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How do you kill... (Neera's TOB Quest Spoiler)

StuperStarStuperStar Member Posts: 10
in Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
How do you guys deal with Szass Tam?? The only way I've been able to get him down is by hitting him the second before his protections go up, an then leading him into a trap. I've tried stopping time and just spamming ruby rays and then breach but I can never seem to get rid of his protections.

Comments

  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
    edited July 2014
    If you've got thief HLA traps (spiked traps especially) those will work well. Otherwise he is immune to level 5 and lower spells (including Breach). Dispel Magic and Remove Magic should still work on him (despite being a lower level than that). Honestly I just remember casting Time Stop, Improved Alacrity, and then a lot of Horrid Wiltings on him (along with casting the occasional Time Stops to keep time frozen), but its been awhile.
  • CaloNordCaloNord Member Posts: 1,809
    Trap spam + time stop + horrid wilting. :P Elminster has the nut of it as always! :D
  • OlvynChuruOlvynChuru Member Posts: 3,083
    I simply beat him in a test of endurance. Eventually he runs out of all his cheesy I am invincible spells.
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,268
    I stuck my party in a corner and soloed him with my blackguard Charname. I think the only buff I put on myself was Prot. from Fire (the mage spell) so I could resist his Comets and Dragon Breaths and the Cloak of Mirroring did the rest. The tricky part was that I had modded the Comet spell for my game which made it MUCH more powerful and made him much more dangerous. I would basically have to out endure him. Every time his Prot. from Magical Weapons wore off I would move in with Ir'Revrykal and use its 50% dispel chance to debuff him and then I would switch to the Staff of the Ram to attempt to beat him down. It was quite the test of endurance and I was came out on top eventually. I even chose to continue the fight when he offered me the chance to leave halfway through. It took a while but I eventually beat him down until he was like: "GAH! HOW ARE YOU NOT DEAD YET?!" and he sent me back to the clearing.

    Sadly the game doesn't let you actually finish off the annoying jerk...
  • TolbenTolben Member Posts: 26
    Tresset said:

    I stuck my party in a corner and soloed him with my blackguard Charname. I think the only buff I put on myself was Prot. from Fire (the mage spell) so I could resist his Comets and Dragon Breaths and the Cloak of Mirroring did the rest. The tricky part was that I had modded the Comet spell for my game which made it MUCH more powerful and made him much more dangerous. I would basically have to out endure him. Every time his Prot. from Magical Weapons wore off I would move in with Ir'Revrykal and use its 50% dispel chance to debuff him and then I would switch to the Staff of the Ram to attempt to beat him down. It was quite the test of endurance and I was came out on top eventually. I even chose to continue the fight when he offered me the chance to leave halfway through. It took a while but I eventually beat him down until he was like: "GAH! HOW ARE YOU NOT DEAD YET?!" and he sent me back to the clearing.

    Sadly the game doesn't let you actually finish off the annoying jerk...

    I did something similar, except my Blackguard had the Soul Reaver +6 from the Item Upgrade mod which was perfect against Ssazz since it dispels on hit and gives 50% magic resistance.
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    edited September 2014
    The point is, you can't actually kill Szass Tam (at least not legitimately). You're dependent upon him to teleport you back to Tethyr, so if you killed him, then you'd be stuck in Thay.

    Your objective is to beat on him until he realises that attacking you was a bad idea, whereupon he'll offer to send you home instead. There's no utility in declining his offer the first time and continuing the fight until the second time (when he teleports you compulsorily), because you don't gain any additional experience or loot, and also the game seems to be buggier that way - there's meant to be a cutscene after he sends you home, which often seems not to trigger if you continued the fight with Szass Tam longer than necessary.

    Tip: attack Szass Tam with melee and magic only, not ranged weapons. If a ranged weapon is in mid-flight when he makes his offer to send you home, then when it strikes him (half a second later) he'll resume the fight, which leads to the second (buggier) outcome. This is presumably another bug.
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