htn963

This is majorly frustrating. I can't harm Mannimarco with weapons
or spells (yet he can whale on me). I do have the colossal filled
black soul gem from Traven, and AFAIK, I've fulfilled all the
requirements for this final mages guild quest. I've tried reflect,
hoping he would hurt himself, but no go. This looks like a bug, and
the kind that would incline me to shelf this game permanently.

I've looked at the various guides and googled for this topic but
haven't found anything useful. (There was one post I found from
someone who couldn't harm Mannmarco, but apparently he didn't have the
black soul gem with him.) Has anyone encountered this problem and is
there a solution for it? I'm playing the XBOX 360 version.

I was really enjoying this game with this fast-track character
until I hit this problem (my character is level 3 and has finished the
Dark Brotherhood quest). Any help would be appreciated.

--
Ht

mikael_schøler

The only thing I've found is that a patch fixes this:

in the Confront the King quest, fixed an issue where Mannimarco would
occasionally stop fighting the player while the player's controls are
locked.

but I guess is isnt what your problem is..

rich z

I also had this problem, but came across a hint that allowed me to
defeat him. I put on an amulet of underwater breathing, jumped in and
swam to the bottom into a submerged cave/passageway. Mannimarco will
follow you and drown. After he died I found that tiger claw traps had
sprung all over blocking the way to the path/exit. I had to swim to the
other side, but the banks are too steep to jump/climb from the water.
Fortunately I had a 'Stand on Water' scroll which allowed me to run/jump
out.

htn963

Yeah, I did try to drown him in the surrounding moat by
submerging and repeatedly casting Underwater Breathing, but he was
smart enough to surface occasionally for air -- and can cast spells
underwater while my character can't. As if that wasn't annoying
enough, my character can't jump out of the water onto the banks after
casting Sea Stride (walk on water), even with an acrobatic skills of 32
-- not great, but methinks not poor either.

This is just idiotic (and "unrealistic" for lack of a better
term) game design in an otherwise pretty and well-polished game. I had
thought Bethesda had completely cleaned up its act after Daggerfall and
Morrowind -- games which I initially liked and spent a lot of time on
but also couldn't finish due to bugs and/or bad gaming design... I
still remember not being able to travel for more than 5 feet in
Morrowind at higher levels without being poked on the head by those
damned flying cliff riders.

Anyhow, I'll try to lure Mannimarco into a *completely flooded*
passageway like you suggest if I can find it and when my acrobatics are
higher -- if and when I feel like playing this game again.

--
Ht

What kind of weapons are you trying? The thing that I found worked
best against him was magical weapons. I think when I faced him I used
Debaser.

normus deenghis

Yes, this may be it. I was firing mundane arrrows at him at a distance and
they were completely ineffective. Not even a reaction from him. Didn't even
notice a sharp projectile passing through. But when I got up close he
barely got his "Now you die" speech out and I wasted him with
whatever"thorn", the magic dagger from the Dark Brotherhood. Just a couple
of quick swipes. I was amazed he was so easy.

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Being the absolute coward I am, my solution was to jump over the claw
trap barrier after his speech. I'm not sure if that is supposed to be
possible but I did it anyway.

We then spent a pleasant evening summoning beasties to attack each
other: him, puny skeletons (pah!) and me, daedroths (a-ha!).
Occasionally I would "miss" and conjure my pet outside the barrier but
I eventually prevailed, Mannimarco died and the barrier fell.

Regards

Steve

htn963

<Spoilers, Update, and Rant>

I used the upgraded Blade of Woe (gotten from the Nightmother after
the last Dark Brotherhood quest) so I'm pretty sure magical weapon
isn't the issue.

I gave this character another chance last night and managed to kill
the big Worm by luring him into a submerged side passage (after
scouting). Jumping back on land was the other concern, but I
remembered that my old DB outfit had an acrobatics bonus, and that made
the difference, albeit after many tries and button mashing. (Thanks to
everyone who shared their experience.)

Glad that's finished, but I'm still ticked this bug forced me to
have to resort to this unrealistic workaround and deprived my
character of a true confrontation with the Big Boss. And finally being
confirmed as Arch-Mage gives a few perks, such as getting Traven's digs
and the alchemy-ingredient-multiplying chest, but those uppity mage
scholars *still* doesn't give me the time of day, and I still hear that
grating "Ah, you must be Arcane University's new student, this humble
Battlemage bids you welcome, blah blah..." every time I wandered too
close to those gate wardens. Bah.

The more I play this game, the more inconsistent and sloppy things
I find to be irritated about...but then I should have remember, silly
me, that Bethesda isn't Blizzard. There isn't another massive rpg on
console at the moment (that I know of) that is not another linear
Japanese Mother Earth trek with spiky-haired kiddies carrying oversized
weapons, so I'll press on with this and see if the ending is good
enough to make up for this disappointment, and cross my fingers that I
won't encounter others as egregious as it. (At least the Dark
Brotherhood series was terrific. I usually don't enjoy playing
Characters Who Do Bad Things -- in fact, my "innocent" killing for the
invite was accidental, one of the two sons I helped with the goblin
fight on Odil Farm who got in the way of a fireball meant for a critter
-- but this was compelling and rewarding enough to prove an exception.)


--
Ht

mannimarco

My innocent killing is that of a daecric shrine quest where you need to
to kill two pple and frame each other.

As for the Odil farm fight, i'm glad the two brothers survived because
i got a pretty good weapon from it, one which i kept till i manage to
enchant from my first sigil stone.

mm