Got to the point which I never could pass on core with vagrant : Ancient Dragon

Do you guys have some tips to send me through PM for that fight without an unsilencable breacher ?
Especially buffwise, and spells for druids to have for the battle (got Cernd and Jaheira, no cleric).
Getting rid of his adds isn't a problem at all, i just don't manage to tempo/tank him


And another question regarding loot : SPOILER!

Positions of both parts are fixed, yes.

Won't advise on tactics, have been ages since I've played myself.

Sadly I don't remember any specifics, but I managed to defeat the dragon with only 1 mage.
Positioning is very important, try to surround the dragon, so that not all characters get hit with wing buffet. Keep track of each passing round and run away when dragon's PFMW/AI is on, then right after it expires, get all your fighters to attack him at the same time.
If you can manage to defeat all minions without having 1 of your mages silenced, then position him in some safe space and use him to summon and buff characters which got hit by dispel magic (mainly IH, protection from fire, protection from magical energy).

IMO Ancient Dragon without unsilencable mage is the hardest fight in the game. A few tips:

Fire resist potions will counter lower fire resistance reasonably well
Silenced mages who die can be brought back to life unsilenced - care to avoid chunk
Offscreen remove magic is another way to remove PFMW. Mage level requirement is around level 32 I think
Small partial rounds can be bought with fully magic protected casters (SIA/GOI/ST + stoneskin)
Lots of summons (but not MS:V) can be helpful
Save a few powerful summons towards the end to help when things get desperate
Kiting an impervious dragon is not cheesy
Keeping key teammates (R/C, mage) in the staircase can be useful

The fight in my 2020/6.52 playthrough was a little too hard. Recommend giving Auriel better base resists so she takes roughly half as much damage without hardiness (so if 30% base/70% with hardiness probably 50% base/90% hardiness), which IIrC gets removed by Ultra purge and is highly likely to be interrupted when refreshing. I also think she is immune to elemental resist buffs, but I may be misremembering / confusing her with Pasha or Clan Spirit.

I know, right ! Just managed EDE, but couldn't finish Watcher's Keep nor get JD this run because of the wyrm.



I can confirm her lack of resistances given that she gets interupted pretty much 50% of the time if not more. She sometimes looses 2 "hp-bars" from 1 hit.
The only way I found to keep her "healthy" (as in not too close to death) is SPOILER!
.

A different way to soften the fight would be to work out a different spawning point since she gets aggro of ultra and 1 elemental no matter what (well, no matter what I tried that is), and her script makes her focus and stick (litteraly, no matter she uses quarterstaff) to Ultra anyway. Though, as I mentionned previously, I didnt remember this spawning point from my previous runs, I guess it is intended to make it as annoying as possible.

It's a good point, but I think there are some special scripts on the golems in that fight that wouldn't make changing the spawn point particularly effective after a couple of rounds (which presumably is enough time to gain control of the encounter).

hey guys,

i have a question.

is it possible to play bg1 and Sod with some of the improved anvil kits ?

i want to play vagrant. afterwarts is it possible to import it to bg2 with improved anvil without suffering anything ?

You can copy the kit specific abilities and summons and their abilities and weapons again, but that is a bit of a chore. You might miss spells or such which isn't nice.

When you import things will likely also go wrong.

It is easier to import a character, then keeper it to level 0 with 1hp and the desired xp. Then everything from the kit should reset in game.

Well. Started a 3rd run. It's a lot easier now.

I read a few notes from a journal and apparently people have "darksteel shield" @ underdark.

I've never had that item, ( I thought that was in ToB ).

Is it in a fixed location somewhere? Or if it's randomized, what are the possible locations?

Thanks again!

It has a fixed location. SPOILER!

Thanks Critto!

(The support for IA is actually far better than pretty much any professional software I use at my work )

I always do the "dome" encounters (Lich&mummies + Cat&Coin&Librarian&students + dace + master vampire) without rests, but I've never gotten that item. Am I missing something else as well?

Thanks. :-)


There's a large book in that area, it's clickable and produces combat events. It is improved in IA. You can see it on the map, on the upper right, just after the stairs leading from above.

Make sure you are fully rested before starting the book encounter, as you need to complete it without resting for maximum rewards. Note it was extended/upgraded in 6.52 to be more difficult than in the past.

Thanks. It's becoming clear now .

So "ancient tome" is an actual tome, and not the encounter with lich+mummies+cat+librarian etc.

Originally I had no idea what people were referring to when discussing "ancient tome", so I googled it & found a bg2 video from youtube titled something like "exploring ancient tome". And it was the area with the lich+mummies+librarian etc. Hence my misunderstanding.

Well, now I know better then. I made it to the Underdark already, but maybe I can revisit the area via console .

So steam autoupdated BG2 EE recently. Does 6.5 work with 2.6 now? Also, is there a way to recover my save, or all is lost and I have to start over again?

6.5 is not tested to be compatible with 2.6 Go into the game's preferences on steam and on the beta tab opt into 2.5 "beta branch", this will get you back the previous version. I suggest uninstalling all mods before that and then reinstalling them anew. Everything should be fine.

Thanks. I found a backed up version of the game with 2.5, so it should be fine as well

Is there a way to fix my mistake with "mystery of the third colour" - I didn't get the name of the petrfied kid and it's not among possible selections.

( I tried searching but the database of the forum just returns an error )

Run the following command before talking to the boy.

Thanks a lot Critto!

Where is the Illusionist from the "mystery of the shimmering light supposed to spawn"?

Or to be clear: I get Delon @ Cabin, but then nothing. I tried searching
1. the whole area + caves (Umar Hills)
2. Temple Ruins + cave, dragon's lair etc.
3. This forum

But I didn't get anywhere with it.

SPOILER!

Thank you!

My problem atm is that I just can't find anything. I don't get how this quest is supposed to go? I think the Sewers part is afterwards.

I get Delon @ Cabin, but what am I supposed to do after that?

There isn't anything on the "Umar Hills" map (Delon refers to "top of the hill" or so) and I tried during the day / night. Also, nothing @ Temple Ruins.

What is supposed to happen after I talk to Delon?

I've gotta write a guide for this or something, I never remember these things from memory, have to look up every time. What was the last dialogue with Delon about?

Hey. Thanks again for the reply.

I go into the cabin and Delon appears. Telling me that he is scared and that he saw a "shimmering light on top of the mountains". Here's the end part of the dialogue.

Ah, this is the infamous Delon issue. I think there are several consecutive meetings with Delon to push this thing forward. I'll try to reconstruct the chain of events later.

Was that meeting with Delon in the ranger cabin?

I have a bad memory about this one, but isn't the next step to go to valygars house in the evening? You don't enter but you walk around it a bit. It might be time of night related.

Yes. Delon appears at the cabin.

(If you have a look at the saved game at some point, the same thing can be replicated there)

It would seem so. Delon is talking about "shimmering light at the top of the hills" (or so). But I just didn't get anything. I visited during the day and night (10 tries or so), even tried sleeping at the hills on a couple of tries.

But nothing.

Right. Let me know the values of these variables please.

I recommend that for passing time, don't simply rest. Instead with the debugger use ctrl-T to pass one hour at a time and walk around the place to find the spawn before you pass another hour.

before talking to Delon:

C:GetGlobal("Iarangerjob","GLOBAL") - 1
C:GetGlobal("Iad2ltimer","AR1100") - Does not exist
C:GetGlobal("Iad2timer","AR1100") - Does not exist
C:GetGlobal("Iacreature2","AR1100") - Does not exist


**

After talking to Delon

C:GetGlobal("Iarangerjob","GLOBAL") - 2
C:GetGlobal("Iad2ltimer","AR1100") - Does not exist
C:GetGlobal("Iad2timer","AR1100") - Does not exist
C:GetGlobal("Iacreature2","AR1100") - Does not exist

This is immediately after talking to him in the cabin (AR1107)? Try exiting to the main umar hills area (AR1100) and waiting a few moments, then check again.

Immediately.

After a while (went back into the cabin, out, then to the village inn, then back)

C:GetGlobal("Iarangerjob","GLOBAL") - 2
C:GetGlobal("Iad2ltimer","AR1100") - 1
C:GetGlobal("Iad2timer","AR1100") - Does not exist
C:GetGlobal("Iacreature2","AR1100") - Does not exist

( also on the previous post / screenshot I had the wrong variable, e.g. "ad21timer" when the correct one apparently is "ad2ltimer". )

Now that this one is set, rest for the next two days. If it's not night time yet, rest until the closest night time. Make sure you are in Umar Hills. Check the variables again afterwards.

Thanks! Got to the next part, so found Roshan.

I finished the shimmering light. Maybe 10 days ago (in game time).

How are these quest's triggered? Should I visit the ranger cabin every now and then or?

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (a quest only for vagrant rangers)
The Ancient Secret of Suldanesselar (a big quest for vagrant rangers)

Cheers (again).

I think a swanmay should appear in umar hills in a few days after the end of the first quest.

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately they don't trigger for me. It's now 15 days (or so) after I finished the shimmering light and no Swanmay @ cabin.

Those are the only two things to do before Suldannessar & end of SoA. (Well, besides demogorgon but I'm thinking about passing that until mid-ToB)

What are the values of:
C:GetGlobal("Iarangerjob","GLOBAL")
C:GetGlobal("Iacreature3","AR1107")

And what is the party's reputation?

Hey! Thanks for the reply.

Our reputation is 20.

C:GetGlobal("Iarangerjob","GLOBAL")
returns
"Global: IARANGERJOB3 GLOBAL Set to 12

C:GetGlobal("Iacreature3","AR1107")
returns
Global: IACREATURE3 AR1107

Strange. Everything should be ok, a swanmay should appear inside ranger protector's cabin.

Can I just create the creature via console?

is it iacreature3? (or I tried to create the creature via CreateCreature but it doesn't work)

If I use the

C:GetGlobal("Iacreature3","AR1107") while at AR1107, it returns:

Global: IACREATURE3, AR1107Does not exist

Swanmay does not appear in ranger's cabin (ex-merella cabin) by itself?

It doesn't.

Very strange. I guess, you could try entering the cabin and summoning the creature manually (its code is "S!swanme").

Thanks! This works. Now off to find the D.