The Bear Treant thing

[ArchmageXin]

What level should I take the guy on? I just took my starting party (Paladin, Barb and Bard and my rogue) and they kept getting 1 shotted. We are all at level 2.

Do you need to be level 3 or more to manage it?

[Rito Took It]

i had trouble beating it at lvl 4, its very poorly balanced. if u have an inquisitor use all ur other guys as meat shields and spam inflict light wound.

[SpiralRazor]

And a MISERABLE 67 XP for defeating it.....man, im not going to feel bad AT ALL using a trainer for this train wreck of a game.


I had to go back to camp to hire a Merc Mage for 2000gp, that starts off with less experience then everyone else, and spam cantrips it at ...on the lowest possible levels the game offered.

I mean...really Devs....really?????? Is this going to be an indication of the entire game?

[THAT'S JUST A BIG COW]

Should be doable at level 2 with buff stacking but I'd wait till level 3

[Direwolf]

im still having issues at level 3 i dont know what else to do atm cause i cant find stupid staghead

[raventhehunter]

I finally had to drop the opponent difficulty, stats, and damage to their lowest levels, turn off critical damage for enemies, park Valerie in front of the others--who were all switched to ranged weapons so they'd keep back--as a literal meatshield and spam about 300gp or so worth of alchemist's fire into this bastard from the whole party (Valerie included).

[Shadowkire]

This game doesn't do a great job of explaining some things:
In the Pathfinder ruleset some enemies have Damage Reduction(DR), a stat that reduces conventional weapon damage by 5 or more. The Bear Treant has DR against slashing(swords and axes) and piercing (arrows and spears). You can get around this by using maces and clubs for you melee fighters and/or using spells.

Eventually you may encounter enemies that have DR against everything but a special material(like werewolves can be hurt with silver weapons), or DR against non-magical weapons(anything that is not a "+1 [weapon]", or even more ludicrous stuff.

Also be aware that some enemies have elemental resistances and/or immunities(fire, electric, acid, cold). Sonic and force damage types have no defenses against them but are rare and do little damage.

[fluxtorrent]

did it at level 2 with a 6 person party, only one person got downed

[SpiralRazor]

Originally posted by THAT'S JUST A BIG COW:

Should be doable at level 2 with buff stacking but I'd wait till level 3

Its most definitely not.

[SpiralRazor]

Originally posted by Shadowkire:

This game doesn't do a great job of explaining some things:
In the Pathfinder ruleset some enemies have Damage Reduction(DR), a stat that reduces conventional weapon damage by 5 or more. The Bear Treant has DR against slashing(swords and axes) and piercing (arrows and spears). You can get around this by using maces and clubs for you melee fighters and/or using spells.

Eventually you may encounter enemies that have DR against everything but a special material(like werewolves can be hurt with silver weapons), or DR against non-magical weapons(anything that is not a "+1 [weapon]", or even more ludicrous stuff.

Also be aware that some enemies have elemental resistances and/or immunities(fire, electric, acid, cold). Sonic and force damage types have no defenses against them but are rare and do little damage.

The major problem is, you can reach it at lvl 2, and you *may* only have 1 or 2 weapons that are +1, and they may not even be the right types. You certianly wont have the spells you need.

I had to do the same thing as the other poster...drop EVERYTHING down to minimal, put the fighter up there with fight defensively, and even with it doing 3-4 damage per claw and all the rest of the gimps, it was still a near thing with six characters...If i hadnt bought myself of Mage, it wouldnt have been doable at all(Aasimar Conjurer with seven acid RTA's). It has a LOT higher DR then 5 on "normal" bro...not even the Barbs giant sword with an enlarge potion was doing much to it, and often reduced to 0. Meanwhile, it will merrily gimp one character a round with 18-23 x 2.

[Bjoern]

Since I just had the pleasure of encountering the bear treant, I can confirm that it has a DR of 10. Which is plenty, given that it has about 80 hitpoints as well and hits for 8-15 damage uncritical, even when reduced to 40% damage.

I am all for a good challenge, but this game is currently way overtuned.

[Askanio]

best go at level 3 and you do need a wizard or magus you can grab orc (magus) and half-elf (rogue/wizard) companions on the way there.

[ArchmageXin]

Originally posted by Askanio:

best go at level 3 and you do need a wizard or magus you can grab orc (magus) and half-elf (rogue/wizard) companions on the way there.

Ah? Where is that? I am just still wandering around like a idiot. Still, might be fun to learn the game by failing first time.

I remember I was rage quitting BG-1 cause that dude in the inn one shot me with a magic missile.

[Gubmint]

Who thought this was fun? At level 3 my monk with 20+ AC gets trounced by this bear in 2 swings. Every one of my swings is eaten by his DR. Everywhere I go I run into encounters that feel like they were tuned for at least level 4+. I tried a build where all my melee characters have precise strikes. Oh, sorry. That isn't really a damage bonus, but a separate roll, so DR entirely negates the precise strike damage. WTF?!?

[Crustypeanut]

I was level 2. I used fire. Fire. And more fire. Lots of fire. Everything else seemed to just bounce off it, except possibly Amiri, who tickled it. But its weak to fire. You know, since its a tree-thing. My alchemist had a field day.

That being said, I did die 3 times before I just beelined towards it and unloaded everything I had at it.

[Shadowkire]

Originally posted by SpiralRazor:

The major problem is, you can reach it at lvl 2, and you *may* only have 1 or 2 weapons that are +1, and they may not even be the right types. You certianly wont have the spells you need.

I had to do the same thing as the other poster...drop EVERYTHING down to minimal, put the fighter up there with fight defensively, and even with it doing 3-4 damage per claw and all the rest of the gimps, it was still a near thing with six characters...If i hadnt bought myself of Mage, it wouldnt have been doable at all(Aasimar Conjurer with seven acid RTA's). It has a LOT higher DR then 5 on "normal" bro...not even the Barbs giant sword with an enlarge potion was doing much to it, and often reduced to 0. Meanwhile, it will merrily gimp one character a round with 18-23 x 2.

Not everything in my post pertained to the bear treant, I was filling in for the game to inform anyone who read my post about what they could expect beyond the bear treant fight. DR 5 is the base and lowest possible DR outside of the Barbarian class. The Bear Treant's DR seems to be 10/bludgeoning = -10 damage from conventional weapon damage unless it is dealt by bludgeoning weapons(clubs,fists,maces,hammers,etc.)

You don't need magic weapons for the bear treant, I was just informing people that you will probably find enemies that have DR against non-magic weapons eventually so they can hold on to spare magic equipment for such an occasion.

[edit]
And as someone who plays the Pathfinder table top rpg and has some experience with the Kingmaker adventure: keep an eye out for cold iron weapons.