Safana starting at level 2 (walkthrough with many spoilers)
Lateralus
Member Posts: 903
You can have Safana join you at level 2, here's how:
What you need:
The potion of clarity from a locked drawer in Candlekeep
Two potions of speed, 1 that Imoen starts with and the other held by Montoron.
The potion of invisibility that Jaheira starts with.
Two potions of healing (just in case).
At level one, head out to recruit her, you can even go solo. You can find Safana right underneath the Candlekeep zone, kind of in the middle of the bottom part of the area. She's difficult to see because she blends in well with the background. Agree to help her with her quest, give her all of the potions potions, and then hold up someplace safe. She will be level 2 with 9hp.
Have her drink a potion of speed and then invisibility. Run to the cave entrance in the NW area, ignoring all foes. Go LEFT, try and set off the trap before entering the chamber with the first flesh golem. The traps here are weird, they seem to change each time you do this quest and they have a smaller trigger zone. Unless you somehow found a potion of perception already, it's highly unlikely that she will be skilled enough to find and remove the traps here. If the trap is a couple of magic missiles she will need to gulp a healing potion before continuing on. Usually it's a domination spell. Don't worry, she will remain invisible while the spell wears off.
Next, go through the first chamber and set off the second trap in the northern passage. Same as above.
There is another golem in the treasure room, and when you grab the loot, she will become visible! Take everything and run out the way you came in! Swig that potion of clarity, you will need it to resist the sirine's charms, and it's not a bad idea to gulp that other potion of speed too. Just in case.
Here's the tough part. It took me a few times to escape because there appears to be a nasty bug of some kind. Safana starts to inexplicably stop moving after you grab the treasure. It would be easy to run by everybody, but this bug makes it very tough. She keeps starting and stopping, so you have to keep clicking her forward. Once she catches back up with your main everything is back to normal with reagrds to movement, and you can run off into the sunset together. And since her quest is done, she's yours till the end.
I like Safana's personality, and her innate ability to charm person comes in handy if she fails a pick pocket attempt. She's a decent thief when you get to guide her abilities from level 2 through level 10. I made her my trap/theft specialist. Later on you can give her short bow proficiency. Also, her and Coran have words.
The treasure horde is a great bonus, many might consider it the primary focus of this quest. A +1 to con at level one? I'd trade a few potions for that anyday. There's also a wand of paralyzation that is uber powerful in the hands of a 1st level mage. So many assassination attempts were made laughable. There's some other stuff there too.
Have fun!
What you need:
The potion of clarity from a locked drawer in Candlekeep
Two potions of speed, 1 that Imoen starts with and the other held by Montoron.
The potion of invisibility that Jaheira starts with.
Two potions of healing (just in case).
At level one, head out to recruit her, you can even go solo. You can find Safana right underneath the Candlekeep zone, kind of in the middle of the bottom part of the area. She's difficult to see because she blends in well with the background. Agree to help her with her quest, give her all of the potions potions, and then hold up someplace safe. She will be level 2 with 9hp.
Have her drink a potion of speed and then invisibility. Run to the cave entrance in the NW area, ignoring all foes. Go LEFT, try and set off the trap before entering the chamber with the first flesh golem. The traps here are weird, they seem to change each time you do this quest and they have a smaller trigger zone. Unless you somehow found a potion of perception already, it's highly unlikely that she will be skilled enough to find and remove the traps here. If the trap is a couple of magic missiles she will need to gulp a healing potion before continuing on. Usually it's a domination spell. Don't worry, she will remain invisible while the spell wears off.
Next, go through the first chamber and set off the second trap in the northern passage. Same as above.
There is another golem in the treasure room, and when you grab the loot, she will become visible! Take everything and run out the way you came in! Swig that potion of clarity, you will need it to resist the sirine's charms, and it's not a bad idea to gulp that other potion of speed too. Just in case.
Here's the tough part. It took me a few times to escape because there appears to be a nasty bug of some kind. Safana starts to inexplicably stop moving after you grab the treasure. It would be easy to run by everybody, but this bug makes it very tough. She keeps starting and stopping, so you have to keep clicking her forward. Once she catches back up with your main everything is back to normal with reagrds to movement, and you can run off into the sunset together. And since her quest is done, she's yours till the end.
I like Safana's personality, and her innate ability to charm person comes in handy if she fails a pick pocket attempt. She's a decent thief when you get to guide her abilities from level 2 through level 10. I made her my trap/theft specialist. Later on you can give her short bow proficiency. Also, her and Coran have words.
The treasure horde is a great bonus, many might consider it the primary focus of this quest. A +1 to con at level one? I'd trade a few potions for that anyday. There's also a wand of paralyzation that is uber powerful in the hands of a 1st level mage. So many assassination attempts were made laughable. There's some other stuff there too.
Have fun!
1
Comments
If you don't cheat and don't reload at every level-up for max HP (and play at the difficulty level which doesn't give you max HP) you'd better hold the Manual of Bodily Health till some latter stages - using it will give you +1 to CON and subsequently +X (the digit depends of your CON) to HP. If you use it later rather than sooner you'd get more HP - because the Manual gives you a guaranteed +X to HP while at every level-up you get random +X to HP and this +X to HP can be not so great at all (for example, +1 or +2). If you've already used the Manual - then your improved CON doesn't guarantee you'd get more HP than you used to get before the Manual.
I mean not theoretically but practically.
Let's look at this example.
A mage gets 1d4 hp/level.
A mage with 14 Con (+0 bonus) would get 1 to 4 hp per level.
A mage with 15 Con (+1 bonus) would get 2 to 5.
Although there's a possibility you'd get 5 HP when you have 15 CON it's not guaranteed. You can get 2, 3, 4 or 5 HP at every level-up.
But if you have 14 CON you can get 1, 2, 3, 4 HP every level-up. And if you use the Manual afterwards, you'll automatically get +1 HP.
There's a chance that with 15 CON you get lesser HP than with 14 CON + Manual afterwards.
There have been several runs where I've come to the conclucion it's better hold the Manual of Bodily Health till some latter stages.
For example, a thief gets 1d6 hp/level.
A thief with 14 Con (+0 bonus) would get 1 to 6 hp per level.
A thief with 15 Con (+1 bonus) would get 2 to 7.
Also, you can buy a potion of perception there as well. Maybe Safana will be able to disable at least the second trap on the left-hand route.
Alternatively you can buy a scroll of Invisibility and let your mage or bard cast it on her before going into the cave.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/17150/how-to-get-stunning-and-beautiful-safan-at-lvl-2#latest
Bring a cleric, have a mage cast the Invisibility scroll on the cleric. Cleric goes into the cave, triggers the left-side traps (not sure what you're talking about regarding them, they are always Hold Person and Dire Charm in my games). Once at the treasure, wait for the nearest golem to walk off a bit. Steal all the treasure, cast Sanctuary. Move outside, past the first group of sirines, cast Sanctuary again, run past the second group.
There, you saved two potions of speed and a potion of clarity, and still got Safana at L2. You also did not have to risk getting shot at by sirines or hobgoblins while running back.
Safana stuttering after you steal the treasure isn't really a bug, she's trying to find someone to talk to, and seems to keep trying every few seconds.
The first time I ran through the game, the second trap was a double magic missile. Maybe they changed it but it was what it was.
just use charname (if he is cleric), branwen or Viconia.. use sanctuary spells... evey enemy will ignore you go to the cave pick up the book cast sanctuary spells again go out and safana is yours
Also, this cheesing with the invisibility/haste potions was what I did with Montaron too once, when I wanted to get the tome early.
just have the party waiting outside with Safana... use the cleric alone to go to the gave and get the book... just don't forget to use sanctuary spell twice... one time to get to the cave one from going out of the cave... bring some healing potions...
when you have the book safana talks to the nearest party member and you done her quest...
it's all about planing... so far i had 100% success everytime...
What happened with me in my current playthrough was that I have already got everything from the cave and picked up Safana later. At one point she tells me that we should go to the cave, as I promised, to get the treasure. But as I said, I've already got the treasure before. I went to the empty cave with her anyway, but got no dialogue from her. So now I'm a bit afraid that she will leave the party at one point.