"A spawn of Bhaal is doomed, and there is no escape..."

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This is the last thing you hear before the game ends.

Just beaten BG2 for the second time yesterday and here are some reflections.

39 game days, 25 game hours IRL.

Three char party - Jaheira, Imoen and Modjahed, Half-Orc True Neutral Kensai:

- 122 Hitpoints
- AC -8 (with Barskin)
- 90% of the game - 4.5 attacks per round dualwield C'Fury and Belm (121 dmg per round), THACO -16, -9.
- 10% of the game - 3.5 attacks per round dualwield C'Fury and Crom Faeyr (123 dmg per round), THACO -16, -15. With Improved Haste and one Critical Hit and one Critical Miss per 21 swings we are talking 735 (!!) damage per 3 rounds....
- saving throws - all around -5

STR: 19 DEX: 18 CON: 19 INT: 11 WIS: 18 CHA: 3

Proficiencies: Katana ***, Hammer **, Scimitar **, Dualwield ***.

Equipment:
Ioun Stone +1 AC bonus
Amulet of Magic Resistance 10% / Greenstone Amulet
Ring of Gaxx
Ring of Earth Control / Fire Control
Belt of Inertial Barrier
Boots of Speed

Now for the companions. I wanted to take only Jaheira, but then I thought that going to Spellhold VERY early might be nice for a change, and I never had Imoen till the end, and then I thought that having Imoen will force me to do some quests, that otherwise I might have skipped - hence more fun.

Certainly my Kensai would be chopped to pieced very fast if there is no tank up front that takes the blows. Jaheira is the BEST option for that - good DEX, low AC, and IRONSKINS!!! Plus she has very useful spells - Barskin (great for another -6 AC bonus for my Kensai), Fire/Cold resistance - what saved me in the Battle at the Tree, and of course Insect Plague and Fire Elemental.

 

I finished my fourth BG-2 game with my halfling cavalier Sir Donaldus yesterday night. Summing up my experiences with this kit I can say that it is excellent. The melee-only restriction is no disadvantage.

The +3 THACO and damage boni against dragons and demons were pretty useful, so I never had problems in the demon lair/ planar spere. He always was my prime frontliner and his remove fear was extremely useful to keep the party in combat formation - very useful in the sewers fight and when fighting dragons and vamires.
Vampires also weren´t that much of a problem since Jaheira provided the protection from level drain spell until I was able to cast it myself. Once I got the mace of disruption they were a piece of cake - using fighter1-script, boots of speed and draw upon holy might (on lvl-17) Sir Donaldus rushed through Bohdis lair like a derwish of death (temporarily str-24 (because of the girdle of frostgiant strength)/ dex-21/ con-21; great spell)

I chose the halfling race for two reasons: Human pallys are standard and I wanted to have someone different, so Sir Donaldus was mainly inspired by Mazzy (the-wanna-be-paladin). Additionally the halfling race has pretty good saving throws. Since pallys have improved saving throws too this shoud be a good combination.
I was right; Sir Donaldus base st´s were 1/1/2/2/1 at lvl-17 and I reached that level when I entered the underdark. Mindflayers psi-attacks always failed on Donaldus, just like mind-affecting spells like chaos. For Donaldus Int-14 he was able to take an amount of intelligence drain when fighting mindflayers. The only spell that sometimes proved to be effective on Sir Donaldus was stun. When he encountered Irenicus in the final fight the st´s were: -8/-8/-7/-7/-10

Equipment:
-Red dragon scale
-Helm of Balduran
-Amulett of spell protection
-Gauntlets of weapon wxpertise
-Girdle of frostgiant strength
-Boots of speed
-Double ring of Gaxx (pickpocketing Kangaxx was pretty difficult and so this was the only fight I had to reload at all and I had to do it three times)
-Cloak of protection +2

Weapons:
For he is a halfling I decided to deny him Carsomyr for the sake of roleplay and gave him ** in single weapon style, flails, longswords, katanas and * with maces. The flail of the ages was one of my best allround weapons and the second good weapon I aquired was daystar that was really useful in the shadowlord dungeon. Later in the game I got C`Fury and the mace of disruption and then I favoured C`Fury to FOTA.

He had AC -14 without shield and -17 with the guardian +4, fast regeneration, 3 attacks and a base THACO of 2 resulting in a THACO of -6 with C`Fury. Usual damage was about 25 per hit, means roughly 75 er round, about 50 on a critical hit. That was enough to get through the game flawless.
finally resistences (with equipment) were fire 90/ elrctricity 20/ cold 20/ acid 20 and magic 30.

I agree: doomed is different

 

To Modjahed: I say god d... That is a though hecker that half-orc
I have a question that You might be able to answer! I am having serious trouble killing Kangaxx without a paladin and a +4 sword. I take it that this is nescesary, as my MonsterManual (TSR-paperversion) say so.
How did You get him down, when he transform into a demilich?

 

Strange, +4 weapons should be able to damage the lich. A dispel first doesn't work too?

 

Here are hints for you, Nobleman: Kangaxx pretends to be very easy when you use "protection from magic"-scrolls. you can find them at Adventurer's Mart after underdark. They make you completely immune to magic, even imprisonment(they won't last long, be careful).

 

They last long enough to kill Kangaxx 3 times and indeed make you vulnurable against the annoying imrisonment BUT it seems to be a problem to hurt him, not the imprisonment seems to be the problem.

 

very interesting stuff. I used a half-elf kensai who was grandmaster in 2-handed sword.

used the talking sword for most of the game then got the +4 2-handed at the mart in chapter 6. (long story about why I didn't use the vorpal....)

I had the same experience--hit everytime for massive damage..but also got hit alot for much damage.


question: do you plan to use this kensai in ToB? I am very very worried that my kensai will get relatively less powerful as time goes on -- because of his lack of armor. my theory on kensai vs. pure fighter:


levels 1-3: kensai has slight edge.. until fighter can get some good armor

levels 3-8: fighter has slight edge.. due to good armor

levels 8-18: kensai dominate due to very low THACO, many attacks, kai, and, using protection rings, cloaks, etc. an armor class that is around 2 so most mid-level monsters have slight difficulty hitting

levels 18-30: fighter begins to gain edge again as very low AC becomes important and fighter's THACO gets low enough to hit most every time

levels 30+: perhaps kai evens things up as the monsters fought have very low THACO and armor starts to not be an issue

I am very concerned that I will have to change my character in the ToB because he will get chewed up by everything


any thoughts?

 

Sh*t! I should read better. And of course they last, I just get confused with Minor globe of ivulnerability and Protection from Magic...DAMN!

To the weapons, I think that those darts what cloak of stars make can hurt Kangaxx, and also the Sling of Everard +5(or something like that).

 

Use tenser's transformation and the staff of rymn... then you got a dgood fighter with +4 weapon that should be able to kill Kangaxx

 

Nobleman: -->

Headbanger gave the best advice - Spell Immunity from Abjuration, Time Stop (from a scroll or from the Limited Wish), Tensers Transformation and the Staff of Rynn (or of Magi if you did Twisted Rune before).
Thats how I did it the first time.

After that I am being lazy and I just destroy it with the Mace of Disruption +2 - the Demi-Lich never lasts more that 2 rounds.

cotman: -->
As I said above my KEnsai would be useless without the frontline fighter. But for killing the monster that is swinging in futility at my tank - no better char than the Kensai (see above for offense stats).
For a solo fighter I would use my Ranger/Cleric - he is just slightly better and and well rounded.

 

I think it actually needs to be blunt weapons to kill Kangaxx the demi-lich, i turned into the slayer and beat him silly witout him even trying to cast Imprisonment since i think his imnprisonmen doesn't workl if you are close

 

Thank You guys. The numbers of advise were overwhelming. I guess I have underestimated the value of a great battlemage.

By the way I don't think Imprisonment has closerange limitations.

Sometimes it can be a disadvantage to be a Pen&Paper DM. Listen to this nice quote from page 223 of Monstrous Manual 2nd edition:

...."a power word kill" cast by an etheral or astral wizard will cause the skull of a demilich to shatter. (must try that sometimes whith the boots of etherness) Most weapons will be unable to harm the skull of a demilich. A fighter or a ranger with a vorpal sword(hmmmm tell that to Kangaxx please), sword of sharpness, sword +5 inflict normal dmg on the skull. Paladins with a vorpal or +4 weapon does normal dmg.
Further any character with a +4 weapon or a mace of disruption can inflict 1 point(Not as I have read from the above)of damage to the skull with each strike" QUOTE END.

I guess Kangaxx didn't read Monstrous Manual very often :