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Difficulty

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Anáwiel
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Difficulty

Post by Anáwiel »

My difficulty-level ist easy, but bg is not easy at all. i have to reload a lot of times to defeat a 3-4 mind flyers or vampires. can it be a bug, that it's so difficult, or it's only that I am a bad player? I have the original version, no patches installed (if any)
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SP101
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Post by SP101 »

Mind Flayers drain intelligence... if it reaches 0, you die.. so yes, they can be a pain to defeat.

For more infos, look at the GameBanshee strategy guide on "How to defeat Mind Flayers?"

Vampires drain... levels! If ... you're level 9, and a vampire hit you, 2 levels may be drained, wich brings you to 7 levels. This way, you lose HP, Saves and abilities, wich makes you weaker than before. To gain back levels, restoration can be used. To avoid being drained, Negative Plan Protection will do the job, but it doesn't last for very long! Be sure to enchant your fighters with this spell!

For more infos, look at the GameBanshee strategy guide on "How to defeat Vampires?"
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Opalescence
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Post by Opalescence »

Mind Flayers and Vampires are some of the most powerful creatures in BGII, although not quite up there with Demi-liches, Liches, and Dragons.

If you're having trouble with Mind Flayers, remember that, as SP101 said, they drain intelligence (Flayers are brain-suckers, they eat brains for food like Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs). To avoid this ... err ... don't get hit? Or take them down fast. Or get someone with a high intelligence who can stand up to a few hits and not die to Intelligence drain. Also, Mind Flayers have a huge array of Psionic abilities, such as Psionic Drain (I think that's like a Vampiric level drain), Psionic Domination (dominates one of your characters), and of course the dreaded Mind Blast. In order to avoid ALL these things, you can use Skeleton Warriors, which you can get by having a 15-th level or higher Cleric cast Animate Dead. Undead are immune to intelligence drain (they don't have any brains to drain) and also immune to any Psionics (once again, no minds to dominate or stun). Barring using undead, cast Chaotic Commands on your strongest melee fighters (Chaotic Commands renders you immune to Psionics, including the feared Mind Blast) and charge in, killing the Flayers before they can suck all your brains out. However, if you can cast Chaotic Commands (which is a Cleric Spell) you can probably also summon Skeleton Warriors too, so if you don't have a Cleric, period, you can either use the green-stone amulet (can be found in the Underdark Beholder caverns), or else if you've got Minsc, his berserk state renders him immune to Psionics (as does anybody's berserk state, such as Korgan's, or your own if you're a Barbarian or a Fighter with the Berserker kit). Also, a few other summons are immune to the Mind Flayers mind tricks. Mordenkainen's Sword is a floating sword and thus is immune to mind drain and blast, as it's got no mind. Aerial Servant is invisible, and so the Flayers can't target them with any Mind Blasts.

Vampires, as SP101 said, drain levels. They're also fairly powerful combatants and they're equipped with a single dire charm, which they'll try to use to turn your own men against you. Depending on how good your saves are, the dire charm might not matter, but nothing is more irritating than to see Korgan dire charmed and then hacking Aerie to pieces (and you just KNOW he's enjoying it too). To get around level drain, you can cast Restoration or Greater Restoration (which will restore your lost levels), Negative Plane Protection (doesn't last very long though), or simply don't get hit. There are a number of powerful items that grant permanent Negative Plane Protection; probably the most famous is the Amulet of Power. In addition, two items, the Helm of Brilliance and the Sunblade Daystar, come with a powerful spell attached: the 7-th level Priest spell Sunray. This powerful spell practically decimates all undead in a very large radius, as they must make a save or else die instantly (and even if they make the save, they still take tremendous amounts of damage and will probably die anyway). The Helm of Brilliance you won't get easily, but Daystar is available right out of Chateau Irenicus; it's being held in a small chest behind the Lich In The Wall in the City Gate district, inside the wall of the inn. Just go in, get Yoshimo or some thief to go behind the lich, unlock the chest, grab Daystar, then beat the hell out of there (unless you feel up to fighting a Lich). Anyway, Daystar should prove VERY useful when fighting Vampires. One final tip - there are two weapons that have a chance to slay any undead it touches: the Mace of Disruption and Azuredge. If you have a Cleric who uses Maces, the MoD is probably for you. If you've got someone who uses axes, then Azuredge can be found being sold in the Copper Coronet by that fat guy (can't remember his name).

And remember, despite all your hard work it's still possible that a team member or two might still die. So, always keep a resurrection around, just in case! Good luck!
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Erenor
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Post by Erenor »

[QUOTE=Anáwiel]My difficulty-level ist easy, but bg is not easy at all. i have to reload a lot of times to defeat a 3-4 mind flyers or vampires. can it be a bug, that it's so difficult, or it's only that I am a bad player? I have the original version, no patches installed (if any)[/QUOTE]

You're not a bad player. These enemies are tricky to defeat, and practice helps a lot in learning how to defeat them. Try your own mix of strategies and try using different boosting spells and potions when fighting such difficult opponents. Personally, I suck at fighting most enemy mages, b/c I don't have a mage myself and cutting down their wards and protections before dying is very troublesome indeed.
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Post by dj_venom »

When I was first going through Baldur's Gate, I had just killed all the Sahuagin and I decided to go into the Mind Flayers lair. BIG MISTAKE. I think the main reason I had problems was because I killed the Githyanki so escape is near-impossible. Mind Flayers are tough, and believe me, was I glad to be out of there.
In memorian: Fiona; Ravager; Lestat; Phreddie; and all of those from the 1500 incident. Lest we forget.
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Edar Macilrille
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Post by Edar Macilrille »

And there is some Mod that makes them even worse, gaaaah. But yes, both are hard. I think all of us (if we are honest) have had to reload again a couple of times to defeat those enemies. No worries, as with everything else it gets easier as you learn how to go about it.
There are also spells protecting you from Lvl drain, and others that protect versus psionic drain (that one is called Chaotic Command, I cannot recall the other as I am just coming back after three or four months of not playing).

No worries, you are doing fine. Tactics to defeat enemies must be learned.
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VonDondu
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Post by VonDondu »

[QUOTE=Opalescence]Mind Flayers and Vampires are some of the most powerful creatures in BGII, although not quite up there with Demi-liches, Liches, and Dragons.[/QUOTE]
Don't forget Beholders. There's a cheesy item in the game that makes fighting them a lot easier, but without it, you have to find other ways to defend against them. That's the key to fighting Mind Flayers, Liches, and Vampires, as well--finding a way to defend against their attacks.
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Luis Antonio
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Post by Luis Antonio »

With any of those monstruosities, keep a cleric and a good spellcaster ready for combat nearby. Test every and all bluff/spell and you'll see the difference.
Flesh to stone ain't permanent, it seems.
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kams
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Post by kams »

I play on 'normal' because 'core' rules are stupid. If you play core you will have to reload many times - on levelUps to get more hitpoints, on "copy spell" to learn it, in battles - if your party NPC permanently dies.
Thats just too much. I grew sick of reloading at the end of 1 chapter.
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Erenor
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Post by Erenor »

[QUOTE=kams]I play on 'normal' because 'core' rules are stupid. If you play core you will have to reload many times - on levelUps to get more hitpoints, on "copy spell" to learn it, in battles - if your party NPC permanently dies.
Thats just too much. I grew sick of reloading at the end of 1 chapter.[/QUOTE]

Yes, having a multi-class character like Jaheira and rolling only one hit point when she levels up doesn't make a lot of sense.
Any man who asks for greater authority does not deserve to have it.
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The Council of Four Perverts: (1) Magrus (2) Darth Zenemij (3) Erenor (4) Luis Antonio
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