Also, I know this isn't really a bounty hunter, but it is an early solo fight: Silke
She always gets off lightning bolt and just destroys someone. According to eeKeeper she is a level ten (10!!!) bard
I find her harder than any of the others to be honest.
Holy crap. 10d6 Lightning Bolt against a level 1 party? That's some straight up wacky game balance right there.
This run when I fought her I wasn't able to finish her before she got the Lightning Bolt off, but Charname actually made the save (14 vs spell) and took 6 damage (at 7 max HP!)- now that I know her level, that's an incredibly lucky roll- something on the order of a 2% chance of survival if I did my math right (7/20 chance of saving multiplied by .067 chance of the roll being below 7).
...The lightning bolt then ricocheted off of a building and killed two of the innocent gem guys. I still got thanked by the lone survivor for the rescue, though.
@mitchfork whenever she shoots it (usually destroys Imoen or kills/leaves Khalid with minimal health running around in circles) I think about where it ended up. Its in the middle of a crowded town! For all we know poor old Firebead is off for a stroll to the bookstore when ZAP thats it. She has to be the most evil character around.
I think one time I survived the lightning bolt then it came back around killed one of my NPCs AND Silke herself.
I looked her up now: she knows Improved Invisibility. At a time when your characters shoot one measley magic missile.
I voted the Friendly Arm person for the simple fact that I died to that jerk probably 20 times when I first played this game at a friends house. Didn't help that I used all my potions and lost Xzar/Monty to a bear before I got there.
Now that I know how to play though, none of them are remotely dangerous.
Tarnesh is tough if you play solo. If i play an arcane caster he is ultra easy (just use shield and he cannot do anything. Shield also destroys nimbul by the way), if you play a backstabber, just pray you will hit and kill him. For everything else, i just avoid the fight until i can protect myself against fear.
Neira is also hard unless you have a cleric with you (command...)
Nimbul is weak (unless you fight him with no hitpoints, spells remaining)
I personally would never like the idea of backstabbing Tarnesh, since I think it is the ultimate metagaming.
Gorion: "If we get separated, make your way to the Friendly Arm's Inn. There you will meet my freinds Khalid and Jaheira. you can trust them " Charname: ummm... what will they look like? G: They will be adventurers obviously
goes to Friendly Arm Inn... Charname: "hmmm... here is the first adventurer looking guy I see. Hey, Imoen, what did Gorion say we should do again?" "I dunno, that was before I met up with you"
stabbity stab stab
...hmmm... "hey Xzar, does this guy look like a 'Khalid' to you? He doesn't have any ID on him"
I think I'd roll Tarnesh for the sheer amount of times he's made me reload. I don't attack him when neutral, as my character doesn't know he's going to turn out to be crazy, so... I go talk to him, allowing him generally to get off horror and send half my party panicking. If Imoen's okay, I certainly use her probably stolen wand, but if she's not, that's lost as she runs around like a maniac as Tarnesh switches over to magic missile.
Nimbul has probably caused me the more overall frustration, though, simply due to me forgetting he's there, stumbling back to Nashkel after the Amazons and all the kobolds and their leader, and me going poof. Bah, Nimbul. Bah.
Still no votes for poor Shank and Carbos... not that anyone's surprised... but my first one with SCS was very short because of these guys. They use poison weapon so a single hit means death, and if you break line of sight with them they will instantly hide in shadows and then you are screwed. The one at the top (Shank, I think?) has a bookshelf in his room and my character ran around the corner to get some distance for his darts, only to find that he didn't follow and was nowhere to be seen. He reappeared a couple of seconds later, dealing a hilarious amount of backstab damage to my level 1 sorcerer and then poisoning the corpse.
I hate Nimbul with a passion. In my previous scs game he petrified and then gibbed Imoen with a two chromatic orbs in one sequencer. (I think I have increased the levels of enemy mages before installation so I am to blame) And I play no reload. I really missed Immy in that playthrough! And killing Nimbul felt bittersweet.
karlat, he's just so tanky. so much AC, so much HP, grandmastery with axes. i plain don't go in the red sheaf inn because of him and the only saving grace is that there's no real need to go in there anyway.
Neira wins by a small margen, mostly because I usually take a more or less straight route to the Friendly Arm, and then on to Nashkel. So the party is still level 1 or 2 when we meet her, making her a hard adversary for a low-level party.
Nimbul is a harder opponent but by the time I fight him, the party has done a few side quests plus obviously the Nashkel Mines and is level 3 or 4, maybe even 5.
Nimbul. After returning from the Nashkel mines, being all beaten and tired, you go towards the inn thinking "Alright, time to get some rest finally." Nimbul is like: "No, you won't."
the amazons weren't solo, but they were definitely the toughest for me. Especially if you exit the mines right after beating Mulahey's skeleton army and have low health/no spells
I remember Imoen scouted area to the west and only found some wild dogs that went down quickly before i wanted to head north.It was a hell of a surprise when i walked straight into a hail of arrows and all kinds of crazy spell casting.With no haste you will lose that battle every time.
@bengoshi, backstabbing tarnesh is clearly metagaming but casting shield in advance also is.
not doing any of these "tactics" (not much possibility at level 1) results in a pure luck battle, (basically reloading until you interrupt him or make the save against horror).
You can also chose not to fight him at low level but that's also metagaming
I clearly prefer to metagame a little rather than turn the game into a reload feast.
Surprised that Karlat is so ignored. Possibly because he's not right in your way? Either way, I find him as difficult as Tarnesh. Walking into the Red Sheaf still on level 1 with only scale mail is asking for a quick death.
I definitely say Tarnesh, especially with scs. When he starts with mirror image and about the only thing that can interrupt him in the begging is if a command hits. Otherwise he just sleeps/horrors in the beginning and you just get killed with MM or he beats you to death with his quarterstaff.
What level is prot fear? I've never really used it, but I would suggest it could be roleplayed without feeling as much like metagaming before tarnesh:
Your foster father has been killed. He instructed you to make haste to the Friendly Arm In, where you will meet friends of his, but he gave those instructions before meeting his untimely end just outside Candlekeep. As you approach the walls of the inn, your stomach flutters, and you look for a way to calm your fears...
(Well, it seems more reasonable to me than chunking the first dude to approach your party without waiting for him to speak first, anyway...)
Level 1 for Clerics, Bards, Cavaliers. Level 3 (level 2 spell) for mages if you can find a scroll. Or you could chug that potion of clear mind if you got it from Winthrop's second floor.
Comments
I usually don't do the mines until level 4-ish so Nimbul is usually easy to dispose of.
Unless you were joking. Tone doesn't carry across very well on the internet.
This run when I fought her I wasn't able to finish her before she got the Lightning Bolt off, but Charname actually made the save (14 vs spell) and took 6 damage (at 7 max HP!)- now that I know her level, that's an incredibly lucky roll- something on the order of a 2% chance of survival if I did my math right (7/20 chance of saving multiplied by .067 chance of the roll being below 7).
...The lightning bolt then ricocheted off of a building and killed two of the innocent gem guys. I still got thanked by the lone survivor for the rescue, though.
*hangs head in shame*
I think one time I survived the lightning bolt then it came back around killed one of my NPCs AND Silke herself.
I looked her up now: she knows Improved Invisibility. At a time when your characters shoot one measley magic missile.
Now that I know how to play though, none of them are remotely dangerous.
If i play an arcane caster he is ultra easy (just use shield and he cannot do anything. Shield also destroys nimbul by the way), if you play a backstabber, just pray you will hit and kill him. For everything else, i just avoid the fight until i can protect myself against fear.
Neira is also hard unless you have a cleric with you (command...)
Nimbul is weak (unless you fight him with no hitpoints, spells remaining)
Gorion: "If we get separated, make your way to the Friendly Arm's Inn. There you will meet my freinds Khalid and Jaheira. you can trust them "
Charname: ummm... what will they look like?
G: They will be adventurers obviously
goes to Friendly Arm Inn...
Charname: "hmmm... here is the first adventurer looking guy I see. Hey, Imoen, what did Gorion say we should do again?"
"I dunno, that was before I met up with you"
stabbity stab stab
...hmmm... "hey Xzar, does this guy look like a 'Khalid' to you? He doesn't have any ID on him"
Nimbul has probably caused me the more overall frustration, though, simply due to me forgetting he's there, stumbling back to Nashkel after the Amazons and all the kobolds and their leader, and me going poof. Bah, Nimbul. Bah.
For me, the result of the first attempt of Tarnesh fight always define the following:
1) this particular Charname has a chance in the future
2) this particular Charname will likely disappoint me
I have a habit to evaluate if my character is good enough when this battle is won without a need to reload.
Shank DID just end my 81 point real-life ability scores run. I must confess, I "reloaded", (I hadn't yet actually saved).
Nimbul is a harder opponent but by the time I fight him, the party has done a few side quests plus obviously the Nashkel Mines and is level 3 or 4, maybe even 5.
i wanted to head north.It was a hell of a surprise when i walked straight into a hail of arrows and all kinds of crazy spell casting.With no haste you will lose that battle every time.
not doing any of these "tactics" (not much possibility at level 1) results in a pure luck battle, (basically reloading until you interrupt him or make the save against horror).
You can also chose not to fight him at low level but that's also metagaming
I clearly prefer to metagame a little rather than turn the game into a reload feast.
Your foster father has been killed. He instructed you to make haste to the Friendly Arm In, where you will meet friends of his, but he gave those instructions before meeting his untimely end just outside Candlekeep. As you approach the walls of the inn, your stomach flutters, and you look for a way to calm your fears...
(Well, it seems more reasonable to me than chunking the first dude to approach your party without waiting for him to speak first, anyway...)