GameBanshee Forums

Well, I've run my first party trhough the game, but now I'm trying to finesse it a bit (i.e get a clue about effective spell use). One of the techniques I like to use a lot is pulling, especially if you can pull one or two baddies out of a clump.

Generally I'm doing this by having Minsc put on the Night's Gift, go stealth with non-detection and sneak up untill he can just see the first red (or, for that matter, blue) circle. Then he switches back to his regular armour, plinks his victim and high-tails it back to the party. In some circumstances - like pulling the room full of umber hulks in the De'Arnise keep, he has had to use body aggro to keep mind shield up (with Liarcor) - still doable, just a little more finicky.

Nothing so extraordinary there, right? There are a couple of things I'm curious about, specifically is there ANY way to pull mages? - most put up their contingencies, and all just stand there - if they put up a bunch of stuff, including stone skin, plinking can get so tedious as to become useless, though surprisingly many will just hang around and let the room be pulled around them, casting the odd spell on Minsc, but not many if he's quick. I've been rushing the room once their pals are pulled, but I'd like to be able to pull mages, if it's possible - any hints?

Also, I'm just breaking in to the mind flayer dungeon - I got everything in the first room singled (sniped the mage to death in about six shots, pulled all the others) except the hullk, flayer & cleric - as soon as minsk pot-shotted the hulk, the flayer & the hulk went into a defensive huddle - I'll probably have to do them with a pet wave and Area attacks. Anyone else out there who likes to pull tried this? Are the mind flayers pullable? So far, I've had to mostly brute force them to death, and I would be most interested to learn from any ace pullers out there that have better techniques.

Finally, on the cheese side, the area dividers can be very useful pulling tools. I first encountered this by serendepity in the windspear hills - I entered the temple ruins not really ready for a fight, and backed right out as those orc archers attacked from behind the walls - half of them followed me outside! Well, it only took a few seconds to turn those silly orcies into so many tasty julienne fries, and then I buffed up, got ready, went in and dispatched the rest of them fairly easily. The same technique works nicely for the party of nasties you meet in the sewer - you can often sucker one or two of them into coming over into Melkrath's lair, where they're easily dispatched. Again, the Slaver's compound break in works well - you leave the Captain behind, and the late arriving guards don't come till very late. Anyone else use this technique at all? I'm just curious, as the discussion on it seems fairly limited...

One thing i found with pulling is that if you shoot an arrow or something at it , there is a much greater chance that the surrounding monsters will come. If you just let the sight of you aggro the monster then only it will come. Hope that helps.

-Lykwid

Against mages, fire an Acid Arrow from your mage or from your bowman. Arrows/bolts of Biting could do too, but they have a saving throw allowed.
Anyway, if you hit the mage with any of it, the contingencies will still kick in, but further spellcasting will be hampered by a couple of rounds, enough for your mage to throw a couple of area effect spells on the enemy mage´s vicinity.
Or backstab him with a thief or stalker.

pulling just annoys me. I much prefer the sorc designed tactic of going in with mislead and casting a nasty area effect spell at them, inc cloud my fav, and taking advantage of shutter effect to kill with. have minsc try mislead using potion swap trick, and watch him kill off a room full of monsters in 30 seconds. they, cause of blink effect, where you switch from real inv to inv, will keep them from locking on you, and only creatuers who can see inv or spell casters with true sight can attack you. so fun...

Huh????

Originally posted by UserUnfriendly
pulling just annoys me. I much prefer the sorc designed tactic of going in with mislead and casting a nasty area effect spell at them, inc cloud my fav, and taking advantage of shutter effect to kill with. have minsc try mislead using potion swap trick, and watch him kill off a room full of monsters in 30 seconds. they, cause of blink effect, where you switch from real inv to inv, will keep them from locking on you, and only creatuers who can see inv or spell casters with true sight can attack you. so fun...

Ok, I admit, I'm stupid - WHAT potion swap trick? I think I'd like to try that next time I'm in the mood for some cheesy fun

PS, I pull from habit, probably more than anything. Also, I LIKE ganging up on the baddies - a lot of very nasty encounters get reduced to brief periods of insensate, wholly uneven violence. Pulling enabled me to clear the whole umber hulk room with two heals, and one potion.

take scroll, mage scroll, and put into backpack. drink potion, then while still in inventory screen swap scroll with potion. minsc has now cast a mage spell!!!

my fav is to save chain contingency, and have jahiera load up triple!!!!!

natures beauty set to go off.

only thing that will stop the UNSAVEABLE blindness is magic resist, but that is what my mages spell trigger is for.

also save up on stoneskin spells, an have mazzy and keldy gointo battle with hardiness, armor of faith and stoneskin...