8 réponses à ce sujet

[WanderingScholar]

Good day to you all,

 

So I've been playing BG2 for several years now and I had never before actually played the trilogy through properly starting from BG1 and importing my character over. I guess I was reluctant to play BG1 because I kept convincing myself that the combat would be dull compared to BG2, so I never got around to touching the first game. Now that the enhanced editions are released I thought I'd give the trilogy a proper play-through, but I decided to spice things up a bit with SCS installed since BG2 had become a cake walk even on higher difficulties. 

 

So now, I'm playing BG1 (blind!) with SCS installed. Even though I've never played BG1 before I can definitely feel the difficulty increase. It's been good fun so far but the biggest teeth grinding components are the improved chapter end battles. I'm stuck right now with the battle outside the Cloakwood Mines.

 

I'm playing as a Cleric/Ranger with Minsc, Dynaheir, Imoen (dueled to mage), and Coran (everyone is level 5 with good gear). I've tried about every tactic I can think of: hordes of summons,using potions and wands, web and stinking cloud combos...nothing even brings me close. The real problem are the mages instantly having globes of minor inv/mirror image etc. up when the battle starts. Then I'm pelted with multiple casting of chaos, emotion, melfs, and dire charm until I die. I can hardly even get a spell thrust off to bring down the globes. 

 

I chose option 4 for SCS smarter mages which let's BG1 mages get insta-buffing. Can I change this component to option 2 midgame or am I going to have issues if I do this? Is there something I'm missing tactically? 

 

[Grond0]

There's a number of options to deal with that fight.  For instance:

- if you feel cheesy then approach (staying out of sight of Drasus) and have everyone throw fireballs (wands, necklace, potions) at once.  That will kill the mages and the others should be manageable for your party then.

- as noted above magic is the biggest obstacle so have your best missile defensive character use a scroll of magic protection + potion of speed and run the opponents round on his own for a while to wear out buffs and do a bit of damage.  You'll probably find that the mages disappear into invisibility when they can't hurt him, but throwing in the odd summons from long range should help with that.  You may sometimes find that despite never seeing anyone else a mage can still track down the rest of the party.  However, just one of them on their own should be easily dealt with by spreading your forces out to avoid multiple people being affected by chaos etc at once (knowledge of where new enemies can spawn makes this a lot easier of course ...).

- you could try charming Genthore and running him out of the way, or blinding him.  Depending on how your installation works you may find that casting blind doesn't turn enemies hostile - in which case you can blind the mages as well before showing yourself to Drasus .

[WanderingScholar]

I'll give some of those ideas a try though I'd rather not resort to anything super cheesy. I still think I should probably disable the pre-buffing since having multiple mages with stoneskin, mirror image, and minor globe pre-cast is a bit too much for my BG1 party (and a bit unrealistic). Will it cause problems with the current game if I change that component of the install?

[Jianson]

I'll give some of those ideas a try though I'd rather not resort to anything super cheesy. I still think I should probably disable the pre-buffing since having multiple mages with stoneskin, mirror image, and minor globe pre-cast is a bit too much for my BG1 party (and a bit unrealistic). Will it cause problems with the current game if I change that component of the install?

 

I think it will work fine, but that changes will only affect areas you haven't yet visited. Not sure, though.

[Grimwald the Wise]

There's a number of options to deal with that fight.  For instance:

- if you feel cheesy then approach (staying out of sight of Drasus) and have everyone throw fireballs (wands, necklace, potions) at once.  That will kill the mages and the others should be manageable for your party then.

 

If you have a party member who can scout ahead to see where the enemy is without being seen, I have no problem with this approach.

 

Often the enemy moves after being blasted with fireballs. That same member can spot where they move to so that you hit the maximum number of the enemy with your blasts. (That member should not have been fighting otherwise he/she will have to hide/go invisible again.)

[Grond0]

If you have a party member who can scout ahead to see where the enemy is without being seen, I have no problem with this approach.

My reference to cheese was not so much the use of fireballs from out of sight range per se, but blasting a neutral party that as far as you know at that stage are just minding their own business .

[Jianson]

Another really cheese-a-liscious thing to do here would be to repeatedly pop in and out of the barracks to mess up the mages' spellcasting.

[WanderingScholar]

Thanks for all the advice!

 

I managed to get past that fight at the cloakwood mines by having Coran drink a potion of fire giant strength then chunking one of the mages with a backstab. I spell thrust the other mage then sent in minsc with spiders bane after two castings of web.

 

The smarter mages component of SCS is definitely the most noticeable feature in game. The battles on ice island were brutal (only three party members survived). Basically a gauntlet of spellcasters, all of which receive  a nice buff with SCS then use the hit and run tactic to avoid my fighters. Even a single mage that has been backstabbed to "near death" can wreak havoc on the party, especially since nearly every mage along the sword coast seems to have minute meteors on hand. I keep Dynaheir equipped with two castings of spell thrust but even after removing the globes the spellcasters seem to have immaculate saves. Guess I'll have to stock both my mages up with more magic missles since it's the most reliable way of getting past mirrored images. On the upside I acquired multiple wands of paralyzation (they hit through the globes of inv.  ). Any other advice is appreciated.

 

Considering I'm playing through blind I'm still having a great time with the game despite some of the frustrating battles. BG1 has noticeably longer dialogues than BG2.

[Grimwald the Wise]

My reference to cheese was not so much the use of fireballs from out of sight range per se, but blasting a neutral party that as far as you know at that stage are just minding their own business .

 

In my set-up they are hostile, so I obviously have no problem. If they are neutral then I suppose that detect evil would have to be used. If a scout spotted them, he would clearly be suspicious of them, so using that or know alignment would be a reasonable action.

 

Another really cheese-a-liscious thing to do here would be to repeatedly pop in and out of the barracks to mess up the mages' spellcasting.

 

Repeatedly doing that would be cheesy. Doing it once to run away from the mages would be a normal reaction IMO.

 

Considering I'm playing through blind I'm still having a great time with the game despite some of the frustrating battles. BG1 has noticeably longer dialogues than BG2.

 

IMO playing through blind is actually more enjoyable as it is far more realistic. It is one reason that I like playing mods nowadays as the mods often change things slightly.