Solo Fighter/Druid dualclass
twillight
Member Posts: 65
I saw noone completed the game with a solo druid, not even by strenghtened by a dual/multiclass.
Why is it good to be a druid?
- your dumpstat will be in the sky (Charisma)
- dual/multiclassing makes the stat-requirements even more ridiculous
- the item-restrictions are ridiculous. The fact you can't even take things into your hand also mean not being able to use item-abilities. Dual/multiclass at least narrows the restriction to weapons.
- you can have only 1 point in prophiciencies (not true for dual/multi)
- your spells take ages to cast, but at least have very small duration (or at summons they have very little HP)
Ok, so druid is BADD. And not a Shaft-like way.
RULES:
- solo playthrough
- vanilla game
- BG2:SoA/ToB, with the theory importing the character from BG1. This is not a big issue, as with the right amount of arrows any class can beat BG1, what game I find total boredom, and its start very hard (entering the Inn the first time always caused me trouble).
- money is not an issue. I won't be running up-and-down gathering and selling stuff with a single character. I have the money, period. But not buying consumables if it is not 100% must, nor infinite amount of items from shops (limit is 1 per item per shop for these)!
By rerolling a tons of time I managed to get these stats:
18/52, 18, 15, 5, 18, 16
After implementing the tomes:
19, 19, 16, 6, 21, 17
NOTE: yes, the character is dumb as rock, thus can't use scrolls/wands without drinking a potion. But at least is able to survive 1 hit from a mindflayer.
Initial sublclass: berserker.
Dualclassed: at lvl 9 (I won't risk trying to dual at lvl 10)
-----------------------
Playthrough:
Being a fighter lasted through Irenicus' Dungeon, and entering the Circus Tent. There going up the first stairs I jumped from lvl 3 druid to lvl 6 druid (no idea if there is an issue with this, so I mention).
Weapon of choice: staves and twohanded style.
The druid is a terrible fighter w/o the fighter boosts, but with the right preparation I did managed to dispose the hotheaded adventurer team at the Seven Veils (summoned a nymph, charmed with Ring of Human Influence the thief, nymph mind-dominated the berserkered guy with the twohanded sword). And don't forget HERE the "infinite money" rule applied, meaning I bought stuff from the Adventurer's Mart.
The lesson was: avoid though single guys, and be very cautious with mages.
After this I did not move out of Amn, lacking two things: way to kill trolls and anything providing regeneration.
Quests I did not solve before leaving Amn (including extraplanar travels!):
- Windspear Key (naturally you have to go out of Amn before you'll be able)
- The Guarded Compound
Everything else were done, including Act 3.
Act 3:
I sided with Bodhi. I don't like fighting vampires, 'cause they're though, and I wanted the Ring of Jinn Summoning for an extra summon.
QUESTS TO MENTION:
- Kangaxx and the other liches: 1 Scroll of Protection from Undeads was enough to kill all of them with the Staff of Rynn. Without Potion of Speed speeding my walking. Had to drink a Potion of 24 Strength to open the door, but worth every ounce of it.
- The Rogue Stone Doorway: just did for the exp. Bashing the door required another 24 Strength potion, and inside another Scroll of Prot. from Undead was used. Could save by withdrawing to the stairs between enemies. All enemies were killed by me. the vampire regenerates heavily. The most trouble was the mage, but she had relatively few amount of spells (and not much on the "you lost" condition department).
SPECIAL NOTES:
- Habib when throwing his mighty scimitar to your head actually transforms all weapon-slot of yours into scimitars. Noticed for carrying the staff which gives your extra spell slots, and I wondered why I don't have spells memorized XD
- Ring of Djinn Summoning: if the djinny dies, the ring gets destroyed. Auch. Cast the jinn from simularcum only I think.
Plan to visit outside areas:
1) Umar Hills and Temple Ruins: just some shadows, and for the low clvl you won't face the highest tier enemies. Random liches still appear, but they are far from being as dangerous as the named ones. Don't bother the dragon, not worth the trouble. Pick up all Sunstone Bullets.
2) Trademeet: with the newfound bullets you can in theory pass this, and from the local shops I hope we'll be able to buy something that can kill a troll. Or from the stronghold.
3) DeArnise Keep: usually the easiest and earliest area, but full of trolls. Don't forget to bring Staff of Spear against the golems.
4) Planar Sphere: lots of monsters, but only a handful of mages.
5) Planar Prison: avoid the holes, and you'll only have trouble with bunch of mages and some though guy.
6) Guarded Compound: if you could do the above, this shouldn't be unsolvable, shall it?
7) Windspear Hills: though and many, and you probably want to kill the dragon for its hide.
All this is mainly for the exp. I don't like to go against the drows too early.
NOTE: Likely I'll turn evil before fighting John Irenicus. Yes, I'll be a Neutral Evil druid!
Why is it good to be a druid?
- your dumpstat will be in the sky (Charisma)
- dual/multiclassing makes the stat-requirements even more ridiculous
- the item-restrictions are ridiculous. The fact you can't even take things into your hand also mean not being able to use item-abilities. Dual/multiclass at least narrows the restriction to weapons.
- you can have only 1 point in prophiciencies (not true for dual/multi)
- your spells take ages to cast, but at least have very small duration (or at summons they have very little HP)
Ok, so druid is BADD. And not a Shaft-like way.
RULES:
- solo playthrough
- vanilla game
- BG2:SoA/ToB, with the theory importing the character from BG1. This is not a big issue, as with the right amount of arrows any class can beat BG1, what game I find total boredom, and its start very hard (entering the Inn the first time always caused me trouble).
- money is not an issue. I won't be running up-and-down gathering and selling stuff with a single character. I have the money, period. But not buying consumables if it is not 100% must, nor infinite amount of items from shops (limit is 1 per item per shop for these)!
By rerolling a tons of time I managed to get these stats:
18/52, 18, 15, 5, 18, 16
After implementing the tomes:
19, 19, 16, 6, 21, 17
NOTE: yes, the character is dumb as rock, thus can't use scrolls/wands without drinking a potion. But at least is able to survive 1 hit from a mindflayer.
Initial sublclass: berserker.
Dualclassed: at lvl 9 (I won't risk trying to dual at lvl 10)
-----------------------
Playthrough:
Being a fighter lasted through Irenicus' Dungeon, and entering the Circus Tent. There going up the first stairs I jumped from lvl 3 druid to lvl 6 druid (no idea if there is an issue with this, so I mention).
Weapon of choice: staves and twohanded style.
The druid is a terrible fighter w/o the fighter boosts, but with the right preparation I did managed to dispose the hotheaded adventurer team at the Seven Veils (summoned a nymph, charmed with Ring of Human Influence the thief, nymph mind-dominated the berserkered guy with the twohanded sword). And don't forget HERE the "infinite money" rule applied, meaning I bought stuff from the Adventurer's Mart.
The lesson was: avoid though single guys, and be very cautious with mages.
After this I did not move out of Amn, lacking two things: way to kill trolls and anything providing regeneration.
Quests I did not solve before leaving Amn (including extraplanar travels!):
- Windspear Key (naturally you have to go out of Amn before you'll be able)
- The Guarded Compound
Everything else were done, including Act 3.
Act 3:
I sided with Bodhi. I don't like fighting vampires, 'cause they're though, and I wanted the Ring of Jinn Summoning for an extra summon.
QUESTS TO MENTION:
- Kangaxx and the other liches: 1 Scroll of Protection from Undeads was enough to kill all of them with the Staff of Rynn. Without Potion of Speed speeding my walking. Had to drink a Potion of 24 Strength to open the door, but worth every ounce of it.
- The Rogue Stone Doorway: just did for the exp. Bashing the door required another 24 Strength potion, and inside another Scroll of Prot. from Undead was used. Could save by withdrawing to the stairs between enemies. All enemies were killed by me. the vampire regenerates heavily. The most trouble was the mage, but she had relatively few amount of spells (and not much on the "you lost" condition department).
SPECIAL NOTES:
- Habib when throwing his mighty scimitar to your head actually transforms all weapon-slot of yours into scimitars. Noticed for carrying the staff which gives your extra spell slots, and I wondered why I don't have spells memorized XD
- Ring of Djinn Summoning: if the djinny dies, the ring gets destroyed. Auch. Cast the jinn from simularcum only I think.
Plan to visit outside areas:
1) Umar Hills and Temple Ruins: just some shadows, and for the low clvl you won't face the highest tier enemies. Random liches still appear, but they are far from being as dangerous as the named ones. Don't bother the dragon, not worth the trouble. Pick up all Sunstone Bullets.
2) Trademeet: with the newfound bullets you can in theory pass this, and from the local shops I hope we'll be able to buy something that can kill a troll. Or from the stronghold.
3) DeArnise Keep: usually the easiest and earliest area, but full of trolls. Don't forget to bring Staff of Spear against the golems.
4) Planar Sphere: lots of monsters, but only a handful of mages.
5) Planar Prison: avoid the holes, and you'll only have trouble with bunch of mages and some though guy.
6) Guarded Compound: if you could do the above, this shouldn't be unsolvable, shall it?
7) Windspear Hills: though and many, and you probably want to kill the dragon for its hide.
All this is mainly for the exp. I don't like to go against the drows too early.
NOTE: Likely I'll turn evil before fighting John Irenicus. Yes, I'll be a Neutral Evil druid!
4
Comments
- thief/mage multi (passing BG1 for real!)
- ranger/cleric dual (pasing BG1 for real!)
- monk
- cavalier
- barbarian (my eternal favourite)
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PLAYTHROUGH:
Tip: get a Potion Bag as soon as possible. It is just good to carry around strength and intelligence-boosting potions (among others).
Tip 2: I'll get the BMU.
Hint: for the reason I'll be likely Evil if possible, I'll hunt for the Human Flesh Armor.
Equipments:
helm: Helm of Balduran
necklace: of Form Stability -> Amulet of Power
gloves:
armor: Aeger's Hide -> Korthala Family Armor
belt: of Piercing, of Bluntness
ring: of Kangaxx + of Earth Control
boots: of Grounding, of Avoidance
cloak: of Sewers -> of Displacement
Weapons until fighter skills are reactivated: spears have length, scimitars are nice, and daggers are accessible without effort.
After fighter reactivates: just for the chance you'll ever need a shield invest more into scimitars. I did not know this, but from this point you can again invest more than 1 point into prophyciencies.
Challenging Faeldorn in theDruid Grove was unexpectedly easy: Initial I've cast insects on her, then when she started some casting I summoned a nymph, which immediately held her, winning me the fight.
But man, the Druid Stronghold is completely messed up! I was of course lvl 14 when finished with the area (took ca. 20 ammo from the 30 sunstone bullets), and never "felt able" to challenge for Great Druid, but the Spirit of the Grove did appear. Also the Spirit appeared not after 8 hours, but after sleeping there.
Now from this point for a druid there is two option for killing trolls: you get the Root of the Problem here, or you can buy some +3 acid club in Trademeet (after reporting the main quests).
To avoid later possible problems I chose Fallen Deva as spell, and refused to take the Fighter Stronghold TOO (or whatever is going with "my" druid stronghold).
Much later (at lvl 20), after coming out of the Planar Sphere (where I stepped 2-3 levels), I suddenly got called for challenge of Great Druid.
Planar Sphere: combining Aegir's Hide + Spear of the Unicorn makes you only to worry for stun from the pesky feral halflings.
BUG:
- when Berserker state ends, it can happen it ends twice, making you loose max HP permanently. Watch out.
- at a go I first went to the genies, then signed both quests at the Major. This way Jenia did not appear (the skinners quest did not start).
Lvl1:
- Entangle: good before lvl 10. No use in BG2 + ToB.
- Silgellegah: definitely not something for long term use
- Detect Evil: seriously?
- Cure whatever: that's why we have Ring of Kangaxx, and sleep
- Bless: ok for lvl 1 spell, but takes long to cast and last very short
- Armor of Faith: at last something moderately useful
lvl2:
- Barkskin: get an armor!
- Flame Blade: nice to have early on, but totally useless after the beginning
- Slow Poison: IF you could cast it WHEN you are poisoned, it'd be useful as it not just slows but antidotes poison, IF you'd not get this initially as baalspawn-ability, you wouldn't gain immunity against it (on a very-very-very high level to add), if you wouldn't have Ring of Kangaxx, AND to mention, all poisonous enemy wouldn't die out BEFORE you'd gain any of the options listed here
- Know Alignment: what's the use?
- Good Berries: who designed this?
- resist fire/cold: not too bad I think. The only way you gain clod resist from your spells as druid. Still, if you ever need cold resist, I'd just drink a potion or use a scroll.
- Charm mammal/person: takes ages to cast, and after a while everything will 100% save against anything. Nice try though.
- Find Traps: at some parts this is actually useful, especially if you fighting a room wit traps. I'd still want a real lvl 2 spell, what actually makes real effect in the game.
lvl 3:
- Call Lightning: too bad it is "outside only". And it has a too long casting time. Nice try though.
- Cure Disease: don't make me laugh.
- Cure whatever: again we have Ring of Kangaxx. IF the casting time would be very-very fast, I'd understand, but this simply sux, even if this is one of the more efficient healings.
- Dispel: ye, sure.
- Hold animal: anyone can mention a dangerous animal? Too bad dragons don't count here. they'd save anyway.
- Invisibility Purge: bugged. Does nothing.
- Miscast Magic: can be negated. So no use.
- Protection from Fire: with some equipment you'll have 100%+ resist anyway, sry.
- Rigid Thinking: will be negated.
- Strength of One: I hope you made a character with higher strength. If not, then you certainly wear one of the strength-belts, right?
- Summon Insects: is good, IF you only face exactly one spellcaster. Otherwise again theproblem of too long casting time.
This list goes too long, so I'll continue next time with 4-6. Seventh lvl spells worth another section.
-------------------
Planar Prison:
Before entering I buffed myself with whatever I could, most important was Death Ward, as ne of the Juan-ti mages could kill me with some death-spell. Arriving happened paused, started to summon Deva, which lasted for all bottom platforms, at least the major part of the rightmost one, where I needed justa little more distraction (too many stoneskins on 'em), so called out my spider figurine.
The potential - if I not said earlier - in druid seems to be the chance to be easily immun on one or preferably more elements. Keep that in mind when storing equipment. It definitely helped me inside the Planar Sphere.
Question there is a third door where the ice and fire room is (and you came in through the fourth). Can that be opened, or it is just decoration? (I lack thief now. 24strenght was not enough to bash it. Did not notice this before).
Gloves: Gauntlet of Weapon Skill
The Guarded Compound went down surprisingly easy. I somehow got stuck by the spawned monsters, which for some reason could barely hit me, so I had time to kill the demon while the skins of mine still held, so the nishruu ment no danger. The efreets I will always hate though for their infinite chance of gasous form.
The second level was even more easier, as with Botts of Speed I ran intoa sideroom, and cast Storm of Vengeance, what simply killed everyone.
I have 0 idea why the walkthrough says Chaos is a "beholder-like creature", it is a simple shapeshifter with spellcasting power. But it is weak, died from just two summoned bears.
Onto hunting a dragon!
Happy hunting!
1) Armor of Faith is a very good spell and should be used quite often, especially after 10th level in combination with prot. from fire-cold. These alone give you 65% resistance to fire-cold damage which allows you to better select gear, not having to worry about fire-cold resistance. So you will want to have 3 or 4 AoFs memorized for 1st level and 4 or 5 Prot. Fire- Cold for 2nd level.
2) Your summons, this especially applies to totemic druid summons, benefit greatly from bless, strength of one, and fire-cold resist, especially the 3rd level fire resist. Blessing and placing fire and-or cold resist and barkskin on nymphs greatly improves their ability to survive and cast a whole range of very useful spells. Note that totemic druid summons are innately immune to holds, charms, confusions, cold, electricity, and death spells. Blessing them, giving the snakes and wolves strength of one, and giving them fire resistance makes them very difficult for enemy mages to deal with, especially while being assaulted by insects. Fire elementals also benefit greatly from cold resist and lightning resist.
3) Flame blade does 6-10 damage and is therefore the equal of a +5 scimitar, for a single class druid, in terms of damage though not THAC0. It also benefits from strength bonuses (because of the fist damage) and single weapon style. This is a very useful spell through all of BGI and part of BGII.
4) Doom is a good level 1 spell, though the 9 casting time means that you must not be under attack while casting it (which is what summons are for... to soak up enemy attacks)
5) Invisibility purge works quite well and is a must-have spell for an SCS playthrough. Check the screenshots in my journal of my playthrough on Aurorus to show Jaheira using this to great advantage.
I guess the point is this: the inherent ability of the druid class is summoning. To gain best advantage from the class, you want to summon and then buff your summons.
More problem is I found it working too low for my lacking (ye, in party), or the problem is that the protection of the enemy is a native ability (you can't get rid of it for good).
But everyone after their own.
@Aurorus
I never tried a totemic druid, but unless there is something rly funky about their summons what I missed, they can't be much better than eg. a fire elemental, and those are eaten in miliseconds in ToB areas. Ye, in SoA they might be ok, and in BG1 they might be superb (hey, they're immun to low enchanted weapons!), but I see general problem with summons, explained at my further analyses.
On Doom: looong casting time, AND you need to cast like 4-5 of it to make it useful IF the enemy not resist it. Usually I'd want this on stronger enemies like Dragons, where it is simplynot an option IF you are not in a party. All details given at me is for SOLO.
Invisibility Purge: I stood in a crowd of no less than 3 mages (testing purpose on random lowlvl mages), all sanctuaried, mirror imaged and such, and nothing happened. Sry.
--------------
Spell analysis:
lvl 4:
- Animal Summoning: if you really need a large number of summons to pull out a number of spells from a mage. Otherwise a waste of slot.
- Call Woodland Being: aka. Nymph. You get a summon which can heal and cast a bunch of hindering stuff. I 99% of the time not bother with her Barkskin: if she gets whacked, she'll die soon anyway. Overal she's pretty good for its level.
- Cause ... wounds: meh. Might have some use in pan&paper RPG, but never here.
- Cure whatever: like all the same. This is not at all effective on top of it.
- Death Ward: the first serious protection you have. Store 1 or 2.
- Defensive Harmony: similar to bless, but this at least have some duration. If you have nothing better, cast it before a semi-serious fight.
- Farsight: *sish*
- Negative Plain Protection: moderately useful until you gain the permanent version from an item.
- Neutralize Poison: Why, oh why? Same as Slow Poison in game-term, and has the same problems.
- Poison: I don't want to ruin this for you, but it is not good either.
- Protection from Lightning: very specific, but there ARE some mages in the game which like to use Lightning, so not unreasonable. If you have space to carry around the right boots though, you'll cast this much less.
lvl 5:
- Animal Summoning 2: c'mon! Gimme something I can throw at Demogorgon! Make these summoning spells relate to your lvl, give the summons extra abilities - SOMETHING!
- Cause ... wounds: meh again.
- Chaotic Command: Good. Make this prevent Stun too, and I'll love it.
- Cure whatever: I have the feeling noone tested these...
- Insect Plague: oh, effecting a whole enemy party! If you have time. Well, most of the time there's only one spellcaster, and on this level you have other useful spells, and again takes ages to cast, and not hurt warriors seriously, so don't overrate it.
- Iron Skin: an offensive class (pretty much anyone else) would give half their balls for this, but here it is... Not that extreme. A good, solid protection, but with the stats of a druid it just not last as long as on others.
-Magic Resistance: Good to have on higher levels. Highly depend the usefulness on your equipment though.
- Mass Cure: Ye, sure. Not in this game.
- Pixie Dust: if it actually works, and allows to cast defensive spells while remaining invisible (maybe summons too), it can have a tactical use. (not yet tried)
- True Seeing: Now THIS is what I call a dispel. Not need to cast too many times though on a single "day" though compared to your expectation from when you did not have it, so don't fill only with these you repertoire.
lvl 6:
- Animal Summoning 3: Overshadowed by the other summonings of this level.
- Conjure Animal: bear(s). They have many HP, and IF they hit something, it'll actually feel it. A big if, but you can have 2 with some luck, and they really can serve as a meatshield in a regular battle.
- Conjure Fire Elemental: they are around for a time, useful during mid-level (ok, they are pretty much useful for the whole of SoA), and an ok cannon-fodder for ToB even (not for bosses of course). Good and bad thing is they hit with fire (immunity vs trolls).
- Dolorus Decay: THE slowing spell (if it bypasses magic resist). Unfortunately I never seen the damage-over-time work (BUG!!!), and the duration is low as heck, but at least the casting time is very low. Great help it can be.
- Fire Seeds: sux. When you'd start to cast these, everything turned immun to it.
- Harm: THE CHEESY spell. If you at the moment don't go for a "no reload" challenge, but most of us are not that extreme. Cast it, save, make it hit, use Ring of Ram or some such, and win. A legal way of the Fake Talk Strategy.
- Heal: if you really want a healing spell memorized, use this.
- Phyiscal Mirror: I'm not sure this is working. Not that it'd matter, as at some point your AC against missiles will be unbreachable. Simply said, this has too high level of requirement.
- Wondrous Recall: I use it to have 2 more Iron Skin. Way less useful than Wish.
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Playthrough:
Windspear Hills:
At the start I summoned a Deva, what was overkill against the knights, so I ran back, and made it kill the werewolves too. All got caught in its Globe of Blades, what was funky.
Inside you have to prevent leveldrain (think on the necklace), than arrows (use boots). I could not bash the door of the archers with STR 19, just telling (no item there, so who cares). There will be golems, but with staff as weapon they are not problem.
The most problematic part is the Greater Wolfweres, they regenerate insane. I - after a certain amount of try - decided to cast Summon Greater Elemental along the deva - and TWO princes appeared at once! The earth could not pass through doorways, but I summoned them anyway just to kill the were-things, so everything else was just a bonus.
Against Firkrag (pronounced FirEkrag of you noticed) I could have use Harm, but I wanted a real fight, so did cast my remaining other spells (did the whole dungeon for one go) and items, and bashed its skull with a Simularcum, Deva, Fire elemental, spider, lion, nymph. Meself stayed in the back supporting with insects, Delorous Decay and such. For any reason the Storm of Vengeance did not effect the dragon.
Oh, Storm of Vengeance: I closed all doors to prevent escape of the local tomb raiders, and massacred them with it.
the Sewer Key: a regular illithid-battle. Bring adequate equipment (vs charm, confusion) and ranged weapon, and you're good. Ulithars may stun you though, so save regularly.
Brynnlaw: no problem here.
I sacrifice 1 WIS for the demon - heck, why not. Wisdom offers only some extra spells, but the maximum WIS would be 24, and that simply not offers the quality I wish for (lvl 7 spells worth it only). So I'll be evil, and gain +3 STR in the pocket dimension of the Abyss. I will be evil. I'll run around in Human Flesh. Like a real druid would. Shadow Druid?
You might ask wether I'll go to the Watcher's Keep?
I will. For that stupid gloves. IF I'll be able to whack myself through. But as the place don't make us oh-that-much stronger, I'll leave it to after returning to Amn from the Underdark.
lvl 7:
- Aura of Flaming Death: well, extra AC, hurt things what hurt you - sounds like we have a buff. Ok, there are better spells, but how many spells you cast for a single battle, after which you can sleep?
- Confusion: how about summoning a nymph instead? Will be negated anyway.
- Conjure Earth Elemental: here is a spell I'd kick the guy responsible for it from the developer team.
- Creeping Doom: fine, fine, but we have more important spells here...
- Earthquake: big nah. Self-dangerous written all-over it.
- Elemental Summoning: this is the only HLA as a prerequesit, so the next one shall be something insane, right?
- Energy Blades: I'm familiar with these. They are useful.
- Fire Storm: one word: immunity.
- Globe of Blades: one note: everything will throw their save on that level.
- Greater Elemental Summoning: well, they do seem to have more HP than the Deva. Otherwise I'm not familiar enough -yet.
- Implosion: I wish this'd cast faster, but otherwise look ok. Not used yet.
- Nature's Beauty: in theory blinds the enemy. If it works, it should be good.
- Regeneration: *pfff*. Hey, this work in combo of regenerative items? I have no idea, but if not, it is worthless.
- Shield of Archons: IF you'd be at the end of a mage duel where the wizard has only a lot of Magic Missile or something, this can be useful. But how often that happens? Not to mention it takes ages to cast. Seems another spell I'll never use.
- Storm of Vengeance: surely can make life easier
- Summon (Fallen) Deva: good. Could use more HP. And native ability Globe of Blades.
----------------
Playthrough:
In Bodhi's Maze choose whatever fights you want, and skip which not worth the fuss (like the summoning book and the summoning portal).
Details unmentioned:
You need only 2 slot in your inventory (1 if you rly can't decide) when you leave Amn. Then you'll find the Bag of Holding.
Don't forget to pack heavy armor (Red Dragon Scales). Some monsters hit hard, so you should make sure they don't hit too hard.
Don't forget your sling at home.
Don't forget you'll have to face at least a couple of beholders.
From the Token Machine I only took the Boots of North, as all the others I already had.
Man, Irenicus is really a looser. First he went against being an elf, but lost. Then he went against his nation, but lost. Then he went against the Shadow Thievesbut lost. Then faced the Cowled Wizards, but lost. Confronted some madmen in Spellhold and lost. Tried to save her daughter, but lost. Tried to beat a spawn of Baal, but lost. Tried an alliance with the drow, but lost. Tried to steal the heritage of Baal, but lost. He even lost in the Abyss just arriving there! Embodiment of loosership.
Could someone explain me the reason for Rod of Lordly Might?
Solely for RPG-reasons I helped the underdwarves with their demon-problem, where I usually kill the munchkins.
Bugged Coding: the Rod of Smiting can be used by druids despite it is mage&cleric only.
I can never get bored listening "you have to gather your party before venturing forth" in a solo playthrough...
NOTE: Did you notice there are 2 hidden containers in the game? One is in the Illithid City inside another container – it has nothing in it.
The other is in the catacombs of the Temple Ruins, at the head of the talking head (sry for the pun), but I could never get access to that one.
Going into the Beholder and Mindflayer city is purely optional, but there are stuff what you can use, and who knows what you will use in the end? So I went and grabbed them. One of these items is the Staff of Mental Domination, which I always use to enslave the illithid supermind. Ironic, and easy exp.
Tip: wear the drow plate armor, it offers very good protection.
To be honest most of the drow city I skipped. The quests don't make you gain enough exp, and no item at all, so why bother? But just to ruin the city, in the end I killed the djinn without paying for it, and freed the slaves too.
Back on the surface I ran, I know the surface-elves tend to turn hostile without reason, so better not get involved.
Also the doppelganger-group causes my game to crash, so I have to cross fingers every time I travel.
Also someone really should get rid of the "X appear busy" bug, it is VERY annoying.
Hired Drizzt and the Order against Bodhi, forgot to drop holy water into the upper pool, so there was a fight, in which I saw occasionally Drizzt doing things, and I think - as below did not appeared - the knight was there too, making a blast, thus thinking I attacked him... Ugh. Whatever.
No care for the three new area, they offer nothing.
Went and made the Human Flesh Armor. Killing the dragon for it was accomplished by Harming it (heh-he).
Gaining the eggs was made by Pixie Dust, what worked when I opened the door, but faded when I grabbed the eggs, so I had to kill the guards - but not the golems.
Equipment:
Belt: of Inertial Barrier (likely the best belt in the game)
Gloves: of Weapon Expertise
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Next time: Watcher's Keep!
I didn't know about the original version but currenttly the spell it doesn't bypass magic resistance afaik. It also has rather long casting time and a limited AoE, so there is the risk of interruption. Still it's a very good spell.
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Playthrough:
Watcher's Keep lvl 1:
Items:
-
Battles:
statues: The goal is to separate them using the environment. Also great help if at start you pick up the book, so for first go only the top two statue gets activated.
Level 2:
Items:
Helm of the Rock
Battles:
Whenever anything targeted me here in battle my game crashed. This level was awful for that. Fortunately there are summons. And Harm to finish off the Chromatic Demon.
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I'm pretty much mapping lvl 3 right now. Seems I can (and should) side with one of the demons.
Question is, glaberzu or the tanarri?
Any tip, eg. how to win the battle against the specific demon horde would be most welcomed.
As others have pointed out Strength of one is a very useful spell to have for a druid with their summons. The only animal summons that won't gain strength because of it are basically the mountain/cave bears. Everything else will. The two most commonly summoned HD versions of the Fire Elemental (level 6 spell) will also benefit from it because fire elementals actually have very low strength (the mid HD fire elemental has 14 strength and the lowest HD version has 18 strength).
For solo druids farsight becomes a lot more useful in ToB where enemies can see through your invisibility and where maps tend to be smaller.
Magic Resistance is a good spell but moreso because you can use it against enemies that have high magic resistance and in the process significantly lower their resistance.
Yea regeneration heals 18 health/round. With the exception of the mage's Greater Wolfwere form (and possibly another one of the level 9 mage spell forms) you just won't find that amount of regeneration anywhere else.
Firestorm is great because it bypasses magic resistance. Even if there are a number of fire resistant enemies in the game most aren't, including a number of the more difficult enemies (for instance Mind Flayers).
Earthquake isn't dangerous at all in a solo druid run. The damage it deals is limited and the unconscious effect it causes (only on the first quake) is entirely ignored if you have a Chaotic Commands active on your character (which given its duration you really should well before battle).
Information on the Elemental Prince's (their main benefit over the deva imo is they dispel magic on hit)
Zaaman Rul is immune to hold, stun, poison, and petrification. He has 60% magic resistance and 125% fire resistance. He is also immune to +2 or lower weapons. He has 19 strength, 2 APR, does 1d6 crushing (3d10 fire) damage, hits as a +3 weapon, and his attacks dispel magic on hit. He has 2 castings of flame strike available and has a permanent fireshield (red) active. Of the elemental princes he has the lowest health, the highest AC, and the least APR (2).
Chan is immune to poison. He has 85% resistance to magic, 70% resistance to cold, 40% resistance to acid, and 100% resistance to electricity. He is also immune to +2 or lower weapons. He has 19 strength, 3 APR, does 1d6 crushing (2d10 electricity) damage, hits as a +3 weapon, and his attacks dispel on hit. He has two castings of a spell called "Whirlwind" which isn't actually the warrior HLA but rather an ability that does 1d8 damage (no save), knocks out a target for 3 seconds (-10 penalty to save vs spell against it), and hits them with a wing buffet (no save). He also has a permanent Globe of Blades active, which due to his large size actually makes working with him to be kind of a pain. Still, of all the elemental summons he has the second lowest AC, the second highest health, and is tied with the highest APR. Also despite what it might say elsewhere he is not evil in BG2EE (so no need to watch the Holy Smites) but rather he is neutral good (all three of the princes are neutral good).
Sunnis is immune to hold, stun, petrification, and poison. He has 70% magic resistance, 75% fire resistance, 40% cold resistance and 40% acid resistance. He is also immune to +2 or lower weapons. He has 24 strength, 3 APR, does 3d12 crushing damage, hits as a +3 weapon, and his attacks dispel on hit. He gets 2 instant castings of an "Earthquake" spell that knocks out only enemies for 2 rounds (unless they make a -6 save vs spell). He also regularly will give himself a Stoneskin (this is scripted not a spell he has). Of all the elemental summons he has the lowest AC, the highest health (230), and is tied with the highest APR (3).
As for fighting the demon horde I can't really say since I'm not certain what their specific resistances/immunities are.
I think I'll go against the baatezu, as they look smaller. They contain a "slayer", 3 cornugon, 1 erinyes, and some imp.
The tanar'ri are: 1 standard winged demon, 3 glaberzu, 1 succubus, 1 yochlol, 3 quasits.
The Full Map of Level Three Watcher's Keep:
the numbers are the area numbers (press "X"). The order of the numbers are: North, West, South, East.
3003: starting area. Up to level 2/3009/3011/3008
3004: no magic zone - skipped this, found too hard. 3008/3012/3006/3009
3005: wild magic zone - practically the same as a No Magic Zone, but you can pre-cast things inside (summons!) if you save/reload. 3007/3003/3005/3010
3006: succubi - they either teleport you to the end of the maze (at the cost of leveldrain, what is negated by negative plain protection running) or fight you; they disappear after you delt with them either way. 3009/3008/3013/3004
3007: demon knights. 3014/3007/3005/3007
3008: demons fighting amongst themselves - use the opportunity to weaken their force before the last turn against you. 3004/3003/3006/3012
3009: bunch of wild mage imps against you - they are annoying. 3003/3004/3006/3005
3010: some glaberzu who can summon a lot of mid-things (so counter with high-things). 3003/3005/3010/3013
3011: Yakman's resident. 3003/-/-/Out.
3012: bunch of Tanar'ri, boss group. 3008/-/-/3004
3013: bunch of Baatezu, boss group. 3006/-/-/3010
3014: demon wraith - you only have to kill the leader, like at Neb. Exit/-/-/3007
The important notes are:
- you don't have to fight in the succubi-room
- you can avoid likely any room, most importantly the two boss-room (so you can get the Deck of Many Things BEFORE trying yourself against these)
- you can run through any room if you for any reason enter there but don't want to fight
- you can not doublecross a demon group after making a contract with them (so it not work if you pacify the gourp by saying yes, then pre-cast and attack them, as the other group will not reward you and remain premanently hostile).
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Note on elemental princes:
- seems you are not allowed to cast the spell while the "results" from an earlier summon is there (similarly as you can't sommun another Deva)
- the Fire Elemental causes pure fire damage (immunity!)
- they are pretty strong, but not stay for too long. This is probably with the intention to prevent abusing the skill (what is already done by the fact you can't keep summoning them), but with the long casting times it is very harmful for the players.
Watcher's Keep Level 3:
The battle against the baatezu turn into a real beastfest:
As evident in the previous room I put on myself everything I could lay my hand on (most importantly Iron Skin, Chaotic Command, Magic Resistance, Armor of Faith, Bless, Speed Potion and a couple of other things), then I realised I just aquired the Spectral Brand.
For all my fortune when stepping in everything attacked the invulnerable blade, so I had time to call the simularcum from Vhailor's Helm, and together started a castfest. A deva and en elemental prince (air) came first, then we both made Storm of Vengeance, which most use was to kill the quasits, then whatever I could figure out. It was like a Bud Spencer fight
Items:
Spectral Brand, Deck of Many Thing, White Dragon Scales
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Watcher's Keep Level 4:
I really not sure to define mindflayers as "very dangerous". You are clever and have Boots of Speed, while they are just stupid AI who can't open doors.
For the sheer number and the higher THAC0 the gith were more challenging.
To prevent both groups' psionics I used some of the remained Brim Potions from the Illithid City.
Facing the Demilich is kinda risky (without speed potion), as your berserking last barely enough to kill it.
For some time now I am max. level for all the game, so some note on prophiciencies:
you can have up to 2 weapons grandmaster education, and in one style 2 point. Although themost efficient choice seems to invest into Staves or Scimitars, we have to remember the Dagger class too, what although lacks range, but have some funky variants, like Dagger of the Star, what I always thought would be fun to play with, but never ended up using it. I'm still not into Spears.
Items:
Staff of the Ram
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Watcher's Keep Level 5:
Battles:
- I again faced crashes while entering to the orc-room, so ring of invisibilities were a must to use. Strangely only Improved Invisibility was not removed by the mages True Sight (I did wear Cloak of Non Detection forthis instance).
- entering the Spectral Warrior Room was the least to say challenging. The golems there killed one of my elemental prince AND my deva until we defeated them.
- the final seal: We DON'T WANT to win this fight! We have NOTHING to do with Demogorgon! The ONLY reason why we open the seal is an item! Separate the Y'tosshi, kill it, grab the gauntlet, and ESCAPE THE KEEP never to return!
Items:
- I never end up using them, but some of the orbs are in theory useful. I feel mostly the red and green stuff.
- Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization: the item I went through the whole of this.
PS: if someone could tell me how to insert "spoiler" format, I'd hide the picture for convinience-sake.
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So no I am in the Nine Hell.
A trick you might not be aware of:
at the Fear tear you can say to the demon "let me investigate the rooms first". Then choose the monster-less corridor, and by no means kill the beholders! Take the tear, and go for the reward. You get the good reward. Then go straight back, and ask for the cloak.
As I still have trouble with the conditions regularly, this just looks spiffy.
As you can check my char-sheet, the decision for Selfishness is rly only 'bout +10% magic resist or 2AC.
Before I decide for good, I give you some time to convince me either way.
Some questions arised in me:
- why we face only a Baalspawn Council of 5 (six if we count the priestess) if we see a council of 7 at the end of SoA?
- what is the antagonist of a Solar?
Some RPG-perpective:
I always thought giving Sharevok a piece of Baal is a good idea. Let me explain why.
Baal is the Lord of Murder. Baal murders everything - including itself in the end. Remember: One... Two... Three. Four. FIVE.
I always thought this self-murder part was what you transferred to Sharevok.
The first challenge was easy, aside that for the first go the last wave's mage got me witha death spell (bah!).
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Saradush:
Unless you want another potion-bag to store an unnecessary amount of healing potions, you can hardly gain anything useful from the mage's shop, and even less from anything else.
To be honest was never-ever be able to enter the castle via the prison, but with the gained weapon-immunities it is only a formality to pass through the sewers (and a 24 strength required locked door).
Against the boss here start with the mighty Simularcum. That have the durability (especially if you wear the right equipment and memorised a ton of iron skin), so will buy you more than enough time to cast whatever spell you want (here I mean summon your elementals and deva). Don't forget to pre-cast iron skin and true seeing!
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Outside Saradush you are perfectly safe until you massacre the people to talk with the merchant. Heck, I'd sleep amongst these soldier hitting me with their inefficient weaponry...
Then in the next area you are again immun, even to that ice-shield if you have made the white dragon armour. Of course don't take the whole skeleton-gorup at once, but you can pass them with just 1-2 skins and some health potions (not even the extra ones).
See u next time.
Otherwise some of the quests offer things like the Shakti-figurine (heck,a pure druid would get use of that one!).
Entering the giants' lair is suggested with AC-gear (scimitar+shield) and invisible (you only have to dela with half the giants at a time).
At the golem-ward do your regular summon with sim. Storm of Vengeance is again useful against the giant horde (the biggest you'll have to deal with). The golems themselves are not much of a threat if you change into fire-protection gear (fire control ring + helm of rock gives you 125%, there is a cap at 127%). That way you can though-to-tough go against the adamantite golem and it won't be able to hurt you more than the magma heals.
In the troll-ward wear AC-stuff, they hit hard.
Unfortunately in the inner chambers I again had to face the "if you are targeted, the game crash" bug. Bugger. Invisibility rings and summons again help out, but this is ridiculous.
Back to Nyalee the elementals don't really help, as the Swamp Things are immun to crushing damage, but they still work as meat-shield.
Yaga Shura is again just an everyday opponent, but don't forget to wear the Cloak of Bravery if you have, as there are some magelings with fear and stun. Heck, if my summons are not that good, and the solar don't save me, I'd've died here from being stunned!
The second challenge is also not something you would notbe able to do with a couple of skins(!), true sight, and the team-tag summons (earth lord is best for its skins, but whatever comes).
NOTE: the elemental princes are clearly superior to the Deva in fighting-power, they just don't have the duration, thus tend to disappear before the end of longer fights.
You remember there's the cleric and the mayor's daughter who both try to help the starving citizen.
Now from a druid's perspective you can look this situation this way:
- help one, and deny the other for sake of balance
- help the cleric as he tries to do things legally, the natural way of this place
- don't help the mayor's daughter as she tries to do things illegally (unnaturally), and her way is evil (for being illegal), so helping her would strengthen evil, further upsetting the balance where Balthazar's actions already created tons of evil.
So I let the girl die.
One thing though: if you let the mayor's daughter die, do it before saving the priest to keep you reputation high.
The next area you want to go is Abazigail for the Blue Dragon Scales, and the BMU, and simply because you can just Harm yourself through the most important battles in this area:
Store 2 Harm, and cast bless + berserk + harm, then go to Abazigal's son. Touch him and he'll transform (there's no chance for a fast victory here). Release Spectral Brand, and let the wing buffet throw you away. Save the game (it is a good idea anyway). Re-cast Harm, and kill the dragon (ring of ram goes through its protection the same way as Harm does), the stalkers won't mean any problem.
The Ice Salamnders finally with your immunity to cold don't mean real problem, unlike with any other class. Well, a good thing to say on druid finally.
I managed to push away a Water Elemental - through the wall even) with the Staff or Ram. Talk about strange things.
I never could effectively fight the eyeballs, especially not the 6-group of 'em, so I turned invisible. They deal physical damage too fast.
As you get tired for not sleeping 3 days in a row (pretty amateur, non?), I'd at thismoment go and take use of the Pantaloon Ergo-Magical Transmogrifier. Because I can. But even though I am able to use the Power Pantaloon Battle Armor, for any reason I can't hold the Big Metal Rod! WHYYY?
Abazigal itself is a one big battle, runs the usual. Kill the salamanders first, summon and buff, then whack 'im. He has a too high magic resist to use Harm efficiently, but you should have time to try anyway if you want. But works best if you whack 'im away, lettin 'im kick YOUR butt, so the summons will provide the much-needed damage (and chance to casting failure when he tries to heal).
Just jump into what you intend to fight in Sendai's Lair (AC-gear, I reached -24 with the BMU), and you'll be fine.
The drow compound is mostly the same, almost to boredom. Large number of weak enemies. the key is to not let them touch you (AC, AC, AC). But another advice: don't be hesitant to use your health potions, the best ones when the need arise.
Against the lich though swap into anti-magic gear (you're glad to have the Human Flesh on you, don't you?). Also jump away to forge your scimitar to its peak.
I LUV the cameo of the Spectator Beholder. Another thing I never came around with is to check what happens here if you kill it back then.
Sendai... Handle her however you wish, but the most useful "strategy" is, that if you manuvre right, you can save between the statues.
Challenge 4:
Cyric's guys are ... less than competitive, so to say. To be sure you could wear Enkidu's Plate for this ... But the BMU serves just as well.
Re: the starving citizen, I wouldn't necessarily equate 'legal' with 'natural' and 'illegal' with 'unnatural', even though in this case it works I think.
Best of luck for the remainder of your playthrough!
Well, this post will be short, let's face it, just 3 boss-fight is what remains.
Ok, plus getting inside Balthazar, what is a mage-battle (so dress that way), but kill the monk first (you are immun to the fighters).
But these guy despite being mage, so obviously high on intelligence don't look too clever if they bought me just for the uniform:
To add some more content here is a lategame feeling again on the spells. No details, just a list on what did worth to use through the game (usefulness of my choice is left to right from more to less):
lvl 1: bless, armor of faith
lvl 2: find traps
lvl 3: summon insect, dispel, call lightning (back in druid grove only)
lvl 4: death ward, nymph, defensive harmony
lvl 5: true sight, chaotic command, iron skins (gets very good at high level), magic resistance
lvl 6: harm, dolorous decay, conjure animals, wondrous recall
lvl 7: summon greater elemental, summon deva, storm of vengeance, aura of flaming death, nature's beauty (does not go through magic resistance, unfortunately)
honorable mention of The Most Useless Spell: mass rise death (not work in Saradush to resurrect the kid's dad)
Balthazar is straight-out melee, except one thing: he has some stupid kai-move what 1HKO you. To counter this not just cast Iron Skin, but also Death Ward. Have True Sight running too, as Balthi likes to go invisible, and that is annoying. Shall I mention: have summons?
The Last Challenge is again straight melee, although if you like to reload a lot, you might Harm it if you run out of ideas.
EDIT: to do this here is the exact method, as there are some not-so-obvious difficulties. Also I got very frustrated as my best was to pull it to Near death only, and a hugh luck is involved on who gets dominated, attacked, slept, pushed, stunned, so I just went "druid way". First: there seems to be some "cut duration" when you enter here, so do not pre-cast too many things, just a berserk. Then summon Sunnis, the Earth Elemental Prince, because he is immun to the swords, and through its skins Ravager can't cause harm either. Place him just ahead where you'll appear. Save. Eneter and run around it until you are sure all bone blade is on him, not you. Cast Harm. Try to hit Ravager. Profit.
Melissan ... is a mere formality. Store 4 Harm to kill each form of her, and finish the final form with the Ring of Ram.
The seals... You can deal with, and summon whatever you have on the Fallen Solar seal. No tricks, no Storm of Vengeance, just straight out bashing heads. You have stuff to cast Improved Speed (Ring of Kangaxx, Cheeta Amulet etc.), use them. Regular speed potions for the other seals.
Oh, and the ending of my choice? Hey, if I become a god, I must give up the druid's middle way! (Why are there no neutral gods?) Not to mention how would I pass the Archdruid Initiation promised if I leave the mortal world?
The guy also not sells the best STR-potion, just some 23-ones.
But if you want completionist: if someone would ever pass with a pure-class druid (all respect for the person), there is the militia-quest where you can aquire the Shakti Fignurine.
and if'd be with a party, or something very different, those quests of course do offer interesting things aside exp and reputation.
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Playthrough:
When entering the giants' lair I jumped into AC-stuff (scimitar, shield, baldur's helm etc.), put up skins - and became invisible. Started in a side-room, and it worked.
Strange Facts:
- Adamantite Golem does not count as Giant.
- resistances are capped at 127%
- did you know Burning Man cast Fear?
In the first sideroom to the right I had to summon up everything I had memorised (don't think much, just a sim, an elemental and a deva and a storm - i don't like to sleep), and aganst the final adamantite golem I could stand in lava to heal back faster than it could damage me.
Oposite site with trolls the AC-gear worked.
And again, in the inside chambers, I suffer from the "the game crashes if anyone targets you" bug
Note for Nyalee: the elementals are no use against the Swamp Things (blunt damage resistance).
Against Yaga-Shura just concentrate on him with a sim-deva-prince combo. Oh, don't forget to change your cloak to Cloak of Bravery if you have, as there are magelings here with stun+fear. To be honest I got stunned, and only the solar saved me from certain doom (the summons killed hte giants, heh).
The second challenge is nothing what you can not solve with a couple of skins, true sight, and a prince+deva combo.
After this pass the oasis invisible (Cloak of Non-Detection!), help out Saemon and the cleric.
Things like "the mayor's daughter" is just the natural things around here, so as a druid you shall not interfere.