I just checked, and currently Edwin is wearing something called the Robe of Invocation. No clue where he got it from ... way back in SoA probably ... but it reduces the amount of damage he takes from magical elemental attacks like cold, fire, etc. Fairly useful considering his low health total. You also have stuff like robe of the Evil Archmage, the Robe of Vechna and some other doodad I can't recall offhand. Probably that elven chain thing you mentioned. If you need more than 4 mage garments, you have gone way overboard in the magic user department.
I'm pretty sure that robe is from Neera's quest in SoA. I completely forgot that existed. I definitely agree with the last part.
.....Oh crap; now you have gotten me wondering if I can do an all mage campaign. Alignments would be all over the place, but we'd have Edwin, Imoen, Nalyia, Jan and Neera. As the MC I'd probably pick a sorceror. We'd be total cannon fodder against melee opponents, so we would need to learn a crapton of summoning spells. Skeletal warriors are always a crowd pleaser. Warriors? Thieves? Bah, who needs them!
.....No! Must ... resist. Cannot give in ... hold steady Fred! You can do it! Just ... say ... no ... to mutant BG campaigns!
Reports are in, and they say 9/10 melee opponents have a hard time hitting through stoneskin and protection from normal/magical weapons .
.....Balthazar was no pushover ... at the end of the battle with him, 4 of my 6 guys were dead. He had a huge amount of potions of extra healing, and had some very weird OP monk attacks that did a crapton of AOE damage. (Including damage to his own monk buddies). Thank the Gods for the Rod of Resurrection!
.....Then we had to deal with the Ravager. This bozo was a bit of a problem, until I had myself and Dorn toss up hardiness and then Greater Whirlwind his butt. His blade barrier almost never touched us, since we got a saving throw against it once we were inside that perimeter. Mind you, he has a gazillion HP, is totally immune to any elemental damage, laughs at low level spells, has high magic resistance and can only be hit with +4 or better weapons. Not exactly a pushover.
::spoiler alert::
::spoiler alert::
::spoiler alert::
.....There is absolutely no point in attacking the Ravager's bone buddies; even if you kill one they just respawn. Just ignore them. By the end of the fight, I had everyone bashing away at him. The bone fiends killed off both Edwin and Saravok, but they both had boots of the Cheetah and ran around the battlefield, making the bone fiends waste time chasing them. Note: Once secondary enemies decide on a target, they concentrate on that target, and cannot be distracted. Their valiant sacrifice bought time for the rest of us to eventually kick the Ravager's butt. Whew! What a squeaker! Pro tip: pump everybody up with potions of speed prior to entering the room. Being super fast in a climactic combat like this is pretty valuable.
.....Balthazar was no pushover ... at the end of the battle with him, 4 of my 6 guys were dead. He had a huge amount of potions of extra healing, and had some very weird OP monk attacks that did a crapton of AOE damage. (Including damage to his own monk buddies). Thank the Gods for the Rod of Resurrection!
.....Then we had to deal with the Ravager. This bozo was a bit of a problem, until I had myself and Dorn toss up hardiness and then Greater Whirlwind his butt. His blade barrier almost never touched us, since we got a saving throw against it once we were inside that perimeter. Mind you, he has a gazillion HP, is totally immune to any elemental damage, laughs at low level spells, has high magic resistance and can only be hit with +4 or better weapons. Not exactly a pushover.
::spoiler alert::
::spoiler alert::
::spoiler alert::
.....There is absolutely no point in attacking the Ravager's bone buddies; even if you kill one they just respawn. Just ignore them. By the end of the fight, I had everyone bashing away at him. The bone fiends killed off both Edwin and Saravok, but they both had boots of the Cheetah and ran around the battlefield, making the bone fiends waste time chasing them. Note: Once secondary enemies decide on a target, they concentrate on that target, and cannot be distracted. Their valiant sacrifice bought time for the rest of us to eventually kick the Ravager's butt. Whew! What a squeaker! Pro tip: pump everybody up with potions of speed prior to entering the room. Being super fast in a climactic combat like this is pretty valuable.
I had no idea that the secondary enemies would keep going after one guy, that's pretty useful information. Thank you for all of the tips!
.....Well, In this particular scenario, the Bone Fiends are spawned by the Ravager itself. I have no idea how they choose their individual targets, but I suspect it's whomever is nearest. But if you want to confirm this, just have whomever they are attacking run all over the room; they should pursue them, ignoring anyone else. I do believe this is a general AI programming thing, since I have seen it happen in earlier scenarios. The main Baddie in any situation seems to be a bit more flexible; in this case, Ravager went after whomever it thought was most vulnerable. Additionally, enemies with ranged attacks seem to have different priorities, and I am not really sure exactly how these function, but I generally just have my melee fighters close with them and whack away.
.....I do recall one fight where Dorn with Firetooth was atacking several foes capable of ranged attacks. Now, Dorn is no weakie, but their return attacks wounded him so badly that Viconia had to hit him with not one but two total heal spells just to keep him alive. Note: Viconia is certainly capable of engaging in melee, but sometimes it is more useful to have her pop a sanctuary spell and toss heals at the frontline fighters. Also she is physically weak, so I give her some sort of strength boosting item ... usually some sort of Girdle ... so she can wield the Flail of Ages, although the +5 version of Runehammer might be better depending on exactly what we are fighting. (Among other things, Runehammer protects against level drain, does extra damage vs Undead, and its wielder can cast Mass Heal once a day).
.....Parenthetically, let me say that I found it weirdly ironic that I was wielding the (+6 version) weapon called Ravager against an enemy who was literally the Ravager. How surreal is that?
Comments
I'm pretty sure that robe is from Neera's quest in SoA. I completely forgot that existed. I definitely agree with the last part.
Reports are in, and they say 9/10 melee opponents have a hard time hitting through stoneskin and protection from normal/magical weapons
.....Then we had to deal with the Ravager. This bozo was a bit of a problem, until I had myself and Dorn toss up hardiness and then Greater Whirlwind his butt. His blade barrier almost never touched us, since we got a saving throw against it once we were inside that perimeter. Mind you, he has a gazillion HP, is totally immune to any elemental damage, laughs at low level spells, has high magic resistance and can only be hit with +4 or better weapons. Not exactly a pushover.
::spoiler alert::
::spoiler alert::
::spoiler alert::
.....There is absolutely no point in attacking the Ravager's bone buddies; even if you kill one they just respawn. Just ignore them. By the end of the fight, I had everyone bashing away at him. The bone fiends killed off both Edwin and Saravok, but they both had boots of the Cheetah and ran around the battlefield, making the bone fiends waste time chasing them. Note: Once secondary enemies decide on a target, they concentrate on that target, and cannot be distracted. Their valiant sacrifice bought time for the rest of us to eventually kick the Ravager's butt. Whew! What a squeaker! Pro tip: pump everybody up with potions of speed prior to entering the room. Being super fast in a climactic combat like this is pretty valuable.
I had no idea that the secondary enemies would keep going after one guy, that's pretty useful information. Thank you for all of the tips!
.....I do recall one fight where Dorn with Firetooth was atacking several foes capable of ranged attacks. Now, Dorn is no weakie, but their return attacks wounded him so badly that Viconia had to hit him with not one but two total heal spells just to keep him alive. Note: Viconia is certainly capable of engaging in melee, but sometimes it is more useful to have her pop a sanctuary spell and toss heals at the frontline fighters. Also she is physically weak, so I give her some sort of strength boosting item ... usually some sort of Girdle ... so she can wield the Flail of Ages, although the +5 version of Runehammer might be better depending on exactly what we are fighting. (Among other things, Runehammer protects against level drain, does extra damage vs Undead, and its wielder can cast Mass Heal once a day).
.....Parenthetically, let me say that I found it weirdly ironic that I was wielding the (+6 version) weapon called Ravager against an enemy who was literally the Ravager. How surreal is that?