Did anyone else have an easy time with Tarnesh?

State_Lemming

He is usually the biggest pain at the start of the game for me, and I'm plenty of people here agree, but whether it was luck or Overhaul benevolence I beat him in one round this time. :P

Darkcloud

He gave me quite the problem again. I had a good start with my last magic missle blast and an Arrow which put him in fear but at the same time his fear spell hit. In the same time a guard killed all his mirror immages and hurt him a bit and then got killed. Then I had to do the save and reload game untill I hit him before he used his Magic Missle which would kill me most of the times.

Suiboon

I've killed him twice now and the only thing he has managed to do was get his mirror image off the 2nd time before exploding into pieces.

TiaxRulesAll

wierd... I cant recall a time where Tarnesh ever even hit me. (Not bragging or anything) I just bum rush him and kill him before he even starts offensive spells.

masterdesbaxter

He used to give me trouble, though I've since learned how to deal with him. Worst case scenario, I have him walk into the midst of all the guards. They'll slice and dice well if I'm only a gooey mage or something.

Schneidend

My Blackguard PC managed to chunk him with a critical WHILE he was Mirror Imaged, it looked like. O_O

Silverstar

Both him and Silke are somewhat easy if you just break their casting of Mirror Image. Simplest way to do it is with a quick spell like Larloch's Minor Drain or the best spell ever, Magic Missiles. Might not be an option depending on your party setup, but you could use the wand that Imoen comes with.

State_Lemming

Silke I never have to much of a problem with for whatever reason, maybe because I have Khalid taking the potential punishment at that point.

HexHammer

I kinda cheat and kills him before conversating.

Sulla

My blackguard is immune to fear, so while my other 2 party members began running around after the Horror spell, he continued to swing away.

Markus_Zhang

Tarnesh is piece of cake for me, just pick up Imoen and kite him before he has a chance to talk. Cheesy though.

wissenschaft

What I do is hide in a corner and send Imoen to lure him down the stairs and near some guards. Then Imoen talks to him. If she gets feared or not its ok, between my arrows and the guard, Tarnesh is screwed.

Dee

Tarnesh is either a pushover or a bastard, depending on how quickly I hit him the first time. Silke's the same way.

Dethjonny

I have always had problems killing Tarnesh but this time I killed him before he got his mirror image off. Never happened before, I think that they've nerfed him. Probably nerfed him back to expected difficulty for a beginner baddie, but he was always the first guy I had to use tactics on.

theJoshFrost

I always kick his ass. I don't know why every one complains about him. It's only the guy after the mines in Nashkel that gets me. He's a real jerk. The name escapes me atm.

psyact

I had to keep reloading because when the guards make the killing blow, you don't get any experience.

butchered

Command has a very fast cast time and no save.
They die quickly when that mirror image fails.

ZanathKariashi

Well bare in mind, Shield makes you immune to magic missiles (it DOES NOT in the original), and it's using the BG2 version of mirror image which gives a chance to hit the real one (the original BG1 you had to remove all the images with successful hits before being able to hit the real one). Also...the content wasn't really made with kits in mind and some of them are quite over powered...

Derr

I can't wait until Stratagems is released. Silke starts the battle already buffed with stoneskin and when she casts mirror image she has 5 to 7 images. She could also cast invisibility. Well, only if the proper components are installed.

rdarken

Yup, I chunked him for the first time ever (and it was just me and Imoen). Of course, I'm not playing on a difficult setting and my Kensai's stats came out SICK. But he used to give me some trouble, even with Xzar, Montaron, and Imoen.

Krypteia

I found him surprisingly easy too.

But I am playing an assassin this time around, and a critical hit off a poisoned arrow does tend to ruin the day of most enemies.

State_Lemming

@Krypteia

I like the role playing implications of that. Before you even talked to the guy, your PC decided he was a shady enough character to merit (as of yet) unprovoked death. I hope you do that with other NPCs that look and act suspicious. Like Elminster.

FrozenCells

Shield spell protects against Magic Missiles. One very dead Tarnesh. The guards seemed more effective than usual.

The_New_Romance

This was the easiest Tarnesh fight I ever had. He had four mirror images still up when my Half-Orc Cleric hit him with her warhammer and ended the match. I wonder whether Beamdog cheated a little in the player's favour

And thank God this thread came up again, I was looking for it earlier and for the life of me couldn't find it. I found the Tarnesh fight to be remarkably changed, but it's interesting that a lot of us didn't see any difference.

Icallhimlecobra

The wand of magic missile is super useful (and potentially a bit cheesy) just save it exclusively for use against spellcasters (Tarnesh, Silke etc). As soon as they begin a spell animation blast them with your wand. It seems to me that its a guaranteed to disrupt their spell.

To answer the post, i didn't notice as once I figured out the above tactic, Tarnesh became super easy to kill.

butsam

I don't think the Tarnesh fight is significantly changed -- still a bit of a struggle as a Conjurer (and Imoen) versus Tarnesh.

That said, there is a difference in using the BG2 engine. Now, instead of having to hit all mirror images before hitting a mirror imaged mage, you have a 1 in X chance of hitting the real mage (where X is the # of mirror images remaining). In BG1, you had to hit all mirror images first.

Renulan

He died before he even got close enough to speak to me

Deucetipher

A lot of kits make this fight a lot easier: Berserker, cavalier, blackguard, etc. In vanilla, dude was ridiculous, especially to a 12 year old

Krypteia

State_Lemming said:

@Krypteia

I like the role playing implications of that. Before you even talked to the guy, your PC decided he was a shady enough character to merit (as of yet) unprovoked death. I hope you do that with other NPCs that look and act suspicious. Like Elminster.

My PC is that kinda guy. Paranoid and vaguely murderous. If he had a motto, it would be "shoot first, and another arrow in the head for anything still twitching."

But in this case, Tarnesh gave his little talk and everything. Xzar got in Larloch's Minor Drain right off the bat, which managed to prevent Tarnesh from casting his first spell, and the arrow followed shortly. I think my PC is collecting all the various little speeches the bounty hunters and assassins give, intending to release them in a book titled "Last Words: Why Giving a Badass Speech Is No Substitute for an Arrow through the Neck".

BelgarathMTH

I had an easy time with Tarnesh, because I'm playing a cleric-mage, and I used Command. He doesn't have six hit dice, so he gets no save against it.

Really, the Tarnesh battle is only hard for a first-timer who doesn't know what to expect. I remember him being my first "Omg, what have I gotten myself into? How is anybody supposed to beat a mage?" mage battle when I first played BG. He seems like a bit bigger big-bad than he really is because of the nostalgia effect.

I did start a first run with skald, and then decide to go back and redo it with a cleric-mage, when I got to the gates of the FAI with the skald and realized I had no fear protection. I probably could have beat him with Xzar's two spells and Imoen's arrows, and Monty throwing rocks in his face, but I didn't want to take the chance. (BTW - cool idea to give the halfling Montaron two pips in sling).

The first time I played BG, I had rejected Xzar and Monty because of the evil thing, and I came upon Tarnesh with only Imoen and me. He mopped the floor with us, and I got my first taste of getting owned by a Horror spell. (smile) Good times, those. You only get one first time.

rdarken

@belgarathmth

I'm definitely not the most skilled player, but not a first timer. I started vanilla BG1 a couple weeks ago because I COULD NOT WAIT ANY LONGER FOR BG:EE AHHHH as a Fighter/Cleric, with awesome stats. My "trouble" with him, even then, was just a little bit of damage or if he smacked Imoen and took her out. The issue for me was always if he got Mirror Image off.