GameBanshee Forums

In SoA I was playing with a party of 4 characters and killing wizards was a cinch. Now im soloing ToB with a dualed kensai/thief and its a little harder to kill wizards because of all the protection spells they have. I know that if a wizard cast spells like stoneskin or improved mantle, that they are immune to damage for a short time, but magical damage fire,ice,electric,etc. still get through.
I was wondering if even if they have protection magic on and you hit them, does that count as a successful hit. Ex. if i hit a mage while he has stoneskin and i was wielding a club of detonation +5, it would do 5 fire damage and no normal damage, but would it also have the 30% chance of doing an additional 15 fire damage even though its not really a successful hit.
Opinion: Also wondering what the best weapons are for killing mages are. I know its probably flail of ages +5, but i forgot to import it so i cant get it.
My kensai/thief has proficiences in: long sword ***** scimitar ***** dual wield *** 2 handed swords ** quarterstaff *** short bow * 2 handed weapons **
He is currently dual wielding blackrazor and spectral brand. Occasionaly using Holy Avenger and Staff of Ram

Also just wondering what opinions on the best weapon would be. My guess would be a character dual wielding 2 Axe of The Unyielding +5 because thats 20% instant kill, +2 AC, +2 constitution, and regenerating 6hp per round

To take out those pesky mages my advice would be to use something like Carsomyr or the Staff of the Magi. Both of those have a 'dispell' effect each time you hit which'll help get through a lot of those protections. Carsomyr would be the better choice because of the high magic resistance, 50% means a lot of spells thrown at you are blocked Obvioulsy you will have had to choose "Use any Item" as one of your HLA's. You could also use the invisible effect from the staff if you wanted to be cheesy. Just go invis each time a spell is being hurled towards you.

I don't know how far you are into TOB but I'd definately dump black razor. It's only a +3 weapon which really doesn't cut it in TOB, I know it's got some great bonuses but +3 is just not enough to carry you through

Some weapon combo's I find work really well are:
Axe of the Unyielding + Foebane (both upgraded, work together VERY well)
Flail of Ages + Crom Faeyr (perfect for your fighter/cleric or ranger/cleric)

In my game atm I've got my main character with with profiencies in war hammer, flail and 2 weapon style. He uses the FOA and Defender of Easthaven until I get Crom. He will use both of those in TOB.

My 2nd tank has profiencies in axe and bastard sword. He will use the Frostreaver axe and Stonefire axe until TOB when he'll switch to Foebane + Axe of the Unyielding.

My fighter/thief has got profiencies in katana and longsword and 2 weapon. He'll use Celestial Fury and a longsword (changing as I get better ones in SOA, Daystar for vamps etc) eventually finishing up with The Equalizer and Celestial Fury for the end of SOA. I'll probably use The Answerer and The Equalizer and/or Anguarvadal depending on the situation when he gets to TOB.

Hope this helps A bit to read but if you're going solo it really does help to plan some of these things out to make life a lot easier.

[QUOTE=Arch_Angel]
I don't know how far you are into TOB but I'd definately dump black razor. It's only a +3 weapon which really doesn't cut it in TOB, I know it's got some great bonuses but +3 is just not enough to carry you through
[/QUOTE]

I just finished killing demogorgon and Yaga-Shura and I use blackrazor because of many different reasons:
1. Can use with backstab
2. Keeps my PC alive since you take lots of damage while soloing with its regeneration and the 20 hp heal.
3. Haste
4. Strength increase
5. Already have -17 Thac0 with blackrazor so the effects it has is more helpful than a +2 Thac0 with a different weapon
6. Immune to charm and fear - doesn't seem like much but when your soloing its important not to get charmed

reasons i dont use some of the weapons you listed above:
1. I think Foebane is seriously overrated because its not the best offensive weapon and even defensively it lacks a little. When you compare the automatic +4 hp and -4hp to your opponent, it sounds really good, but it would take 5 hits to heal 20 hp, yet with the 15% chance of blackrazor, it would take 6-7 hits to heal 20hp and you also get hasted, +3 strength, -4 level drain + its got built in regeneration. (seems like 6-7 hits is a lot, but my character gets 4 attacks per round so its only 2 rounds)
2. Crom Faeyr is a very good weapon, but my character already has 23 strength (girdle of fire giant strength and ring of talos) and blackrazor pretty much raises it to 25.
3. Axe of the Unyielding is another good choice, but it would take me 8 levels to build 2 proficiencies in it - and to me thats not worth it.
4. I would use Flail of Ages, but as i already said i accidently forgot to import it.
5. I do use Carosymr a bit and i just recently got 3 proficiences in 2 handed sword, i usually just use it to dispel a stoneskin then immediatley switch back to blackrazor and spectral brand. (its how i finally killed demogorgon)

Thanks for the help anyways - im just wondering if there's a weapon's effect's that i overlooked

I don't think a lot of wizards have spell protections up before they see you, so if you manage to sneak in undetected, you can backstab them when they're unprotected, and with the amount of damage you are doing I think every backstab will be an insta-kill on those sille low-health caster-types...

[QUOTE=lucky19]
1. I think Foebane is seriously overrated because its not the best offensive weapon and even defensively it lacks a little. When you compare the automatic +4 hp and -4hp to your opponent, it sounds really good, but it would take 5 hits to heal 20 hp, yet with the 15% chance of blackrazor, it would take 6-7 hits to heal 20hp and you also get hasted, +3 strength, -4 level drain + its got built in regeneration. (seems like 6-7 hits is a lot, but my character gets 4 attacks per round so its only 2 rounds)
[/QUOTE]

I won't bother rebuffing your reasons for not wanting to take on the weapon combos suggested (each to their own, it is your game). But Foebane is most definately not overrated. It's a +5 weapon which automatically makes it able to hit anything in the game, it does extra damage against anything undead and all the hard hitting/magic resistant beings like demons and so on. It gives a +1 to all saving throws (very helpful when you've got spells coming at you). The Larloch's Minor Drain does not only heal you, it takes you above your normal hitpoints. You whirlwind against an enemy who has a lot of health, all those minor drains being cast means you'll have a ton of hp's added onto your max hitpoints.

The haste from black razor is nullified with boots of speed, charm can be stopped via helms or a few weapons found in the game (The equalizer, Lilacor being 2) and fear protection can be got from the moondog figurine and/or spells you've learned or from scrolls. The strength factor doesn't really matter as there's so many items/weapons that can buff you up to inhuman levels that blackrazor only increasing it for 20 seconds isn't really a lot of help. The level drain can be handy but having a corpse explode (and therefore losing any items) isn't a lot of fun. You can lose a fair bit of gear this way.

As I said it's your game and by all means play it the way that makes you happy Just personally I wouldn't use a +3 weapon when it's effects can be easily matched with gear I'd be using normally anyway.

Killing mages...? Those are among the easiest of the "harder" enemies IMO. Of course, I've only once completed ToB (with an Undead hunter) and I used the upgraded Carosmyr and Flail of the Ages +4 (never did go to the deepest levels of Watcher's Keep...) and sometimes Psion's Blade or whatever it was called. Well, with Carosmyr the mage's protections were nullified, and by then I attack pretty darn quickly. Also, most of their offensive spells were useless thanks to the 50% magic resistance of Carosmyr. Furthermore, I've found that quite a few enemies are Chaotic Evil, meaning that Carosmyr is a whopping +12 against them!! Seriously, on normal hits I did 50+ damage!!! That plus improved whirlwind, which btw is the only HLA I use, means that just about any enemy you encounter pretty much gets hacked to pieces.

Sounds nice, right...? Well I still had to reload ALL THE FRAKING TIME against Mellyssan. Took me like, 20 tries to beat her up...

[QUOTE=Arch_Angel]But Foebane is most definately not overrated. It's a +5 weapon which automatically makes it able to hit anything in the game, it does extra damage against anything undead and all the hard hitting/magic resistant beings like demons and so on. It gives a +1 to all saving throws (very helpful when you've got spells coming at you). The Larloch's Minor Drain does not only heal you, it takes you above your normal hitpoints. You whirlwind against an enemy who has a lot of health, all those minor drains being cast means you'll have a ton of hp's added onto your max hitpoints.[/QUOTE]

If your going to dissect blackrazor like that, its even easier to find equipment that makes foebane useless as well. I doubt the +1 damage against undead and demons is going to do a whole lot, if you think its that important then equip a staff of ram which is a +6 and adds +12 and +1d4 and you can also backstab which is pretty much an instant kill to anything. +1 to saving throws is not particularly useful especially when your soloing because you can pour your best equipment onto one guy (my current character has -5,-3,-4,-4,-2 in the saving throws categories). Im pretty sure (not 100% sure) that it heals you above your maximum for only a certain amount of time. Obviously greater whirlwind makes any weapon a lot better, i'd still prefer whirlwinding with Axe of the Unyielding +5 because i like offense better than defense.

Your right that the only thing wrong with blackrazor is that its only a +3, and using a regular size party (4-6) i'd consider putting one of my guys with foebane, but its still overrated since some people consider it the best weapon in the whole game (i probably wouldnt even list it in the top 5)

I've also got a question. For some reason, whenever i equip Shuruppak's Plate, it adds 1 to my base Thac0 and Thac0. Without it my base Thac0 is 1 and my Thac0 is -15/-17, but when i equip it my base Thac0 changes to 2 and my Thac0 changes to -14/-16. There might be some obvious answer im overlooking, but any help would be appreciated

If your going to dissect blackrazor like that, its even easier to find equipment that makes foebane useless as well. I doubt the +1 damage against undead and demons is going to do a whole lot,

Foebane does +6 extra dmg to undead/demons etc., which is not that bad, considering that in ToB you find quite a lot of those and you can get the upgraded version very early.
Regarding Blackrazor, remember that regeneration doesn't stack, so if you are using ring of Gaax or AoU (which have better reg. rate) you get the reg. from those items.

Anyway Foebane is a very good weapon, although I agree there are better ones (not many though) and is not a typical thief weapon (no backstab).
In any case for me the best one handed are by far AoU and FoA+5, and then come the others, including Foebane.

If we're talking one-handed thief weapons, I can't believe no one has mentioned Dagger of the Stars. Or well, I can, since it really isn't anything mentionable besides such weapons as AoU or FoA, but if you have x4 backstab damage (or greater) and a nifty amount of attacks, your humanoid enemies (spellcasters, anyone?) will take quite some damage.

Another thief weapon that I prefer, mainly when being in a party but anyways, is The Answerer. In the hands of a whirlwinder you can lower your opponents magic res with 150% and AC with 20... That's nothing to be overlooked.

Killing Mages

My first game of Baldur's Gate was played through all three games with me as a human mage. Between me, Imoen, Aerie, Jaheira, Minsc and whoever else was around, I learned to beat some tough mages.

It's not heroic. It's not pretty. But it works. Even with my second party with a Dwarven Fighter and a tough as heck party, I still use this. When I encounter several high level mages, I wait until they start casting their protection spells and then I have my party run like a group of girls in the other direction.

I'll then send in someone close to the evil mage, have someone summon weak monsters, send them in to attack the mage and then watch as the mage launches 8th level spells against the war dogs. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat and then just go in and slaughter them. Not dramatic, but it gets the job done. My mage, Imoen, Aerie, Jaheira, Minsc and Saravok got through TOB at a high difficulty level. As I play the second time around, man that was insane.

All the best!

[QUOTE=ltourang]It's not heroic. It's not pretty. But it works. Even with my second party with a Dwarven Fighter and a tough as heck party, I still use this. When I encounter several high level mages, I wait until they start casting their protection spells and then I have my party run like a group of girls in the other direction.[/QUOTE]

I try to just use this as an "when all else fails..." tactic, but it does work. Wait until their protections wear off and then beat them senseless. It's their fault they don't follow you and slaughter you while they're protected by spells.

[QUOTE=lucky19]Also just wondering what opinions on the best weapon would be. My guess would be a character dual wielding 2 Axe of The Unyielding +5 because thats 20% instant kill, +2 AC, +2 constitution, and regenerating 6hp per round[/QUOTE]

Nope, still 10%.

foebane and crom...'nuff said.