dog stew

[cwayne59]

Ok, i wanted to make some dog stew to pin the Umbra Hulks. I killed the 3 dogs, but the kitchen says I need more dog meat to fill the cauldron. Is there a 4th dog somewhere that I missed?

As an alternative, will Cloud Kill take them out?

[red255]

there are 4 dogs in the courtyard yes, turn on quick loot to look around easier.

they aren't that hard to kill, if you have chaotic commands you can avoid their mental attacks and they generally die. summon some animate deads, put them in the front, have them distract the umber hulks then charge in behind them after they've chosen their targets.

how you handle most fights. a beserker rage would help like chaotic commands. maybe potions of clarity.

I think their levels in BG2 are too high to be instantly killed by cloudkill. no need to overthink it, send in the dead to tank/distract and mop up. haste does wonders.

you only get the XP for placing the stew if the uber hulks are still alive in EE.

so...stealth someone past them to place it, then kill them.

[AlexMBrennan]

will Cloud Kill take them out?

Not likely - umber hulks have 6HD so they will only be slain if they fail their saving throw.

[red255]

According to the wiki, the spell to use is death spell. But pretty sure a level 6 spell slot of improved haste works just fine. as they go down in like 3 arrows.

[cwayne59]

Sent in a skeleton, a bear and wolf or two. with Minsc berserking. Had a couple of play throughs, but I finally got them. Almost lost Minsc and Anomen though.

[red255]

if you've come from siege of dragonspear and start at 500,000 XP amonen should have raise dead at least.

I don't know how long you've been playing or whatever. Minsc... he's OK but his ranger levels make him level up a bit slowly and 15 CON seems to hurt his HP. potions of fortitude really help out. Its why korgan is just so much better. except with a mace of disruption +5 and belm or kundane minsc will do decently at wrecking vampires.

But I prefer Korgan, or Mazzy. since EE unnerfed grandmastery with the extra 1/2 attack, Mazzy is pretty good.

your BG2 warrior options are
Minsc
Dorn
Korgan
Valgar
Mazzy
Keldorn
Wilson
Jahiera
...I supose amonen.
(and the guy in ToB)

I've found minsc to be low tier. amonen is good for a cleric, but I wouldn't front line him. he stays in the back with a sling and summons animate dead.

But Minsc.... I kinda throw him out, find him low tier.

Dorn is good for his high STR and draw upon holy might, needs a potion of fortitude though.
Korgan is good for grandmastery and beserker rage
Valgar...he works, you put him in light armor and sneak around to guide your summons mainly, maybe backstab. he can stand up in a fight some but he's designed to be sneaky.
Mazzy gets grandmastery and has a bunch of pips in shortbows. she's solid. has a bunch of paladin like abilities and gets grandmastery and fighter leveling speed.
Keldorn....technically a paladin so can use the holy avenger swords... mainly for his large amount of true seeing and high power dispel magic. not really a fan though.
Wilson is kinda of a secret joke character.
Jahiera... is well Jahiera.. using her has a lot of story behind her, a free ring of wizardry, a pin to give immunity to electricity, druid spells. her main issue is she has pips in clubs. and it takes a while to fix that. Clubs are underwhelming.
Amonen I like because his cleric levels up quickly and he has more HP pool than Viconica or Aerie making him easy to use, also gets grandmastery and can use cleric spells to turn him into a warrior. but I generally keep him to the back with a sling. having a cleric thats alive means even if minsc dies, amonen can generally bring him back.

[danconnors]

I like playing a berserker 10/ mage 11+ so I don't have much trouble with the tunnelers. My problem is finding a war hammer better than the +2 weapon I pick up in BG1. I major in war hammers (to eventually get Crom Feyer). But that takes a lot of work. I also put points in daggers, so I can have a good ranged weapon ability, even though berserkers aren't supposed to be good with missiles. My favorite spell is Melf's Minute Meteors, a great missile spell. At level 11 I can fire off 55 of the missiles in less than a turn.

[cwayne59]

I don't play BG1. And this is my first big mission after the circus, and I didn't take Aerie. Anomen has now left due to Hexxat but at least they didn't fight. So I went and got Dom and took down Torgal by luring him out solo.

I played BG2 a couple decades ago and am now checking out EE and the new NPCs. Dont remember how to play well, and I never tried several classes so this is my first attempt at figher/mage/thief.

I play on normal level. I guess those mages I see referenced with Torgal show up on higher difficulty?

[AlexMBrennan]

I guess those mages I see referenced with Torgal show up on higher difficulty?

They show up if you play with the SCS mod.

Or maybe that's referring to the yuan-ti mages that are present throughout the area but not part of the final boss fight.

[cwayne59]

SCS mod? What is that?

[red255]

sword coast stragetims or something. I cant spell the last word apparently.

[materiaoverlord]

There are four dogs in the courtyard. They can be a little hard to see, though. For me, when I do that bit, I often have a hard time finding all the dog meat. That's because one of them is usually hiding behind the wall graphic. I have to look really hard and move my mouse around to find it.

Originally posted by red255:

there are 4 dogs in the courtyard yes, turn on quick loot to look around easier.

In the lower right hand corner of the game's screen is a little icon with a magnifying glass labeled "Reveal Details". When you click it, it lights up all the containers, loot piles, and doors so that you can find them easier. It also reveals character / creature names above their heads as well as hit points. In both BG1 and BG2 I always click this icon every time I start a new game. You only need to click it once.

[cwayne59]

I still never found that dog. But I killed the hulks.

[materiaoverlord]

I'm the opposite. With a little patience and good eye, it is not too hard to find all four dogs. The Umber Hulks, on the other hand, tore me a new one when I tried to confront them directly. Sure, the sneaking I had to do with dog stew (using Minsc) was tricky and required a few reloads, but I was able to do it. Of course, I also did D'Arnise Keep as soon as I got to Chapter 2.

[red255]

Originally posted by fenixdown:

There are four dogs in the courtyard. They can be a little hard to see, though. For me, when I do that bit, I often have a hard time finding all the dog meat. That's because one of them is usually hiding behind the wall graphic. I have to look really hard and move my mouse around to find it.

Originally posted by red255:

there are 4 dogs in the courtyard yes, turn on quick loot to look around easier.

In the lower right hand corner of the game's screen is a little icon with a magnifying glass labeled "Reveal Details". When you click it, it lights up all the containers, loot piles, and doors so that you can find them easier. It also reveals character / creature names above their heads as well as hit points. In both BG1 and BG2 I always click this icon every time I start a new game. You only need to click it once.

no. I meant the little red diamond, that opens up the quick loot.

lemme open up a game and post a screen shot.

but if there are any items on the ground within the radius of the quick loot, (basically the characters vision) you can just grab them from the quick loot instead of hunting for whatever tile they are actually on.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1937009984

so like, i got two scimitars on the ground, you can see, and minsc can pick them up from over there, no problem instead of walking over there and picking them up with the quick loot, makes it alot easier to not miss loot on the ground.

[materiaoverlord]

Originally posted by red255:

no. I meant the little red diamond, that opens up the quick loot.

I know. I have my preferences and you have yours. I was just making a different suggestion to cwayne59.