Tips and strategies for the Black pits

Sir_Murderhobo

I was wondering if people have any tips or strategies for those who aren't faring so well in finishing the Black pits, i've finished Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, yet the black pits have been kicking my butt up and down the arena floor.

I've currently been working with a group that has two spellcasters tossing aoe status effects at the enemy groups (sleep and horror), two warriors who do a ton of damage and can tank most of the enemies, a cleric for buffs and occasional enemy control (prayer, bless, hold person) who isn't too shabby in the tank and damge department either, and a rogue who provides ranged support.

At this point i'm attempting to beat the last battle for tier one (the adventurer group), and i've found that i always seem to struggle whenever i get up to this point, so does anyone have any tips or strategies that could help? Not only that, but to help out others as well, do people have tips in general for anyone who's just starting out playing the black pits?

Currently the best tips i can think of right now are,
1 - Prioritise targets (so when you're fighting a group of enemies, it's best to get someone engaging the mage rather then letting them have free range to unload on your party)
2 - Area of effect spells (spells such as sleep, horror, silence, ect, can have a huge turning effect in a fight if you can pull them off, often allowing your party some breathing room to deal the threats in front of them without getting mobbed)
3 - Spend Money (a definite weakness of mine since i almost never actually spend money in Baldur's Gate itself, i tend to just go out and find magical weapons from exploring, however for the Black pits, spending money for the right gear could change a fight significantly, for example, fighting a bunch of ogres with flails? The magic belt that gives defence against blunt attacks may be a good buy for your tank)

So if anyone can think of tips or full on strategies, for the Black pits that could help me or any others, then lay them out here.

Gotowned

Is this for the Black Pits 1 or 2? I'm stuck in the Black Pits 2, but personally didn't find too much of an issue of Black Pits 1.

I ran with 2-3 tanks, 2 dedicated bows and a mage to mainly cast horror, pretty similar I think.

I have similar problems with spending money to you =D I find a good way is to start by buying things that will be quite inexpensive and replaced later on and then picking out specific items for what you think is most lacking. You can even run into the next fight without buying anything new and then see what you think you'll need (cue the ogres situation with the girdle).

I tend to just avoid most of the magic gear, pick out the few bargains and try to buy things that will become hand-me-downs. However watch out for any enemies that all need magical weapons - that can easily ruin your bank if you aren't properly stocked.

Sir_Murderhobo

This was originally for the Black Pits 1, but either is welcome, i've only just started on the second myself, been getting demolished in the second fight, i think i messed up with what items i purchased.

nano

I've only played Black Pits 1 but I found that it's pretty straightforward if you buff outside in the room before talking to Baeloth. You don't really have time to cast stuff like Chant and Bless when the battle starts but they make a big difference. Later on you have Haste and PfE and there's even an item with Improved Haste.

elminster

Whats your party setup?

Sir_Murderhobo

elminster said:

Whats your party setup?

For me, currently running with a bard, Wizard slayer, Barbarian, Cleric, Wild mage, and a thief, not exactly the most optimal party, but it did make it's way through Black Pits 1

Nikolaj

The first thing i did after getting bg2 was completing the Black Pits 2. I used a 4 man group and played on core.

My setup was

Sorcerer
Barbarian
Fighter/thief
Inquisitor

Been some years since i last played a high lvl sorc, so it was a blast! By the time my sorcerer got lvl 9 spells he as good as soloed most fights or killed half the enemies before the rest of my team could get a piece of the action.

My general strategy ended being 1) unload arcane hell 2) kill rest with melee (while sorcs buff/dispels).

For gear i did not get anything for my sorcs till robe of vecna was in the shop. For the rest i prioritized magical weapons for all (+1 at start - rest to expensive) and crap armor. Then complete 1 tier while saving up. When you go to next tier new shopping options open and better weapons and armor are available. Besides Sword the Gram Grief i don't recall options to buy +5 weapons. Getting boots of speed when they are available is a must.
Also I noted (halfway through) that if I begged for good items from the audience i actually got it (at least sometimes).

The ending was a bit weird, so i think there might be more ending than the one i saw...

1765

rolling with:
Dragon Disciple
Fighter/Mage
Fighter/Cleric
Dwarven Defender
Mage/Cleric
Archer

Feeling that a pure sorc/dragon disciple/mage gets level 9 spells a round or two too early. Timestop + chain contingency horrid wilting and summon Mordy swords enables steamrolling of a few rounds

If I was re-doing it again swapping the F/M for a sorc would make things p easy.

The main prob is money for equipment, and sorcs don't need anything at all to be effective.


Would be interested to hear what anyone's strategy for the

fight with the 5 greater bone golems and the lich. Lich wasn't so hard, but the golems made the whole thing a right pain.

I ended up kiting round quite a bit which felt cheesy.

Taltos

I found a blackguard/skald combo with a bunch of priest fly right through it(1mage) spam undead

Juris

Each battle in BP2 has a different strategy. In general spend most of your money on the tanks. I usually only buy 2-3 spells per level for the casters - you get some more spells later.
Pickpocket EVERYONE - that helps a ton at the start
The key to BP2 is learning all the sequencer/contingency spells because the game doesn't let you pre-buff. You can cast these spells in advance in the sleeping quarters and they won't get dispelled.
As for the adventuring group battle... if that's the one with the Minotaurs those guys are pretty tough. Try summoned creatures, Greater Mallison, followed by debuffs like Slow, ect

abazigal5

For the drow battle, my best strategy, believe it or not, is to have my characters group together, have my cleric cast Protection from Evil, 10' radius, then cast Gate. Watch the pit fiend kill all the drow.

Gotural

abazigal5 said:

For the drow battle, my best strategy, believe it or not, is to have my characters group together, have my cleric cast Protection from Evil, 10' radius, then cast Gate. Watch the pit fiend kill all the drow.

Epic strategy is epic, I really need to try this one !

abazigal5

Gotural said:

abazigal5 said:

For the drow battle, my best strategy, believe it or not, is to have my characters group together, have my cleric cast Protection from Evil, 10' radius, then cast Gate. Watch the pit fiend kill all the drow.

Epic strategy is epic, I really need to try this one !

It is pretty fun.

Dungeonnoob

Don't forget to hire a mercenary,they can give you enough time to get some buffs up.

JackAran

Mine's simple. I have a six-team bounty hunter party. Just throw a volley of long range traps at the enemies from afar, and let pure havoc rip on the bloody grounds of Thay. The only stuff I used were oils of speed,potions of invisibility, boots of speed for some characters and potions of healing. In my party I pumped most skill points into Move Silently, Hide In Shadows and Set Traps.

My main character only started to level up once I attained enough XP points to upgrade his traps to the Maze ones, and able to obtain high level abilites such as Spike Traps. The rest of the others continue to stay up till level 15 for the entire duration of the BP2 game as I purposely retained their long range trap damage abilities. It may sound cheesy to have this kind of party. And contrary to what others might say about this technique, I'd say that you could still lose a fight even with a cheesy trap strategy to your dirty advantage. You still need to have good strategy to be able to take out high level opponents such as Leah RedSun and her Bone Golems, the DemiLiches etc. Even the Elemental Wizard with his minions and his summons can be tough as well, but with some cunning maneuvers you can overcome him easily.

Here are some tips that will tip the scales of combat to your advantage, sometimes even before you start to fight at all! (If you are attempting to use traps strategy, that is):

(1) Before a current battle ends (preferably with one enemy left around), have your trap setters lay at least six traps at the point where you know the next enemy will appear in the next fight on the same grounds that you have fought before. In that way, when you revisit that same battleground again with a new bunch of enemies, they'll either be all critically injured, or lying all dead before the battle even begins.

Cheesy? Yes. Effective? Guaranteed! To me, its all about the results. I don't care about a fair fight at all. Untriggered traps that are laid will remain where they are even if combat for the current round ends. So use that to your advantage.

(2) If you are playing a main character, or have others as a bounty hunter with combination of other thief classes(except shadowdancers), or IF your party are all are bounty hunters, when you have one of them level up enough to obtain Maze traps and high level ability traps such as Spike Traps, you can throw Maze traps to make enemies disappear and recharge your depleted traps in the midst of combat by resting ( the only exception is the Bhaal cultist battle, where the ravager cannot be Mazed and maybe one or two other battles).

Yes, you can rest even amidst raging chaos with this method. The only downside is, when the enemies reappeared back into the battlefield after you have rested, their hit points will be restored back as normal as before a fight occurs.

toshiro

2 fighters, 1 skald, 1 cleric and 1 mage I find are the best team. And yes no rogue.

Klorox

toshiro said:

2 fighters, 1 skald, 1 cleric and 1 mage I find are the best team. And yes no rogue.

This is 2E, the Bard is a Rogue. ;-)