Minsc dead again

[Boutte]

This guy sure seems to take a lot of hits for a some one with a -8 ac. Good thing he has a lot of hit points, as it is I think of my Rod of resurrection as my bring Minsc back to life wrench. I've been watching and it seems like the guy is lucky to get through a one on one with a kobold. If he wasn't so funny I'd dump his ass. But all of the npc's seem pretty lame at individual combat for a bunch of heroe's don't they? My helm is off to any one who can play this game solo. I don't know how you do it.

PS If you give Jahiera the RR she's almost guaranteed to die.

[Faceman]

On what difficulty are you playing?
What level are your party members and what enemies are you up against?

The trick is to kill an enemy before he does much damage - *doh*
Maybe you are equipping your people wrong. Take a look at their proficiencies.
I also had trouble keeping my party alive for the first time but Minsc never was the guy to die most. Aerie did a pretty good job at that.
Finally use a lot of magic. It's a lifesaver in SoA and something most people aren't quite used to when continuing from BG1.

[Firestormalpha]

Umm just my opinion, but a character likely to be considered a tank should have better than -8 ac by the end of ch.2 maybe 3 at latest. Anyways as faceman asked "How are you putting your characters to use?" If you say that your fighters are standing back and lobbing missile attacks while your magic users rush the angry mobs of monsters, I will be forced to hunt you down. But it may be a strategy error much more subtle than that.

[Boutte]

I do use Minsc as a tank which of course explains to a point why he takes so much damage. However I generally send my main character(Boutte) in ahead of the group which tends to draw most of the attention to him (in this case he's an undead hunter with -11ac) My usual formation 2 columns of 3 with Boutte and Minsc in the front followed by Jahiera and Anomen using slings and casting spells as long as possible. I like to throw summon insects (or something similar) and fire storm of redemption, or whatever it's called as soon as my mages, Imoen and Aerie, have removed the oppositions protection. Then I'll start using thier offensive spells. By this time the the lead guys have usually sliced the bad guys up pretty good but Minsc is almost always in bad shape even with the liberal use of healing potions. At the same time my other tank is usually in pretty good shape. Yeah I know his armor class is slightly better than Minsc's but but not that much better. I could give him a shield but he just kicks ass so good with that big ass 2 handed sword!

Oh and Firestorm I'm glad you mentioned the AC thing. I have never had a character with an ac of better than -11 but read in post's about people having these incredible ac's. If you could give me an example of a character with a much better ac and how he got it I would appreciate it.

And Faceman, I can only remember a couple of times when my mages died before my front line guys, maybe I'm being too cautious.

I hope you guys see this it seems that a lot of people tend not to return to a post after they've responded once.

Anyway thanks for the response. I'm currently trying to win the final battle so let me get back to it. (Getting my ass kicked)

[Mahlennacht]

I also NEVER had a character's ac up to -10 or better without spells/potions, but I really never found it necessary...

Odd, because once Minsc was at high level (like after chapter 5) I didn't notice any unusual trouble with him tanking - I mean everyone gets hit to some extent. But I didn't notice him dropping ALL the time... BTW have you berserked him much?

What items does Minsc have on him anyway? It probably doesn't make any difference but I was a little curious.

Re soloing - You can do it! I was a complete AD&D IDIOT and I actually didn't find it insanely difficult (after playing the game through a few times first of course)

[Dundee Slaytern]

The purpose of a tank is to... well... tank. A person with a Two-Handed Sword make a tank not. With the proper equipment... Minsc can achieve...

10 is his base AC...
-2 if you slap some good armour...
-6 with some choice Gauntlets...
-11 with the best shield...
-12 with the best helm...
-14 with the best ring...
-15 with another ring...
-16 with a green cloak...

That would be the reasonable AC level you can achieve with Minsc.

[robohobodude]

dundee, would u mind telling me exactly what armor minsc would b using. I'm willing to bet my life that it's enchanted, and im sure you're farmiliar with the rule of the character only being able 2 wear at most 1 enchanted item (not including shield) although ring of earth control and cloak of the sewers are exceptions that bypass this rule....oh and what are the gauntlets

[robohobodude]

ah silly me, forgot about the ring of gaxx, but i still would like to know the name of the gauntlets [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Dundee Slaytern]

None of the equipment conflicts. All of them can be found in the dafault installation of SoA. They are more or less the standard equipment for tanks.

The armour is found in Chapter 5, and you need to fight a party of 5 to get it.

The Gauntlets be found in the lair of a false God, and a Godsend for Keldorn.

[Olorin]

Originally posted by Dundee Slaytern: The purpose of a tank is to... well... tank. A person with a Two-Handed Sword make a tank not. With the proper equipment... Minsc can achieve... 10 is his base AC... -2 if you slap some good armour... -6 with some choice Gauntlets... -11 with the best shield... -12 with the best helm... -14 with the best ring... -15 with another ring... -16 with a green cloak... That would be the reasonable AC level you can achieve with Minsc.

Reasonable?? Seems more like pretty much the best possible AC without using mod's or ToB.

Also, Minsc has a base AC of 8, not 10, so those gauntlets of yours only add +2 AC, which means your total is still correct (took me awhile to figure out what guantlets you were talking about)

Boutte, don't feel bad if you can't get to -16 with Minsc; if you know which rings and cloak Dundee is talking about, I assume you are probably using them on your PC, and you have already mentioned that you don't want to use a shield. My first game I ended up with Minsc at -6 because he was dual-wielding. My monk only had a -7, of course not many enemies lived long enough to damage either one of them very much.

Some ideas for tactics if you are not already using them:
Focus attacks on only one or two enemies at a time. Concentrating fire power will kill them quickly and lower the number of attacks coming at you per round. Make sure you keep the enemy mages busy though, and try to keep them from casting spells (but if you hit them with insect plague, then ignore them until all others are dead).

When one character is taking lots of damage, try to pull them out of melee, or take out the enemy who is hurting you.

Watch your own area effect spells. Spells like fire storm will hurt your own characters as well as enemies unless you make them immune to fire damage. Make your melee fighters immune to fire with items or spells before dropping fire storms or fireballs on their heads.