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Little survival guide for a solo vanilla level 1 mage on LoB difficulty

YigorYigor Member Posts: 805
edited September 2023 in Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
Okay, how such a weak char could fight and survive? 🤔

It's possible and playable with some particular options. 😉

First of all, your mage should have the Lawful Evil alignment! Why? Cuz the Familiar is an Imp with Polymorph Self ability. Now, an Imp polymorphed into a Mustard Jelly has 100% immunity vs piercing attacks (and some other resistances)!

It suggests the following tactics: Give to your mage a specialization in sling or darts. Polymorph the familiar into a Mustard Jelly and attack an enemy having piercing attacks. Drink the coffee ☕ while your enemy desperately tries to harm your familiar and your mage bombard it with bullets/darts. 😎

Well, vs the weakiest monsters like gibberlings, other polymorphed forms work better with a quick win. ✌️

I started with a LE half-elf with stats INT = 18, STR = DEX = CON = WIS = CHA =10. Now fighting with gibberlings and wolves between Candlekeep, Friendly Arm Inn and Beregost. ⚔️

Comments

  • YigorYigor Member Posts: 805
    edited September 2023
    Please let me know about any other survival tactics, especially, for not Lawful Evil mages or sorcerers! 😎
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,881
    Yigor wrote: »
    Now, an Imp polymorphed into a Mustard Jelly has 100% immunity vs piercing attacks (and some other resistances)!
    More importantly, it's immune to all nonmagical weapons. In the early wilderness areas, nothing's getting through that. And then the piercing immunity and 100% magic resistance takes care of a few more things...

    What wilderness enemies can get through the immunities of an imp in mustard jelly form?
    - Hobgoblin elites, with their arrows of biting. (But that's still 85% resistance, immunity to poison, and only 20 arrows each)
    - Kobold commandos, with their fire arrows.
    - Blacktalon elites, with their ice arrows.
    - Ogres. But only the regular kind; not ogre berserkers, half ogres, ogrillons, or even ogre magi.
    - Winter wolves, in melee.
    - Basilisks, in melee.
    - Sirines, with both melee and ranged attacks. But the charm spells and the special effects of their attacks (poisoned arrows, confusion/feeblemind melee) don't get through the magic resistance.
    - Wraith spiders, but only their strength-reducing effect. All other spider attacks are some combination of piercing and poison damage, which the jelly is immune to.
    - Ettercaps, with their slashing attacks.
    - Wyverns and baby wyverns, with their crushing attacks.
    - Ankhegs, with their melee attacks.
    - Enemies, mostly named, that happen to wield magical weapons you can take.
    - And maybe a few things I haven't thought of.

    A much shorter list than the enemies that can't hurt a polymorphed imp.
  • YigorYigor Member Posts: 805
    @jmerry Thanks! 👍 Conclusion: in wild areas many monsters just can't harm an Imp in Mustard Jelly form! 😎

    It allows a Lawful Evil mage to survive in low-level fights and progress to get enough magical firepower! 🪄
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,371
    A CN mage can use his cat as a scout. You just have to get a wand of fireballs or the fireball necklace to use the familiar to scout enemies and then bombard them sight unseen with your mage! Keeping the mage alive until you find the fireball launcher is a chore but the sleep spell will help immensely.
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,371
    Oh, and definitely don't hit your cat with the fireballs! Their fur smells really bad when it's 🔥...
  • YigorYigor Member Posts: 805
    edited September 2023
    Balrog99 wrote: »
    A CN mage can use his cat as a scout. You just have to get a wand of fireballs or the fireball necklace to use the familiar to scout enemies and then bombard them sight unseen with your mage! Keeping the mage alive until you find the fireball launcher is a chore but the sleep spell will help immensely.

    LoL A poor orphan mage of level 1 is not supposed to have a wand of fireballs. 😹 This tactics is expensive too (burning all your money), you might need several fireballs per a little group of weak enemies on LoB. 🔥💰🔥

    "How can I survive? Oh, easy, just hide yourself until you find a fireball launcher!" 😺
  • SixOfSpadesSixOfSpades Member Posts: 44
    Balrog99 wrote: »
    . . . the sleep spell will help immensely.
    In my experience, the Sleep spell is literally useless in Legacy of Bhaal difficulty: even lowly Gibberlings seem to be auto-immune.
    Yigor wrote: »
    Please let me know about any other survival tactics, especially, for not Lawful Evil mages or sorcerers! 😎
    Arcane casters of most alignments (LG, NG, CG, LN, TN, CN, NE) get familiars who are immune to petrification. This turns most of the Basilisk map (AKA Mutamin's Garden) into an EXP fountain, free for the sipping for anyone patient enough to go through (seemingly) an entire backpack filled with nothing by sling bullets. (Warning: Basilisks have a Bite attack that can also Poison the victim on each hit--just be sure to keep outside of the basilisk's melee range.)
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,881
    Among its many changes, LoB gives all enemies a flat level boost. Which takes them out of range of Sleep, Color Spray, Cloudkill auto-kill, and other such level-dependent abilities. Theoretically, it might still be possible to apply that stuff if you sufficiently level-drained the enemies, but if you could do that you wouldn't be messing with the likes of Sleep.
  • YigorYigor Member Posts: 805
    SixOfSpades wrote: »
    Arcane casters of most alignments (LG, NG, CG, LN, TN, CN, NE) get familiars who are immune to petrification. This turns most of the Basilisk map (AKA Mutamin's Garden) into an EXP fountain, free for the sipping for anyone patient enough to go through (seemingly) an entire backpack filled with nothing by sling bullets. (Warning: Basilisks have a Bite attack that can also Poison the victim on each hit--just be sure to keep outside of the basilisk's melee range.)

    This is a really great advice, applicable to most of Mages, Sorcerers and Beast Masters, having familiars immune to petrification! 👍👍
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,881
    The neutral familiars are thieves, too. Which means they can backstab. And when basilisks are in ranged mode, the familiar attacks get +4 damage from that. A cat can do a pretty good job of hunting basilisks on its own with hit-and run backstab tactics, at least at normal difficulty levels.
  • YigorYigor Member Posts: 805
    jmerry wrote: »
    The neutral familiars are thieves, too. Which means they can backstab. And when basilisks are in ranged mode, the familiar attacks get +4 damage from that. A cat can do a pretty good job of hunting basilisks on its own with hit-and run backstab tactics, at least at normal difficulty levels.

    It's worthy to try, but it would be probably quite tedious on LoB difficulty. 😉
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    edited September 2023
    Casting strength on a familiar can increase their damage. I think they start mostly with 15str. Dust mephit has 16 I recall.
  • YigorYigor Member Posts: 805
    lroumen wrote: »
    Casting strength on a familiar can increase their damage. I think they start mostly with 15str. Dust mephit has 16 I recall.

    All right. It's a level 2 spell (available at High Hedge), so for mages of level 3+. 😎
  • YigorYigor Member Posts: 805
    SixOfSpades wrote: »
    Arcane casters of most alignments (LG, NG, CG, LN, TN, CN, NE) get familiars who are immune to petrification. This turns most of the Basilisk map (AKA Mutamin's Garden) into an EXP fountain, free for the sipping for anyone patient enough to go through (seemingly) an entire backpack filled with nothing by sling bullets. (Warning: Basilisks have a Bite attack that can also Poison the victim on each hit--just be sure to keep outside of the basilisk's melee range.)

    This suggestion was very useful even for my Lawful Evil mage! 👍 I bought the scroll of Protection from Petrification in the High Hedge magic shop. In the Mutamin's Garden, I casted it both on mage and familiar (the Mustard Jelly form is immune to petrification anyway). With the help of Korax ghoul, my mage killed 1 Greater Basilisk (7000 XP!) and 3 Lesser Basilisks + 2 additional Basilisks after the death of Korax.

    Current status: level 5 mage when the Chromatic Orb stuns targets, so many fights become easy! 😎
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,881
    Ah yes, Chromatic Orb and LoB saves. 25% chance to work on a basic hobgoblin. 0% chance to work on an ogre berserker. 100% chance to work on Sarevok. (So yes, a bard or Avenger can reliably win the final battle at LoB difficulty in patch 2.6 by casting a level 1 spell.)
  • YigorYigor Member Posts: 805
    jmerry wrote: »
    Ah yes, Chromatic Orb and LoB saves. 100% chance to work on Sarevok.

    Bwahaha, that's the best! 😉

  • YigorYigor Member Posts: 805
    edited September 2023
    The Chromatic Orb (while casted by a high-level mage) is a super useful and mighty spell, it can compete even with level 9 spells like Imprisonment and Time Stop! 😉
  • YigorYigor Member Posts: 805
    jmerry wrote: »
    Ah yes, Chromatic Orb and LoB saves. 0% chance to work on an ogre berserker.

    Berserkers should be immune to stuns and, consequently, to Chromatic Orbs of level 5 (not sure about higher levels). A Chromatic Orb of level 12 should instantly kill any target, failing the save vs Spells. 💀
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,881
    It's a bug, of course. The LoB save bonus is broken in 2.6, so that enemies with particularly good base saves (4 or better before the bonus) instead flip to auto-fail. That makes high-level bosses particularly susceptible to save-or-lose effects, as long as they're not immune to them. Sarevok in 2.6 has base saves 1 in all categories, so he auto-fails all saves at LoB difficulty. And as of 2.6, he's not immune to anything; he just has some damage resistances (90% elemental, 50% missile), and that's it.

    Against non-LoB Sarevok, you'd have to hit him with Greater Malison and Doom, and be casting with an Invoker, in order for him to have any chance of failing the Chromatic Orb save.
  • YigorYigor Member Posts: 805
    edited September 2023
    jmerry wrote: »
    Against non-LoB Sarevok, you'd have to hit him with Greater Malison and Doom, and be casting with an Invoker, in order for him to have any chance of failing the Chromatic Orb save.

    Oh well, the LoB is hard enough. Fortunately, there are some bugs to make it a bit easier. 😜 If someone searchs for a real challenge, he should try to complete the Black Pits 2 on LoB. 😼
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,881
    edited September 2023
    Yigor wrote: »
    Oh well, the LoB is hard enough. Fortunately, there are some bugs to make it a bit easier. 😜 If someone searchs for a real challenge, he should try to complete the Black Pits 2 on LoB. 😼
    Including the "Lesser Clay Golem" that splits into two copies of itself when it dies at LoB difficulty, unless you level-drain it sufficiently. And you have to kill ten instances of that golem even if the fight is functioning normally. Because sometimes, the bugs are not on your side.
    (It is possible to pick up a level-draining weapon for this fight, in the form of Blackrazor. You just have to get it instead of the "better" Celestial Fury, as the item reward for the last fight in tier 2.)
  • YigorYigor Member Posts: 805
    edited September 2023
    jmerry wrote: »
    Yigor wrote: »
    Oh well, the LoB is hard enough. Fortunately, there are some bugs to make it a bit easier. 😜 If someone searchs for a real challenge, he should try to complete the Black Pits 2 on LoB. 😼
    Including the "Lesser Clay Golem" that splits into two copies of itself when it dies at LoB difficulty, unless you level-drain it sufficiently. And you have to kill ten instances of that golem even if the fight is functioning normally. Because sometimes, the bugs are not on your side.
    (It is possible to pick up a level-draining weapon for this fight, in the form of Blackrazor. You just have to get it instead of the "better" Celestial Fury, as the item reward for the last fight in tier 2.)

    Interesting. My best result in BP2 at LoB is a solo Bersrker9/Mage26, who advanced to Tier IV-1. So, I have somehow beaten those Clay Golems, but I don't remember now. 🤔

    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/87064/solo-black-pits-2-on-lob-difficulty

    P.S. Oh, it seems that I have found details of the fight with Greater Clay Golem:

    "Tier III-2: The quickest win in few seconds: Planetar to distract it + Imprisonment." ⛓️
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