i've got a huge dilema (+ other questions)

LeTz · Post by **LeTz** » Sat Aug 10, 2002 12:49 pm

i don't even know where to start.
i'm in chap 6 after the underdark, with this group:
me - sorceror, minsc, keldorn, anomen and aerie. i use anomen mostly as a warrior - (equipped with flail of ages and a shiled which i don't remember his name), and not as a cleric (he's level 17 or 18 - don't exactly remember), and three spellcasters.
if i'll get yoshimo back, anomen will become one of my spellcasters instead of imoen (mage level 15 or 16), and yoshimo will act as a warrior. i think that i'll imoen with yoshimo, because it gives me the opportunity to play with anomen role - warrior or spellcaster. i mean, four warriors + two spellcasters or three warriors + three spellcasters, depends on the situation.
what do you think?

i've forged the equaliser. is it good?
so far it didn't impress me like the celestial fury.

the crom fayer. cromell said that i need the hammer.
where can i get it? did i miss it?

ribald is offers me some 9th level spells such as black blade of disaster, maze, spellstrike, wail of the banshee and more.
is there something specific i should buy?

wow.
that's all.
i think.

Sojourner · Post by **Sojourner** » Sat Aug 10, 2002 1:00 pm

Don't be so quick to drop Imoen - wander by the Copper Coronet, first.

The Equalizer is a pretty good sword, with some nice equipped protections.

Definitely get SpellStrike and Time Stop. Black Blade of Disaster has its cons (insta-kill can destroy items), and I've never found Maze particularly useful. Get Spell Trap and give it to the spellcaster who doesn't have the Staff of the Magi.

LeTz · Post by **LeTz** » Sat Aug 10, 2002 1:06 pm

where can i get the staff of the magi?

Krimmy · Post by **Krimmy** » Sat Aug 10, 2002 1:14 pm

The lineup your using is fine, 2 spell casters is good enough.

I've never used the Equalizer, it never impressed me much, I'd stay with Celestial Fury.

hmm most spells are pretty effective one way or the other, my personel choices are

Mordenkainen's Sword: If an enemy attacks this sword and doesn't have Death spell, they won't be able to hurt it, great for deflecting attacks by dangerous enemies.

Breach: Removes spell protections

Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting: A must because it couses massive damage and you can cast it over you own people without hurting them.

Peirce Shield or Lower resistance: Pierce shield lowers resistances and removes some protections, lower resistance is more effective at do just that.

Death spell: Can be effective in SoA at removing bunches of enemies, less so in ToB.

True Sight: A must if you want to cast spells against enemy spellcasters.

There are more but those are a few I use all the time.

SPOILER for Hammer of thunderbolts
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It's located in the sewers of the Temple district, you'll need the sewer key found during the Winspear Hill quest.

Sojourner · Post by **Sojourner** » Sat Aug 10, 2002 1:21 pm

Originally posted by LeTz
where can i get the staff of the magi?

Staff of the Magi - highlight for spoiler:

It's dropped by an enemy in the Twisted Rune area, reachable through a door on a building toward the south-western edge of the Bridge district. You'll need a rogue stone in your inventory.

Skuld · Post by **Skuld** » Sat Aug 10, 2002 1:25 pm

I'll try to answer as much as i can.

1. The Equalizer sucks in my experience, there are much better weapons out there.

2. About your party, here's what i think you should do. you(sorc.), Minsc, Keldorn, Anomen, Aerie, and grab Imoen because Yoshimo isn't that great of a warrior, in fact single class thieves are almost useless this late in the game. And Anomen should be casting some spells(pro evil 10' radius and other buffs), but he should also be on the front line. I always give him the Gauntlets of Dex, which drop his AC by 4 IIRC.

3. The Hammer of Thunderbolts is in the Illithid lair. You need the sewer key to access the secret door in the top right of the sewers under the Temple District.

4. And about 9th level spells Imprisonment and Spell Strike are the only one's I've ever used. I don't use Timestop cause it's cheesy, and I've never had to use it.

5. Staff of the Magi is in the Bridge district. If you remember where you fought the Elemental Lich(i think that's the one) for Kangaax quest, there's a door on the other side of the building(the side facing the water) that requires a Rogue Stone each time you enter. Inside there will be a Lich named Shangalar, a Mage(forgot her name), a fighter, a vampire, and a Beholder. The mage is the one with the staff. So here's what you do kill the mage, grab the staff, kill the beholder, grab his eye, put the eye in the cauldron, then go use the machine and you'll be transportred outta there. Or you could kill 'em all, which isn't that difficult.

There, I think that should cover everything.

LeTz · Post by **LeTz** » Sat Aug 10, 2002 1:51 pm

btw, i forgot something.
i know that i can re-live yoshimo, but i don't know how to do it.

how than?

The fallen one · Post by **The fallen one** » Sat Aug 10, 2002 2:02 pm

Well I have never heard that you can bring Yoshi Back. I could be wrong but I have never seen anything that can bring him back. The only thing that I know to do is bring his heart to a temple and you can put his soul to rest and get a whole bunch of EXP. If there is a way to bring him back please let me know.

Krimmy · Post by **Krimmy** » Sat Aug 10, 2002 3:46 pm

There's noway to officially bring Yoshimo back into the game after you visit the asylum, but can probably CLUA console him into the game.

Not sure of the proper syntax to do that though.

Nygma · Post by **Nygma** » Sat Aug 10, 2002 11:50 pm

Well I have never heard that you can bring Yoshi Back. I could be wrong but I have never seen anything that can bring him back. The only thing that I know to do is bring his heart to a temple and you can put his soul to rest and get a whole bunch of EXP. If there is a way to bring him back please let me know.

SPOILERS (highlight to read)
The first time you go back to the Copper Coronet in Chapter 6, Yoshimo will die as soon as you enter.

But if you pause the game immediately after entering the righthand door into the Copper Coronet (as the loading screen finishes), click on Yoshimo to speak with him, then unpause, you can accept him into your group. He will then die as scripted, but since he is a now a member of your group you should be able to resurrect him and continue on your merry way.

The keys are: 1) pausing quickly enough to preempt Yoshimo dying before you can talk (if you miss it, load the auto-save and try again) and 2) Yoshimo being close enough to the door that you can see and click on him. (His default position is right next to the door, so this shouldn't be a problem.)

I don't know if this exploit has been fixed in the latest patch. Let us know if it works!

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Sun Aug 11, 2002 12:02 am

first, drop anoweenie...aerie is aerie of destruction, the best spell slinger in the game if you take her early and get her high in xp, in tob if you kept her alive she is by far the best spell slinger in faerun, except for a custom pc sorc...

viccy is with right equipment immune to spells, you can get her magic resist up to 100% with humna flesh armor, ring of gax, amulet of 10% magic resist, and shield of lost....

anoweenie suffers in comparison....

black blade is really nasty, used correctly...give spell to any mage, with dual wield, and she will spring out two black blades, +5 weapons, and with improved haste can do some major damage...aerie with crom in off hand and anything in main and improved haste and tensors is a major killer, immie with equalizer in off hand and simple long sword in main is immune to psionics and charm. note, if you have a weapon in off hand, like equalizer, you will be immune to charm once you have cast black blade, but any abilities in main weapon are lost for spell duration....

equalizer is a really good weapon, for minsc, in off hand and a good weapon in main, like crom, or axe, so now he no longer needs helm of charm protection, and he can wear helm of brilliance, a superb item, with daystar in main hand you have 2 sunrays, with bag of holding exploit, (put sword and helm in bag of holding, take out, you have recharged items....) you have multiple sunrays...

best of the 9th level spells are black blade, imprison and freedom, spell strike, i dont like much, remove magic and breach always takes care of things,khelbens is far more useful, spell trap...well, i use mislead and spell immunity, and unless you plan on having a clone throw melf minute meteors at you to recharge, waste of time, as far as i am concerned...

Baldursgate Fan · Post by **Baldursgate Fan** » Sun Aug 11, 2002 12:10 am

@User,

Your triple chain earthquakes is a sure-fire kill for dragons - gets rid of dragons faster than any traps!

@LeTz

Instead of Anomen, I highly recommend that you try out one of the new NPCs, such as Kelsey, Tashia or Sola. All rock!

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Sun Aug 11, 2002 3:06 am

still gumby, eh?? well, i a still bun bun...

letz, do you have tob?? almost all the new npcs who are all really really nice, require tob....

you already have sorc, so you might avoid tashia, however, running two sorcs in the game really is very fun, and she is by far the most interesting of the romances....

sola is great, but you might want to read up a lot of cheesy posts and play the game all the way thru several times,,,,,not for the inexperienced...even littz and his superb kensai mage, who took her thru the TDD final scenes has had problems with improved bodhi, and i used a TON of cheesy tricks and bun bun version 3.1 to get thru sola on core rules...

am running bun bun 3.2 on ascention, and its been a breeze....but ascentionon is quite difficult, and sol is even worse, imho....

sola will chew your ass if you are not prepared....

Littiz · Post by **Littiz** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 8:45 am

Welcome to the Forum @Letz!
(I feel compelled to reply, given the phonetical assonance...

)

I hate to say I disagree with Sojourner about Maze.
Maze is a GREAT spells.
One the very few REAL tactical spells.
Maybe not of a dayly use, but I have always at least one memorized..
Sometimes the help granted by Maze is invaluable.
In my efforts against Wes' Improved Irenicus, I used it to
save Jaheria against that terrible, unavoidable Strenght
Draining that kept killing her!
The Wraith was unstoppable, immune to magic, and he never
changed his target once locked, so maze was the only way to
save her (beside Resurrection...) when he focused on her...
You can use it to delay enemy forces, to keep out of fight a dominated/charmed party member, and, if you are a role-player like me, you may want to let some enemies survive now and then... I love Maze, wasn't that clear?!

About the equipment: you'll find that sometimes even a not_so_great weapon may be of great help with the right item combos...
For example, you may already have a nice set of immunities and
complete them with the ones granted by Equalizer.
NEVER get rid of the equipment with special powers!!!!

@User: thanx for the credit!
Actually I hadn't my Kensimage against Improved Bodhi...
And while I consider myself very skilled in the use of a Kensai/Mage, I become an average player again with other classes, as I never experimented TONS of combos as I did with the kensimage!

Also I'm a strange player somehow... while I have powergaming tendencies (building the ultimate-all-round-char I search for the best item combo, I use the GrandMastery patch and so on), being an "extreme" roleplayer also I may find difficulties where others won't:
I mean, not taking a rest when I find it not fitting, trying to win a battle without killing that paricular enemy, never letting Imoen die so I never have to resurrect her....

o)
Such things make my game hard to compare with other gaming situations!

Anyway, I didn't try Eclipse yet, maybe you're right about it being harder than Ascension, but I assure you that Ascension WITHOUT cheese was really something!!!
Try for once, you will thank me!!!!

@B.Fun: nice to see you again!

Leonardo · Post by **Leonardo** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 8:57 am

In my efforts against Wes' Improved Irenicus, I used it to
save Jaheria against that terrible, unavoidable Strenght
Draining that kept killing her!

Why not use Ottiluke's Resilient Sphere instead?

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 9:36 am

Originally posted by Leonardo

Why not use Ottiluke's Resilient Sphere instead?

The spell was broken at one time. Haven't tried it recently to see if it's well and truly fixed.

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 2:12 pm

oh darn, thanks littiz, i forgto to mention how great maze is...i have heard that some really risistant monsters, like a certain guy in tob, big blue, is ver subseptable to maze, its really a great spell, both to protect your own, and take out the worst of the enemy group...

its a great spell, great disabler and protection....

o sphere?

leo, have aerie malison herself , and doom herself, and chain o sphere and free action herself, she can still move around, and is almost invulnerable to magic and physical attacks...

can still spell cast, too...

littiz, have you tried ring of ram???justa bout all the really nasty wes creations who stack spell immunites, are vulnerable to ring of ram attacks, use up two shots, and stick rings in gem bags, and then reequipp, recharged!!!!!

even better, one of my old cheese posts suggest using inc acuity before using wands, you can fire about 6-8 charges per round...with auto pause, this works with ring and gem bag, so you fire enough charges to kill with using increased acuity and just 2 rings...ring bypasses every defence known.....

kopywrite · Post by **kopywrite** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 4:19 pm

Originally posted by UserUnfriendly
o sphere?

leo, have aerie malison herself , and doom herself, and chain o sphere and free action herself, she can still move around, and is almost invulnerable to magic and physical attacks...

can still spell cast, too...

That's beautiful...very, very clever.

Littiz · Post by **Littiz** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 6:26 pm

As I said, I like Maze for its versatility, also Otiluke's
Sphere has a save... (don't know when used on friends, but
Maze covers everything anyway!)

The ring of the Ram is great, I agree.
I think this is so by purpose... it simply inflicts damage, no
matter what.
One of the things put there, 'cause in a magic-permeated world
one can never be sure to be "magically safe"
(Also adds the feel of the italian poker... there's a circle-like
hierarchy so that no hand can be sure to win!)
But again I have to say, @User, your ways are too cheesy for me!!!

6-8 shots of the ring, ugh!!!
May I suggest to use a clone instead, you'll have only a shot more,
but you'll also feel less guilty!!!

As for the suggested trick with Aerie... again, though cheesy, I have to admit, this one is really a piece of art!!!

Very smart!

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 10:14 pm

somebody posted this a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...

hey, most of the cheese i use are not mine, but i collect the cheese, and post it, but remember, only a few of the many cheese guild posts are mine alone....

my best is using inc acuity to drain a wand to nothing in several rounds, and the str spell to lower monster str, and frag grenade, g deathblow....

i cant remember who posted the sphere trick....

hey, maybe i should start another cheese guild thread....

and try to remember the dozens i know....
yes kiddies, i actually know dozens of evil cheesy tricks...