Coran's invisibility and fighting Saverok (aarrrgggh)

[Aubrey]

Well, the problem is that thought Coran is supposed to be invisible (drinking potion of Invisibility, wearing Cloak of non-detection and Dynaheir has also cast spell of non-detection to him) when he goes to the righ side of the temple to detect traps, and as soon as he is near Saverok's throne (it's throne, isn't it?)some mage --also invisible to me!-- starts casting offensive spells leaving me no time to prepare my party.
How can this be possible? And how Saverok or someone from his party can detect otherwise invisible Coran?

I've tried thrice to give this @#!* battle, but every time I was chewed up and spit out. Saverok's minions are quite annoying, especially that freak Tazok (I've thought I had killed him in the Bandit camp!?), and Saverok himself seems ubeatable. How many hp has he anyway?

TIA
Aubrey

[Silvanerian]

Sarevok has around 150 HP. When your Coran gets targetted by the enemy mage (Semaj, I suppose) has Sarevok made his speech? If this is the case, then you can't do anything about it, as it is a scripted event, meaning that any character that steps into Sarevoks line of view will be detected and spoken to.

It's somewhat difficult to give you advice when you haven't stated your party configuration. But you've mentioned that you have Dynaheir (a mage), so I would suggest that you dispel Sarevoks buffs (the haste is VERY annoying as it makes him incredible dangerous with many attacks and a fast pace)

Anyway, leave your party at the start of the map (where you enter) There are no traps there, and as you can't disarm the traps on the symbol of Bhall, it's better to stay there, and have some untrapped battleground.
So, leave you party, buff up, and send one character (the one with the boots of speed) up to trigger Sarevoks speech.
Now, after the speech Semaj will transport to around where your party is. Show him no mercy, as he casts some irritating spells.

The easy way to deal with this battle is to lure Sarevok out alone (with Semaj) and battle only those two. But with Angelo and Tazok, this battle is very challenging. Angelo keeps dimension door to the protagonist firing arrows of detonation, while himself and Sarevok are almost immune to the damage.

The key here is to buff up with potions. Don't be afraid to dispel your own buffs in order to get rid of Sarevoks haste - you should have plenty of potions at this time, and as this is the final battle, you don't have to save any.

Right. Sarevok's a bit weakened (not hasted) and Semaj should be dead.
Be advised that Sarevok is virtually immune to any spells you know exept magic missile. This is because he has very high immunities to lightning, Fire and acid. So your wands won't work on him either.
Alright.
Summons. Summon a lot of cannonfodder to hold Sarevok or Tazok at bay, while your archers fire arrows +2.
Remember that the battle is won when you've defeated Sarevok, so try to concentrate your attacks at him.

Anyway, you might wanna take a peak at the strategy guides here at GameBanshee, as there are many ways to beat him.

-Sylvanerian

[ernme4vr]

This was my taktik for the last fight.

Throughout the game, I had collected about 5 wands of fire . I took my protagonist, my mage to move along the right flank, and cast a fireball in moderation until I was hitting both Angelo and Tazok with spell. I continued this until they were dead. You get a good 20000 xp for killed them both. Then I used the same taktik on Semji, but the bastard came after me, so I lured him back to my party, and pasted him.

Then it was just Sarevok left. I brought him through the traps in the center(he tripped the MM ones). I had found the hidden bolts of Polymorphing and put them with a crossbow on Kivan (I like his pic!). Pelting S-dude with MM and those bolts, turned him into a squirrel, and beat the fight without losing a single person

- King of Hearts

[Aubrey]

Thanks a lot for your comments and the helpful hints. Just for the records, here is my party:

My pc: a fighter with Str 19 Dext up to 19. My str was high from the very beginning while my dext was 10 but I raised it a bit by using a tome and wearing the Gauntlets of Dexterity. (Coran didn’t need them, anyway; his dext was already 20 when I met him, and Imoen’s 17 is not that bad.)
Imoen: Thief dual-classed to Mage at L7.
Minsc (& Boo, of course)
Dynaheir
Coran
Brawen

Yes, I have all the good guys gathered together
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Silvanerian: When your Coran gets targetted by the enemy mage (Semaj, I suppose) has Saverok made his speech?
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Actually, the case was that neither had Saverok made his speech nor was Coran in his line of sight. Just invisible Semaj (it was him alright) started casting spells on invisible Coran and then teleported in front of my party. I’ve thought it to be a very strange incident indeed since there hadn’t been any “contact” with Saverok himself at all.

Now, as I’ve said I had tried this battle thrice and failed, BUT the fourth time was a triumphant one (oh, YES!). I had noticed that Saverok was immune to magic. Also, in the very first fight he had come right in front of my party, and guess what: my melee fighters had been cut into little pieces soon after, and poor Boo had become an orphan within less than a minute. I suppose my fatal mistake had been my eagerness to engage Saverok in close combat. So, this time I tried to keep him at bay.

I cast all the protection spells I had available on my party and drank all the potions I had collected so far: heroism, cloud giant strength, freedom, speed, etc. I sent Coran –around the left side of the temple this time-- with boots of speed to intrigue the dialogue while Brawen was summoning some skeletons in front of my party for extra protection. (Just a few seconds before the dialogue, Imoen had cast a stinking cloud on Saverok’s area –which in fact intrigued the dialogue-- and run away, and Coran, right after, fired a detonation arrow.)

When the battle began for good, Semaj stopped by to say hello, but Dynaheir had summoned some monsters which made a short case of him. Then Angelo started casting stinking clouds and fireballs, but fortunately my party members were far away… eh,… well, not all of them: Coran and Imoen were poisoned and fainted down; therefore, Brawen had little choice but to cast a Dispel Magic, which in fact dispelled all of my protections as well. No regrets though: we were in a desperate need of archers. Then Saverok stepped into the symbol of Bhaal, which, I think, activated a web spell, entrapping him along with his minions. Angelo didn’t manage to teleport, not once. J My pc and Imoen were shooting arrows of fire, ice and acid arrows; Coran fired all the arrows of dispelling he had at Saverok and Angelo, and continued with the 4 arrows of detonation left; Brawen kept summoning skeletons and Dynaheir her favourite monsters; and Minsc, well, with his throwing axe +2 (the one which can be used both as a melee and thrown axe) was really something. Imoen cast a few web spells (this way Angelo, Tazok AND Saverok were unable to move for a long, long time), and used her wand of fire a couple of times. Soon after the dialogue box informed me that Saverok was history, and the fight was over –and the game too, I’m afraid.

Anyway. I’ve talked toooo much, but I thought you would like to know the outcome of the battle, after all

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KoH: I had found the hidden bolts of Polymorphing and put them with a crossbow on Kivan (I like his pic!). Pelting S-dude with MM and those bolts, turned him into a squirrel, and beat the fight without losing a single person
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Should Dynaheir had used his wand of polymorphing would the results be the same? Because it didn’t cross my mind to do so, and I would have much enjoyed seeing Saverok being transformed into a squirrel

Cheers,
Aubrey

[Silvanerian]

I'm glad it all worked out nicely after all.

-Sylvanerian

[Aubrey]

Nicely yes, but no painlessly

By the way, does anyone know what was that hall full of statues where Saverok's essence decended to? I have posed the same question in another topic, too, but no answer so far. Any clues?

Cheers,
Aubrey

[Silvanerian]

@ Aubrey.

Do you have BGII: SoA and ToB?

If you do, then I won't spoil it for you.

-Sylvanerian

[Aubrey]

@Silvanerian

Please, be my guest

Right. I've both and gone throught them before BG. That's why I had decided to play BG, too. Now, it must have to do something with the story of the Bhaalspawns found in ToB, I think. Meaning that killing Saverok one Bhaalspawn was out already? (Sorry. I can't think further at the moment --not my lucky day, I suppose )

However, if that's the case, KoH was right in another post presumming that Bioware had the whole story planned ahead long long before SoA and ToB were out.

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Um-de-dum-de-dum...eh? A shower curtain? Oh... is only a cloak. Nasty pattern that. (??!! )

[Silvanerian]

Bioware probably had a great adventure in mind when they made BG1 indeed.
Here's what I think:
As most of the developers at BioWare are old AD&D players, I think they knew that if their adventure would become a great succes, it's always good to have a door open for a sequal.
But this has to be done with finesse, as the player of BGI shouldn't be getting the feeling: "Where's the rest of it?".
I think they did a great job at this, but I don't think they'd planned all of BGI, BGII and ToB out from the start.

I believe they'd had some sort of general idea of what could be done in a future sequal (SoA) as the whole Bhaal plot was already laid down.

SPOILERS (of ToB and BGI)

Now, the statues of what you see in the end movie represent all of the progeny of Bhaal. In ToB we're explained that when a Bhaalspawn die, his/her essence would return to the "source". (Bhaal himself in some sort of coma)
When enough essence was collected, the highpriest of Bhaal was to do a ritual to bring him back.
I think that the statues in the endmovie of BGI are the Throne of Bhaal as the developers saw it then - the lava thing in the buttom would be the already returned essence.
This is all in my opinion of course.

-Sylvanerian

[Aubrey]

What makes me skeptical about your theory, which is great nevertheless, is the fact we watched Saverok's essence to travel and descend to a hall of statues, and then Sarevok's statue being broken into pieces as soon as his essence got in touch with it.

I don't know; maybe I should watch it again

In any case, there has been a great job about BG series, and I'm really sorry that it has ended. Would it better if there was a small chance for your character continue his/her epic travels? I felt really sad at the end of ToB --you know, where the narrator is talking about your companions and what did they do with their lives afterwards?
Ah, I will definetely miss them!

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Coran: The essence of pleasure is spontaneity
Minsc: Swords, not words!