Just wondering?

[Dundee Slaytern]

Originally posted by Baros: Dundee - Bolts (or Arrows as I believe I commented on) of venom are all well and good if you get the shot in before the guy gets his stoneskin up. Lightning will hurt afterwards. Poison of any sort is the absolute coolest way to bring em down.

No Assassin worth his/her salt will foolishly attack a Mage face-to-face. Nay, what they need to do is to stealthily tip-toe behind the Mage and invoke the other Assassin skill and cackle maniacally as the Mage gibs into a zillion pieces from a x7 Backstab attack with a poisoned weapon.

Even if the Mage survives... the poison renders the Mage impotent. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Baros]

Oh, I agree entirely Dundee.

There are always situations where it isn't possible however and having a contingency plan is the best way to survive. Any mage with stoneskin already up becomes immune to your technique. Poisoned arrows of dispelling will soon solve that.

A great example is Reyic Gethras who will have stoneskin up before you get to him. Without running up and down stairs to hide in shadows again, how else are you supposed to kill him?

[Olorin]

Originally posted by Baros: Oh, I agree entirely Dundee. There are always situations where it isn't possible however and having a contingency plan is the best way to survive. Any mage with stoneskin already up becomes immune to your technique. Poisoned arrows of dispelling will soon solve that. A great example is Reyic Gethras who will have stoneskin up before you get to him. Without running up and down stairs to hide in shadows again, how else are you supposed to kill him?

Backstab is still the way to go. Just have your ranger hit him with the arrow of dispelling, and THEN backstab him to poisoned death. Just make sure you have a normal weapon on your assasin.

[karlosovic]

I never actually stopped to consider if Kua-Toa bolt were actually useful. Ever since my first time through the underdark when I collected about 1000 of them and then realised no-one would buy them off me, I've never even picked them up. In fact, I hardly even bother to loot Kua-Toa corpses at all as they have nothing worth selling.

Speaking of Kua-Toa and backstabbing (I'm making the connection), why can't I ever sneak up on Kuo-Toa ? I know you can't backstab a beholder, but I can at least sneak past them. Surely if my stealthing is good enough to sneak past an enormous EYE, i can sneak past a stinking little frog. I'm just up to the underdark on my solo run (f/m/t) and I've cleared the kua-toa and beholder sections, as well as everything on the main underdark map. The only thing I can't stealth against is the stinking frogs !!! Why ?!?!?!

(ok so I have about 50 potions of invisibility but it's the principle of it).

[pcgiant]

Kuo-Toa seem to have permanent True Sight.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Originally posted by Baros: Oh, I agree entirely Dundee. There are always situations where it isn't possible however and having a contingency plan is the best way to survive. Any mage with stoneskin already up becomes immune to your technique. Poisoned arrows of dispelling will soon solve that. A great example is Reyic Gethras who will have stoneskin up before you get to him. Without running up and down stairs to hide in shadows again, how else are you supposed to kill him?

Backstab after backstab... Potions of Invisibility are as common as Healing Potions in the game. Factor in the Ring of Invisibility and other items that enable you to cast Invisibility spells, and sooner or later, he will run out of Stoneskins.

No need to run up and down.

[img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

Alternatively, you can go to a corner invisibly and out of sight and lay as many traps as you can. Walk forward a bit, say peekaboo and run to and fro( stealthing when he is out of sight. If you stealth before he finishes casting his spell, his spell will fizzle. You will need to practise your timing, but this was how my solo Assassin did it, bless her mischevious heart [img]smile.gif[/img] ), forcing him to waste his spells. When he runs out of spells, he will walk towards you and... kick the barrel.

[Baros]

It's a similar tactic but running up and down stairs is a *bit* more efficient though [img]smile.gif[/img]

I think the basic problem is that cheesy tactics *do* work in situations where anything else is liable to get you killed. Soloing with a Thief is like taking a journey through rural France - you can't help but take the cheese (there was something about backstabbing huge numbers of peasants as well).

I've never found potions of invisibility to be that common - numbers are in short supply (at least until you can brew them yourself or you've got the enhanced Thieve's Guild mod) except for the witch in the bridge district. Sure lots of opponents have them as well, the trick is to kill them before they can use them (not always that easy).

[Jim]

Originally posted by Dundee Slaytern: Remember the last time you told me about the Grandmastery Patch, Jim? As we both know, once you get that GoES, Strongarm chews up the Tuigan Bow and spits it out. Gesen Bow beats Strongarm when used with ammunition, but personally, I dislike the Gesen Bow. I do not know why, but I do. I just cannot phantom my Archer using such a weapon. Heh. On a side note, why the heck are the ToB Short/Longbows INFERIOR to their SoA counterparts???? I mean... HELLO!

Yes, that's what reminded me about the GoES, long live the Strongarm!

Gesen is an awesome bow when used correctly, but I know what you mean about disliking it.....there's just something about it that cries "DONT USE ME".

All the bows in BG2 are pretty lame. I don't know why they didn't have higher damage bonuses in ToB (instead they seemed to think people would prefer a movement rate increase.....hellooooooo!).

Composite longbows were also lameified, reducing the damage by 1 point, and fixing it at +1 regardless of enchantment . A +3 Comp. should grant +4 to hit and +5 to damage, in BG2, it grants +4/+1!). This is strange IMO since crossbows work differently...a heavy crossbow always has enchantment, +2 damage (i.e. +3/+5 for a heavy xbow +3), so why they ruined the composite bows I'll never know (or at least never understand!).

The bows in IWD and IWD 2 are superb (have you got IWD2 yet?). I just picked up a beauty in the Severed Hand (IWD2) that has +6 to hit and +6 damage .

[Dundee Slaytern]

Bows and Crossbows rock so hard in IWD1 that they put their counterparts in BG2 to shame. I mean... the Messenger of Seth and the Hammer series. In BG2, only an Archer can hope to compete, somewhat, with the melee Warriors when it comes to damage potential. In IWD1 though, even a pureclassed Ranger can match, if not exceed, what a melee Warrior can dish out. Mind you, this is taking into consideration that they forbidden any character from attaining more than 3* in Launcher-type weapons.

Then there is the matter of enchanted ammunition... BG2 Archers wannabes will spent some time lamenting the lameness of the lameass ammunition. I mean... the only difference between an Arrow +2 and an Normal Arrow, is a +2 THACO bonus and the +2 enchantment. In IWD1, the arrow actually gets a +2 damage as well, making it worthwhile to actually use it other than when you need the enchantment level. Also... IWD1 has... *GASP!* +4 enchanted arrows! [img]tongue.gif[/img] Other than the Bow of Gesen, BG2 has no other arrow that exceeds +3. This is one of my main grievances with the game, although come to think of it, maybe the Item Upgrade Mod should include this in the next update,

Normal Arrows:Stack of 40
Arrow +2:Stack of 40
$5000

-> Arrows +4

Heh... in IWD1, a character fulfilling the role of an Archer can be a well-loved asset if you use him/her properly. I remember most of my Archers had 80-90% of the kills all the way to the end of IWD1. Remarkable? Not really, since the melee folks tend to spend most of the time trying to live [img]tongue.gif[/img] while the Archer competes with the Bard to see who can pluck strings faster. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

As for IWD2, nope, have not gotten it yet.

[Baros]

I've not played IWD, but missiles rocked in BG1 - Kivan was deathmeister.

I actually quite like the variety in BG2, once you get the ammo belt that is. I've used short bows a lot, but trying it out with x-bows at the moment (for some reason I couldn't see my Assassin with a Bow), but until I get UAI I'm limited to light x-bows of which there is only one choice.