What's your strategy of surviving the first few levels?
Ballad
Member Posts: 205
I have been playing this game for nearly two decades now, yet every time I start a new run, I am surprised how punishing the first couple of levels can be. No matter how well you play, you are essentially at the mercy of the twenty-sided dice. Going toe to toe with anything is a huge gamble - one unlucky roll and even the measliest gibberling will drop you in one hit. You barely have any equipment or spells worth mentioning, and even the best warrior has the THAC0 and APR of a blindfolded sloth. Run into something even slightly tougher and your chances of survival drop to almost zero.
Now, saving and reloading is an obvious strategy, but what if one is playing a minimal or no-reload run? I'm currently in the Nashkel mines and it seems that every second kobold encounter leaves someone in my party dead. All my gold is being spent on raising my dead comrades and the constant jog between the nearest temple and the spot where I left off is getting tedious. Have I missed something, or is there really no easier way of getting your characters through the first two levels?
Now, saving and reloading is an obvious strategy, but what if one is playing a minimal or no-reload run? I'm currently in the Nashkel mines and it seems that every second kobold encounter leaves someone in my party dead. All my gold is being spent on raising my dead comrades and the constant jog between the nearest temple and the spot where I left off is getting tedious. Have I missed something, or is there really no easier way of getting your characters through the first two levels?
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Comments
Just remember to not let Korax get any of the killing blows (easy for him to do once he has paralysed a basilisk). you want all of the sweet sweet XP.
Scout and don't charge blindly on. Find equipment that will help you (its all there before entering the mines)
Spells like sleep and spook are much more powerful than magic missile and chromatic orb.
Oh and characters of low level that can't wear helmets, should avoid close combat.
-Until I hit level 4, I usually travel in a small party, that is 4 people max (me and 3 npcs).
-Ranged combat is safer than melee so equip everyone in your party with bows, xbows. slings, darts etc.
-Don't mind using scrolls, wands, potions etc as much as you can during those early levels. Later on you will have too much to make use any way. So no point saving them for later chapters. And wands can be always recharged (just remember not to use last charge).
-Bassilliks are a great source of easy XP. You can level up quite fast there. Just remember to use the protection.
-Good early level spells that disable monsters: Sleep, blindness, color spray, spook
As for Early caster mobs, either have a member of the party who can control them(blindness, hold person, silence, command, etc), or avoid them until later when you can deal with them more swiftly. Make use of sleep if you can as well, try to save up the gold to purchase a wand of sleep early at High Hedge. It makes many of the large tougher group of mobs much easier to deal with.
Use Bows + Magic Missle
If stuck later in the game
Fireball everything
Hobgobelins surrounding the Friendly arm are a good start.
After clearing the mines, I decided to go Ankheg culling for some more sweet XP. Ankhegs can hit for as high as 30hp total with their acid damage proc but they're pretty slow. I found out that Branwen's Animate Dead works beautifully against these creatures. Just let the skeleton warriors engage while the rest of your party peppers them with arrows and slingstones. After some lounging around the cave entrance, my party had gotten up to level 5 overall, enough for Imoen to regain her thief levels (I had her dualled at level 4).
Wow that's a lot of Ankegs!
Go to High Hedge and buy the wand of sleep. Anybody can use the wand, and Ankhegs are suceptible to sleep. Head to the Ankheg hive and use the wand to murder all the Ankhegs (use the tight corners to break line of sight and if they save in order to avoid their ranged attacks).
Once you finish this process, go recruit the characters you actually want to use, and they'll be near max level.
So bows and missile weapons are a must to be safe - arm everyone with them as soon as possible.
Spells that prove useful if you just have Jaheria - is "entangle" - just tie up all your foes and safely hit them with missile weapons.
As for melee - try to do it as little as possible -without a good AC (of 0 or better) its going to be painful. Unless you are facing some small fry monsters (1 or 2 gibberings but they can be painful if there are a lot of them).
Now if you have a mage with you (expanding your party to 5 or 6) then spell options increase your survival rate dramatically - e.g. sleep does wonders at these levels, also grease - basically AOE spells that can at least temporarily disable monsters are good and the first levels scrolls are mostly easy to find.
Facing real challenges like an ogre... well even in a party of 6 facing it is dangerous (6 vs 1) - hit and run, and use a decoy. And make sure you do not open the entire shadowed area so the ogres friends can join - take them down one by one if possible (sure its a cheat of sorts but its survival as well).
Talking your way out works as well - never think that bashing is your only option.
RUN ! If all else fails... RUN!
Xzar and Montaron
Kill the Mage before Friendly Arm (only real danger)
Invite the Grumpy and the Stupid Halfelf , lighten everyone of their potions, and remove them.
Avoid everything towards bergeost.
Talk Down marl, bring the beardy his Book
and as a Fresh lvl 2 i go Basilisk hunting , Korax stuns them so they are dirt easy to Hit. 1700 xp for the small Ones and 7 k for the big ones , just avoid the adventurer group.
grab a stone to flesh at the temple for 300 extra xp and a rep point.
without haste and not knowing the map ( so slowly crawling forward) i made 27k xp before korax though im yummy.
that bumbs you to lvl ~4 and out the Get hit and drop dead Zone.
Disney Worldthe bandit camp, I like to take Kivan along as well. Anyone who can use some kind of ranged attack does, until somebody can at least handle a couple of wolves for a few rounds.I like to put off the Nashkel Mines and goof off in the wilderness for as long as possible, just because it's fun to do. Many of the quests one finds in the early towns provide quick and easy experience as well. Until I've gained a level or two, though, I stay alive mainly by avoiding melee combat with anything and going through a lot of arrows.
There's another trick I recommend: the first level mage spell Sleep. It is ridiculously effective against low level enemies. At higher levels, of course, it becomes useless, so it's nice to take advantage of it here, so early in the game.
I've gone straight to the basilisks before as has been suggested, but for some reason I find that first, immense, slow but steady climb from level one to level two to be strangely satisfying and I find myself reluctant to rush it.
Also as noted above, there are some easy XP to be gained early in non-combat quests, especially talking down Marl when you know the routine. I make sure to do everything I can in Candlekeep, then pick up some easy quests in Beregost. Joia's ring is also fairly easy - but does involve combat with foes slightly more dangerous than gibberlings.
Beregost supports a lot of small doses of cheap xp when Imoen goes on a lock-picking spree. This is a new feature for the enhanced editions, but make the most of it! Ideally before growing your party if you are trying to boost the early xp.
If playing no-reload, be sure to make good use of all of those potions you pick up. When playing with quick save, the feeling of peril is somehow lacking, and most potions are seen as an alternative income source. Playing no/minimal reload, you really appreciate the importance of a healing potion, which at low levels is as good as a total heal!
I tend to pool my money and buy items that will have a pronounced impact on the party, but make sure to pick up the free kit that is just lying around. There is a +1 ring of protection on the second map out of Candlekeep, a ring of Wizardly near the Friendly arm inn, and a handy suit of armor concealed around Nashkel (the latter is the only one I did not find for myself). For the Enhanced Edition, a magic mace, the Stupefier, was added in Beregost as well.
In many cases, you can arrange a party-on-one combat that leans heavily in your favor. For example, Silke can be a dangerous opponent at low level, especially if she gets off her lightning bolt. However, you get time to position your party before the fight starts, so make sure you are spread out, and that she is taking damage too regularly to cast spells without disruption - she goes down quickly and is worth a reasonable xp boost.
Generally, unless playing a multi-class character, I want my main PC to be 3rd level before heading down the Nashkell mines, just so that I don't need to worry too much about kobold archers getting lucky. I certainly don't want any other party members to be stuck at 1st either, although will risk them at 2nd.
Before you know it, the party is 3rd level, you are dreaming up new abilities, and the game kicks up a gear where you can enjoy cruising around more of the maps, rather than agonizing over and micromanaging every encounter. But those early levels are, in some ways, the most fun part of the game.
Command is a godlike ability that puts an end to any single enemy that's below level 5. If your protagonist is a cleric you can have up to 3 per rest, which is enough to incap multiple maps worth of difficult foes. If you don't feel liking kiting an ogre you can easily kill it in one round with command, with no saving throw. I mostly use it for archers, though because they're the most dangerous foes at level 1. It's great for mages as well but most mages seem to be above level 5. It's particularly amazing against clerics since makes it easy to interrupt their spells (you autohit while they're down, the command itself doesn't stop the spellcast, only delay it) as well as land damage.
When put in a difficult position where you can't avoid taking damage with someone, remember that in unmodded BG you cannot be one shot unless you have at least 15 max hp. You will automatically resist enough damage to take you to 1 hit point if you had full hp before the attack lands. There's no meaningful difference between having 4 max hp and 10 when fighting an ogre on insane difficulty (actually there is, cure light wounds heals 8 damage so the 10 hp character will need 2 heals per hit to avoid death), and a rogue with 18 hp is actually in more danger than they were with 12 because a lucky crit from anything that's reasonably strong can kill them. I was recently crit for 48 damage by an ogre berserker on insane, so on insane having low max hp can actually be extremely good for your health.
You can use this knowledge to spread your damage out and ensure that a lucky hit cannot kill you.
Kobold commandos and other enemies with elemental attacks can 1 shot you, of course (physical damage drops you below full, then the elemental damage kills you). Kobold commandos are the most sadistic creature ever invented.
If you find yourself facing off against an overwhelmingly powerful opponent for whom kiting isn't an option and command is ineffective (undead) doom can be a lifesaver. a doom+protection from evil combination on your tank could make the difference between the enemy hitting on a 16, or only on a 20, cutting damage taken to 1/5th of its original value.
And supposing you were to find a protection from evil scroll on the long dead corpse of a nearby enemy only after you and your friend die several times to a vengeful spirit and finally defeat it through shear grit and determination? Don't mention it to him, it will bring only pain.
Might as well use story mode though imo.
With a no reload game you might as well rest a lot if you wanna keep those health bars full and spam the few spells you have available.
You'll just need a little bit of timing to shoot everytime she starts to cast. As a bard she don't have too much spells.
Two character can easily kill her using this method.