Good place to get Smokepowder Barrels?

[SotiCoto]

I need more explosives. I figure barrels of Oil or whatever might work in a pinch, but ideally I'd like a load of Smokepowder barrels. Preferably a limitless supply, but I have no idea if that is even possible.
I also can't remember where I got those smokepowder grenades on my first playthrough, so I'm looking for those. I vaguely recall some goblins having some, but can't figure out which.

ALSO ... What good are Water Barrels?
I tried throwing one at a fire once to put it out, but it didn't work. I can't really figure out what good they are. Maybe if I threw a smokepowder grenade at a bunch of them they MIGHT put out fire?

[info]

This one is a tricky one, there are a few locations to get them in each act, just follow the main storyline and you will get those caches. On a personal note, I always mix up oil and powder, one is force, the other provides burn and fire, I always do the oil first and once it burns throw in the powder, for some reason blowing them at the same time does not provide the same damage.
Water barrels can be used to douse fire surfaces to move upon.

[Black-X]

You can get a lot of Smokepowder at Zhent hideout in Act 1. As for water barrels - destroy them next to enemies, which'll make them wet, then use lightning/ice spells for increased damage.

[Broan]

There is no limitless supply and you shouldn't rely on explosives the whole game if you don't want to spoil your Game by ignoring every encounter and how to deal with it other than blowing everything up.

There is a place near the burning Inn in Act 1 where you can get quite a lot of them barrels.

Water Barrels make nearby Enemies wet - which makes lightning and Cold Spells deal double damage.

[jonnin]

you can blow up 3 types: powder, fire wind, and oil. All 3 are pretty good booms.
There are at least 20-30 barrels of all 3 types in act 1 ( I havent tried to collect more than 10 or so), which should be enough for the game. The guarded room at the traders in the goblin ruins and behind the throne room + the oil barrels downstairs in the underdark annex are a large supply. There are a couple in the blighted village, a bunch of firewine at the gnoll cave, and ones and twos here and there in many other places. There are a number around the dark dwarves, scattered all over. The minotaurs have 1. There are a great many in the zent hideout. There are a couple in and around wither's dungeon.

water^^ what he said, and also make ice hazard surface from just the cold cantrip (as does blood, so once you hit a guy you can ice slow him too). Water also puts out some fires, but not all, so that may seem to be buggy or something but I think its by design (you can't put out lava, or the big fire at WR, or some other plot fires). Mostly throwing water bottles to put out your allies who were on fire is > barrels due to weight and waste.

I will also argue that blowing stuff up is a wonderful way to deal with problems. It may be cheesy/exploity, but its FUN. At the end of the day, its not that much more tactical than illusion+fireball, except you don't need to sleep to pile up barrels.

[info]

Originally posted by SotiCoto:

ALSO ... What good are Water Barrels?
I tried throwing one at a fire once to put it out, but it didn't work. I can't really figure out what good they are. Maybe if I threw a smokepowder grenade at a bunch of them they MIGHT put out fire?

It may hve bugged out on you, that is exactly the use.

[smellibear]

The mindflayer casks go boom too. Grab those on your way out the intro for extra juice

[SotiCoto]

Originally posted by info:

This one is a tricky one, there are a few locations to get them in each act, just follow the main storyline and you will get those caches.

Doesn't really help me if I want the barrels for dealing with things IN the main questline and they're only found after the things I wanted to use them on.
Anyway, the only place I know there were smokepowder barrels were in the Zhentarim cave... but they're all red-marked, and the Zhents will instantly go hostile if they catch me stealing.

On a personal note, I always mix up oil and powder, one is force, the other provides burn and fire, I always do the oil first and once it burns throw in the powder, for some reason blowing them at the same time does not provide the same damage.

Curious. But that doesn't really work for pre-combat surprise attacks, does it?

Water barrels can be used to douse fire surfaces to move upon.

How? I tried throwing a water barrel and it did nothing. Do I have to put it down and hit it with something?

Originally posted by Black-X:

You can get a lot of Smokepowder at Zhent hideout in Act 1. As for water barrels - destroy them next to enemies, which'll make them wet, then use lightning/ice spells for increased damage.

Oh. Okay. Does the wetness go away if I exploit one of those, or can I exploit both?

Originally posted by Broan der Rentner:

There is no limitless supply and you shouldn't rely on explosives the whole game if you don't want to spoil your Game by ignoring every encounter and how to deal with it other than blowing everything up.

That isn't spoiling the game. That is playing the game smart.
Now how did the quote go?
"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero."

There is a place near the burning Inn in Act 1 where you can get quite a lot of them barrels.

I will keep an eye out, though I doubt they're IN the burning inn. That place is full of water barrels. I remember that much.

Originally posted by jonnin:

you can blow up 3 types: powder, fire wind, and oil. All 3 are pretty good booms.
There are at least 20-30 barrels of all 3 types in act 1 ( I havent tried to collect more than 10 or so), which should be enough for the game. The guarded room at the traders in the goblin ruins and behind the throne room + the oil barrels downstairs in the underdark annex are a large supply. There are a couple in the blighted village, a bunch of firewine at the gnoll cave, and ones and twos here and there in many other places.

Okay. Cool. Those will be my priority for searching.
I just wish traders would sell them. Would make matters easier. Or being able to craft them myself would be nice.

That said... 20-30 barrels is probably enough for one encounter. Hardly enough for the whole game.

[jonnin]

Originally posted by smellibear:

The mindflayer casks go boom too. Grab those on your way out the intro for extra juice

Yes, this. I forgot about those, and that adds at least 5 more to the guesstimate I gave above.

Curious. But that doesn't really work for pre-combat surprise attacks, does it?

precombat is really easy, whether that works or not (unsure myself).
precombat, try these:
-bard perform at a barrel pile "stage" and misty step out in TB mode :)
- mage cat illusion (fails a lot on smarter enemy), as above.
- chokepoints, that door they all have to come through... shoot someone, close the door, run away, when they all run through the door, blooie...
- glyph of warding, fire flavor, and then lure them into it. Extra points for throwing a guy into it with your barb. Even more points if you can arrange for the explosion to knock them BACK to you so the barb can throw or hit them again next round ...
- grease and web are both flammable. If you can get everyone slowed, enwebbed, prone, etc you can light that off as a 'fuse' for all the nearby barrels you planted. Twisted vines are also flammable but infrequent.