Neera's ToB quest

[frdnwsm]

What the heck is with this quest? We went to the forest clearing, cast the reckless dweomer, and wham! We were attacked by a dozen Thayan fighters and wizards. We had no tme to cast any preparatory spells. By round 4, only Jaheira and my Kensai were still left alive, and the odds aganst us were overwhelming.

Afer trying it a few times, I finally managed to defeat the first wave ... still losing the 4 dead as mentioned above ... whereupon we were teleported to the arena, with yet more waves of enemies facing us. Needless to say, the result was not good.

The other party members included Keldorn, Neera, Imoen and Anomen. Keldorn usually got killed first; I guess they were worried about his true sight and dispel magic abiliies.

I did a playthrough of ToB a few years ago and didn't have nearly as much trouble. My party wasn't as hgh level at that time, so I am guessing the opposition has scaled up to match what we currently are. Any suggestions how to deal with this?

Addendum: A couple of possibilities occurred to me as was writing this, although it will be a bit costly and deplete my cash reserve.

[red255]

I made a rant when it occurred in my playthru.

my rant was it was the worst ambush ever.

to deal with it tactically, I just ran away to a different section of map, then returned 16 hours later. at which point the enemies were over where they be, but I had time to buff and prepare before engaging them.

like you know, an ambush.

maybe you could pocket plane out and walk back from the clearing out side saradush, personally I just moved to the map edge, went to the clearing outside saradush and returned.

[frdnwsm]

Pocket plane! Doh! Well, now I feel like an idiot. Plane out, spell up and come back loaded for bear. I could even change the party members; these guys are my second string, actually.

What I was thinking was to buy scrolls of What's his names Withering, give them to Neera and Imoen and have them saturate the area wth that, while Jaheira tossed insect plagues at the mages. But I like your idea a lot better. Assuming, of course, that they don't have the teleport to the pocket plane blocked. So, let me check that bit out before I go scroll shopping.

[red255]

as said I walked off the map, and then walked back 16 hours later personally. pocket plane is sealed if you are 'in combat' per se. can't recall if you have enough time to get planar or if walking off the map is your best bet.

[frdnwsm]

If you freeze the game immediately upon ending the dialogue and hit pocket plane, it works even though they do still get off a spell before you go planar. I am not sure exaclty what he is casting, but one mage gets a spell off that reduces Keldorn's health (yes, they insist on targetting him before anyone else) by about 80%.

When you go back, Keldorn dies pretty fast, no matter what protection spells I cast on him in the pocket plane, as he is hit by a barrage of remove protection spells, plus attacks by almost every fighter in the area. If I have him run, they will chase him down. They must REALLY hate him.

And I still need to cast every buff spell known as well as buy the two horrid wilting scrolls, in order to have a decent chance at winning. (I define heading off to the arena with 2 or more party members dead as a loss). A ridiculous scenario.

I'm going to see what happens if I dump everyone, including Neera, into the pocket plane and bring out the big guns ...MC, Jaheira, Dorn, Edwin, Viconia and Hexxat. (I have a feeling that the game will crash if Neera isn't present when we head off to the arena, but we'll see).

[frdnwsm]

A late update on this. After several tries that resulted in being teleported to the Arena with several deaders, I calculated that we just needed a bit more experience. Accordingly, I pumped up Neera, Imoen and Anomen until they got some HLAs. A couple of comets, one horrid withering, a summoned Planetar and an insect swarm totally wrecked those yahoos.

[Godsarm]

The last time I had an Undead Hunter (CHARNAME), Keldorn, Anomen, Nalia, Imoen and Neera. Nalia and Imoen are high enough to have Chain Contingency, which allow them to load Haste, Remove Fear, True Sight and some other defensive buffs without having to cast a spell. Nalia and Imoen hit them with Spell Sequencers loaded with Greater Malasion>Emotion>Slow, Neera and Anomen hit them with a Wand of Fear and Keldorn hits them with a Dispel Magic and my Undead Hunter with Carsomyr and the Cloak of Mirroring goes for any Mages still standing. This fight is over before it starts.

[red255]

Originally posted by frdnwsm:

A late update on this. After several tries that resulted in being teleported to the Arena with several deaders, I calculated that we just needed a bit more experience. Accordingly, I pumped up Neera, Imoen and Anomen until they got some HLAs. A couple of comets, one horrid withering, a summoned Planetar and an insect swarm totally wrecked those yahoos.

oh yeah, forgot being low XP is a thing thats possible at that point, I usually earn HLA some time in the underdark back in SoA and do Watchers Keep after that. so 4-5 million XP is where I'd expect you'd be, except maybe with Nalia if you just grabbed her to do her quest.

[frdnwsm]

>>oh yeah, forgot being low XP is a thing<<

Indeed, the first time I tried Neera's quest was before the fall of Saradush. We had no HLAs except for MyChar with a couple of Whirlwinds and Hardiness, and not many of the better spells, due to financial considerations. Remember, Neera and the others were in my second string group. Most of the experience from the Underdark and the following scenarios went to the evil mob, who also got the best gear. The good crew was lagging far behind.

Basically, I am doing an evil party run through this time around, and only bringing out the good NPCs to do two specific side quests, namely Neera's and Rasaad's.

Whacking Yaga-Sura, hitting the Oasis and getting to Amekthran helped a lot, not only in terms of getting experience but affording higher level spells. Selling the loot from the Oasis fight got me something like 80,000 gold ... almost all of which went for higher level spells ... while extra experience got the group some HLAs like comet and summon planetar.

[Godsarm]

Since you get access to the merchants in the arena area only while you are there, I wait as long as possible to amass as much cash as possible. This is where you can fill out your spell books (but lordy it's expensive) and there's a few helpful pieces of gear for sale as well. I think it's only when I'm forced to make a choice in Amnekthran that I pause the story line and take up Rasaad, Hexxat and Neera's quests in that order.

[frdnwsm]

Those merchants are annoying, since they will sell, but not buy. So yeah, if you are planning a shopping spree, maximize your cash beforehand. I went in with something like 80,000 gold, and blew it all.

Also, Vielcross cheats!

[red255]

considering by that point I usually have some high level thieves or just stackable potions of master thievery, couldn't you just rob the stores?

or just buy the potions of master thievery, stack them on imoen or whoever

cheaper if money really is an issue.

money isn't an issue in ToB though, everything drops magic gear and you have like 4 bags of holding by that point I mean sure scrolls will clean you out but you can buy any scroll from the archives, and well you definately can steal from that guy.

pretty sure the shops do buy there, but you probably need to find the right shop to buy the right item.

I burn all my SoA money on scrolls of freedom (scribe erase for days) and by the end of ToB I still have plenty of cash. Opens save file. like 300-500K

"Also, Vielcross cheats! "

Which one is Vielcross. Your spelling isn't close enough for Google to pick them out.

if its the red wild mage just clear out her guards first, then let her play with some planetars for a while until she's out of spells.

Keldorn should be able to pop out many HLA devas. Cheap stalling tactic to get thru her spells.

if its the second guy, yeah he cheats and is scripted to be unkillable as I recall. Such as having a first stage, then casting wish to refresh all his spells and having a second stage. which runs the risk of a fake talk strat.

usually would consider epic spike traps for that. Then uh, True seeing, spell strike, Khelben's warding whip, Backstab (assasinate) hes a mage all alone. take away his protections then hit him repeatedly until he teleports you home.

[frdnwsm]

I didn't have anyone in that party who had any pickpocket ability, so I had to buy what I wanted. And yes, cash isn't a problem in general in ToB; I have sold 100,000+ worth of looted gear several times. But these guys won't buy stuff, meaning I needed to have the money available BEFORE hitting the merchants, in order to buy what I wanted. Yeah, those high level scrolls were expensive.

Vicross (wild mage gal) cheats in that she can do things that generally can't be done. Like having apparently endless invisibility and summoning ability. She's not terribly dangerous in and of herself, but if you don't know what you are doing, she can run you around forever. She will duck in and out of rooms before you can pin her down, leaving you to deal with hordes of summonings and her numerous guards.

It's actually pretty easy to cheese her, though. I killed her in 2 rounds simply by overloading her ability to counter my group's actions and then swarming all over her. You do get basically as much time as you want to prepare, including popping back to the pocket plane and recharging all your spells, before charging into the central room where she is. A number of tactics should come to mind, given those circumstances. Once she is down, you can deal with her guards easily enough.

Szass Tam is no problem whatsoever. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that he's going to turn on you ... I mean, he hates wild mages and you have Neera, a prime example of a wild mage with you ... and get everybody ready before ringing the bell. He was toast the same round that he showed up; apparently he needs a round to toss up any protections. The real danger is that he's one of those unkillable NPCs ... he can NOT be brought down to zero health. So, If you refuse to accept his surrender, back him into a corner and keep hitting him, the game will usually crash. Forget revenge, and just accept his immediate offer to quit and teleport you back.

[red255]

on your nov 5th post your party had imoen, who has the pickpocket ability.

downing 6 potions of master thievery would give her like 240 to all her thieving skills including pick pockets.

pretty sure you can buy those potions and the shop for less than 80,000 gold.

[frdnwsm]

Imoen ... yes I had her. I am used to using her thief abilities purely for traps; to me she is basically a mage with the ability to disarm traps as an added bonus. To be honest, it never occurred to me that I could augment her usually pathetic pickpocket ability to the point where it actually became useful. Well, that's interesting indeed.

[red255]

well then you've never drugged up nalia to the point where she can disarm traps and locks for you have you.