BGII: How to kill the fucking vampires and werewolves?

[Ozrat]

... and why this game sucks.

BGII is probably the first game I've really gotten into for about a year or two now.

It sucks because its basically all FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT and WALK HERE WALK THERE and FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT some more.

Anywho, I used the infinity experience loop with the Tanner dude from the Bridge area to get my characters up to levels of 15-20 just to make all the fighting in the game less repetitive in terms of losing and trying new techniques every fucking time. I'm also trying to complete all of the Chapter 2 quests that I can possibly find before going onto Chapter 3.

I'm in the Windspear dungeons. I've gotten past the first few major enounters including the treasure hunters and the genie guardians as well as the fire elemntal guardian safekeeping the sword and shield.

My only two choices to advance into more of the dungeon would be the hallway with the werewolves (killing the minor ones is simple, but why the hell do the Greater ones seem to have unlimited HP?) or to battle the vampires (they level drain me to hell and False Dawn really doesn't help that much).

How do you guys usually take these creatures on?

 

[Transcendent One]

Big wolfweres regenerate super fast. You need a constant flow of damage until they die. Or I think the patches tone them down.

For vampires, cast negative plain protection on your fighter.

And no it doesn't suck.

Next =>

 

[Ozrat]

I had four to six party members surrounding one of the Greater Werewolves hacking away and I can only knock them down to "injured" before they completely rejuvinate themselves a second later. I need something better than "hurt them".

Is it worth it to do all the quests before moving onto Chapter 3?

I'll see what I can do about the vamps though.

 

[Transcendent One]

You can do any of these quests whenever during chapters 2, 3, and 6. So it doesn't matter. Since you're level 20, you won't need the xp.

 

[Ozrat]

Yeah, obviously not for the experience, but what about the special items and storyline? It seems to me that items help you a hell of a lot more than experience in this game.

 

[Transcendent One]

Well most items are in dungeons on powerful enemies. Sometimes killing this enemy is a quest. Other times it's just exploration. Not many really require you to be doing a quest but the quest might require you to go into the area so you might as well do it. I'd suggest doing the quests early in the game before you leave for imoen. Also stronghold quests appear over a long period of itme. if you wait too long, you won't have enough time to finish all of them. And you'll also get booted from your stronghold if you leave for too long without checking for new quests. As for storyline.. well no, few side quests add directly to the main story, but a few have interesting background stories of their own behind them.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

The best way to tackle stronghold quests is to just do all of them before going to Spellhold. In the case of the Thives' Guild, however, besides the quests that go with it, there's also the need to pay quotas. If you fail to meet your quota, the Guild will be taken away from you. Now, I heard the game pauses stronghold quests when you go to Spellhold and reactivates them when you come back. I can't verify that however.

As for the werewolves, Ozrat, two questions. One, have you patched the game? Two, what weapons are using? Non-magical, magical? If magical then what level of enchantment?

 

[DrattedTin]

If you're going to cheat to make yourself powerful and just want to breeze through the game, just give yourself 100% resistance to all types of damage; if you just raise your levels without any clue as to HOW to use all your abilities, the game automatically scales certain parts of dungeons to your levels via scripting...

So a level 10 dungeon could have new groups with liches and other baddies in them.

The wolfweres are generally just a case of concentrating your firepower on them.

Melf's minute meteors can help a lot in that situation and quite a few others.

On the strongholds, they do pause when you enter spellhold, and reactivate when you return. I also reccomend a mod (which I'm not going to bother tracking down) that lets you get all strongholds in the same game.

 

[Elwro]

I finished the dungeon you were talking about much, much further in the game. Chapter 6 or sth (don't remember exactly).
For me the key to fighting vampires was dealing with the protective spells they inevitably cast upon themselves. There are dozens of contra-spells available for your wizards and priests. Won't give you any names because I played the Polish version. But if you don't have any mage, you're pretty much screwed.

 

[DrattedTin]

For me the key to fighting vampires was dealing with the protective spells they inevitably cast upon themselves.

There's a sword you can obtain (if you're sneaky) mere minutes after leaving Irenicus dungeon that casts a vampire-killing area-effect spell once a day. Judicious use of this makes that crowd hilariously easy.

 

[Ozrat]

Fuck, almost four in the morning already?

Just got done playing some more. Getting the patch and going back to a temple to get rid of the drained energy/levels that I substained seems to make the game quite a bit more balanced in battles.

I still couldn't figure out any good way to fight the vampires as a group, so I took the patient route by luring them into a room one-by-one so I could minize my losses. I also set up all of the regular traps that I had between my regular character and Yoshi for the greater werewolves and that wiped them out right away. Same trap trick worked for the Red Dragon too.

Gotta get some sleep...

 

[Spazmo]

Ozrat, any cleric (and possibly druids) gets the 4th level spell Lesser Restoration, so if you have a divine spellcaster, don't bother blowing all your money on the ridiculously expensive temples.

 

[The Exar]

There is an easy tactic for vampires. Naturaly, they`re very strong and can kill you in no time. BUT they are undead. In Firkraag`s dungeon is probably the most difficult battle with vampires. There`s the trick. Get hold of the Daystar long sword(located in City Gates. Must first kill a Lich When you face the vamps, use the swords Sunray spell-like abbility with combination with clerics Sunray spell. They`ll die when the second Sunray is cast. GL

 

[Whipporowill]

Eh, wasn't the lich one of the hardest monsters in the game? I stayed clear from both optional ones - both the gate house, and the one you kept finding parts of.

 

[The Exar]

Yes. Preharps the hardest. But it`s very enjoyable when you finaly kill them. They give good XP and are test for the saving throws of the fighters But that particular Lich above is truly hard to kill with low-level characters, but the item is quite good.

 

[Vival]

I'm not sure if it woks for werewolves but you could try a chromatic orb/greater malison combo. IIRC at level 12 cromatic orb insta-kills if the victim fails a saving throw even though normally only complete lamers fail a saving throw against that cheap spell. That's where GM comes into play: Just cast it 2-3 times to fuck up the saving throws of the werewolf then throw an orb at him - dead. I killed most of the dragons in a few seconds that way ... It almost felt like cheating.

 

[Transcendent One]

Liches are quite tough because they are immune to breach and you'll need to be of an insanely high level to dispel magic on them.

However due to crapped up AI, once you've figured out the lich's spell sequence, just start running away from him when you know he is going to be casting maze next. That way you can just keep running around until his protections run out too. I don't really like abuse though.

 

[Ozrat]

Ozrat, any cleric (and possibly druids) gets the 4th level spell Lesser Restoration, so if you have a divine spellcaster, don't bother blowing all your money on the ridiculously expensive temples.

According to what I remember from the spell description, doesn' t that require the caster to rest for a few days to recover from the strain of the spell? Anyways, I've collected 60,000+ gold from doing quests and selling off items I don't need since I'm already Day 50-something from doing all of the side quests first. I can't really afford to rest for that long since I'm a thief and my guild requires me to check in every few days to pay up. I already lost it once and I don't want to buy it back again.

I believe I've now completed all of the side quests (besides from a few NPCs who can join me) except for getting the guy from Umar Hills to come back and open up the Planar Sphere, and for rescuing the people from the portal in the basement of the Five Flagoons. For some reason the kid that originally told me about the attacks on Umar Hills is still asking me to go over there to talk to Minister Lloyd, but I've already completed that and the Minister still acts as though I have done so. Is this kid a bug from installing the patch mid-game?

There's still a couple of minor things around the main city that I could do (complete the Eyeless Cult thingy.... Rebuild Kangaxx... Maybe something else too, can't remember), but I think I'll get started on Chapter 3 for a little bit tonight.

But first, I'm still stuck in this library for another couple of hours slaving away at Engineering Static Mechanics. NE1 UP 4 COOP STUDIE?!?!?!?!?!

 

[Spazmo]

Nah, BG is legendary for very lenient implementation of spells. Lesser Restoration is just a quick ticket to removal of negative levels.

 

[Ozrat]

Fuck me a monkey then, I'll try that next time.

Edit: Is there any fatigue whatsoever from it then?

Edited Edit: Does that include removal of level drains too?

 

[Spazmo]

Well, yeah, I reccommend it specifically because it negates level drain. I don't think negative energy does a whole lot else in BG2. And no, no fatigue or anything at all.

 

[Eclecticist]

I remember that Gate-House Lich. I just got my Thief to unlock the chest, grab the sword, and run. Never took any damage, the Lich was always too busy casting crap on himself. It helps if you haste your Thief but it isn't necessary.

I haven't talked about BG2 in years.

 

[Elwro]

Edit: Is there any fatigue whatsoever from it then??

I remember that there was, but 8 hours' rest did the trick.

 

[Ozrat]

I find it hard to fight magic-based creatures.

I have no clue how to defeat the Beholders that greet me right after the bridge puzzle that needs to be solved. I also despise large groups of mages and other creatures of that sort. Especially in the sewers of the Temple area.

My primary magic casters in the party are Aerie and the Harper chick. Both are level 13+ in both of their dual classes. I suppose I could get Edwin back into my party for another offensive caster if I need to.

I usually try to summon a creature to take the offensive spells that the baddies usually cast right away and then cast a silence spell (which doesn't usually work on them) and fireballs to weaken them before they even come close to me.

What are good defensive and offensive strategies for these sorts of battles that you guys use?

 

[Elwro]

edit: f*ck, the forum ate my post. So, a more concise version:

I had 3-4 bashers (me, Korgan, Minsc and sometimes Yoshimo) and 2 spellcasters at the stage you're speaking about, and it was enough. Later I used Jaheira as a warrior, too and had another spellcaster instead of a bit useless Yoshimo. My very spophisticated tactic for the beholder-like guys was just to run like hell to them and bash one of them using all my fighters; then another one and so on (with Group Heal from time to time). A good tip is to cast a fireball at the spot at the fog of war's edge where you suspect the baddies are standing before the fight; it works very well.
Buy equipment from stores! A +2 weapon might be a lot better then +1, because to hit some creatures you just need an appropriate +n modifier.
As a side note, I finished the game with Korgan and Aerie, despite the fact that many people had told me it was impossible.