Battle Strategies & Tactics

[Cheapy]

All of us (I use this loosely) fighters out there know about the Head Honcho Troll in d'Arinese Stronghold. Ya know at the end, well anyways,I was fighting him 10 times and counting (before I knew about the Traps...ayiyiyi), and I finally decided to use Cloud spell that puts all to sleep, well, I used that and Cloudkill, I used it in the middle of the room and planned on runnin' and closing the door. Did that happen? Yep. Did I count on my main guy not getting thru the door before being knocked unconscious? Nope. Any ways, he was dieing, so I had to risk every single guy (All but one could "heal"). So, (this was early) I eventually had: Three dead trolls; 4 unconscious team members, being hurt; and Yoshi and someone else. I sent him in (the other guy): "Jump on my sword while you can evil, I WON'T BE SO FORGIVING!". Somehow, I had a light heal on Minsc and it saved my main guy (Monk). Moral of the story: Don't be an idiot and leave your main guy to die).

Ok, so that's not a battle, moreso a drama... but I can't think of a big enough battle to put up. HEck, they are ALL big to me. Yes, even those 3 Goblins you face in Jonny's Place O' Fun.

[Cerek the Barbaric]

DEATH OF A KENSAI


Setting: Waukeen's Promenade

Enemy: Kurosian, the Acid Kensai

Party members:
Cerek (Wizard Slayer/Thief 24/26)
Minsc
Keldorn
Jaheira
Imoen


During my first encounter (first several encounters actually), I found out just why this guy has such a massive Reputation. I had my party "buffed" as much as possible with pre-cast spells, But Kurosion blew through them like an F5 Tornado. I haven't faced any other opponent that could single handedly kill my entire party so quickly. Not even the various dragons killed me this quickly.

So I finally browsed the forum looking for threads telling how others beat this guy. The best advice came from weimer, who had created the mod that included the Acid Kensai. He suggested having the party "run around" waiting for Kurosion's various defensive spells to wear off. I didn't want to control the entire party, so I put them in the inn where we fought the dwarf and his party right after Chateau Irenicus - then took Cerek outside to face Korusion alone.

I tried running from him, which led to some pretty comical visuals that reminded me a lot of the 3 Stooges. I would walk to the door of Ribald's Adventurer's Mart, then equip Celestial Fury - which prompted Kurosion to show up. After going through the dialogue (and refusing to hand over Celestial Fury), Korusion would attack and my character would take off with his Boots of Speed. I would run up one staircase as he came down a different one. I finally settled on the area just above the Adventurer's Mart. There are two staircases there that are a fair distance apart. I would literally just run in circles waiting for his spells to wear off. Then I would use a Wand of Spellstriking to Breach his defenses and attack. This proved to be humorous to watch, but ineffective. He either killed me or just ran away once his spells wore off.

Then it hit me....I knew what I was overlooking......MY TRAPS!!!!!

This led to a new strategy. I came out of the inn and down to the floor of the Promenade. I moved forward a little (just behind and to the side of Aerie's circus tent) and set the following traps: 2 Spike traps, 1 Exploding trap, 1 Time trap, and 3 regular snares. That's all the game would allow.

Once the traps were set, I brought out the rest of the party. I left Minsc, Keldorn, and Jaheira up on the wall just outside the entrance to the inn and I brought Imoen down to the floor level and set her back against the wall just under her friends. This should put her far enough away from the traps to avoid the Explosion from my traps. Then I moved back to my normal spot and began the whole "run in circles" tactic again. I remembered to attack Kurosion as soon as the first wave of his spells wore off, so that he would come after me rather than running away. I then tried to lure him towards my traps and the waiting ambush. I planned to have Imoen cast ShapeChange and FireShield on herself. Then she could transform into an Earth Elemental or Iron Golem and just pound the kensai into the ground. I would use my Wand of Spellstrike to cancel out his Acid Resistance and the acid backlash from the Fireshield should hopefully kill him.

Good plan, but Kurosion was never cooperative enough to run through all of my traps. Some would go off, but he was healed of the damage almost instantly. {sigh}. Finally - after MANY tries - my strategy paid off, but not in the manner I was expecting.

I had gone through the whole setup again, with Minsc, Keldorn, and Jaheira ready with missile weapons and Imoen ready to Shapechange. I went towards my regular spot and equipped Celestial Fury. There was a loud explosion and a completely different dialogue from Killer K. Instead of trying to talk me out of the sword, he attacked immediately.

I couldn't figure out what happened until I scrolled across the screen. Instead of appearing on the wall above the Adventurer's Mart (where he usually showed up), Kurosion had "popped in" right in the middle of my traps!!! They had gone off before he had a chance to do any of his "buff up" spells and he had taken a bucket-load of damage. I quickly charged to the attack with Celestial Fury in one hand and Purifier (+4 and an extra 20% Magic Resistance) in the other. Imoen cast her Shapechange and - instead of firing missile weapons - I had Keldorn summon a deva and Jaheira summon a Greater Elemental. But I didn't need any of them. Kurosion was so badly injured from the traps that Cerek literally sliced him in half before the deva and elemental even showed up. [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img]

After hours of planning and several reloads - I have to admit it was rather anti-climatic...but I STILL took HIS katana for myself and divided the rest of his stuff among my fellow party members.

[ 02-05-2003, 09:23 AM: Message edited by: Cerek the Barbaric ]

[Alson]

Nice story, Cerek. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Kuroisan is indeed a worth foe, to say the least. A Kensai->Mage (13->14) with godly equipment, 2HP per second regeneration, acidic backflash and buffs flying up the wazoo is quite the setup. It's all about tactics, though. [ Hey, it is called the Tactics mod. [img]tongue.gif[/img] ]. The first time we met, he slaughtered my entire level ~16 (!) party in a minute or so (playing on Insane). Now, however, i have each of his moves memorized - i can beat him with a level 16 party in my sleep. I recently took him down with my level 10 solo Anti Paladin (again, playing on Insane). I'm rather proud of that one. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Cerek the Barbaric]

This is an old thread of mine that I decided to revive. There are LOTS of good games and battles going on according to the various threads I've been reading and this thread already has a good collection of strategies against different enemies most members seem to have trouble with.

I was also asked to provide a more detailed account of how my solo Skald defeated Improved Ilyich and Company, so I decided to bring this thread back to life to give [b]everyone[/i] a chance to list their favorite exploits and heroics in BGII. So please feel free to add your own adventures here for all of us to enjoy.

Solo Bard (Skald) vs Improved Ilyich 2.0 and Company
Difficulty: Normal

The key to my strategy against Ilyich and Co. is to use Dire Charm.

After defeating several Duergar spellcasters and fighters (is there no end to the number of these dark dwarves running loose in here?) and clearing out all the other rooms I had encountered, I decided it was time to search the library. I expected more of the duergar guards, but the dryads I met had also warned me about a far more powerful dwarf named Ilyich. He was the head cook for my captor and had several powerful friends to back him up in the kitchen and in combat. I didn't relish the idea of facing such a powerful party so soon after escaping from my cage - and I really began the question of sending Imoen, Jaheira and Minsc off on their own after releasing them. Well, too late to worry about that now. Besides, any character as powerful as this dwarf is likely to have magical items that are equally powerful. The lure of acquiring new magical items (along with the request from the dryads asking me to recover some valuable acorns from this Ilyich) soon overcame my initial misgivings. I returned to the Sewage Room where I had fought the most disgusting creature I've ever had the displeasure to meet. He died quickly enough, but then a cloud of maggots sprang from his stenching corpse and swarmed all over me for several minutes (ugh...my skin still crawls at the very thought of them). But I digress.

Upon my return to the Sewage Room, I had only one door that was left unexplored - so that obviously had to be the direction I needed to take to find this Ilyich fellow and his band. I opened the door and crept slowly down a long hallway that led to a library. I was so concerned about Ilyich that I never even saw another of those damned mephits until he hit me with one of his attacks. I quickly retreated back down the hallway (hoping to avoid attracting the attention of this party I was searching for) and finished the bothersome creature off. Then I returned to the end of the hallway. My line of sight was limited by the bookshelves, but I didn't have to wait long. A large golem appeared from behind one of the bookshelves to my right and immediately came after me. I had planned to use one of my spells (along with my natural Charisma) to Charm this Ilyich fellow (or one of his companions) and I wasn't sure the spell would work on the golem. I also knew I needed magical weapons to harm him and so far, I had only found a mildly enchanted long sword. So I did the only thing I could - I ran. The golem was persistant. He followed me down the hallway, into the Sewage Room, and down the long hallway to my right (which led to the area I where I met the djinni shortly after my release). The golem followed me almost to the end of THIS hallway too, but eventually gave up the chase and returned to his patrol in the library. I followed at a discreet distance and very cautiously approached the library again. I resumed my post at the end of the hallway and waited again. I paid particular attention to the area where the golem appeared. Sure enough, I didn't have to wait long until a sturdy dwarf appeared with a big hammer in one hand and a club in the other. There was another dwarf with him - a female I believe - with a BIG crossbow. The first dwarf began speaking to me, but I didn't pay any attention to what he said. I immediately cast my Dire Charm on him. The luck of the gods were with me because I could tell the spell took effect - which was lucky for me. The female dwarf seemed to be able to fire her crossbow with amazing speed, and another party member came around the near side of the same bookshelf to attack me. I tried to retreat, but he was too fast and caught me before I was halfway down the hall. WHAM! He stunned me with one blow of his fist - obviously he must be one of those monks I had heard of. Thank goodness my new best friend Ilyich came to my aid. He smashed the monk from behind with his hammer and landed another devastating blow with his club. The monk forgot about me and turned to attack his former leader (since he obviously knew how powerful the dwarf was compared to me). The crossbow-wielder was also concentrating her attacks on Ilyich now rather than me...so I decided I shouldn't interrupt this little family squabble and retreated back to the Sewage Room. I desperately wanted to close the door to the hallway and set up an ambush for any survivors that came through - but the door was stuck fast and refuse to budge at all. So I backed away from the door a bit and waited until I could hear no more sounds of battle. I crept slowly back into the hallway. Ilyich and the monk both lay dead where I had left them and Little Ms. Crossbow was nowhere to be found. A search of the bodies yielded some wonderful items. I got a nice hammer and very heavily enchanted club and found the acorns the dryads had asked me to recover. To my surprise, I found they were also rather heavily enchanted. I found a nice Cloak of Protection on the monk and decided not to push my luck any farther. I retreated to the Sewage Room and took a short rest to regain my spells. After recovering my spells (especially the Dire Charm) I went back up the hallway (a little bolder this time) and ran into my old buddy - the golem. I hastily ran back to the Sewage Room and used one of my innate abilities to cast Draw Upon Holy Might. A surge of energy and power coursed through my body just as the golem approached me with his huge hands raised over his head. SMACK! One heavy fist crashed down on my shoulder. The pain was intense, but the monks Cloak absorbed some of the blow, so I was still able to function. I used my newfound club and began smashing away at the golem. My magically-enhanced strength gave extra force to my blows and I managed to defeat the golem fairly quickly - but still took a good pounding myself in the process. I was prepared to go in search of the rest of the party (since I hadn't used any of my spells on the golem) when the fight was suddenly brought to me. A new character I had not seen yet suddenly appeared in the doorway from the hall and started casting a spell. The female dwarf with the crossbow was right behind the spellcaster and lining me up in her sights again. Fortunately, her shot went wide and I immediately cast my Dire Charm spell on her. She shook her head in confusion, then turned and fired the crossbow at the spellcaster beside her - thankfully disrupting whatever spell he was trying to cast. Since I knew how powerful that crossbow was, I yelled at the dwarf to use the sword hanging from her side (so that there would be MORE crossbow bolts left for ME once they were both dead). She switched weapons and attacked. The cleric couldn't stand up to such a vicious assault at close range (especially after I cast an Acid Arrow to prevent any further spellcasting) and soon fell. In the meantime, I cast Mirror Image and a second Holy Might on myself. As soon as my Charm spell wore off, the dwarf turned to attack me again. I blasted her with my Magic Missiles and my last Acid Arrow. She still managed to advance to melee with me, but was badly injured by the time she got there. My enhanced strength and Ilyich's club took care of the rest.

WOW! Was I glad THAT fight was over. I removed her short sword (which was very nice) and also took her crossbow and bolts (both of which had very strong magic emanating from them). Confident with my newfound weapons, I headed back towards the library - and ran right into a DEMON!!! "Where the HELL had that thing come from?" (Uh...no pun intended). I fired my new crossbow at it, but it had little effect. I pulled my trusty new club and smashed at the beast, but it's claws ripped into me unmercifully. Blood ran freely, and I decided I had better do the same. I was very glad to see that the thing wouldn't follow me out of the hallway. For some reason, it kept turning around at the door and going back to the library. I didn't question my good luck. I drank two more healing potions and layed down for another rest.

I awoke feeling refreshed and headed back into the library to find that demon. I had decided to memorize Melf's Minute Meteors instead of Dire Charm since I didn't think I would have much luck charming the demon. I reached the library and found no immediate sign of the beast. Then I remembered the acorns and the enchantment I had detected on them. I didn't know what they would do, but figured this was a real good time to find out. I found a word inscribed on one of the acorns and read it aloud. A huge puff of smoke billowed around me, and I found myself accompanied by two nymphs and a large moose when the smoke cleared. Just in time to, because the commotion had attracted the demon and he renewed his attack. The moose charged at him and held him off for a few moments, but was soon killed by the demon. I cast my two spells of Melf's Acid Arrows since I knew demons were susceptible to acid damage. Then I cast my Minute Meteor spell. The nymphs were also casting spells of their own. The one closest to me hastily explained they were trying to magically Hold the demon, but his Magic Resistance kept the spells from taking effect. And soon one of the nymphs was dead at his hands. Still, he had taken a lot of damage from my arrows and meteors and was moving more slowly when he finally got into melee' range. I had already cast Mirror Image and Draw Upon Holy Might before we reached the end of the hallway. The extra images protected me from some of his attacks and my Holy Energy gave me the strength I needed to finally put this loathsome beast out of my memory.

Before we could celebrate our victory, though, another one of those insufferable Duergar fighters came charging from around another bookcase and we could hear his partner chanting in the background. I thought we were done for, because I was almost completely out of spells. But the last nymph had a Domination spell and she cast it on the fighter. He immediately turned around and went after the spellcaster. The fight was short, but brutal. The spellcaster died, but not before inflicting some heavy damage on the fighter. After that, the nymph and I managed to kill the fighter easily.

As exciting as the battle was, I have to admit that I only achieved this result after several reloads. Using this strategy, it is imperative that you Charm Ilyich FIRST. The monk - Rasputin - seems immune to Charm and he can also kill your character or party quicker than ANY of the other party members. Fortunately, Ilyich is strong enough to stand toe-to-toe with him. The reason it took several reloads is because Ilyich isn't always the first one to appear. If the golem or glabrezu show up first, you CAN run away from them. If Rasputin shows up first, he will follow you to the Gates of Hell if necessary. He NEVER gives up. You can kill him if you have some help, but the fight will attract the rest of the group and then you are fighting the entire party at one time (NOT a good scenario).

Even when Ilyich shows up first, it still took several tries before my Dire Charm actually worked (or before he killed Rasputin while charmed). Another reason you need to Charm Ilyich first is that, regardless of how well he does against his buddies, he WILL be killed by them also. And that is good because you NEED his hammer and club to attack the Jailkeep Golem and the Glabrezu. After getting rid of Ilyich and Rasputin, it really doesn't matter what order you kill the rest of the party in. Dire Charm or Mental Domination on Karamazov is a very important tactic, because she is a Wizard Slayer - which means she is going to wreak havoc with any spellcasters in your group. So the best idea is to Charm or Dominate her and let her wreak havoc on Zhivago - the cleric of the group. That is because his FIRST spell is to summon a Fallen Diva. You really want to avoid that if possible. But if you can't prevent the spell, you CAN also run away from the Deva. She won't follow you and then it's just a matter of waiting for her to be unsummoned. Karamozov will easily kill Zhivago, but she will take some damage herself, so she isn't too hard to kill after the Charm wears off.

The Golem and Glabrezy both have good Magic Resistance. Straight hack-n-slash works well on the Golem (especially if you have Ilyich's hammer and club). The Glabrezu is harder to beat in melee, so spells are a good strategy against him. He seems to be particularly affected by Melf's Acid Arrow and Lightning Bolts (just watch for the rebound on the Lightning). Magic Missiles are also very effective. Of course, ALL of these have to get past his MR first, but even my 10th level bard had enough spells to do considerably damage with the ones that did overcome the MR.

So that is how my solo bard (Skald) defeated Improved Ilyich 2.0. Now let's hear some exploits from the other adventurers out there.

[Xen]

Originally posted by Cerek the Barbaric: Even when Ilyich shows up first, it still took several tries before my Dire Charm actually worked (or before he killed Rasputin while charmed). Another reason you need to Charm Ilyich first is that, regardless of how well he does against his buddies, he WILL be killed by them also. And that is good because you NEED his hammer and club to attack the Jailkeep Golem and the Glabrezu.

You don`t need it. You can use Melf`s Minute Meteor`s for those two. BTW you did a great job!

[ 06-26-2004, 09:43 AM: Message edited by: Xen ]

[TheGodThatFailed]

A class tactic for the big red machine.People might not approve,but i say to hell with them.This is possably well known but i dont know.
Have Yoshi place 5 traps behind the big red machine and stand your tank infront of him.turn him hostile and watch the traps fly,taking him to near death.Then it will just take a simple hit to slay him.The hitting part is fiarly hard if your alow level however.This is a way to get a few good trinkets before chapter 4.


EDIT i dont know if soemones already posted this,i got lazy couldnt be bothered to read the rest of the posts.

[ 06-26-2004, 07:10 AM: Message edited by: TheGodThatFailed ]

[SixOfSpades]

Killing Kuroisan without spells (almost)

The party was returning to Trademeet when we encountered some sort of Bard or Warrior-mage, buffed up with combat spells including Mirror Image. Alarmed, we started to position ourselves defensively, in case a fight should break out, but the wizard was already addressing us. It seems that he wanted one of Valygar's katanas, a rather plain weapon that we'd found in the cavernous tunnels beneath Spellhold. The man gave us two options: Give him the weapon known as Malakar, or fight. Now, Valygar had no real attachment to the weapon; the only reason we'd held onto it was that we hadn't found anything better for him to dual-wield with his family sword. But the motivations for surrendering the weapon weren't big either: This Kuroisan chap offered no reasons other than simple greed, and Kyrenia, the leader of our group, wasn't about to let some punk get a free +2 sword just because he wants it.

Iku yo!

The stranger cast a Death Fog--which killed a couple of City Guards, who had nothing to do with this fight at all! "This Kuroisan is clearly a menace," Kyrenia thought to herself, "putting noncombatants in harm's way like that." Of course, most of the party was in the area of the Death Fog as well, so they took the only escape route they could, which was further into Trademeet.
Kuriosan followed after us, of course, and we had to make a stand. Kyrenia moved up to block the attacking bastard, but he seemed to prefer going after Kelsey and Imoen--we had to use Kyrenia, Keldorn, Valygar and Sir Anomen to block the whole street. At this point, we decided taking down his combat spells was in order, so Keldorn popped a True Sight, Kelsey cast Pierce Magic, and Imoen fired off a Breach. Strange Acid Arrows immediately launched themselves back at my Wizards, preventing them from casting further spells, but more importantly, Kuroisan suddenly noticed that his protection spells were gone, and turned & fled--right into the Luraxxol Estate.
A plan formed in Kyrenia's mind, and she directed Keldorn to drink an Invisibility Potion and scout the place, accompanied by a Stealthed Valygar. Inside, they saw Kuroisan standing there, doing nothing. As the poor fool wasn't Stoneskinned, Valygar took advantage of the moment and buried his Katana into the bastard's behind. Kuroisan sensed his vulnerability and cast Protection from Magic Weapons, but Valygar didn't care--he was already outside again and re-Stealthed. Keldorn, sensing a pattern, moved out of Kuroisan's sight range and cast a Dispel Magic at him. Valygar, who had since re-entered the building, saw Kuroisan's PfMW get stripped, and cheerfully Backstabbed him again. Repeat 1 more iteration of PfMW, Dispel, Backstab, and the cocky Kensai->Mage was kissing the tiled floor of one of the only people in the game even more arrogant than he was.

[Black Baron]

Improved Torgal, Normal. ToB installed
Solo Barbarian.

I lured Torgal to the upper level, run in circle and threw axes at him. When he was near death I GWWed and killed him with Lilarcor. Piece of cake. (That tactic was created after 10 reloads when Torgal killed me in quick order).