Hints for surviving Friendly Arms Inn

[Bitza1234]

Hi,
I'm not going to start by whining the game is too hard, but does anyone have any hints as how I survive the friendly arms in encounter I've tried a lot, and just seem to end up with both main characters dead. Clearly I'm doing something wrong, so any helpful suggestions would be appreciated. Is there something I'm missing?

[Talana 💃]

You could bring Montaron and Xzar - That`s what they`re for. You can dismiss them whenever you like.
Or, if you don`t want anything to do with them ( I left them behind, but took their stuff ... ;) ), send one of your main characters to talk to the bountyhunter mage, and leave the other one ( if he/she is a mage, or have a bow/crossbow) at a distance. Take the mage down with your distant char, and hopefully the other one only gets scared and runs. This is what I did :)
Good Luck :)

[Bitza1234]

thnx for that. I was trying to avoid picking up the two dubious characters. Runnign Lawful-Good chaaracters, they probably wouldn't associate with that kind of person. I'll have a crack at the advice re: ranged charaacters. If that fails, I'll bite the bllet and temporaril associate with the dodgy duo! thnx again.

[Talana 💃]

Originally posted by Bitza1234:

thnx for that. I was trying to avoid picking up the two dubious characters. Runnign Lawful-Good chaaracters, they probably wouldn't associate with that kind of person. I'll have a crack at the advice re: ranged charaacters. If that fails, I'll bite the bllet and temporaril associate with the dodgy duo! thnx again.

You`ll do fine ! :)
And by the way; did you find The ring of wizardry buried beneath a tree
outside the friendly arm - right after you entered ? Nothing to do with your question - I was just so happy to find it myself, so I wanted to share :)

[Bitza1234]

No, didn't find that thnx for the tip! BTW I did manag to defeat the bad wizard without picking up th dodg guys. Onward to more adventure! :)

[Talana 💃]

Originally posted by Bitza1234:

No, didn't find that thnx for the tip! BTW I did manag to defeat the bad wizard without picking up th dodg guys. Onward to more adventure! :)

Congratulation ! :)

[happy]

you should have a magic missile rod
use it to interrupt the bad guy s spell
timing required but no need for xxar and montaron

[DnD Detective]

Easiest way with BGEE is to just get imoen or montaron stealthed. Approach Tarnesh with Imoen/Montaron stealthed and go behind Tarnesh. Then attack Tarnesh with that particular character (not sure how familiar you are with the game but this is called a backstab). Tarnesh has very little health and the extra damage the backstab will do will probably kill him. If not he will be much easier to kill. In the original game you got only 10% of the experience if you killed someone while they were neutral, not so in BGEE (you get full experience).

Its metagamy but it works :)

[Rimbo]

I just jumped him as soon as he showed up, it was just me and Imogen.I used Magic Missile and she used her bow and he went down like a ton of bricks. This was after 2-3 deaths previously though.

[Crazed Possum]

you can always travel to other parts of the map first. you don't have to go for the inn right off the bat. level up somewhere else by killing wolves,bears,squirrels..hehehhhhe you get the picture.

[Burgesse]

None of the above.

Leave your party by the gate guards of the Friendly Arms Inn, take one who you don't mind losing to let the mage see, then flee back to the gate before he can open dialogue. When your at the gate between the two guards, let him catch up.
(Alternatively, biring your party, but fall back to the guards right away)
Once he's said his piece, he'll be hostile (the red ring) and the guard's will step in and help you. If you really worried, have Imoen and your main retreat while Monty and Xan block him. Between Imoen's arrows(and the wand) and the guards, the mage will go down in no time.
The biggest reason the fight is so hard is because you have so few hp vs the damage he can spam. And there are few guards inside the walls.

[Zilkin]

Originally posted by Bitza1234:

Hi,
I'm not going to start by whining the game is too hard, but does anyone have any hints as how I survive the friendly arms in encounter I've tried a lot, and just seem to end up with both main characters dead. Clearly I'm doing something wrong, so any helpful suggestions would be appreciated. Is there something I'm missing?

I like your attitude and congrats on defeating the wizard!

Also I wanted to say that the difficulty curve in BG1 is kinda weird. It's actually hardest at the the very beginning, and then slowly starts to get easier as you gather gear and levels. Don't worry though there are couple really hard fights at the later parts too though.

[Bitza1234]

Thanks to everyone for your advice, now that I'm past that first bit, I seem to be making good progress.

@Zilkin I agree regarding the difficulty level in BG1. It is quite steep to begin with, but knowing other people had similar experiences and the different ways they overcame them is helpful. No point complaining about a game just because it's hard. I'm not that good at football (soccer) either, but that does not mean tat it's a rubbish game! IT's like everything else, I suppose, there's a knack to it.
Looking forward to meeting more challenges as I go.

thanx again all! :)

[Dufflebags]

Archers are a magic-users worst enemy, that and magic missile. You just interrupt him constantly and he wastes his good spells.

[DnD Detective]

Alternatively you can use the level 1 mage spell "shield" if you happened to learn it when making a mage. His only offensive spells are horror (does not damage) and magic missiles. "Shield" in BGEE will protect you against the magic missiles (the horror you probably will have to save against unless you have a potion of clarity or the spells "resist fear" or "remove fear").

[Duchess of Kvetch]

I think it makes perfect sense to pick up the 2 shady characters early on - you're SUPPOSED to be somewhat of an innocent, though perhaps not quite as much as Imoen. If you keep them after picking up Khaleed & Jaheera, there'll be a fight anyway eventually. Odds are your foster father's allies would have advised you to leave them at the inn.