second vault, you have to wait until the guard comes near the door, if you close the door on him, he should run out of the vault leaving you free to take the wealth of weapons, jewels, and cash inside. I then took all of the goods and sold them to the talking mudcrab, (located on an island off the SE coast of Mzahnch) Keeping in mind that the mudcrab has 10,000 gp and you have to do some creative selling. I then took the money, and used it on trainers. Because of all the skill points I got from this, I was able to level up several times. This money really came in handy.