Battling Elminster (Without Camp Shenanigans), a Guide

[@Multipolo07]

This is the toughest fight in the entirety of act 1 *proceeds to kill him in 1 turn*

[@Melth]

Most fights last less than one turn with the enemies not getting to make a move at all 😅 In hindsight though, Zhalk and company are obviously a much harder fight than this. I just kind of think of that as act 0 and so it didn't occur to me while making this video. (Especially because I made this before the Zhalk + Cambions guide)

[@lillehei]

Just finished binging this entire run after watching the level 8 video. Love your playstyle and your approach to tackle challenges in this game! Looking forward to act 2 :)

[@Melth]

Thanks, it's always nice to hear people enjoy this series!

[@gregtrump8905]

BEEN WAITING FOR THIS. MISS YOUR VIDEOS MAN KEEP IT UP!

[@Melth]

Thank you, enjoy!

[@brandonchristen2472]

Here’s what you should do. Throw the iron flask, summon Lump and his gang, watch and have fun.

[@Melth]

Definitely fun! Though with only 1 target you actually want it to hit vs 3 ogres, I would expect the Spectator to hurt your ogres more often than it helps against Elminster

[@mymiffysniffy]

melth doing all the challenges i’ve thought of but never had the gall to execute, TY!!

[@Melth]

The game has a lot of fights like this that I don't even naturally think of *as* fights. The whole idea of attacking Elminster seems so crazy in-character that it'd be hard to justify on a real run!

[@brokenmeats5928]

I love ALL Melth videos!

[@Melth]

Thank you very much!

[@aldoushuxley5953]

Did not even know you could fight him. Interesting!

[@Melth]

I didn't think of it my first time through!

[@timtengo5750]

What happens if you're playing as Gale origin?

[@Melth]

I've been trying to find that out for a while, but I haven't found a good answer anywhere yet.

[@MrFableHero]

this was awesome and very informative, thank you!

[@Melth]

Glad to hear it!

[@cannyvalley8522]

I miss Bhaalista's original look :( Also confused by lack of kobolds in this video. Oh btw I found out which barrels in my camp chest contain kobolds, yay! Those weight less than typical firewine barrels but otherwise are very similar.

[@Melth]

I miss it too! I spent a while designing that face and I'm not happy it's been overwritten by this generic disguise. The kobolds only came up as a comparison, when I pointed out that Elminster the epic level ultra wizard is worth less XP than the pile of drunk kobolds in the nearby monastery

[@RevanLegend]

I killed Old Man in all 3 BG games and I wanted to brag about him not getting the message, but instead my thoughts drifted towards me not being a hero Forgotten Realms deserve...

[@Melth]

Now it makes sense why he just sends simulacrums instead of going in person even when Mystra told him to! 😂

[@MSlocum669]

I know we still have two acts to go, but I am looking forward to the single character encore run afterwards.

[@Melth]

I'll think about it, but I'm not usually a fan of single character runs. I think strategy and tactics are more interesting with more characters to build into a party

[@cannyvalley8522]

When Astarion shot arrow of darkness the game rearranged initiative order accounting for ability drain penalty on simulacrum, so that Bhaalista went first the next round. Or so it would seem to me)

[@Melth]

Honestly I'm confused about it. Initiative in this game is very weird sometimes.

[@Deerber]

​@@Melth no kidding! 😂

[@IndependentObserver]

I fought him a while ago, my Tav had 6 lvls into Sword's Bard and 1 lvl into Fighter (for archery fighting style- get that hit chance pumped up and to get longbow proficiency) sharpshooter feat, 18 dex from the gloves, armed in Titanstring bow, Knife of the undermountain king for bigger crit chance, and the club that gives 19 strength. With the (oh so ironic) Mystra's blessing for +2d4 to attack rolls, the whole party chugging Elixirs of Vigilance, and Fog Cloud cast (again Ironically) by Gale, in such a way to blind Elminster without blocking a way for melee attacks to be done without getting blinded yourself, to get easy advantage on all attacks. Granted it wasn't on honour mode so I got two extra attacks from haste, but still. He died in a single turn, 4 slashing flourishes, for a total of 8 attacks, each dealing 2d8+19 per hit, with a crit from Illithid power, and another lucky one (though was it? 7 separate attack rolls, each with 19.75% crit chance, rolling a crit wasn't actually lucky, it was more unlucky that I didn't roll two, than that I rolled one) was just too much for the old geezer's water-clone-no-jutsu

[@Melth]

Yeah, if one can go in with powerful features like Sword's Bard's Slashing Flourish Ranged or paladin smites or things like that, this battle is quite easy. Even with my party low on resources at the end of a giant adventuring day, it's pretty feasible to one-round him without much danger

[@Alirion144-jx4uj]

Great video! I wondered though - is it possible to stabilize Gale and afterwards fight elminster without losing Gale?

[@Melth]

No, I don't think so. Once you've stabilized Gale, Elminster's AI changes. If you attack him, he's scripted to immediately vanish instead of battling. Maaaaaybe you could blow him up instantly with 1000 explosive barrels or something, but it wouldn't be a fight at least

[@Bruno-ki9iz]

9:07 what is Laezel doing? 😳

[@Melth]

Showing off her Spore Druid dance moves as she gets ready to use Halo of Spores. It's a very efficient way to break s speed potion bottle

[@wekashipo7507]

Part of your challenge is doing all of the fights in the hardest way, but, I agree, killing Elminster in an actual run would be dumb, hard to justify in character, and lock you out of more content. I think these "non canon" episodes are the best possible compromise. Doing the fight like this proves you can, but doesn't ruin your save file.

[@Melth]

Yeah, it seems like the best of both worlds, even if it doesn't feel *quiiiiite* perfect to me. It's also a little sad to *not* be level 8 in my canon run going into Act 2, because two many of those things I talked about in my guide didn't make sense for me to do in-character

[@Bruno-ki9iz]

I need two extra videos: how to raise an army of undeads + how to make eldrich blast hit 98%

[@Melth]

As far as armies of the undead go, you haven't seen anything yet! I'll have about 20 undead by the end I think. For this early phase, the main thing is simply that if you cast Animate Dead as a level 4 spell, you can get 3 skeletons (or zombies, but zombies are terrible). Both Lae'Zel and Karlach in my party are spellcasters and cast Animate Dead as a level 4 spell. Hence 6 skeletons for now. As for my accuracy with Eldritch Blast. At this point, Elminster has 16 AC (started with 17, then I reduced it by 1 with Ability Drain: Dexterity). Bhaalista has Advantage because I previously made Elminster bleed, and my team have the BOOOAL's Benediction buff which makes us have advantage against bleeding people. Bhaalista has +3 to hit from proficiency, +3 from Charisma, +2.5 from Bless, + ANOTHER 2.5 because I cast Bless while holding the Staff of Arcane Blessing (Highly recommend!) +1 from Lightning Charges and +3.5 from Bliss Spores. So I have about +15.5 to hit at this point against an AC of only 16. Which basically means I only miss on a 1. And since I have advantage, I would need to roll 2 1s at once, which has only a 1/400 chance to happen. So my odds to hit are about 99.75% In general, there are a lot of ways to increase accuracy in this game, and it's a good idea to use a lot of them!

[@Bruno-ki9iz]

@@Melth Thanks for the info!!

[@robertbuchanan7609]

If Durge kills Gale does Elminster show up looking for him?

[@Melth]

Not as far as I'm aware, I think Elminster is never seen from then on

[@thespreer2142]

darkness overrides any puddles/effects. i.e. if you have hunger of hadar and darkness from 2 different sources in a spot, darkness takes precedent. if you throw a potion on the ground in darkness, the effects are nullified. really dumb oversight from larian, hopefully soon to be fixed

[@Melth]

With some testing, I think that's only partially true. The game has cloud effects (like darkness and hunger of hadar and cloudkill) and it has surface effects/puddles like acid and grease. Any given point can have at most 1 surface effect and at most one cloud effect. Usually the most recently applied one supercedes anything that was there before. Darkness does usually seem to take precedence over most other cloud effects, overriding Hunger of Hadar. However, Darkness does NOT stop puddles of acid or grease and whatnot from working. It DOES prevent thrown healing potions from working because shattered potions produce a *cloud* rather than a puddle. That part is admittedly a bizarre decision by Larian, but it affects many more things than just darkness.

[@thespreer2142]

@@Melth huh. never realized that. i always thought thrown healing potions functioned the same way as other potions.

[@Melth]

@@thespreer2142 I haven't tested it with speed potions so I'm not sure whether they're clouds too, but I would suspect they are

[@cyrt2889]

he has focused conjuration and cant break concentration on spells via damage

[@Melth]

That only applies to Conjuration spells though. None of his important spells are Conjuration, and you can thus break his concentration on just about anything he casts.

[@cyrt2889]

@@Melth yea I realised that later on especially since i had not finished the video. but it is kinda odd that he has that passive without it doing anything its not like he has all the wizard passives it is just evocation and conjuration

[@tieltrooper]

Cool!

[@Melth]

Thank you!

[@Forkontheleft]

My oath broken knight made short work of him On tactician lol

[@Melth]

Yeah, if you can blitz him down with a smites and whatnot (and especially on tactician where you can easily get lots of additional attacks to smite with), he's not that hard. But no enemy is under those circumstances

[@voon1032]

How do you have 3 skeleton archers summoned simultaneously? I would like to learn this power... Also, how do you rate the circle of spores fungal zombies? They feel quite strong to me, I'm tempted to unleash them in Baldurs Gate when I reach act 3 to see if I can cause a full on zombie apocalypse

[@Melth]

@@voon1032 if you cast animate dead using a FOURTH level spell slot you can get 3 skeletons instead of 1. With a fifth or sixth level spell slot you can get ghouls or flying ghouls instead As for the fungal zombies, they're a fun idea, but being melee-only with terrible initiative makes me not like them very much