Tales of the Unexpected (Spoilers)

[Midget Gems]

Since the Forum is quiet at the moment I've got a few stories for you. I have just finished off my adventure using two Bards and a couple of interesting things have happened along the way......
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Spoiler Ahead
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Major Spoilers
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First is the encounter with Dalton and the Demon-Knight

I always enjoy the fight with the DK, it's one of the few fights where I'm not outnumbered. I reloaded (for fun) several times and beat him 4 times out of 6 using completely different tactics each time. But the thing that surprised me was that on one occasion Dalton started fighting with the Demon-Knight. I never realised he was able to do that (nor did I think he had the courage), anyway he took lots of damage and eventually died. Anyone else seen him get involved and what triggered his action?
While on the subject of the DK, how about this for 'Bard Power' - I walked straight up to him and cast, from the scroll, the Dark Side level 7 spell "Prismatic Spray" which killed him instantly, very nice but waaayyyy too cheesy. I try not to use many Dark Side feature in the regular game. A Bard would have to be about Level 20 to learn this spell so it's totally unrealistic to have it at this stage of the game.

Next story concerns our old friend Aec'LeTec.

I won the fight upstairs and figured it would be good role-playing to go straight down to face the big guy, without resting or healing to keep the sense of urgency. I didn't have many spells left but I thought I could out smart him. I took control of the situation by casting Ortiluks Resilient Sphere on him, so that I could have enough time to clear out the Cult Guards. Then I got ready to play my trump card - a scroll of Clouldkill that I had saved specially for the occasion. I stood out of his sight and cast it where I thought he was standing - but it missed him!! Don't panic I thought .....if I can just get his attention, save against his Gaze Attack and lead him towards me, he will walk into the cloud and face certain death ......phew that was a close shave. Still a clean kill, with no damage taken, so that's a nice result for my team.

Another encounter was with the Skeleton Warriors in the Warren.

Now Skeleton Warriors are no pushover for a couple of Bards so how should they proceed? Well they could go invisible and Dimension Door over the traps but I didn't have the spell, so this is how it panned out. Take one Bard with Invisibility, Mirror Image and a bit of Fire Resistance and walk up to the Skeletons. All the traps when off causing 100+ points of damage to each skeleton (= death) and a slight scorching to the Bard. And you thought Bards were wimps didn't you!!
On we go to face the final confrontation ............

Hope you found something here of interest.

[ 02-16-2003, 04:45 PM: Message edited by: Midget Gems ]

[SixOfSpades]

Originally posted by Midget Gems: .... I walked straight up to him and cast, from the scroll, the Dark Side level 7 spell "Prismatic Spray" which killed him instantly, very nice but waaayyyy too cheesy. I try not to use many Dark Side feature in the regular game. A Bard would have to be about Level 20 to learn this spell so it's totally unrealistic to have it at this stage of the game.

What's the EXP cap for Dark Side anyway? And, personally, I've never found much use for Prismatic Spray, considering that there are so many spells out there that can apply the hurtin' without potentially destroying items.

... All the traps when off causing 100+ points of damage to each skeleton (= death) and a slight scorching to the Bard.

Odd--do the Fireball Traps somehow ignore the Skeleton Warriors' huge Magic Resistance or something?

[Midget Gems]

Well done Six, you found something of interest in my long winded ramblings. (That's the trouble with Bards, they want to tell everyone their story)

I already have the XP cap removed and I think DSOTSC has one too, but I've never taken a party to the really high levels. Nor have I spent enough time in the higher reaches of BG2 to compare Prismatic Spray with the alternatives. Let's just say it worked nicely for me and I was going to reload anyway. In fact I think it killed him twice over (indego and violet?).

Spoilers again

As for the Skeleton Warriors your point is well made. I was suprised how much damage got through their Magic Resistance, though I have observed this effect previously. I triggered the traps more in hope than expectation and was pleasently suprised at the outcome. I think the SWs took three double hits from each of the Lightning Traps and a double hit from the Fireball, out of which the Magic Resistance saved them about twice each (eg 25%) which is much lower than expected. Is trap magic any different to spell magic? I just don't know the answer to that. I don't think I saw any save v spells in the dialog window either. Figure it out if you can.