Hi all,
Well I have complained a lot about the "easiness" of BGII, and how it makes the game not very fun after Ch. 3 or so. I have, therefore, taken up a real challenge and am soloing the weakest class (BeastMaster) on the hardest setting (insane). Without reloads. Actually, I am finding it much more fun than soloing a Monk, and much much harder, requiring some good thinking on my part.
I am currently working through all the side quests before I hit spellhold...and it is tough. Very tough. At this point I know the BeastMaster class better than I ever wanted to. And yes, it DOES suck almost beyond belief.
If anyone would like to hear my strategies, want me to post some guidelines for other fools that want to solo a BeastMaster, etc. respond and I will do what I can. I have been keeping a running journal of sorts that might be helpful.
Howdy-hoo!
Soloing a BeastMaster on Insane Difficulty
what strategies could be with a ranger? the only thing he does than hit is hide in shadows, charm animal and cast some druid spells
but if you have an strategies with this class put it here, maybe it can be even stroger than i think, like with the socerer, wich was even more powerful than any class i played, when i thought it was weak
but if you have an strategies with this class put it here, maybe it can be even stroger than i think, like with the socerer, wich was even more powerful than any class i played, when i thought it was weak
All they do? They can dual wield weapons (go for long swords) better than anyone else in the game, what MORE do you want?? 
Hide in shadows means you can dual wield them straight into the back of an enemy mage too
------------------
Quitch
"Well since you asked, I would like to register a complaint. I want to kill a dragon. Right now. No, don't look. Go kill one now. Go find one and kill it. Right now. That would be SO cool" - Lilarcor
Hide in shadows means you can dual wield them straight into the back of an enemy mage too
------------------
Quitch
"Well since you asked, I would like to register a complaint. I want to kill a dragon. Right now. No, don't look. Go kill one now. Go find one and kill it. Right now. That would be SO cool" - Lilarcor
Past: Ascension
Present: The Broken Hourglass
Future: Return to Windspear, Imoen Relationship
"Perfection has no deadline"
Present: The Broken Hourglass
Future: Return to Windspear, Imoen Relationship
"Perfection has no deadline"
-
Sabretooth
- Posts: 76
- Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2001 11:00 pm
- Location: Sydney, Australia
- Contact:
Uh, guys, this is BeastMaster we are talking about here.
In case you have not played one yet...he dual-wields as well as, not better than, any other ranger kit. And no better than a pure fighter. As for "dual wielding longswords" -- uh... nope.
Let's put it this way: take the armor restrictions of an archer, add to this the weapons restrictions of a druid, and you have a beastmaster. You CANNOT use metal weapons, no longsword, no 2-handed sword, no war hammer, no flail. You cannot use metal armor either, period, end of story. Yes, a combination of weak weapons and sucky armor, minus an archer's wonderful bow skills and the druids killer spells.
As for wiping out dragons -- are you CRAZY? On insane difficulty, this is impossible. I can't even use a wand of cloudkill. I never said I would kill everything in every dungeon or quest, just that I would solo and finish the adventure. You don't actually have to fight the shade/red dragons, you know.
Here are some strategy tips I have put together while playing...
Notes on Soloing a BM (BeastMaster, not Bowel Movement):
I chose the best of the first 5 rolls supplied during character generation. I also chose an elf, for the +1 to dex. and the +1 with bows. Not to mention immune to sleep/charm.
Given how easy it is to manipulate the stats, you should be able to get 19 dexterity. This is important, because it gives good to-hit bonuses with bows and increases what will be a sucky AC. I ended up with 19 dex. and a good constitution. Strength is optional, given all the ways you can raise it during the game. Note that constitution is perhaps more crucial than otherwise; you need good HP's to survive. Pick a decent racial enemy, I chose trolls because they are always tough soloing.
I have come to the conclusion that yes, BeastMasters truly do suck. Greatly. But they are fun.
Proficiencies: The BM is hurt by lame rules about what he can/can't use. This is one reason why the class sucks so bad. The best you can possibly do proficiency-wise is as follows: 2 in short bow, 2 in club, 2 in quarterstaff. The short-term plan in this: in melee you are dual-wielding clubs. Otherwise you are using the short bow. Oh, and though the manual does not say so, you can't use metal armor. Yep! No full plate for you! No chain! Yes it sucks! But you can USE a scimitar, but can't get proficiencies in it. Go figure. One option is Belm in off-hand, a good club in your hitting hand for the extra attack.
Note about BM strengths/weaknesses: Major plus for Stealth. This is so useful, crucial, life-saving. At level 7, my stealth was already close to 100% with dex. bonuses. Next goodness: speed. Rangers are fast. Next goodness: summon animals. Actually, this is very very useful, but you don't get your first spell until level 8. So you spend your first level really hurting.
Overall strategy: When you have summoned animals, stealth up to an enemy. Send in the animals, while you sit back and plunk him with arrows. Sounds simple, stupid, obvious. It is. And it works. Long-term strategy: get to the promenade. Do simple littleman+paladin quests in graveyard. Then hit the copper coronet for the Tuigan bow (and charm the beastmaster's animals to your side). Then try to buy some decent armor. The big goal is trademeet, where all the good magic clubs are, as well as Tashernon's Bow. Also Belm is there. Also the belt of internial barrier? something that gives you 50% magic damage resistance plus other stuff.
Note on Insane difficulty: I found it hard to get enough money to buy decent stuff. I don't know if this is because I could not open all the chests, if insane cuts down the rewards, if it ups the price. I just know I spend a lot of time scriping and saving for armor and potions.
Notes on Initial Prison:
I started with no reloads, about 65 hp's. Use the Beastmaster's special ability to summon familier. This gave me an extra 12 (fairy dragon). Put dragon in backpack. I also had some special abilities: Draw upon HM, Cure LW, Slow Poison. I don't know if this is for all BMs or if I was just lucky. Anyway, you have to go slow. Release prisoners, kick them out of your group immediately. Put on leather armor, grab the quarterstaff from the table. Stealth at all times. For goblins stealth, hit one, run away, stealth, kill another, etc. As soon as you kill one grab the composite long bow, use Draw upon HM to up strength, and use it. Stealth+Bow+fast running kills the goblins. And the mephits. And the summoned demon. Do normal stuff, the big goal is the djini quest raising you a level. Do not attack the Otuglugh (sp?). It is too tough, and can only be hit by +1 or better weapons, which your arrows are not. Beware of all traps. They are far more dangerous than the monsters. Get the acorns, statue, use stealth to sneak through mephits to the djinii; 6 mephits are way too tough. Talk with dryads again, sneak back to djinni, get sword of chaos and new level! Sneack back to prison, put your summon monster spell into your brain, and sleep. You are ready.
I got through level one with only one death (by a trap). I dislike how traps are impleneted in BGII and don't feel too bad about this. I am going to reload only from traps, I have not died in battle yet (or for any other reason). I did not attack the raging golems, I suspect they would be too powerful, and on Insane their attacks are double-damage, which is sick. At level two I took the thief's katana, dismissed him, and summoned animals. I sent them into the mephit room, arrowed a mephit in the cage, ran back closed the door. Repeated 3 times after sleeping to kill the mephits in cage. The rest of the level was easy, I was not close to dying, just be slow and stealth everything out. There is a short bow in this level somewhere I believe, or perhaps the first level. Toughest battle was with some assasins. Do the summon animal/stealth/arrow thing and pick them off one by one. Then head for the promenade.
At promenade sell all the useless crap. Go to graveyard do littleman+paladin quests. Then hit the copper Coronet. Soloing using only quicksave and no reload on dying is fun! Really puts the challange back into the game! Makes every battle scary. The beastmaster quest was great fun! Killing the guards was tricky, took a lot of runing and arrowing. Use animals against the spell-casting guards. Then when you get to the beastmaster's animals, take care with how you use your 4 charm animals. Try to charm the powerful ones! It's fun having a panther/bear on your side. I drank oil of speed for this battle, gotten in the prison somewhere. Oil of Speed + Bow = death to many monsters. I had fun, took out the beastmaster and snagged his bow. Released the slaves, etc. and went up another level. Not dead yeat, and level 9! Beastmaster is pretty ok so far!
After you have the Tuigan bow, try to buy the Hide armor (AC3 plus immune to confusion) at the adventeror's mart. Since you won't be able to kill any dragons soloing, you won't get the shade armor, which you might not be able to wear in any case. Before you do the unseeing eye, get the Balduran's shield to reflect beholder rays.
The next quest I did was the lilcator+slaver quest, very very tricky. I died once in combat, once from stupid traps. I hate traps. Just be very careful, slow, deliberate. In the slaver compound patience is rewarded. Lots of stealthing and sneaking+arrowing, running, stealthing again.
After Slaver quest it is hard to figure what to do next. You are still weak. I did the bridge district murder mystery, also the buried alive quest. I barely beat the thugs in the tanner shop, did not bother running after the murderer to the basement where I would have died for positive sure. I also avoided all the traps by just leaving the building without making a fuss.
The big goal is Trademeet and the wicked equipment you can get there with not-so-hard quests. But at level 9 or so it is too hard. Get all the experience you can from easy quests like saving Viconia (actually a very hard fight that I had to run away from many times), talk with Jan, etc. After exhausting all the little easy stuff head for the Troll keep. Yes, first trolls, then trademeet.
Nalia's troll keep quest is not too bad if you have trolls as your racial enemy. There are scads of arrows in the keep, both normal and fire, but take along 20 to start with. The basic idea is the same, summon, stealth, run, arrow, kill troll one by one. You can always get the trolls to come at you one by one, even when they start in a group just get one visible on edge of screen, arrow it, and only it will attack you. This is slow but works. Sleep a lot. Use stealth to open the drawbridge, get easy xp, and use the fighters coming in to help you finish off a few trolls. You don't have to kill all the trolls, the big goal is putting together the flail for more ex (you can't use the flail, of course). Level two of the keep was ok. I did not bother attempting to kill all the golems...at your level you can't. You can't even kill one. Just grab the flail head and run run run. I think I used summoned animals to distract the golems allowing me to get out of the room and stealth.
The Glaicis battle was insane. He is the guy with the extra flail head. Is tough, got a long sword, lots of HP and potions. What you have to do is this. Run around the table. Yes. You are faster by a pace or two. Run, run, run. Stop, arrow, run run run. I used about 70 arrows killing him, as he has potions of healing which were used occasionally. Took about 10 minutes but worked. This was the most tedious battle by far.
In the basement? Kill the trolls, the umberhulks one by one. With your armor confusion is nothing. Do not attempt to kill the big 3 baddies. You will die. On insane, you will die in ONE round, period. They are way fast and mean. Either grab Nalia for one battle, or just forget about them, which I did.
After the keep is as done as you can manage, head for trademeet. Keep all your money, you will spend it there.
The first thing you have to do it Druid grove. This is not so bad. With Cerd along you can stealth/give him invisible potion and run all the way through monsters to the druid grove. Or go very very slowly and kill them all using summon/arrows/stealth/sleep. You need lots of fire arrows. Once at the grove you have to kill 3 druids in front (easier than I though with summoned animals and slow going, they exhaust their spells quickly). From one of them you get a killer club, Gnasher or something like that. Then run in and get Cerd to win his battle. Actually, on Insane difficulty it is very very hard to get Cerd to beat the evil druid. I had to do a lot of insect plague/summoning/spells in the ring, after ironskin, strength of one, etc. got Cerd phat. Cerd was many times down to near-death when a healing potion saved him. You can actually run around the tiny ring while your summoned animals bite her. Cowardly, but it works.
After the druid grove, run back through the baddies (if you have not killed them) and get rewarded, maybe go up a level, back in town. The Monster Summoning II you get at level 10 or so is OK, summoning I at this level is useless vs. decent monsters. Talk to djinni, go back to grove, and run to the house. I discovered something delicious, you only have to kill the first rakasha and take its head back to the djinni to get the trading going again. Use Draw upon HM, a potions of strength/speed, and get equipped with your old +1 quarterstaff or gnasher. Open door, run in, hit rakasha quickly and repeatedly, kill its grab head and run away before other 2 finish moving down and casting spells. Run back to djinni, get ex. money and buy, at long last, the Blackblood club (1d6+6 damage!), the Tasheron's bow, the belt thing. Dual weilding the clubs you are almost decent in melee, if it wasn't for the lame AC and the double-damage everything dishes out.
That should get you going at least...
Remember, don't try to kill everything! You are a BeastMaster, after all!
In case you have not played one yet...he dual-wields as well as, not better than, any other ranger kit. And no better than a pure fighter. As for "dual wielding longswords" -- uh... nope.
Let's put it this way: take the armor restrictions of an archer, add to this the weapons restrictions of a druid, and you have a beastmaster. You CANNOT use metal weapons, no longsword, no 2-handed sword, no war hammer, no flail. You cannot use metal armor either, period, end of story. Yes, a combination of weak weapons and sucky armor, minus an archer's wonderful bow skills and the druids killer spells.
As for wiping out dragons -- are you CRAZY? On insane difficulty, this is impossible. I can't even use a wand of cloudkill. I never said I would kill everything in every dungeon or quest, just that I would solo and finish the adventure. You don't actually have to fight the shade/red dragons, you know.
Here are some strategy tips I have put together while playing...
Notes on Soloing a BM (BeastMaster, not Bowel Movement):
I chose the best of the first 5 rolls supplied during character generation. I also chose an elf, for the +1 to dex. and the +1 with bows. Not to mention immune to sleep/charm.
Given how easy it is to manipulate the stats, you should be able to get 19 dexterity. This is important, because it gives good to-hit bonuses with bows and increases what will be a sucky AC. I ended up with 19 dex. and a good constitution. Strength is optional, given all the ways you can raise it during the game. Note that constitution is perhaps more crucial than otherwise; you need good HP's to survive. Pick a decent racial enemy, I chose trolls because they are always tough soloing.
I have come to the conclusion that yes, BeastMasters truly do suck. Greatly. But they are fun.
Proficiencies: The BM is hurt by lame rules about what he can/can't use. This is one reason why the class sucks so bad. The best you can possibly do proficiency-wise is as follows: 2 in short bow, 2 in club, 2 in quarterstaff. The short-term plan in this: in melee you are dual-wielding clubs. Otherwise you are using the short bow. Oh, and though the manual does not say so, you can't use metal armor. Yep! No full plate for you! No chain! Yes it sucks! But you can USE a scimitar, but can't get proficiencies in it. Go figure. One option is Belm in off-hand, a good club in your hitting hand for the extra attack.
Note about BM strengths/weaknesses: Major plus for Stealth. This is so useful, crucial, life-saving. At level 7, my stealth was already close to 100% with dex. bonuses. Next goodness: speed. Rangers are fast. Next goodness: summon animals. Actually, this is very very useful, but you don't get your first spell until level 8. So you spend your first level really hurting.
Overall strategy: When you have summoned animals, stealth up to an enemy. Send in the animals, while you sit back and plunk him with arrows. Sounds simple, stupid, obvious. It is. And it works. Long-term strategy: get to the promenade. Do simple littleman+paladin quests in graveyard. Then hit the copper coronet for the Tuigan bow (and charm the beastmaster's animals to your side). Then try to buy some decent armor. The big goal is trademeet, where all the good magic clubs are, as well as Tashernon's Bow. Also Belm is there. Also the belt of internial barrier? something that gives you 50% magic damage resistance plus other stuff.
Note on Insane difficulty: I found it hard to get enough money to buy decent stuff. I don't know if this is because I could not open all the chests, if insane cuts down the rewards, if it ups the price. I just know I spend a lot of time scriping and saving for armor and potions.
Notes on Initial Prison:
I started with no reloads, about 65 hp's. Use the Beastmaster's special ability to summon familier. This gave me an extra 12 (fairy dragon). Put dragon in backpack. I also had some special abilities: Draw upon HM, Cure LW, Slow Poison. I don't know if this is for all BMs or if I was just lucky. Anyway, you have to go slow. Release prisoners, kick them out of your group immediately. Put on leather armor, grab the quarterstaff from the table. Stealth at all times. For goblins stealth, hit one, run away, stealth, kill another, etc. As soon as you kill one grab the composite long bow, use Draw upon HM to up strength, and use it. Stealth+Bow+fast running kills the goblins. And the mephits. And the summoned demon. Do normal stuff, the big goal is the djini quest raising you a level. Do not attack the Otuglugh (sp?). It is too tough, and can only be hit by +1 or better weapons, which your arrows are not. Beware of all traps. They are far more dangerous than the monsters. Get the acorns, statue, use stealth to sneak through mephits to the djinii; 6 mephits are way too tough. Talk with dryads again, sneak back to djinni, get sword of chaos and new level! Sneack back to prison, put your summon monster spell into your brain, and sleep. You are ready.
I got through level one with only one death (by a trap). I dislike how traps are impleneted in BGII and don't feel too bad about this. I am going to reload only from traps, I have not died in battle yet (or for any other reason). I did not attack the raging golems, I suspect they would be too powerful, and on Insane their attacks are double-damage, which is sick. At level two I took the thief's katana, dismissed him, and summoned animals. I sent them into the mephit room, arrowed a mephit in the cage, ran back closed the door. Repeated 3 times after sleeping to kill the mephits in cage. The rest of the level was easy, I was not close to dying, just be slow and stealth everything out. There is a short bow in this level somewhere I believe, or perhaps the first level. Toughest battle was with some assasins. Do the summon animal/stealth/arrow thing and pick them off one by one. Then head for the promenade.
At promenade sell all the useless crap. Go to graveyard do littleman+paladin quests. Then hit the copper Coronet. Soloing using only quicksave and no reload on dying is fun! Really puts the challange back into the game! Makes every battle scary. The beastmaster quest was great fun! Killing the guards was tricky, took a lot of runing and arrowing. Use animals against the spell-casting guards. Then when you get to the beastmaster's animals, take care with how you use your 4 charm animals. Try to charm the powerful ones! It's fun having a panther/bear on your side. I drank oil of speed for this battle, gotten in the prison somewhere. Oil of Speed + Bow = death to many monsters. I had fun, took out the beastmaster and snagged his bow. Released the slaves, etc. and went up another level. Not dead yeat, and level 9! Beastmaster is pretty ok so far!
After you have the Tuigan bow, try to buy the Hide armor (AC3 plus immune to confusion) at the adventeror's mart. Since you won't be able to kill any dragons soloing, you won't get the shade armor, which you might not be able to wear in any case. Before you do the unseeing eye, get the Balduran's shield to reflect beholder rays.
The next quest I did was the lilcator+slaver quest, very very tricky. I died once in combat, once from stupid traps. I hate traps. Just be very careful, slow, deliberate. In the slaver compound patience is rewarded. Lots of stealthing and sneaking+arrowing, running, stealthing again.
After Slaver quest it is hard to figure what to do next. You are still weak. I did the bridge district murder mystery, also the buried alive quest. I barely beat the thugs in the tanner shop, did not bother running after the murderer to the basement where I would have died for positive sure. I also avoided all the traps by just leaving the building without making a fuss.
The big goal is Trademeet and the wicked equipment you can get there with not-so-hard quests. But at level 9 or so it is too hard. Get all the experience you can from easy quests like saving Viconia (actually a very hard fight that I had to run away from many times), talk with Jan, etc. After exhausting all the little easy stuff head for the Troll keep. Yes, first trolls, then trademeet.
Nalia's troll keep quest is not too bad if you have trolls as your racial enemy. There are scads of arrows in the keep, both normal and fire, but take along 20 to start with. The basic idea is the same, summon, stealth, run, arrow, kill troll one by one. You can always get the trolls to come at you one by one, even when they start in a group just get one visible on edge of screen, arrow it, and only it will attack you. This is slow but works. Sleep a lot. Use stealth to open the drawbridge, get easy xp, and use the fighters coming in to help you finish off a few trolls. You don't have to kill all the trolls, the big goal is putting together the flail for more ex (you can't use the flail, of course). Level two of the keep was ok. I did not bother attempting to kill all the golems...at your level you can't. You can't even kill one. Just grab the flail head and run run run. I think I used summoned animals to distract the golems allowing me to get out of the room and stealth.
The Glaicis battle was insane. He is the guy with the extra flail head. Is tough, got a long sword, lots of HP and potions. What you have to do is this. Run around the table. Yes. You are faster by a pace or two. Run, run, run. Stop, arrow, run run run. I used about 70 arrows killing him, as he has potions of healing which were used occasionally. Took about 10 minutes but worked. This was the most tedious battle by far.
In the basement? Kill the trolls, the umberhulks one by one. With your armor confusion is nothing. Do not attempt to kill the big 3 baddies. You will die. On insane, you will die in ONE round, period. They are way fast and mean. Either grab Nalia for one battle, or just forget about them, which I did.
After the keep is as done as you can manage, head for trademeet. Keep all your money, you will spend it there.
The first thing you have to do it Druid grove. This is not so bad. With Cerd along you can stealth/give him invisible potion and run all the way through monsters to the druid grove. Or go very very slowly and kill them all using summon/arrows/stealth/sleep. You need lots of fire arrows. Once at the grove you have to kill 3 druids in front (easier than I though with summoned animals and slow going, they exhaust their spells quickly). From one of them you get a killer club, Gnasher or something like that. Then run in and get Cerd to win his battle. Actually, on Insane difficulty it is very very hard to get Cerd to beat the evil druid. I had to do a lot of insect plague/summoning/spells in the ring, after ironskin, strength of one, etc. got Cerd phat. Cerd was many times down to near-death when a healing potion saved him. You can actually run around the tiny ring while your summoned animals bite her. Cowardly, but it works.
After the druid grove, run back through the baddies (if you have not killed them) and get rewarded, maybe go up a level, back in town. The Monster Summoning II you get at level 10 or so is OK, summoning I at this level is useless vs. decent monsters. Talk to djinni, go back to grove, and run to the house. I discovered something delicious, you only have to kill the first rakasha and take its head back to the djinni to get the trading going again. Use Draw upon HM, a potions of strength/speed, and get equipped with your old +1 quarterstaff or gnasher. Open door, run in, hit rakasha quickly and repeatedly, kill its grab head and run away before other 2 finish moving down and casting spells. Run back to djinni, get ex. money and buy, at long last, the Blackblood club (1d6+6 damage!), the Tasheron's bow, the belt thing. Dual weilding the clubs you are almost decent in melee, if it wasn't for the lame AC and the double-damage everything dishes out.
That should get you going at least...
Remember, don't try to kill everything! You are a BeastMaster, after all!
are you sure the beastmaster is the weakest kit? The wizardslayer is pretty weak to. He cant use healing potions, magic rings, amulets etc. kind of hard I guess...
------------------
Cant we talk about this?
I hardly imagen you can talk without a head, no?
what? what do you me~*slash*~
Told you.
------------------
Cant we talk about this?
I hardly imagen you can talk without a head, no?
what? what do you me~*slash*~
Told you.
Plans within plans...
I'm pretty sure the BM is the worst. The Wizard Slayer can at least get advanced specialization in weapons, use metal armor+metal weapons, and has some basic Magic Resistance. This means you can be a true melee fighter, use the killer longswords, as well as get 3+ stars in short bow. True, you will end up sleeping a LOT, but the game does not care about this.Originally posted by Pe Ell:
are you sure the beastmaster is the weakest kit? The wizardslayer is pretty weak to. He cant use healing potions, magic rings, amulets etc. kind of hard I guess...
It will be tough, however, with no stealth. If you can get through the first 4-5 levels the equipment available should take care of you. I might test it out sometime.
I posted this question (worst class) a while back and everyone pretty much agreed BM sucks most of all. I know there were a few folks out there with high-level Wizard Slayers and they said they rocked. There was nobody out there with a high-level BM...or nobody 'fessed up to it. And a high-level BM just ain't never going to rock that bad. Hell, a Wizard Slayer can end up with CF and wicked plate mail! The most the BM can look forward to is...uh, summoning 2 cavebears at level 12. Once a day. Sigh.
This is great, two! Keep posting your experiences here; I've seen some interesting solo journals on other boards (BgDungeon had a few going for Jester and Wizard Slayer), and it's really rather inspiring. I've soloed a straight mage and priest of Lathander, both rather rewarding, but I might just take up the Beastmaster kit sometime. I don't know about insane difficulty though...
"Ah, home, sweet home... wait a minute... I don't live here." - Jan Jansen
true true. but imagen yourself in a combat and you are taking damage pretty bad. What you would like to do then is to gulp down a few healing potions. But if you cant. well thats my oppinion anyway... Keep up the good work!Originally posted by two:
I'm pretty sure the BM is the worst. The Wizard Slayer can at least get advanced specialization in weapons, use metal armor+metal weapons, and has some basic Magic Resistance. This means you can be a true melee fighter, use the killer longswords, as well as get 3+ stars in short bow. True, you will end up sleeping a LOT, but the game does not care about this.
It will be tough, however, with no stealth. If you can get through the first 4-5 levels the equipment available should take care of you. I might test it out sometime.
I posted this question (worst class) a while back and everyone pretty much agreed BM sucks most of all. I know there were a few folks out there with high-level Wizard Slayers and they said they rocked. There was nobody out there with a high-level BM...or nobody 'fessed up to it. And a high-level BM just ain't never going to rock that bad. Hell, a Wizard Slayer can end up with CF and wicked plate mail! The most the BM can look forward to is...uh, summoning 2 cavebears at level 12. Once a day. Sigh.
------------------
Cant we talk about this?
I hardly imagen you can talk without a head, no?
what? what do you me~*slash*~
Told you.
Plans within plans...
It might be decently fun using core rules, but still somewhat slow and difficult. I don't think you will be able to kill any dragons, though. One thing is for sure: after you solo some with a BeastMaster, all other classes look insanely powerful. My god, to be able to summon an elemental! To backstab! To use metal weapons! Sigh...Originally posted by The Killermachine:
the BM sounds pretty cool, actually, from what you have written, two!! I'm gonna try one today!!
Truth be told, the two clubs from Trademeet are pretty powerful. On core rules you can probably melee OK with the not-so-good AC you will end up having. Maybe use a shield, give up dual-wield? I don't know.
One thing I forgot to mention, starting level 8 BM gets limited ranger spells, which are druidic. You need to use the slots for summon animal, however. Summon Animal is NOT a special ability, that would be too useful. You just have access to the spell. At later levels, when Summon Animal I is useless, replace it with Entangle (2 times). Sometimes you can cast 2 entangles and then arrow the baddies from afar. But not often, as most powerful things make saving throws. Still, entangle is usually better than a few lame wardogs that get killed in 1/2 round by the umberhulk.
I don't have it in front of me, but what I remember is 19 dex (this was my big one, elf), 17 str.?, 16 con?, 14 wis, 8 char, 12 int? something like that.Originally posted by The Killermachine:
What's your stats??
I limited myself to 5 re-rolls and did not get particularly lucky, I don't think. With 30 re-rolls, maybe 2-3 minutes of rolling, it is trivially easy to "max-out" a given class, for a BeastMaster this would be 18/xx str. (=above 18/75), 17 con. (elf), 19 dex., wisdom 14, everything else 10+. If allowing for a lot of re-rolls, you may want to be a human for the 18 constitution. This plus the find familiar spell gives you, in theory, more HP's than almost all other fighters possibly can manage(excepting those Dwarvish/Orcish fighters with 19 const.).
In case you have not played one yet...he dual-wields as well as, not better than, any other ranger kit. And no better than a pure fighter. As for "dual wielding longswords" -- uh... nope.
I was replying to Ripper, who seemed to be commenting on the Ranger rather than Beastmaster kit.
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Quitch
"Well since you asked, I would like to register a complaint. I want to kill a dragon. Right now. No, don't look. Go kill one now. Go find one and kill it. Right now. That would be SO cool" - Lilarcor
I was replying to Ripper, who seemed to be commenting on the Ranger rather than Beastmaster kit.
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Quitch
"Well since you asked, I would like to register a complaint. I want to kill a dragon. Right now. No, don't look. Go kill one now. Go find one and kill it. Right now. That would be SO cool" - Lilarcor
Past: Ascension
Present: The Broken Hourglass
Future: Return to Windspear, Imoen Relationship
"Perfection has no deadline"
Present: The Broken Hourglass
Future: Return to Windspear, Imoen Relationship
"Perfection has no deadline"
Good work so far!
Using stealth/invisibility and avoid the fight is the best tool to use if you are not strong enough for the fight.
I think you have made a good scenario path. And after purchasing the necessary equipment, you can buy potions/protection scrolls.
Anyway I bet for the WizardSlayer as the worst class, but it seems that the Beastmaster is also terrible. And I probably won't play with any fighter class on insane (with no reloads)
Waiting for the news...
Using stealth/invisibility and avoid the fight is the best tool to use if you are not strong enough for the fight.
I think you have made a good scenario path. And after purchasing the necessary equipment, you can buy potions/protection scrolls.
Anyway I bet for the WizardSlayer as the worst class, but it seems that the Beastmaster is also terrible. And I probably won't play with any fighter class on insane (with no reloads)
Waiting for the news...
two, I've just finished the planar prison with a solo Beastmaster. With various items I've collected, my AC is -7, and even lower with the various girdles vs. weapon type. I'm mostly not dual-wielding to keep my AC up with shields. Blackblood is my main weapon, given that it can get past stoneskins. I find that I can get through medium-level combats without too much difficulty now. I think that playing a beastmaster doesn't suck so much as it's a challenge. I'd recommend it to BG2 players in need of something a little different from your everyday kensai/mage.
"Ah, home, sweet home... wait a minute... I don't live here." - Jan Jansen
Excellent work!Originally posted by Savarius:
two, I've just finished the planar prison with a solo Beastmaster. With various items I've collected, my AC is -7, and even lower with the various girdles vs. weapon type. I'm mostly not dual-wielding to keep my AC up with shields. Blackblood is my main weapon, given that it can get past stoneskins. I find that I can get through medium-level combats without too much difficulty now. I think that playing a beastmaster doesn't suck so much as it's a challenge. I'd recommend it to BG2 players in need of something a little different from your everyday kensai/mage.
Beastmasters of the world........UNITE!
Let's see, -7? AC3 from Hide armor, -4 for dex, -1 for helm, -1 for sewer cloak, -4 for shield=-7 OK I can see that.
Are you playing insane or core rules? Did you hit trademeet early? If you are playing core, do you think you can beat the shadow dragon?
BTW the best dual weild combo for the beastmaster is gnasher right hand, Belm left (for all monsters that can be hit by +2 weapons). With a shield it's gnasher+shield. Why? Check this out.
With Belm's +1, you attack using Gnasher 4 times/round at level 11+ or so, minimum. Gnasher does +2 points/round for 4 rounds, no save. There is no save vs. "extra splinters of wood hurting me" -- but some monsters are immune to acid (blackblood).
Damage done by Gnasher is cumulative, and looks like this (assumes 3 hits/round out of 4 attacks):
Round 1: 3d6 (club) +6 (bonus) + 6 (slivers.1)
Round 2: 3d6 (club) +6 (bonus) + 12 (slivers.1.2)
Round 3: 3d6 (club) +6 (bonus) + 18 (sliver 1.2.3)
Round 4: 3d6 (club) +6 (bonus) + 24 (slivers.1.2.3.4)
Round 5 and greater like round 4.
Note that by Round 4 you are doing a minimum of 33 pts. damage a round! And you can even run away from battle and do 24 pts. for a few rounds while you are behind a closed door!
This damage does go through ironskins and stuff like that, it may be the ultimate mage-killer. Think how fun it is hitting mirror-images/ironskins and piling up the +2 slivers. (er, I think mirror images get +2 slivers, I will have to check).
I'm not mentioning either when you get a little higher level you will have 5 attacks/round with belm, or 4 with a shield.
Since this weapons works best in prolonged combat, like 5 rounds or more, using it with a shield is probably the way to go. Give up Belm/extra attack for the shield.
On insane difficulty, I just could not handle melee that long, so this weapons was not as good for me as it could have been. But it can be for you with your much-better AC!
So how did it go in Nalia's hold? did you run around the table too vs. Glaicas? Did you manage to whack the big 3 troll things?
I can't verify this right now,but i think that the number of attacks from eacj hand must have something to do with how many ++'s you have spent in each weapon.
If i rememer correct,when i soloed an undead hunter i used Flail of ages main hand (++)and Belm off hand (no ++).When i had 4 att/round (++ in dual wield) the Flail did 3 att/round and Belm only one (according to the game text).
As for the Beast master,i had started a solo game with him (normal difficulty) some time ago,but i stopped playing with him when i reached lvl 14.It is sure a hard class to play,but not immpossible.In normal game,you can do Nalia's castle,Glaica's etc without much trouble.You are doing fine,Two.And you are right about Gnasher+Belm.It is the combo i used with Jaheira and she was a real killer-especially against clerics and mages.
If i rememer correct,when i soloed an undead hunter i used Flail of ages main hand (++)and Belm off hand (no ++).When i had 4 att/round (++ in dual wield) the Flail did 3 att/round and Belm only one (according to the game text).
As for the Beast master,i had started a solo game with him (normal difficulty) some time ago,but i stopped playing with him when i reached lvl 14.It is sure a hard class to play,but not immpossible.In normal game,you can do Nalia's castle,Glaica's etc without much trouble.You are doing fine,Two.And you are right about Gnasher+Belm.It is the combo i used with Jaheira and she was a real killer-especially against clerics and mages.
"ÃçñÜóêù áåß äéäáóêüìåíïò"
I actually held off fighting Glaicas until later on, after I got the boots of speed. He downs an oil of speed during the fight, and will hit you every time he swings, so I wanted to level the playing field. Same thing with the golem room. I waited until I could buy several potions of invisibility before getting the stuff there.Originally posted by two:
So how did it go in Nalia's hold? did you run around the table too vs. Glaicas? Did you manage to whack the big 3 troll things?
I did take down Torgal without too much fuss the first time through, though. The key that is stealthing into the room with Torgal (or invis., doesn't matter) because only he will follow you if you retreat. That way you can take him out without bothering with the other two until you're a little more buff. Summons+fire arrows+oil of speed+draw holy might. Got him the first time. Mind you, I'm NOT playing the insane way, so maybe it was a little easier for me. ;-)
I've done the Umar Hills and the Cult of the Unseeing Eye now. It is possible, but very cheesy, to put the smack down on the Shadow Dragon without getting hit once. No immunity to level drain for the old BM, who is denied both the Amulet of Power and the Mace of Disruption, and I really wanted the Shadow Leather, so I just "fake-talked" him, and scurried away with my ill-gotten gains.
Oh, and here's something that sucks big time. The BM is denied Ankheg Plate. The druid isn't (which is why I went to the bother of killing an ankheg and hauling the hide back to Cromwell, I thought just maybe... 5000 gold down the hole), but the BM is. This guy has even fewer armor choices than a thief! It isn't worth it anyway, because you can't stealth with it on.
Anyway, my AC, ill-gotten or not, is now -10 with all my other items and the Saving Grace shield. I plan on mashing Kangaxx, so that's a -11 to look forward to. The only annoying thing is the limited weapon selection, but Blackblood can last me till the end of the game, plus the Staff of Rynn while going after the Demi-lich. A challenge, but with the right items, by no means impossible.
"Ah, home, sweet home... wait a minute... I don't live here." - Jan Jansen