Turn Undead

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I decided that, in my latest BG2 playthrough, that I wanted a cleric capable of turning undead.

So, I created a Human Ranger, and dualled him to a cleric at level 9 (probably a bit late I realize, should have dualled earlier).

Anyway, hes now at Ranger 9/Cleric 11, and has 18 Wisdom. His Charisma is 12 or 14 naturally, but hes wearing the ring of human influence so his charisma is set to 18.

So I just did the Unseeing Eye Quest (which is rather undead heavy) and I couldnt even turn ghasts and zombies, never mind mummies. How high a level do you need to be to turn any undead? Is it ever worth it?

Tonight when I get home, I'm going to find a group of undead, and do some testing. I'm going to artificially boost my level until I find I can turn undead (I wont continue playing with the boost, I'm just curious).

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else could shed some light on this? Someone with more knowledge of how 2nd Ed handles turning - how charisma affects it etc? How many hit dice most undead have etc?

TIA

 

I'm pretty sure that Charisma doesn't affect turning undead in BG2, but cleric level does. IIRC game manual doesn't give much (=any) information, but there are some tables at certain websites. According to PlanetBaldursGates table: your R/C should be able to destroy zombies and turn ghasts automatically.

Personally, I use Turn Undead rarely. Destroying and controlling undead is ok, but I just hate when they run away .

 

And just to make you feel good about yourself again, lvl 9 is a good level to dual - it's the most common one for fighters. If you dual too soon, your first class doesn't matter, just look at Nalia - worthless thief. If you dual too late, you'll have alot of catching up to do, especially with a 5-6 man party.

 

yeah, thats what I was worried about - that dualling too early would give me earlier access to good spells, and let me regain my ranger abilities again, but lead to a worthless fighter. But then I thought (having had a look at the THAC0.2da file) that ranger/cleric THAC0 progression is the same as ranger thac0 progression, so maybe I wouldnt be missing much in the way of thac0 (although my HP would be lower).

That being said, how is dual class thac0 calculated? Is it the lower of your two classes taken as single classes (eg 9th level ranger compared to 11th level cleric, whichever is lower). or 11th level ranger/cleric?

I was pleasantly surprised to see that, as soon as I regained my ranger abilities, I was able to cast higher level ranger spells (eg call lightning) which clerics normally dont have).

Still, its a bit of a mystery why turn undead hasnt worked once. I think I saw one undead stand still for a bit, but none were destroyed or ran away. If, by 14th level, I cant turn vampires (according to the table on planetbaldursgate.com, thanks for the link btw) then something weird is happening.

 

Ability scores do not affect turning -- only the level of the cleric matters. The table used in the BG games is very similar to the original used for AD&D and 2nd Ed.

From thetruth's post back in Feb 2006:

You should have been affecting the undead -- however, you're cleric cannot do anything while turning. Once you select another action, the turning stops. Also, turning doesn't appear to happen immediately -- if you choose turn undead, it appears to start at your next valid action (perhaps the start of the next round if you've already done something in the current round). If the undead were outside of range during the use of turn undead, they cannot be affected by it until the next round.

 

Thanks!

 

Well, Turn Undead is a pretty useless skill except for the vampire lair (most undead you can turn in the early parts are pretty easy to kill. Plus its a pain to chase them down). And at high enough levels, you can turn liches, but by then, its probably no sweat to just kill them the old fashioned way.

But from personal experience, a Ranger/Cleric is a really effective class.

 

Yeah, thats what I'm beginning to think - that cleric spells such as Holy Smite. False Dawn and Sunray do a better job of dealing with undead than Turn Undead.

Still, it can be used as many times as you like in one day (as far as I know?), so if you get a high enough level cleric, you can easily win undead battles more or less without doing anything.

At least at a higher level you can destroy undead, and not just frighten them, which would be really awesome.

I'm going to do the Spellhold/Underdark section next, so by the time I get back to do the Paladin and Ranger stronghold quests, I should be about level 14/15, and able to destroy undead easily.

EDIT: I've never found killing liches particularly easy, other than the one who pops out of the soul sphere in the underdark (I backstab him before he can get his defenses up and he dies one shot). So if Turn Undead ignores magic resistance and magical defenses, it could be quite useful. Although I'd never get my cleric to a high enough level to deal with Kangaxx, oh well.

 

Faye, turn undead is amazing for a solo cleric. You just walk around and explode the undead. It's quite fun and far more efficient than having a cleric whack on them.

 

Liches are the treats of BG2 in my oppinon. Worthy adversaries. I personally never use Turn Undead, but we all have diffrent styles. For liches, just prot. as my as possible from fire and evil, cast true sight. load up your casters with breach/pierce magic + lower resistance, charge

 

I've never played solo so I wouldn't know (but I do see the point, playing solo you'd get to the higher levels faster and it would save a lot of hard work).

Most liches are optional anyway and those that aren't seem to be easier to handle.