so what is the best improved final-battle tactic?

[Guest Icanus]

don't remember how i did it last time but i'm kind of stuck in the improved final battle from scs. Problem is i didn't bring a staff of monster summoning (and i don't wan't to cheat or reload because i want to get through the game with as few reloads as possible). I just got that demon-summon-spell from winsky from the npc-mod (i have dynaheir in my party). So until now i tried to let sarevok and his friends pay their attention to that demon why i would bombard them with explosive-arrows and anti-magic arrows and other magic artellery. I allways manage to kill tazog (before they have finished the demon and attack me) that way and one of the others too when i'm lucky. When the demon is finished sarevok attacks my mainchar (kensai) who runs away southwards to drag him out of combat so the rest of the party can handle his alcolytes. He drinks a potion of invisibility befor sarevok manages to reach him, although he doesn't see him sarevok is scripted that he will stay near him if he hasn't another enemy in his sight. Minsc, Khalid, Jaheira, Imoen and Dynheir try to handle the other guys meanwhile, concentrating on one at a time of course.

The most succesfull outcome i got was everyone dead expect sarevok and my mainchar, who was to weakend to handle sarevok and his five or so healing-elexirs alone. My party is doped with improvement -drinks and spells. When an opponent casts a spell like chaos there is a magic-immunity potion for everyone. But thats still not enough. Often, when i reduced Angelor or Sendai to "near dead" he will would quaff a portion of invisibility and heal himself completly before i can cast any detectionspell .

Anybody has a good tactic for that epic battle, not involving summoning lots of monsters?

[coaster]

Well, I've beaten Sarevok 3 sorts of ways - monster summoning wand cheese (solo), repeated backstab & hide (solo), and with a party. IIRC with the party I prioritised Diarmid/Angelo as they are the ones firing those nasty arrows (I think Angelo's have a dispelling effect, so any effects from potions drunk disappear on being hit by those). So chop him to chunks fast - use ALL your guys at the same time on a single enemy, don't give him time to retreat/heal whatever by spreading your party thinly. Make sure you have high fire protection on all your people as Diarmid fires arrows of detonation at you. After those guys I took out Semaj & Tazok in that order (Semaj should last about 2 seconds if you hit him with an arrow of dispelling then melee him with your fighters - he hasn't got that many HP).

 

Arrows of dispelling remove Sarevok's haste & Semaj's protections nicely, always make sure you have someone with decent skills in bows to fire those off - they have no casting time unlike Dispel Magic & won't remove your own buffs. Make sure everyone has several oils of speed on them so that if they get injured/effects dispelled they can drink one, retreat & recover. Oil of speed is much better than the haste spell as it lasts much, much longer - you can buy a huge stack of them from the priest in the temple adjoining the Hall of Wonders. The only decent magic protection potion I use is the one with automatic saving throws - the ones with x% magic resistance are too hit & miss to be reliable.

[Guest Icanus]

Well, I've beaten Sarevok 3 sorts of ways - monster summoning wand cheese (solo), repeated backstab & hide (solo), and with a party. IIRC with the party I prioritised Diarmid/Angelo as they are the ones firing those nasty arrows (I think Angelo's have a dispelling effect, so any effects from potions drunk disappear on being hit by those). So chop him to chunks fast - use ALL your guys at the same time on a single enemy, don't give him time to retreat/heal whatever by spreading your party thinly. Make sure you have high fire protection on all your people as Diarmid fires arrows of detonation at you. After those guys I took out Semaj & Tazok in that order (Semaj should last about 2 seconds if you hit him with an arrow of dispelling then melee him with your fighters - he hasn't got that many HP).

 

Arrows of dispelling remove Sarevok's haste & Semaj's protections nicely, always make sure you have someone with decent skills in bows to fire those off - they have no casting time unlike Dispel Magic & won't remove your own buffs. Make sure everyone has several oils of speed on them so that if they get injured/effects dispelled they can drink one, retreat & recover. Oil of speed is much better than the haste spell as it lasts much, much longer - you can buy a huge stack of them from the priest in the temple adjoining the Hall of Wonders. The only decent magic protection potion I use is the one with automatic saving throws - the ones with x% magic resistance are too hit & miss to be reliable.

...

thanks for your suggestions, arrg i should have prepared myself better, more magic potions and stuff, but i still want to try it without reloading a older game. Until now i concentrated on the ones i could kill fastest first (Tazog and Diarmid), but maybe i should try to throw all my power on Angelo and Semaj right in the beginning, yeah. I got some Dispell-Arrows but they are not allways that effective on semaj, and he has got lots of invisible-spells in his book, and then he has enough protection spell left to ro rebuild his defense at least once. I will drop the explosive-arrows bombardment and instead launch a close-combat attack on semaj in the beginning. I will report back.

Amazing how many tactical options this game has and how the right tactic completly can change the outcome of a on first sight difficult battle.

[Icendoan]

My tactic is to let Angelo shoot explosive arrows at you, but only while you are near Sarevok, he should then go after Angelo, killing him easily and freeing up enough time to rid yourself of the others and heal

 

Icen

[Guest Guest]

Well at least works better now, i think this might be the right way, the trick is to kill sendai BEFORE he casts his annoying invisibility-spells.

[Lemernis]

This is a really tough battle. I'm trying arrows of dispelling on Sarevok's spellcaster henchmen (Semaj, Angelo and Diarmid)to try to remove their protections. But I can only kill one of them before my tanks get whittled down. And once that happens then it's over.

 

A glitch (?) occured in one try, where Sarevok's SCS dialogues didn't fire. And thus he didn't summon his henchmen. He came down from the dais but it was only him. But I could not kill him. He remained at Near Death no matter how long and hard I hit him (like for five minutes of pummeling away at him).

 

I may have to uninstall the final battle component. I'll wait and see if I get any further tactical suggestions first though.

[coaster]

Have you got plenty of invisibility potions/rings? A nice tactic is:

 

-Everyone piles on Semaj after dispelling his protections, & kill him

-Make sure everyone has invisibility potions

-Drink them all simultaneously

-Heal up, drink oils of speed/fire resistance potions, magic shielding etc - I don't think anyone in the battle uses dispel invisibility/true sight (apart from maybe Semaj). [NB DON'T cast haste etc as it breaks invisibility, buff using potions if possible]

-Surround Angelo whilst invisible, then everyone simultaneously attack & kill him

-all drink invisibility potions

 

and so on.

[Lemernis]

I uninstalled. These days if the battles get too difficult the game loses its fun value for me. This one is just too tough for my taste.

 

Wasn't always that way. I used to enjoy toiling away at finding a win for a really difficult battle.

 

But now BG is just a way to have some mindless fun for a couple hours a week. I can't afford to spend that scarce recreation time in a state of mild frustration.

 

 

***

 

 

Lol, okay now I find it way too easy with it uninstalled! I saved afterward in case. I suppose I'll reinstall and keep trying for a bit.

 

 

***

 

Bah, for me the frustration factor is too great for this to be fun.

 

Without the Improved Final Battle I find it too easy. But with it installed there's too much reloading and (for me) hoping for a miracle that somehow I can kill off enough of the henchmen before Sarevok decimates the party. There doesn't seem to be a 'Goldilocks zone' here for the difficulty.

 

What is particularly frustrating is that I don't seem to be able to do much damage at all to Sarevok. I'm hitting him with some of the best weapons available from DSotSC and other BGT mods that I have installed. (eg, Daystar, Champion Sword, Skullsplitter axe). Despite pummelling away at him for many turns, Sarevok remains Barely Injured. Party members are doing anywhere from 1-5 damage hasted with potions of speed. One would think that should add up after a while... I'm not sure if Sarevok's unchanging HP status is a bug. But how can I win this battle if I can't even substantially injure him? Add to this that Sarevok, in return, doles out four or five times as much damage (continually hasted) and the odds seem almost insurmountable. I mean, I do realize many players figure out how to win this battle. But I almost don't see how it can be done.

[DrAzTiK]

You must defeat all sarevok'allies before to be able to kill him.

[erebusant]

You must defeat all sarevok'allies before to be able to kill him.

Yes. As his allies die, Sarevok's resistances decrease...

[DavidW]

You must defeat all sarevok'allies before to be able to kill him.

Yes. As his allies die, Sarevok's resistances decrease...

 

I'll be the first to admit that this isn't the most original trick ever, but it was the only way I could find to make it a fight against a team of opponents and not just an all-pile-on-the-boss encounter. And hopefully the in-game dialog justification is half-way plausible.