Anyone else ever kill Drizzt...

[sigma1932]

... with a solo, single-classed mage?

And then do it without cheese like summoned monster spam, exploiting bad pathfinding, or using NPC's removed from party to block him from moving... I mean a direct one-on-one fight.

[galraen]

... with a solo, single-classed mage?

And then do it without cheese like summoned monster spam, exploiting bad pathfinding, or using NPC's removed from party to block him from moving... I mean a direct one-on-one fight.

As he does a minimum of 36 damage with every hit, and he gets 4.5 attacks around, plus his 98% magic resistance, no. It simply can't be done without some form of cheating/glitch exploits, unless your character is the luckiest dude alive and manges to bypass his MR and get him to roll a one on saves for every spell you cast at him.

[sigma1932]

I did it with the following:

Gear:
Neck: Amulet of Metaspell Influence
Back: Robe of Protection +2
Arms: Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise
Torso: Knave's Robe (+1 AC vs. slashing)
Waist: Golden Girdle
Feet: Boots of Speed
Weapon: Quarterstaff +3

Buffs:
Potion of Defense
Potion of Power
Potion of Mind Focusing
Violet Potion
Potion of Fortitude
Potion of Agility
Blur
Mirror Image
Improved Invisibility
Draw Upon Holy Might
Oil of Speed (doesn't add attacks for mages for whatever reason, but stacks with Boots of Speed-- just used it so I could get away to refresh Mirror Image)

AC breakdown:
0 Base = Potion of Defense
-2 = Robe of Protection +2
-1 = Knave's Robe (-1 vs. Slashing)
-3 = Golden Girdle (-3 vs. Slashing)
-4 = Improved Invisibility (enemy gets -4 to attack rolls)
-3 = Blur (+3 to AC)
-5 = 23 DEX (Potion of Agility + Potion of Mind Focusing + DUHM)
-18 total AC vs. his (IIRC) -5 Thac0 = he hits 40% of the time (just under 2 hits per round), but Mirror Images soak all his hits (bring scrolls for extra casts, though I haven't needed more than the 3 I could memorize in addition to Blur).

Thac0 Breakdown:
15 Base = Potion of Power (Level 9 Mage = 18, x .8 = 15)
- 1 = Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise
- 3 = Quarterstaff +3
- 7 = 25 STR from Violet Potion
- 2 = Blunt vs. Chainmail
2 Total = hit 45% of the time vs. his -10 AC (hit on 12 or higher)

Damage Breakdown:
1-6 = Base Quarterstaff damage
+3 = enchantment
+2 = Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise
+14 = 25 STR from violet Potion
20-25 Total, average 22... x .7 due to D's 30% physical resistance = ~15 per hit.

Drizzt has 92 HP, so you only have to hit him 6-7 times (not counting crits) compared to all the times he's gotta hit you through all the mirror images (15 on average with three casts, plus more from scrolls), it's not that hard to beat him.

Incidentally, I killed Sarevok one-on-one using similar tactics (even though you can just MM him to death with a mage, wanted to do it without damage spells)... he's got more HP but higher (worse) AC-- I only needed a Potion of Strength instead of the Violet Potion to hit him (with over 50% chance, IIRC), and Protection from Evil drops your AC to -20, nevermind he's got fewer attacks compared to Drizzt as well.

[galraen]

Strange' every time I've fought him, even with a fighter with even better attack than that I've always needed a natural 20 to hit him.

The use of the violet potion never occurred to me I admit, the idea of a mage with an intelligence of three makes me shudder.

If the game wasn't glitched/poorly implemented it wouldn't have worked though. Drinking more than one potion should have a high chance of blowing you up, that many potions would definitely have done so, and the three int should have left you unable to cast spells.

Nicely done though, what level were you when you killed him?

[sigma1932]

Well, then fret not... Violet Potion = STR 25, DEX 3, and CON 3. The potion of Agility and Potion of Fortitude set DEX and CON back to 18.

FTR, the Red Potion sets INT to 25, and WIS and STR to 3, plus gives 50% MR.

I was at the TotSC cap, 161k XP, level 9 for a mage.

[galraen]

That'll teach me for routinely ignoring them on every play through. Thanks for the enlightenment, I'm gonna have to give it a go next time I play an evil character.

[Crenshinibon]

Very good information here. I personally always saved the violet potion for Sarevok, to reduce the time it takes to defeat him, however, I usually play a bard, so it's a bit easier on me in that I don't have to go toe to toe with him and can rely on my backstabs, this does give me enough of an advantage to get the equipment really early in the game - right out of Beregost with no side quests.

Unfortunately, (for me) I only kill Drizzt when I can actually make use of his weapons and armor, nonetheless, it's definitely good to know that you can easily solo him as a mage. Might have to give that a try during my next cleric/mage or Fighter 1/Mage playthrough. Again, thanks for sharing this information with us.

[sigma1932]

If the game wasn't glitched/poorly implemented it wouldn't have worked though. Drinking more than one potion should have a high chance of blowing you up, that many potions would definitely have done so, and the three int should have left you unable to cast spells.

I was curious about this, so I looked it up in my DMG.

Consuming a 2nd potion while one is already in effect results in a:
1% chance of them exploding for 6d10 internal damage (death likely).
2% chance of poisoning and killing the imbiber outright
5% chance of making the imbiber nauseuous, losing 1 point each of STR/DEX, one potion is cancelled, the other works at half strength.
7% chance of both potions being destroyed and having no effect at all.
10% chance of one potion being cancelled, the other working normally.
10% chance of both potions functioning at half strength.
55% chance of both potions working normally, but offsetting each other's effects if applicable.
9% chance of one potion working at 150% effectiveness and/or duration
1% Only one potion works, but effect is permanent.

So, I'd take only the Violet Potion and Potion of Power (while hoping for the best-- otherwise, I'd just stick with the Violet Potion alone), use the Ghost Armor spell in place of the Potion of Defense (Base 2 AC instead of 0), swap in the Gauntlets of Dexterity instead of Gauntlets of Weapon expertise, leave CON at 3, and use more Mirror Image scrolls to stop D from doing any damage until I took him down.

[galraen]

The reference to the effects of drinking more than one potion wasn't a criticism of you by the way, but of Bioware.

I can understand why they didn't implement the rules as stated in the DMG, that one percent chance of one of he effects being permanent would have seen some players chugging potions,and reloading until they got lucky; something obviously not possible in a 'real' AD&D game. They should have just made it impossible to drink more than one potion at a time in my opinion, but hey, that's one of the least of my concerns when it comes to poor implementation!

[sigma1932]

No worries, I didn't take it as critcism, and I agree... the whole save-scumming aspect of CRPG's does change the dynamic of things quite a bit... there's a lot of stuff they could've done with this, and of course, 2nd edition always had the bottom line of "DM's Discretion"... they could've implemented everything and just left that 1% chance of permanence out.

Regardless, sad as it is, even if they did put in all the different reaction possibilities, people probably would've saved and reloaded between each potion quaffed until they hit that 55% "normal effect" window, and wound up with what I listed above anyway.

[galraen]

2nd edition always had the bottom line of "DM's Discretion"

It was the same in the 1st Edition DMG; the most important text in the book was the Afterword.

However, when you're making a game for mass consumption, I think they should have stuck to the rules as written far more than they did.

Having said all that, and bitched endlessly, despite it's many flaws the BG Trilogy is still one of the best CRPGs ever made; and a hell of a lot better than any that have come along afterwards.

[jobebautista]

I was curious about this, so I looked it up in my DMG.

Consuming a 2nd potion while one is already in effect results in a:
1% chance of them exploding for 6d10 internal damage (death likely).
2% chance of poisoning and killing the imbiber outright
5% chance of making the imbiber nauseuous, losing 1 point each of STR/DEX, one potion is cancelled, the other works at half strength.
7% chance of both potions being destroyed and having no effect at all.
10% chance of one potion being cancelled, the other working normally.
10% chance of both potions functioning at half strength.
55% chance of both potions working normally, but offsetting each other's effects if applicable.
9% chance of one potion working at 150% effectiveness and/or duration
1% Only one potion works, but effect is permanent.

So, I'd take only the Violet Potion and Potion of Power (while hoping for the best-- otherwise, I'd just stick with the Violet Potion alone), use the Ghost Armor spell in place of the Potion of Defense (Base 2 AC instead of 0), swap in the Gauntlets of Dexterity instead of Gauntlets of Weapon expertise, leave CON at 3, and use more Mirror Image scrolls to stop D from doing any damage until I took him down.

your making things complicated...i dont want to spoil everything but heres my secret in beating drizzt...i played it a long time ago using half elf mage-ranger..but have someone in your party that can summon...you dont need to remove any npc...and all that kind of stuff and stats...thers a loophole in beating him..just summone skeleton...6-7 at most..then quickly encircle drizzt using the skeletons..drag and highlight them all..make sure theres no gap so he could not or have a chance to attack you when he turns red..click attack..just wait.. he will take some damage and he will ignore that hes been attacked by the summon skeletons..it will take like 5-10 minutes or faster than that..its basically cheating but in the end...hes defeated..you could like try steal his equipments just load and save often...try it..it works...enjoy

[Philos]

Interesting. I got curious one time as to what his equipment looked like so I tried the cheese tactic of shooting him from the island. Like Galrein, I was only able to hit him with a natural roll of a "20" Even with all my high dex missle troops no one got a hit on a 19 and IIRC the only arrows that hit him were +2 (might have been +1) but no normal missle eveer hit him. Also the hits only did 1-2 points of damage apiece. I ran out of enchanted missles and after several minutes of not hitting him I simply reloaded and did the expected encounter with him.

[Oquin & Terian]

I killed him simply with a party of 10! ok heres how to do it: get the following companions:
kahlid
jaheira
dorn
neera
kagain
now dump 'em neer Drizzt and go now get the following people:
Shar-teel
imoen
montaron
xzar
kivan
(and me!)
Now get sharteel up close and hit him hard.
once he turns red, all the others should attack him.
If they do not attack charm them if you can.
If you cannot charm them and they do not attack, Drizzt should attack them and they will either react or die, OMG I CRIED WHEN NEERA DIED!!! (she is so awesome)...(and kinda cute)

[sigma1932]

Methinks JobeBautista and Oquin & Terian missed the original post where I said:

... with a solo, single-classed mage?

And then do it without cheese like summoned monster spam, exploiting bad pathfinding, or using NPC's removed from party to block him from moving... I mean a direct one-on-one fight.

Beating him with a party and/or exploits is a no-brainer and wasn't the point here. The point was to beat him straight-up one-on-one combat with the most mis-matched single-classed character possible.