Anhkeg tip - I never knew!

dreamrider

Hey! Anhkegs are subject to Sleep!

Who knew?!
My hunting profits just went wa-a-ay up!

the_spyder

Yep, they are less than 5HD. So that works. Farm away.

Another tip is to cast pro from pet and go basilisk hunting. Just don't jack up so high that the rest of the game isn't a challenge. That's no fun either.

SCARY_WIZARD

the_spyder said:

Yep, they are less than 5HD. So that works. Farm away.

Another tip is to cast pro from pet and go basilisk hunting. Just don't jack up so high that the rest of the game isn't a challenge. That's no fun either.

Do the second one with a smaller party! More experience per character.

dreamrider

the_spyder said:

Yep, they are less than 5HD. So that works. Farm away.

Another tip is to cast pro from pet and go basilisk hunting. Just don't jack up so high that the rest of the game isn't a challenge. That's no fun either.

Unfortunately, AFAIK there is no area where basilisks re-spawn. Otherwise it would be great for pumping Imoen back after dualing.

the_spyder

SCARY_WIZARD said:

the_spyder said:

Yep, they are less than 5HD. So that works. Farm away.

Another tip is to cast pro from pet and go basilisk hunting. Just don't jack up so high that the rest of the game isn't a challenge. That's no fun either.

Do the second one with a smaller party! More experience per character.

Yep, it's a finite resource so definitely go with smaller group. Just did that with Charname wizard and Kagain. That was fun.

Gallowglass

Well, basilisks don't respawn on the main basilisk map (AR3500), BUT there are a couple of transition-ambush mini-maps (AR5600 and AR5601) which sometimes (randomly) spawn basilisks. Go in and out from the normal basilisk map (to neighbouring areas) a few times, and you'll get a couple of ambushes with a chance of spawning basilisks.

dreamrider

Oh great! Ambush basilisks.

Um. They are dead pussycats if you have time or even an extreme range brief glimpse to prepare.

Deadly if they are suddenly upon you, especially in A PLACE WHERE THE SURVIVORS CANNOT RETURN TO UNSTONE ANY VICTIMS!!

I think I will hunt for easy XP elsewhere, thanks. :-}

Wowo

the_spyder said:

Yep, they are less than 5HD. So that works. Farm away.

Another tip is to cast pro from pet and go basilisk hunting. Just don't jack up so high that the rest of the game isn't a challenge. That's no fun either.

Korax and your protagonist is enough to clear every basilisk at level 1 with any missile weapon in vanilla bgee.

Mutamin can be tricky but if you have any method to stealth then Korax can paralyse him before he gets out of hand. Otherwise just duck forward and back until you target him with Korax.

SCS is a little trickier but still doable with some luck or precision.

meagloth

Yeah, I flipped my sh** when I found this out. They drop so much XP I just assumed it would work.
Also, you can farm basilisks by traveling, but this is time consuming and dangerous; you can have protection from petrification in an ambush so it's A lot riskier.

JuliusBorisov

I have to note that the Sleep spell/wand has a save against it. So if you're playing a no-reload game, it maybe not the best idea to go Anhkeg hunting basing your adventure on the Sleep spell/wand when you have little HP.

Anhkegs hit heavily + they have their own additional attack based on not save againt poison that can easily one-shot a character will little HP. I had several games where this danger ended my runs.

dreamrider

Given that there is one suit of anhkeg armor available for free, I don't usually go hunting until a bit later.

I'm mainly looking at ways in my current game:
a) to accumulate money before finishing Ch 3, to allow Imoen and Neera to get those Archmagi Robes before things get really interesting in the later chapters, and
b) pump XP for Imoen, perhaps with a temp reduced party. I elected to dual her at L7 this playthrough, for the canon skills split, but I really want her shooting skills back since this is a shooting based party.

elminster

Sleep will work on black talon elites, bandits, ankhegs, giant spiders, huge spiders, gibberlings, xvarts, wolves, dire wolves, black bears, gnolls, gnoll elite, gnoll veterans, flind, hobgoblin, hobgoblin elite, chill hobgoblin, half-ogre, ogre, ogre berserker, ogrillion, tasloi, kobold, and kobold commando (as well as probably a few I've missed but this gives you a general idea of its effectiveness).

elminster

bengoshi said:

I have to note that the Sleep spell/wand has a save against it. So if you're playing a no-reload game, it maybe not the best idea to go Anhkeg hunting basing your adventure on the Sleep spell/wand when you have little HP.

Anhkegs hit heavily + they have their own additional attack based on not save againt poison that can easily one-shot a character will little HP. I had several games where this danger ended my runs.

Ankheg's have an 80% chance of failing the save against a Sleep spell. Its 65% in the case of the wand. Hunting them is certainly risky at low level but if you do it intelligently the odds are still in your favour.

Lemernis

I never realized. Thanks for sharing, great to know!

Lemernis

I guess Color Spray should work as well?

JuliusBorisov

elminster said:

Ankheg's have an 80% chance of failing the save against a Sleep spell. Its 65% in the case of the wand. Hunting them is certainly risky at low level but if you do it intelligently the odds are still in your favour.

When I play a no-reload run, I always follow this rule: even if there's a slight (i.e. even 1% chance) of getting killed in a matter of a second, I simply can't risk it. Sometimes, even one failed save against anything (in this case, against Ankheg's additional damage) is enough to end a low-level character with little HP.

Ankheg's damage: (3-18 : crush + 1-4 : acid) + special: Squirt Acid (8d4 failing save vs. Poison) = maximum 54 points of damage. So I usually try to skip Ankhegs till reaching at least 50 HP.

elminster

It will but isn't Colour Spray not party friendly? (I seem to have that impression anyways). So unless you are an invoker I wouldn't normally bother with it. It also doesn't have any kind of save penalty so its as effective as using a sleep wand anyways.

Lemernis

elminster said:

It will but isn't Colour Spray not party friendly? (I seem to have that impression anyways). So unless you are an invoker I wouldn't normally bother with it. It also doesn't have any kind of save penalty so its as effective as using a sleep wand anyways.

Yeah, Sleep is clearly the easier spell to use versus Color Spray, as the latter affects friends as well as foes and the former just enemies. Color Spray is useful for a Fighter/Mage who is taking point in the combat formation. Or if you don't mind living a little dangerously, you can have a mage positioned next to but just behind an armored meleer and have the meleer step back when the mage casts the spell.

Color Spray has a neat animation, it's fun to watch. But Sleep affects monsters with HD 4+3 or less whereas Color Spray affects on 4 HD or less. So Sleep is the superior spell.

Paladin

I like the idea of doing a solo run with a Fighter/Mage. How does one build such a character? Wouldn't they be really squishy?

elminster

Lemernis said:

Color Spray has a neat animation, it's fun to watch. But Sleep affects monsters with HD 4+3 or less whereas Color Spray affects on 4 HD or less. So Sleep is the superior spell.

Both work on the same enemies. That whole "4+3" business isn't implemented. Sleep works on 4hd monsters or less.

dunbar

@Paladin I'm doing a F/M solo run at the moment, not a particularly spectacular stat role but I made him Con-heavy. Having proficiency in sling helps a lot, as does the ability to self-buff with haste, blur and mirror-image. Traps still hurt though.

Lemernis

@elminster Ah, good to know. Thanks.

Lemernis

Paladin said:

I like the idea of doing a solo run with a Fighter/Mage. How does one build such a character? Wouldn't they be really squishy?

Not squishy at all if it's a multi-class. :-)

If dualed, then yeah especially in the early levels of Mage you're not going to be meleeing. Although that said, I have had single class Mages that routinely helped out warrior front-liners regularly by a quarterstaff and surprisingly almost never got injured. I was very careful about where I placed them, though.

Anyway, after a certain point the Fighter dualed to Mage (but still without Fighter skills) can use buffs as @dunbar said. But thac0 and APR are poor as a Mage--so they're just not very effective meleers. It's probably best just to have them hurl darts until they get the Fighter skills back.

the_spyder

dreamrider said:

Deadly if they are suddenly upon you, especially in A PLACE WHERE THE SURVIVORS CANNOT RETURN TO UNSTONE ANY VICTIMS!!

This is precisely why I always carry a few spare stone to flesh scrolls. Never can be too careful.

Abi_Dalzim

I must have terrible luck with this Antheg farming, because they almost always save when I try Sleeping them, to the point where I often don't bother with it.