Making Wilson viable

abacus

I'm considering taking Wilson along for a prolonged period of time, and was just wondering if anyone had any tips for ways to make him survive long enough to weigh in?

Assume I'll have a full suite of spells at my disposal (arcane, cleric and druid).

There are the obvious things like Improved Haste and Chaotic Commands that you'd put on any warrior, so we can skip past those.

I'm guessing improving AC will be a priority, so things like Barkskin? Spirit Armour?

Are there *any* items which he can use? Or mods which provide similar?

What "range" do his paws have? Can I park him behind a tank like a two-hander glass-cannon?

SionIV

You can help Wilson out, but anything you throw on him could be thrown on someone else and get better results. If you do want to play with the super awesome bear, then at least Improved Invisibility is a must for that additional AC, saving throws and can't be targeted by spells. One

abacus

SionIV said:

You can help Wilson out, but anything you throw on him could be thrown on someone else and get better results.

Agreed, but I've done that already!

JuliusBorisov

Have you read @elminster 's guide on Wilson:

"He doesn't have great dexterity and to be honest since he can't equip any items (including a helmet) it is a big problem. Any spell you can cast on him to improve his armor class or decrease the likelihood of him being hurt is recommended. Mage spells like Protection from Evil, Improved Invisibility (level 4), Spirit Armor (level 4), Protection from Magical Energy (level 6), and Protection From the Elements (level 7) are recommended. Cleric spells like Defensive Harmony (level 4), Protection from Evil 10' Radius (level 4), Magic Resistance (level 5) and Regeneration (level 7) will help. Remember that the Protection from Evil 10' Radius spell will last longer than the level 1 mage spell.

He's got a lot of health that can make up for damage to a degree but his AC is such that he's going to be taking a lot of pounding. He also has natural regeneration but even at higher levels its too slow to make much if any difference in battle. His other stats (like his Thac0) eventually will become really good. In fact at level 40 Wilson has -13 Thac0 with both his paw attacks (or -15 with his enrage active). In my experience regardless of his level you'll be hard pressed to find an enemy he can't consistently hit. It'll take him some time to get the attacks per round of a warrior wielding a speed weapon but he makes up for that with the immunities his rage grants him. Basically its really just his defensibility that is the problem.

Defensibility also just happens to be a huge problem for him especially when you are fighting Vampires and Mind Flayers. Wilson gets his abilities based on his level, so anything that reduces his level can significantly harm his effectiveness (especially if he gets hit multiple times by a Vampire). Also its worth noting that his rage (unlike say Korgan's or Minsc's) will not protect against level drain.

He also only has 4 intelligence, meaning that a single hit from a Mind Flayer (remember that Mind Flayers get 5 attacks per round) will kill him and there is nothing you can do to prevent that.

If you are going to use Wilson don't necessarily use him against the enemies best fighters. Use him perhaps as you would a pure Kensai.* Hit and run attacks, or even just sending him against enemy spellcasters, might be a better strategy than using him as your typical armoured up fighter. Particularly in Throne of Bhaal you are really going to have to strategise around him because as I stated earlier he is very susceptable to being hit. Thankfully however he can use healing potions.

One other strategy to use with him is to use him to distract enemies while you pummel them with spells and ranged weapons. Wilson moves fast, very fast in fact. So you can simply avoid an enemies attacks while keeping their interest on Wilson instead.

His attacks each round work similarly to how attacks per round normally work except his stronger attack is treated like its an offhand weapon (in the sense that regardless of his total attacks per round he only gets one 1d10 bite attack [piercing] each round). The rest of his attacks will be paw attacks that can do 1d6 damage (slashing). The paw attacks have an additional chance of doing extra damage. As he levels up he will also gain up to grand mastery for his attacks (meaning extra damage and a thac0 boost), attacks per round will go up to 5 (10 with either improved haste or either of the whirlwind abilities), and he will gain additional damage thanks to strength increases.

Finally he gets a similar ability to Berserkers. Once a day (and more often as you level up) you can activate his Enrage ability so that he receives a -2 bonus to his THAC0, a +2 bonus to damage, and a -2 bonus to his Armor Class. The enrage also grants immunity to charm, fear, confusion, feeblemind, hold, stun, and sleep for 1 turn (a few of these aren't mentioned in the kit description but if you look into the game files they are actually in effect with the rage). I would highly recommend you take advantage of this ability because it will help him a fair bit.

You can view his classes level progression bonuses by going into his character record screen and clicking "Kit Description".

Wilson also gets access to higher level abilities. Of these Whirlwind, Greater Whirlwind, Hardiness, and Resist Magic are probably going to be the most worthwhile. Critical Strike can also be good particularly when its combined with Improved Haste because it effectively grants the user the ability to always hit for the next round, however Wilson's Thac0 is typically so low by the point you get it that it may not be needed. He also gets the ability "Tracking" just like Rangers. Just like with the case of Ranger's its still largely useless."

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=195278341#

abacus

I'd forgotten about that excellent guide!

Arunsun

Wilson is quite good and has a DPS higher than most warriors past a certain point. To make him more resilient to damage, well his AC sucks and cannot be brought to decent levels, and of course he will not get any physical resistance except Hardiness. He's got a lot of HP though, and the best way I could find to make him survive properly is to summon allies who will take aggro, and go melee with Wilson just after. His amount of HP allows him to survive AoE (and you can buff anyone fairly easily and well against AoE), his rage does very well against disablers, really the only thing he tends to suffer is enemy aggro (though he can handle an enemy or two).
I made an Avenger/ Neera/ Wilson playthrough ( just because I found it really interesting roleplay-wise, given how found of nature Neera is, to romance her with a druid, and have Wilson as some sort of pet) and I quickly noticed that Wilson's best friend was Sword of the Mordenkainen

abacus

@Arunsun Yeah, I was looking at a Druid too... I like the animal companion angle!

Not sure about the rest of the party yet, might just roll with it and see what feels right.

So, overall, making him harder to hit is priority one, plus whatever immunities/resistances you can drop on top.

Probably an actual use for the spell Magic Resistance!

[Deleted User]

One of the things I noticed when I did a Kensai->Druid playthrough is that Barkskin provides a pretty good AC reduction at higher caster levels, and you don't have anything better to do with your level 2 spells anyway. It's not as long lasting a solution as Spirit Armor, but can free up more slots for Improved Invisibility on your mage.

DragonKing

Have you tried positive reinforcement? Encouraging him to try harder and rewarding him for doing a good job actually works wonders in the long run. Explain to him the sacrifices he makes are for the good of mankond, remember the native Americans use every part of the animal and give thanks for their sacrifice.

Grum

(1) Keep him in the back of the party. His increased movement speed will be slowed down as he runs into allies. This will keep him from rushing into combat first (I use this when using Raasad)

(2) Improved invisiblity, barkskin (there should be a druid nearby for a Wilson playthrough, right?)

(3) Have a dedicated front line to face the enemy. Minsc and Jaheira (stoneskin!) are good front line fighters. Wilson comes in after them to do damage without taking damage.

A good Wilson party could be...

(1) Minsc (front line)
(2) Jahiera (front line)
(3) Cernd (Wis 18 pure druid, you will never run out of barksin for Wilson. Plus he can stoneskin-shapeshift to melee if need be)
(4) Imoen (all the thief skills you need with mage levels to give him plenty of improved invisibility)
(5) Wilson
(6) Charname (I'd go either berserker->druid or archer...this keeps the theme and either gives you another stoneskinned front liner, or a second ranged damage dealer. Archer+Called Shot+Improved Haste=fun.)