Beginner's Tricks, a few minor spoilers
Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2004 1:19 am
I have not been able to find a thread or guide to that, so I thought I would start one. Though I do not know how many beginners are here. I do not know half the tricks of the game, but feel free to add your own. But let us keep it a beginner's guide, we can always make an advanced one in another thread.
First. Give all your characters a missile weapon, I prefer longbows and slings. When engaging enemies shoot at them as they advance on you. Retreating and shooting is not a bad idea either. At start of the game I made a line of archers and slingers when getting to a new map and let my toughest (main) character explore it. Whenever he ran into something serious he shot at it, retreated, shot at it, retreated to the line of archers and everyone shot at it*. Most monsters, bandits etc, never got to melee range. Especially if one is careful and only draw part of the packs of wolves etc on. A combination of Two handed Sword, Longbow and some heavy armour (because you have no shield) is very effective.
If you can afford it, go for poisoned arrows, shoot a couple of poisoned arrows until it takes effect, then change to normal (cheaper) ones and finish the job or just wait for the poison to kill them. It is hard for mages to cast spells when poisoned.
If you meet monsters that are dangerous in melee and almost impossible to kill before engaging the party, such as the Battle Horrors or whatever they are called, SUMMONED BY THE BADDIE IN THE CLOAKWOOD MINES, summon your own monsters to hold them back and soften them up while you pump arrows and magic into them. (with the line of archers I have actually not had to do this yet, but it is still a good idea).
When it gets to hand to hand I have the idea that it is often effective to concentrate on crushing one enemy flank- it is in real life, but I am not certain it makes a difference in BG, I always do it though, concentrate on one enemy on a flank while the rest of the party holds the others back. Then roll them up from the side...
Always keep weak characters such as mages and thieves in the back unless the thief is backstabbing, and let them support the meleers with missile fire or magic.
Always aim to take out enemy magic users first. Pump them full of missiles, preferably poisoned ones. That is faster than casting magic and often disturbs the casting or kills the baddie outright.
When resting outside it is often a good idea to have your magic user cast protection on him/her self so they are protected if enemies attack the camp.
It can sometimes be worthwhile having a thief with an invisibility potion backstab the real big bad and dangerous ones in melee.
Use party formations that protect the weakest members. I prefer the cirkle or wedge with the weakest character surrounded by the tougher ones.
When ambushed ("you have been waylaid by enemies etc"), IRL and in BG it works to concentrate on one side of the ambush to take out the attackers there, then get your wekest characters to the relative safety there when the baddies are taken out and kill the other attackers.
That is it for me, except for the footnote, any other ideas or tricks??
*The Sirenes are no threat that way, if only one character is there to be dominated he can put one poison arrow into The Sirene who will either just stand around until the domination is over and he can put new ones into her, or she will die from the poison. They do not attack dominated characters and if the rest of the party is not there, there is no one for dominated characters to attack- I may be moving to too advanced here. Just make a line of archers to fall back on and have one explore.
First. Give all your characters a missile weapon, I prefer longbows and slings. When engaging enemies shoot at them as they advance on you. Retreating and shooting is not a bad idea either. At start of the game I made a line of archers and slingers when getting to a new map and let my toughest (main) character explore it. Whenever he ran into something serious he shot at it, retreated, shot at it, retreated to the line of archers and everyone shot at it*. Most monsters, bandits etc, never got to melee range. Especially if one is careful and only draw part of the packs of wolves etc on. A combination of Two handed Sword, Longbow and some heavy armour (because you have no shield) is very effective.
If you can afford it, go for poisoned arrows, shoot a couple of poisoned arrows until it takes effect, then change to normal (cheaper) ones and finish the job or just wait for the poison to kill them. It is hard for mages to cast spells when poisoned.
If you meet monsters that are dangerous in melee and almost impossible to kill before engaging the party, such as the Battle Horrors or whatever they are called, SUMMONED BY THE BADDIE IN THE CLOAKWOOD MINES, summon your own monsters to hold them back and soften them up while you pump arrows and magic into them. (with the line of archers I have actually not had to do this yet, but it is still a good idea).
When it gets to hand to hand I have the idea that it is often effective to concentrate on crushing one enemy flank- it is in real life, but I am not certain it makes a difference in BG, I always do it though, concentrate on one enemy on a flank while the rest of the party holds the others back. Then roll them up from the side...
Always keep weak characters such as mages and thieves in the back unless the thief is backstabbing, and let them support the meleers with missile fire or magic.
Always aim to take out enemy magic users first. Pump them full of missiles, preferably poisoned ones. That is faster than casting magic and often disturbs the casting or kills the baddie outright.
When resting outside it is often a good idea to have your magic user cast protection on him/her self so they are protected if enemies attack the camp.
It can sometimes be worthwhile having a thief with an invisibility potion backstab the real big bad and dangerous ones in melee.
Use party formations that protect the weakest members. I prefer the cirkle or wedge with the weakest character surrounded by the tougher ones.
When ambushed ("you have been waylaid by enemies etc"), IRL and in BG it works to concentrate on one side of the ambush to take out the attackers there, then get your wekest characters to the relative safety there when the baddies are taken out and kill the other attackers.
That is it for me, except for the footnote, any other ideas or tricks??
*The Sirenes are no threat that way, if only one character is there to be dominated he can put one poison arrow into The Sirene who will either just stand around until the domination is over and he can put new ones into her, or she will die from the poison. They do not attack dominated characters and if the rest of the party is not there, there is no one for dominated characters to attack- I may be moving to too advanced here. Just make a line of archers to fall back on and have one explore.