@Harpagornis Sounds fine. There's some other obscure INT buffing like some dialogue checks and Stone Ally needs 16. Those would still be fine? INT buffing against Mindies can't be removed I don't think.
@Blackraven So Flaming Fists do actually fight Ogrillons? Last time Ogrillons were on my tow, FF just interrogated me and then just left not caring about any actual monsters.
That's right - but if you don't let them talk to you and get out of their sight they will fight enemies. The difficulty is that without stealth the enemies will continue following you and thus it's far more difficult to get the Flaming Fist to try and attack them without trying to talk to you. With stealth though it's a good time saver.
My internet was down this morning, but I have made some decent progress with the latest incarnation of Wisp.
As a shadowdancer he picked up much of his XP from encounters where stealth made things much easier.
He dualled to fighter after having stealthed into Durlag's Tower and beaten all the basilisks on the roof to near death - providing him with a flying start as a fighter. Investing 2 oils of speed and a stone giant strength potion proved just enough at the basilisk area - the last basilisk dying just 2 or 3 seconds before Korax went hostile.
He still had to graft quite hard to get the final few thousand XP required, but eventually managed that. I've included a screenshot below due to its rarity (unfortunately) - 3 critical hits in a row helping a bit while shooting down a ghast. The final XP was from shooting a bear, which was slightly more difficult due to its faster speed.
He's currently chewing through the enemies around Bassilus - drawing them away one at a time. There's quite a bit of resting required due to Wisp's lack of healing. It would have been sensible to have invested a bit of resource and gone to loot the constitution tome a long time ago (allowing regeneration with Buckley's Buckler).
Strategy that works but is not optimal in any way.
1. Hit Slythe with wand of heavens. Run away and ensure he is chasing you. Park him in an end room with sandthief ring.
2. Sit and wait for Krysten's buffs to expire. Reveal yourself and trigger more buffs, lure her so you can sit in a side room with low LoS and nuke with Necklace of Missiles. Make sure not to catch the civilians in the crossfire. Should take about 20 fireballs.
3. Exhaust Slythe's potions of invisibility by tanking some backstabs with invisibility and healing. He has maybe 3?
4. Hide away, drink 2 potions of genius (for dex 25), potion of storm giant strength, potion of defense, 12 potions of heroism, potion of regeneration, blur ability.
5. Go visible and find invisible Slythe, go invisible when he attacks (edit: this is because of a final backstab), keep him in LoS or he will Stealth instantly.
6. (edit: and heal backstab damage) Drink potion of power, DuHM, frozen fist.
7. Punch him as much as you can, once health is low go invisible, drink many health pots, go back to hitting him until dead.
@alice_ashpool Good ol' hp buff to the rescue. Remember that those Heroism potions aren't infinite before Dragonspear Castle attack, so leaving bunch for at least the Coalition Battle is advisable.
Ok... so I'm having a go at the Dukes fight... which is beyond difficult.
I toned dopplegangers down to "tactical" in the SCS fine-tune menu and it still took 50 charges of a wand of heavens to kill them with LoB, with the full experience I don't know how I would do this without either charming or monster summoning.
Is there some way to stash one of the dukes somewhere?
Is there a way to lure some of the dopplegangers away and park them? I had luck luring a single one away... once.
Can I somehow trick Liia's dialogue to proc like with Neera?
edit: i managed to softlock the game by killing the doppelganger mage before it transformed.... damn, and there i was thinking I had an easy answer.
Wisp eventually finished off all of Mulahey's army. The cleric himself faced an unending series of backstabs, with Wisp's stealth never failing.
Wisp nearly died against Nimbul though when I forgot he would auto-buff - so instead of a defensive spell like mirror image he immediately used a double chromatic orb sequencer. Wisp saved against the instant death and had enough HPs to survive the damage.
After healing up at the Carnival he ventured back towards the inn and waited until Nimbul had been cut down to size by the guards before applying a finishing touch.
With the Cloakwood starting to feature in my thinking, I decided Wisp should try to get the ring of free action from Dushai to protect against spider webs. Investing 3 potions of perception and 4 of mind focusing boosted pickpocketing to 120 and that proved to be good enough.
Coming back from there Wisp was ambushed by Molkar's group. Stealth let him avoid an intended spell from Halacan and he backstabbed Molkar before allowing him to get a return attack in to satisfy honor.
There was more hiding in Beregost where Wisp tried to get Tranzig to waste all his spells. Once that was done he came in for backstabs - only to find that Tranzig was happy to release burning hands even if he couldn't see his target. Only the ring of fire resistance prevented a fatality there. Stealth attacks after that were carried out using Wisp's staff to try and avoid triggering proximity alarms.
Before going on to the Bandit Camp, there was another bit of unfinished business at the Lighthouse area. Wisp sneaked in there and looted a few things, including the constitution tome. That only provided 1 additional HP immediately, but allowed regeneration at need.
Wisp didn't bother getting an invitation to the Bandit Camp, but just sneaked in to do a bit of looting.
The ring of free action made it easy to get past the spider area in the Cloakwood, but Wisp then ran into the amazon ambush. The backstabbers there were potentially lethal so after missing an opening attack (without anyone trying to attack him), Wisp tried to run to the top of the area to drag the invisible ones with him. He had to remain visible to do that of course, but in doing so left the door open for the cleric - I was thinking that spell would be rigid thinking or confusion and intended to disappear just before it cast. Instead though, Wisp was commanded to die - and did.
Incidentally, I wondered a little while ago what the definition of being 'attacked' was in an ambush. I was assuming that required a spell to actually be launched at the PC - is that generally agreed?
@Grond0: Yeah, the spell has to be launched and hit the NPC. We could say this may also apply for pyhscial attacks which would made ambushes even more deadly in some cases. My original intention was that both sides are forced to give away some blood while the actual definition also accepts misses. Whats the opinion on this one?
- Tempus: Except for Wizard Slayers retreats from ambushes are only possible if
1. At least one enemy takes damage
2. Charname takes damage from a physical attack or gets hit by a spell/gaze
@alice_ashpool, that Ducal Palace battle is possibly the hardest part of BG1. Honestly I have no idea how it can be reliably tackled with a monk (or any single-class warrior) without charms and summons. @Grond0, I read your last report with a big smile, until I read the last bit. You did really well, and that Command is just brutal...
@Grond0: Yeah, the spell has to be launched and hit the NPC. We could say this may also apply for pyhscial attacks which would made ambushes even more deadly in some cases. My original intention was that both sides are forced to give away some blood while the actual definition also accepts misses. Whats the opinion on this one?
- Tempus: Except for Wizard Slayers retreats from ambushes are only possible if
1. At least one enemy takes damage
2. Charname takes damage from a physical attack or gets hit by a spell/gaze
This (taking damage) is what Murdo and my other characters have been doing all along. I thought absorbing an attack meant taking a physical or magical hit. So I'm fine with your change.
@alice_ashpool, that Ducal Palace battle is possibly the hardest part of BG1. Honestly I have no idea how it can be reliably tackled with a monk (or any single-class warrior) without charms and summons.
The only idea I have is that hostile-ing one of the non-doppleganger nobles in the top left room can get Belt to pursue them, which, if you're lucky might park him in the top left room where, with a bit more luck he would stay forever. With a even more luck 30 odd fireballs "could" wipe out the dopples and with a final dose of luck this wouldn't softlock the game!
Just now I was very annoyed to learn that blinding the mage before it transforms does not carry over.... feels unfair!
edit: could someone link me to a break down of the "regular" strategies for this horrible fight please, im not ready to give up yet.
edit 2: new idea: protection from fire from scroll on a few guards, then just fireball the area and hope that dopples could betaken down before the guards die... I tried this without prot from fire and it was only enough to get t the group down to "injured" before all the Flaming fists and then liia died... Interestingly nuking the battlefield from afar does not impact reputation or hostile the flaming fists.
@alice_ashpool The regular tactics in Palace Ambush have been charming the Mage, Shaman and Assassin Doppelgangers one by one with Algernon/Nymph cloak. You need to rest everytime using Algernon cloak, because it's the only way to charm them from distance. Then park them away, and start the fight with just three Greater Doppelgangers. After those are dead, CTRL-T enough time so the others transform. If you accidentally kill one of them before transformation, the game is practically over. Other known tactic is hp buff, summons and Dispel Arrows.
@alice_ashpool The regular tactics in Palace Ambush have been charming the Mage, Shaman and Assassin Doppelgangers one by one with Algernon/Nymph cloak. You need to rest everytime using Algernon cloak, because it's the only way to charm them from distance. Then park them away, and start the fight with just three Greater Doppelgangers. After those are dead, CTRL-T enough time so the others transform. If you accidentally kill one of them before transformation, the game is practically over. Other known tactic is hp buff, summons and Dispel Arrows.
I've got some ideas - i'm going to eekeeper in a stack of prot from fire scrolls and have a play around. If prot from fire scrolls can be used to get FR up to 127 then fireballs could be used to heal the flaming fists, keeping them alive... perhaps, no idea if this would work. I will report back
You can also stagger the charms so that you can tackle the doppelgangers just one at a time. Rest a couple times after you've parked them in a good place, then wait a couple minutes in between charming each one. Rest once more and after the dialog with Sarevok, they'll slowly transform one after another as the charms wear off. I used that in one or two runs and it made things very simple.
I haven't tested it, but at least in the most recent update in EE, Sarevok doesn't trigger the softlock dialogue unless both dukes are dead OR somebody attacks Sarevok himself--which can be confused Flaming Fist folks as well as allied targets. That means you may be able to make progress in the Ducal Palace fight by bombing stuff with the One Gift Lost, even if the Grand Dukes get wounded in the process or the Flaming Fist guys even die. Still, I'm not sure if Liia Jannath pre-buffs with Protection from Fire, and hitting her with two Protection from Fire scrolls would take time, so charms are generally the way to go if you have few other options.
Trip report - Dukes Ambush No Charm No Summon method
Requirements:
12 (maybe fewer) Scrolls of protection from fire. I don't know if this is attainable?
c35 OGL charges
1-2 Invisibility charges/potions
1. Buff 3 Flaming Fists with 3 prot from fire scrolls each. They wander, they walk around,they get muddled up, so its hard to get this right
2. Trigger the event. - (edit: if you have stealth/invisi to spare you can cast 1 PfF on Belt to trigger the event, saving time)
3. Evade the assassin, I used an invisibility potion.
4. Buff Belt with 3 (or 2 if above done) prot from fires while the chaos is ongoing
5. Get out of sight and commence bonbardment, I did it from the entrance room 30-35 charges later and you have won!
6. Belt and the surviving Flaming fists will try and attack you because you threw 30 fireballs at them and maybe killed their friends. Talk to Belt to stop this. Avoid Sarevok.
Notes: my reputation went from 20 to 2... looks like there was some friendly fire, maybe i even killed Janneth!?
Edit 2: it is possible to cast all 3 PfF on belt without triggering the dialogue, and to cast on Janneth too. I will play around with this to try and get it "down"
Yeah, thas hot stuff @alice_ashpool! This PfF buffing to some degree has also worked against the Crusader Attacks in the past for anyone lacking lots of summons and especially Arrows of Detonation. But without any charming we are now also forced to get more creative in the Palace Ambush, no? ;o)
Okay, i have leveled up Enchanter3/Fighter and a Conjurer3/Cleric to level 7 - the last one was far easier so far thanks to the Skel. Maybe i will post a detailed description later but for the moment i am too lazy! *G*
Getting free access to the Pseudo Dragon makes the early game so easy unlike leveling a Shadow Dancer6/Fighter - kudos to @Grond0! ;o)
@Harpagornis I agree, I'm currently thinking posting only the deaths, because there will be deaths. I got Beast Master to lv3 today, and only waylay was the Wild Dog one, which is the easiest one I think. I used LMD and still had to club the doggie twice to get any kind of response.
1. it seems useless to cast 3 on Janneth because she goes down far too quickly once her protections expire
2. Belt is MVP here. It might be worth buffing him with something, anything, idk what though.
3. This strategy should also work combined with PfAcid and Cloudkill
4. Sarevok can quite easily kill Belt after all the dopples are dead. Make sure he is safe before initiating post fight dialogue.
5. This works with 9 scrolls (3 for belt, 6 for 2 flaming fists). it may or may not work with 6 but I would expect the chances of success are much decreesed. The question is, are there 9 PfF scrolls in the game? I only had 3 in my actual inventory.
I tried it 4 more times and it only worked on 1 of them. Under a 50% chance of success so far. But it did work again so it is repeatable - the reputation hit seems inevitable though.
Edit: a reputation hit to 1-2 means impossibility of recharging OGL... oh.
Edit 2: What i wouldn't give for a wizard(2)/monk right now
Notes: my reputation went from 20 to 2... looks like there was some friendly fire, maybe i even killed Janneth!?
Killing a duke won't hurt your reputation; they're not innocents.
However, in addition to the Flaming Fist guards, there are five nobles starting in a side room - and those are true innocents. They're not the same as the doppelgangers impersonating nobles. If you kill any of them, your reputation will collapse.
Notes: my reputation went from 20 to 2... looks like there was some friendly fire, maybe i even killed Janneth!?
Killing a duke won't hurt your reputation; they're not innocents.
However, in addition to the Flaming Fist guards, there are five nobles starting in a side room - and those are true innocents. They're not the same as the doppelgangers impersonating nobles. If you kill any of them, your reputation will collapse.
I think they do tend to flee to the anterooms. Maybe they can be monitored before fireballing the place?
It's not relevant to @alice_ashpool at the moment, but for those playing the cataclysm there's a danger of killing an innocent (which is prohibited) when firebombing a group of Flaming Fist . Some might think that even inflicting horrific burns was a teensy bit against the spirit of the god's prohibitions, but I couldn't possibly comment ...
If you were going that route, you could try targeting more precisely, e.g. through wand scorchers or firebreath potions. Mage PfF could be used to protect Belt, but beware of dispel magic. I'm not sure though that divine fire protection would last long enough to get full value from this tactic. However, a big advantage of green scrolls is that they can be used from a distance and last a long time - so Belt could be protected even before the battle started. If that were not dispelled, then wand of the heavens could provide some helpful healing without danger to anyone else.
Another thing - the fight is very dependent on if weapons break - I just did one where belts sword broke instantly - no chance of success, another where two dopples "weapons" seemed to break - easy.
edit: there are 2 noblewomen who wander around aimlessly, thats where a lot of my rep loss was coming from, but I am wondering if killing flaming fists is also dropping rep.
This is so unreliable, I'm amazed it worked first time then failed the next 8 out of 10
ha, shows how much I know. I'm looking forward to others getting to this stage with CATACLYSM restrictions to see what some other classes can do
Well you found out a lot today that I didn't know! For my Beastmaster or any ranger or paladin the reputation is a serious concern and as @Grond0 commented for most Cataclysm challengers as well, but your strategy is definitely something to work with.
And Cloudkill does sound like a good idea, as it will interrupt spell-casting by the shaman and the mage.
Recharging OGL at rep 2 requires 73500G, so I think I have borked this no-charm monk run, even forgetting the fact that I shdowkeepered in 12 fire protection scrolls.
regardless, I shall carry on to sarevok, paying the price for my cheating
Recharging OGL at rep 2 requires 73500G, so I think I have borked this no-charm monk run, even forgetting the fact that I shdowkeepered in 12 fire protection scrolls.
regardless, I shall carry on to sarevok, paying the price for my cheating
Hi @alice_ashpool
Well done with the smoldering palace aproach. The fight is a nasty bottle neck, so dire solutions are in order.
It wont help you in your current run, but BG1 has ample opportunity for rasing your rep. https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Reputation
In a another run you could buy your way to rep 18 prior reaching BG city, and then postpone chatting with NPC’s (inside and outside the city) to have some opportunities for raising your rep after the palace fight.
Comments
That's right - but if you don't let them talk to you and get out of their sight they will fight enemies. The difficulty is that without stealth the enemies will continue following you and thus it's far more difficult to get the Flaming Fist to try and attack them without trying to talk to you. With stealth though it's a good time saver.
I like the progression - how long before healing items are banned as well?
As a shadowdancer he picked up much of his XP from encounters where stealth made things much easier.
He dualled to fighter after having stealthed into Durlag's Tower and beaten all the basilisks on the roof to near death - providing him with a flying start as a fighter. Investing 2 oils of speed and a stone giant strength potion proved just enough at the basilisk area - the last basilisk dying just 2 or 3 seconds before Korax went hostile.
He's currently chewing through the enemies around Bassilus - drawing them away one at a time. There's quite a bit of resting required due to Wisp's lack of healing. It would have been sensible to have invested a bit of resource and gone to loot the constitution tome a long time ago (allowing regeneration with Buckley's Buckler).
Wow. Difficult.
Strategy that works but is not optimal in any way.
1. Hit Slythe with wand of heavens. Run away and ensure he is chasing you. Park him in an end room with sandthief ring.
2. Sit and wait for Krysten's buffs to expire. Reveal yourself and trigger more buffs, lure her so you can sit in a side room with low LoS and nuke with Necklace of Missiles. Make sure not to catch the civilians in the crossfire. Should take about 20 fireballs.
3. Exhaust Slythe's potions of invisibility by tanking some backstabs with invisibility and healing. He has maybe 3?
4. Hide away, drink 2 potions of genius (for dex 25), potion of storm giant strength, potion of defense, 12 potions of heroism, potion of regeneration, blur ability.
5. Go visible and find invisible Slythe, go invisible when he attacks (edit: this is because of a final backstab), keep him in LoS or he will Stealth instantly.
6. (edit: and heal backstab damage) Drink potion of power, DuHM, frozen fist.
7. Punch him as much as you can, once health is low go invisible, drink many health pots, go back to hitting him until dead.
I toned dopplegangers down to "tactical" in the SCS fine-tune menu and it still took 50 charges of a wand of heavens to kill them with LoB, with the full experience I don't know how I would do this without either charming or monster summoning.
Is there some way to stash one of the dukes somewhere?
Is there a way to lure some of the dopplegangers away and park them? I had luck luring a single one away... once.
Can I somehow trick Liia's dialogue to proc like with Neera?
edit: i managed to softlock the game by killing the doppelganger mage before it transformed.... damn, and there i was thinking I had an easy answer.
Wisp nearly died against Nimbul though when I forgot he would auto-buff - so instead of a defensive spell like mirror image he immediately used a double chromatic orb sequencer. Wisp saved against the instant death and had enough HPs to survive the damage.
After healing up at the Carnival he ventured back towards the inn and waited until Nimbul had been cut down to size by the guards before applying a finishing touch.
With the Cloakwood starting to feature in my thinking, I decided Wisp should try to get the ring of free action from Dushai to protect against spider webs. Investing 3 potions of perception and 4 of mind focusing boosted pickpocketing to 120 and that proved to be good enough.
Coming back from there Wisp was ambushed by Molkar's group. Stealth let him avoid an intended spell from Halacan and he backstabbed Molkar before allowing him to get a return attack in to satisfy honor.
There was more hiding in Beregost where Wisp tried to get Tranzig to waste all his spells. Once that was done he came in for backstabs - only to find that Tranzig was happy to release burning hands even if he couldn't see his target. Only the ring of fire resistance prevented a fatality there. Stealth attacks after that were carried out using Wisp's staff to try and avoid triggering proximity alarms.
Before going on to the Bandit Camp, there was another bit of unfinished business at the Lighthouse area. Wisp sneaked in there and looted a few things, including the constitution tome. That only provided 1 additional HP immediately, but allowed regeneration at need.
Wisp didn't bother getting an invitation to the Bandit Camp, but just sneaked in to do a bit of looting.
The ring of free action made it easy to get past the spider area in the Cloakwood, but Wisp then ran into the amazon ambush. The backstabbers there were potentially lethal so after missing an opening attack (without anyone trying to attack him), Wisp tried to run to the top of the area to drag the invisible ones with him. He had to remain visible to do that of course, but in doing so left the door open for the cleric - I was thinking that spell would be rigid thinking or confusion and intended to disappear just before it cast. Instead though, Wisp was commanded to die - and did.
Incidentally, I wondered a little while ago what the definition of being 'attacked' was in an ambush. I was assuming that required a spell to actually be launched at the PC - is that generally agreed?
- Tempus: Except for Wizard Slayers retreats from ambushes are only possible if
1. At least one enemy takes damage
2. Charname takes damage from a physical attack or gets hit by a spell/gaze
@Grond0, I read your last report with a big smile, until I read the last bit. You did really well, and that Command is just brutal...
This (taking damage) is what Murdo and my other characters have been doing all along. I thought absorbing an attack meant taking a physical or magical hit. So I'm fine with your change.
Just now I was very annoyed to learn that blinding the mage before it transforms does not carry over.... feels unfair!
edit: could someone link me to a break down of the "regular" strategies for this horrible fight please, im not ready to give up yet.
edit 2: new idea: protection from fire from scroll on a few guards, then just fireball the area and hope that dopples could betaken down before the guards die... I tried this without prot from fire and it was only enough to get t the group down to "injured" before all the Flaming fists and then liia died... Interestingly nuking the battlefield from afar does not impact reputation or hostile the flaming fists.
I've got some ideas - i'm going to eekeeper in a stack of prot from fire scrolls and have a play around. If prot from fire scrolls can be used to get FR up to 127 then fireballs could be used to heal the flaming fists, keeping them alive... perhaps, no idea if this would work. I will report back
I haven't tested it, but at least in the most recent update in EE, Sarevok doesn't trigger the softlock dialogue unless both dukes are dead OR somebody attacks Sarevok himself--which can be confused Flaming Fist folks as well as allied targets. That means you may be able to make progress in the Ducal Palace fight by bombing stuff with the One Gift Lost, even if the Grand Dukes get wounded in the process or the Flaming Fist guys even die. Still, I'm not sure if Liia Jannath pre-buffs with Protection from Fire, and hitting her with two Protection from Fire scrolls would take time, so charms are generally the way to go if you have few other options.
Requirements:
12 (maybe fewer) Scrolls of protection from fire. I don't know if this is attainable?
c35 OGL charges
1-2 Invisibility charges/potions
1. Buff 3 Flaming Fists with 3 prot from fire scrolls each. They wander, they walk around,they get muddled up, so its hard to get this right
2. Trigger the event. - (edit: if you have stealth/invisi to spare you can cast 1 PfF on Belt to trigger the event, saving time)
3. Evade the assassin, I used an invisibility potion.
4. Buff Belt with 3 (or 2 if above done) prot from fires while the chaos is ongoing
5. Get out of sight and commence bonbardment, I did it from the entrance room 30-35 charges later and you have won!
6. Belt and the surviving Flaming fists will try and attack you because you threw 30 fireballs at them and maybe killed their friends. Talk to Belt to stop this. Avoid Sarevok.
Notes: my reputation went from 20 to 2... looks like there was some friendly fire, maybe i even killed Janneth!?
Edit 2: it is possible to cast all 3 PfF on belt without triggering the dialogue, and to cast on Janneth too. I will play around with this to try and get it "down"
I was actually quite excited for my Beastmaster until I read the following haha...
Okay, i have leveled up Enchanter3/Fighter and a Conjurer3/Cleric to level 7 - the last one was far easier so far thanks to the Skel. Maybe i will post a detailed description later but for the moment i am too lazy! *G*
Getting free access to the Pseudo Dragon makes the early game so easy unlike leveling a Shadow Dancer6/Fighter - kudos to @Grond0! ;o)
1. it seems useless to cast 3 on Janneth because she goes down far too quickly once her protections expire
2. Belt is MVP here. It might be worth buffing him with something, anything, idk what though.
3. This strategy should also work combined with PfAcid and Cloudkill
4. Sarevok can quite easily kill Belt after all the dopples are dead. Make sure he is safe before initiating post fight dialogue.
5. This works with 9 scrolls (3 for belt, 6 for 2 flaming fists). it may or may not work with 6 but I would expect the chances of success are much decreesed. The question is, are there 9 PfF scrolls in the game? I only had 3 in my actual inventory.
I tried it 4 more times and it only worked on 1 of them. Under a 50% chance of success so far. But it did work again so it is repeatable - the reputation hit seems inevitable though.
Edit: a reputation hit to 1-2 means impossibility of recharging OGL... oh.
Edit 2: What i wouldn't give for a wizard(2)/monk right now
Killing a duke won't hurt your reputation; they're not innocents.
However, in addition to the Flaming Fist guards, there are five nobles starting in a side room - and those are true innocents. They're not the same as the doppelgangers impersonating nobles. If you kill any of them, your reputation will collapse.
Cloudkill deals poison damage.
I think they do tend to flee to the anterooms. Maybe they can be monitored before fireballing the place?
ha, shows how much I know. I'm looking forward to others getting to this stage with CATACLYSM restrictions to see what some other classes can do
If you were going that route, you could try targeting more precisely, e.g. through wand scorchers or firebreath potions. Mage PfF could be used to protect Belt, but beware of dispel magic. I'm not sure though that divine fire protection would last long enough to get full value from this tactic. However, a big advantage of green scrolls is that they can be used from a distance and last a long time - so Belt could be protected even before the battle started. If that were not dispelled, then wand of the heavens could provide some helpful healing without danger to anyone else.
edit: there are 2 noblewomen who wander around aimlessly, thats where a lot of my rep loss was coming from, but I am wondering if killing flaming fists is also dropping rep.
This is so unreliable, I'm amazed it worked first time then failed the next 8 out of 10
Well you found out a lot today that I didn't know! For my Beastmaster or any ranger or paladin the reputation is a serious concern and as @Grond0 commented for most Cataclysm challengers as well, but your strategy is definitely something to work with.
And Cloudkill does sound like a good idea, as it will interrupt spell-casting by the shaman and the mage.
regardless, I shall carry on to sarevok, paying the price for my cheating
Hi @alice_ashpool
Well done with the smoldering palace aproach. The fight is a nasty bottle neck, so dire solutions are in order.
It wont help you in your current run, but BG1 has ample opportunity for rasing your rep. https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Reputation
In a another run you could buy your way to rep 18 prior reaching BG city, and then postpone chatting with NPC’s (inside and outside the city) to have some opportunities for raising your rep after the palace fight.
Best of luck with Sarevok and co.