6 replies to this topic

[Zyraen]

Sorry for the late reply.

The Assassin attacks don't stop until you complete BTL part 6 and get Kova acquitted. The earliest you can do that is in Chapter 6.
They do however, reduce in frequency, significantly after Renal gives you the green light.

They show up based on Gametime, and my best suggestion for you on the Assassins is
- move Kova towards them. make sure he has stoneskin, and even if he doesn't he probably won't get killed in 1 hit cuz he has that robe of his
- use Kiyone's weapon's True Sight ability
That's about it...

[Zyraen]

Tactics with Kova & Kiyone

http://www.shsforums...34

[rbx4]

i have turned in all teh evidence to get free reign from bylanna and renal said that the
shadow thiefs would not be bothering me anymore but since then everytime i go to a new area
i get attacked by 2 assassins 2 shadow thiefs 1 priest of cyric and a shadow thief mage is
their anyway to stop these attacks the assassins backstabs disintigrate one of my characters every hit
any help would be appreciated.

thanks

I think I've managed to pick up some pointers over repeated sessions. The main thing to remember here is that these fights are scripted entirely differently from typical BG2 fights. They require you to use a different strategy and make things seem more dangerous--that's actually a somewhat good thing because it really does make you feel like you're being hunted from all sides. You really are the weaker party here, instead of the typical SoA situation where you would be able to smash the whole city effortlessly. But on tactics:

Always pay off Corneil for the wizard license.

Never stand and fight these guys. The main reason that they can win is that they take you mostly off-guard and out of formation. Docks is a great place to go when you know that encounters will occur. There are 2 entrances. Go to one, let the encounter start, and then just leave. Typically your priest will lose half his/her health from a backstab before you can leave, but then you can heal up after entering the new area [edited for clarity]. Anybody who gets hit should immediately be given the Boots of Speed.
Upon return--don't show up at the same place you were, show up from another direction. Now *they* are out of formation and unprepared. Have True Sight up at least--the spell, not the item ability. I typically let Kova or summoned monsters spy out who attacked, and then I pull 1 or 2 enemies to the party. The party can handle 1 or 2 of them if prepared. Rinse and repeat. Save the item for cases when everything went wrong and you need to unstealth things fast. It is difficult to time correctly, and so the better strategy is to get away while you can.

If they really do insist on attacking your priest and killing her (especially Viconia can't handle anything), then give her some potions, Boots of Speed, and a strength belt with some good armor and have the Girdle of Fortitude buff up(use before entering Docks). With luck, she can run to a far-away building and heal up. Sanctuary won't work, so don't waste time with it. Alternatively, a mage can cast Otiluke's Resilient Sphere on her.

For mages, if you've got the same installation I have, then a mod will give Stoneskin an increased cast time. You'll be insanely lucky if you can cast it in time, even with Robe of Vecna. Don't try it in battle--pass those Boots of Speed along instead. Once your mage gets Protection From Magical Weapons, it immediately becomes a true thief tank. Just sit there making sure you're protected and have ranged weapons kill the thieves.

Edited by rbx4, 17 February 2011 - 07:26 PM.

[Zyraen]

Great Tip RBX4

Now that you mentioned about positioning as a factor to change the Surprse, my personal favourite place is the Slums. Reason being
- there's only 1 entrance
- the "triggering" Spawn point is out of sight of the Slums entrance
- Kova can unstealth there before going into battle (only important for low level Assassin groups. late game the Assassins can see invisible)
Edit for Clarification : Kova is scripted to be Stealthed in the Docks and Govt District, there's very little you can do to make him visible for long. This Script only works outside of Combat.

Encountering Thieves notes the Copper Coronet door very nearby. Enter and kill off anyone who pursues you one by one. You can go out the same way or go out another door, same as what RBX suggested with Docks but you can 100% control it as you can choose which door to exit from Copper Coronet

Encountering Wizards, you can retreat and pick off one by one, or do the same Backstab and then door-rush into the inn before the spells go off, go out the other side and pick em off.

A few other (cheesy) notes
- Thief groups have the Assassins spawn around YOU (player1) whereas the Thief Support (Archers, Clerics Mages, etc) spawn off the screen of your current screen
- Using this in Slums, you can leave your party (with squishables like Viccy and Aerie) behind, and advance only with Kova (unstealthed) and the Player1.
- Unless Player1 is a Mage, they will 99.99% of the time target Kova (since he's the Mage that is closest). That puts you at an immediate advantage.
- Occasionally, one or two of the Support Enemies will spawn off screen in a "dud" area (eg. the roof of Copper Coronet) and be totally unaware, separated and uninvolved with the battle at hand

Truly Truly Cheesy...
- move Player1 and Kova into place, and then move the screen to a "black" area of the map. When you get the Enemy prompt, wait for about 5-6 seconds, and high chance the Support will spawn Offscreen of your current screen (which is the black screen). this essentially splits the Thief Party into half (Assassins at your Player1, and everyone else everywhere else) and makes it a true true walkover.

To be Fair Though
- late game, with (originally Ub3r, instant-cast) Stoneskin, Prot Magic Weapons, and upgraded Kiyone's Bow (or Keldorn in your Party) etc, you can indeed stand and handle a Thief group on your own. Its quite challenging but very fun IMO. Note that Thieves can actually Backstab you even with True Sight up (basically TS removes their invis, they stealth again, and backstab you before the 6-second round is up and TS kicks in). This is a very intentional advantage caused by scripting them with Haste and spawning them at close offsets to your Player1 (Which also results in the above Truly Truly Cheesy exploit)
- Sad to say, I've never quite been able to deal with a Cowled Wizard Group without backstabbing 1-2 of them, hitting and killing one before his Protections are up, and then picking off the remainder. The unfair option is just too tempting.

It may seem weird, but I do kind of like the combat challenges in BTL Being surprised as a fresh party is a totally different experience when you're tired and half-dead, low on spells etc.

Other Notes :
- outside of town, there is no Cowlie Pursuit, but the Thief parties will still find you.
- IMO its far preferable to encounter a Thief Group at a City Spawn Point (where you can choose the battlefield) than to be hit on a Out-of-Town Location, especially if its a Map you just entered with nowhere else to go that is not XX hours away (eg. Windspear Hills. I got caught there once was like ARARRGGH!)

And like RBX4 said, yeah Boots of Speed change the equation totally

Edit for Minor Question : did anyone ever notice that Kova has a Banter which does almost NOTHING except suggest how to deal with all the Pursuit?

Edited by Zyraen, 17 February 2011 - 09:45 PM.

[rbx4]

Thanks--another thing that came to mind on the cowlies:

I usually run away from them, and then I send Kiyone back in with the Cloak of Mirroring, Death Ward up, Ring of Free Action (I have the addon that makes it work with Boots of Speed), and of course the Boots of Speed. With all that going on, they usually can't touch her, and then she just shoots them to death.

[rbx4]

Edit for Minor Question : did anyone ever notice that Kova has a Banter which does almost NOTHING except suggest how to deal with all the Pursuit?

Yes--that seemed to come more or less in the middle of the story. For role-playing purposes I was wondering why Kova waited so long, when he's basically made a new life for himself out of being a fugitive. Plus, considering that he's pretty smart, he'd probably want to get a party up to speed on things as soon as possible so that they wouldn't end up getting him killed.