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watchers keep maze room with tahazzar the dead magic from the dead magic room 'sticks'

pukingdogpukingdog Member Posts: 25
edited April 2023 in Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
i'm in watchers keep in the room with tahazzar (the first demon), and the dead magic from the precious room sticks on the party members for a short time, making it so that i cant cast any spell at the start of the fight. they just fail. the baddies then start carving through my party like its made out of butter 8-)

I dont remember this being the case in previous playthroughs, tho i now play on hard and used to play on core rules.

this not being able to cast realy f@#$s me up 8-)

tried taking potions in the prev room, but they dont work (as they dont at the start of the fight either)
I'm a bit at a loss here lol

party has about 3.5 mil points and consists of me (thief/mafe) , aerie, imo, nalia, keldorn and anomen.
Anomen is wielding the flail of the ages, me the +3 celestial fury and the +2 katana wich gives some extra spells, keldorn the +5 greatword, imo the +4 firetooth and nalia the bow of ghesen. Aerie has a +4 sling, but is mostly in the party for casting only 8)

ps: i only use the mod rogue rebalancing, but i dont think that changes anything concerning this.

any ideas?
Thanks
Post edited by pukingdog on

Comments

  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 4,176
    It's just game mechanics here. The dead magic zone, in the current version of the game, is handled by the area script casting a "DEAD_MAGIC_AREA" spell. That spell blocks spellcasting for 14 seconds, and the area script casts it every 14 seconds. When you leave the area, it'll be anywhere between no time and about two rounds before you'll be able to cast again.
  • pukingdogpukingdog Member Posts: 25
    edited April 2023
    ok thanks for the info.
    i managed to get back to the start area, and i'l try do a countdown in the dead magic room 8-)

    lol made it 8-). somehow managed to get in without the debuff by going straight through the dead magic room to the demon room. when he was done talking the debuff was gone 8-). lucky me

    ps: what i noticed in the next dead magic room whas that you can see the debuff reapply in the portaits.
    I counted down to 10 after it reapplied and then went through the portal to the next room, and it was gone to 8-)
    Post edited by pukingdog on
  • JLEJLE Member Posts: 61
    edited January 10
    The Tahazzar room is really annoying if you're trying to play a Good-aligned party.

    (1) Both entrances into the room are from Dead Magic rooms, so there's no way to pre-buff with anything - haste, invisibility, even stoneskin for your mages.

    (2) The fact that you're changing zone, means no bringing summons *with* you.

    (3) The Dead Magic effect from the previous room can stick around for a few seconds - certainly you can't expect to get any spells off before the dialogue starts, you may not even succeed for the first round after the dialogue

    (4) Being good-aligned means you don't get the option of talking Tahazzar out of a fight, so the fight with a horde of demons is going to start with you unbuffed.

    (5) And there's no avoiding this room since Tahazzar has one of the portal gems you need.

    (Whereas for Karashur, there is ONE safe room you can buff in, before going into that room: the other entrances to Kara's room are from wild magic zones but there's one entrance from a normal zone.)

    The same's true *of* the Dead Magic rooms on either side of this one - the one with the Pit Fiend in, it will Fear you immediately and you can't be buffed with Remove Fear, so at least one of your characters is going to get panicked and run around tripping the traps - possibly more than once - before your thief can even run in (well, walk in - no Haste, remember) mid-fight. And again your mages aren't going to be Stoneskinned because even if a Contingency fires to cast the buff, it'll be dispelled at once.

    All in all... I would say this is not exactly good design here. Unfortunately this is one of the most annoying bits of the original game - Bioware's fault, not Beamdog's.
  • atcDaveatcDave Member Posts: 2,827
    I always play a good aligned party, I’ve never found this to be noteworthy or difficult. I usually do this late in the game, so my team is pretty capable and has lot’s of good gear. Perhaps you’re just hitting it too early in the game?
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 4,176
    JLE wrote: »
    (4) Being good-aligned means you don't get the option of talking Tahazzar out of a fight, so the fight with a horde of demons is going to start with you unbuffed.
    It's a bit more complex than that. The actual conditions that guarantee a fight:
    - The protagonist is lawful good and either a cleric or a paladin.
    - The person the demon is talking to is either good or lawful neutral.

    Who does the demon talk to? Whoever's first visible and closest. That should be the character at the front of your formation, since you're in range the moment you go through the portal and Tahazzar sees through invisibility.

    So, if you have a neutral character in the party (true in most good runs), you can shuffle your marching order around and avoid the instant fight. Unless you're a lawful good holy warrior, in which case fighting the demon is mandatory and your character would demand it anyway.
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