It is hard to understand because it's simply not true. But you can show me your minimum to 0 risk tactic with Sorc vs Belhifet on LoB any day I'm open to new ideas.
I thought by this time the part "top level and gear" was clear. If this was a BG1 thread I could understand, but here we're considering the end of the saga.
@semiticgod you are just misinforming ppl saying that every character can approach every challenge with possibly 0 risks.
But since you bring it up: With no mods/components that alter spells or classes, so just with the improved AI and enemies stats/skills, I'm sure you won't be able to finish the Twisted Rune on insane with SCS and Tactics with a solo Beastmaster. Same goes for your aforementioned WS.
@SpaceInvader I've got to admit that until now I did not get what you were on about, but now I finally caught the part about top level and gear. (Yes I'm slow)
From my experince BG2 with top level and gear is much easier than BG1 with limited xp and gear and specifically Belhifet is the hardest encounter in the eintire game for many classes (on LoB).
Twisted Rune is not that hard especially on Insane but I have to say I have very limited experience with WS and Rangers, but the WS should not really be a problem, since it can just tank the beholder and use PfU.
The easiest characters to play, at least for no-reloads, are those which are engaging enough that you keep focused. No character is invincible if you're not paying proper attention.
The easiest characters to play, at least for no-reloads, are those which are engaging enough that you keep focused. No character is invincible if you're not paying proper attention.
So true @Mantis37 On a side note I just tested a dwarven WS since I never seriously played the class and was shocked to see they actually can use healing potions, something I always thought holds them back. I'm gonna play around with it a little bit to see what it's capable of and then go to Twisted Rune, but I usually play on LoB (with SCS) and so far Insane difficulty is just a joke for a fighter class since the damage output is unreal.
Just did the Twisted Rune fight with WS and even tho I needed a couple of tries it was very simple in the end. The equip was mostly very simple and available in Act 2 with the exception of the Human Flesh +5 which in Hindsight I didn't even need. Vhailors Helm for Simulacrum, Balduran's Helm straight after Celestial Fury and Equalizer for melee, any other combo works here much more important was Sling of Everard for ranged. I also had Shield of Balduran for ranged but it didn't stop the anti magic component of beholder rays, so any other Shield would have worked, since the WS is 104% magic resistant with the armor. Boots of speed for ... speed and Rod of Resurrection for healing (only used it once). i entered the room with one PfU in Quick Slot, cast Simulacrum and then buffed both copy and PC with DuhM and Hardiness. For triggering the talk I went to the southeast corner of the room which is quite important, ideally the only enemies who see you are the vampire and the Mage try to avoid the beholder and ranged guy having line of sight when the fight starts. The simulacrum needs to cast PfU on the PC right when the talk is about to start (you hear a little sound effect before the red circle of the lich appears) if you cast PfU too early the talk will not trigger. Right after the enemies appear cast GWW with the PC and focus fire the mage with sling (cast GWW on Simulacrum too as soon as the next round starts, ignore the vampire attacking the simul). The mage will get spellfailure since it's firszt protection is only Improved Mantle and you can obliterate the mage in 2 or 3 rounds, now switch to melee and kill the vampire (in my try there were also 2 summoned wolves). If you run slightly west both the beholder and ranged guy will come into sight, attack the beholder first to trigger one of many Pfmw and then kill the ranged guy with sling and GWW the clone will die during this but the ranged dude dies in 1 or 2 rounds. Now you just have to keep slinging away at the beholder which will not only remove PfU but also stay alive for quite some time due to several PfmW (on SCS) as soon as he runs out of Pfmw Gww and kill it in seconds. For the lich you could actually use your own PfU (only the simuls one is gone) but it will summon a cornugon that removes magic. After I killed the cornugon (first time I took damge in this fight and had to use rod of cheese for healing) I didn't bother using another PfU and just meleed the lich whose PfmWs were gone and who due to Gww almost immediately got spell failure and died shortly after.
I might record a video on this later with only Act 2 equip and another weapon than Celestial Furry.
@Victor_Creed_SFV I specifically said "and Tactics". If you really manage to beat the Twisted Rune with a WS on insane with SCS and Tactics I'd like to see it
And beat the encounter on Tactics. The rune Assassins are cute but sometimes kill themselves on their own skull trap. (Even the vampire killed herself on it). the usage of staff of the magi from the mage is cute but WS is op and spell failure applies even vs Pfmw so the fight just lasts a little longer. Video will follow soon.
@Victor_Creed_SFV It seems you didn't give them HLA (alacrity, planetars, the Lich using Wish, etc.) with the component HLA for all High-lvl mages and the cheese teleport field/instant dispel magic no matter your position or PfU from Tactics.
Well done, but you installed only some of the components and that's not even close.
I have HLAs for all mages but the enemies only used it before I Installed Tactics and before my own strategy was perfected. Without Tactics my strategy as mentioned above was to put spell failure on the mage instantly (and have PfU vs the lich) and this was specifically because the planetars annoyed the living shit out of me. That's why I said Tactics seemed a lot easier to me (even tho it takes much longer). The lich does have quite a few spell failures at the start no idea if he tries planetar or not.
edit: I just rechecked the fight without putting any spell failure on the lich and mage and they still didn't use their HLAs. I think the problem here is having installed Tactics over SCS I might have to reinstall SCS for it to work.
I reinstalled SCS and HLAS for Mages. I also installed the smarter mages and liches component of Tactics. I then restarted the encounter killed everything but the lich and mage and also made sure I never hit mage or lich so they don't get casting failure. They both summoned about 6 Mordi swords each but never planetar or any other HLA. After they wasted all spells this is what it looks like:
I'm pretty sure SCS Mage HLAs and Tactics Twisted Rune are not compatible.
But either way with 16 charges of Rod of renewal I lived thru 12 Mordy swords and I'm pretty sure HLAs would not have changed the outcome (I also didn't have PFU on)
First of all the maximum number of charges on that Rod of Resurrection is 10, unless you use ShadowKeeper or some similar program ofc...
Second, they work, but I think you have to install them with BP-BGT. I had to install BP anyway because of some very old mod like Planar Sphere (very hard in solo) and TDD. I even fixed almost all their bugs. This is sofar the hardest settings I tried. My folder is 4GB, I wonder if I can upload it somewhere
BGT just doesn't work for me, too many bugs. Also you didn't seem to quite catch the point of the part of my post with the Rod of Resurrection, I used 16 charges of the Rod to tank thru both the mages and lichs spells and Mordi swords without ever retaliating back. In my above video where I put spellcasting failure on them they never got a single sword out and I used 3 charges of the rod at the very end and hardly got hit before that. My point was If their HLAs would have worked properly but I still fought back normally the result would not have been much different especially since on Insane you can actually kill a planetar before it casts heal, unlike on LOB.
I don't understand how you pretend to know anything of a class you just berely tried with settings you haven't even seen.
Anyway, back to topic: in this game spells are the strongest defense and most efficient offense. Sorcerers are the apex spell casters. That's how the game is structured since years.
Dunno, but a half-orc barbarian is a pretty solid character. Give it Defender of Earthhaven + Flail of Ages, Human Skin Armor, Belt of Inertial Barrier. 85-90% magic resistance, 50% MDR, and plenty of physical resistances (40% before Hardiness), as well as Greater Whirlwind and Hardness pretty much awesome. If the weapons are adjusted, can even have 100% MR%, but that's pretty much overdoing it, mages usually die in no time without it.
First of all the maximum number of charges on that Rod of Resurrection is 10, unless you use ShadowKeeper or some similar program ofc...
Second, they work, but I think you have to install them with BP-BGT. I had to install BP anyway because of some very old mod like Planar Sphere (very hard in solo) and TDD. I even fixed almost all their bugs. This is sofar the hardest settings I tried. My folder is 4GB, I wonder if I can upload it somewhere
Just because you can install them, doesn't mean they work. I can install Tactics and SCS on BGT, but it doesn't mean the Tactics elements get SCS-ified, it just becomes a buggy installation, because things like mage and lich scripts overlap. My guess is that you end up with one overriding the other, and not working together.
The thing is, sorcerers aren't even the best class for exploits. The wild mage wins this contest, because nrd is the most bugtastic/exploity spell of them all, what with the weird wild surge mechanics. Next in line are bards and mage/thieves, who can combine traps with magic. Spike traps are ridiculous, spike traps that bypass the trap and setting limitations break the game.
Btw, your sorcerer misses out on one of the most devastating spell combinations (in original BG2, maybe EE changed that). The irony is that it's not even an exploit.
The bunny bomb doesn't work in vanilla either. If it ever worked it must have been in a modded or unpatched game, but I suspect it just never has worked at all (I've never seen anyone successfully demonstrate it, though it's frequently referred to as a trick).
The idea behind it was that a separate version of ADHW would hit every creature on the map - hence the presence of the bunnies would greatly increase the number of ADHWs. However, I think this was always a mis-interpretation of the wording in the wish spell and in fact only a single ADHW affects every creature in the area. Here's a demonstration of that in vanilla BG2.
This is a Sorcerer spell list meant to face every possible encounter, but of course there may be more suitable spells for certain situations. Anyway, here we go:
Comments
@semiticgod you are just misinforming ppl saying that every character can approach every challenge with possibly 0 risks.
But since you bring it up:
With no mods/components that alter spells or classes, so just with the improved AI and enemies stats/skills, I'm sure you won't be able to finish the Twisted Rune on insane with SCS and Tactics with a solo Beastmaster.
Same goes for your aforementioned WS.
From my experince BG2 with top level and gear is much easier than BG1 with limited xp and gear and specifically Belhifet is the hardest encounter in the eintire game for many classes (on LoB).
Twisted Rune is not that hard especially on Insane but I have to say I have very limited experience with WS and Rangers, but the WS should not really be a problem, since it can just tank the beholder and use PfU.
On a side note I just tested a dwarven WS since I never seriously played the class and was shocked to see they actually can use healing potions, something I always thought holds them back.
I'm gonna play around with it a little bit to see what it's capable of and then go to Twisted Rune, but I usually play on LoB (with SCS) and so far Insane difficulty is just a joke for a fighter class since the damage output is unreal.
The equip was mostly very simple and available in Act 2 with the exception of the Human Flesh +5 which in Hindsight I didn't even need.
Vhailors Helm for Simulacrum, Balduran's Helm straight after Celestial Fury and Equalizer for melee, any other combo works here much more important was Sling of Everard for ranged. I also had Shield of Balduran for ranged but it didn't stop the anti magic component of beholder rays, so any other Shield would have worked, since the WS is 104% magic resistant with the armor.
Boots of speed for ... speed and Rod of Resurrection for healing (only used it once).
i entered the room with one PfU in Quick Slot, cast Simulacrum and then buffed both copy and PC with DuhM and Hardiness.
For triggering the talk I went to the southeast corner of the room which is quite important, ideally the only enemies who see you are the vampire and the Mage try to avoid the beholder and ranged guy having line of sight when the fight starts.
The simulacrum needs to cast PfU on the PC right when the talk is about to start (you hear a little sound effect before the red circle of the lich appears) if you cast PfU too early the talk will not trigger.
Right after the enemies appear cast GWW with the PC and focus fire the mage with sling (cast GWW on Simulacrum too as soon as the next round starts, ignore the vampire attacking the simul).
The mage will get spellfailure since it's firszt protection is only Improved Mantle and you can obliterate the mage in 2 or 3 rounds, now switch to melee and kill the vampire (in my try there were also 2 summoned wolves).
If you run slightly west both the beholder and ranged guy will come into sight, attack the beholder first to trigger one of many Pfmw and then kill the ranged guy with sling and GWW the clone will die during this but the ranged dude dies in 1 or 2 rounds.
Now you just have to keep slinging away at the beholder which will not only remove PfU but also stay alive for quite some time due to several PfmW (on SCS) as soon as he runs out of Pfmw Gww and kill it in seconds.
For the lich you could actually use your own PfU (only the simuls one is gone) but it will summon a cornugon that removes magic.
After I killed the cornugon (first time I took damge in this fight and had to use rod of cheese for healing) I didn't bother using another PfU and just meleed the lich whose PfmWs were gone and who due to Gww almost immediately got spell failure and died shortly after.
I might record a video on this later with only Act 2 equip and another weapon than Celestial Furry.
If you really manage to beat the Twisted Rune with a WS on insane with SCS and Tactics I'd like to see it
The vampire is already Tactics mode, not that it matters due to PfU.
edit just installed only the improved twisted rune by Tactics to save time hope that's enough.
The rune Assassins are cute but sometimes kill themselves on their own skull trap. (Even the vampire killed herself on it).
the usage of staff of the magi from the mage is cute but WS is op and spell failure applies even vs Pfmw so the fight just lasts a little longer.
Video will follow soon.
It seems you didn't give them HLA (alacrity, planetars, the Lich using Wish, etc.) with the component HLA for all High-lvl mages and the cheese teleport field/instant dispel magic no matter your position or PfU from Tactics.
Well done, but you installed only some of the components and that's not even close.
Without Tactics my strategy as mentioned above was to put spell failure on the mage instantly (and have PfU vs the lich) and this was specifically because the planetars annoyed the living shit out of me.
That's why I said Tactics seemed a lot easier to me (even tho it takes much longer).
The lich does have quite a few spell failures at the start no idea if he tries planetar or not.
I just rechecked the fight without putting any spell failure on the lich and mage and they still didn't use their HLAs.
I think the problem here is having installed Tactics over SCS I might have to reinstall SCS for it to work.
I also installed the smarter mages and liches component of Tactics.
I then restarted the encounter killed everything but the lich and mage and also made sure I never hit mage or lich so they don't get casting failure.
They both summoned about 6 Mordi swords each but never planetar or any other HLA.
After they wasted all spells this is what it looks like:
I'm pretty sure SCS Mage HLAs and Tactics Twisted Rune are not compatible.
But either way with 16 charges of Rod of renewal I lived thru 12 Mordy swords and I'm pretty sure HLAs would not have changed the outcome (I also didn't have PFU on)
Second, they work, but I think you have to install them with BP-BGT.
I had to install BP anyway because of some very old mod like Planar Sphere (very hard in solo) and TDD.
I even fixed almost all their bugs.
This is sofar the hardest settings I tried.
My folder is 4GB, I wonder if I can upload it somewhere
Also you didn't seem to quite catch the point of the part of my post with the Rod of Resurrection, I used 16 charges of the Rod to tank thru both the mages and lichs spells and Mordi swords without ever retaliating back.
In my above video where I put spellcasting failure on them they never got a single sword out and I used 3 charges of the rod at the very end and hardly got hit before that.
My point was If their HLAs would have worked properly but I still fought back normally the result would not have been much different especially since on Insane you can actually kill a planetar before it casts heal, unlike on LOB.
Anyway, back to topic: in this game spells are the strongest defense and most efficient offense. Sorcerers are the apex spell casters. That's how the game is structured since years.
Give it Defender of Earthhaven + Flail of Ages, Human Skin Armor, Belt of Inertial Barrier. 85-90% magic resistance, 50% MDR, and plenty of physical resistances (40% before Hardiness), as well as Greater Whirlwind and Hardness pretty much awesome.
If the weapons are adjusted, can even have 100% MR%, but that's pretty much overdoing it, mages usually die in no time without it.
What are the most devastating spell combinations?
The idea behind it was that a separate version of ADHW would hit every creature on the map - hence the presence of the bunnies would greatly increase the number of ADHWs. However, I think this was always a mis-interpretation of the wording in the wish spell and in fact only a single ADHW affects every creature in the area. Here's a demonstration of that in vanilla BG2.