Which are good High-Level Abilities(HLAs)? *some SoA plot spoilers*

[Galuf the Dwarf]

Okay, so here I am at a turning point in SoA, very close to ToB. I wasn't sure if this was the right forum to post this in or not, since it has content belonging to the expansion, even though set in the main game.

Anyways, after clearing out Bodhi's hideout, my main character (Cavalier, who kicks arse even at Core Rules difficulty), Minsc, and Anomen just recieved their first HLAs. These were my sellections:

Main character: Power Attack
Minsc: Deathblow
Anomen: Globe of Blades

Did I pick some good ones for those characters? If not, what do any of you suggest? I do have a file before Aerie (character romance) gets kidnapped by Bodhi and her gang, so I can always do that all over again.

[Krimmy]

For fighter types I always go for the following

Whirlwind then Greater Whirlwind (several times)
Hardiness (about 2 to 4 times)
Death blow then Greater Death Blow (a couple times)

For Clerics and Mages

Always go for Deva's when available
Energy Blades is good to for strategic long range attacks situations.

Globe of Blades is ok but I don't select it most of the time.

Rangers (Minsc)

A couple resist magic is a good ability to cast before a major battle like hardiness.

That's all I could think of, I would reload and have Anomen select a Deva first before Blades.

Good luck

[Galuf the Dwarf]

So the Power Attack, at the ultimate ability available, isn't good for much of anything?

My Cavalier also had the ability to select 'Summon Deva'. Should I have gone for that with him?

Also, I have a Bard that I'm taking through BG1, so which ones should I use for him when I get into BG2? I plan on making him into a Skald, and don't feel like using 'Use Any Item'; 'Scribe Scrolls' is also questionable. I would think 'Evasion' would be a good idea.

[Krimmy]

Actually power attack followed by critical strike at the highest ability allows each hit for 2 rds to be a critical hit, which of course can be handy.

Your Cavalier should choose Deva, any character with the option should choose it, even though you can have only one Deva summoned at a time they are verrrry effective in combat.

There is a way to have more than one summoned Deva but you need a sorcerer I believe.

As for the Bard, here's what I'd go for

Use any item (is just as it's decribed, you can use anything in the game, not usable by your class)

Assasination if your bard has a decent backstap modifier

Enhanced Bard Song

All the set trap abilities (especially the spike trap)

[James Mason]

The spike trap is extremely useful as very very few creatures are immune to traps.

[Necrotaur]

Most useful ones IMO are: Greater Whirlwind, Use Any Item, Globe of Blades (mostly cause it looks and sounds really cool ), Spike Trap and Dragon's Breath. Hardiness is a good second choice, and of course the deva summon and druid transformation/summon ones are good too.

p.s. Is there any reason to choose earth elemental transformation over fire? Earth is too big to fit through some doors, has less strength, and doesn't have elemental flares.

[Galuf the Dwarf]

Okay, I've given it some thoughts, and I suppose this is what I'll do.


PC:
Deathblow
Greater Deathblow
Summon Deva

Minsc:
Whirlwind
Resist Magic
Hardiness
Greater Whirlwind

Sarevok (going to switch Jaheira with him at the beginning of ToB):
???? (need pointers)

Anomen:
Energy Blades
Summon Deva
Globe of Blades

Aerie:
Summon Deva
Dragon Breath
All of the the extra Mage spells

Imoen:
Dragon Breath
????

[rebel3_6_1]

By the end of TOB, you should have enough levels for at least 10 or 15 high level abilities, so I wouldn't worry too much if I picked 1 that isn't that great. The ones I've found most useful are:

Greater Whirlwind for a fighter-->Having 10 attacks in 1 round can be useful

Set Spike Trap for a theif-->I haven't fought anyone who is immune to it, so you can set one and lure a tough opponent like Abizigal to it.

Improved Alacrity(or whatever its called) for mages-->Combined with Robe of Vecna and Time Stop you can shoot off a TON of spells before they can do anything

Also, Critical Strike isn't the ultimate abilty of Power Attack, Smite is. You can only get Smite once though.

[Galuf the Dwarf]

Originally posted by rebel3_6_1
By the end of TOB, you should have enough levels for at least 10 or 15 high level abilities, so I wouldn't worry too much if I picked 1 that isn't that great. The ones I've found most useful are:

Greater Whirlwind for a fighter-->Having 10 attacks in 1 round can be useful

Set Spike Trap for a theif-->I haven't fought anyone who is immune to it, so you can set one and lure a tough opponent like Abizigal to it.

Improved Alacrity(or whatever its called) for mages-->Combined with Robe of Vecna and Time Stop you can shoot off a TON of spells before they can do anything

Also, Critical Strike isn't the ultimate abilty of Power Attack, Smite is. You can only get Smite once though.

I'll take what you say into consideration. By the way, welcome to the board.


*strokes beard* Hmmm... Improved Alacrity. I hadn't thought'a that. Speaking of which, how could I use that along with spell triggers and/or contingencies? I've just started getting into that as of recently.

[rebel3_6_1]

Improved Alacrity eliminates the pause between casting spells, so if you combine that with the Robe of Vecna(-4 to casting time) and the Amulet of Power(-1 to casting time), any spells with a casting time of 5 or less will be cast instantly and all other spells will be cast MUCH quicker, and you can immediately begin casting you next spell. In the 2 rounds that Improved Alacrity lasts, you can unload almost all of you memorized spells, so it's kind of like a spell trigger itself.

[Littiz]

@Galuf:
try it with autopause: spell cast.

and maybe with Time Stop (can do without it, but it's cool )
place dozens of Skull Traps in face of you enemies, bring down ALL their magic defenses then attack them, bring up all of YOUR magic defenses then attack, or... all of this at the same time

[Galuf the Dwarf]

Originally posted by Littiz
@Galuf:
try it with autopause: spell cast.

and maybe with Time Stop (can do without it, but it's cool )
place dozens of Skull Traps in face of you enemies, bring down ALL their magic defenses then attack them, bring up all of YOUR magic defenses then attack, or... all of this at the same time

Littiz?!? I thought you left. Wha- what are you doing here?

Well, errrr... I suppose all that's been said about IA and such would work. Also, what about spells like 'Spell Trigger' and 'Chain Contingency': what are good ways to use them?

[Littiz]

Littiz?!? I thought you left. Wha- what are you doing here?

I left SYM, still lazily browsing the BG forums

what about spells like 'Spell Trigger' and 'Chain Contingency': what are good ways to use them?

Well, the combinations are endless.
About the contingencies: offensive use of them makes little sense to me. You have to set "enemy seen" or something like that, and from the PC's perspective it could be anything, even a BEE!!!!
I don't use them this way (nonetheless, there are surely interesting combos, like triple Abi's, multiple Pierce Shields to bring down magical defenses AND Magic Resistance, etc)
I prefer defensive settings, also because I used to play with melee oriented mages, trying to reload only when necessary.
Using all the contingencies you can trigger FOUR spells at 50% hit points, a combo I used often was:
PfMW, Mislead, Prot. from Energy, Prot. from Magical Energy. (you need to be 18th level to set this combo).
If you feel cheesy you can replace Prot. Magical Energy with Mirror Image, which protects from area spells (imho it's a bug), also you wouldn't need level 18 anymore.
Abi Dalzim can also be used in defensive settings, after all it affects only enemies.. so you can even target yourself at 50% hps, and hit all enemies that may possibly be around.
And if you feel like power playing, there's always the triple Project Image spawn...

I once posted a little abuse of Chain Contingency (here) : you can use it to cast offensive spells while remaining invisible, deciding even which enemy will be targeted. Just for fun, it could be useful someday...
UserUnfriendly unveiled the reverse trick, spells fired by CC hit directly even invisible enemies...

About triggers. Well, first yes, you can combine them with Improved Alacrity.
(because it allows to chain-cast even special abilities!)
Combos are again endless...

a few examples of Sequencers:
-Skull Trap x3
-Mirror Image, Stoneskin, Improved Invisibility
-Greater Malison, Slow and Teleport Field
The last one is an incredible disabler! (Even better would be to stack Teleport Fields, but for this you need DIFFERENT timings)

for Triggers:
-Sunfire x3 (bypasses MR, for incredible fire damage)
-Improved Haste, Mislead, Tenser's Transformation (my favourite, remember that Tenser heals the character!)
-Chain Lightning x3 (party friendly!!)

hmmm, you'll find some more suggestions in Xyx's Spell Guide.
One last thing: if you have a fighter with many attacks/round (maybe thanx to dualwielding), the combo Improved Haste + Critical Strike is far superior to Whirlwinds, as Alson argued a good while ago

[Ron_Lugge]

Originally posted by Littiz
(here)

Broken link.

[IHateUsernames]

Hey im resurrecting a topic

The good ol' project image cheese.

Cast chain contengecy set to helpless, target self.

put in three project image.

cast invisibility on self before activating (protection from enemies, can cast next spell without being seen, images are invisible)

cast project image

you are now helpless (stunned)

that activates the contingency and creates three more!

4 images each having the same spell total as you!!!!!

perfect sorc cheese.

[Ron_Lugge]

Originally posted by IHateUsernames
4 images each having the same spell total as you!!!!!

<drool>

Nice idea...

[IHateUsernames]

check UserUnfriendlys cheese guide. (dont leave home without it )

The bunny nuke

The 25 charisma trick

[Ron_Lugge]

Originally posted by IHateUsernames
check UserUnfriendlys cheese guide. (dont leave home without it )

Where is it?

[Littiz]

Originally posted by Ron_Lugge
Broken link.

Now, that's strange, it used to work..
try now:

http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/showt ... adid=16787

It wasn't that important anyway
The earlier and more immature days of playing, ah, the memories!

[Etherial]

Mmm, okay, a list, yes.

Thief/Bard:

Use Any Item is absolutely killer when you have an extra Time Stop or Spell Strike scroll just laying around in your inventory. Plus it also opens up your thief/bard to some of the more killer (class specific) items. Like Wong Fie's Ioun stone to name an example. Chances are most PC's aren't going to be a Monk or Ken Sei, and with the deletion of Yoshimo from the game... You're going to have to rely on SOMEBODY to detect/disarm the myriad deadly traps in the game. This is going to have to put your Thief to almsot constant use and in harms way alot. Having a nice regeneration ability would offset most of the danger.

Enhanced Bard Song is just useful, period. Especially if your only bard is Haer(or any Blade bardic class Kit), and therefore your Bard doens't have a self-getting-betterish song of his own.

Exploding Trap is another really, really good one for both Thief and Bard, but more for Thief as they can scout, set traps, and then lure enemies.

Alchemy is insta-gold, beby... Cast in, and cash in. KA-CHING!

Fighter/Monk/Barb:

Greater Whirlwind, 10 attacks at no loss to THAC0 or damage. Awwww, yeah!

Hardiness, this is just nice to have when you're going up against those damn Cowled Wizards and thse damnable Liches. Though if you had ot pick go with the Greater Whirlwind.

I'll come up with more later. See yah!