Scs without mage ?
Danacm
Member Posts: 951
Is scs playable without mage ? I always have one, but now i try something new And create an arcane less party.
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It also depends on what strategies you allow yourself. If you have no problem going AFK to let enemy buffs/summons time out, that's another level of difficulty removed. But it doesn't work everywhere.
Mages are the biggest threat in BG2 by far, so it all comes down to how good you are at dealing with them. There are ways to handle them without entering into a wizardly arms race, even with SCS.
In BG1, playing solo with SCS is absurdly hard, and requires liberal use of "creative" tactics. You may not be able to do everything, or do it the way you're used to.
My conclusions are that success later in the trilogy will hinge on disabling enemy spell-casters, and in particular Mages. This will likely mean heavy reliance on spell disruptive techniques: Silence 15' Radius, Insect Swarm/Plague, Wizard Slayer Spell Failure, and Poison from special abilities (Assassin, Blackguard). Another crucial aspect will be illusion dispelling. Either Priest/Inquisitor True Sight will be needed, or a Thief with high Detect Illusion.
A party that ought to give a decent chance might look like:
Inquisitor
Assassin (11) -> Fighter
Wizard Slayer (13) -> Thief
Totemic Druid
Priest of Lathander
Barbarian
You'd have damage control from the Barb and the TD summons, high-level Druids also get Earth Elemental form in SCS with superb damage resistance, the TD can pass Fire Seeds to the WS and Assassin to allow their spell failures to bypass weapon protection spells (just get the Mage in the area of effect, same goes with Arrows of Detonation, though they're very limited in number; you could of course use them with Vhailor's Helm), your two Thieves can build up Detect Illusion, and the Inquisitor can get the whole party out of tight pinches with its overpowered Dispel and True Sight.
If you want more offensive power you could swap the Barb or Inquisitor for an Archer, who can also benefit from the Fire Seeds when applying Strength Drain with Called Shot.
Disclaimer: loosely basing this on @semiticgod 's successful NR run involving the WS/Assassin/Druid part of the team. Still, I recall she had some seriously tough moments in the ToB part of the story, with several chunked characters.
Back into your holes, treehuggers!
YOU TAKE THAT BACK!
The power balance between druids and clerics has shifted, though it's not clear in which direction. Giant Insect and Static Charge are great for druids, but clerics get Blood Rage for skeletons and Divine Protection, as well as Symbol of Hopelessness and Prayer+Recitation.
Just what BG2 needs, more power for casters ¬_¬
Typical! :P
I like the party idea and give a try it, but maybe use blackguard instead of assassin fighter.
I really thinking after that, if its too tedious, to lower the prot from magic weapons enchantment level protection to +3 only, its just too strong for a lvl 6 spell. Maybe redesing it to something else that add absurd AC instead of immunity. I always bothered that spell.
With SCS Icewind Dale spells your Cleric can get tanking with (Greater) Shield of Lathander.
The Inquisitor should be able to nullify PFMW, as long as the enemy Mage isn't under SI:A. However (and this is serious cheese), in case it wasn't clear in my previous comment, any weapon with an explosive effect (Arrows of Detonation, Fire Seeds) will have its area damage bypass any weapons protections (PFMW, Mantle, etc.) as long as it was aimed at a non-weapons-immune target. A good friendly target can be the Flesh Golem summoned from the Manual, since it's immune to the damage type (Fire) but not to magical weapons. Position your friendly Golem by the weapons-immune enemy Mage, let fly with your exploding Seeds/Arrows, and the damage sneaks past the Mage's immunity. Worse: on-hit effects like Spell Failure, Poison or Stat Drain are also applied. Suddenly that enemy Mage is unable to renew their defenses or throw out the damage, and 4 rounds later (when the PFMW wears off), they're a sitting duck. Like I said, serious cheese.
If you want a REAL challenge, try and run out Elminster's spells.
Wizard Slayer spell failure, Energy Blades or darts from the Cloak of Stars to get past Improved Mantle, nonmagical darts (or something melee weapons, since SCS v32 has Protection from Normal Missiles more often) to get past PFMW, the Ring of Energy to get past spell protections, backstabs before Stoneskin, and Death Fog or Cloudkill or Sunfire or Cone of Cold to get past MGOI and GOI, are all great ways to handle mages without needing Breach or other anti-mage attacks.
The greater problem with no arcane support is you also lose access to things like Death Spell, Improved Invisibility, Magic damage of any sort (I think Mordekainen’s swords are only killable with Shaman’s Spirit Fire without an arcane caster. Are there weapons with magic damage on-hit?), Improved Haste, some summoning spells, and crowd control like Slow and Greater Malison. Even @semiticgod ‘s list above includes Death fog, Cloudkill, Sunfire, and Cone of Cold as anti-mage spells, which are... mage spells.
I do like Stomael’s party, though, with a few possible substitutions of Avenger or Shaman instead of Totemic, Berserker or a monk instead of Barbarian, or a F/T multiclass instead of Assasin-Fighter dual.
I tend to wait out PFMW when it comes to rakshasas and liches. Thing is, now that SCS v32 mages use summoning spells instead of just offensive spells, it's no longer sufficient to just keep extra buffing spells to survive disablers or damage spells; you also need to be careful about getting overwhelmed by melee pressure.
High level Thieves (I'm assuming arcane-casting Bards are out of the picture) can use Wands. Magic Missile for Mordy's, Spell Strike for Mages/Liches.
Also, Slay Living does magic damage. Maybe not enough to really deal with the swords though. Not sure what the damage on the cause wounds series is typed as, but maybe those too?