SCS advice

Frond

So I just finished a playthrough of BG1 with SCS installed using a minimal party (my PC F/M/C plus Dorn) and loved it. Im just starting BG2 using the same party (including Hexxat this time) and could use sone advice from people that have done solo or small party run. Im having trouble dealing with mages and am worried that once I start fighting Mind Flayers and Beholders it will be a littlw too tough for me. Any advice is appreciated.

nano

What's your current approach to mages? With Hexxat on board you can backstab some of them before their defenses go up, or drop some traps and lead them over top. I think Dorn's poison weapon will penetrate stoneskin so that would be another way to take them out them quickly. Even if they put up PfMW a normal weapon will get through. Liches are the hard ones being immune to normal weapons and poison but you can outlast them by countering their offense. Outside of summons (ie planetar) they're pretty bad at actually killing you, and especially bad at killing magic resistant things like skeleton warriors. You could also use Protection from Undead, or Sunray (Daystar) if they don't have protection from magical energy. As with all mages, if you can fight them on their own they become much easier.

I don't find Mind Flayers too hard. They aren't much more dangerous, only vastly more annoying with SCS. They can blow up skeletons though, which I think is an SCS thing. Make sure you protect your party from their psionics because they will target anyone who isn't.

If you rely on things like Cloak of Mirroring/Shield of Balduran against beholders you should be aware they can be stolen. Summoning and disabling spells and magic resistance and well, most other anti-beholder measures should work fine.

kryptix

It depends on what packages you have installed with SCS but most of the liches in chapter 2 can be cheesed with hexxat's traps. Do a few quests to get Charname enough levels to have pfmw, imp haste and ruby ray/lashing whip.

I never install the item tweaks so I do use shield of balduran so beholder ray doesn't hurt too bad. For mind flayers, my strategy is cannon fodder + chaotic commands and your normal spell buffs. I would do maybe De armies hold and trademeet, maybe also thieves guild before going to chapter 3 for amulet of power. You'll be soloing a lot of fights which is doable, get rod of resurrection and recharge it by having hexxat steal it back from a fence. You might want to give her a lot of invis pots.

Key is avoid mages/liches until you have level 7 arcane. I don't think dorn dispels like keldorn.

With less people you can stack gear more. Magic resistance potion + buff is immunity, then spell immune abjure. Use improved haste to take down the easy targets first, and arrows of dispelling on hexxat with tuigan.

darkly180

What nano said. By the time you have high enough magic resistance, you are probably at endgame strength and are practically a demi-god, so my experiences below are based on my pre-HLA days.

For mages, extra movement speed, whether through the Haste spell series or through Boots of Speed, become quite essential to do hit-and-runs against mages. For non-liches, My F/M/T solo would run away as soon as PfMW was up, but as soon as the sound cue came on to signal the expiry of the spell, I would pop back and fire an elemental damage arrow (fire, acid or cold) at the (inevitable) Stoneskin. Since the elemental damage cuts through the skin, more often then not, the mage would recast PfMW, and after a couple more cycles, the mage runs out of PfMW, at which point I would either exhaust the Stoneskins with elemental damage arrows or, if I was feeling rich, an Arrow of Dispelling. The mage is pretty much easy pickings after that. At higher levels, your Fight multi can pretty much equip a normal weapon and use the extra attacks to wear down the Stoneskins. Also, I have seen a few times when the mage recast PfMW without putting on Stoneskin, in which case you can go to town with normal weapons (for this reason, a Fight multi should always carry a normal weapon in addition to the default magical weapon). For liches, you pretty much need Azuredge or the Mace of Disruption at the earlier stages; the death attack goes through Stoneskin but not PfMW. I usually wait until the sound cue for PfMW comes on, then my hasted F/M/T comes in with AZ or MoD to try my luck. If PfMW comes on, I run away quickly. A couple of items help a lot with mages and liches, Belt of Inertial Barrier (protection against magical damage) and the Shield of Harmony (quest reward protects against many stunlock conditions). Both can be obtained through the Trademeet questlines rather quickly.

Mind Flayers are never random encounters, so you can anticipate/metagame your fights with them. Depending on where I'm at, I use a combination of intelligence-boosting potions, Shield of Harmony, Free Action, PfMW and summons. The potions give you an added buffer against their INT draining attacks, have stackable effects, and last pretty much the entire encounter. SoH and Free Action protect against most, if not all, of the effects of their psionics. PfMW protects against their INT draining, although the short duration means you have to make every action count. Summons are meat/brain shields, Mordy swords are best as they are immune to INT drain, Skellies too but they sometimes get detonated, but at least they take up a hit for you. Lesser summons are good brain shields but you pretty much need to do the DPS yourself.

Beholders are irritating. The Shield of Balduran is obtainable from Chp 2 but is very pricey, moreover as nano pointed out beholders tend to snatch it away at the opening of the encounter. I prefer to rely on Free Action (best through a Ring, since their anti-magic attack can cut through Spell Immunity as well and dispel all non-item buffs) and the SoH to protect against the stunlock effects, then use physical attacks with my Fighter multi. Summons are good meat shields, especially Skellies and Mordy swords. Don't aggro too many at once, if you can keep the fight to a couple each time you can eke out a victory even with an early encounter (e.g. sewers near Roger the Fence).

Good hunting!

kryptix

Just ran into 3 beholders and 2 gauth in unseeing eye lol that was no fun but it seemed like shield of balduran on a projected image or simulacrum didn't get snatched etc, so send those in first and your guy with imp haste to blast through while everyone else stays ranged.

Also if your willing to cheese money by stealing and selling to fences I guess you can load up on more stuff to help you.

Scribe a ton of scrolls for levels when your alone or just be fore hexxat joins you after Clara dies using Clara or yoshimo to steal and you might level enough to help you a lot.

Get the items that summon help early, spider from graveyard, berserker from bridge, efreeti from trademeet.