Durlag's Tower - alternative tactics (Spoilers obviously)

[Midget Gems]

My solo character has just returned from Durlag's Basement and completed the TOTSC quests. As a solo player I was interested in trying out alternative stratergies to avoid getting killed too often. It's hard enough to survive the traps - without having to fight enemies as well.


Spoilers


So after I finished with the four Warders I went into Sanctuary and walked through the next level without fighting anyone. Then on through the Wyvern area until I actually had to fight something. As a high level character I didn't need the XP and fighting is sooooooo over-rated. Actually Sanctuary has some odd side-effects in that enemies talk to you, and even follow you, without attacking. Quite a few bad guys killed themselves in the traps, while following me around the level with the funny doors. Not to mention the fun to be had when invisible (and protected) on the Chess Board

But to get to the point of this topic. I found an interesting way of dealing with the Demonknight, so I wondered if any of you can figure out what I did, or if anyone have done this before. As I said earlier I have completed the quest so given these facts can you work out how I did it?
I retrieved the Dagger from the DemonKnight.
I didn't get any XP.
I didn't use my weapons.
Thanks for taking an interest,
Midget Gems

[Dirty Meg]

Picked his pockets?

[Iron Greasel]

While sanctuarized?

[SixOfSpades]

I'd say either by pickpocketing, or by breaking the mirror and letting his clone do the killin'.

[Midget Gems]

Good try guys, but I'm not sure I could have pickpocketed a hostile creature, even if I was a Thief - which I aren't. You need to use a lot more imagination.

Six, I think your idea of breaking the mirror is good, when he dies I could then grab the dagger and leave. But I wonder if I need to use a weapon to do this. Can you remember if the mirror breaks with magic, or using fists.

So next clue is that I am a Cleric/Mage and I didn't break the mirror.

Keep thinking.

[Dirty Meg]

Used the mod which lets you play BG1 with the BG2 engine, and gated in a pitfiend?
Charmed the guy at the back of the room, and had him kill the demonknight?
Had such a high charisma that the demonknight agreed to give you the knife?

You turned him?

[Dirty Meg]

Originally posted by SecretMaster: You turned him?

You DO get exp for turning.
Besides which, he's not undead. You turn all you want. The Demonknight's not for turning.
(Even if he could be turned, I doubt very much that a multiclass char would be a high enough level to turn him).

[Midget Gems]

Even I didn't think of trying T.U. - nice idea but as Meg says "The Demonknight is not for turning."

So to re-cap:
The Demonknight is dead
I didn't kill him (I got no XP)
So either he killed himself or someone else did it!

While you think about that, I have a few more examples of my alternative tactics.
As I said before there are parts of the game where I don't need to fight to make progress. I made it my goal to not to kill anything in Chapter 6. So I just grabbed a couple of useful items and left before anyone noticed I was there.
As far as my other tactic goes, getting through a battle without doing any fighting can become a real artform. For the 'Iron Throne' fight I sent my Skeletons into the frontline and then followed up with lots of Chaos, Charm and Hold spells. Then I sat back to enjoy the mayhem - when the dust settled there was just one skeleton left standing, while the bad guys had killed each other. Certainly the art of letting someone else do the fighting is greatly helped by the number of Skeletons that can be summoned, I've never before had a Cleric that reached this level in BG1. I guess they introduced a summoning limit in later games to avoid inbalance with this type of tactic. With high level magic users there is so much potential if there is time in which to fire off the spells, so for the solo player buying time is what it's all about.
Cheers, M.G.

[Iron Greasel]

You made him walk into a trap?