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[Hjolnai]

After having completed several early quests, and given Yoshimo potions of Master Thievery to steal many scrolls and enough armour and arrows to sell for the Robe of Vecna, my character (a Wild Mage) had reached level 12, mostly from the stolen scrolls. It was time to explore the Temple district sewers. Unfortunately, this is how the danger of green slime was discovered - one was met on entering the sewer.

To maintain invisibility, my character let Yoshimo fight the Green Slime alone. It was easily killed, but left Yoshimo with what seemed a mild poison... until he suddenly met an untimely end. Apparently, Green Slime poison is permanently fatal after three hits. Heartlessly pillaging Yoshimo's corpse, then stopping a moment to reflect, the Wild Mage moved on; one Bhaalspawn alone should be mighty enough to cleanse the sewers and gather equipment.

Edit:
Apparently, on retreating from a Rakshasa in the Sewers due to running out of Minute Meteors (there aren't many ways to hurt them magically), it is not a good idea to then go hunting bandits to restore confidence. Taking into consideration the fact that Chaos spells cast by enemies follow you, it is all too easy to get killed, as I did.

Modifié par Hjolnai, 26 novembre 2010 - 02:20 .

[Flamedance]

Hjolnai wrote...


To maintain invisibility, my character let Yoshimo fight the Green Slime alone. It was easily killed, but left Yoshimo with what seemed a mild poison... until he suddenly met an untimely end. Apparently, Green Slime poison is permanently fatal after three hits. Heartlessly pillaging Yoshimo's corpse, then stopping a moment to reflect, the Wild Mage moved on; one Bhaalspawn alone should be mighty enough to cleanse the sewers and gather equipment

Green Slimes actually require you to make a save vs Death on touch. IIRC, you get a bonus to the saving throw, but if you fail the save, you die. No amount of healing/curing can save you.

[saros_shadow_follower]

Astarta & party, next entry:

After defeating Firkraag, the party decided to take on the Cowled Wizards, who were annoying enough to give warning not to cast spells on the streets when the party battled Limak the Mastermind. Such an act could never go unpunished!

After defeating five groups of improved Cowled Enforcer patrols (still weak somewhat), the party faced 'the highest members of the Cowled Wizards', namely Zallanora and Kollynuus Paac. While Zallanora quickly erected her protections, Kollynuus was somewhat slower. The three fighters behind her activated their HLAs and swiped her in two strikes each. She couldn't even erect her protections.

The two named wizards in this fight must be eliminated fast. If they're not, new wizards and Coin Golems start gating in each couple of rounds. While the party can take some of those, too much wizards casting spells around is never healthy. That's why next action of the group is to dispel Zallanora's protections. Zallanora is level 31. Too bad for her. Party wizards are the same level. And 9 Remove Magics, each with 50% chance of dispelling enemy protections...how lucky can she be. Obviously, not enough. Her last CC with 3*FoD could have lethal effect if Alia was not protected by Magical Energy and of course, if her save vs death wasn't -3 at the moment (thanx to Mass Invisibility and SI:D which both mages are running in almost any fight).

Well, at least now the party can cast freely on the streets (will help in chapter 6, when battling Kruin for the Silver Hilt). The loot was nothing significant. I was hoping for a quarterstaff +3. None of these. Otherwise I might've considered creating the Staff of Strength +4, but since the current options are wasting 2 Permanency scrolls on that meager item (and party has 1 only left), I'd rather try to find the Staff of Rynn.

After resting for a couple of days, the party was called by a strange looking paladin to visit some Lady Vanya in the Paladin stronghold (she appears 1 week after Firkraag is slain and certain other conditions - party reputation and PC alignment - are met). Lady Vanya informed the party that an army of Rune Assassins has occupied Firkraag's lair as their new fortress. Well, we can't let that happen now, can we.

There was a guard on the entrance, which went inside to inform his allies that the party approaches. The welcome will be warm, no doubt about that. On the 2nd level of the dungeon, there were 7 Elite Rune Assassins who died foolishly, trying to ambush the party. Not good enough, boys. The actual fight:

The party buffed VERY well. Note to self - maybe ProPoison scrolls are viable in this fight, but since there is a very limited quantity of those - maybe they're better saved for the Green Wyrm fight in WK lvl 3. Last sorceress and necro buffs was Improved Alacrity.

Mages and R-C charged forward. Greater Malison by PC, followed by three Dragon Breaths - two from PC, the other one from the Sorceress. This fight has the following enemies: a Guildmaster (apparently a high-level Thief with UAI and magical scrolls of Absolute Immunity and PW:Kill, but with great fighting skills too), 2 Master Assassins (F/T with multiple warrior HLAs), a Coin Golem, a Gem Golem,2 Assassin Coordinators (mages, immune to Slashind damage btw), and multiple Rune Assassins and Elite Rune Assassins. All minor assassins can use Poison Weapon, and the weapons of the Master Assassins are permanently poisoned (unsure about the Guildmaster though).

Mages were protected from magical weapons, so the enemies attacked the R-C instead. Still, not all can hit him of course - no space. The Dragon Breaths cleared the lesser assassins, leaving only the tougher enemies to worry about. As can be seen, the tougher enemies are immune to fire. Astarta overdid it a bit with her next spell. The fighters charged on the Guildmaster. This is not accidental. While mages are dangerous, the Guildmaster gates in more poweful enemies each couple of rounds - either a new Golem, or a new Coordinator, or a new Master Assassin. He managed to gate in one more Master Assassin (total of 3) before dying. He survived a bit, but was Breached (don't know his levels, but as a single-class thief, they're probably too high to hope to be successful with Remove Magic) and died almost immediately. While Astarta had refreshed her Alacrity and was shooting Remove Magics to the left and right, keeping the two Coordinators without protections, Alia was doing nothing. First mage down, ops someone is poisoned (and Hardinesses waned - they were granted from a Wish btw), of course we have a cure for poison and for everything, unfortunately now the R-C is in danger (whould've refreshed at least one that IronSkins), but at least he's not poisoned, and there are too few enemies alive in order to prevent him from escaping and refreshing Ironskins. The two mages were dead, leaving only the fighters. However, the Master Assassins (all alive) can gate 2 (elite)Rune Assassins each 5-6 rounds. And they did all at once, and the party was suddenly facing more than expected enemies. Time to decrease the risks. In this case, Risk Decrement was invaluable because of its knockback effect, which allowed the party to regroup (R-C was taking most hits, although Ironskined, this cannot last forever). This was the side effect of the Decrement: the Badly Injured Master assassin suddenly died. However, the other two managed to gate in several more minor Assassins before dying. Afterwards, it came all to destroying a couple of golems.

Loot: static items. PW: Kill scroll for the Necromancer. Kaligun's Amulet of Magic Resistance, a Ring +2, several Rings +1 (Master Assassins and Assassin Coordinators wear those), 2 proElements scrolls (cool - one for necro, ProEnergy was already obtained in the Planar Sphere magical container), two +3 shortswords, scrolls, gems, +2 enchanted armor and shortswords, +1 shortswords, potions, etc.

As a side note, I forgot to mention that the Sorceress earlier picked Contingency at lvl 30, and ProElements at lvl 31 as new spell picks.

At least now the party has four of the five ingredients needed for the Periapt of Greater protection (a very good defensive amulet). The remaining fifth is in the posession of the Unseeing eye. Maybe should visit him...however first is first. Almost no money, and the party created two more +2 rings. Now literally everyone in the party is wearing two +2 rings (things like Holy Symbol or Ring of Acuity are not as valuable, and R-C has nine 6-th and nine 7-th level slots anyway - no more are needed, indeed).

As a side note, the bug in Umar Hills' tavern saved me from making a mistake and wasting the new cool suit of dragon scales. The red dragon scales can be used for upgrading the Pride of the Legion, however, the enhanced item can only be worn by Paladins , which I noticed only recently. So thanx God I was unable to complete the vanilla Paladin stronghold tasks. The R-C is wearing the Plate of Balduran currently, because of the little hp boost and because the AC modifiers of the Red Dragon Scale are worse (Plate of Balduran has the modifiers of a full plate - 4 to slashing, 3 to piercing and missile, while Red Dragon Scale has some mixed-up modifiers - 3 to slashing, 1 to piercing and missile).

Current party levels:

Fighters lvl 38, RB has 12 Criticals and 6 Hardinesses, while Barbarian has 12 GWWs and 6 Hardinesses.
R-C 16-32, has all HLAs except Deva
Mages lvl 31 (still) have all HLAs. PC's Wis and Int are 19 (thanx to a certain potion), and she scribes all scrolls she can find.
Valygar lvl 31. Has 9 Criticals and 3 Hardinesses, and 1 Contact with Nature too. Should get him more hardinesses

Weapons: PC and sorceress +3 Martial Staves, +3 enchanted daggers (Pixie ****** and an usual +3 dagger)
Barbarian: Harmonium Halberd +3, Lilalcor +3, Cleric's Staff +3, Strong Arm longbow
RB: Phosphorous +4, Short Sword of backstabbing +3, Ras the Dancing Blade +2, Dragonslayer +2 - off hand The Truth longsword +5
Valygar: Flail of Ages +4, Boneblade +4, a katana +3, off-hand Belm +2, has Ilbratha in the pack and also Heartseeker and Tuigan bow. Decided Ilbratha should go to him, because he's most vulnerable to damage.
R-C: Hammer of Thunderbolts +3, ImOD +2 - off hand a Flail +3 (from Limak).

Rearranging weapons can be done in any minute so that all have +4 weapons, however the Barbarian urgently needs a +4 polearm. Current party gold is 300 000 (applying an exploit currently, so it will take some time). There are pretty expensive upgrades coming, so maybe will stop at 1 million. Should be sufficient.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 26 novembre 2010 - 09:34 .

[saros_shadow_follower]

Exploiting really is boring. After obtaining 620 000 total gold, I decided this is enough (unfortunately, it is not, and the party's definitely gonna have some money trouble later, but not big ones). Also, the party completed the Unseeing Eye quest. This is not as easy as it sounds. The Gauths now have Anti-Magic rays. Moreover. those rays are not stopped by Spell Shield anymore, and Shield of Balduran is omitted from IA anyways. However, the beholders and gauths shoot their rays not so fast anymore (4 rays per round), but they choose always the best option for their rays (meaning, if the target is protected, their first choice is Anti-Magic ray). They have many HP (for example, 3 Dragon Breaths are insufficient to kill them). However, they have also been deprived of several rays, more importantly Death Ray, which means summons can approach them safely. However, even Skeleton Warriors don't fare well vs Beholder's melee capabilities. However, the monsters summoned from the new Monster Summoning spells are excellent, especially the Greater Yuan-ti. This is solely thanx to their innate resistances, meaning partial resistance to Magic Damage and Electricity. For example, where Planetars die in 3-4 rays, a Greater Yuan-Ti is only on Injured. Guiding the summons via Farsight is essential for best control.

Killed Teshal in the Ghoul City as well. The second entrance to the city is now closed, and anyone wanting to enter has to use the main entrance. This almost always means one thing - the random undead monster spawn inside is going to join the fight. 2 Skeleton Lords, 2 Grandlords, a Shade Lich, another Grandlord gated by Teshal, and Teshal himself, plus vanilla Undead in this place all at once, plus Devil Fiends gated in by Teshal. A bit too much, but not really that dangerous. Priority: first Grandlords, second Warlords and Teshal, and finally the Shade Lich.

IA 6.0 Shade Liches use Spell Immunity Necromancy as buff. Apparently, this is to counter the new powerful anti-Undead spell, Disrupt Undead. Still, this allows high-level mages to simply shoot one Remove Magic and dispel all their buffs.

Loot from Teshal: Manual of Elaboration, a Freedom scroll, Skin of the Ghoul +4 (an item needed for Valy's improved armor). No Staff of Rynn here. Bad.

The quest ended. The party reported to the temple of Lathander, completed the vanilla quests of that temple, and got rewarded. Here the two mages hit lvl 32, while the R-C hit clerical lvl 33.

Alia got a new spell pick, she choose ADHW as new spell.

Also, the party reported (somewhat lately) to Lady Vanya about the success of their mission (destruction of the Rune Assassins). The party was rewarded with gold, xp and also 2 potions of Barbarian Essence. The party has a total of 4 of these rare potions - one from the Improved Screaming Statue challenge, one from Alohoon's lair, and the 2 potions obtained now.

Went to Cromwell. Created the Talisman of Greater Protection. Ingredients for this item: 2 Amulets of Protection +1, the Amulet of 5% MR (Unseeing eye), Kaligun's amulet of MR (Guildmaster of the Rune Assassins), and the Periapt of Proof Against Poison (Item Randomizer, so far I've found it only on the Green Wurm, WK lvl 3, or in the Illithid compartment). Also forged a ring +3 out of 2 +2 rings and a Rogue Stone.

HOWEVER - while creating those artifacts, Cromwell failed to take first the Periapt of Proof vs Poison, and next a Ring +2. Those were left in the inventory untouched! Very cool! And no, although this is an obvious Improved Anvil bug, I don't intend to sell those items, but use them instead.

IA 6.0 doesn't allow for characters wearing enchanted armor to wear greater protective items than +2. Also, if a character is wearing one protective item of +3 or greater enchantment, he or she cannot wear another item of greater protection than +2. For now, Saros is wearing a ring +3 alongside with his other protective items, since he's deprived anyway of armor. And the Talisman of Greater Protection went to Valygar.

Completed Marvella's second task from the Extended Mage Stronghold. The task includes battling a Noble Marilith and his 2 gated Abyssal Escorts. They use powerful protection spells, the noble Marilith has some dangerous spells and abilities, like lowering Elec res for example. They died so fast (high-level Remove magics and Breaches are bane to those, especially if shot under Alacrity), that the party didn't even notice what those can do. Loot: gold and a laeral's tear necklace. With it was forged fifth Cloak of Protection +2.

Now the party tried the Guarded compound. The first floor is easy enough, being guarded by the vanilla summons, however there are 4 golems (2 gem + 2 coin), 2 Skeleton Lords and a handful of Assassins as well. Nothing much. However, the party cannot leave until the enemies on lvl 2 are slain (Sion, Ketta and their group).

The party re-buffed well. Got a lucky 'Improved haste on all' wish, which preserved Astarta's 3 memorized Improved Haste spells. This is important, as it turns out when climbing upstairs, in addition to the vanilla traps, there is also a 'purge magic' trap on party. All buffs were dispelled. Didn't know about that (didn't test it, decided it would be as easy as in IA 5.0). Still, it was very lucky that the party was buffed with undispellable buffs like Giant Strength (Valygar and Grunt), Foreknowledge (Alia and Torham), True Sight (Valygar) and Improved Alacrity (Alia and Astarta). Also, the two mages has a Contingency and a Chain Contingency ready to be activated, and they did indeed. Alia charged hers with proEnergy, GoI and Mass Invisibility, Contingency with Haste, while Astarta charged hers with ProEnergy, GoI, ProElements and ProMagicEnergy. Also, Astarta cast Improved Haste on three of the fighters, while Torham cast Ironskins, and the fighters re-activated Hardinesses. Then the Mass Invisibility and other Contingencied spells triggered. The two mages cast ProMW, and started dispelling Sion's buffs. Sion fell in half a round, however the fighters were taking massive damage. RB activated Chain breaker Stance, Valygar activated Contact with Nature, Torham started Greater Restoration cast, and Koshi got REALLY lucky with his Thunder strikes from the Celestial fury katana. Well, it all went to the Riskbreaker Saros, who has enormous amount of HP anyways. Valygar got backstabbed by Ketha for 70 under Hardiness, and quickly eliminated her afterwards, while Torham completed Greater Restoration, and Saros and Grunt took care of Sulman (the enemy cleric). Alia summoned some Yuanti, and the two mages took participation in the fight by casting Breaches on enemies erecting Hardiness. Not a very hard fight, after the mage is down and the buffs partially restored.

Loot: static items. Another scroll of ProLevelDrain (a second one), the Celestial Fury (went to Valygar, replacing his +3 katana), and some other, not very amazing. Also, the Helm of Charm Protection was here. No Helmet of Defense - not here, not anywhere. For now.

The reason for fighting this party is (apart from CF katana) battling with a Greater Elemental Golem. The party has already faced such an opponent before, so the tactic was similar (and very successful). The only difference between the golem which Alohoon gated and this one is that this particular golem summons minion golems much faster. He managed to summon an Amber, a Coin and a Gem golem in 3-4 rounds. While the Gem and Coin golems were defeated with ease, the Greater Elemental golem had dispelled the fighters' elemental protective buffs before dying, and the Amber Golem lowers electrical resistance when someone hits him as well as deals electrical damage (like a fireshield, I like to call it Lightning Shield). In short, if a protected from Electricity fighter hits him 4 times, he has 0% electrical resistance and has taken some damage on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th hits (progressing as the electrical res drops). This drop can go to a minus, however it wanes in a couple of turns. Meaning, if a warrior hits the golem 10 times in 1 round, he'll have elec res dropped by 250%, next round by another 250%, and the next round the first 250% have already waned. The golem is most vulnerable to Slashing damage, and is immune to +2 and lower weapons. Meaning, the best way to kill him are Rays of Fragmentation. If a warrior has to have any hopes of surviving (esp on Insane), he needs ProElec, ProEnergy AND ProElements, thus being able to strike six times before retreating for rest a couple of rounds. Those six strikes are best if Criticals, meaning Valy and the RB were buffed in such a manner, then each of them took six strikes, then retreated leaving the pre-combat summoned Greater Yuanti to take care of the golem for a while, and then killed it after a couple of rounds.

Loot: a Chunk of Amber from the Amber golem, some gems and coins, and from the Greater Elemental golem: Jhor the Bleeder +2 (a new item inside the randomizer, I was very surprized), the Holy Scabbard (actually worth something - sold it for 1500 gold), the Aeger's Hide +3 (Item Randomizer menu, found this item either here or in the possession of the Ancient Dragon), Ring of Lock Picks (also, Item Randomizer), scroll of Hand of Undoing and another of Ray of Fragmentation. No Staff of Rynn here either!

Found the vanilla Paralyzation wand on this level as well. As far as I remember, in IA 5.0 it was totally useless, so better to sell it and forget about it altogether.

Valygar hit a level here, choosing Hardiness as new HLA. In the same time, Grunt and Saros also hit a level (now 39), and chose a new Critical and GWW. Also, they picked new proficiencies - Grunt picked one in Axes, while Saros picked one in Longsword, attaining Grand Mastery. A weapon rearrangement: Girdle of Lordly Might went to Saros. He equipped The Truth +5 main, and a Flail +3 off. Valy took Phosphorous +4 morningstar main and Belm off, while Torham got the Flail of Ages +4 main and Hammer of Thunderbolts +3 off. The belt of Inertial Barrier went to Valy, since it complements with his armor for 50% magical dmg resistance.

Since three parts of Valygar's improved armor are present, and the party has a farily good guess where the fourth part is, they decided to make a quick trip to the Troll Mound. The outside of the Mound was previously cleared from the Noble troll guardians. The party buffed extremely well and entered.

This battle is far from easy. In IA 5.0 inside the only improved enemies were the troll King (a powerful Fighter with multiple HLAs and innate Knockback ability) and the Troll Queen (a C/M or a F/M/C - unure which). However, in IA 6.0 there are several implementations: First, there are several Noble Trolls guarding the royal couple, second and most important, the King and Queen are immune to +3 or lower weapons, and third, after one of them dies, appear 15 Vengeance Trolls. Vengeance trolls are a breed of the vanilla Spirit trolls, with the ability to drain str on successful hit, however Vengeance trolls are far better fighters, with more HP, under permanent Improved Invisibility and (Improved?) Haste. Still, the party had no trouble. After defeating the vanilla trolls near the entrance, Alia summoned 3 Greater Yuanti and an Elite Troll. Only those 4 summons charged on the enemies. If the Troll Queen sees a mage or a cleric, she starts immediately with Storm of Vengeance, which is an excellent way to disrupt spellcasting. However, if she doesn't, she starts with a Mordenkainen's Sword summon. As soon as Astarta heard the Queen chanting an arcane Evocation spell, she charged forward under Alacrity. Several quick RRR, Remove Magics, and combined efforts of Valy, Saros and Torham eliminated her quickly. The troll king was battling Greater Yuan-ti (their weapons can harm him, apparently they are +4). Vengeance trolls appeared, the two arcane casters activated ProMW, the fighters focused on the King (Chaotic Commands pre-buff vs the Unconsciousness effect of his Knockback), Astarta cast Breach, followed by Malison, refreshed Alacrity, followed by a couple of ADHW spells, while Alia joined with Dragon Breath, and Saros activated Risk Decrement. All those AoE abilities severely damaged the Vengeance trolls, and they were much easily slain. The king fell first, of course.

Loot: Static items as well as randomized ones, Unsure which are which though. Bracers of Archery, Spear of the Unicorn and the Club +2, Gnasher are surely static, as well as another Barbarian essence potion, a scroll of Prot from Level Drain and Monster Summoning VI (summons Elite trolls, scribed by Astarta), and a suit of Green Leaves Armor +3. There were also the Protector of the Second +2 (unsure about this if static or randomized) and Tansheron's Bow +3 (Item Randomizer).

The party went to Cromwell and used their last (so far) Permanency Scroll to forge Improved Corthala's Family Armor +6. Ingredients for that armor: Protector of the Second +2 (Randomizer, I think), Aeger's Hide +3 (Randomizer, either Ancient Dragon or Greater Elemental Golem inside Guarded Compound), Skin of the Ghoul +4 (static, Teshal).

Next target: Kangaxx. Apparently, not gonna find a +4 polearm for the Barbarian, but three fighters wielding +4 weapons should be enough. The two liches guarding his parts were no match. As was Kangaxx himself...
Kangaxx in Lich form is lvl 27. In Demilich form - lvl 31. His Lich form isn't much different from a Shade Lich, however he uses SI: Abjuration. No matter. The party are under illusions. Two mages are under SI:D. Last 2 buffs on Saros and Torham before going Invisible was Death Ward (Death ward protects vs Imprisonment, however it has a casting time of 7 so it's no longer a good combat buff, but as pre-buffing is as good as ever, although it lasts only 2 turns). Everyone was protected from all elements, from Magical Energy and from Energy on top of that. Kangaxx in Lich form managed to cast True Sight, but fell quickly to the warriors' assault, managing still to release his death CC with 3*ADHW. During his transformation to Demilich, Alia refreshed Mass Invisibility. Kangaxx's Demilich form appeared. It is under permanent Alacrity, but doesn't have reduced casting time (or it's too small to notice). Anyway, Saros had already activated Chain Breaker stance right when Kangaxx died in Lich form, and now he could immeduately activate Critical Strike together with Valygar. Torham was extremely well buffed, and despite Kangaxx's great AC, also managed to hit more often than not. Kangaxx started with Remove Magic. However, party buffs are at least lvl 32. So Remove Magic did nothing. But he was already on Injured. Next, he started True Sight. That has a longer casting time. Fighters refreshed Criticals and kept pounding. At Near-Death Kangaxx tried an abjuration spell of some sort, most probably Breach on one of the fighters in hopes of Imprisoning him afterwards. Grunt was protected by Barbarian Rage, Valygar was protected by Contact with nature, and the other 2 fighters - by Death Ward. Kangaxx didn't manage to dispel anything. He just died.

Loot: a Diamond Necklace (worth 4500 when sold, not an item ingredient, but maybe it will be needed for some quest, so it will not be sold for now), a Freedom Scroll, the Ring of Gaxx, and some other minor scrolls. The ring of Gaxx went to Valygar, while the Periapt of Greater Protection was given to Saros.

Forged a second +3 ring as well - equipped it on Astarta.

Current levels: Astarta and Alia 32, Grunt and Saros 39, Torham 16-33, and Valygar 32. Current gold: 410 000. There are indeed very few things left to do pre-spellhold at this moment, but they will all be completed. Alia needs the Robe of the Neutral Archmagi, maybe will try that fight, however it won't be easy.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 27 novembre 2010 - 08:20 .

[polytope]

Flamedance wrote...

Green Slimes actually require you to make a save vs Death on touch. IIRC, you get a bonus to the saving throw, but if you fail the save, you die. No amount of healing/curing can save you.

Indeed. Like ghasts and spiders, slimes should always be considered dangerous (at least until you've got safe saving throws).

Had some time to play this weekend, Aspasia's adventures in Throne of Bhaal start outside Watcher's Keep (SCS moves us here). Accepting the Knights mission we explore the first level, which turns out to be quite a treasure trove; found Ilbratha, Ras, and the sling of seeking in containers here... And the thief statue who normally wields Usuno's blade had Celestial Fury! Statues were a little tougher than normal (with an extra mage), but not too hard. Tashia got lvl 19 here, picking Improved Alarcity and Wish (huge power jump, even without the robe of Vecna). Also cleared the second level (short of releasing the Chromatic demon).

Illasera was dangerous, as we had not found the reflection shield; she kills Valygar in just two rounds inspite of hardiness (defender of easthaven apparently doesn't boost missile resistance). Mazzy was able to survive by using girdle of inertial barrier + Orc leather + hardiness (I have my doubts about how to keep my fighters alive during the throne battle, lacking the shield, but we shall see).

In the new pocket plane Aspasia met and joined Sarevok, removing Mazzy from the party... A tough choice and if I wasn't playing with Ascension I think I'd prefer to keep Mazzy. Though of all my NPCs Mazzy actually has a home to return to, thus she leaves for Trademeet (modded, I hate leaving NPCs around the pocket plane).

The first pocket plane challenge can be quite a surprise with SCS, as the vengeful spectre of Irenicus is a very high level mage with HLA's. Also, he may be joined by Improved Bodhi (tougher spawns I think - I normally play with this component but disabled it for this fight only, because the pair of them are too hardcore at our levels/equipment situation).

Nothing special to report in Saradush, except many of Gromnir's soldiers had HLA's. And the mage in Kiser's house somehow fires her spell trigger at me through the wall (I have an inkling this has something to do with the ReallyForceSpell scripting command, which allows casting out of a creature's normal LOS). The vampires in the prison cast mercifully few bat clouds (my strategy for these btw., once Viccy got 7th level spells, was Improved haste + regeneration on a tank to absorb the barrage of bats).

The final battle with Gromnir was interesting, more henchmen spawn - including a warrior with a dispelling attack (who somehow dispelled Valygar's hardiness, didn't even think that was possible). Still, not nearly as difficult as Illasera. Off to the Marching Mountains now...

Modifié par polytope, 28 novembre 2010 - 06:01 .

[saros_shadow_follower]

The warrior with the dispellation attack in Gromnir's party is called Ellen Khan or something She's an epic fighter, something like a Wizard Slayer, and she has the ability to dispel all protections on hit. Hardiness is considered to be combat protection, and a dispellable one at that. A word of advice - in the last battle, if you don't manage to join Balthazar, he will use a powerful ability called Dragon Fist against you (alongside with his other new HLAs of course). This gives him the opportunity to dispel all protections on hit (much like Illasera's arrows or Ellen Khan's melee attack). Best of luck, anyways.

[saros_shadow_follower]

Next adventures of Astarta and her party:

The party did three more Improved challenges, namely Mencar Pebblecrusher at the Promenade tavern (he's supposed to be faced by a low-level party with effort, however each of Astarta's comrades could take them single-handedly at present levels without even breaking a sweat). Looted the standard items here, and got Borok's Fist +2 (Ashideena +2 was also obtained from Temple Sewers earlier - forgot to mention). Both warhammers have their vanilla +1 electrical damage per each strike, so they're good weapons for spellcasting disruption. Gave one to Grunt (although he's better as 2-handed weapon user, Borok's fist is somewhat better than the Halcyon spear, which also has its vanilla +1 electrical damage per strike untouched), and the other one to Torham. Valygar has his Gnasher club vs spellcasters, and Saros for now has no weapon dealing elemental damage.

Got a flask of Barbarian Warrior's blood from the berserker in this fight. Probably gonna be useful later, in creation of some Barbarian Essence potions. However, Cromwell wasn't interested.

Got 2 more +1 rings, created yet another +2 ring, and with it and one more +2 ring, created third +3 ring. Equipped on Alia (currently Alia, Astarta and Saros are wearing +3 rings, for other characters such rings are incompatible since they cannot be worn with heavily enchanted armor).

Went to challenge the Spider Queen. As far as I remember that queen from IA 5.0, she had magic resistance which cannot be lowered, can be hit only by +4 weapons, dispels specific protections AND stone/Ironskins on hit, her gated in minions are Ghost Spiders (each 6 rounds or so 2 new Ghost Spiders appear), which gate in the rest of the minor spiders (each Ghost spider starts by gating in a Whisper, Spirit, Killer, Lesser Spirit spider, and continues gating in more Killer, Spirit and Lesser Spirit spiders each 6 rounds). Improved Web is used by enemies, if any party member is not under Free Action or another ability which evades Improved Web.

The Spider Queen is in WK lvl 1, and the fight triggers if Pai-Na is eliminated and the party has reached (previously or after Pai-Na's death) the 'room with no traps' holding the key to the sarcophagus room.

IA 6.0's Spider Queen surprised the party for it was fully immune to Fire. So no Fireshields, no Sunfires or Dragon Breaths had any chance of hurting the queen. The fight started when the 2 mages used the time given by the Spider Queen's gating in to cast Improved Alacrity. Next (after ProMW) began heavy mage fire. 2 Triggers with Sunfires opened the fight, followed by Astarta's instantcast 12 Sunfire memorized spells, followed by Astarta and Alia's several Dragon Breath spells. This didn't harm the queen at all, however it wiped out ALL minor spiders, leaving the queenie alone. Well, fighters, now is your chance. Everyone was under II (thank you Mass Invisibility), with Chaotic Commands, Free Action, and ProFire of course (with those sunfires flying around, it'd be death if the party is unprotected). The spider queen lasted exactly a round and a half to the mass attacks of the three fighters (under HLAs, of course, the Spider Queen is NOT immune to criticals at least). The barbarian was watching (has no +4 weapon).

The loot from the Queen - Spider Queen eggs and a Bless scroll (another Bless scroll obtained from the Guildmaster of Rune assassins - forgot to mention).

Went to Cromwell. Used the Spider eggs and the Black figurine alongside with 60k gold to create the Golden Spider Figurine. Gold is dropping very low very fast.

What to do...well, time to visit Borinall for the Dawn ring. Borinall is not-so-very-powerful F/T with multiple fighter HLAs. However, he has the support of an Amber golem. Fighting an Amber golem has already been discussed, so he was eliminated in a round by switching warriors and shooting two Sequencers at him with Rays of Fragmentation.

Borinall was no match either. He takes good amount of damage even under Hardiness, and has not so very good THAC0. The dawn ring was returned.

Loot - nothing special. A chunk of amber.

Next serious adventure: WK lvl 3:

From a reliable source I know a simple truth: if the party follows Yakman to his chamber, there lies certain death. There is Helm's supreme golem, who is to teleport the party to face the powerful Green Wurm. However, instant death is scripted by Sikret for anyone trying to fight the Green Wurm in chapter 3 or lower. So instead the party challenged and defeated the two demonlords on the level, Tahazaar and Ka'rashur (two more demon hearts, hope they're suitable for upgrades). Met also with some pit fiend (dead magic zone with traps), obtained the Purifier bastard sword +4 (Astarta is LG after all). And fought the improved Tieflings in a wild magic room.

The party pre-buffed extremely well. Last buff of Astarta was Alacrity. Upon entering the new chamber, there is a second in which the spells work normally. Astarta cast ProMW, while Torham activated Defensive Harmony. The enemy Hybrid Tiefling activated his starting buffs.

The Hybrid Tiefling is a high-level wild mage, but he also fights with zeal in melee. He's the only improved enemy here, but he gates in Elite Planar Hounds, more dangerous than the regular Planar Hounds in the Planar Prison. These has a chance to dispel protections on hit, and to confuse enemies also on hit. Of course, Torham and Saros were under Chaotic Commands, but what if that is dispelled? Valygar cannot help them with Mental Equilibrium, not in THAT room. Fortunately, party members have excellent AC and great combat damage, so they can eliminate the hounds before anyone's buffs are dispelled.

The Hybrid Tiefling's True Sight kicked in. However, there are only vanilla fighters and thief remaining. Nothing really scary. The scary one is now the Hybrid Tiefling, since he can gate in more of those nasty Hounds, and because he's the only one able to cast normally. However, the tactic worked. All enemy fighters engaged the party fighters, leaving the party mages the opportunity to approach (but not too closely) the enemy mage. Contingencies bypass the Wild magic effect. Both mages can use CC with RRR. Astarta used hers, which in the same time deprived her of using either Contingency or Chain Contingency for the next 24 hours. Alia took care of the normal Contingencies, loaded with Remove Magics, to dispel the enemy mage's buffs. End of the line. And that's why we should NOT cast here, although it's nice to see a R-C under Globe of Invulnerability.

Torham hit clerical lvl 34, gaining tenth 5-lvl slot. Another Ironskins. Not bad at all.

Loot: Robe of the Neutral Archmagi - great robe for Alia, improves her saves by 1 (she's wearing the Bracers of Protection AC 3 anyway), Black Blade of Disaster scroll (haven't scribed it, may be needed for an upgrade, and besides it's not that powerful in the hands of a pure mage), Sling of Seeking +2, Cleric's Staff +3, some enchanted bullets +4, two potions of Magic Shielding (very cool). The party left WK lvl 3 for now, although there is a possibility to forge a +4 club from the Ice Dragon Scales on that level, although I wonder if that club, being with nerfed elemental damage, is as good as the White Dragon Scale armor. But since that can be forged in ToB (ages from now), maybe indeed the Rimed Club +4 will be forged.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 28 novembre 2010 - 10:19 .

[saros_shadow_follower]

Astarta and party, newest adventures:

The group fought two more Improved fights, one with the Improved Demon Knights inside WK lvl 3, tree chamber. One of the Death Knights is alone waiting, and the party has almost a full round to eliminate him. Then the other 4 appear. They have powerful spells, some of them come with Hardinesses activated, their pre-mortem CC are very tough (filled with Incendiary Clouds or ADHW spells), they also lower fire resistance, and have other mage spells. Of course, the party had no trouble. Preparations included ProElements and proEnergy on everyone. The demonknights cannot sustain much damage from heavily armed fighters, moreover they don't have ProMW at their disposal. Also, The Truth blade deals double damage to them. And this time Valygar was Prepared for Demons.

Rested, buffed to the max, entered the Wraith chamber. Big mistake. Should've tested with my test party this battle, but decided to be bold. Party buffs were immediately dispelled. The wraith was accompanied by its usual slaves, and also by 5 Skeleton Warlords. In addition, the wraith is now a potent spellcaster (and drains levels as always). Anyway, the fight was easy up to the point where the warriors actually brought the heavily melee-damage resistant Wraith to Badly Injured. When its CC with 3*ADHW kicked in. Should've expected it. Only survivor: Valygar (protected by his armor and the Belt of Inertial barrier), and the two party mages (buffed with proEnergy, and sorc was too far away from the area of the ADHW spells anyway). Valygar was a bit level drained, but managed with several Criticals to finish the Wraith (also, Alia summoned a couple of Greater Yuanti to help).

Found a strange book in this room, the History of the Chosen of Mystra. Haven't the slightest idea what it can be useful for. Anyway, found the Ice Dragon Scales. Went to the next chamber, talked to Aesgerath, played twice, won once (Spectral Brand). Forged the Rimed Club +4 too - ingredients Ice Dragon Scales, a +3 Club(Beastmaster in Copper Coronet), an Ice Library Note (WK lvl 2). Great. Now the party has an abundance of +4 weapons, and for most of them no one has proficiencies. Sold a lot of useless loot, gold is currently 320 000. The rest of WK is unfortunately postponed(well, maybe should fight Aesgerath for the Deck of Many Things - will see about that). The other things left pre-spellhold are completing De'Arnise hold and the fighter stronghold, including Improved Lord Roenall fight, parts of the Extended Mage Stronghold, and maybe fighting the Grave Lich in the City Gates District.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 29 novembre 2010 - 01:53 .

[lroumen]

I'm wondering whether you are nearly at the level cap for IA. Having masses of HLAs and mages of level 31+ is quite an indicator that you're pushing against the top somehow.



I wonder why you did not plan the proficiencies of the +4 weapons a bit better. Since you know what weapons have a chance of being forged pre-spellhold, you could have spread some proficiency stars around.

[oyzar]

Can your playercharacters be chunked? Did anyone get chunked from those deaths?

[saros_shadow_follower]

lroumen wrote...

I'm wondering whether you are nearly at the level cap for IA. Having masses of HLAs and mages of level 31+ is quite an indicator that you're pushing against the top somehow.

I wonder why you did not plan the proficiencies of the +4 weapons a bit better. Since you know what weapons have a chance of being forged pre-spellhold, you could have spread some proficiency stars around.

Average party xp: 10 500 000 each. The cap is 12 200 000. Valygar is a million behind. As for weapon proficiencies - the game is far from over. For example, I now intend to let Valygar have 2 stars in Scimitars. He's anyway wielding Belm, and has ** in many weapons anyway. Grunt indeed has no proficiency in Scimitars, but he can effectively use either the Rimed Club or the Spectral Brand with GWW attacks (penalty only 1 to THAC0), until he finds a +4 polearm.

I thought of giving ** to my Riskbreaker for several weapon types, but got tempted to give him grandmastery in Flails and Longswords. Maybe I did a mistake, but at present the RB does amazing things mainly thanx to that grandmastery. But here's what I think: Valygar is greatly versatile. The C-R too. The C-R practically can use any blunt weapon at **. Valygar can use daggers, katanas, shortswords, and after a couple of levels - scimitars as well, plus a couple of blunt weapons (warhammers, clubs, flails) at **. The barbarian can use warhammers **, and all polearms at **. The only drawback for now is that there are no powerful polearms, but this is gonna drastically change in chapter 6, when he'll get a powerful two-handed sword and a powerful halberd, and if I'm lucky enough in Underdark - a decent +4 quarterstaff.

Another thing I noticed yesterday when selling equipment is that Cromwell failed to take the Skin of the Ghoul when forging Corthala's Improved Family Armor. Sold the Skin of course - haven't got much use for it.

The top level for mages is 36. I did make them so highly leveled (31) to deal with Limak and Zallanora with ease. These particular enemies hide under their powerful 31-lvl illusion buffs and SI:D, and if the battle is fought 'as Sikret planned', means one loooooong and teeeedious waiting-out of enemy's SI:D, while at the same time coping with either powerful enemy spells and melee attacks somehow (Limak) or with multiple Cowled Wizards + Coin Golems + powerful enemy spells (Zallanora). I don't like playing 'how Sikret planned', of course. I think that there isn't an enemy in the nearby chapters which is of higher level than my mages (except for Orcus, and I don't intend fighting him before chapter 6 anyway).

Edit: Strangely, but no - no one got chunked. Maybe ADHW doesn't chunk. Dunno. Fighters died, yeah, but no chunking. Well, maybe two things helped. Astarta wished for 'Magic Resistance on Everyone'. And second, all fighters that died had 200+ HP. Difficulty was Insane, of course, that's why they died IMO. Valy survived thanx to 75% magical damage resistance AND MR of 40% (30% from Magic Resistance Wish and 10% from Ring of Gaxx, the Riskbreaker didn't fare so well with his 45% MR).

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 29 novembre 2010 - 08:20 .

[oyzar]

Can't you buy the +4 staff from adventurer's mart?

[saros_shadow_follower]

oyzar wrote...

Can't you buy the +4 staff from adventurer's mart?

From the Improved Anvil 6.0's readme files:

48- Randomization Program:
    Some powerful items which were too easily available in stores are removed from the shops.
    Their locations in the game are randomized, which means that each time you start a new game
    they may be with different (randomly determined) tough enemies or in different (randomly
    determined and hard to access) chests or containers.

This includes, but is not limited to, the Staff of Rynn +4. Even decent one-handed +3 weapons are extremely hard to come by in early IA 6.0 chapters. Almost the same for the 2-handed weapons +3. Enchanted weapon spell is also tweaked, so that the party can have only ONE +3 weapon at a time, created by this spell. The Staff of Rynn +4 is in the posession of powerful Improved Anvil enemies - like Greater Elemental Golem in the Guarded compound, or Teshal. Since this item was on neither of them, my guess is that it can be found on other powerful enemies in chapters 4+ (after Spellhold). And no, I cannot complete lvl 3 of WK for now (scripted instant death for a certain event if it is attempted in chapter 3 or lower) to face Saladrex in lvl 4 for his Staff of the Ram +4.

[saros_shadow_follower]

Newest adventures of Astarta and her party:

The party visited the City Gates' Grave Lich (guardian of Daystar +2).

Grave Liches were dangerous opponents even in IA 5.0, and in 6.0 their abilities are even more fearsome. They have a very powerful variation of the Comet spell called Stellar Gravestone, which...let's say it this way - there is no surviving a couple of those. Fortunately, party members have to be stripped of combat protections for this to work - it deals Crushing damage after all. The Grave Lich also has a special ability called Grave Silence, which doesn't allow saving throw, and lasts for the duration. There are some interesting things concerning that ability, but for that - later. Also, Grave Liche's melee attack dispels protections on hit, and deals a fair amount of damage.

The party buffed extremely well. A Grave Lich is level 31, so the party mages can freely hide under SI:D and illusion buffs without any fear of enemy Remove Magics. Astarta and Alia's final buffs were Alacrity + ProMW before entering. Valygar cast Racial Combat, and chose to be Prepared for Lich, which gives him bonuses vs Liches, but more importantly - makes him immune to Grave Silence for the duration (2 turns) and is undispellable. The lich hailed the party and erected its protections right when Astarta summoned a Planetar. Distraction. Giving the lich a target for its dangerous melee attack different than a party member is always good. The lich indeed attacked the Planetar, but before that it shot its Grave Silence ability. Alia was fully incapacitated by it, with darkened icons of all quickslot items and also special abilities. Fighters and even the C-R still had access to their special abilities though. Well, as a matter of fact Alia can still cast, but only via Contingency or Chain Contingency. However, Astarta is immune to silence. She dispelled enemy buffs, and Valygar and Saros killed the Grave Lich in several strikes. Loot: a Manual of Elaboration, Finger of Death scroll for the necro, other scrolls, Rod of Terror, Daystar blade.

Next stop: De'Arnise keep. Didn't manage to see all implementations on Torgal's fight since he fell almost immediately. All I saw that he now has several (I think 4) Noble Trolls assisting him, in addition to his IA 5.0 Gem Golem. Loot: Permanency scroll and other items. Great.

Talked to Nalia, got the Fighter Stronghold. Decided to return to Cromwell and use a +2 Bastard Sword and the newly-found Permanency scroll to forge a +3 Bastard Sword. Next went to Windspear hills for the last time.

In the Windspear Hills lies the second task of Lady Vanya. After defeating the Rune Assassins, she informs the party of a new breed of reptiles living in the outskirts and dungeon itself. These monsters are: Giant Cobras (attack with normal weapons, I think those have a chance to poison the victim on strike, but their THAC0 is not so good - they very seldomly penetrated any of the fighters' AC), Mutated Cobras (with more HP, attack with magical weapons, have Acid damage in addition to the normal melee attack) and their Queen. Killing the Queen is the main task. Killing smaller vipers grants no xp. They spawn literally every 1-2 rounds. In the outskirts - seldomly, inside - more often and 2-3 at once. Buffing for the queen isn't so great, but requires everyone to be protected from Acid and preferably, from Poison. Used 2 ProPoison scrolls on Grunt and Torham, Alia put on the Periapt of Proof vs Poison, while Valygar and Saros are well protected from Poison thanx to their items (Talisman of Greater Protection and Ring of Gaxx). The Viper Queen is not immune to criticals, but even the most powerful Critical deals 6 damage to her. She can also be hit only by +4 or higher weapons. The party managed to buff , standing near the Well in the dungeon, while keeping minor vipers away. Mass Invisibility as last buff helped too - vipers cannot dispel illusions. The Viper Queen uses cloud spells (Cloudkill, Death fog), so mages were under SI:Evocation. And due to the snakes magical and non-magical attacks, both were under Absolute Immunity. Clicking on the well triggered the Viper Queen's appearance. Grunt equipped the Spectral Brand. Using GWW attacks, he helped for quicker killing of the queen. Saros was wielding The Truth+5 and Flail of Ages+4 off - both weapons able to harm the queen. Valygar had 7 APR with Phosphorous thanx to Belm off, and Torham had the Rimed Club+4 main (5 attacks with main-hand are still enough somewhat). The Viper Queen, being more resilient than the Spider Queen, lasted 3 rounds before collapsing. Torham also used Zone of Sweet Air to negate the Queen's Cloudkill. Mages do very little in this fight (apart from buffing), still they can join in with Energy Blades or summons if needed.

From the corpse of the Viper Queen was looted a third Diamond Necklace (second was found on the corpse of one Demonknight in WK). Decided to sell those. Also, found a Laeral's tear necklace (preserving those from now on). From the well snatched the 48-sided garnet gem, needed for upgrading Jhor the Bleeder to a mighty new weapon called Death of a Thousand Cuts +4. Ingredients for this item include a +3 Bastard Sword (+2 Bastard Sword can be found in various locations, and be upgraded to a +3 one via Permanency scroll), Jhor the Bleeder +2 (item randomizer) and the 48-sided garnet gem, obtained from the Well in Windspear hills dungeon lvl 2 after defeating the Viper Queen. The DoTC 6.0 blade is nerfed in comparison to the IA 5.0 variation. The old blade could be used by multi- or dual-classed warriors as well, and didn't allow save vs death, making it greatly useful vs enemies with great physical protections, as well as for spell disruption.

Note to self: Do NOT use the DoTC versus Amber Golems!

The party reported to lady Vanya, and she rewarded them with 2 more Barbarian Essence potions (total of 7 for now).

Alia, Astarta and Valygar all hit an experience level. All of them are now lvl 33. Valygar chose a new Critical Strike. Grunt removed all of his polearms for now, and equipped Death of a Thousand Cuts +4 main and Belm +2 off. He has ** in Bastard Swords, and also ** in Warhammers from the 1-handed weapon types, but there isn't a +4 warhammer, at least for now. Valygar chose * in Scimitars and equipped the Spectral Brand off-hand. That weapon is an excellent spellcasting disruptor, since it has its vanilla 1d4 cold damage per hit untouched. Will move it to Valy's main-hand when he attains ** in Scimitars. Saros is equipped with The Truth main and FoA +4 off, while Torham has the Rimed Club +4 main and the Hammer of Thunderbolts +3 off.

Edit: Third Marvella's challenge or 'Why is it so cold down here'?

The party travelled to the Planar Sphere and talked to Marvella. Then they went to the lower level of the sphere (the one with the fire and ice chambers). Buffing included ProElements and Proenergy for everyone except Alia, in addition to normal elemental protection spells cast on everyone. Free Action was also added after Improved Haste. And Mass Invisibility too.

Astarta stayed behind. Alia charged on the enemies, while Grunt summoned a Noble Spider from the Golden Spider Figurine.

The Ice Golem is immensely improved, compared to the earlier version. He has apparently better physical resistances, can dispel specific and combat protections on hit (including Stoneskins, Ironskins and Hardiness), and has the dreaded Purge Magic ability once each 5 rounds. And uses it wisely, not spending it on some summons. Fortunately one buffed sorceress is enough for him to waste it. Alia is under Alacrity and Foreknowledge, which cannot be dispelled. She quickly recast ProMW, Stoneskin, Mirror Image, and even ProCold, while in the same time her Chain Contingency kicked in. Summons are necessary to distract the dangerous opponent, who can dispel any fighter's elemental protective buffs, Free Action and Hardiness with just one swipe. Still, he managed to dispel the buffs of Saros and Grunt. Saros has an AC of -24, buffed with additional -4 enemy to hit from the Mass Invisibility spell he was initially under the effect of, and still the golem managed to hit him. But the fighters pressed on (Grunt used GWW attacks which work even when Slowed), and the golem died before he could cast his second Purge Magic.

The message 'Why is it so cold down here' appears once each 2 rounds. It does 2 things: Slows all party members with no saving throw, and more importantly, all of them forget what they were doing and stop in one place. This is extremely annoying if for example, a caster is in the middle of a spell, or if a warrior is attacking someone. Literally, after each such message, each party member must be told AGAIN what to do. Thought Sikret dealt with that bug he solely created, but apparently, he had more important things to do.

Anyways, after the Ice Golem dies, the battle is far from over. Indeed, there is no one around to cast Purge Magics anymore, or to summon powerful Ice Storms after lowering Cold Resistance, but there is the Elemental golem, and the message 'Why is it so cold down here' continues to appear. Almost lost Valygar to the Elemental Golem's attacks before noticing that his Hardiness had waned. Used 4 Greater Restorations in that fight. Valygar and Torham were the only ones with their buffs untouched, and had to keep the Elemental Golem and one Gem Golem at bay while Grunt and Saros refresh at least hardiness, which didn't make them much useful, because they were constantly slowed. Still they joined the fight, defeating first the Gem golem (Elemental Golem was distracted by multiple summons), next Valy activated Hardiness and the Elemental Golem fell as well.

30 000 gold won from that fight - that's all. Unfortunately, this battle has to be fought in order to continue with the Extended mage stronghold's quests.

Edit: Completed the vanilla Fighter stronghold quests, and defeated Improved Lord Roenall. He has a mage in the party (killed very quickly) several good fighters and 2 Gem Golems. While the party fighters engaged Lord Roenall and his 2 golems (after slaying the mage), Astarta and Alia each activated CC with 3* ADHW, which killed everyone except the golems and Lord Roenall. They kept summoning monsters, since under his Hardiness (which cannot be Breached, since he's immune to Breach) Lord Roenall is immune to all types of melee damage for the duration. Thing is - occupying him 10 rounds, when Hardiness wanes. Used summons for that purpose.

Loot - many items, most notable maybe is a +3 Longsword (since it's an item ingredient). Most of the loot was sold. Used 3 of the 4 newly-found Rings +1 to forge another Ring +2, then a Ring +3, and with 2 Rings +3 - Ring +4. This whole thing cost 180 000 gold to the party. The ring +4 was given to Saros, who gave his Talisman to Valygar, and Valy gave Saros his Ring of Gaxx in exchange for a Ring +2. Now both fighters have very good saves and AC of -18 without any buffs.

Most probably now the party will travel to Spellhold, since I doubt there can be found much more useful equipment from relatively easy fights anymore. The fight with Orcus and the Twisted Rune will have to wait until chapter 6, as well as Marvella's last challenge.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 29 novembre 2010 - 08:14 .

[saros_shadow_follower]

Decided to try the new IA 6.0 quest prior to Spellhold (available only to single-class Rangers, Druids and Mages). The quest is called 'Squirreled Away'. It starts by using the new 2-nd level ranger/druid spell Speak with Animals on a caged squirrel in the Promenade (the squirrel is caged together with a moose, and is near the Adventurer's mart entrance). The squirrel sends the party with a message to a second squirrel, this one in the eastern part of the Umar Hills. THAT squirrel sends some nuts (and !bolts) for another squirrel, living in the Bridge district of Athkatla (right after entering the district take the stairs leading to the water). That squirrel takes the nuts and informs the party of an assassination attempt on lord Balthis, which is to commence one of the following nights. The party rested outside of Balthis' estate, and in the night, 3 Prime Assassins appeared. Those are apparently Assassin-Fighter dualclass. Their weapons are posioned, and they use Hardiness as HLA. Anyway, the party dealt quickly with them, found 3 more Rings +1 (used them afterwards to create another +2 ring - this is definitely the last +2 one that will be created), talked to Lord Balthis, he informed the party of the assassins' headquarters (Valeria and Pitre's vanilla hideout), but also said that the entrance is warded and can be breached only by...adamantite dust, what else! Of course! Have to wait until chapter 6 to fulfill THAT quest too. At least Balthis had some decency to reward the party with some minor items (for now). Now definitely heading for Spellhold!

[lroumen]

Spellhold... supposedly it's more difficult with a high level party in IA. I wonder whether that is still true with your experience.

[saros_shadow_follower]

Spellhold is supposed to be difficult for any party higher-leveled than 14 (I believe the cap is no one in the party must be above 2 500 000 xp). Needless to say, there is a great difference between 15-16 lvl party without many upgraded items, and my current lvl 33+ party with multiple HLAs and many upgraded items, including some of the most powerful ones in the game.

Anyway, Astarta & party did two other things prior to Spellhold. First, they fought Aesgerath for the Deck of Many Things. Aesgerath is vanilla - meaning very easy to kill. One of his henchman has the Robe of the Good Archmagi, while another has a +3 Longsword. However, this particular +3 longsword cannot be used as an ingredient in Improved Anvil's recipes. The nice item from this fight is undoubtedly the Deck, which tends to dispel all buffs on the character using him. Still, the rest of the party members keep their buffs. Went outside, equipped the best protective gear on Valygar, gave him the deck, buffed the rest of the party and waited. Valygar drew: Donjon (saved at -4 vs death - his save was lowered to -6), Key (got another Ring +2) and Comet (Valygar got 5% permanent Fire resistance). Good draw. Could've been better, with Star and Moon (Str bonus and HP bonus), but I'm not complaining - it's a noreload after all. For all fans of Sun and Throne, I feel obliged to share (did some testing afterwards) that those grant respectively 15 000 and 30 000 total xp in IA 6.0, so they're pretty much dead cards.

Also, completed the vanilla Ranger's stronghold tasks, and fought improved Umar. Since I'm not focusing on assembling xp or gold anymore, the party fights the main enemy first, without 'waiting out' for all summons the enemy might call. In this case, Umar and her Wondrous Imp managed to summon only 2 Minotaurs, 2 Whisper Spiders and 3 Skeleton Lords altogether (the Imp may gate in 2 Gem and 2 Coin golems if not killed, while Umar may gate in 7 more groups * 3 Skeleton Lords each). Lost Valygar in this fight (surrounded by enemies) after Umar and her Imp fell, but the rest of the fighters finished the fight without breaking a sweat. Nothing really valuable won from the fight, except maybe the Moon Dog Figurine. Resurrected Valygar (he was not chunked - it's actually very hard to chunk a highly-resistant to physical damage warrior).

Went to Spellhold (finally). For now, the only thing the party did is fighting an Insane Dwarf Warrior in Brynnlaw. He drops the Stonefire Axe +3 (nerfed - has 5% chance per hit to deal 10 points of fire damage), an amulet +1 (equipped by Alia) and a ring +1. Also bought the green protection scrolls and a Girdle of Bluntness (equipped by Grunt) in the Temple of Umberlee.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 30 novembre 2010 - 03:03 .

[polytope]

saros_shadow_follower wrote...

Strangely, but no - no one got chunked. Maybe ADHW doesn't chunk.

I think magic damage in general (including skull traps) doesn't result in permanent death, same with poison damage - I've only seen fire, cold, electricity, acid and ofc melee cause "chunking".

The game has reminded me once again of what a bad player I am... (lots of spoilers ahead, for everyone else playing with SCS)

Leaving Saradush we trek through the intermediate wilderness area (saving Karthis, who sold gauntlets of weapon skill) and proceed to forest of Mir. The skeleton mage surprised me with a comet spell but I spread the party out in time and none of us were seriously injured.

The Marching Mountains proper were a different matter... The fell cats now have the ability to lower fire resistance on hit not too bad on their own, but combined with the flaming skulls/salamanders (now with permanent fire shields)/burning men here this is pretty dangerous. There was also a Fire Lich, who casts (surprise) fire based spells like dragon's breath. Still, the lower level of the temple was cleared without any problems.

Otoh, the upper level was tough, there is a red dragon here, Berenn summons fallen Devas (tried PW:Silence on him, but he's too magic resistant), and there are more cats. The cats lowered my party's fire resistance (and the dragon breathes on them for full damage), the Devas have instant-cast heals (taking them out is a priority because they also dispel magic on hit), the dragon interrupts most of the spells I try with his breath/wing buffet and none of us could get to Berenn due to being surrounded by monsters.

So, ran a lap of the upstairs level and back out the second door. Tried wish for rest but didnt get it. I'm wondering how to finish this fight now (first time I've played ToB + SCS, so don't have a strategy for everything). I don't want to use the timestop->melee trick as I find it a bit cheesy (and against my understanding of how TS spell works)... Other than that I'm open to suggestions.

[saros_shadow_follower]

Talking about tough fights...

Entered Spellhold. Captured by Irenicus. Lost 1 point of Wisdom and all Bhaal powers. Next, solved the riddle of the Statue (got the Ring of Regeneration) and the other riddle (got the Dusty Rose Ioun Stone). The random spawns on this level included a spider spawn next to the statue mouth (1 Ghost, 2 Whisper, 1 Killer, 1 Spirit, 1 Lesser Spirit spiders) and another less-dangerous one (2 Mutated + 1 Killer + 1 Spirit + 2 Vortex) replacing the vanilla goblin/gibberling group in one of the rooms. Also, was present the standard slightly improved Yuanti group. Nothing that scary.

However, the guardians of the portal on that level included (except Ruhk and a couple of vanilla Mephits), several golems. Scary golems. 1 Ice Golem, 1 Elemental Golem,2 Coin and 2 Gem golems.

First, was taken care of Ruhk and his mephits, by ADHW on everyone from the wish spell.

The Ice golem is identical to the one fought in the Planar Sphere. At least here the element 'Why is so cold down here' is nonexistent, which makes things easier. The hard thing is luring and fighting the Ice Golem 6 on 1. In the Planar Sphere I noticed that the Ice Golem doesn't take full damage from Fire, as was in IA 5.0. In 6.0, the golem is very highly resistant to fire damage (tried Implosion in a test fight, which dealt exactly 7 points of damage to the golem - 4 crushing and 3 fire).

So we have a highly resistant golem to all damage types (immune to most types too, like for example to Ice and to Piercing damage), with scary melee capabilities, 'Purge Magic' once each 5 rounds, cold spells, Freeze Wind ability (deals Ice damage to each party member and slows without save) and 'Lower Cold Resistance' ability, and he's not alone on top of that.

Mages fare well vs this golem, at least at first. They have spells which actually do more than tickling the golem (Ray of Fragmentation and Hand of Undoing), plus their Vampiric Touch and Larloch's Minor Drain spells also deal some damage (LMD 1 point, VT 2-3 points). Astarta can cast LMD and VT at instant speed, Ray of Fragmentation at casting time 1, and Hand of Undoing - 4. Alia under Foreknowledge can also cast LMD in an instant, while other spells take a bit more to cast. This determined her role as a bait. Average pre-combat buffing. Both mages cast Alacrity. No summons. The Ice golem was lured to the door using Wish spell near that same door beforehand (he senses the summon - a Djinni - and rushes to the door). Saw him moving via Farsight of course.
Alia opened the door (under Alacrity and Foreknowledge). The Ice Golem shot Purge Magic on her, she quickly cast ProMW, thus the golem bypassed her and attacked the only one unprotected by magical weapons target in his sight - Astarta. Alia quickly blocked the door, so that the rest of the golems cannot pass. The fighters rushed forward, while Alia shot her Trigger with 3*Ray of Fragmentation (her CC again with 3*RoF unfortunately hit a Gem Golem since it kicked in a bit late), Astarta released a Sequencer and Trigger with the same content, and next showered the golem with her quick-casting anti-golem spells (first 12 LMD, next 11 Rays of Fragmentation, and finally 12 Vampiric Touches - well the golem died on the 8-9th of those), and the fighters also managed to hit a couple of times (Grunt and Torham's protections were dispelled on hit). Next came re-buffing, and taking care of an Elemental golem. Since the golems cannot charge all at once, the battle was relatively easy.

NO xp gained from neither of these golems. Got the Doomplate +3, at least.

Note: After each resting, 3 Whisper Spiders immediately surround the party. Still, at present levels and with present equimpent, those are no match.

Went to the Library level. Cleared some umberhulks, a mummy-ghast weak spawn, and a tough undead spawn (3 Skeleton Lords, 3 Warlords and a Shade Lich). Also killed Dace, immediately stabbed him with a stake the party's carrying from Athkatla, and then killed his master (a Vampire Lord). Got the Hand of Dace and the Bag of Holding.

Note: Always carry a stake from Athkatla. There are 2 more stakes on this level, but unfortunately, each of them is guarded by powerful enemies. And leaving this level for relatively safer resting upstairs is impossible until the Vampire Lord is slain. Although I see that a high-level soloer would have a tough time anyhow because of the after-rest 3 Whisper spiders spawning.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 01 décembre 2010 - 06:38 .

[saros_shadow_follower]

Edit: the library level, further encounters.

The fact that the party can now leave at will the library level is very important. If the party buffs on the library level, random Asylum guardians appear each 6 rounds or 1 turn (not sure). Those consist of either 3 Skeleton Lords, 3 Whisper Spiders or 2 Asylum Scouts (Gem Golems). So the party left, buffed well, came down and fought the magical book challenge. Enemies are easy for the buffed warriors, and the reward was the usual thing (including a Barbarian Essence potion, Scroll of Memory Boosting and of course, the Darksteel Shield +4). One group of Skeleton Lords joined the fight, but was held at bay by Astarta (who stood guard in the corridor) and her ProMW, until the fighters finished the challenge and helped her out.

Improved Kobolds: those have a mid-leveled mage hiding under SI:D and illusions, some other nonimportant Kobolds, 3 Spirit Guardians and 3 Amber Golems. The Spirit Guardians lower Electrical resistance, have electrical elemental damage and shoot Improved Chain Lightnings at anyone not fully immune to electrical damage. Pre-buffing on the upper level included ProEnergy and ProElements for everyone in the party. The spirits fell. Next were the Amber golems. The 2 mages released as much as they could from their distant-damage spells (Ray of Fragmentation and larloch's Minor Drain), which killed 1 golem and severely damaged another. The fighters joined the fight at this moment, and using mainly Criticals and back-forth tactic in order to wait out the electrical lowering resistance of the golems, slew them all (the R-C was healing from behind).

Went upstairs. Returned to face the Library challenge.

It consists of a Cat-o-nine-lives and a Coin golem. First slew the golem, next the cat. A group of Skeleton Lords was also slain. The fight is long (cat dies 9 times), although not hard. And after the cat fell, an Amnestic Librarian appeared. Party buffs had almost waned, but since the mages have high-level remove magics, the lich fell very quickly.

Loot from this level: several Mithril tokens, the Golden Cat figurine(heals the user once per day), a Permanency Scroll, another Manual of Elaboration (I personally think that those are extremely abundant while Permanency scrolls are scarce - Sikret should do something about the balance of these), a Monster Summoning IV scroll for the Necromancer (summons Minotaurs), and a Scholastic Cloak for her too (useable only by Necromancers, this cloak acts as a +2 protection cloak and grants bonus of +10 HP, requires 18 wis and int).

Current level-ups (after chapter 3): Valygar, Torham, Alia and Astarta. Valygar is lvl 34, chose Hardiness as HLA, Torham is lvl 16-36, Alia and Astarta are lvl 34.

Also forgot to mention that the party defeated Perth the Adept and Lady Galvena, which are no different than in IA 5.0.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 01 décembre 2010 - 09:41 .

[saros_shadow_follower]

Now that's one Improved Asylum. On the next level (the Minotaur level) all was as in IA 5.0...save from a horde of Skeleton Warlords (24 of those to be precise) replacing the vanilla Werewolf spawn near the token machine. The mithril golem dispels combat protections on hit (including Hardiness) and causes severe Bleeding damage, so he was distracted via summons and slain quickly via Criticals. Got the Gesen string and 3 pairs of boots (north, grounding and speed).



Nothing particularly scary afterwards until the battle with Irenicus. Managed to slay him fast, since my test games with this fight show that Jon gates in 6 Asylum scouts each round he's alive after gating the clones first. So in short, if he's not killed in 2 turns, 12 Asylum scouts appear. Maybe even more afterwards. Anyway, the party managed to slay him after the first wave of 6 Asylum scouts appeared, and afterwards to distract some via CC * 3*Monster Summoning VI. The Elite Trolls are a good distraction, although not as good as Greater Yuantis. Still, they helped divide the enemies while the fighters eliminated the golems one by one.



Level ups - Torham and Valygar. Those 24 Skeleton Warlords at least dropped their usual divine scrolls plus gave xp when slain.

[saros_shadow_follower]

Astarta & party, further adventures:

Took Saemon's boat. The adventure up to the Sahuagin City is vanilla. Killed Desharik.

Sahuagin city, however, is improved. There are several groups with improved Sahuagin mages, using SI:A + Spell turning. Several of the sahuagin fighters are improved as well. Prince Villynaty cannot be harmed until all of the surrounding sahuagin are slain first. He summons his usual Sea serpents of course, and he is accompanied by 2 Sahuagin mages as well. Nothing scary though. Got a Permanency scroll, Cloak +2 and Boots of Etherealness from the Imp challenge. Turned the Prince's heart to the King, got the Wave Blade, Gauntlets of Crushing and the Rod of lordly might.

Chapter 5: First the level-ups. Astarta and Alia are now lvl 35, as is Valygar, and Torham hit clerical lvl 37 (approaching 38). All party members are very near to the xp cap, except Valygar of course.

Cleared the elemental portals of the lesser elements. Fought the first 'toned-down' Drow ambush. It is level-dependent still, and the current party got 2 extra Ghost spiders and their minor spiders to fight alongside the 2 Drow Mages, 1 Priestess and 3 Drow Fighters. Indeed, toned down - in IA 5.0 the three fighters were 3 more Drow priestesses. At lower levels it's much easier to deal with just 3 spellcasters instead of 6.

Freed all victims of imprisonment. Jhor the Bleeder +2 is no longer in the possession of Riti, that's for sure. Healed Raevlin Strathi, and got Albruin +1 in return. The blade is nerfed and instead of immunity to poison grants one use of Neutralize Poison per day. No matter, it's always good to have such an item available.

The second Kuo-Toan ambush (after crossing the bridge) is enhanced. The kuo-toan fighters are improved, deal quite a lot of damage, and have good THAC0 and HP. Had to use Risk Decrement, didn't expect that much resistance and Saros almost died (well thanx to Risk Decrement nothing happened). Anyway, this is a precaution to when fighting the Kuo-toan prince, obviously some or all of his henchmen are improved.

At least the vanilla element with random scouting Kuo-toans over a period of time is no longer present in IA 6.0.

Entered the beholder caverns. Yep, the new beholders are extremely easy when faced by a party. They shoot rays seldom, but they always pick up the best rays. No beholder (or Elder Orb for that matter) has Flesh to Stone, Disintegrate or Death spell Rays anymore, which makes the monsters summoned from the new monster and animal summoning spells the best way to deal with beholders - even with Elder Orbs. However, an Elder orb has a good amount of proMW spells, so exausting one with only summons is a long task. The Orb near the entrance was slain (well, first the nearby Beholder was slain without even shooting one ray. Alia's CC left the Orb without spell protections, and Astarta cast Breach from a safe distance. The Orb managed to cast only True Sight when the fighters swarmed it. Criticals and GWW are very good way to get rid of it fast. Loot: Orb Eyestalk, Manual of Elaboration, Amulet of Spell Warding, potions of Cloud and Storm Giant Str (those potions are surely useless with the new buff, Giant Strength).

Cleared the whole Beholder Caverns. Will also clear the Deepdark caverns, Illithid City and Kuo-Toan prince before entering the Drow City.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 02 décembre 2010 - 08:56 .

[oyzar]

Beholders are actually easier than in the vanilla game? It sounds like that from your description. Even without shield of balduran, beholders are quite far from impossible in the vanilla game (though I admit that they gave me some headaces on my first playthrough, but then i didn't know much about the game).

[saros_shadow_follower]

Beholders are far from easier than in vanilla game. They can kill anyone pretty fast. There is simply no protection vs their rays, save from equimpent. Surely a character who has equimpent making him immune to lightning and magical damage, and has good saves, must fear nothing but their bite, which is actually not that easy to ignore. But from my characters only Valygar can aim to obtain such good resistances, and not yet anyways. Plus, Elder orbs use SI:D and protective spells, which means a mage must de-buff them, and once a mage is in their sight, they simply shoot an anti-magic ray. AMR cannot be stopped by Spell Shield in IA 6.0. Even Gauths have AMR.

In addition, improved beholders have many hit points, thus cannot be killed by one powerful spell or a sequencer filled with, for instance, 3*Fireball. Even one hasted fighter with str 24 must spend half a round (5-6 attacks to be more precise) to kill one beholder or gauth. And beholders don't like hasted fighters. The first thing a beholder group would do if it sees a fighter squad approach is de-buff all of them via anti-magic rays. Meaning, that GWW may be the best HLA vs beholders, and it's still not enough. Thanx God that Giant Strength buff is undispellable.

There is no Shield of Balduran in IA 6.0.

Anyways: Deepdark catacombs.

The fights here were easy for my improved party. The catacombs are similar to lvl 3 WK, meaning for anyone familiar with the way - not so hard. The labyrinth must be walked 3 times - first to obtain a key (from a Guardian spirit - a cleric), next to obtain a Mage Sigil (from a room filled with Deep Shades - drain str on hit, and good combat capabilities, but die quickly to CC - 3* ADHW, and finally, the Mighty one - a puny Dracolich.

Well, the Dracolich has lvl-draining breath, the usual dragon abilities (Greater Silence too), Death Fogs, Death Spells, Wail of the Dracolich and other dragon arsenal spells. It also has Greater Doom ability, which lowers saves by 4, can be shot at Improved invisible party members and stacks with itself. Several Greater Dooms on PC, and the Dracolich fires its CC-3*FoD, and game over.

In addition, when entering the lair of the dracolich, all party buffs are dispelled except the undispellable ones, like in this case Foreknowledge, Improved Alacrity and True Sight. Being a genius, I forgot to buff the fighters with the Giant Strength buff, which is also undispellable. Using the Alacrity buff and the round and a half interval while the Dracolich approaches, a Moon Dog and a Noble Spider were summoned, and the party (especially necro) buffed pretty well. Astarta hid under Si:D and mass invisibility. Alia cast Si:Evocation (to help casting under an incidental Death Fog if need be). Torham had 4 Zone of Sweet Air spells at his disposal. The rest of the fighters and summons were to engage the enemy. They buffed with Hardinesses, the barbarian also enraged.

Tactic: Astarta had 12 Remove Magics at her disposal, 1 more in the Sequencer. So 13. The important thing is Astarta keeping her Alacrity running while shooting Remove Magics at even intervals in order to remove the multiple enemy ProMW spells. Also, Astarta had to stay a little out of enemy Dracolich's sight, otherwise she risks being the target of multiple Greater Dooms and eventually, a CC with triple FoD. Maybe should've buffed her with Death Ward and forget about the whole thing, but I forgot, so this had to be the tactic. The fighters and summons kept big one's attention, and Torham actually used a couple of his ZoSA spells, while Alia summoned 2 more monsters to help. The tactic worked wondrously.

Loot: Flame of the North +2, Kundane +2 (doesn't grant extra attack, it's just valuable as an ingredient for Cutthroat +5), Azuredge +3 (all those items are in the Randomizer menu, however I wonder why Azuredge comes so late - it's anyway useless in IA). Other items were static: scrolls of Limited Wish, Hand of Undoing, Bless (third one) and a Golden Star Garnet gem (also third one). Also, the powdered body of the dracolich and a potion of Barbarian essence.

Valygar hit a level (now 36) and got ** in Scimitars. Chose Critical Strike as new HLA.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 02 décembre 2010 - 11:20 .

[saros_shadow_follower]

Further adventures of Astarta & party:



Second drow ambush: buffs are dispelled on the bridge. The two mages, with the help of Alacrity and Contingencies, restored quickly party buffs and debuffed the enemy mage and priest. A Ghost spider was present in the group. No matter. Party members could save always vs Improved Web as long as the sorceress' Mass Invisibility is active - meaning disrupting enemy True Sight casting, which the fighters did with ease.



Cleared the improved Kuo-toans and their prince. The Kuo-toans no longer have innate True Sight, so Mass Invisibility is as good as always. Their mages, similarly to the improved Sahuagin mages, use Spell Turning and SI:A. An interesting discovery: Valygar's Mental Equilibrium spell removes the effects of Slow and Greater Malison (although it doesn't remove the Miscast Magic of the beholders' Anti-Magic rays - checked earlier). The Kuo-toan prince is accompanied by a group of improved Kuo-toans too, although he himself is not a hard one to kill. Loot: in addition to the usual items - a Permanency scroll.



Killed the Demonknights on this level. The battle was as easy as the one in WK lvl 3. Got the Girdle of Frost Giant Strength and the Armor of the Hart (both items equipped by Torham), and Soul Reaver +4, which unfortunately the Barbarian (being good-aligned) cannot use.



Talked to Adalon. Re-visited duergar merchants. Bought several potions from their improved stock. Entered Ust-Natha. Met Amariel (the Mystery of the Third Color quest - advice for all IA players always ask for her brother's name). Also, completed the challenges inside the tavern and the vanilla quests up to meeting the Matron Mother Ardulace, including the improved N'ashtar & party fight. Got the Dragon Breath halberd +4 for the Barbaraian. A permanency scroll was won too.



Although the party had some blood the Matron Mother wanted, they decided to hide that fact for now and use the time given for the task to look around the drow city. Killed Deirex and his 5 Skeleton Lords. Freed Amariel's brother, Ammar. Got rewarded with a Permanency scroll, a scroll of Improved Haste, one of Disrupt Undead, and one of Monster Summoning IV (summons minotaurs).



Looted Deirex's tower (on the upper level is the Efreeti bottle - the final ingredient for the Ring of Greater Djinni Summoning - guarded by a Noble Efreet). Also killed everyone inside House Jae'lat. That battle was so very easy (that House lacks mages), not even one of my fighters got a scratch. Mass Invisibility plus other defensive buffs plus good AC meant that those Jae'lat guards couldn't land a hit, save on critical.



Astarta and Alia hit the last level (36) they could under the xp cap. Alia got a 9-th level spell choice, she chose Bigby's Crushing Hand.



The Crushing Hand in IA 6.0 is tweaked - it deals only 4d10 crushing damage once (no hold or other effects), but MR is ignored. Bigby's Clenched fist has a similar tweak, dealing only 3d6 points of crushing damage and ignores MR. Anyway, from the other spell choices the only one looking useful was Shapechange, and with IA 6.0's changes, I guess that it won't be used ever, while Bigby's crushing hand may help in several occasions.



Torham also progressed to the max, and is now R(16)-C(39). The Riskbreaker and Barbarian are almost at lvl 40, while Valygar is a bit behind, but will catch on.



Bought everything that could be useful from the drow merchants. Not even one spell scroll is useful. No Spell Immunity scrolls, that's for sure.



Remaining: Matron Mother's final task (I think it's vanilla), the Illithid City, and Vithal's elemental portals.



Edit: The Deepdark cavern fight has to be carried out in chapter 5. If anyone attempts it in chapters 6 or 7, there is scripted instant death by Sikret. Not very intelligent, but it serves its purpose.