Tactical use of squirrels and other critters
EggHuevo
Member Posts: 68
After decades of re-playing these wonderful games, specially BG 1, I started inventing my own sets of rules. For instance, now I almost always play without reloading, without resting more than once per area, no using cheese (web, sleep, recharging wands, greenstone amulet, acid arrows, etc), no buying potions or scrolls, no re-rolling, no min-maxing, always having a party of 6... There is more, if anybody is interested, I'll post it.
This makes for a very difficult run, not being able to use the usual "strategies" on some enemies, like the sirines. I was standing there, almost at the door to the cave with the golems, thinking about a suitable non-chessy strategy to defeat them. A squirrel passed me by, and then I looked at Minsc and it hit me.
A picture is worth a thousand words:
Then, I started messing around with critters, just for the fun of it. I charmed a chicken and gave him strength, then:
These are suitable replacements for summoning spells for fodder, and besides it's a level 2 spell for druids, and an innate ability for rangers, making it available sooner.
What do you guys think?
This makes for a very difficult run, not being able to use the usual "strategies" on some enemies, like the sirines. I was standing there, almost at the door to the cave with the golems, thinking about a suitable non-chessy strategy to defeat them. A squirrel passed me by, and then I looked at Minsc and it hit me.
A picture is worth a thousand words:
Then, I started messing around with critters, just for the fun of it. I charmed a chicken and gave him strength, then:
These are suitable replacements for summoning spells for fodder, and besides it's a level 2 spell for druids, and an innate ability for rangers, making it available sooner.
What do you guys think?
24
Comments
Overall it works better than some low class summoning spell.
Superchicken theme song
And I really need to try this on my Druid run
Chickens, cats, and rats all have 90% physical damage resistance. Normally it doesn't matter because they only have 1 HP, but they make awesome temporary tanks in Legacy of Bhaal mode, when they have 83 HP and take over 40 hits before they go down.
Or try out the Seducer mod and make those critters into party members. You'll never be high-enough level to seduce an animal in BG1 in Legacy of Bhaal mode (you can only seduce critters half your level or less), but in normal mode, a kitty cat fighter can actually out-tank a Dwarven Defender once you give it a couple of levels.
First you need a necromancer who raises some dead lifestock, then place large amounts of explosives into their guts. After the enemy camp is in sight, you ignite their fuses while staying hidden. And then make the carcasses run towards the target like crazy. The enemy will first assume farm animals broke out somewhere. But then: boom! Only craters remain.
Heh, I laughed my ass off from that scene. Especially the one liner: "Release... the goats!" *baah*
Squirrels are even more interesting. If you kill a squirrel, it explodes, dealing 10d6 fire damage to all creatures within a 120 foot radius.
Squirrels are not immune to fire, so a squirrel that is hit by one of these explosions will also explode, starting a chain reaction. You can blow up an entire map this way. One of my favorite strategies in this mod is to charm a bunch of squirrels, lead them to a tough encounter, and blow them all up.
You can read more about my mod here: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/60325/mod-high-power-baldurs-gate-version-1-1/p1
I blessed a bat to give him more hit points and tank a flesh golem in the seawatcher's cave. It was hilarious
Quick Note on Ashoka's Game:
Ashoka is currently in the Marching Mountains.
I'll note that in a desperate attempt to get ToB use of her animal charming abilities, Ashoka charmed a deer, a bear, and a squirrel. This was a profoundly unsatisying experience.
The deer was first.
Yaga-Shura's soldiers had zero interest in the deer until it landed a devastating critical. Of course, then they just whacked it and Ashoka felt all guilty for dragging the thing into this mess...
The bear was a more formidible ally naturally, but his end was even more troubling.
It was nice to have the bear by her side for this one kill, but there was little time to celebrate.
"You're just not going to make that -4 against Chaos, huh?"
Shortly thereafter, Yaga's Mage tagged Black Bear with a Power Word: Sleep, and then nixed him with meteors.
I have never been more furious with a foe than when this punk mage power worded my bear and then melfed him to death. It was a serious bummer.
Ashoka has, however, come up with a cunning and subtle plan for revenge which she'll deploy in a future playthrough.
Enter the squirrel.
The squirrel was interesting because no matter what it did -and no matter where Ashoka was- Yaga's men refused to attack it. Since it can do damage, and since these fellas don't regenerate, it stands to reason that you should be able to get the squirrel to take out the 2 giants and that division of Yaga's army. That seems like a suitable way to avenge Black Bear's undignified death.
It would take infinite patience no doubt: the squirrel isn't much of a warrior.
And even worse, it has this annoying habt of wandering off in search of acorns or whatever after you've given it an attack command so you have to constantly goad it into combat ("No! No! No nuts for you! Fight! Fight!"). It may be able to get the job done though. Mayhaps rangers and hamsters everwhere will rejoice once more...
Black Bear: Death
Ashoka: "No! Black Bear, No!"
Mage: (Approaches)
Ashoka: "You bastard! You melfed my Bear!"
Mage: (Chuckles)
Ashoka: "Fine! Laugh all you want. But the next time I come back here, I'm going to kill you -and all of your friends- with a fracking squirrel!"
Mage:
Best,
A.