Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[ga♥]

Since noone ever replied when I asked this in another thread. Is there a way for a solo char to win the final battle (ascension) without spamming skull traps/delayed fireballs?

 

[oldmanpaco]

SCS+atweaks+rogue rebalance+ ascension senior

I use atweeks and RR as well. Was just listing the mods that make the game harder.

 

[Dzupakazul]

Since noone ever replied when I asked this in another thread. Is there a way for a solo char to win the final battle (ascension) without spamming skull traps/delayed fireballs?

Bit pressed for time right now, but old social.bioware.com forum refugees and massive BG grognards have some ideas here. Note Alesia_BH's posts in particular.

Generally, learn to time magic defense removal spells, get a good focus down priority, abuse Vhailor's Helm / Simulacrum / Project Image / etc., remember our dear Amy is immune to time stop... Generally there's some exploitable weaknesses you can look to depending on your build, IIRC Yaga-Shura falls apart to a single Harm spell. Spell Immunity (Abjuration) or (Divination) (with Imp. Invisibility) can go a long way in helping you survive.

You can do some other cheese shit like green scrolling Protection from Magic (from a Simulacrum, to get bonus scrolls in effect) on Irenicus or Sendai to prevent their spellcasting.

Summons (Bears or Aerial Servant or Skele Warriors should work) are a good way to occupy annoying meleers like Balthazar or Yaga-Shura. Last time I attempted this I focused down Illasera first, she goes down quick and is overall a nuisance that you should get out of the way anyway.

What class are you playing? EDIT: Also, hoard the scrolls, potions, and other consumables, especially if you're a classic F/M/T or something. Black Blade of Disaster might not be worth remembering on a spell slot, but with some pre-buffing you can use it as a really cheap and efficient way to disintegrate 1 or 2 members of the Five. Get some emergency spell removal shit and Lower Resist.

 

[Wayward Son]

Lilura You asked and I delivered:
Chapter XIV: Reaching Nashkel Mines

 

[ga♥]

F/M/T but rly, Ilasera was the last of my problems. This was on EE and I think Baalthazar was buffed (or most likely they "fixed" something that was scripted in the original Ascension but simply didn't work). He's the highest priority (or I am dead in like 10 seconds) to go but problem is that as soon he dies, Melissan teleports in.

Summons get death spelled ASAP and AFAIK you can't vorpal hit anyone.

You said you "tried", did you manage to win?

All the youtube videos of soloing that I found are with traps spam, or using some mod (AKA cheating).

 

[hell bovine]

I only ever played Ascension/SCS in the original, and with good characters to boot, so you'd have to be more specific as to why Balthy is such a problem.

Btw, Mel will always teleport in when one of the five dies.

 

[Dzupakazul]

F/M/T but rly, Ilasera was the last of my problems. This was on EE and I think Baalthazar was buffed (or most likely they "fixed" something that was scripted in the original Ascension but simply didn't work). He's the highest priority (or I am dead in like 10 seconds) to go but problem is that as soon he dies, Melissan teleports in.

Illasera is generally not much of a roadblock; she's just an obstacle you have to get rid of anyhow. She tends to be a good target to focus first - just to get her out of the way - but it really depends on fight-to-fight. Her bow attacks are actually a pretty potent debuff.

One thing you can do is to just put everyone of the initial Five at Near Death status and only start finishing them off later.

Also, with summons, you generally kinda have to keep spamming them if you want them as a long-term buffer. If you're soloing then it will be of course very difficult. Try the Planetar, it 's not Death Spellable. Sendai seems to be a bit more retarded when it comes to summons as she prefers Comet over Death Spell, and that takes longer for her. You could try presummoning a couple of times and delivering summons to Balthazar piecemeal by piecemeal; let him waste Death Spells on weak summons. Again, lots of scrolls could help.

You said you "tried", did you manage to win?

It's been a little while since I last did a full run of the Trilogy, but yeah, I've beaten Ascension before. It isn't impossible; it can take a bit of luck, a lot of good timing (on spell interrupts) and some pretty in-depth knowledge of stuff, but it's doable.

I dunno, try lowering the difficulty to Easy for a test run, this way Mel only appears after two of the Five die instead of just one, and experiment.

Also, consider your weapon selection. Flail of Ages might very well be a must with its Slow effect, if you can apply it fast enough. Hindo's Doom is wonderful for off-hand for some passive magic resistance, the active, and being immune to vorpal-like and instant death effects. Look up what you've got in your Bag of Holding, and I hope you didn't throw anything away.

 

[gunman]

Best Weapons - Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2.

VentilatorOfDoom octavius Lhynn @other IE veterans

These kind of articles are quite useless. This is not the kind of game where having the best weapon matter matters. Newbies will still get their asses handed with the best weapons while veterans play with self-imposed rules to make the game harder. If you are into on-line articles, why don't you make yourself more useful and contribute on the BG wiki, it's still lacking in some areas.

 

[ga♥]

I only ever played Ascension/SCS in the original, and with good characters to boot, so you'd have to be more specific as to why Balthy is such a problem.

Btw, Mel will always teleport in when one of the five dies.

I managed ascension with a party already. Problem is with a solo. Balthazaar is a problem because:

1 - he's fastest than you even with boots of cheetah/haste
2 - he knocks and blows you out even with stoneskin and shit

When you are knocked out you are dead.

You see the main problem when you have just 1 char, is the "turns" you got to do things VS the Five plus Sarevok.

 

[ga♥]

It's been a little while since I last did a full run of the Trilogy, but yeah, I've beaten Ascension before. It isn't impossible; it can take a bit of luck, a lot of good timing (on spell interrupts) and some pretty in-depth knowledge of stuff, but it's doable.

Sorry, but i really doubt it since most of the stuff you wrote is wrong (vorpal/black blade of disaster+ make em to near death when they heal themselves) or useless (unless you start being more specific than of "izi pizi just try to focus and good coordination"). Or maybe you managed it but with some buff mod. The only one I am using is bottomless bag of holding FYI.

I will try to use a protection scroll from magic on baalthazar btw (and melisaan too if it works).

 

[Colour Spray]

Lilura You asked and I delivered:
Chapter XIV: Reaching Nashkel Mines

Good stuff.
Iwd's druid spells makes the class way more engaging, I thought, although some of the stuff you can do feels downright dirty at times. Like death clouds with spiked ground added on top; although you kinda need it when you're trying to kill 8 trolls at a time at level 5. I liked that you keep trying different approaches and not just bowing to the dice gods. Makes me feel like I should be swapping spells and equipment around more often, too.

(The spells clearly aren't broken for a solo druid, though. Just a shame there's no SCS for Iwd yet, because my Sorcerer feels very unmolested so far and all these blue spells I learned are going to waste. )

 

[Dzupakazul]

Sorry, but i really doubt it since most of the stuff you wrote is wrong (vorpal/black blade of disaster+ make em to near death when they heal themselves) or useless (unless you start being more specific than of "izi pizi just try to focus and good coordination"). Or maybe you managed it but with some buff mod. The only one I am using is bottomless bag of holding FYI.

Unless something was changed very recently, I doubt that BBoD doesn't work at all on the Five. On top of its vorpal chance, BBoD has a 2k12 damage spread and is a +5 weapon, so you're really meant to use it to obliterate something fast with IH / Mislead for constant backstabs; I explicitly remember using exactly this method of obliterating Illasera and Sendai.

Had we had power mods in play (which was never my assumption), I would have told you to get Water's Talon +4 from IU or Pontifex's boots from Tactics for maximum cheese, but none of that is the case, so I didn't mention them.

Do you have a Simulacrum source? Do you use it as a bonus repository for all your crucial (green) scrolls and a secondary tank?
Do you sic the Planetar on Balthazar for at least a little while? Illasera or Sendai might not look like they're trouble, but Illasera has arrows of dispelling that lower your resistances. They're easy to dispatch anyhow (Sendai is very fragile to Remove Magic).
Do you use Protection from Magical Weapons? How about Hardiness when you do actually come to blows with Balthazar? With a proper setup you can achieve massive physical resistance with Hardiness. Do you have Defender of Easthaven for your off-hand?
Do you use the special Ascension ability, Focus, to be able to abuse Time Stop in any capacity at all? Your Simulacrum preserves your Focus ability if you cast it after you use Focus, so you can have 2 F/M/Ts wreaking havoc on enemy lines, only having to pay attention to Balthazar.
Do you pay attention to the action feed at the bottom? Balthazar's immunity to Time Stop is gated by his Lunar Stance, and only him and Mel should be ever immune to TS.
Do you go into the fight with good Contingencies and Spell Sequencers to be able to soften the targets up?

Try doing this: prepare a Planetar + some random fodder summons (with really good timing you will stop time in such a way that only Balthazar will be moving, and he will waste time punching your immobile summons to death), Focus + Hardiness on your main hero, then Simulacrum, green scroll of choice on enemy, Time Stop, and go nuts. Kill order is up to you, if you don't see a point of killing Illasera first (though, again, her arrows of dispelling are a bitch, so get rid of her at *some* point), go for Balthazar.

 

[hell bovine]

I managed ascension with a party already. Problem is with a solo. Balthazaar is a problem because:

1 - he's fastest than you even with boots of cheetah/haste
2 - he knocks and blows you out even with stoneskin and shit

When you are knocked out you are dead.

You see the main problem when you have just 1 char, is the "turns" you got to do things VS the Five plus Sarevok.

What about prot. from magical weapons? Though the big question is whether he can see through invisibility.

Cheese that works on some of the five - but not Balthy, as is immune to +2 weapons (I think, not 100% sure) - is Haer'Dalis dex-draining sword.

 

[Dzupakazul]

Another piece of cheese you can try is Chain Contingency (3x Project Image) to summon a total of 4 Planetars at once, on top of having 4 dudes to do any of the tasks you need them to.

Balthazar really needs to be tanked by something if you don't focus him down first.

 

[hell bovine]

Another piece of cheese you can try is Chain Contingency (3x Project Image) to summon a total of 4 Planetars at once, on top of having 4 dudes to do any of the tasks you need them to.

Balthazar really needs to be tanked by something if you don't focus him down first.

Unless modded, a f/m/t doesn't get planetars (no level 9 spells), from what I remember. Also, I think the EE fixed the contingency cheese.

Cheese that might still work: cast shapechange (from scroll), then simulacrum - summoned simmy should be able to shapeshift. Iron golem simmys are not bad at tanking, due to their size.

 

[Dzupakazul]

Well, shit, you're right; getting too used to XP Cap Removers was a bad choice. Sorry!

In any case, I would still rely on massive Simulacrum/Projected Image abuse for all tanking needs in this place.

Oh, also: keep Staff of the Magi on standby, because the massive on-hit Dispel Magic might very well be your only way of getting rid of magical defenses.

 

[hell bovine]

What exactly is a f/m/t going to use a PI for, though? Simmys can fight, but summoning a PI means the caster gets held, effectively removing his strongest melee presence (charname) from the battlefield. These are standard sorcerer strategies/cheese; trying to imitate them with a f/m/t isn't going to work that well.

Also, if he has UAI, then he might as well use Carsomyr for dispelling.

 

[Dzupakazul]

What exactly is a f/m/t going to use a PI for, though? Simmys can fight, but summoning a PI means the caster gets held, effectively removing his strongest melee presence (charname) from the battlefield. These are standard sorcerer strategies/cheese; trying to imitate them with a f/m/t isn't going to work that well.

It looks like OP is desperate for ways to effectively give himself more lives to withstand the massive amounts of damage, and unless EE/newest fixpacks meddled in that, Projected Image can, at the very least, contribute to the cheese with stuff like Improved haste into Shapechange -> Greater Werewolf (PI form can attack if you give it anything with bonus attacks per round), and also the crucial Ascension-fight-only Focus is retained by Simulacra and Projected Images.

At this point it's a bit of a kitchen sink of "have you tried X", really.

Speaking of "have you tried X", do you have a set up kill zone with Spike Traps / Time Traps anywhere?

Also, if he has UAI, then he might as well use Carsomyr for dispelling.

I remember lots of bugs involved with Carsomyr on-hit dispel being dodgy or buggy, so I tend to have a SotM bias, but yeah, Carsomyr could work.

I really wish the Bounty Hunter solo SCSII/Ascension run report didn't get vaporized along with the social.bioware forums, because it was one of the best documentations of the inner workings of those popular difficulty mods.

 

[Wayward Son]

https://www.sorcerers.net/community...tion-solo-as-a-druid.79712/page-3#post-835310

 

[Citizen]

https://www.sorcerers.net/community...tion-solo-as-a-druid.79712/page-3#post-835310

Bipolar is a hell of a disorder. BTW, is druid in BGEE any different to a druid in BG?

 

[Lilura]

Best Arcane Spells - Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2

 

[Grunker]

Why didn't you list Lower Resistance? It's an overrated spell that isn't even needed in arcane solos of the original BG2, much less party-based games.

 

[hell bovine]

I like the utility of lower resistance - unless you pick up the more expensive versions - for the really evil spell combinations. Blowing things up with skull traps gets boring fast, but garden statues last forever (or at least until you hit them, but it's the thought that counts).

I find energy blades overrated, tbh. In party you can get 10 apr on your fighters, only with better weapons, when soloing melf's meteors were enough for the few times my sorceress needed to whack things.

 

[Colour Spray]

https://www.sorcerers.net/community...tion-solo-as-a-druid.79712/page-3#post-835310

Kobolds are actually quite painful at level 2 as my last SCS play through can attest. I had this brilliant idea of testing what would happen if I followed what the game was suggesting and went straight for the mines. The answer being pain and lots of it.

Hmm, lower resistance is still single target? I'm with Lilura, I'd rather spend a spell slot on Pierce Magic, it has better upside.

 

[Lilura]

I like the utility of lower resistance - unless you pick up the more expensive versions - for the really evil spell combinations.

This is what I mean by overrated: don't be like Grunker. It's not godly.

I find energy blades overrated, tbh. In party you can get 10 apr on your fighters, only with better weapons, when soloing melf's meteors were enough for the few times my sorceress needed to whack things.

It's godly. And stop talking about solos. The post isn't about such basic wankery.