Right, I'm officially annoyed now . Trying yet again to get a mage through in my long-life challenge, I clicked to enter the tomb at Trademeet expecting the mayor to start a conversation before I entered. He was too slow though and I got inside - into a cut-scene where I had no control, but the skeletons were eager to slaughter me.
Keen to get a bit of revenge I started up Frere my wizard slayer (dualling to druid) and tried hard to concentrate. I've also been making his life a bit safer in a few other ways, e.g. avoiding deliberate risks and buying equipment earlier even at higher prices (that's not an issue for a wizard slayer due to the few things worth buying, but even so I normally can't bring myself to throw money away like that).
Thus far his main progress has been: - throwing daggers at Shoal (level 3). - went down to the Lake area to grab Drizzt's gear. Normally I let the gnolls kill him, though there is a good argument for taking the XP on offer. This time through I lost the ability to choose thanks to an epidemic of broken weapons. Frere broke 3 scimitars of his own on a single gnoll, but still managed to kill all but 4 of them by the time Drizzt was at near death. One of those had already broken his weapon, but the other 3 all then did the same meaning they could only punch Drizzt unconscious. The reputation loss for killing him was nicely balanced by the 12k XP (level 5). - made some donations at a temple to restore reputation before going down to Nashkel to collect the ankheg armor and learn Bhaal CLW. - did the non-fighting reputation quests before buying full plate and a large +1 shield. - at High Hedge pulled the golems outside and shot them with +1 bullets before talking to Thalantyr and getting a successful result with the Antichickenator. - shot down some spider squatters before heading for the FAI. Collected an ogre's belt on the way. - at the FAI I was happy to take on Tarnesh. With sleep no longer a worry, his slower-casting horror could easily be dodged by nipping into the temple and a few thrown daggers shut his spell-casting down (he doesn't have a sequencer as back-up). Handed the belt and Landrin's goods in for rewards as well as recovering Joia's ring (hobgoblins have slow weapon speed, so can easily be meleed). - handing Tenya's bowl back was enough for level 6.
Progress has been pretty quick so far thanks to Drizzt's XP, but it's likely to be a bit slower to get up to level 7 where Frere will dual to druid.
Xandra on the other hand has proven that Elves were made for the Bane of the Wizard Slayer thanks to their innate resistance to charm. Negating the trap in the flesh golem cave was childs play while Tranzig could find no answer to her stair-running and stealth-attacks. Nimbul on the other hand was cut down by Amnian Soldiers - maybe his boots will prove to be very helpful later on. I wasnt sure about Bandit Camp but with 105/100 points in stealth i hoped that my plan would work.
However: Xandra sneaked in while swapping weapons to start leaving shadows. Once the stealth button was active again she looted the chest and immediately stealthed again before Venkt could start any talking. In the same moment she went invisible Xandra switched to the Boots of Talos to lower the incoming damage from the lightning bolt (she wanted to save the Scrolls for later). The plan worked and she sneaked out with 60 HP - job done!
P.S. I tested the strategy ten times now and it always worked. Stealth never failed and the Bots of Talos made sure she always survived the lightning bolt - nice! The Cloakwood Mines should get even more interesting!
The Machine of Lum the Mad. Cleared the level from baddies, Crom for Trolls, Yuan-ti couldn't hit me, and PfU + Mace of Distruption quickly smoked the undead.
PfM, Speed, Potion of Absorption, 2x Mind Focusing, 5x Intelligence, Blunt Girdle and BMU and I buffed AC vs. crushing to -35 and Int to 40, and went to Mind Flayer camp. Golem of doom smacked everything that moved, three mobs of Mind Flayers and Umber Hulks. Intelligence dropped once to 24, and suddenly I like smacking some Mindies. Didn't bother with the Vampiric Mind Flayers, you can just pick the oil up and quickly escape before the door closes during the cutscene.
Githyanki camp, invisibility and went to say hello for Saladrex, oh mighty statue.
PfM, PfU, invisibility, PfU and wasted the Demilich.
Didn't bother with the Githyankis, but just picked up the last oil and tinder with invisibility. The two mouses called Rock and Garock were easily stomped.
22,19,21,20,4,18 are the vital statistics after the machine upgrade and opened the way to the Final Seal.
@Harpagornis Hmm, that would be foolish, or mindless? Seven is mindless...
So, I'm at the Spirit Warrior test and had to dig up my notes on the Cavalier run, and it states, pick up scroll, scare Gibberling away and hack the Skeleton, you can beat it if your weapon doesn't break, if it breaks you're dead. So basically this is broken for LoB no-reload because there isn't any skill involved, but just roll the dice. Is there a mod that makes normal weapons unbreakable? Otherwise I can't finish Watchers Keep, nor the Ravager +6, which then means real problems with Solars.
There shouldn't really be any weapon breakage in BG2/ToB - the mechanic is restricted to BG1, unless you have some mods to change that. I made several tests before attempting the spirit warrior maze in my LoB no-reload run, and I never encountered such a problem.
Yeah it's EET, damn I sick and tired of it tbh. It goes away after these two playthroughs finish, as there's so many problems in it. I have to see if the item shattering can be disabled from EET tweaks.
Final Seal level. Picked up the three keys, nothing too hard. Couldn't find the way to change that weapon shattering in EET, so I just got on with it, and it didn't break. Spirit Seal, PfM, PfU and then PfM on Azamantes, smacked down. Mind Seal, rest, PfM, and smacked the Aurumach mob down.
Before activating the Heart Seal I went to Pocket Plane to rest and had Cespenar produce the Ravager +6. Sim PfM, Improved Invisibility, activated the seal and,
charmed the Hive Mother with Control Circlet, she's the only one you can charm. Although she's useless, she's a good tank.
Zauviir, Xai Win Toh and Huntress all vorpalled in few rounds.
Nalmissra killed by someones Deva.
And Y'tossi was the last one to fall, after he had used his last PfMW. There's the way to Demogorgon now open...
The Cloakwood nearly was the end after three Giant Spiders ambushed Xandra as they managed to web her twice (failing save vs spells) before she could break free reaching the map border with 8 HP! The only thing that let her survive this was that the spiders cause non-lethal damage and dont poison.
However: Further tests have shown that the spiders stop attacking once the MC drops unconscious at 1 HP so with good timing its still possible to escape when he or she stands up again. In worst case they know you down again - but wont kill the MC. This is funny but i never realized this one until now (Ring of Free Action!).
Cloakwood Mines and Drasus. That was painful cause going 1vs1 would have been pure suicide. Therefore Xandra killed the two guards first and then started out-of-stealth-shots on Drasus while always making sure that she could restealth immediately after attacking. This saved her life more than one time as the assassin randomly started running at some point. The only way catching him again was to rest so he stopped moving. As Drasus himself does not regenerate the hide & shoot & rest game continued for nearly one hour before victory was at hand. With the precious Boots of Speed Xandra reached a new level of power that should help against Davaeorn.
Davaeorn. Stabbed down the guard using the quick-restealth-trick and triggered the traps. Rested twice. Triggered talking and CC sequencer to quickly move out of spell area and restealthed before Davaeorn used Dimension Door on Xandra. Then it was all about waiting until guards had streamed in - at least i thought so. But no: Davaeorn used Dimension Door two more times jumping to Xandra which forced quick repositioning (thanks to the good gods that stealth was always up).
Even though the start caused some sweat the rest was all about patience. Hide & Shoot to wear down his Stoneskins and then soak away his HP slowly but surely. Too funny that all the guards around him blocked his movement so he got rooted into place until going down. Finally. Xandra quickly grabbed the loot and lured away the slime to collect another PfU (and PfF) scroll before going out again.
Once she had restealthed after talking to the slave Xandra waved a last goodbye to the Mines. In the Cloakwood two more spider groups ambushed her but this time she just outrun the web tangle!
The Cloakwood nearly was the end after three Giant Spiders ambushed Xandra as they managed to web her twice (failing save vs spells) before she could break free reaching the map border with 8 HP! The only thing that let her survive this was that the spiders cause non-lethal damage and dont poison.
Sounds like you've got some duff spiders - they've killed me often enough . I had quite a few goes at soloing a WS in SCS a year or two ago. After he died regularly from being webbed in ambushes I decided playing on Core that it's lower risk for a fighter type to go and get Spider's Bane - that's not exactly easy either, but popping in and out of the nest and running back to the edge of the map gives you a pretty good chance. I doubt that strategy would still be the best for a pure wizard slayer in LoB, though I do expect Frere to do that with the help of his druidic allies in due course ...
12 Base Thac0 5 Violet Potion 4 Weapon Specialization 2 Martyr's Morningstar 1 Helm of Balduran
3 apr
Belhifet
1130 hp + 2 hppr 25 DR -16 AC (with Improved Invisibility)
To hit roll 1 - (-16) = 17
Average hits per attack 4 / 20 = 0,2
Average damage with Martyr's Morningstar 7+2+14 = 23 (+23 +170 critical)
Average damage per 20 attacks (23+23+23+46)*0,75 + 170 = 256
Average time to kill Bel 1130/256*20 = 88 attacks / 3 apr = 29 rounds (excluding regen)
Because you'll get boxed in without invisibility potions, basically this means hit&run tactic without invisibility and then last ditch tank at some point. Might be possible who knows. But this would also require that Red potion was also allowed, because getting there and failing to learn the Enchanted Weapon would really suck.
We've talked before about the possibility of using fire shield and Otiluke's against Bel. I wonder whether that would prove far more effective than previously suggested if a Hamatula were attacking - would the fire shield not prompt its spikes into action damaging everyone nearby?
@Grond0: Nope. Barbed Defense is single-target. When you see it triggering on Belhifet, that's because Belhifet's party-unfriendly fire spell is hitting the Hamatula in question.
I didn't have the same emotional energy to help concentration this morning, but Frere has still successfully managed to dual to druid. One of the sirines at the Lighthouse came fairly close to targeting him with a charm, but he ran away just in time. With Buckley's Buckler activating regeneration he's now able to sharply reduce one of the main risks - that of running away into a travel ambush after taking damage.
He was also successful with tagging Bentan with a dart of stunning - finishing him off before he could recover by dual-wielding the poison dagger.
In accord with my general attitude this run of trying to seek revenge on the game for a bugged death, I've allowed Frere to make occasional use of a couple of engine glitches. The first is the problems the EE has with pathfinding, i.e. the tendency for icons to get hung up on obstacles. You can use that in your favor if you're facing 2 or 3 opponents by maneuvering them round until one of them gets stuck. The second is the fatal attraction that the NW corner of the map has for quite a few opponents - if you run around close to that it's not unusual to see them dive into the corner and then forget to attack you.
I've tried to leave the druid with some relatively easy XP to get going with - Korax should give him a flying start and I've just killed all the wolves except the vampiric ones in the temple area. There are also a few quest rewards waiting to be picked up.
Yeah, keep pushing your Druid @Grond0 after that hard piece of work! Xandra on the other hand has an easy time killing enemies out-of-shadows (sorry, i am still a chicken!) like the two greater Basilisks under Candlekeep that put her up to level 8. Finally. The city however was no big deal. Getting Baldurans Helm. Questing a bit while also killing the greater Basilisk in the warehouse using stealth-shots and sneaking in and out of the Iron Throne.
The Ogre Ambush was trivial thanks to 108/103 points in stealth. With DoHM she cracked the chest with another PfM scroll soaking the lightning bolt using Boots of Talos (which still put her down to 48 HP). Prat as well as the Dopplegangers were skipped like always.
Once the greater Basilisks went down Xandra sneaked out again sitting on 117 HP. With hard-hitting Slythe waiting next she decided to go for Dulags Goblet before. First she buffed up: Icingdeath + PfF to get fire immunity and Talos Boots + PfE to laugh about lightning. Then it was all about running and stealthing while negating the charm trap with her innate elven resistance. Not really hard. Then the Wardens approached...
As they instantly go hostile restealthing was no option so Xandra switched to Boots of Speed again running west through the trapped corridor triggering a Fireball that was soaked up. As Pride and Fear had spotted Xandra right at the start of the fight they tried hunting her down while Love - who used his time to buff up his protections - remained at the starting position. Perfect! Running around a corner she broke vision and restealthed waiting for Pride and Fear who got parked far away from Love.
Now the only question was: Where is Avarice? Xandra started luring Love to the stairs while always breaking vision when the ghost started casting. Slowly but surely they reached the stairs without Avarice showing up. Again: Perfect! While this part caused little sweat the rest was all about stealth-attacks. The only thing Xandra had to made sure was that Love followed upstairs which breaks his random movement so he remained at his place until vanishing into the void. With his precious Wardstone Xandra moved on.
Downstairs Xandra activated dummy two and three grabbing the wardstones and Kiels Helmet while waiting for the AoE spells to expire before activating dummy three again to quickly grab Durlags Goblet and sneak out again. Time to show Slythe that his backstabs will do nothing...
Hmm, interestingly F/C has better Thac0 than Fighter because True Seeing gives -4 against Bel with 22 Wis 30 rounds, and Bless/Aid for another -2 +2. I've been rolling F/M, F/I, C/M, C/I, F/M/C and F/C Bane on my mind and I can't choose, damn this is unbearable.
F/C will get a hellride against the Crusader Attacks @histamiini - this should get funny!
Xandra managed to beat Slythe after buffing up with DoHM and AoF for 125 HP luring the Assassin out into the city afterwards - alone. Then she soaked up three backstabs: 82 + 82 + 96 damage that were instantly negated by Durlags Goblet. With all the gunpowder gone Xandra removed his buffs with Arrow of Dispelling which left Slythe completly helpless - 21 Acid Arrows later victory was at hand...
Hmm, thinking about Weapon Proficiencies, as Single Weapon style gives crit on 19/20 that probably should be the way to go, have you tested this on Martyr's against Bel? @Harpagornis
If i remember correctly Martyrs works with 1-h-spec doubling your crit chance! Sounds great no?
F/M is the way to go as it not only gets decent hit-chance but combines this with powerful protections. Without Potions of Power or Heroism tanking will still be very tricky - especially as your HP drops near to zero with Violet Potion! One slip and you are gone!
I was also thinking about Mage DC to Fighter. On a "normal" no-reload this was insanely powerful - should work with Bane too...
Don't know about insanely powerful. A lot of the advantage came from using wands, so you're effectively accepting a permanent reduction in HPs, lower strength for most of BG1 and human limitations for some limited spell use - that probably is worth it, but it will depend how you play the game.
Yeah @Grond0 - wands were big part of the "easiness". Thats why i said "normal" no-reload. Bane is another story!
Xandra crushed the Palace Ambush with the good old "Dispel everyone and then shoot them down with Acid Arrows" strat. Thanks to Stealth she avoided the backstabbing Assassin while always keeping an eye on the casters so they wont get any chance to launch a spell on her. Liia went down pretty fast and even Belt got badly wounded before only the Mage was left. But as he had burned most of his spells before Xandra easily soaked up Magic Missilies and Acid Arrow while switching between shooting and some smacking with dual-scimitars. Shortly after the Mage died so Belt was lured away from Sarevok with still 127 HP left. Could have been worse!
Once more only Sarevok left. Will i really have to burn them down with Arrows of Detonation? We will see...
Don't know about insanely powerful. A lot of the advantage came from using wands, so you're effectively accepting a permanent reduction in HPs, lower strength for most of BG1 and human limitations for some limited spell use - that probably is worth it, but it will depend how you play the game.
I have played a mage dual to fighter at level 3.
I agere that the main advantage is access to wands - they rule BG1. But I still found the build powerfull. Great resitances granted by scrolls...
The HP loss can be mitigated by finding a familiar, and strength can be boosted by casting strength (the level 2 spell) or from a potion.
No potions if affected by the Bane of the Wizardslayer .
Best of luck with your Natural character @histamiini. Why did you go with lawful neutral for her - I would have thought with scimitar proficiency you'd want to be able to use Twinkle?
Comments
Keen to get a bit of revenge I started up Frere my wizard slayer (dualling to druid) and tried hard to concentrate. I've also been making his life a bit safer in a few other ways, e.g. avoiding deliberate risks and buying equipment earlier even at higher prices (that's not an issue for a wizard slayer due to the few things worth buying, but even so I normally can't bring myself to throw money away like that).
Thus far his main progress has been:
- throwing daggers at Shoal (level 3).
- went down to the Lake area to grab Drizzt's gear. Normally I let the gnolls kill him, though there is a good argument for taking the XP on offer. This time through I lost the ability to choose thanks to an epidemic of broken weapons. Frere broke 3 scimitars of his own on a single gnoll, but still managed to kill all but 4 of them by the time Drizzt was at near death. One of those had already broken his weapon, but the other 3 all then did the same meaning they could only punch Drizzt unconscious. The reputation loss for killing him was nicely balanced by the 12k XP (level 5).
- made some donations at a temple to restore reputation before going down to Nashkel to collect the ankheg armor and learn Bhaal CLW.
- did the non-fighting reputation quests before buying full plate and a large +1 shield.
- at High Hedge pulled the golems outside and shot them with +1 bullets before talking to Thalantyr and getting a successful result with the Antichickenator.
- shot down some spider squatters before heading for the FAI. Collected an ogre's belt on the way.
- at the FAI I was happy to take on Tarnesh. With sleep no longer a worry, his slower-casting horror could easily be dodged by nipping into the temple and a few thrown daggers shut his spell-casting down (he doesn't have a sequencer as back-up). Handed the belt and Landrin's goods in for rewards as well as recovering Joia's ring (hobgoblins have slow weapon speed, so can easily be meleed).
- handing Tenya's bowl back was enough for level 6.
Progress has been pretty quick so far thanks to Drizzt's XP, but it's likely to be a bit slower to get up to level 7 where Frere will dual to druid.
Xandra on the other hand has proven that Elves were made for the Bane of the Wizard Slayer thanks to their innate resistance to charm. Negating the trap in the flesh golem cave was childs play while Tranzig could find no answer to her stair-running and stealth-attacks. Nimbul on the other hand was cut down by Amnian Soldiers - maybe his boots will prove to be very helpful later on. I wasnt sure about Bandit Camp but with 105/100 points in stealth i hoped that my plan would work.
However: Xandra sneaked in while swapping weapons to start leaving shadows. Once the stealth button was active again she looted the chest and immediately stealthed again before Venkt could start any talking. In the same moment she went invisible Xandra switched to the Boots of Talos to lower the incoming damage from the lightning bolt (she wanted to save the Scrolls for later). The plan worked and she sneaked out with 60 HP - job done!
P.S. I tested the strategy ten times now and it always worked. Stealth never failed and the Bots of Talos made sure she always survived the lightning bolt - nice! The Cloakwood Mines should get even more interesting!
PfM, Speed, Potion of Absorption, 2x Mind Focusing, 5x Intelligence, Blunt Girdle and BMU and I buffed AC vs. crushing to -35 and Int to 40, and went to Mind Flayer camp. Golem of doom smacked everything that moved, three mobs of Mind Flayers and Umber Hulks. Intelligence dropped once to 24, and suddenly I like smacking some Mindies.
Githyanki camp, invisibility and went to say hello for Saladrex, oh mighty statue.
PfM, PfU, invisibility, PfU and wasted the Demilich.
Didn't bother with the Githyankis, but just picked up the last oil and tinder with invisibility. The two mouses called Rock and Garock were easily stomped.
22,19,21,20,4,18 are the vital statistics after the machine upgrade and opened the way to the Final Seal.
@Harpagornis Hmm, that would be foolish, or mindless? Seven is mindless...
Before activating the Heart Seal I went to Pocket Plane to rest and had Cespenar produce the Ravager +6. Sim PfM, Improved Invisibility, activated the seal and,
charmed the Hive Mother with Control Circlet, she's the only one you can charm. Although she's useless, she's a good tank.
Zauviir, Xai Win Toh and Huntress all vorpalled in few rounds.
Nalmissra killed by someones Deva.
And Y'tossi was the last one to fall, after he had used his last PfMW. There's the way to Demogorgon now open...
However: Further tests have shown that the spiders stop attacking once the MC drops unconscious at 1 HP so with good timing its still possible to escape when he or she stands up again. In worst case they know you down again - but wont kill the MC. This is funny but i never realized this one until now (Ring of Free Action!).
Cloakwood Mines and Drasus. That was painful cause going 1vs1 would have been pure suicide. Therefore Xandra killed the two guards first and then started out-of-stealth-shots on Drasus while always making sure that she could restealth immediately after attacking. This saved her life more than one time as the assassin randomly started running at some point. The only way catching him again was to rest so he stopped moving. As Drasus himself does not regenerate the hide & shoot & rest game continued for nearly one hour before victory was at hand. With the precious Boots of Speed Xandra reached a new level of power that should help against Davaeorn.
Davaeorn. Stabbed down the guard using the quick-restealth-trick and triggered the traps. Rested twice. Triggered talking and CC sequencer to quickly move out of spell area and restealthed before Davaeorn used Dimension Door on Xandra. Then it was all about waiting until guards had streamed in - at least i thought so. But no: Davaeorn used Dimension Door two more times jumping to Xandra which forced quick repositioning (thanks to the good gods that stealth was always up).
Even though the start caused some sweat the rest was all about patience. Hide & Shoot to wear down his Stoneskins and then soak away his HP slowly but surely. Too funny that all the guards around him blocked his movement so he got rooted into place until going down. Finally. Xandra quickly grabbed the loot and lured away the slime to collect another PfU (and PfF) scroll before going out again.
Once she had restealthed after talking to the slave Xandra waved a last goodbye to the Mines. In the Cloakwood two more spider groups ambushed her but this time she just outrun the web tangle!
The city of Baldurs Gate is waiting again...
Looks like even BG1 bosses need more weak than this... Wannabe-Demon!!!
Fighter/Illusionist
12 Base Thac0
5 Violet Potion
4 Weapon Specialization
2 Martyr's Morningstar
1 Helm of Balduran
3 apr
Belhifet
1130 hp + 2 hppr
25 DR
-16 AC (with Improved Invisibility)
To hit roll 1 - (-16) = 17
Average hits per attack 4 / 20 = 0,2
Average damage with Martyr's Morningstar 7+2+14 = 23 (+23 +170 critical)
Average damage per 20 attacks (23+23+23+46)*0,75 + 170 = 256
Average time to kill Bel 1130/256*20 = 88 attacks / 3 apr = 29 rounds (excluding regen)
Because you'll get boxed in without invisibility potions, basically this means hit&run tactic without invisibility and then last ditch tank at some point. Might be possible who knows. But this would also require that Red potion was also allowed, because getting there and failing to learn the Enchanted Weapon would really suck.
He was also successful with tagging Bentan with a dart of stunning - finishing him off before he could recover by dual-wielding the poison dagger.
In accord with my general attitude this run of trying to seek revenge on the game for a bugged death, I've allowed Frere to make occasional use of a couple of engine glitches. The first is the problems the EE has with pathfinding, i.e. the tendency for icons to get hung up on obstacles. You can use that in your favor if you're facing 2 or 3 opponents by maneuvering them round until one of them gets stuck. The second is the fatal attraction that the NW corner of the map has for quite a few opponents - if you run around close to that it's not unusual to see them dive into the corner and then forget to attack you.
I've tried to leave the druid with some relatively easy XP to get going with - Korax should give him a flying start and I've just killed all the wolves except the vampiric ones in the temple area. There are also a few quest rewards waiting to be picked up.
The Ogre Ambush was trivial thanks to 108/103 points in stealth. With DoHM she cracked the chest with another PfM scroll soaking the lightning bolt using Boots of Talos (which still put her down to 48 HP). Prat as well as the Dopplegangers were skipped like always.
Once the greater Basilisks went down Xandra sneaked out again sitting on 117 HP. With hard-hitting Slythe waiting next she decided to go for Dulags Goblet before. First she buffed up: Icingdeath + PfF to get fire immunity and Talos Boots + PfE to laugh about lightning. Then it was all about running and stealthing while negating the charm trap with her innate elven resistance. Not really hard. Then the Wardens approached...
As they instantly go hostile restealthing was no option so Xandra switched to Boots of Speed again running west through the trapped corridor triggering a Fireball that was soaked up. As Pride and Fear had spotted Xandra right at the start of the fight they tried hunting her down while Love - who used his time to buff up his protections - remained at the starting position. Perfect! Running around a corner she broke vision and restealthed waiting for Pride and Fear who got parked far away from Love.
Now the only question was: Where is Avarice? Xandra started luring Love to the stairs while always breaking vision when the ghost started casting. Slowly but surely they reached the stairs without Avarice showing up. Again: Perfect! While this part caused little sweat the rest was all about stealth-attacks. The only thing Xandra had to made sure was that Love followed upstairs which breaks his random movement so he remained at his place until vanishing into the void. With his precious Wardstone Xandra moved on.
Downstairs Xandra activated dummy two and three grabbing the wardstones and Kiels Helmet while waiting for the AoE spells to expire before activating dummy three again to quickly grab Durlags Goblet and sneak out again. Time to show Slythe that his backstabs will do nothing...
Xandra managed to beat Slythe after buffing up with DoHM and AoF for 125 HP luring the Assassin out into the city afterwards - alone. Then she soaked up three backstabs: 82 + 82 + 96 damage that were instantly negated by Durlags Goblet. With all the gunpowder gone Xandra removed his buffs with Arrow of Dispelling which left Slythe completly helpless - 21 Acid Arrows later victory was at hand...
Time for the Palace Ambush!
F/M is the way to go as it not only gets decent hit-chance but combines this with powerful protections. Without Potions of Power or Heroism tanking will still be very tricky - especially as your HP drops near to zero with Violet Potion! One slip and you are gone!
I was also thinking about Mage DC to Fighter. On a "normal" no-reload this was insanely powerful - should work with Bane too...
Scimitar **
Longbow **
followed by
Single-Weapon Style *
Flail **
Xandra crushed the Palace Ambush with the good old "Dispel everyone and then shoot them down with Acid Arrows" strat. Thanks to Stealth she avoided the backstabbing Assassin while always keeping an eye on the casters so they wont get any chance to launch a spell on her. Liia went down pretty fast and even Belt got badly wounded before only the Mage was left. But as he had burned most of his spells before Xandra easily soaked up Magic Missilies and Acid Arrow while switching between shooting and some smacking with dual-scimitars. Shortly after the Mage died so Belt was lured away from Sarevok with still 127 HP left. Could have been worse!
Once more only Sarevok left. Will i really have to burn them down with Arrows of Detonation? We will see...
I agere that the main advantage is access to wands - they rule BG1. But I still found the build powerfull. Great resitances granted by scrolls...
The HP loss can be mitigated by finding a familiar, and strength can be boosted by casting strength (the level 2 spell) or from a potion.
Best of luck with your Natural character @histamiini. Why did you go with lawful neutral for her - I would have thought with scimitar proficiency you'd want to be able to use Twinkle?