Taking on the Cowled Wizards
Heindrich
Member, Moderator Posts: 2,959
I am considering not paying Cornelius for the next playthrough, which would make spellcasting more interesting within Athkatla, and also give me the option to take on the Cowled Wizards. I want your advice and opinions on a few issues though.
1) Assuming that my party consists of a Lawful Good (Kensai=>Mage) Charname, Yoshimo, Anomen, Keldorn, Aerie and Neera. Do you think such a course of action is justifiable from a roleplay perspective? In particular I wonder if Aerie and Keldorn might object.
2) I know that the wizards attack on the second provocation. But how does the battle develop? If you keep casting spells in your confrontation against them, do they keep coming, or is there only one response for each particular transgression?
3) Is it feasible to take on all the Cowled Wizards in a series of battles without rest? It seems unrealistic that you can potentially defeat one group, and then not face relentless pursuit in Athkatla/Amn. In fact as far as I am aware, you can pretty much pick and choose the when and where of your confrontation against the Cowled Wizards.
4) Assuming the above party. At what level can you realistically take on all of the Cowled Wizards without resorting to cheese? I guess I want two answers here. One for if I tried to take them all on at the same time without rest. And one for taking them on in separate battles, so basically the question would be 'at what level can I defeat the final group of Cowled Wizards.'
5) Do you have to do this before Spellhold? Do the Cowled Wizards still act against you after the Underdark?
Thanks as always.
1) Assuming that my party consists of a Lawful Good (Kensai=>Mage) Charname, Yoshimo, Anomen, Keldorn, Aerie and Neera. Do you think such a course of action is justifiable from a roleplay perspective? In particular I wonder if Aerie and Keldorn might object.
2) I know that the wizards attack on the second provocation. But how does the battle develop? If you keep casting spells in your confrontation against them, do they keep coming, or is there only one response for each particular transgression?
3) Is it feasible to take on all the Cowled Wizards in a series of battles without rest? It seems unrealistic that you can potentially defeat one group, and then not face relentless pursuit in Athkatla/Amn. In fact as far as I am aware, you can pretty much pick and choose the when and where of your confrontation against the Cowled Wizards.
4) Assuming the above party. At what level can you realistically take on all of the Cowled Wizards without resorting to cheese? I guess I want two answers here. One for if I tried to take them all on at the same time without rest. And one for taking them on in separate battles, so basically the question would be 'at what level can I defeat the final group of Cowled Wizards.'
5) Do you have to do this before Spellhold? Do the Cowled Wizards still act against you after the Underdark?
Thanks as always.
2
Comments
Kill 'em all and let Bhaal, er, Torm sort 'em out.
Either way, you might want to wait until you've completed various side quests. You could do the side quests outside Athkatla first (maybe after the Circus and Slaver quests go directly for Arnise, Umar, Trademeet, maybe Windspear though that's a difficult quest). There isn't that much battle in Athkatla in the open air, but if you do the city quests first you'll have to travel between areas, and that's when the open air battles take place, with slavers, vampires et al.
I think you can take on the Cowled ones after Spellhold as well. Good luck anyway, kick some cowled ass. I completely agree with @jackjack.
Otherwise though, it's been too long since I've not paid.
This has actually never even occurred to me! I just assumed they were unbeatable on their home turf. Now I may have to give this a try...
Well, lawful good doesn't necessarily mean "law of the land" anyway. If your character was LE/ LN I could see them following the law and not attacking the cowled mages. But Lawful good, nah...it makes sense to do the "good" thing and weed out the "bad" guys.
Well...that and you get xp and loot of them, of course.
BTW, I wouldn't say they grow stronger each time you anger them. You fight the same enforcement party about six times, then you fight their strongest.
Another BTW. If you don't want to fight them yet but still want to cast spells in public (I cannot abide an unhasted party), cast the spell and walk away before the enforcer can tell you you've been naughty. It shouldn't cost you any battles with them - I did it several times, and then when I finally let him speak to me, it was to deliver the first warning.
The cowled wizards do become progressively more challenging. Later groups will use more higher level spells (Horrid Wilting, Symbols, Power Words, etc). They usually consists of a mage specialized in monster summoning spells, one with disabling spells and one with damage spells. The fourth (or fifth?) one is a simulacrum of another.
The cowled wizards in Amn will hunt you down regardless whether you have passed Spellhold or Underdark. I guess there are multiple divisions working in Amn.
In my opinion, the best place and time to engage them is at nighttime in the city gates. There are no civilians at night and your party can retreat into the inn. The area is relatively small so they wont run too far. Also the Amn guards will help you (but most of the time die trying.)
i rather like the idea you are thinking about this. thought i might need to convince you a bit to get us to do this in our MP game
Since they clearly have no regard for the lives of innocent civilians I see no problem with a LG party defending themselves. It's not like they give you an option to be put under arrest, they just attack
Go 'n get 'em!!!