How to detect traps w/o thief?

fncruz

I am doing a solo sorcerer game.

I just went up from the sewers into big battle vs slavers. After winning I need to go up the stairs but there is a trap that instantly kills me. How do I get around this?

I tried summoning animals but they do not set off trap for me.

Ideas?

ThacoBell

Only thieves can disarm traps. If summons aren't setting it off, you either need enough spell protections to survive the trap, or go around it.

gorgonzola

a mage can use mirror images to survive.
but that particular trap is always active until disabled, maybe can be survived with enough hp and/or potions that rise hp, i did never try it.
i hope that your sorcerer knows the mirror images spell, other way he can buy a scroll to cast it.

Balrog99

You can use the other entrance to the slavers compound in the slums to get around it. There's a guard outside and a locked door though. If you haven't paid for your magic license it can be annoying to try to kill that guard w/o spells...

Edit: There are also a few more traps in the compound, but none as lethal as the one you mentioned.

DJKajuru

Throughout your solo run another great spell you'll use a lot (not only against traps, mind you)is Spell Immunity. It may require a bit of metagame (like knowing whether a magical trap is an evocation or conjuration spell) , but it should save you most of the time.

Arachnus

Have you tried polymorph self scroll?
Mustard jelly has 100% magic resistance and you can switch forms multiple times.

gorgonzola

SI works, and is a very useful spell to know for a solo sorcerer, but imo the use for traps is too artificial, you have really to know that in a certain point there is a trap and how that trap works.
i guess that also polymorph self works.
but my solo toons have tanked that trap multiple times with mirror images and the combination of invisibility and images let you explore the dungeons and disable traps, as the others usually vanish after triggered, even without knowing the exact trap location.
mirror images imo is one key spell for a solo sorcerer, as well as si, but at lower level.
with scs things can be different, but with vanilla or with mods that don't change the magic system, like tactics mod, is a cheap and effective way to tank the traps.

anyway @fncruz you have now 4 ways to deal with that trap or avoid it and complete the quest.

Grond0

It's an acid trap, so you could also use protection from acid if you don't want to risk being hit through mirrors. Incidentally, if you use the luck spell (or another means to get positive luck) you can entirely remove the random chance of being hit through mirror images. If my HPs are marginal I would still tend to just tank the trap, but might use vampiric touch on a summons to boost them first.

gorgonzola

about the strategy of avoiding the trap and getting to that portion of the building from outside it has to be told that a sorcerer really don't need to avoid to pay the licence to cast as doing so is a very effective way to get early game some high level scrolls and quite a bit of xp from the fights with the cw. so usually i never pay the licence. but a solo sorcerer does not need the scrolls to learn the spells so has any way plenty of them to face the situations where he needs spells he does not know, rise in level very fast anyway, i was able to cast lev 9 spells in chap 2, and can sell all the valuable weapons and armors he loots so has plenty of money to pay the licence. with a solo sorcerer the only reason to don't pay the licence is the fun of the mage fights you other way loose.

what has been told is useful in the many other situations where traps can not be avoided, and as summons can not open containers using them to tank the trapped ones is not an option.
mirror images, si, polymorph self, and protection from the type of damage the trap deals are better solutions. most of the containers and doors can be forced with enough str, and the scrolls in the game let you deal with the others, in my solo sorcerer run of soa, in tob i recruited people as i find soloing a little boring and with a high level sorcerer the things are easy, the fun was to beat tactics mod soa when he was not at that level, i opted to don't learn the open door spell, but i used a str belt and i lost only very few containers with minor loot.

Arachnus

Another option could be "find familiar" spell and EE Keeper.
After adding some points, a ferret is able to deal with every trap and lock in the game.
(however, when playing then you have a feeling of heavy cheating)

gorgonzola

ferrets are lovely little and useful companions, and using the features a familiar is supposed to have does not sound as cheat to me. the use of the ferret to pickpocket from a party member to have some particular things in his possession and so skip some check points is certainly a cheat, an exploit of the game's mechanics.
if someone wants a good example of cheating with faimiliars i suggest to download and install the "gnome illusionist" component of the tactics mod. that gnome is a genius cheater, not only manages to have 2 familiars at the same time, but his imps cast spells like 2 competent mages, are much better then the usual ones we get .