******************************************************************************* * RANGER/CLERIC SOLO GUIDE * ******************************************************************************* Copyright 2005 Steven de Rooij Version 1.02, last updated 28 may 2006. =================== General information =================== I played Baldur's Gate: Shadows of Amn and the Throne of Bhaal expansion with patchlevel 2.6.498 (the latest patch), and the Baldurdash FixPack v1.21 installed. I used Core Rules difficulty. If you do not have Throne of Bhaal installed, some but not all of the information in this guide will still be valid, so use this guide with care in that case! Baldur's Gate II is copyright 2000 by Bioware/Black Isle/Interplay BG2: Throne of Bhaal is copyright 2001 by Bioware/Black Isle/Interplay I am not affiliated with Bioware, Black Isle, Interplay or anyone who had anything to do with the creation of this game. This guide may be reproduced however you like so long as you: (1) make no changes, (2) do not charge money or anything else for it, and, when you decide to make it publicly available, you should also: (3) send me email (4) make an honest attempt to keep your version up-to-date. Please send comments, suggestions for improvement or questions to Steven de Rooij, email: rooij at cwi dot nl, where you should replace the words "at" and "dot" by "@" and ".". Please use the word "faq" in the subject of your message. Worthy input will be rewarded by honorable mention in the credits section. Unworthy input will be ignored. ============= Abbreviations ============= I will use the following abbreviations for some lengthy phrases that I need to use very often. AC = Armor Class. A lower AC makes you harder to hit. THAC0 = To Hit AC 0. A lower THAC0 makes it easier to hit enemies. HLA = High Level Ability, extra abilities that you obtain as you reach very high levels. GWW = Greater Whirlwind, an important HLA. XP = eXperience Points HP = HitPoints === FAQ === Q: Why read this guide? A: It provides information to help you decide whether or not a ranger/cleric is the character you like to play, and it will make you understand the fundamental strengths and weaknesses of such a character. Q: Is this FAQ useful if you don't want to solo? A: You'd have to read it and judge for yourself. I didn't have larger parties in mind when I wrote it, but you might still learn something new. Q: Where should I find all this brilliant equipment you keep mentioning? A: Look it up in another guide. Q: Is it even possible to solo the game? How do you handle traps, locked doors, powerful monsters, etc.? A: It is not much harder to solo the game than to play it with a larger party, provided that you know a little bit about what equipment and what monsters you will encounter in the game. In many ways it is even easier: you gain more XP for killing monsters since you don't have to share it with your other party members, so you get very powerful very fast. You also get more money since you will find a lot of equipment that you cannot use and can thus sell. Finally you get good equipment more quickly since you don't have to share it and you can go straight for the stuff that you need (if you know where to find it). - Traps: you can detect them with Find Traps, but you can only disable them by setting them off. There are almost no traps in the game that will instantly kill you if you (1) have a lot of hitpoints and (2) have good saving throws. (Maze traps are deadly without proper precautions, but there are only very few of those.) - Locked doors and chests: you can bash most of them if you have sufficiently high STR. Carry potions, use Draw upon Holy Might, wield Crom Faeyr, ... - Powerful monsters: these may require some planning. See below for easy strategies for some of the worst ones out there! Q: Which druid spells does a ranger/cleric receive? A: Other than in official AD&D rules, you get ALL druid spells. In addition to cleric spells, you receive: 1st Level: Entangle 2nd Level: Charm Person or Mammal, Goodberry 3rd Level: Call Lightning, Hold Animal, Summon Insects 4th Level: Call Woodland Beings 5th Level: Insect Plague, Ironskins, Pixie Dust 6th Level: Conjure Fire Elemental, Dolorous Decay, Fire Seeds 7th Level: Conjure Earth Elemental, Creeping Doom, Nature's Beauty Particularly the Insect Plague and Ironskins spells are extremely useful. Q: Can rangers dual at all? A: In contrast to what is stated in the manual, rangers can dual to cleric or vice versa, if they have the appropriate stats (to dual a ranger to cleric, you need 15 STR, 15 DEX, 14 CON and 17 WIS). It is pointless to dual a cleric into a ranger: after having reached a high cleric level, you will never be able to achieve an equally high ranger level since rangers level so much more slowly. As a consequence, a cleric/ranger character will be very much like a handicapped single class ranger, regardless of when you decide to dual. This is no reason not to try this character of course, but it is a little too weird to be covered in this guide. Q: Do you ever get ranger high level abilities if you dual class before they become available? A: No. This is bad because it means you won't get GWW if you dual class. As such you will be a much weaker warrior than a multi class ranger/cleric. Q: So, should I multi class or should I dual class? A: A multi class ranger/cleric eventually reaches ranger level 21 and cleric level 25. This is both a strength and a weakness: ranger THAC0 does not improve after level 21, so a level 21 ranger is about as powerful as a level 40 ranger. And level 25 is just high enough for the cleric to be granted her holy symbol. But a level 25 cleric has 7 level 6 spells and 3 level 7 spells rather than 8 level 6 spells and 7 level 7 spells, which is what a level 40 cleric gets. This is a serious drawback since most powerful offensive spells are level 7, so with the Holy Symbol equipped only four rather than eight of those can be memorized. A dual class ranger/cleric should dual class at ranger level 12: at that level you get an extra proficiency point, and it allows you to reach cleric level 38, which means that (after equipping the Holy Symbol) you can memorize all 8 level 7 spells! Compared to a single class cleric or druid, this character is pretty powerful: you can memorize as many spells from the combined druid and cleric pools as possible, plus you get many more hit points and some fighting skills to boot. Disadvantages compared to multi class: after dualling you will have a hard time until you get your ranger abilities back, and your warrior skills will not be really strong by level 12. In conclusion, the multi class option is much easier for a solo character. The dual class option will result in a somewhat more powerful caster, but a much weaker warrior. If you want to dual class, also consider playing with a berserker/cleric (unless you feel that that would be too much of a strain on the imagination from a role playing point of view!) Q: I'm a powergamer. How does a ranger/cleric compare to a fighter/cleric? A: Advantages for a ranger/cleric: - You get all druid spells (including the extremely useful Iron Skins and the really nice Insect Plague) - You get two free proficiency points in two weapon style - You get a racial enemy - You get stealth (but you will usually want to use heavy armor) - You can obtain some ranger abilities such as Tracking and Charm Animal (both not really important) Advantages for a fighter/cleric: - Fighters level up faster than rangers so you will be able to get more levels and/or get the same levels somewhat sooner. - A dual class fighter/cleric can choose the berserker kit. - A dual class fighter/cleric can achieve weapon grandmastery and thus get 1/2 extra attack per round and somewhat better THAC0. Conclusion: a multi class ranger/cleric is decidedly more powerful than a multi class fighter/cleric. If you want to dual class the berserker/cleric is probably somewhat better. Q: How many proficiency points can a ranger/cleric assign to two weapon style? A: As a ranger, you get two free proficiency points in two weapon style. If you go multi class, then initially you cannot assign more points: you have to gain some more levels first. But at some point you will obtain new proficiency points one of which you will be allowed to put into two weapon style. If you dual class, you can put a third point in two weapon style from the start. Q: How many high level abilities will I get and from which pool? A: A multi class ranger/cleric eventually reaches ranger level 21 and cleric level 25. A multi class character does not receive fewer high level abilities: while the usual rule is that you receive high level abilities from 3,000,000 XP onward, strangely this is not the case for the multi class ranger/cleric. You get the first high level ability, strangely from the ranger pool, as soon as you reach cleric level 13 (at 2,250,000 total XP - way too early). The next time you level up as a cleric, you can choose from both pools. When leveling up as a ranger, you only start getting abilities from level 15 onwards (which is at an almost double XP level). Weird isn't it? It is as though the game, when deciding whether or not to grant you an HLA, mixes up the level/XP tables for ranger and cleric (which are listed at the end of the guide). Anyway, in total you get 25-13+1 = 13 abilities leveling up as a cleric, and 21-15+1 = 7 abilities leveling up as a ranger, summing to 20 high level abilities, instead of the 21 a pure cleric receives or the measly 15 you get with a pure ranger. This means you can, and should, get tons of GWWs! A dual class ranger/cleric with ranger level 12 eventually reaches cleric level 34. She starts getting high level abilities from cleric level 21 onwards, thus she eventually obtains 16 high level abilities. However she doesn't need many for she can only pick from the cleric pool. ================== Character creation ================== Race: Human / Half elf Class: ranger/cleric Alignment: Any good alignment Attributes: STR: 13-15 (15 to dual. Boost with items later) DEX: 18 (15 to dual. For lower AC and better ranged skills) CON: 18 (14 to dual, 18 is good for extra HP) INT: 8-10 WIS: 18 (17 to dual) CHA: 8-10 Proficiencies: Multi class: put two points in Maces, two in Flails/Morningstars, one in Slings and one in Warhammers. Add an extra point to two weapon style as soon as it is allowed. The other points you get are best put in Clubs, Warhammers, Clubs, Slings in that order. Dual class: add one point to two weapon style, put one point in flails, and max maces and war hammers and clubs as you get the opportunity to do so. After dualling to cleric, again put one point in flails so that you can continue to efficiently use the Flail of Ages, and one point in slings. Racial Enemy: Demonic/fell (many of the tougher monsters in the late game are demons) High level abilities: --------------------- The following high level abilities are available to ranger/clerics: Ranger pool Cleric pool ------------------------------------------------ Critical Strike Aura of Flaming Death Deathblow Elemental Summoning Greater Deathblow Energy Blades Greater Whirlwind Globe of Blades Hardiness Implosion Power Attack Mass Raise Dead Resist Magic Storm of Vengeance Smite Summon Fallen Deva Tracking Summon Deva Warcry Whirlwind Attack On the cleric side, you might want to learn Summon (Fallen) Deva, Implosion, Storm of Vengeance, Energy Blades and possibly Globe of Blades and Elemental Summoning. On the ranger side, you will mostly want lots and lots of Greater Whirlwinds. Hardiness is also somewhat useful. See the FAQ section for more information about when you will start receiving HLAs and from which pool. ================== General discussion ================== Money: ------ Since you will be selling lots of equipment that your character cannot use, you will soon accumulate lots of money. So, don't worry about shop prices (use the Ring of Human Influence only while you are still doing your initial shopping in Athkatla). In your first few levels, when money is still important, use the following strategy to maximize your profits: (1) always wear the Ring of Human Influence when buying or selling (2) sell all items of the same type in one go: if you split up the items then the shopkeeper will offer you less for the second batch. The best way to do this requires a bag of holding, which you will not acquire until after money stops being a concern. If you always keep everything that is worth selling in a Bag of Holding throughout the game you may end up a millionaire (but there is really no reason to bother). Strength: --------- You will need a high strength throughout the game if you ever want to melee. However, you cannot afford to put too many attribute points in STR: you need those to max out WIS, DEX and CON. It is impossible to raise WIS and CON high enough with items alone. You can raise your DEX with the Gauntlets of Dexterity, but then you cannot use other gauntlets such as the Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialisation, so that is not a good option. So either you max STR and have a low CON or DEX, or you get a decent CON and DEX and raise STR through an item. In my opinion, the latter option is the better. There are three ways to boost STR: - Using a Girdle of Giant Strength (buy one at the Adventurer's Mart) - Using the Gauntlets of Ogre Strength (in the planar sphere) - Using a weapon such as Mauler's Arm or Crom Faeyr. Each method works, but you will probably want to use the Gauntlets of Ogre Strength as an ingredient for Crom Faeyr eventually. There are also very nice belts that you cannot use if you need a strength belt, so perhaps it is best to just use Crom Faeyr in the off hand. Dual wielding: -------------- In your main hand, always use the weapon that deals the most damage or has the best effects upon a hit. You probably not only have better THAC0 in your main hand but you also get many more attacks per round. (Of your attacks per round, exactly one is always executed with your off hand.) In your off hand, put the weapon that carries the good mods. More concretely, put Crom Faeyr in your off hand (for the 25 STR) unless you fight the types of Golem that it kills, and put the Flail of Ages in your main hand. Saving throws: -------------- If you are playing solo, being charmed, dominated, turned to stone, mazed, imprisoned, petrified, ... means instant death, while being frightened, stunned, confused, paralyzed or held are other experiences that you probably will not survive. You can protect yourself from specific effects using items (of charm protection, free action, etc) or by building up generic defenses. Generic defenses are magic resistance (MR) and saving throws. While both protect against more or less the same attacks, MR is better (negates rather than reduces the damage of many spells), but saving throws are easier to get to a high level. Look for equipment with saving throw bonuses such as: rings/cloaks/amulets of protection, the Helm of Balduran, the Ring of Gaxx, good shields, anything. Check your saving throws in the character record every now and then. Saving throws are usually more important than AC or resistances! They are also useful when setting off traps (since there is no other way to disable them than by tripping them). Having low saving throws is also very convenient when fighting Mind Flayers or Umber Hulks. Keep in mind that you get no saving throws vs. Maze and Imprisonment so you'll have to think of another way to avoid those. Also see the Armor discussion below. Healing: -------- Apart from healing spells, you can recover hitpoints by (1) polymorphing into a Troll using the Cloak of the Sewers, (2) by using a Ring of Regeneration or a Ring of Gaxx and (3) by casting Draw upon Holy Might before resting: this raises your CON which in turn increases your regeneration. Over a period of eight hours this will allow you to recuperate most if not all your lost hitpoints. (Strictly speaking this is a cheat: spell duration is not computed correctly.) Locks: ------ To open locks, increase your STR to insane levels, and force them. For some locks you need maximum STR to have a decent chance. Some you will not be able to bash at all, but bashing will work for the important ones. The best ways to raise STR are (1) to wield Crom Faeyr, (2) drink a Potion of Somekinda Giant Strength (Roger the Fence in the Temple sewers has very good potions), or (3) you can use Draw Upon Holy Might. Try to bash the lock about 5-10 times, if that does not help then you might as well give up. Dual classing: -------------- The hardest phase of the game will start the moment you dual class. It is all but impossible to defeat level 12 monsters with a single level 1 cleric! Therefore, you should prepare thoroughly beforehand. A good way to do this is by completing the hard part of quests but delay collecting the reward. For instance you will want to free Hendak so you can get Mauler's Arm, but it is better not to speak to Hendak after killing the slavers. Your quests will remain in your open quest log so there is no danger that you might forget on which quests you can still collect. As another example, you might want to go to De'Arnisse keep but refrain from speaking to Nalia after killing the trolls. You will not be able to do a lot before you reach ranger level 12. It is also wise to collect items which your cleric will be able to use offensively even without having reached high level, such as potions, the Spider Figurine, the Horn of Walhalla, etc. ========= Equipment ========= Tip: pay Gaelan Bayle his 15,000 GP as soon as possible to get the Ring of Protection +2 and the Amulet of Power from Aran Linvail. Excellent value for money! Items are always listed in order of decreasing preference, unless otherwise specified. Armor: ------ Deciding which armor is best at which stage of the game is complicated: the best choice is not always just the armor with the lowest AC. Roughly speaking, throughout the game, the importance of AC decreases, while saving throws remain important. However, going from poor to reasonable saving throws is a larger step than going from good to brilliant saving throws, so at some point a further improvement is not all-important any more. I distinguish three phases of the game. In the first phase you have lousy saving throws and you have not yet received your holy symbol. In this phase you should wear Full Plate Mail armor and the Ring of Protection +2 which gets you reasonable AC and good saving throws. After that you will want to wear your Holy Symbol and the Ring of Gaxx, so you need to switch to the Cloak of Protection +2. This combination actually remains a good option throughout the game. However, by this time your saves will be so good that you can consider sacrificing the Cloak of Protection for a magical armor with better AC and/or other good mods. By the end of the game, AC has become more or less useless so by that time the mods of the armor are about all that counts. The following table shows armors in order of decreasing quality of mods, disregarding AC. So that would be my order of preference by the end of the game. But in early and mid-game, the AC should be weighed in your choice. Armor AC Stealth? Other mods -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Human Flesh 3 + +4 saving throws, +20% MR [EVIL!] Red Dragon Scale -1 50% fire resistance Armor of Faith 1 +1 saving throws [precludes Mace of Disruption] Aeger's Hide 3 + 15% to FR, CR, AR. Confusion immune. Studded leather 6 + can use Cloak of Protection +2 Full Plate 1 can use Cloak of Protection +2 Aslyferund 0 + free action (no use if you have FoA +5). Enkidu's Full Plate -2 5% MR, immune to backstab Shuruppak's Plate -2 20% FR, +1 DEX Darkmail 2 ? 20% FR White Dragon Scale -2 + 50% CR, cone of cold Grandmaster's armor 1 + fast movement (frees up your boots) Blue Dragon Plate -1 90% ER Gorgon Plate -1 15% FR, AR Shadow Dragon Scale 1 + 50% AR Skin of the Ghoul 4 + +3 to saves vs. paralysation/poison Orc Leather 4 + 10% resistance to missile attacks, -1 CHA In the end game I found myself swapping between different armors, depending on what elemental resistance was most important at the time. Usually the Red Dragon Scale was most useful. Amulet: ------- Amulet of Power, Amulet of Seldarine, Amulet of Spell Warding. I rate the Amulet of Power over the Amulet of Seldarine only because without it I found I got level drained a lot in Throne of Bhaal. If you know that you will not get level drained in a certain area, the Amulet of Seldarine actually provides better protection. Helmet: ------- The Helm of Balduran is the best helmet almost the entire game. The Helm of Defense is also very good. It trades THAC0 and AC (both of which decrease in importance as you progress) for elemental resistances. I find this preferable in the later stages of the game. Use the Helm of Defense rather than the Dragon Helm because of the former's bonus to saving throws. The Helm of Charm Protection is useful when you forgot to memorize Chaotic Commands. Finally, you may want to buy Vhailor's Helm: who knows if it might come in handy in exceedingly hard battles. Bracers: -------- Best are the Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization; before you get those you can use the Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise or the Gauntlets of Weapon Skill. Rings: ------ Ring of Gaxx, Holy Symbol, Ring of Protection. Other rings can be considered before you get these: rings of Fire Control, Holiness, Energy, Human Influence, the Ram, Earth Control, ... Melee weapons: -------------- In your main hand, hold the Flail of Ages or the Runehammer or Mace of Disruption +2. By the way, I was unable to upgrade the Runehammer with Cespenar because the necessary ingredient is locked in a chest in Sendai's forest and I could not bash it. But it works well enough even without an upgrade. In your off hand, hold Crom Faeyr. When you don't have these weapons yet, you might settle for Mauler's Arm in your off hand and any reasonable club, mace, flail or morningstar in your main hand. Options include but are not restricted to The Sleeper, Blackblood, Ardulia's Fall, Wyvern's Tail, Skullcrusher, Ice Star, Storm Star, Gnasher, ... Keep an ordinary flail in your backpack for creatures that Protect from Magical Weapons and Magic Golems. Ranged weapons: --------------- You should not really have to use ranged weapons a lot, but you should nevertheless carry two slings: the Sling of Seeking (to maximize damage - use it together with a STR boosting item), and the Erinne Sling or Sling of Arvoreen for the best chance to hit. Shield: ------- Carry the Shield of Balduran with you for encounters with beholders. Beyond that, keep hold of all shields with interesting mods for those special circumstances in which they may come in handy. (Shield of Harmony can be useful.) Cloak: ------ Cloak of Balduran (if you have imported it from a BG1 game), Cloak of Mirroring (there are mods to disable the annoying graphic), Cloak of Protection +2, Cloak of Displacement, Cloak of the Sewers (-1 AC and polymorph into a troll to regenerate HP) Boots: ------ Boots of Speed. If you are wearing the Grandmaster's Armor, you get the movement rate for free, so you might go for the Boots of Avoidance or possibly the Boots of the North. But there are better armors than Grandmaster's. Belt: ----- Either wear a belt of Somekinda Giant Strength if your STR is not high already, or preferrably wear the Belt of Inertial Barrier. Under some circumstances a girdle of piercing, bluntness, etc. might come in handy. =============== Battle strategy =============== I have split general strategy into three subsections: I. Raising your defenses, II. Mounting a melee attack and III. Mounting a magical attack General strategy I. Raising your defences: ------------------------------------------ Depending on the monsters you will face, you might need to put up defences of the following kinds: - Elemental resistances: depending on your enemy, you might need to improve your elemental resistances (for instance, Firkraag -> fire, Draconis -> acid and fire, Abazigal -> cold and electric, etcetera.) You can do this with spells, scrolls, potions or by swapping items. - Beholder rays: for beholders and the like, make sure you are immune to their rays: wear the Shield of Balduran or the Cloak of Mirroring or use a Scroll (not Potion) of Protection from Magic. - For vampiric creatures, you need negative energy protection as provided by the Amulet of Power, the Mace of Disruption +2, the Runehammer and by the spell Negative Plane Protection (but it is better to do it using items.) - For hard hitting monsters, you need Ironskins (but cast Ironskins even if the monsters don't hit hard to enable you to get your spells off reliably.) - Elder Orbs, Demiliches and some mages cast Maze or Imprisonment on you: you're dead unless you have Shield of the Archons up and running. You can also use a Protection from Magic scroll. For liches, a Protection from Undead prevents them from seeing you, which is extremely effective but it does not work for Kangaxx because he needs to talk to you before he turns into his demilich form. - If an enemy might gate in demons, immediately cast Protection from Evil on yourself and the demon might end up fighting your enemy. In fact, Protection from Evil is a good spell to cast before any battle with evil foes (i.e., almost all battles) - Armor of Faith is pretty good too. - Use a decoy: summon a Deva, an Elemental or a couple of Skeleton Warriors, depending on circumstance. General strategy II. Mounting a melee attack: --------------------------------------------- First, you need to counter your enemies' protections to make your hits count: - Some creatures can only be hit by magical weapons of sufficient enchantment. Make sure your weapon is powerful enough (the Flail of Ages +5 will hit everything that lurks out there though.) The one exception is the Magic Golem that can only be hit by normal weapons. Carry a normal flail or pick one up before you have to face those. - Enemies may cast Protection from Normal / Magical Weapons. Pick up the other type of weapon to hit them OR dispel their protection using Dispel Magic. - Enemies may cast Stoneskin or Ironskins. Either just use Greater Whirlwind and bash them all off, or use Dispel Magic. - Enemies may cast Mantle, Improved Mantle or Absolute Immunity. Mantle can be breached with +3 weapons and better, Improved Mantle with +4 weapons and better, and Absolute Immunity by +5 weapons or better. If your weapon is not good enough, you can either spend some time casting useful spells until it runs out (it takes 4 rounds = 24 seconds for each of them) or try to dispel it using Dispel Magic. - Enemies may cast Fire Shield (red/blue), Blade Barrier or Globe of Blades. Again, you can try to dispel it or if your resistance to the damage type of the protection is high enough you can ignore it and keep on hitting. When Meleeing, there are some additional preparations that you can make: - It may help to cast Righteous Magic to do more damage in less time - When wielding a weapon that can affect enemies unless they make a saving throw (such as Ardulia's Fall, Wyvern's Tail, Crom Faeyr, or most importantly, the Mace of Disruption), you can Doom them first to increase the probability that they're affected. Handy when meleeing greater mummies with the Mace of Disruption. After all this prepping, the simple but effective strategy is basically to use GWW and bash them to death with the most appropriate weapon (see the equipment section above). When preparations are right, you can kill an amazing number of powerful enemies using this very general plan of attack! General strategy III. Mounting a magical attack: ------------------------------------------------ Again, you first need to counter your enemies' protections. This can get quite complicated. You need to check that your spells are not nullified by any of the following defenses: - Magic resistance. The only way to reduce enemy MR is to cast the spell Magic Resistance, which sets the enemies MR to 40%, or twice your level if it is lower than 20. - Saving Throws. You can weaken enemies' saving throws by casting Doom on them. - Tough opponents might have special native immunities to particular spells. In this case you will need to use other spells (read: higher level spells). - Foes might cast illusions (Invisibility, Shadow Door, Mislead, ...) after which they become impossible to target. Use True Seeing. - Finally enemy casters will erect magical defenses. There are a large number of magical defense spells, many of which can be dispelled using Dispel Magic if your level is high enough. If you fail to bring down the magical defense, you could consider meleeing or simply waiting out the storm until they become vulnerable again. Key spells: ----------- Most spells in your arsenal are useful in particular circumstances, but I have listed only the spells that I found so useful that I kept them memorized most of the time. Notice that even though there are only 16 spells that are specific to druids, the two most useful spells are among them (Insect Plague and Iron Skins)! [Level 1:] - Armor of Faith: becomes more and more useful as you level up, and since it is a level 1 spell it doesn't harm you to spend a few slots on it. - Doom: extremely effective: makes creatures vulnerable to spells against which they can otherwise save. - Protection from Evil: cast this one when an enemy gates in a fiend or just as a generic protection against evil foes (which is to say, most of them). - Remove Fear: one would expect this to be useless for a solo character since once you're scared, you can't cast it, but it also serves to prevent fear! Cast this a lot, before battles, especially when your saving throws are bad. [Level 2:] - Find Traps: slightly useful if you don't remember exactly where they were but I usually end up tripping them anyway. - Draw Upon Holy Might: this one is great when you need STR to bash locks, or to improve your fighting skills, or to increase regeneration (through improved CON) before resting. It also gets better as your level increases. - Resist Fire/Cold: important preparation spell [Level 3:] - Animate Dead: one of the better summoning spells: from level 13 you get a skeleton warrior which has nice magic resistance and does pack a reasonable punch. Good decoys. - Dispel Magic: keep this memorized at all times to dispel enemy protective magic. It is not effective against level 30+ enemies though, unless you are dual classing and your cleric level is higher than 25. - Holy Smite: an area effect spell that scales with caster level, has short casting time, only affects enemies, does not occupy a high level spell slot and not all damage can be saved against. Great! In ToB, even weaker foes often do not get damaged by this spell, I haven't figured out why they don't get hit though. - Protection from Fire: important preparation spell [Level 4:] - Free Action: important preparation spell - Protection from Electricity: occasionally important prepping spell [Level 5:] - Insect Plague: this is one of your best spells. It affects multiple enemies, even when invisible, they can't save against it and it makes it impossible for them to cast spells! It is almost as effective as Insect Swarm without taking up precious level 7 slots. When cast at mages, the spell might be cancelled if they trigger some illusion. Try to find a target that is not likely to disappear, even if your real target is a mage standing next to it! - Iron Skins: this is another extremely good spell. Due to the very long duration there is no need ever to walk around without Iron Skins active. Due to the short casting time you can summon new skins as soon as the previous ones expire in battle. With Iron Skins you can usually cast in the middle of a melee. - True Seeing: you need this against spellcasters, most of whom will use illusions to defend themselves against attack. - Flamestrike: it is better to carry a wand for this one! Sell the wand to a shopkeeper and buy it back to give it 100 charges. - Magic Resistance: the only way to lower an enemies' magic resistance. It will set it to twice your cleric level, capped at 40%. [Level 6:] - Blade Barrier: useful when meleeing groups of enemies. You won't have enough level 7 slots to memorize Globe of Blades, but there are hardly any useful level 6 spells so memorize this one instead. Be careful not to hurt allies (deva, Drizzt, ...) - Bolt of Glory: theoretically powerful, but it is difficult to use successfully due to the long casting time. There are not many situations in which this is more effective than just hitting them hard. - False Dawn: you'll have no trouble with undead anyway. But memorize one since there are so few good level 6 spells. Memorize two when you are about to face a lich or a group of vampires. - Harm: I've read good things about it but not used it much. The advantage for a ranger/cleric is that you have good THAC0 so you will almost always hit. [Level 7:] - Finger of Death: this spell can instantly kill that pesky dragon for you. Only use this on creatures that are hard to kill, in combination with Doom. - Implosion: better than Finger of Death if you don't expect to be able to actually kill your enemy. - Shield of the Archons: important preparation spell. This catches terrible stuff like Maze and Imprisonment. Cast it when facing powerful foes! - Sunray: extremely effective against undead. Memorize a few before facing troublesome liches. - Storm of Vengeance: low damage but otherwise nice area effect spell. - Summon Deva: the Deva is a pretty powerful summon. Summons are good when you are soloing! Have it cast Globe of Blades to make it even better. - Elemental summoning: I didn't try elemental summoning, but they are supposed to be pretty good, so why not give them a try. Specific monster strategy: -------------------------- For some monsters I have more specific strategic tips, those are listed below: LICHES: Casting a Protection from Undead scroll is really handy: they will just stand there and take your hits until they die. This is NOT effective against Kangaxx, not because the scroll does not work, but because he cannot die while the scroll is in effect (because it prevents him from talking to you). A Protection from Magic scroll is more effective when battling Kangaxx. The three liches you have to battle to get to Kangaxx all fall easily to the Mace of Disruption +2, so it is handy to assemble it before you take on Gaxx. Once you are high level you may be able to Turn liches, but I never managed to. If you want to damage it with spells Sunray may be the most effective. For further strategy see Spellcasters. SPELLCASTERS (such as Irenicus or liches): Wear the Cloak of Mirroring and the Belt of Inertial Barrier. Prepare by casting Resist Fear, and if they are powerful, throw in the Shield of Archons and why not pre-cast True Seeing. There are a number of important spells in your arsenal to take it down once the fight has started: - Start off with Insect Plague! This alone often suffices to bring them down. Try to cast it on someone near the mage, who is not likely to create an illusion. - Even Stoneskinned mages are hurt by the elemental damage of the Flail of Ages. Thus you can knock of their Stoneskins and interrupt their spellcasting using that weapon. - If you didn't think of it beforehand, cast True Seeing. They will almost certainly pull some illusions on you, so you will need to do this eventually anyway. - Cast Dispel Magic to bring down any Fire Shields, Stoneskins, etc. Be careful that you don't dispel your own protections, and I guess that you should also keep in mind that you may accidentally dispel your own Insect Plague. - Use (Greater) Whirlwind and melee them whenever you can hit them. If you cannot hit them, start casting spells to either bring down their defences or raise your own. Summoning spells may help (Deva, Skeleton Warrior). Bring a nonmagical weapon along for when they cast Protection from Magical Weapons (no need to dispel that one). BEHOLDERS (Gauths, Elder Orbs, Hive Mothers, ...): This is easy. Just get the Shield of Balduran. Or, use the Cloak of Mirroring (less effective because it doesn't mirror.) Make sure that Elder Orbs do not imprison you. The safest and easiest precaution is a Protection from Magic scroll. DRAGONS: Mostly, follow one of the general strategies as outlined above. Don't forget your elemental resistances! If you decide to mount a magical attack, you should consider that they usually have high MR and saving throws, so after raising your own defenses cast Magic Resistance on it, followed by (a) Doom then Finger of Death or (b) Nature's Beauty. The latter blinds the dragon allowing you to kill it with ease. I found it hard to pull off though. MOBS: Deal with spellcasters first (first mages then priests), your Iron Skins should protect you from the rest while you are doing this. Use Insect Plague (target someone near the mage, not the mage herself), Blade Barrier, area effect spells such as Holy Smite and melee what's left. UNDEAD MOBS: Turn undead while they approach. Weaklings will die, and intermediate monsters will run away, giving you the opportunity to kill the hard ones first. Consider casting Doom on them before taking them on with the Mace of Disruption. You can cast False Dawn, Bolt of Glory or Sunray if it is helpful. I have never felt the need to use Repulse Undead. WATCHER'S KEEP THIRD SEAL: Turning the key that unlocks the third seal summons six different, powerful foes. You have to make some preparations to counter some of their attacks. Nalmissra is a Tanar'ri which will level drain you, so make sure you wear the Amulet of Power. Also make sure you have sufficient fire resistance. Furthermore don the Cloak of Mirroring to be able to resist the Hive Mother's beholder rays. Finally buff up thoroughly before opening the seal. I found it easy to run south, luring some enemies along, and close the large doors. A weird fact is that monsters never open doors in Baldur's Gate, so if half of your enemies followed you through the doors and half didn't, then you have separated the army and you can beat it in two separate battles. Divide and conquer! If you consider this cheating, you'll have an even harder battle on your hands. Anyhow, I think the easiest order in which to take out available enemies is the following: Xei Win Toh, Amerilis Zauviir, Y'tossi, Nalmissra, The Huntress, Hive Mother. DEMOGORGON: Use a melee attack. Ignore the Mariliths! SENDAI: A ranger/cleric is ideal to take on Sendai: most of the battle can be won easily by meleeing, but you can also dispel the magical defenses she or her statues occasionally pull up. Do memorize a couple of Dispel Magic for that purpose. RAVAGER: This is a hard fight, but by alternating hitting hard and running around drinking potions you will drop him eventually. MELISSAN: This battle is not easy, but nor is it particularly difficult. However, it is extremely LONG. And you cannot rest. So the advice would be to (a) save after each minibattle and (b) really try to reduce usage of your most important spells (Ironskins, Greater Whirlwind, Summon Deva, Dispel Magic). In the last batch of monsters, kill the Fallen Solar first (it is easy to kill but very dangerous while alive.) The Mariliths cast Stoneskins, and they recast it if you Dispel Magic. I summoned a Planetar to help me and bashed through it (expending a number of precious GWWs... but I found no other way.) ================= Level progression ================= Level Cleric Ranger 1 0 0 2 1,500 2,250 3 3,000 4,500 4 6,000 9,000 5 13,000 18,000 6 27,500 36,000 7 55,000 75,000 8 110,000 150,000 9 225,000 300,000 10 450,000 600,000 11 675,000 900,000 12 900,000 1,200,000 13 1,125,000 1,500,000 14 1,350,000 1,800,000 15 1,575,000 2,100,000 16 1,800,000 2,400,000 17 2,025,000 2,700,000 18 2,250,000 3,000,000 19 2,475,000 3,300,000 20 2,700,000 3,600,000 21 2,925,000 3,900,000 22 3,150,000 4,200,000 23 3,375,000 4,500,000 24 3,600,000 4,800,000 25 3,825,000 5,100,000 26 4,050,000 5,400,000 27 4,275,000 5,700,000 28 4,500,000 6,000,000 29 4,725,000 6,300,000 30 4,950,000 6,600,000 31 5,175,000 6,900,000 32 5,400,000 7,200,000 33 5,625,000 7,500,000 34 5,850,000 7,800,000 35 6,075,000 36 6,300,000 37 6,525,000 38 6,750,000 39 6,975,000 40 8,000,000 ======= Credits =======