Elven city probs (getting my ass kicked)

[Auraleus]

After reading this post I had to break open one of my old saves and do the fight, and technically I won... but with only two party members left... heh, luckily one was Jah so she could bring them back... anyways:
Stalker(me, love this class... ranger who can BS!)
Imoen, Jah, Minsc, Aerie, and Nalia
btw this is my favorite party.. lotsa variety, lotsa healing, lotsa spells
anyways... one of the buildings in the elf town has a time stop scroll
so.. start the fight
Aerie time stops, greater malaises, and shoots of as many Dooms before time resumes
Then me, minsc, aerie, and Jah spend the first round shooting more Doom... found out in another post they stack... I think..
elementals are sent in as fodder while everyone else stays back using range items (to various degrees of effectiveness) while Nalia, Aerie, and Imoen fire off about 9 cloudkills in 3 rounds... with all the save reduction these seriously spam your screen with damage to the dragon..
at this point I sat back and laughed, until the damn dragon cast the damn bugs... lost aerie, nalia AND Imoen... Minsc being the big dolt he is said "I must protect my witch!" and ran face first into the dragons mouth and all the cloudkills...
Luckily, Jah survived the bugs and brought everyone back

[Glorfindel]

quote:

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Originally posted by Izanagi:
Keep in mind, dragons can see invisible creatures. That doesn't mean equiping the cloak of non-detection will help you in the slightest, as the point again is they can "SEE" through the invisibility.

Hoping you'll take this into consideration when planning tactics. [img]smile.gif[/img]

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Uhhhh Its DEMONS that can see invisible creatures.... Dragons cant in my Experience

[Taliesin]

Thankyou for the suggestions guys. I KICKED HIS SCALEY ARSE!!!!
[img]graemlins/gore.gif[/img]
And celebrated with healing potions all round [img]graemlins/cheers.gif[/img]

From the later replies it appears my party is indeed low in XP as I have no magic users able to use lvl 9 spells (time stop etc). Just out of curiosity what is the average level of parties completing the game? I have pushed on ignoring a few of the non essential side quests and missed out on a bunch of XP (and items) along the way.

[chevalier mal fet]

Well unless you have a cheat enabled, or have TOB installed, its impossible during regular SOA play for mages to get enough experience to memorize 9th level spells...but hey could still use 9th level scroll if they are high enough level. At any rate however, you should by no means need 9th level magic to beat the black dragon. Time stop is a super powerful spell, but good tactics are more than effective against the black dragon.

I dont think I ever even cast any 8th level spells out of neccesity during the game. I mazed somebody once just to see it work...but that was the only time.

[PeeWee]

quote:

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Originally posted by chevalier mal fet:
Well unless you have a cheat enabled, or have TOB installed, its impossible during regular SOA play for mages to get enough experience to memorize 9th level spells...but hey could still use 9th level scroll if they are high enough level.

I dont think I ever even cast any 8th level spells out of neccesity during the game. I mazed somebody once just to see it work...but that was the only time.

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Are you saying that the late or middle game pick-up mages won't have enough exp available for them to hit level 18? Or are you saying that the "npc mages" don't have high enough int for the spells to scribe?

It's not experience that limits your lvl 9 spell usage. It's your INT. At level 18 with an int of 18 or higher you will have one spot open in your mage book for the lvl 9 spell( note I think this only works for your base int and not modified). If you have 17 int or lower, you will never see this spot open. lvl 18 and 19 offers one lvl 9 spell spot in the book. Lvl 20 gives you two. All that if your int is 18 or higher.

I am merely quoting what I read from the d&d faq. So a priest with a wis of 16 like Anomen sucks later on since he won't get the higher end spells cuz his wis is too low. I'm finding this out all too late.

But here check it for yourself:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/
Go there and then to BGII and look under D&D FAQ. I was directed there and it offers alot of clarity. Scroll down to the mage section. There are two charts you will want to look at- the number of spells allowed to be scribed per lvl and the int needed per lvl.

So, if you REALLY want to hit lvl 18 with an 18 INT caster or higher to see some lvl 9 spells, I suggest ya drop some party members and DUO to hog up the exp SOA offers since it's limited.

Welp, hope that helps someone somewhere.

[PeeWee]

@ chev, I read the exp level cap bit in the manual as I was trying to figure out what ya meant earlier. Damn them all to hell. I just couldn't believe what ya were saying til I read it for myself I guess. You were meaning that lvl 17 is the highest a mage could go.

Doesn't mean we can't quaff down some int potions and then use the scrolls as ya said, which I think is better than nothing.

Grr, I'm here lookin for what npc mages will have that base int of 18 to keep them for later on, come here and wonder, and find the answer which I hate.

Sometimes it's good to be left in the dark.

Now I can find peace in understanding what ya also meant about the lvl 9 spells.

And a woohoo for still having my manual.

[chevalier mal fet]

If being denied the godlike prowess of the ninth (and tenth) level spells is gonna cramp your style, you can always just pop the 30 bucks for Throne of Baal expansion now, before you go much further in the game. TOB cracks everything wide open , and gives even more powerful spells, while allowing you to finish out your SOA game seamlessly. Theres an experience cap in that game too....It stops you right around demi-god status(lev 35-40).

Or, you can always hack the game(cheat).

Chev

[Ike YarakZ]

my first go at the dragon was really suprising becaue,i only used BREACHes and DISPELLS and hacked it away senselessly and the Dragon was ded... Di Ei Di, DED!

i had no trouble at all i didnt haste (although the Beserker and Valygar had the Boots of Speed)... Keldorn de-spelled wif every hit, imoen and edwin breached and Jehiera did something but i cant remmember...(shes great)

Peace

[Ike YarakZ]

my first go at the dragon was really suprising becaue,i only used BREACHes and DISPELLS and hacked it away senselessly and the Dragon was ded... Di Ei Di, DED!

i had no trouble at all i didnt haste (although the Beserker and Valygar had the Boots of Speed)... Keldorn de-spelled wif every hit, imoen and edwin breached and Jehiera did something but i cant remmember...(shes great)

(by the way: nearly all of my characters were at 2950000 <-- that might have made a diffrence)

Peace

[PeeWee]

quote:

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Originally posted by chevalier mal fet:
If being denied the godlike prowess of the ninth (and tenth) level spells is gonna cramp your style, you can always just pop the 30 bucks for Throne of Baal expansion now, before you go much further in the game. TOB cracks everything wide open , and gives even more powerful spells, while allowing you to finish out your SOA game seamlessly. Theres an experience cap in that game too....It stops you right around demi-god status(lev 35-40).

Or, you can always hack the game(cheat).

Chev

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LOL,
TOB would probably cramp my gaming more than some 1 or 2 spells I can't scribe. No biggy( heh, getting familiar with all the other spells is tuff as is). I also got 2 other games I bought during the same time as this one, one being Lords of Magic and I haven't even touched that one.

With the idea of "just play" I was a tiny bit disappointed when I found out Anomen doesn't become a paladin which I thought he would turn into from knighthood.

In reading up on some of the rules however I've understood the game better. And the reminder that there is a cap isn't something that would make me drop the game, Not in a million years [img]smile.gif[/img]

And for the thing about the cheat, I don't really like the idea tho I can't say Im'a purist. If there is a way to get money like there is by stealing and selling, I use clua for faster money knowing the game makes it non-issue. However, using it to periodically change stats or create stuff out of blue is best left to those not going at it for a first time.

I see nothing wrong with ppl making mistakes and correcting them for that time being with shadowkeeper or such. I made a noobie mistake and on my first few rolls stuck to a set only becuase I saw a natural 19 for str. I had been getting some 17 str 17 dex and 16 con in rolls but didnt know better. SO to "fix" that I just rolled a 6 sided die and told myself subtract 1 to whatever number it is and add it to my dex. I can live with that just like I can knowing mages won't get lvl 9 spells.

Put it this way, in finding all the cool stuff there is to know about this game and how it causes nastalgia of playing old D&D board games, I'm sure to see good things about it and some things I can live with. All embraced.

Gah, and now that reminds me that I played my first cardboard game hrm, 12-15 years ago? =(