Ranger stronghold quest

Wolk

I'm planning on starting BG2EE with my archer. I will try to start my adventure by rushing to get my stronghold in Umar Hills. I am mainly doing this so I can pick up Mazzy early without her screwing up her proficiencies. Is it posssible to do it at low levels or should I just ninja in, rescue Mazzy and ninja out? If you think I can do it early, which character should I pick with me?
Also, if I go until the end of the dungeon, I can skip the big winged creature and come back latter without screwing up anything?

jackjack

I find the Umar Hills pretty difficult at low levels, but I'm sure plenty of people would disagree with me. I say ninja in, ninja out.

rathe101

It really depends if you attempt to down the shadow dragon or not. the Shade lord himself isn't that bad.

Lord_Tansheron

The hardest part about the dungeon is the Liches, though I'm not even sure they spawn without SCS. If not, then feel free to do it right away, it's no big challenge.

Also, if you're worried about Mazzy's proficiency points you can just get EEKeeper and reassign them. There's also a mod that allows you to assign them yourself for NPCs as you recruit them, but I'm not sure it's EE compatible yet.

[Deleted User]

You won't see liches in vanilla at low level. You can skip the dragon and come back at your leisure to kill it. There's still the possibility of some tough opposition (e.g. Bone Golems, which can be unexpectedly dangerous at low levels), but it should be doable.

GamingFreak

I think the Umar Hills quest is incredibly easy at low levels. You mostly fight Shadows and they themselves are pretty big pushovers as long as you carry minimal enchanted weapons. Biggest threat they even pull out is swarming you and draining your strength, which they don't do at a very fast rate and you can cure it by just resting or waiting (or Lesser Restoration). Just don't try and take on the Black Dragon unless you're ready to full-out cheese it with Yoshimo's traps.

Mitchfork

Lord_Tansheron said:

The hardest part about the dungeon is the Liches, though I'm not even sure they spawn without SCS. If not, then feel free to do it right away, it's no big challenge.

Liches will spawn without SCS but only if you go through the dungeon at high levels (I don't have the actual numbers here though). I've seen them spawn for other people but never had it happen myself, probably since I traditionally do this dungeon pretty early.

At low levels the most dangerous enemies you'll find are probably Skeleton Warriors, which can eat up your melee guys (particularly if you don't have a fighter with points in blunt weapons). I think there's only a few though. Your standard Cleric/Mage buffs will help a lot. Protection from Evil 10' Radius (iirc Skeleton Warriors are "intelligent" and have an alignment, unlike regular Skeletons and Zombies), Defensive Harmony, Haste, etc. You will want to at least get a few enchanted weapons under your belt, though. The Circus Tent and Copper Coronet slaver quests are probably worth doing for this.

Dragonspear

I normally go copper cornet -> slavers -> de arnise -> then either umar or windspire. You get a nice potent magical wweapon selection this way, including azureedge iirx