All Mage Party

bardez

I tried an all magic user party last year; 5 mages, and a mage/cleric. I rocked all the way through IWD up until the last boss. Not even with fighter transformation could I hope to touch him with 100% magic resistance.

Has anything changed IWD:EE? New spells or classes? Is there anything tactic that I missed in the all-mage party? Nothing I had could touch him, which isn't completely surprising, but a disappointing end to the game.

gjb

Final boss can only be hit with +3 melee weapons.

artificial_sunlight

@bardez‌ very cool that you tried an all mage party! I asume you used the different specialists.

Have you tried spamming summonings?

And there are new spells @bengoshi‌ has listed them.

In Bg2 there was a tactic with casting a magic resistance spell, that replaces the natural resistance. Not sure it works, never used it.

Fardragon

Summons don't have +3 weapons.

What is needed are +3 daggers/staves, and a bunch of Tenser's Transformations (good luck finding those).

Possibly Mind Flayer shape change would work?

kensai

Fardragon said:

Summons don't have +3 weapons.

What is needed are +3 daggers/staves, and a bunch of Tenser's Transformations (good luck finding those).

Possibly Mind Flayer shape change would work?

Or an "Enchanted weapon" spell

mrb101

Mordenkainen's Sword is a +4 weapon i believe, that might work

Wowo

Black Blade of Disasters?

JonelethIrenicus

You can try casting a clerics magic resistance on the boss or have the mages cast lower resistance and Pierce magic on the boss. Not sure if it would work. Otherwise you can use summons and morenkainens sword

wubble

now that it has been added by the enhanced edition lower resistance should sort him out

bardez

I just loaded up the save to take a look. For those interested the party was:
Jezuah the Theurge (Cleric 10/Mage 11)
Conjurer Brownbeard (13)
Galdren the Tranquil (Invoker 13)
Dreyla (Enchanter 13)
Shandera the Yellow (Transmuter 13)
Whitebeard the Blue (Invoker 13)

I *believe* that I was trying to follow canon, where the party his IWD, then HoW, then TotLM, so I only hit level 13, unable to cast level 7 spells. The mage/cleric had a +3 (Morning Star of the Gods) and one of the mages had a +3 staff (Staff of Eron). The rest had slings +0 - +2 (or +3? Edley's Sling). They could not keep up with him. The single summoned swords scroll I encountered in the game was scribed, but I never got high enough level to cast it. I had either could not hit or could not last long enough (not enough spell slots).

I had considered playing through the expansion, but then lost interest; getting to the endgame and being 100% ineffective had lost me interest. There was also the option of restarting in Heart of Fury mode to get better gear, but again; starting over because I can't hit or even level with the last boss was sort of completely demoralizing.

I might try again with EE's Dragon Disciple and a few other classes; as mentioned, lower resistance should work, but we will see.

The quest was good fun and had its ups and downs; Poqemon (sic) was quite a challenge, but I murdered him. I got to the last guy, though, and just could not touch him for crap.

DreadKhan

IWDEE added Sorcerers... very, very handy for a mage party. They save lots of scrolls, and always have your choice of spells. In an all mage party, 3 or 4 would be effective I imagine. 6 would work too, but 4 would let you have a wizard thief and wizard cleric.

Fardragon

Indeed, the difficulty with all strategies suggested above is the availability of the required scrolls (Tenser's, Shapechange*, Magic Weapon, Mordankanen's Sword, Black Blade, Lower Resistance). Sorcerers bypass that completely.

*NB, I don't know if Int draining will work, it's just an idea.

jimmysdabestcop

Would Kensai -- Mage be legal for your party? You get a couple of them.

Wowo

jimmysdabestcop said:

Would Kensai -- Mage be legal for your party? You get a couple of them.

I doubt it. Would kind of defeat the purpose.

Maple

Fardragon said:

Indeed, the difficulty with all strategies suggested above is the availability of the required scrolls (Tenser's, Shapechange*, Magic Weapon, Mordankanen's Sword, Black Blade, Lower Resistance). Sorcerers bypass that completely.

*NB, I don't know if Int draining will work, it's just an idea.

Unfortunately not. In BG2EE the "weapon" Mindflayer use is considered +2 enchanted level.

For your information:

Mindflayer +2, Giant Troll +2, Great Wolfwere +2, Fire Elemental +4, Earth Elemental +4, Water Elemental +4, Iron Golem +4,

So Conjure Fire / Water / Air / Earth Elemental, Black Blade of Disaster and Shapechange will do.

Fardragon

Wowo said:

jimmysdabestcop said:

Would Kensai -- Mage be legal for your party? You get a couple of them.

I doubt it. Would kind of defeat the purpose.

Assuming the point is to have six mages each with a different specialism, you could't duel class out of a fighter kit (or have more than one multiclassed illusionist). You could duel class INTO fighter though.

kensai

It amuses me how so many people does'nt know how amusing and useful an "Enchanted Weapon" spell can be.

Archaos

kensai said:

It amuses me how so many people does'nt know how amusing and useful an "Enchanted Weapon" spell can be.

This is how I soloed two monks in IWD2 with my pure Drow Wizard.

Invisibility, Haste, every buffing spell plus summoned weapon, Tenser's Transformation and destroyed them without any item or offensive spell.

Fardragon

kensai said:

It amuses me how so many people does'nt know how amusing and useful an "Enchanted Weapon" spell can be.

You have to be able to hit with it though. Which is why you also need Tenser's if you only have mages. Which is where the shortage of scrolls becomes a problem.