Balthazar Fight Bugged: Insta-death on Easy

Mythdracon

In Throne of Bhaal, we are fighting Balthazar, and he and his monks are all bugged to do way more damage than is actually recorded. For example, a monk dealing 3 damage insta-killed a rogue (and yes, we are leveled up and all that). What causes this bug? Even on Easy mode we die that quickly. This is a major game-breaking bug and it's sad that Beamdog hasn't fixed this (and the many other bugs we encountered on the way).

jmerry

Not a bug. Balthazar's elite monks have the Quivering Palm ability, and know how to use it.

Quivering Palm: For the next 5 seconds, anyone hit by this monk's unarmed attacks dies unless they succeed on a save vs spell (0 modifier).

Want to protect against that? Improve your spell saves, or buff your party members with Death Ward.

Mythdracon

Ok, good to know. It was just weird that 3 crushing damage just smites them that quickly.

Mythdracon

Also, you would think that on Easy they adjust that ability?

FredN

The Big B's monks are no joke. I sort of cheesed them by sending in a crapton of summonses first. 4 skeletal warriors and a Fire Elemental distracted them. Remember, once an enemy is fighting a foe, they tend to ignore everyone else until that target dies. Send in summoned allies to attack first, then whack the enemy with spells and ranged attacks while they are occupied with your allies. Have extra summonses in reserve and replace any that get killed. Mind you, the foe is still no joke, and they may well land some nasty attacks on your crew, but as long as your MC survives, the damage done can be cured. (Do have the Rod of Resurrection in your inventory if you aren't a cleric).

jmerry

Difficulty in most parts of the game only does a few things.
- Damage dealt to the party scales. Reduced at low difficulty, increased at high difficulty. (There's an option to turn this off)
- At Easy, the party gets a +6 luck bonus. That's effectively +6 to attack rolls, your weapon attacks almost always deal maximum damage, you take minimum damage from most variable-damage spells, and some other less important bonuses. But saving throws aren't affected.
- At Easy or Normal, learning a spell from a scroll automatically succeeds.
- "Story Mode" makes the party virtually immortal, with 25 strength and extra acid damage on their attacks.
- "Legacy of Bhaal" massively buffs all enemies with extra HP, more levels, better THAC0, better saves, and better AC.

And that's it. Only SoD really puts in additional difficulty-dependent bits (abilities that are only scripted to be used at high difficulty, enemies that only show up at high difficulty, etc).

FredN

Oh, and even when all his monks are taking a dirt nap, Balthazaar is one of those annoying final bosses who just won't quit. He seems to have an absurd amount of healing available.

Mythdracon

Also, you would think that on Easy they adjust that ability?

jmerry wrote: »

Difficulty in most parts of the game only does a few things.
- Damage dealt to the party scales. Reduced at low difficulty, increased at high difficulty. (There's an option to turn this off)
- At Easy, the party gets a +6 luck bonus. That's effectively +6 to attack rolls, your weapon attacks almost always deal maximum damage, you take minimum damage from most variable-damage spells, and some other less important bonuses. But saving throws aren't affected.
- At Easy or Normal, learning a spell from a scroll automatically succeeds.
- "Story Mode" makes the party virtually immortal, with 25 strength and extra acid damage on their attacks.
- "Legacy of Bhaal" massively buffs all enemies with extra HP, more levels, better THAC0, better saves, and better AC.

And that's it. Only SoD really puts in additional difficulty-dependent bits (abilities that are only scripted to be used at high difficulty, enemies that only show up at high difficulty, etc).

Got it. Wow, so Easy really isn't that Easy after all.

FredN wrote: »

Oh, and even when all his monks are taking a dirt nap, Balthazaar is one of those annoying final bosses who just won't quit. He seems to have an absurd amount of healing available.

Yeah, eventually my friends and I got him down after summoning a planetar. Weirdly our high level spike traps didn't seem to do much damage to the monks at all.