Rasaad the monk of dying
ShadowHunter
Member Posts: 143
Hey guys,
I'm a experienced gamer and I play baldus gate for over 8 years but I just cant toughen Rasaad a little up because he cant wear armors and I only can have just one ring of protection. Because of his monk speed he is always the first to battle and the first to die. And beside that he is just weak , every weapon I give him is just like 2 to 9 and his bare fists dont work either. He always gets held or poisend and he dies before I can heal him or cure him. So if someone knows a way to strength him up thank you.
Sorry if my english isnt perfect and if someone already asked this
I'm a experienced gamer and I play baldus gate for over 8 years but I just cant toughen Rasaad a little up because he cant wear armors and I only can have just one ring of protection. Because of his monk speed he is always the first to battle and the first to die. And beside that he is just weak , every weapon I give him is just like 2 to 9 and his bare fists dont work either. He always gets held or poisend and he dies before I can heal him or cure him. So if someone knows a way to strength him up thank you.
Sorry if my english isnt perfect and if someone already asked this
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Comments
I played a monk once in BG2 and let me tell you, he was a beast once he got to higher levels. Never had to babysit him again.
I even thought that I utterly suck at playing BG, after recruiting him. Nice thing seeing I am not that retarded (at least not the only one)
And at that point he should be autoleveled to L6. He'd be 8 HP off his max, but at least he'd already have most of the stuff monks can get within the XP cap (some AC boost, 1d10 fists with 2 attacks, decent thac0) to make him serviceable. So you wouldn't have to babysit him through the levels when he isn't of any significant use at all. And your frontline fighter would have boots of speed, so him running ahead all the time wouldn't be an issue. And then in the city you can get a couple more AC boosting items and give them to him if you choose to keep him in your party beyond his quest finale.
That gear gets his AC low enough that he won't get hit very often.
The real problem with Rasaad that I see is THACO. It's not great.
And for that reason I have him attack targets that have low AC. Who has low relatively AC? Mages. So I send him right at the mages and have him use Stunning Blow. If there are no mages I have him attack archers which forces them to melee.
I refuse to give him the the Gauntlets of Dexterity. Because he only gets a 2 point boost and Jaheria gains 4 to Dex in my Neutral Good party with it.
So...here's my list:
1. I have Jaheria memorize Barkskin once for when I need it.
2. I gave him a + Single Weapon Fighting Proficiency for extra +1AC bonus and he now has a Rasad Talon Scimitar +2 which works very well with that when he needs to watch his AC.
3. I give him a +1 Protection item (I think he's got a ring on, might be a cloak, I'd have to check)
4. I don't sell his boots since they help a lot.
He gets down to 0AC with without Barkskin this way.
I always keep a sling on him at the moment, but when he gets a second Weapon Proficiency I am going to put a + in Darts next and give him Darts of Wounding.
TACTICS:
Bascially, I start off every fight with him using a sling...he joins the fight with the +2 weapon, taking advantage of his fast movement rate after I'm reasonably sure he won't get hit...if the creature isn't immune to regular weapons I swap to his fists a round or two into the melee portion of the fight for him so he turns into a little chainsaw with his multiple attacks.
I have only put his thief skills into Move Silently and Hide in Shadows so he can run away if he has to and hide.
He is by far the weakest link in my party when it comes to how fast he can die, (other than Imoen who is always ranged for the most part so that delicate balance isn't there) but I kind of like him, his fists can be brutal as he starts to level up and yes he'll take a hit here or there if I get sloppy and need a heal after a fight...but I play on insane and he has only caused a death / reload maybe twice the whole game. (I'm at level 5 going on 6...and we've cleared most of the southern coast and the upper levels of Durlag's tower already). He's not a mainline fighter. But he is cool.
I have to admit I am not using stunning blow as of yet, I intend to try it out when he's leveled a bit more...but my party kind of streamrolls at the moment, so...if it ain't broke....
Pick a sling and let him attack from afar, until he reaches higher levels. monks are not tanks and scale very well until higher levels; as a experienced BG gamer you should know this.
His armor is equivalent to a mage without any protective spells.
His attacks/round are much worse than a dual wielding fighter (particularly one specialised with their weapons).
His THACO isn't as good as a fighter of equivalent level, nor does he have any strength or specialisation bonuses to improve this.
His bare hand damage is much lower than weapons.
Sure, you can give him a sling and keep him alive at the back but hes not much better with a sling than a mage - and who would want a mage in their party with no spells?
The only thing he has going for him is that he runs fast. So you can use him to kite enemies around while the rest of your party shoot at them (hi Drizzt!). But its a pretty cheesy way of fighting - any sensible opponent would stop chasing the monk and go after the rest of the party.
A monk with low strength and moderate dex.
In BG:EE he just wont be as viable as the other NPCs.. Sure you can use him but you're gonna end up having another ranged character for a good bit of the game.
In BG2 he will rock socks but for now he is kind of a dead weight.
When compared to dorn (i know this comparison is often made) He is practically worthless
With 19 strength and an overpowered weapon from the beginning Dorn hardly misses and when he hits he does huge amounts of damage.. He is about as squishy as rasaad but he can wear plate mail, use life steal, poison weapon, and aura of pain.
I think if they were going to balance these NPCs they should have given Dorn a regular 2h to start and allow you to get Rancor through his side quest..
Also at least give rasaad 18 strength so that he can hit more often and compete a little with the fighters in melee damage... Personally i won't bother with a character who specializes in melee combat just to give him slings/darts the whole game. I already have viconia and coran filling that role.
That's my personal opinion though and i don't see anything fundamentally wrong with him; just not my kind of character
The cool thing about Rasaad is that he'll become way powerful in SoA/ToB:EE. If you're just playing BG:EE and doing not the whole saga, then he may not be a very good choice of NPC for many a player. But if you're taking him onward into BG2:EE then you more or less have to accept the challenge of getting the most out of him in BG:EE and that his value in that game is limited. He's an investment (for the whole saga).
I took him throughout the entire game and was able to use him pretty effectively.
Gave him slings and kept him in the back for rough fights, and micro managed him to use quivering palm in specific fights.
With his boots running him up to specific bad guys, stunning them, and running back to my other ranged fighters and switching back to the sling was a fairly fun and effective use of him.
Obviously there are more powerful choices though.
@DJKajuru
I gave him the cursed belt for 19 strength and 6 int that you get on his quest and it was awesome.