solo mages, watchers keep

stormwizard · Post by **stormwizard** » Sat Apr 24, 2004 5:41 pm

Hi this is my first post at these forums and ive been playing bg2 for some time now and i have a question. Ive been browsing these forums and have noticed that some ppl have siad that they had soloed with a mage and that one of their hardest battles where (improved) demogordon-sp. I don't understand how these ppl managed to get this far because in the 3rd level of watchers keep u have to go throw the dead magic rooms. In one of these rooms in a hard fight that u have beat in order to get one of the scepters to progress to the 4th level

any thoughts

itchytf · Post by **itchytf** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 1:02 pm

Well I've not done it personally, but try casting lots of protection spells and drinking potions etc on your character before you enter the room.

You should be at a high enough level by at that point to turn your Sorcerer into a bit of a tank.

stormwizard · Post by **stormwizard** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 2:36 pm

im pretty sure tho that when u enter the rooms that all ur protection spells and such are dispelled when u enter these rooms

Kaitsuburi · Post by **Kaitsuburi** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 3:56 am

I don't remember anything being dispelled when you enter, just magic failing/acting in an unpredictable manner.

Pre-buff with tensor's transformation & improved haste; perhaps use your familiar.

You can consult (if you haven't) the solo mage walkthrough at Baldurdash; it might have some pointers.

I think SoA is doable with a solo mage, but ToB would be really really hard, especially with anti-cheese mods on hard/insane.

Good luck, keep us updated

-kaitsuburi

kopywrite · Post by **kopywrite** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 3:26 am

Spoilers:

There are two types of room which mess with your magic casting on this level. Wild magic rooms (red walls such as the one with the tiefling party) which cause wild surges -- always fun, ended up with area effect stoneskin at one point-- and dead magic rooms which prevent spell casting and strip any pre cast buffs. Items still work however but any effects will be removed straight away...but you can summon things from items.

If you're playing tactics and have done the ritual quest, the Preserving Boots will keep any buffs in place though. I'd imagine a precast SI:abjuration would work too.

Somthing · Post by **Somthing** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 10:28 am

Well I am a F/t/M but I just went through their. I tried a few different tactics of prebuffing which didn't work.

Then I went with the popular trigger spells instead of prebuffing.

For you I would set chain contingency to either 3 abids or 3 project images. I will assume you have atleast 2-3 ninth lvl spells at this point. With project images you can summon a bunch of planetars. In a spell trigger you probably want to have stoneskin, protect magic weapons and something like fireshield. You can sent a regular contingency for 50% health to stoneskin. Either way those should give you plenty of time.. I personally ran with the abis and Timestopx2 hacked out the succubus and the main demon on the first then cleared out the what was left with the second.

Trigger spells are your best option to beating this area. Toy with them a bit.

PS if you are talking about the room right before that... I would think you can have wands do a good portion of the damage and I am not sure but I dont think it got rid of melfs or energy blades.

nephtu · Post by **nephtu** » Fri Apr 30, 2004 11:14 am

Dead magic areas:

To the best of my recollecton, Trigger spells DO NOT work in the dead magic zones. Certainly those yummy ritual boots and/or some jggery-pokery with Spell immunity can get you through, though.

To be honest, I'd think that ol' Demogorgonzola hisself would be easy enough with some PI cheese - I thought the demon /devil fiend fights were much nastier, as you popped into their turf, and couldn't do any area prep.

Somthing · Post by **Somthing** » Fri Apr 30, 2004 11:57 am

I might have made a mistake I assumed he was talking about the room full of deamons with a succubus rather then the first room with 1 pitfiend and a couple of corrigans(sp). I really didn't have much problems with that room, but you can always kill one or 2 and back out to the previous room, heal up and reorganize tactics ideas. Like I said I believe you can energy blades and then enter the zone.

Kaitsuburi · Post by **Kaitsuburi** » Sat May 01, 2004 7:57 pm

Originally posted by kopywrite
If you're playing tactics and have done the ritual quest, the Preserving Boots will keep any buffs in place though. I'd imagine a precast SI:abjuration would work too.

Brilliant

Thanks a lot ~ I shall try this out!

-kaitsuburi

kopywrite · Post by **kopywrite** » Sun May 02, 2004 3:28 am

Gotta love those boots...just don't wear them when playing cards later on.

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Mon May 03, 2004 7:40 pm

Originally posted by kopywrite
Gotta love those boots...just don't wear them when playing cards later on.

why???

kopywrite · Post by **kopywrite** » Tue May 04, 2004 2:10 am

I've ended up cursed and/or feebleminded when using the deck. The preserving boots prevent remove curse, dispel magic etc from working too...Took me a while to figure out why the curse wasn't lifting but in the end it wasn't too difficult to work around -- I took the boots off. Feeblemind on the other hand (which I received on my current game when pulling the 3 cards after you've nabbed the deck) could've been very nasty had I been wearing them with no access to my inventory screen...

JAHEIRA: Ok Charname let's get those boots off so we can tap you on the head with the Staff of the Magi and make you all better...

CHARNAME: duuuuhhh....huuuuhhh....must watch daytime TV....uuuuhhhh....boots stay ON...

JAHEIRA: Oh, for f....

etc.

Jess · Post by **Jess** » Sun May 16, 2004 6:32 am

All protections are stripped when you enter that room, and you can't cast any spells. I've just been struggling with it myself. I believe that the best way is to use lots of monster summoning items. I managed to find a way to the fourth level without tackling that room, however, and I intend to go back to it later.

Dueller · Post by **Dueller** » Sun May 16, 2004 4:03 pm

If anyone's interested, I've created a map of level 3 that, although a bit hard to follow, certainly helps a bit.

http://www.alphalink.com.au/~dannj/temp/Wk_level3.gif

Some portals don't always go to the same place twice (hence some dotted lines and question marks). It seems you can't encounter the Balor demon (with that juicy heart of his) until after talking to the unusually amicable pit-fiend.

Kaitsuburi · Post by **Kaitsuburi** » Mon May 17, 2004 3:53 am

Originally posted by Dueller
If anyone's interested, I've created a map of level 3 that, although a bit hard to follow, certainly helps a bit.

http://www.alphalink.com.au/~dannj/temp/Wk_level3.gif

Some portals don't always go to the same place twice (hence some dotted lines and question marks). It seems you can't encounter the Balor demon (with that juicy heart of his) until after talking to the unusually amicable pit-fiend.

This is great! Thanks a lot! I tend to stumble around quite a bit in there when I can't recall which way I'm supposed to go ~ this map is very useful though!

-kaitsuburi

Somthing · Post by **Somthing** » Tue May 18, 2004 1:26 pm

Oh one other thing that usually rips through those no magic zones. You can switch to the Slayer and pretty much kill everything in either of those rooms. I would let summons from items kill most of it and then switch to slayer mode. Just dont keep it on for very long. Great for opening locks and doors as well.