About party petrification . . .

[Grungi]

i have never come across a basilisk in a waylay spot before, didnt think they attacked in em, or even resting in the basilisk map i dont see any

[Sig Segorn]

Yeah, I would think the game's designers would've shown some restraint with the basilisk attacks, but I wouldn't have put it past them to hit you with these in waylay spots. The first time I ran into wyverns in my game, it was some adult ones in a waylay spot, along with some giant spiders. We were able to dispatch them all, but a couple of my party members would've been dead (from poison) many times over if I hadn't beefed up everybody's hit points with the Editor, and, at least until the end of Chapter 4, I'm playing it safe by casting Protection from Poison on everybody before zoning out of an area.

[InsaneBane]

As far as I remember, I have once tried to run into some basilisks on a waylaid map. I am not 100% sure, but I think I remember my main character getting turned into stone. After I reloaded I cursed my self for letting my main character attack the beasts, because I had several Stone to Flesh scrolls on my characters. What a loss of good experience (and a good fight).

Insane

[SixOfSpades]

Originally posted by Sig Segorn: . . . Are you saying that you've had a member of your party petrified, by a basilisk or something, in a waylay spot, then were able to restore them to normal using the method you described? That's pretty scary if they hit you with basilisks in waylay spots, but I would just load the save I did before zoning out if that happened to me.

I have indeed been surprised by a Basilisk in a Waylay. There were a few minor enemies there as well (Gnolls & Skeletons, as I recall), but what held my attention was the Lesser Basilisk to the north. The last time that happened to me, I immediately Paused, turned off the AI, and told everybody to throw everything they had at the Basilisk as hard as they could. By the grace of Tymora, nobody got Petrified, not even my PC who was Tanking right in its face. I haven't always been so lucky, however.

Whether or not you want to Reload is up to you; there seem to be 2 styles of remedying a party member getting Petrified in a Waylay map:
1) "I'll just pretend that didn't happen."
2) "It's a shame that Minsc is now a statue, but I'll accept my losses, go buy a Scroll, and then use a cheat that, essentially, has no effect but to save me the 8 hours of travel time that I would have spent if I'd been allowed to come back to this map in the first place."

[Sig Segorn]

OK, Six. As I alluded to earlier in this thread, I'm not surprised that they even do that to you in this game. I never thought of reloading as cheating, but, if you prefer to take the purist roleplayer approach and remedy that situation in the way you described, I guess I have to respect that. I'm not using the cheat codes because, though I think I could do it right, I'm not so keen on editing that game file with Notepad, but I was a little surprised to learn that even the waylay spots have area numbers, and that that cheat code even works for "transporting" you back to one, if you know its number. Due to the confirmation of this very dangerous possibility, I think I'll have my main character start carrying a supply of Stone to Flesh, so that I'll only have to reload if SHE gets stoned---not the good stoned, the bad stoned.

[Grungi]

wyverns are a common spawn in the cloakwood map points thats the best way to get quick exp for higher levels, just keep moving from map to map and you get hit with normally about 10k worth of exp a go with all the spiders, ettercaps and wyverns.

and the lesser basilisk on the waylay map might well be less powerful than a normal spawned one, which would make more sense as the games designers arent all that cruel

[Midget Gems]

Sometime I think me and Gungi are playing a completely different game - I guess that shows how good BG1 is if that is that case. The last thing my party needs is to run into a Wyvern ambush. I have very weak fighters and rely on magic defence to stay alive, so an ambush like this is almost certain death for me.

On the other hand I once survived a Lesser Basillisk ambush with a low level party, that was a good fight. I was trying to remember, do Basillisk stop using their petrification attack (ranged) when they get into melee combat, then they use teeth and claws or whatever. I usually stand off them with protection, so I don't know all their moves.