guidance on my halberd wielding half orc barbarian

pipinho

armor seems to be biggest problem for barbarians(not sure if they can use shields, nonetheless wanted a big halberd wielding barbarian) i put two points into halberds and two points into two handed weapons. Does anyone else use a barbian that uses two handed weapons? what's your advice?

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

toanwrath

The weapon style should be fine. As for armor, if you are willing to do something evil and don't mind a challenge, you can kill Drizzt. He drops on death Mithril a chain +4, which is the best armor a Barbarian can wear in BGEE.

ScytheKnight

if you want non-cheese armour... I think Barge drops Chainmail +2

Fardragon

I came across a splint mail +1 somewhere on werewolf island.

TJ_Hooker

You can get chain+3 at the end of the Balduran's Island quest.

Corvino

There's Chainmail +2 at the south end of the Gullykin map on a group of assassins, should tide you over until the werewolf island.

Corvino

There is also splintmail +1 in a couple of houses in NorthWest Baldur's gate. I forget if barbs can wear splintmail though.

Millardkillmoore

Personally, I prefer dual-wielding Barbarians, but a halberd-wielder will still do nicely. He'll only really start to shine in BG2, though. There are quite a few great Halberds there (Blackmist, Dragon's Breath, Harmonium Halberd, Wave Halberd, Ravager). Halberd-users are completely viable all the way to the end of the saga.

Lemernis

Bhaaldog said:

It is viable. Armour should not be so much of an issue, because the quicker you kill your opponent the less damage you take!

Amen, brother!

@pipinho You could kill Drizzt for his Mithril Chainmail +4.

This sounds like a fun character.

pipinho

how do you kill drizzt? because i tried it with my lvl 5/6 party and every time i got demolished.

moopy

@pipinho

Higher level mage using blue and red fireshields and stoneskin, let him kill himself on your shields.

A bunch of stacked thief traps

Back stab him, run off, hide/invis, backstab, repeat

Or more cheesy,

Have one person kite him with boots / potion of speed and the rest use range weapons, a critical hit will always hit

Surround him with party members and boot them from the party, then attack with ranged or a two handed weapon from outside his melee range, he cant pass through the party members. Same trick works if you make the party members invis, because he can't see invis.

pipinho

but when you first meet him there are hords of gnolls, do you attack him after that fight?

[Deleted User]

pipinho said:

but when you first meet him there are hords of gnolls, do you attack him after that fight?

Yeah, after you kill the gnolls, he'll wander around a little bit and wait for you to talk to him. You don't want a bunch of gnolls getting in the way while you're trying to kill him.

pipinho

at what lvl should i take him on?

Lemernis

Maybe around level 5?

If you're good or neutral aligned and want to kill Drizzt and feel somewhat justified in doing it: When you encounter Drizzt he calls out for your help, and says if you don't give me a hand here I may consider you an enemy as well as these gnolls; you can then choose a dialogue option that basically tells him to bugger off; he will turn hostile.

As to how to kill him, it's been so long since I did it I can't even remember. I don't like killing him and usually don't play evil...

There used to be a cheesey way of drawing him to one side of the lake and having your archers, placed on the lake's opposite side, make a pin cushion out of him. I have completely forgotten the finer mechanics of that tactic now. That obviously exploits a weakness in the AI, though.

IIRC he has some magic resistance, so killing him with legitimate (i.e., no-cheese) tactics is really tough. I may have to go in and revisit this just to see what it takes. In the meantime others will probably share a number of ways to take him out.

moopy

If being cheap doesn't bother you at all, and you want the xp and the items early.

At level 1 get Imoen, Xzar, Monatron, Jahaeria, Khalid.

Go find Drizzt .

Have your 5 party members surround him, boot them from the group while you are next to each one so they don't have to walk to talk to you.

Equip a quarterstaff. Stand at maximum range that you can still hit Drizzt through your party members that aren't in your party anymore. Start attacking. Go afk for 15 minutes.

toanwrath

Also, for killing Drizzt (which for my money I enjoy kite/trap methods though the fire shield stone skin sounds excellent!) you sometimes (very rarely) get lucky and if he is on the screen when it is raining he is sometimes hit by lightning killing him in one or two hits. You get the exp, the loot, and the reputation lost but no hassle about actually fighting him! Not sure how well this could be planned, but I saw a screenshot in another thread of this.

pipinho

but isn't stone skin a bg2 spell?

lunar

pipinho said:

but isn't stone skin a bg2 spell?

BG:EE adds stoneskin scroll, and your mage or sorcerer characters can level up to 9, gaining fourth (and in case of mages, fifth) level spells.

Lemernis

BG:EE uses the ToB engine so it has BG2 spells.

pipinho

man my barbarian is getting hit often, will it change as she lvls up? I mean compared to the other thank (an inquisitor) she is getting hammered. Although the added HP does help.

Oxford_Guy

toanwrath said:

The weapon style should be fine. As for armor, if you are willing to do something evil and don't mind a challenge, you can kill Drizzt. He drops on death Mithril a chain +4, which is the best armor a Barbarian can wear in BGEE.

Also the best armour a fighter/thief or cleric/thief can wear, as allows *all* thieving at no penalty! Ideal for Monty or a dual-ed Shar-Teel.

It's very difficult to kill Drizzt without cheese, though. Pick-pocketing his Scimitars is much easier, especially if you have a Bard (and potions of Master Thievery/Perception/Mind Focusing).

Oxford_Guy

pipinho said:

man my barbarian is getting hit often, will it change as she lvls up? I mean compared to the other thank (an inquisitor) she is getting hammered. Although the added HP does help.

What Dex does she have? Also, if wearing chain, wear the belt that gives a bonus to crushing attack defense, if you can find it, as chain gets a +2 penalty vs. crushing attacks. Are you also wearing a +1 protection ring? Helps with both AC *and* saves.

pipinho

she has 17 dex, and she is wearing splint mail +1

Lemernis

A Shield Amulet gets AC down by around 2, IIRC. If your Dex isn't 18 then you'll probably want to equip the Gauntlets of Dexterity. Do everything you can do to get AC as low as possible...

There's chainmail + 3 in the game that sets base AC to 2, and it's possible to get early on:

If you do Mendas' ToSC quest his henchman Baresh has it. I think (can't quite remember atm) that you do have to complete the quest. IIRC, Baresh appears there with Mendas to help him upon your return for the last fight with Mendas. How early in the game you think you're up to defeating the werewolves on the shipwreck is the question.

But I'm not sure what the new elven chainmail sets AC to...

Oxford_Guy

Lemernis said:

A Shield Amulet gets AC down by around 2, IIRC.

It works just like the Shield spell I.e. 4 AC, 2 AC versus missiles (before you apply your Dex AC bonus and Shield, if any), and total immunity to magic missile, lasts 5 turns. Each use of the amulet uses one charge, but can be sold *before* if reaches zero charges and re-bought fully charged (with more charges than when you originally bought it, but more expensive).

It can be bought cheaply and early on here:

Nashkel Carnival

pipinho

Donna bro even with the amulet my barbarian lass is getting hit and hit often

billyjean

Your AC should be sufficient even with 2 handed weps and chain or splint. If ur running with another tank (khalid,ajantis,minsc,kagain or even a cleric) in your party just engage with them first to draw the attacks and then come in from the side with ur barb and clobber them

If im running 2 tanks i'll usually have one shielded tank with high AC and one with high damage output. An example of this is In my past game with an evil party - Kagain/Dorn made are pretty good duo with Kagains insane tanking ability with dex gauntlets, massive hps, regen and saving throws and Dorn doing tonnes of damage

If need be you should also be able to tank reasonable well urself even with an AC or 1 to -3 and can use ur cleric to tank in situation where ur being attacked from many angles

positioning is everything in BG.

also you can grab the +1 constitution tome early which will have you regenerating to full health everytime you move areas or sleep

pipinho

one of the things that annoy me about my barb is that she is always rushing in because she is faster than the other thank. guess i need to micro manage better.

pipinho