How to beat Sarevok with a solo mage?

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hi there

the title says it all.... i've already beaten him before with a solo fighter and a solo thief, but as for with the mage i just dont know what to do, i'm clueless

i'm up for any tactic that works, even the most cheesy ones, so if you know any, please share it with me

 

Wand spamming worked for my solo Bard, too.
Though it feels indeed cheesy.

 

Lot's of monsters as mentioned above, or keep reloading until you manage to charm Angelo & Semaj.

 

Sparky has the right idea, you need to turn his allies against him so that you even up the odds. Summonings are all very well but they are really too weak and do very little damage. I'm not sure what mods (if any) you have installed but that does make a big difference to the tactics they use against you.


I posted this in the other 'Final Fight' thread, but I'll offer it to you again here because it was one of my favorites:
I spied out the area and then cast Chaos and/or Confusion at the group. A big fight broke out and Saverok came off second best. It's not going to work first time but I'm sure a solo Mage knows a thing or two about re-loads. And if you prepare by using spells to reduce their saving throws that has got to help too.

Good luck

 

thanks a lot guys for the quick replies

i've never used the wand of summoning but i guess that if it only summons gibberlings and the likes, Sarevok will make minced meat out of them in no time

i dont have access to lvl 5 mage spells so i cannot cast domination

i dont have any mod installed, the only weird thing is that TotSC is installed but Durlag and Ulgoth dont appear on the map

 

Weird, i thought I was the only one with this problem and thought it would be caused by a unique mistake of my German Tosc disc.
The new areas wouldn't appear, even the new items wouldn't correctly show up
(e.g. the new scimitar in the prelogue shop is showing, though the description is all messed up).
Maybe there are some buggy discs out there for some European versions.
I could only resolve this by installing an American version.

 

i removed/reinstalled the game and they now appear on the map, weird bug......

so as i understand it, i got to reach lvl 9 in order to use the domination spell..... wow thats going to be tough

 

There are lots of spells you can cast from scrolls, plus wands & cloaks to help you. I often use weak low-level NPCs so they never get to learn the high level spells. But they still get to finish the game.

 

the domination spell is in durlag dungeon lvl 2, with lvl1 being a nightmare for spellcasters as most creatures are magic resistant.... what a pain

i dont know if its worth the hassle to go through all this just for a spell :/

 

Seeing as this thread never really came to a good conclusion, it made me want to try to solo a mage to see how to do the final fight. I've solo'd other classes before through regular BG1, but not pure mage. Also I have the added problems of BG-Tutu plus SCS to contend with. The mods will make a big difference.

Some of the 'boss' fights have been seriously difficult for the previous chapters so this final fight could be hellish. But I'll give it a try and see how it goes.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that you can incite in-fighting. If you make yourself invisible with a potion after Angelo shoots an arrow of detonation or Semaj casts fireball and the effect of either of these attacks damage one or more of your other enemies then those enemies will target, attack, and kill the careless offender. Protect yourself with mirror image and maybe a potion of magic shielding then time your disappearence and watch your enemies destroy each other. Then you need only contend with Tazok and Sarevok which should be easy with all the swag you must have gathered during your adventure on the sword coast.

 

Quite right, I'm a big fan of getting them to fight amongst themselves and it's nice to be able to go invisible to escape from a tough situation and effectively start anew from a better advantage position after things calm down. But I find that SCS changes everything and this isn't really the right forum thread for those problems.

So solution #1 is to use spells to get the bad guys to kill themselves. I know this works because I have done it before. There could be a number of suitable spells to do this but I used Chaos the time it worked for me (before mods). Tazok was the poor confused idiot who made the kill.

Solution #2 would be to get Saverok isolated from his buddies and use spells or wands to hold/stun/paralyze him so he can't fight back. I created some Summonsed Monsters to keep him busy while I used Greater Malison and Wand of Paralysing (many times to beat his saving throw). Without the stun effect the monsters get killed easily, but once he was held the monsters could do a massive amount of damage. Summon up a whole load of them and apply haste to get the job done. No need for to the Mage to do anything to help. Bit cheesy but effective if you can find a way to set up the right scenario.

Notice that both solution require no real mage skills. My mage is not at all powerful but all that is needed is a few scrolls and wands, rather than having high hit-points or having memorised high level spells.

Footnote: neither of these methods worked for my SCS game, yet. And I had a big pile of swag statched away but am unable to carry much of it to the end-game, grrrr.

Edit: off topic but if you want to know my favourite example of peripheral damage causing someone to turn hostile then I have a suggestion for you.

 

AFAIK the wand can summon more powerful monsters as well. No great solo experience, tho.

 

I have no idea what the wand does with mods, but IIRC in BG1 it would randomly summon wolves, kobold commandos, hobgoblins, or gnolls.

In BG2, I recall it randomly summoning ogres, gnolls, kobold commandos, wolves, and I think something else I can't recall. You would get only one or two ogres while you'd get 6 of the others.

 

A year late on this one, but still...

I pulled at least Semaj and maybe Tazok off and killed him/them individually before initiating the conversation with Sarevok.

As for Big-S himself, I just used a combination of invisibility (Spells, potions, scrolls) + MM's + Sling+3/Bullets+2 + Boots and Oil of Speed (to run away from him).

Alternatively, if you need a non-spellcasting way to beat him, you could just buff up and beat him one-on-one:

Gear:
Neck: Amulet of Metaspell Influence
Back: Cloak of protection +2
Torso: Robe that gives +1 AC vs. slashing (Knave's I think?)
Arms: Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise
Waist: Golden Girdle
Rings: 2 rings of wizardry-- they stack multiplicatively, meaning you'll have around 16 1st-level slots
Weapon: Staff +3

All buffs:
Potion of Defense (Sets base AC to 0)
Potion of Power (Base Thac0 set to 80% of normal)
Potion of Mind Focusing (+3 DEX)
Blur (Spell/Scroll) = +3 AC
Improved Invisibility (Spell) = Equivalent of +4 AC
Mirror Image (Spell/Scroll)
Protection from Evil
Draw Upon Holy Might (STR, DEX +3)
*Strength (Spell)
**Violet Potion (STR set to 25, DEX and CON set to 3)
**Potion of Fortitude (CON set to 18)
**Potion of Agility (DEX set to 18)

*If DUHM brings STR to 19 or higher, don't use.
**Think of these as one item (two are used to counteract the other)-- not needed if you can hit without them.

AC breakdown:
0 = Base with Potion of Defense
-6 = 24 DEX (assuming 18 + Potion of Mind Focusing + DUHM)
-1 = Robe
-3 = Golden Girdle
-2 = Robe of Protection +2
-3 = Blur (Spell)
-4 = Improved Invisibility (Spell)
-2 = Protection from Evil (Spell)
-21 Total = Sarevok hits you 25% of the time with his -5 Thac0 (IIRC). Though, even when he does hit, it'lll be blocked by Mirror Images (bring scrolls for extra casts if you run out of images).

Thac0 Breakdown:
15 = Base with Potion of Power
-1 = Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise
-3 = Staff +3
-1 = Strength (Spell) = STR of 18/50*
10 Total = you hit Sarevok's -5 AC (IIRC) 30% of the time.

*There's a few options here-- I've tested the Violet/Fortitude/Agility potion combo, and the effects stack (end up with 25 STR, 18 DEX/CON with just those three, PoMF stacks, and DUHM should too). Based on those results, its possible that a Potion of Strength (provided mages can use them-- they can't use the giant versions) + DUHM might give 21 STR, though I haven't tried it. In any event, 25 STR = Thac0 4 (60% accuracy), and 21 STR = Thac0 7(45% accuracy).

Unfortunately, for some reason, Haste and Oils of Speed don't give mages extra attacks in IE games, so you're stuck with the base 1/round.

FTR, I also used the above setup with the Violet Potion deal minus Protection from Evil part to kill Drizzt (who is actually harder than Sarevok one-on-one) solo with my mage.