Stalker? (I hardly know her...)

Vakarian

Nearing the end of BG:EE with a stalker, and it's been really interesting how it encourages a very different style of gameplay from what I'm used to. The stealth/scouting style makes battles feel more like well-planned surgical strikes than the meet-everything-head-on-and-bludgeon-it-to-death (either literally or figuratively) style I usually run with. Anyway, looking for a few tips as I get ready to import into SoA...

First, favored enemies - I hear you get to reselect one when importing. Does the +4 dmg bonus get multiplied by backstab? If so, it seems that selecting an enemy type that is not generally immune to backstab would be getting the best bang for the buck. So, what do you guys like to take?

Second, spells - no one would ever accuse 1st and 2nd level Druid spells of being overpowered, but I'm sure there is some utility in there. 3rd level looks decent with the addition of minor spell deflection and haste. At 1st level, Armor of Faith will be nice after getting a higher caster level, but doesn't do much early on, and Doom would be great if the casting time wasn't so long. At 2nd, Find Traps seems a good fit for a scouting stalker. Any diamonds in the rough that I'm overlooking?

Third, armor/gear - since stalkers are limited to studded leather (and can't wear that nice +3 shadow thief armor), it looks like they might be a little squishy early on. What is a good choice of armor (or other protective gear) that is easily available (i.e. - without having to kill a dragon) early in chapter 2?

Thanks for the help!

Wolk

First, I dont know if the dammage gets multiplied, but having a +4 to hit will asure you a hit, which is always great, so you won't lose anything by picking an ennemy you can backstab. You will encounter a lot of demons and stuff, so you might like that one(Edit: you can't backstab them). Taking lich won't be so useful for backstabing. Beholders are imune to backstabs I think, so pass. Dragons have low AC so the +4 will be a boost, but you won't encounter that much (Edit: and you can't backstab them). Vampires are not that essential to backstab, you don't have a lot of super vampires in a group of vampires, you mostly have a few normal vampires that will gang you when you backstab one: backstabbing vamps isn't a good idea. Mind flayers are in groups too tight and too dangerous if they gang on you, like the vampire, don't backstab them.
Second, Druid spells aren't that good before level 3, find traps seems like a good idea however.
Third, you can get a good armor when doing the Umar hills quest (don't attack creatures that look too powerfull, there is a way to dodge it a lower levels) , the adventurers mart will surely have something for you (I don't recommend it, you will find better). Do the temple district quest, you'll find a good light armor eventually, but you won't be strong enough to do all the dungeon, so just come back when you have picked up the skin of a certain "lord". De'Arnise keep has an OK light armor somewhere. Or just take Dragon as your favored ennemy and go dragon slaying

Edit:According to some research, it looks like you can't backstab dragons or demons

booinyoureyes

When you kill dragons, you can take their scales to Cromwell in the Dock's District and he can make armor out of them that are usable by stalkers

ZaknafeinBaenre

Yea man, you are going to want to go kill the shadow dragon for the shadow scale armor pretty early on. It's doable on core difficulty with the following spells: 5 summonings (skeletons/elementals/aerial servants/invisible stalkers)/ lower resistance/summon insects or insect plague/haste/all the magic missiles/flame arrows you can cast. Spread everybody out so his breath only catches one of you at a time and shoot him with ranged missiles, let the summoned monsters do the hacking, if he comes for one of your players just run (you'll be hasted). Hit him with lower resistance 2 times and then go to work on him with insects to get rid of his stoneskin and keep him from casting, and magic missiles and flame strikes and everything else you can throw at him.

elminster

Better off using miscast magic over summon insects, though insect plague is obviously the ideal (that is if you have access to it). Thaxll'ssillvia has 6 for his save vs spell, and 4 for his save vs breath, meaning that there is no difference in terms of his chance to save between the two spells. Miscast magic has a shorter casting time, takes less time to get to the target, has a longer duration, and is more effective at preventing spellcasting compared to Summon Insects.

Vakarian

Any suggestions for armor or other protective gear before I go dragon slaying? Also, it seems like most people suggest demons or dragons as favored enemies for other types of rangers; are these still the best choices for stalkers? Would prefer if there was a worthwhile alternative that you could backstab to make the most of that damage bonus.

elminster

Dragon's not a good way to go if you want to do extra backstab damage (they are immune to backstab). Demons can innately see through invisibility so they aren't really much of an option if you are looking for backstabbing. Beholders are immune to backstab too (just in case you had any ideas about picking them).

Elementals are one option. You don't run into them that frequently but you do in some of the games more difficult areas. Still, they don't tend to be as difficult as the first three so you may want to consider forgetting about the possible backstab benefit and just picking from the first three I listed.

Corvino

Going back to level 2 spells, resist fire/cold has a lot of situational uses. The game often has areas where fire damage is used as a part of challenges (Genie area of Windspear hills dungeon, runes in the planar sphere etc). This spell and Batalista's passport (fire res ring) will get you a long way.

elminster

Another thing to keep in mind when it comes to spells is that rangers have a caster level that is 7 levels behind what a druid is at their level. Meaning that a ranger at level 10 would cast as though he was a level 3 druid.

So or instance Armor of Faith would give you (as a level 10 stalker) 5% resistance and last 6 rounds (36 seconds). Flame Blade would last 5 rounds, Resist Fire/Cold would last 3 rounds, etc. This affects the spells you gain as a Stalker as well. Outside of maybe Armor of Faith I wouldn't worry too much though about spell selection because most of the spells you can get are easily replicable. Also a cleric or druid could probably do them better (one exception being Jaheira at higher levels).

ZaknafeinBaenre

My disagreement regarding insect plague vs miscast magic is that miscast magic isn't going to tick away his 20 or so layers of stoneskin for you.

SCARY_WIZARD

ZaknafeinBaenre said:

Yea man, you are going to want to go kill the shadow dragon for the shadow scale armor pretty early on. It's doable on core difficulty with the following spells: 5 summonings (skeletons/elementals/aerial servants/invisible stalkers)/ lower resistance/summon insects or insect plague/haste/all the magic missiles/flame arrows you can cast. Spread everybody out so his breath only catches one of you at a time and shoot him with ranged missiles, let the summoned monsters do the hacking, if he comes for one of your players just run (you'll be hasted). Hit him with lower resistance 2 times and then go to work on him with insects to get rid of his stoneskin and keep him from casting, and magic missiles and flame strikes and everything else you can throw at him.

A wonderful strategy, thank you! And here I went powering into dragons until the cows came home, and doing everything World of WarCraft Pick-Up Groups would do!

Vakarian

Can anyone confirm what bonuses you actually get against your favored enemy? The in-game description says +4 damage (but nothing about bonuses to hit) in the ranger class description, but +4 to hit (and nothing about damage bonuses) on the screen where you choose your favored enemy.

elminster

It does both.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Vakarian

Thanks for the advise, everyone. Think I'm going to go with demons for my favored enemy, and it looks like I may be doing a bit of dragon hunting earlier than I had originally planned.

Vakarian

A quick update - met the shadow dragon yesterday. Mostly used the strategy that @ZaknafeinBaenre outlined. I'd note that sending a bunch of summoned creatures at it right away is a bad idea due to a particular spell it casts. Luckily I had a couple of creatures that were out of range and able to tank decently enough for the party to take it down without _too_ much scrambling at the end (although CHARNAME did get level drained down to lvl 1).

From my original question about armor (pre-shadow dragon), I found that the bracers of AC3 worked pretty well early on. They give you a decent armor class right out of the gate (plus bracers of armor stack with AC reducing rings/cloaks, so you can get an extra bonus.) Since I haven't run across many other gloves that are particularly useful so far, it's not like I was missing much by taking up the glove slot. The shadow scale is definitely a step up, though.

ZaknafeinBaenre

Yea, it's a good trade-off, especially if you are low in the area of strength or dexterity, in which case the shadow dragon armor frees you up for the gauntlets of ogre power or dexterity. Gauntlets of weapon expertise are also always nice to have.

I forgot to mention death spell. I do all my summonings at the door and send one skeleton in to trigger his death spell if I'm being cheesy. Hey, he should've memorized it twice!