A couple of minor questions (SPOILERish)

[boo's daddy]

Hello

I have just completed the whole SoA/ToB for the first time! Hooray for me. Only took me 2.5 years... What a superb game. These guys should get Oscars.

Final battle was good, a real marathon. Only one reload (forgot to do Chaotic Commands), but I still thought that Draconis was tougher. Having 3 mages made it seem fairly straightforward (volleys of Breach, etc)

A couple of questions/comments which I have never found answers to:

1) Those two demon hearts you pick up in Watcher's Keep: are they used for anything or have I just soiled my Bag of Holding for nothing?
2) My PC had an Energy Drain icon on him after a certain point. Does this mean I could drain levels off people? Would I have to attack with my bare hands to do so (cos I never saw any dialogue saying I'd drained levels)?
3) I was using a Kensai -> Thief (lvl 13/34 by the end). There are obvious benefits here (Use Any Item), but I found that latterly, he could hardly hit anything. By comparison, Keldorn (lvl 29) and Jaheira (15/20) were mashing all comers. I wondered if others had found this with the dualled Kensai.

(It could have been not having a +6 weapon: K and J had Carsomyr +6 and Staff of Ram +6 respectively, which I believe work against protn from magical weapons)

cheers, and now I can read the Melissan spoilers and see how others did it!

[Crenshinibon]

Congrats. I've lost count in beating all three of them after the thirtieth time. I love those games. Anyways, to business.

1.) The two hearts on the maze level (3) of Watcher's keep are proof to the two demons that you killed the other. Apparently you killed both of them, so you don't get the quest. You already got the things that matter from them which are the two gems and the Thief's Hood.

2.) That probably means that somebody used the spall on him. The only non modden way of actually draining levels in meele fighting is to use Gram the Sword of Grief +5.

3.) Well, I never actually dual classed a kensai, but kensai alone should be more than capable of hitting anything. Unless you were horribly level drained, your enemy had immunities, your stats were drained or your weapons were to weak... you should've been able to hit them.

I had a kensai mage actually, she worked wonders. dual classing to a mage should've hindered my fighting more than you dual classing to a thief. Also, I think you should've put more levels into the kensai.

The only abilities that I can see good with the kensai class are Assassination and Use Any Item.

[Berethor]

Originally Posted by Crenshinibon

Congrats. I've lost count in beating all three of them after the thirtieth time. I love those games. Anyways, to business.

1.) The two hearts on the maze level (3) of Watcher's keep are proof to the two demons that you killed the other. Apparently you killed both of them, so you don't get the quest. You already got the things that matter from them which are the two gems and the Thief's Hood.

2.) That probably means that somebody used the spall on him. The only non modden way of actually draining levels in meele fighting is to use Gram the Sword of Grief +5.

3.) Well, I never actually dual classed a kensai, but kensai alone should be more than capable of hitting anything. Unless you were horribly level drained, your enemy had immunities, your stats were drained or your weapons were to weak... you should've been able to hit them..

Yes, but you have to hope you get the quest from the slayer demon or I heard that you don't get the thieves hood.

And about leveldraining, you forgot Blackrazor the mighty.

I have actually dualled a Kensai to a thief and honestly it sucked so bad that I got bored and quit before my thief reached level 8 of 13. And, yeah, he never hit

[boo's daddy]

Thanks for the replies.

After dualling, I found that he was totally useless in combat until he got his Kensai abilities back. Thereafter was pretty nifty until the later stages.

I guess the answer to 2) may explain 3). In the later battles I was having to use him to deal with minions (he could hit them OK) while Keldorn and Jaheira mashed the boss.

What I found was that Restoration, Remove Curse, Remove Magic etc didn't get rid of the Energy Drain, and I was levelling up OK, so I thought it was some sort of evil Bhaal-like special ability!

Will try reloading an earlier save and see if I can get rid of it. Greater Restoration maybe?

From reading some of the other recent posts I've learned stuff that suggests my weapon tactics were rubbish (e.g. I didn't know you only ever get one attack per round with your offhand weapon).

[Berethor]

Try going to a temple.

And I don't know what 7/2 attacks per round means but I think it means 2 attacks with the off-hand. I have 4 now and I dont know if I attack 4 times a round with each weapon. I don't understand the whole "attacks per round" thing

[boo's daddy]

This post by CEO: http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/sh...66&postcount=4

made me think you only ever get 1 per round with your offhand.

So, 7/2 would give you 7 attacks every 2 rounds (i.e. 3 on round 1, 4 on round 2, etc) with your main hand, plus one per round with your offhand.

[Berethor]

Ahhhh. I just didn't understand what it meant, but now I know that it means 3.5 attacks per round, so in the middle of one of my attacks, there's a new round.

so..from what I hear, if it says 4 attacks per round, I attack 3 times with the main hand, and 1 with the offhand. Or does the off hand attack at the same time as the main hand..?

[fable]

Guys, if you're not writing in this thread to answer the questions in the original post, please don't. Start a new thread with your questions, first checking our database to make sure the answers aren't already here. Thanks.

[boo's daddy]

Turned out that C was right: a Greater Restoration got rid of the Energy Drain icon. Interestingly, it made no difference at all to my THACO, saves, thieving skill percentages etc.

Base THACO for the 13/34 Kensai>Thief was a full 7 points worse than Keldorn and Jaheira, which combined with some dodgy weapon tactics on my part, probably explains his ineffectiveness against v powerful enemies, who presumably have AC -10 or better.

All of which takes some of the cheese out of the supposed stilton sandwich of the K>T.

As a matter of interest, does anyone know what the actual AC of Melissan is (unmodded)?

[BG_DaDDy]

Originally Posted by boo's daddy

As a matter of interest, does anyone know what the actual AC of Melissan is (unmodded)?

i believe is -8.