Did Zargal get buffed?

Northcott

Zargal -- chances are you don't remember him. He's just a petty little encounter. The leader of a trio of hobgoblin bandits (just before you find Bassilus) who demands your money or your life.

On the off chance that he sticks out in somebody else's mind -- did they buff him? I don't remember him being nearly this tough in BG1. I thought he was only a low level hobgoblin, but I just went through 4 attempts at running through that battle with the same results every time -- TPK. Total party kill. And yet I was only ever able to kill one of the hobgoblins, at best.

Granted, my party's still very low level: PC is a 2nd level barbarian (who had barbarian rage triggered and a potion of speed), Jahiera (2nd level), Khalid (1st), Imoen (2nd), and Neera (1st).

Still, even in that case one would think that over the course of 4 battles, while hasted and enraged, the barbarian would have managed to land even *one* hit on Zargal. Nope. Not even when I tried ignoring the archers (crazy, I know) and had Jahiera, Khalid, and the PC mob Zargal while Imoen peppered him with arrows. In a total of four fights, he got tagged once... and that was Imoen hitting him.

Anybody else have trouble with this guy? Or have I just had exceptionally rotten luck? Can't see the "dice rolls", so I've no idea what's going on in the background.

cyberarmy

Rotten luck i say, all three of them dead in a single sleep spell. Just Ajantis get poisened nothing bigger.

Northcott

Seriously? Man, that's teeth-grindingly frustrating. I used the sleep spell during those encounters, too -- it only ever took out one of the hobs, at best.

Northcott

Yeahhhhh... something's definitely off. Just did a 5th run through, managing to draw out only Zargal without his two buddies... and he TPK's the party by himself. Not even getting hit once. Nor does he miss. My tank with the -2 AC? Taken down in just a few swings, because every one hits. And then I see "Critical Miss" stack on up on my party's names like it's the latest trend. :P It seems they can only hit Zargal with Critical Hits... I didn't think his AC was that high.

Elof

I just had this encounter with my solo half-orc beserker (yeah so I want an easy life). I didn't have a problem with the encounter after getting close enough to get his buddies to switch to melee. I did notice he was hitting me more often than a hobgoblin has any right to. My AC was -2 as well, and he seemed to be hitting me on about a 13/14+ (I play with the hit rolls visible), which of course has a decent chance to happen a few times in the few rounds it takes for me to smack him into oblivion.

Can't comment too much about how hard to hit he is because my thac0 is like... 8, so I don't miss.

deltago

I am thinking it is horrible luck. I had no issues with him this time around. Critical miss is on a roll of 1, which I believe always misses and lowers their initiative for there next attack, it has nothing to do with the person AC.

MERLANCE

Are you fatigued? That would give you some penalties.

I looked him up in shadowkeeper. 19 strength 9 all other stats, 32hp, base Thac0 14, 2 attacks. Wears a helmet and studded leather. AC looks like its -1.

EnterHaerDalis

I just clowned Zargal and his buddies, then I cast a magic missile on Bassilus and got a wild surge that turned him into Stone!!

The_New_Romance

I didn't have any problems with him. Engaged his archers in melee, and sent the rest of my party against Zargal. I don't remember whether I used spells, but I didn't have any losses, I believe only Charname got poisoned. My party was about one or two levels above yours, though.

Doesn't mean that something isn't wrong with him, though.

Deucetipher

@EnterHaerDalis That sucks. Now you have to buy a stone to flesh scroll to get ashideena off him

wissenschaft

Always have someone fast like Rasaad run around an make archers switch to melee weapons. It helps a lot. The Hold Person spell is also great for dealing with groups of archers especially if they are clumped up.

Skydree

I play solo cleric/illusionist. Mind you I was lvl 3/2, but a single sleep spell took care of most of them. Hold Person did the rest. Me and the familiar ganged up on them one on one, archers first, then Held Zargal and voila!

It went a little faster with the newly acquired Ashideena. :-)

mas0

It has been a long time since I played the original Baldurs Gate before I bought this, so I was actually looking for Melicamp when I stumbled across Zargal Party was Charname fighter/mage, Dorn, Kivan, Branwen, Imoen, Neera. Unsure of levels, everyone ~level 3 I think, but I had no trouble, just stumbled across them and went melee with Charname and Dorn, everyone else ranged, no spells.. Maybe I was lucky, looking at others comments?

Northcott

Played through again, and freaky luck seems to have turned the other way. My party peppered Zargal with arrows, hitting him several times before the PC waltzed in and one-shotted him with a 20 damage hit. Zargal go splat.

His henchmen then dropped like rocks. Bassilus followed very shortly after -- the barbarian absolutely dismantled him, and then chased him down when he tried to flee. The various undead were so focused on trying to follow that the rest of the party picked them off without an issue. Only Imoen took a stray arrow.

and_then_or

I just tried a solo run and those three owned me. Definitly a wtf moment. I managed to drop Z and noted he was worth 175 xp (maybe) and I thought that was a bit much for a mere knobgoblin. Then zinged w/ an arrow and failed save = end of solo run.

edit: I failed to answer your question, so yes, actually I thought maybe Z had been buffed. But then you never know. In the past I'd only ever played a party of six so maybe the battle was never of note before.

edit2: Just killed Z & Co on other solo run. Z=650xp, Co=165xp ea

AlexDeLarge

That bastard killed my solo hardcore F/M/T. Have to start all over because of that. Even though i was injured in battle, i still had 16 hp, but he managed to take me down with a crit.

Edit: I just noticed a retarded bug. Whenever familiar dies, main protagonist dies as well, instead of losing the 1 Con. Wtf??

Rann

Encountered them the other night, and went through them like a hot knife through butter, no damage. My approach is this: my main character is my tank, and also a cavalier to boot, using a large +1 shield to protect from missle attacks, AC-5 thanks to plate, dex gloves, & ring of princes. He is also invulnerable to poison, being a cavalier. He runs up to the middle of the hobgoblins, drawing their (useless) fire. No arrows get fired at the rest of the my party, and the hobs will switch to swords anyway as soon as my cavalier reaches them. So, while they are beating uselessly on my cavalier (who meanwhile is nailing them with Greywolf's +2 sword -- can't remember its name), the other five party members destroy them with arrows and slings.

This tactic also works great against Black Talon Elite. In fact, I now refer to roaming gangs of bandit archers alternately as "cavalier chow" or "Imoen's bonus to dual-class completion."

Northcott

Hahahahah.... yeah, it's entirely my luck. Just went in against Greywolf and quit the game instead of finishing the fight. How seriously messed up. Barbarian PC, enraged, has a 14 ThAC0.

Could he hit? Even *once*? Hell, no. 5-6 rounds of combat, which means roughly 12 swings... and not a single bloody hit.

Greywolf's not that tough. BGEE just seems to loathe my player character.

Northcott

3rd attempt on Greywolf... fail. I've decided to have the PC "duel" him in one on one combat, to see how it turns out. So far? Manage to hit him once every fight. 14 ThAC0, upwards of 20 damage a stroke (if the PC would hit), -1 AC in barbarian rage... and it's still not even a close fight. The PC manages one hit in a dozen swings or so, and Greywolf just chips him apart.

I'm remembering now why I hated D&D so much at times... that damned d20.

Edit: I may see the problem. I turned on the dice rolls so I could see what's going on. Even with barbarian rage going, the rolls are calculated at +3 -- but the character sheet claims +9 to hit. Perhaps I'm reading this wrong, but it looks like the game's not actually using the character sheet's numbers in determining hit rolls. And the rolls it's giving the PC are oddly... patterned. Three rolls of 6 in a row. Three of 5. Two of 2.

lunar

AlexDeLarge said:

That bastard killed my solo hardcore F/M/T. Have to start all over because of that. Even though i was injured in battle, i still had 16 hp, but he managed to take me down with a crit.

Edit: I just noticed a retarded bug. Whenever familiar dies, main protagonist dies as well, instead of losing the 1 Con. Wtf??

When familiar dies, you lose bonus hit points and one constitution and immediately suffer some more damage in addition to your lowered HP too. If your base HP is low enough or you are already badly wounded that damage will kill you.