Killing Sarevok and his goons (spoilers obvs)

Dordledum

Hi,

I've played BG1 in the past a few times. I remember that I generally would cruise through the entire game and then get stumped in the final battle, but that there is no way to turn back when you're finally there to get more potions/other party members/etc. Hence, I've never really finished the game. Only other fight I couldn't get through was on the lower levels of Durlag's Tower.

What's the key to the final battle? Stocking up on magic blocking potions beforehand? Specific Companions/spells? Any tips are welcome. No mods.

I'm planning to start over on a new full saga playthrough, Candlekeep to Throne (including SOD) and don't want to get stuck again.

Edit: just adding for flavour, thinking about going for a all girl Neutral(ish) party:

* CHARNAME - Shaman
* Shar Teel
* Jaheira (too bad I'll have to kill off Khalid)
* Branwen
* Imoen
* Neera

the_sextein

Save some arrows of dispelling for the final battle. They will eat right through Serevok's magic user, and his own protections, they will cut Serevok's speed in half. Other than that, I would have a wand of monster summoning with 50 charges on it for good measure. Keep surrounding Serevok with summons so he attacks them and not your party. Then hit him with magical arrows and use all of your long range magical spells. Wands of ice and arrows of acid do pretty good. There is a ring of the Ram I think that does some damage. Make sure to haste everyone. Use the scorcher option on the wand of fire and hit him with the wand of the heavens as well. You might want to experiment with luring them out toward your group one at a time. Cast couldkill in a way so that it only effects the character you want to lure out so you don't have to take all of them on at once.

jsaving

The final battle is designed to require unorthodox tactics so you shouldn't feel bad about struggling to complete it. As t_s says, use every consumable you've been saving for a rainy day and do your best to ensure no one in your party actually goes toe-to-toe with Sarevok. Especially useful are protection from magic scrolls, wands of the heavens, and the ring of the ram though others are helpful too.

It's also possible, just barely, to pull one or two of Sarevok's allies via a carefully placed fireball. If you can manage to do that, the final fight becomes somewhat easier.

Danacm

Once i used a lots of potion of heroisms(6-9 maybe ?!) when it stacked. With my fighter i have thaco as Sarevok and far more hp. Idk it works or not now, but it was funny

But maybe 12-13

Pingwin

Ages since I last played it through all the way to the end but IIRC, main character with the boots of speed and a scroll of magic protection pretty much lets him run around triggering the traps whilst everyone else stays back firing everything they have at Sarevok.

Chronicler

I also like to charm the big guy. I seem to recall that his saves are pretty bad.

UnderstandMouseMagic

As other posters have said, the best tactic is to deal with Sarevok from long range.

Arrows of dispelling are a must, arrows of biting are great against the magic users as they disrupt spells, arrows of ice as well, there's always less ice protection than fire protection on enemies it seems.

Use all the potions you have left over, get everybody protected against fire and magic with them. You should have a lot of money so buy whatever you can.

Then there's my favourite, arrows of detonation simply because they are so much fun. Buy all of them you can (and the others) because they can be carried over to SOD (if you are playing that next).

Grond0

Send someone in invisible to trigger the stinking cloud / web trap. Once that's gone cast multiple webs on the dais from just out of sight. Follow that with a fireball to make everyone hostile, with a greater malison following immediately afterwards. Even Sarevok is likely to get stuck in those, allowing you to rain down fireballs on everyone (there are 3 necklaces of missiles and lots of exploding potions, so everyone can join in). With the others dead, target Sarevok with missiles or have someone with free action chop him up.

Dordledum

Thanks all, I generally messed up b/c I went in with a mostly melee party I guess. I got Sarevok down once, but got killed by one of the backup mages at the same time. Will probably check in to give an update in a month or so, when I actually get there.

First off: waiting for 2.5 to start my shaman run!

Chronicler

Dordledum said:

Thanks all, I generally messed up b/c I went in with a mostly melee party I guess. I got Sarevok down once, but got killed by one of the backup mages at the same time. Will probably check in to give an update in a month or so, when I actually get there.

First off: waiting for 2.5 to start my shaman run!

The original versions of the games had helpful tips in the loading screens. The Enhanced Editions load too fast for you to read a helpful tip, so I can't blame Beamdog for removing them, but there really were some good nuggets in there that the game doesn't tell you elsewhere.

One of them was that you should train everybody in a melee weapon and a ranged weapon. Truthfully for most of the game it's not really a big deal if you don't but I think you really feel the difference in those battles where getting up close and personal is just not an option.

Dordledum

I saw someone (don't really remember who) selling an arrow of slaying, would that work on Sarevok? Epic play IMHO.

Nevermind, googled it and see that in BG the arrow of slaying only works on Ogre Magi.

ronione

my first completion this month I was able to draw him out on his own and just spammed him with magic missles while I drew his attention with my meele guys

Dordledum

I finally got him! Killing the mage first and backstabbing Anselo with the poisoned dagger made the rest of the fight much easier.

After the endmovie, I remembered seeing that, so I must have beaten him before.

Now for my first SOD!

The_Cheeseman

Another tip, you can use the wand of paralyzation on Sarevok. May take a few tries, but once he’s neutralized you can pretty much beat him down at your leisure.

Yulaw9460

Deleted.

storm24

Hi all,

I have gone retro and played this quite happily.
I used a party of 4: Dorn (lvl 8), Edwin (lvl 9), Jack(Mage lvl 8/Thief lvl 7) and MC: Priest of Helm (lvl 8).
first minor sequencer on Edwin with magic missile.
Conjured 3 skeletons and stand behind them left of the center.

Walk with Edwin right until you can use fireball and stinking cloud to draw Saravok towards him.
hit him with sequencer and run behind everybody.
Jack conjurs Haste.
Dorn archer: acid arrows - Semaj
Jack Archer dispelling arrow - Semaj
make new sequencer MM MM
Attack Semaj with Jack and Dorn
MC: attack Saravok
Saravok attacks and skeletons attacked him.
fire sequencer at Saravok
1 more MM and Saravok died finishing the game.

danificus_hasificus

Dordledum wrote: »

Hi,

I've played BG1 in the past a few times. I remember that I generally would cruise through the entire game and then get stumped in the final battle, but that there is no way to turn back when you're finally there to get more potions/other party members/etc. Hence, I've never really finished the game. Only other fight I couldn't get through was on the lower levels of Durlag's Tower.

What's the key to the final battle? Stocking up on magic blocking potions beforehand? Specific Companions/spells? Any tips are welcome. No mods.

I'm planning to start over on a new full saga playthrough, Candlekeep to Throne (including SOD) and don't want to get stuck again.

Edit: just adding for flavour, thinking about going for a all girl Neutral(ish) party:

* CHARNAME - Shaman
* Shar Teel
* Jaheira (too bad I'll have to kill off Khalid)
* Branwen
* Imoen
* Neera

To defeat sarevok, its really simple, although I haven't seen anyone talk about this. Traps. Not how you might be thinking though. I mean the traps that are already set inside his room place area idk. There is one specific trap on the top right in between a small statue and a large statue. Find it using a thief's ability and have someone with a potion of insulation and, if you have them, I think it was boots of electrical protection, go through that trap dozens of times. That trap is a lightning trap, and that lightning goes all around the room. Make sure that the other party members aren't inside for this part. Everytime you go over the trap, the lighting will most likely hit one of the goons and maybe even sarevok. The goons and sarevok will not attack, just sit in the fog of war, getting struck by lightning, over and over again. At one point, all the goons will be dead and you can choose to either fight sarevok or just keep going with the trap, no matter which one you choose, he'll die and you'll get to the end of the game. Good luck to whomever reads this.

danificus_hasificus

danificus_hasificus wrote: »

Dordledum wrote: »

Hi,

I've played BG1 in the past a few times. I remember that I generally would cruise through the entire game and then get stumped in the final battle, but that there is no way to turn back when you're finally there to get more potions/other party members/etc. Hence, I've never really finished the game. Only other fight I couldn't get through was on the lower levels of Durlag's Tower.

What's the key to the final battle? Stocking up on magic blocking potions beforehand? Specific Companions/spells? Any tips are welcome. No mods.

I'm planning to start over on a new full saga playthrough, Candlekeep to Throne (including SOD) and don't want to get stuck again.

Edit: just adding for flavour, thinking about going for a all girl Neutral(ish) party:

* CHARNAME - Shaman
* Shar Teel
* Jaheira (too bad I'll have to kill off Khalid)
* Branwen
* Imoen
* Neera

To defeat sarevok, its really simple, although I haven't seen anyone talk about this. Traps. Not how you might be thinking though. I mean the traps that are already set inside his room place area idk. There is one specific trap on the top right in between a small statue and a large statue. Find it using a thief's ability and have someone with a potion of insulation and, if you have them, I think it was boots of electrical protection, go through that trap dozens of times. That trap is a lightning trap, and that lightning goes all around the room. Make sure that the other party members aren't inside for this part. Everytime you go over the trap, the lighting will most likely hit one of the goons and maybe even sarevok. The goons and sarevok will not attack, just sit in the fog of war, getting struck by lightning, over and over again. At one point, all the goons will be dead and you can choose to either fight sarevok or just keep going with the trap, no matter which one you choose, he'll die and you'll get to the end of the game. Good luck to whomever reads this.

Mb i meant top left not right

jmerry

Personally, I usually just buff to the skies with all those potions I've picked up over the course of the game. There's enough there that you pretty much steamroll the encounter with your fully equipped endgame party.

Though, there are other approaches. Here's the cheesiest win I've ever pulled off in the fight:
Protagonist: LN gnome illusionist/thief, level 3/4. No spells memorized, no Bhaalspawn abilities - he's never once rested.
Party: none.
And now, the procedure:
1. Bring out ferret familiar, already buffed with potions of master thievery from avoiding the Slythe/Krystin fight.
2. Have the ferret pickpocket wands of paralyzation and monster summoning from its master.
3. Save, and load that save. The ferret now has those wands equipped in its quickslots.
4. Stay back near the door, while the ferret advances into sight of Sarevok. No conversation follows; he and his minions are still neutral and inactive.
5. Ferret uses wand of paralyzation on Sarevok. He probably saves, but it won't make him hostile. Repeat until he fails a save.
6. Now that Sarevok has failed a save, he's noticed that he was being attacked and is hostile. But he's stunned, and he still hasn't talked so his minions don't care. Ferret uses wand of monster summoning.
7. Summoned monsters attack Sarevok, and beat down until he's dead. Since he's stunned, they auto-hit and this goes pretty quickly.

There. A ferret can win the fight on its own, completely safely and reliably.

I've also theory-crafted a build that can kill Sarevok in one hit - actually, I might play that.