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[polytope]

Thailog wrote...

In the next chamber, Grimm encounters a group of Tanarri demons who find him a bit too orderly for their tastes and decide to attack. This catches everyone off guard as all of the party's buffs were dispelled by the anti-magic zone in the previous area. Due to that, the ensuing battle is brutal.

Yes, Tahazzar attacks immediately if your PC is of any good alignment or lawful neutral.

Thailog wrote...
Some final thoughts: I've come to believe that the Wizard Slayer is a highly underrated kit. His magic resistance may be pitiful and his item restrictions are very severe, but in my view, his innate ability which causes spell failure on each hit makes up for all this, especially against SCSII mages. Landing just a few hits is usually enough to scramble their spellcasting for good, and since they almost always use ProMW, you can always attack them using normal weapons.

I like the Wizard Slayer as well, it's a terrible class for soloing due to the restrictions, but a very useful addition to a party. Makes we want to join this challenge again...

[Windfoot]

Well, I've decided to enter the challenge again this time this will be my party:

Minsc - Ranger
Keldorn - Inquisitor
Jan - Thief/Illusionist
Aerie - Mage/Cleric
Imoen - Thief/Mage
Windfoot - Human Berserker
Str 18/88
Dex 18
Con 12
Int 3
Wis 18
Cha 18
5* in daggars, 1* in sword and shield

I know this is an odd choice for race and stats for a berserker. But, I plan on switching to Druid when I reach level 10. Ideally I would have removed some cha and added con. But with the 15 cha requirement on the druid I decided to go ahead and push it to the max. The reason I went daggars is Fire Tooth...a THAC0 +3, 2d4+3 damage boomarang dagger with 5* is nice added damage when I'm not slinging spells (though it will be a while before he can get it). It's too bad Berserkers can't specialize in ranged weapons or I would have gone with a sling instead.

I know this is a rare dual combo but the berserker benefits are the protection from the nasty spells and the druid can cast summon greater elemental which is awesome. Also, with the way druids level at first once I switch it wont be very long getting back my Beserker powers.


Well, we made it out of the beginning dungeon we found ourselves in. Me and Imoen freed jaheira and Mincs. But soon after Jaheira and I had a bad argument and we parted ways. I saw signs of her as we left the dungeon so I know she made it out safe. Unfortunately, ou captor caught up to us just as we left the dungeon and we fought. But those pesky cowled wizards didn't like the magic our captor and Imoen were using so they arrested them. Unfotunately, Minsc and I we sorely wounded and were not able to stop them nor convince them to release her. We don't know how we'll be able to get her away from the cowled wizards but we will do it some how. Right now we are wandering around the town trying to figure out what to do...

[SpiffyKeen]

Tolamn the Choatic Good, Halfling, Fighter/Thief saved the sword coast from a horrific war by exposing and then eliminating the evil Sarevok.  His party of small adventures and a bard (Quayle, Alora, Kagain, Yeslick and Garrick) were bigger influences on the going-ons of Baldur's Gate than their short stature would have indicated.  However, Tolman and friends went their separate ways, and wouldn't you know it, as soon as Tolman's old traveling companions Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira, Minsc, and Dynaheir showed up in Tolman's life again, he was captured and shipped off to some forsaken dungeon.  Here are his stats starting out: 



At least Imoen was able to free Tolman from his cage.  From there, the two "siblings" freed the other occupants of the dungeon: Minsc and Jaheira.  Tolman leveled up to fighter level 8 as a result of saving Jaheira.  From there, they explored their surroundings carefully, in case their captor came back.  Minsc did a great job charging first into battles, but it was not blindly charging.  Tolman scouted in the shadows to see what was ahead.  Minsc needed a lot of healing potions, but he also did a lot of damage.  In fact, he was the only one to do significant damage to the Cambion.  Tolman disarmed a lot of traps, and in battles he mostly used bows, but did act as the 2nd melee fighter ahead of Jaheira.   For the rest of the escape, it was more of the same with Minsc in the lead and no serial problems.  Tolman did grab all the wands from the mosaic hallway.  Outside, after seeing Imoen taken away, Tolman sold off all extra magic items he couldn't carry, and sent everyone away. 



He also bought all the carrying bags he could (gem bag, 2 scroll cases, ammo belt).  He stashed the wands and some other extra items before doing any more exploring of Athkatla.  First he decided to investigate the circus tent.  He leveled up after dealing with the welcome genie.  Then he saved an elf named Aerie, who mentioned on old friend:  Quayle!  Tolman and Aerie went invisible and moved all the way through the illusionary world to confront Kalah.  Aerie blasted him right off the bat with Magic Missiles, and a couple arrows from Tolman sent Kalah running.  Aerie sealed the deal with a sling stone.  Tolman asked Quayle to join him again, but Quayle refused, instead offering that Aerie join with. 

The two collected all the stuff Tolman had storred away and set out through the slums.  Tolman learned about a possible way to find Imoen.  He entered the Copper Coronet, talked to Lethinan and Nalia, found gladiators and was forced to free them, because the guards were not friendly at all!  Battles in the back of the Copper Coronet took a little bit longer than usual with just 2 in the party, but Tolman was able to solo the beastmaster confrontation with backstabbs and ranged attacks.  One freed gladiator named Hendak killed Prof. Farnsworth ... I mean, Lethinan.  He was so greatful, he gave Tolman a discount at the bar.  Aerie leveled up and Tolman sold all the extra gear and a second load of bows grabbed off the dead guards.  They rested and Aerie identified the wands and sold them to be recharged later. 

As Hendak requested, Tolman entered the sewers to free more slaves.  The sewers, of course, were full of strange monsters, including jellies, hobgoblins, and kobolds.  In fact, the kobold shaman with the staff somehow teleported through the wall. 



In any case, Aerie took care of the hobgoblins with a fireball scroll, and one set of kobolds with a stinking cloud scroll.  Tolman cleaned up after the spells.  He also soloed the jellies buffed with free action as Aerie lured the large squid monster away.  He came back to backstab that thing to death as it tried to squeeze through a narrow passage to get Aerie.  An old man helped Tolman find a magical sword and level up.  Then Aerie set up a skeleton-based ambush in the sewer passage, which they then lured the guards into. 



The ambush took care of the captain and some guards, then they re-entered the compund and took care of the other two guards and the cleric.  They freed some children, then trolls!  Tolman hid and Aerie cast slow.  Tolman used backstab and melee while the Troll hit Aerie under stoneskin, then he used fire arrows after they were down.  Finally, they freed the last of the children. 

Tolman raided the area for treasure, but left the other slavers alone farther in.  They reported back to Hendak, Aerie leveled up, Tolman bought the rose sword, and Aerie bought back the fire and cloudkill wands.  They left to explore the city more, which basically meant fighting lots of criminals in the streets in the slums, near the docks, on the bridge, and in ambushes inbetween.  The Suna Seni ambush was a close call for Aerie, but the situation was basically under control when the mage let fly with lightning. 



All that travel brought more heroic possibilities:  killer in the bridge district, important actor captured by a mage, an assignment to catch Mae'Var, a strange cult to investigate, etc.  In going to nab the amulet, Tolman reached the Temple district, but it was just morning, so no chance to get amulet at that point.  Instead, Tolman explored sewers, giving himself many chances to practice backstabs.  Then they went to graveyard and had lots to do there.  Found a healing staff for Aerie. 

Traveling around again, Tolman fell into another ambush and then another (Renfeld then Orogs!).  Tolman brought Renfeld to safety and that started the Montaron quest.  For the mage battle, both Tolman and Aerie entered invisible, then Aerie showed herself with a fire wand blast.  This took care of the goblins and the first mage.  Then Tolman opened fire with his bow, but it was Aerie's follow-up Magic Missiles that ended the fight, even through stoneskin. 



The two finished the Montaron quest, but it ended strangely, with Aerie wearing the AC6 bracers instead of Xzar.  Tolman sold off more loot and had just enough to get the girdle of hill giant strength.  Back at graveyard, Tolman killed the crypt king and a bunch of spiders.  Aerie level up, and Tolman did too, somewhere in there.  Then I took a play break.  Tolman now duals with the rose +3 and namarra +2 swords with 19 STR. 



So, what's next?  Probably de'Arnise Keep.  Tolman has done well so far in Athkatla, but I need to remain careful with the currently small party.  Too bad there are not more small adventurers to join up with, at least not yet. 

[ussnorway]

Red Eddy BG2 update 3;
Yes Eddy is back and what’s more he had an inspiration… the knights at watchers keep can raise Mazzy and best of all there is no ambush scripted on the journey. I should have set traps before leaving the area but I forgot.



Level 2 keep;
I almost convinced myself there would be an invisible dragon lucking somewhere in this room but no it’s just Glaicas. Death by web and Viconia levels, can now cast ‘Raise Dead’ (apparently Eddy as a cleric of the red knights can’t)… how embarrassing!

Level 3 keep;
Yoshimo delivered the dog stew and found an extra flail head in the chest by the final door but when I tried to add it on the strangest thing happened instead. I had to make a hard save and shadowkeeper the correct head before continuing… I allowed Nalia to pull the two peons with ‘Web’/ ‘Cloudkill’ before TorGal cops ‘Glitterdust’ and ‘Insect Plague’… game over, que the romance scene.



Edit; Sorry for the delay in posting photos

Modifié par ussnorway, 21 mai 2011 - 02:21 .

[Wierdo]

Oh no, first Grimm and now Red Eddy ...

[ussnorway]

Yes Wierdo, once they've had dwarf!

[Windfoot]

Bah Was in the lower reaches of the cult of the unseeing eye. Windfoot looted the quest wand in the SE dungeon chamber and the game said I tried to leave the dungeon and it killed me. Since it was a bug I reloaded...but then was too impatient. I looted the item with a NPC to avoid the bug, equiped the wand and cast it on the Unseeing eye. I had autoparty AI on and it moved me forward to auto attack. Since, I had just dual classed from Beserker to druid I had no armor on and the Unseen eye killed me even though he was almost dead

Overall, I think Beserker to druid is a good dual class combination. Druids level very quickly at lower levels and even though I dualed just a few minutes earlier my druid had leveled to level 5 by killing the beholders. This will keep the vulnerabilty time time to a minimum. I will definately revisit Berserker-> Druid later.

Well, I think I'll do one more try at the no-reload challenge. If I die I will be dropping from the challenge and will continue the game.

My future party:
Jaheira Fighter/Druid
Jan Thief/Illusionist
Cain Monk
Str 18
Dex 18
Con 18
Int 16
Wis 9
Cha 3

I wanted to try something different by going with a Monk. Jaheira and Jan cover the tank/thief/healer/mage...so I went with something different. I also want a smaller party so I dont have to do so much micro-managing.

Modifié par Windfoot, 22 mai 2011 - 10:46 .

[ussnorway]

Red Eddy BG2 final update;
After some party reshufflings we payed our licence fee and sided with the thieves to get Fade (Bounty hunter) before heading to the temple sewers. We dispatched some slavers to rescue a Harper.
Killed the mirror imp to get procession of resurrection rod and Haer'Dalis but the snake mages proved too much for Eddy… confusion in confined space equals death the funeral is next Thursday.

[Wierdo]

Oh no ....

Wierdo's posts are going to come a bit slowly for a week or two as I have got editing to do and a paper to write ... have to start focusing on that ...

[saros_shadow_follower]

After a lot more exploiting, the party is ready. They have 1 million gp, and a sufficient (though not equal) amount of xp each. They could've continued with the exploit up to IA 6.0's experience cap (12.2 mln), but it was too tedious.

The Bard stronghold produced about 12 000 gold before drying out (that is, after being sold to Higgold for 10 000).

Current party levels: Necromancer (Astarta) 36, Sorceress (Alia) 32, Riskbreaker (Saros) 39, Barbarian (Grunt) 36, Assassin-Fighter (Captain Jack Sparrow) 23-24, and Ranger-Cleric (Torham) 16-33.
HLAs - mages have them all, accumulating more Alchemy HLAs for convenience, and an occasional Scribe Scrolls too. Well, at least Alia is. Astarta hit the maximum level under the xp cap.
Riskbreaker - 1 Power Attack, 13 Critical Strike, 6 Hardiness
A-F - 1 Power Attack, 1 Critical Strike, 1 Smite, 2 Hardiness, Use Any Item
Barbarian - 1 Power Attack, 12 Critical Strike, 5 Hardiness
R-C - all HLA spells, and now picking Alchemy at lvl up

RB proficiencies: Flails*****,Shortsword*****, Longsword*****, Two-weapon**.
Barbarian: **Bastard Sword **Axe **Shortsword **Warhammer **Scimitar **Club *Flail  ***Two-weapon.
R-C has ** in everything except Sword and Shield Style and Sling.
Assassin-Fighter: *Two-weapon, *Two-handed weapon, *Shortsword, *Scimitar ***Quarterstaff *****Halberd *****Two-handed sword

The assassin-fighter was leveled up in such a fasion: Lvl up to assassin lvl 23 - dual. Picked Use Any Item as HLA, which btw is active after dualling! Then lvl up to fighter lvl 20, attained grand mastery in Halberds and Two-handed swords, picked Hardiness as HLA, then didn't press lvl-up button up to lvl 24, when A-F obained his old proficiencies back and was able to put two stars (one from lvl 21, the other from 24) in Quarterstaves. Also, the four new HLAs picked were Hardiness, Power Attack-Critical Strike-Smite.

Sorceress' spells:

Lvl 1: LMD, CO, MM, Shield, Armor
Lvl 2: Invis, Mirror Image, Acid Arrow, Resist Fear, Vocalize*
Lvl 3: Remove Magic, Haste,Vampiric touch, ProFire, ProCold
Lvl 4: Emotion, Stoneskin, Ray of Fragmentation, Ice Storm, Minor Spell Sequencer
Lvl 5: Sunfire, Breach, Spell Immunity, Lower Resistance Soul Armor*
Lvl 6: Improved Haste, Giant Strength, ProMW, Globe of Invulnerability, Contingency
Lvl 7: Mass Invisibility, RRR, Hand of Undoing, Spell Turning, Spell Sequencer
Lvl 8: Monster Summoning VI, Spell Trigger, Foreknowledge, ProEnergy, Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting
Lvl 9: Monster Summoning VII, Wish, Chain Contingency

In IA 6.0, Vocalize's only purpose is to cure regular Silence. It doesn't grant immunity to any form of silence, nor does it cure Greater Silence (IA dragon ability) or Grave Silence (IA Grave Liches ability).

Soul Armor replaces Protection from Normal Weapons (or Minor Spell Turning), lasts for 3 turns, target self, sets base AC of the caster to 0 and cannot be dispelled for the duration. The spell is IMO better than the other new 5-th level spell, Larloch's interrupter, since in my tests all the enemies which spellcasting I wanted to interrupt were either immune to it or were immune to 5-th level spells altogether.

Okay, now back to adventuring. Jack was equipped with Jansen's Adventurewear for better physical resistances. The party didn't find the Paladin bracers in their original place, and that's an item Jack wants badly, since his HP are only 96 (compared to almost 200 for the RB and 250 for the Barbarian). So Jack got the Bracers of AC 3 instead, for now. Now he needs some weapons! Main weapon will be, of course, the Harmonium Halberd, but a nice quarterstaff and two-handed sword are needed as well.

In search of the two-handed sword, the party went to the sewers and completed the Lilalcor quest with ease. The rats fell very quickly to the critical strikes of the party warriors, while the Shadow Lover was slain in an instant via piercing weaponrty (and again, Critical strikes).

Next, the party travelled to Trademeet, to investigate the Crypt. Turns out the Crypt is sealed against arcane magic, but the party's Contingencies and Chain Contingencies dealt with that swiftly. The Founder of Trademeet fell.

Amongst other items, the party found the Staff of Rynn +4 on the corpse of the Founder of Trademeet. Good. Now the A-F has all the needed weaponry!

Met with Mencar and his group in the promenade. A side note: If the party is fully invisible and hasted, and presses straight for Sorcerous Amon in order to talk to him, he doesn't turn hostile in the next couple of rounds. Obviously a bug similar to the forced talk cheat. I didn't intend to use it, it just so happened.  Two Critical Hits and the thief is down. Party focuses on Mencar while Alia cast Alacrity. While party fighters killed Mencar, Alia used offensive spells to dispose of Smaeluv Orcslicer. Pooky fell quickly. Sorcerous Amon decided to join the fight.
Too late.

Amongst other minor items, several Improved Mantle scrolls were obtained - one scribed by PC. Also, the R-C got the Borok's Fist hammer as a better off-hand weapon.

Party travelled to Cromwell and forged yet another +2 ring - this one went to the C-R so he could use the Holy Symbol without significant save penalties.

Next target: The Pirates in their hideout in the Docks District.

Pirate coordinator's buffs triggered. The Captain fell under multiple Criticals.Alacrity, followed by enemy's sequencer and Alia's sequencer (with triple Remove Magic), and the Coordinator passed away.

Amongst the loot from this battle: The Crimson Chain +5 (for the Barbarian), some mediocre scrolls (for PC), and a purple (capacity 200) bag of holding, plus a scroll of memory boosting.

The party next travelled to the Windspear hills dungeon, cleared some vanilla (now slightly improved) enemies like Greater Wolfweres and Adamantite golem, obtained some minor items, next pressed in King Strohm's tomb.

The Tomb Mist (which replaces the vanilla Director) was slaughtered via multiple criticals, without it being able to hide under Invisibility. The efreeti guardians fell pretty easily as well, and thus the party assembled some potions and an adequate helmet for PC.

The party prepared well for Samia's party, and Astarta decided to wait out the battle in a nearby chamber, lacking Spell Immunity and all that. Enemies appeared and the party focused on Chak (the enemy F/D) who quickly enough activated Hardiness and thus was not an easy prey. Alia activated Alacrity and shot Minor Sequencer, followed by a quick Breach on Chak, while the two available summons ( a Planetar and a Greater Yuanti) engaged the enemies from beind. Three Skeleton Warlords were strirred by the grave robbery, while party dealt with the enemy mage. While the summons kept Ferric Ironblade and Legoril busy (and almost killed Legoril), party fighters slew Akae. Three party fighters focused on the Warlords now, while Jack Sparrow helped to slay Legoril. Alia managed to summon another Greater Yuanti right when the last Warlord fell, and the enemy fighters were occupied by the summons. And fight over.

Amongst other items, the party found:
Girdle of Hill Giant Str - went to Jack
Belt of Inertial Barrier - went to Alia
Scarlet Ninja-to - not that Jack is going to dual-wield, but in case he does...
a scroll of Spell Trigger for Astarta

Grunt hit another level (37).

No Robe of Vecna. Bad. Well, onwards to the next possible location!

Party travelled to the Temple Sewers and engaged Tarnor the Hatchetman and his gang.
Hmph. Seems I misplaced the screenshots for that battle. Anyway, nothing very hard. Only notable thing here was that party's Mass Invisibility was dispelled right away by enemy priests' pre-buff True Sight, and that Gaius (the F/M) was somehow unable to kill before all the rest of the party were slain (or probably maybe just Tarnor himself)?

Anyway, nothing that good from the loot either. The group had to be dispatched so that the party could access the Mindflayer area.

With the key found in Windspear Hills, the party entered the secret corridor and into enemy lair.

Again, this was a battle which Astarta slept through. Besides buffing, that is. Enemies were lured by the Barbarian to fight on party-chosen terrain. The enemy Assassin, despite his excellent physical resistances, fell first and quick. Next the party dealt with the 2 Gem Golems very quickly, and with one enemy Fighter too. While Alia stripped the enemy mage from his spell and combat protections, four Skeleton Warlords rushed in the narrow corridor. Now that's disadvanteous since due to the narrow space and crowding of summons, the party fighters couldn't reach  the skeletons, while at the same time, the skeletons had no trouble due to the long reach of their two-handed swords. Party fighters&summons backed a bit, and in a short while with help from Torham's Greater Restorations, managed to slay all enemy Warlords. Of course, it also helped that the Warlords were focused on the Barbarian (who has the most HP from all party fighters) and the summons.

The enemy mage still managed to read one of his ProMW scrolls before dying. The cleric was the last one alive.
Well, except the Flayer and Umberhulk in the other room, who didn't act as intelligently and stayed on their posts.

The Robe of Vecna was in the possession of this Mage! Great. So far, it's better if Alia wears it, since she can attain reduced casting time by 4 (using AoP and Foreknowledge spell). Also, the party obtained the Boneblade dagger +4, the Blade of Roses +3 (Saros now has a good slashing weapon), and a Wish scroll (for Astarta).

The party eliminated the random Mindflayer/Ulitharid group in the next room. The party then rested and decided to lure the Ulitharids, Mindflayers and Umberhulks in Alohoon's room so that the fight with Alohoon is much easier afterwards. Good as idea, bad as pre-buffing. The tactic succeeded, and while Alohoon stood in place, the rest of the enemies were lured to the lower chamber by a bowshot from the Barbarian. However, Saros fell to Int drain, and Torham was Dire Charmed, yet the party did complete the battle with no more casualties. Saros was raised and healed. The party prepared well for the next encounter (rested several times until the right options of Wish were given pre-combat), and here is the last buff. Alohoon cast True Sight, Alia's contingencies triggered right before she was hit by enemy's Purge Magic, but she quickly refreshed vital buffs (ProMW, Stoneskin, ProEnergy), and then the party fighters and summons pressed on.

The tricky thing in this battle is the narrow space to navigate. It's actually a circle room, with relatively narrow width of the circular corridor. Two of the fighters killed Alohoon after Alia removed his protections. The Greater Elemental golem was assaulted by the Barbarian and A-F, and a couple of powerful summons. He first eliminated the two Elite Trolls with a single hit each (apparently, he kills any normal summon with a single blow), but the Planetar gave him a hard time. And a second one was summoned by Astarta right when the RB and R-C eliminated the newly-gated Coin Golem from behind. Anticipating enemy's Purge Magic,the fighters dispersed just in time, except for the Barbarian who had his buffs dispelled, but he activated Hardiness and Alia helped him with Improved Haste to join the fight. But the Golem was already on Near-Death and fell soon after.

Loot: a Hand of Undoing scroll for Astarta, some more nice items (including a Permanency scroll and a Manual of Elaboration). From the randomizer menu - the Ring of Air Control, the Ring of Human Influence and the Periapt of proof vs poison were all here. A nice amulet for the A-F as well - the Master of Disciplines (Grants 1 AC, 5% MR and 5% physical resistance bonus, useable with UAI, otherwise usable by Monk only). Also, the Barbarian gave away his +3 club to the R-C off-hand, so that he could use the Hammer of Thunderbolts +3 as a more damage-dealing weapon.

Sold a lot of stored items, gold is about 1 200 000.

Also, the party visited the graveyard and eliminated the improved Crypt King and Queen. Got Namarra +2 - a very weak weapon at present, but it does cast Cure Serious Wounds once per day.

Well, that's that. No level-ups for now, have to visit the Planar Sphere for the next ingredient of the Memory of the Apprenti robe.

So far acquired important upgrade items (and locations):
Permanency scroll - Improved Screaming Statue Challenge
Permanency scroll - Slaver Ship container
Permanency scroll - Warden in Planar Prison
Permanency scroll - Temple sewers lvl 1, Illithid area, container in Alhoon's room

Manual of Elaboration - loot from Conster in Windspear dungeon lvl 2
Manual of Elaboration - loot from the Turmish Mercenaries fight (improved Bard Stronghold)
Manual of Elaboration - Temple sewers lvl 1, Illithid area, container in Alhoon's room

Scroll of Memory Boosting - loot from Pirate Coordinator, Pirates' hideout, Docks District

Cloak of Balduran - loot from Tazok in Windspear dungeon level 2, will be dropped ONLY if Cernd is in the party.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 23 mai 2011 - 10:33 .

[Windfoot]

USSNorway, may Red Eddy RIP

Unfortunately, may Cain RIP too.

I think I'm too rusty to play a no-reload. I think I'll try to just play through before re-entering the challenge. I might try some solo runs to get more familiar with the character's abilities (or at least a small party)

[ussnorway]

Sorry about Cain. Try a new class... see what the others can do?

[saros_shadow_follower]

Astarta and party, the Planar Sphere:

Captain Jack Sparrow helped with some of the locked chests inside the sphere. The xp gained from lockpicking/disarming traps is still very good at these high thief levels.

The party next encountered a group of Improved Halflings. While Togan used the Ripper Bow + Arrows of Piercing on Jack, Alia used her Alacrity to strip the enemy mage from spell and combat protections, and then used multiple Acid Arrows to slay him. The cleric died last.

Nothing so great obtained from this battle, well except the Gauntlets of Ogre Strength.

Next the party pressed forward, eliminated a random spider group (2 Mutated, 2 Vortex, a Spirit and a Killer one), a random golem group (1 Greater Bone Golem, 2 Gem Golems, 2 Coin ones) in the clock room, and assembled the Guardian golem to open the doors. Again, Jack helped with the traps.

The party decided to take on Lavok first, since it was the hardest fight inside the sphere. The party buffed very well, and while Astarta stayed behind once more, Alia pressed forward. Her Ruby Rays , followed by Remove Magic quickly stripped Lavok of protections. Lavok's first action was to try to renew his SI:A - cancelled. Alia kept Lavok busy while at the same time the fighters eliminated the two enemy Gem Golems quickly via criticals when the 5 Skeleton Lords engaged the fighters. Since Lavok was forced to think of his own protection (Alia, being close to him, forced him to cast ProMW and dispelled them via Remove Magic) and couldn't aid his skeletons via Breach. The Skeleton Lords are powerful, but at the same time - very fragile. Even a decently armed mage can kill them in one on one melee combat. Lavok had no protections, and the party had all their buffs still active, so it was only a matter of seconds to incapacitate him.

Afterwards, the party cleared the two nearby rooms, and found a scroll of Giant Strength for Astarta.

The party went outside, in the Demon plane, in search of a demon heart. The improved enemies here are the Maureshi (but these only slightly) and a Demon Lord, who fell quickly (but first gated in 3 Skeleton Warlords, however they all focused on the summoned fodder).

The loot from the Demon Lord included two very important items -  the hilt of The Truth longsword, and a Disrupt Undead* scroll. Now Astarta has a very good fighting option versus Skeleton Warlords and Grandlords!

*Disrupt Undead - 7th level Necromantic spell, casting time 7, requires touching the enemy, inflicts damage as follows:

Skeleton Lords and lesser undead 10d6 + 10
Skeleton Warlords 8d6 + 8
Skeleton Grandlords 6d6 + 6
Liches, Master Vampires and Vampire Lords 5d6 + 5

The spell is also available in the priest spellbook (not as a HLA, but as a regular 7th level spell).

Anyway, the party went back (with 3 Demon Hearts in pack) to the Engine room of the sphere, where they encountered Tolgeras. The fight wasquick. Astarta obtained some scrolls from this battle, including a Pierce Shield scroll.

The Core of the Planar sphere was heavily guarded by golems. The party slaughtered a total of 14 (2 Greater Bone, 6 Coin and 6 Gem ones) without retreating to the upper level (although it's possible). Narrow spaces make it both advantaeous and disadvantageous for the party to fight, but at least, all were protected well vs the Hideous Laughter ability of the Greater Bone Golems. When Remove Fear waned, the Riskbreaker was panicked, but the sorceress quickly removed it via second Remove Fear. Unfortunately, that spell lasts only 1 turn in IA.

The sphere returned, the party got the sphere for themselves, also a Ring of Protection +2, the Ring of Acuity, the Amulet of Charon, a Memory Boosting scroll and some scrolls from Lavok's body.

Level ups: Everyone except the Riskbreaker and PC gained 1 level inside the sphere, the Barbarian got even 2.

The party managed to send the Solamnic Knights home (with the help of Teos), received the Golden Girdle, and started supervising the apprentices in the sphere. On day 7th of supervision, Marvella the Prophetess appeared in the Sphere (near the halfling cottages - Extrended Mage Stronghold). She informed the party of a magical container (visited it - had some scrolls, although nothing that valuable) and of a monster inside one of the furnaces.

The apprentices created: the Wand, the ADHW scroll and the Robe (success 100%, since PC is a Necromancer with Wis and Int 18).

The last item needed for creating the Memory of the Apprenti robe is a third Scroll of Memory Boosting. The easiest one to obtain is in Watcher's keep, level 2. In order to reach it, the party had to fight their way through the powerful undead and golems guarding the fireplace (and the Candle) on WK lvl 1.

Edit: Found the pictures.

Buffed well for that fight (Free Action vs Stun, Resist fear, and the combat buffs of course), Astarta entered alone (the summons followed her.

IA 6.0's "Intelligent summons" are not THAT intelligent. If there is no enemy around,they huddle around PC, pushing him/her around, literally. This may even cause bugs when two or more ally summons occupy very close coordinates (their circles overlap) and they cannot move. Most often happens to Skeleton Warriors.

However, the opposite is also true. Sometimes enemy groups (containing skeletons or golems) may experience the same bug and become immovable, until at least several enemies are slain, freeing the rest to move, as was in this case.

This was kinda bad, since Astarta entered determined to slay the Skeleton Grandlord via Disrupt Undead, but couldn't get within range for the spell.

However, two enemies could move (a Coin Golem and a Skeleton Lord, and those were slain by the fighters. Astarta also helped with Rays of Fragmentation and Vampiric touch spells. Alia entered next and started fragmentizing another golem from a safe distance. That Gem golem fell, but Alia didn't continue with the next golem, fearing that the skeletons might get loose. Alia and the rest of the party retreated to the exit, while Astarta entered and started disrupting undead. She managed to slay only one Warlord, severely damaging (but not killing) a second one. The party went outside and rested.\\

After returning, the enemies were rearranged so that they could move. The Skeleton Grandlord at least did, and attacked the R-C, while Jack with his +4 staff and Astarta with Disrupt Undead managed to slay him in a couple of rounds.

Anyway, the party managed to slay those, to get the Bell and Candle (fighting two Fanatic Spirits) and to complete the Ritual, opening the 2nd level, and also obtaining some items from the statue fight, including a +3 dagger.

Lvl 2 of Watcher's keep - the party travelled only to the left, eliminating a tough (2 Greater Bone, 2 Coin, 2 Gem) golem random spawn. In this battle, Astarta was Stunned by the enemy's Hideous Laughter, but enemies couldn't reach her anyways due to multiple summons.

Torham got a level-up here.

The guardian of the Ice Laboratory is a Steam Elemental Prince, who managed to cast exactly one True Sight, before his resistance was lowered (by Alia's trigger) and he was showered by multiple Acid Arrows (from sequencers and triggers too) and Magic Missiles. He has amazing regeneration rate, so a great amount of damage is required in a short time.

The party obtained the Ice Library note and a third Scroll of Memory Boosting. Now they left the keep (opening lvl 2), and travelled to Cromwell in order to forge the Memory of the Apprenti.
The Ingredients: Robe of the Apprenti, Robe of Vecna, 2 Cloaks +1, three Memory Boosting scrolls, a Permanency scroll and a Spirit Armor scroll
The robe:

Sets AC to -1
Grants 20% MR bonus and 2 bonus to all saves
Reduces casting time by 2
Wearer can memorize 3 additional spells per level

Meaning, that now Astarta is a real powerhouse.

The party travelled to Pai-Na's lair and eliminated her in a second. Although the fight could be won long before that (and there are important items there), then lvl 1 of WK would become impossible to complete due to the Spider Queen, who appears in WK lvl 1 to avenge Pai-Na and to take the Black Spider Figurine back. The queen herself is not that tough, but she's immune to +3 weapons or less, and so far, the party has only one decent +4 weapon. But now, with WK lvl 1 completed and WK lvl 2 opened, the party can freely explore the keep, leaving the Spider Queen encounter for later.

The Pale Green Ioun Stone is invaluable to the Riskbreaker, adding 20 HP to his life total, and Astarta got a Spell Immunity scroll.

After travelling a bit, 3 days later the party buffed very well in the graveyard and travelled to the Docks. Here, a strange encounter took place. Astarta cast Alacrity when enemy buffs triggered. Limak is a F/M/C of a very high level (something like 37/31/40, not quite sure about clerical and fighter levels though) and has reduced casting time of 3-4 (again, not quite sure), also has an excellent THAC0 (hits always except on critical miss). He wields +3 weapons, so Improved Mantle is sufficient protection. However, he relies too much on his illusions and SI:Divination, which a higher-level mage can dispel via simple Remove Magic, as did Astarta. And Limak died.

The party also received a warning from a Cowled Enforcer about using spells on the streets. Since this is party's first violation, they got away with only a warning.

Loot: A morning star +3 (this preserves one permanency scroll for the party), a Flail +3, Chain Contingency, Bigby's crushing hand and Wish scrolls, some other scrolls, Limak's Brain, a Cloak of Protection +2. Very nice items.

Captain Jack Sparrow got a level up after the fight.

The party travelled quickly to Cromwell and forged:

Several Rings +2. Now all party fighters, including R-C, are fully equipped with +2 protective items (4 cloaks and 8 rings), while mages still have +1 ones.
A second Morning Star +3 using a +2 one, a Permanency scroll and an enchanted weapon scroll
Phosphorous morningstar +4, by combining two +3 ones with Mauler's arm, and using another Permanency scroll. Three Storm Giant potions were also used (those were assembled from various guarded chests/containers). Phosphorous sets wielder's strength to 24.
Potion of Superior Mentality, using one Manual of Elaboration and Limak's Brain. After consuming it, Astarta's Int and Wis are permanently 19 each.

Current levels:

Necromancer 36, Riskbreaker 39, R-C 16-35, A-F 23-26, Barbarian 38, Sorceress 33

New HLAs - critical strikes for the warriors, Alchemy for the R-C and sorceress.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 24 mai 2011 - 10:42 .

[Flamedance]

Nice work, Saros. I had to reload the Laval battle half a dozen times before i finally nailed him. At lower levels, that battle is pure hell. Lost interest in IA soon after this battle, but i'm tempted to give it another go after i've finished my current BWP Tactics run.

[saros_shadow_follower]

Yeah, not really. It was the exploits that work for me up to this moment. However, I have to admit that even with exploiting, the right tactic is needed especially vs multiple powerful melee-type enemies like Skeletons or Golems, because on insane, even with 60%+ physical resistances, several hits can kill even the toughest party fighter.

Actually, the trickiest moment is when Hardiness expires. I dunno why IA doesn't apply the fix which allows for Hardiness to last indeed 2 rounds per level of caster, as stated in the HLA's description. This way, a 40-th level fighter could rely on 2-turn Hardiness. However in IA, despite the warrior level, Hardiness always lasts 1 turn.

As for the reloading issue - the mod is designed in such a way that if you follow its author's reccomendations and play style, even if you apply the right tactic in every battle, you will never finish it in no-reload game even on Core, not to mention on Insane.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 24 mai 2011 - 10:58 .

[touch_of_the_void]

saros_shadow_follower wrote...

As for the reloading issue - the mod is designed in such a way that if you follow its author's reccomendations and play style, even if you apply the right tactic in every battle, you will never finish it in no-reload game even on Core, not to mention on Insane.

What are you basing this on?

[saros_shadow_follower]

touch_of_the_void wrote...

saros_shadow_follower wrote...

As for the reloading issue - the mod is designed in such a way that if you follow its author's reccomendations and play style, even if you apply the right tactic in every battle, you will never finish it in no-reload game even on Core, not to mention on Insane.

What are you basing this on?

Personal experience. Yes, I have tried the game with no exploits on Insane. And progressed it up to some point. Although doable, for several battles I couldn't devise 100% successful no-reload tactics. And also several runthroughs (not mine) of the mod of which I know about. Of course, I won't mind if anyone proves me wrong but I don't think anyone can. Even Sikret.

Anyway, the party have progressed a bit further:

Defeated the Steam Elemental Prince in the furnace room of the Planar Sphere. And completed the vanilla Mage Stronghold, killing Teos in the end as well.

Level 2, Watcher's keep. In the Fire Library was a lone Elite Fire Giant as a random encounter. These things are dangerous because of their Knockback effect on strike. Although the unconsciousness of the Knockback can be prevented via Chaotic Commands for example, nothing can prevent being thrown back to a considerable extent. Still, a lonely Elite Fire Giant is no problem. Those are problem when together with other enemies.

Besides, each Elite Fire Giant is immune to all spells and weapons until he consumes his Potion of Magic Shielding. Moronic. This could've been done another way, not so buggy. For example, I remember duergar pursuers inside Chateau Irenicus (Tactics mod) appearing with pre-buffs, which included Magic Protection and Magic Shielding potions. Because in this case, the giant was lured via a Planetar, and didn't consume the potion until 2 rounds of the battle have already passed (during that time, the fighters couldn't harm him at all).

Random encounter in the Air Library - a group of golems similar to that in the Ice Library, eliminated earlier.

In here was a lone Elemental Golem, which dropped the Girdle of Fortitude and the katana, Malakar +2, after dying. The party used the five belts (Golden Girdle, Piercing, Crushing, Hill Giant Str and Fortitude) to forge the Girdle of Lordly Might. It was equipped on the A-F mainly because of the 20HP bonus.

Random encounter in the Slime Library - a group of minor (yet improved) spiders - Mutated ones, Vortex ones, etc.
Here, the party found the Paladin Bracers, which will serve Jack Sparrow  well.

The party looted the whole level, obtaining the four scepters. Also, were found a Manual of Elaboration and a Permanency scroll.

After careful preparation, the party freed the Chromatic Demon. The demon gated in some minions, while Astarta and Alia's contingencies triggered. Before that, Alia had shot her Trigger with triple Lower Resistance on the demon, and now both mages begin showering him with Ice Storms. Alia has reduced casting time by 1, and Astarta - by 3. Both mages have Chain Contingencies and Sequencers loaded with triple Ice Storm spell. The mages don't forget to refresh ProMW and Alacrities. When Astarta's 12 Ice Storms ended, she began casting Cone of Cold spells (while in the same time Alia continued with Ice Storms). Alia had equipped the Ring of Acuity for this battle - in order to have as many Ice Storm spells as possible. Astarta's last Cone of Cold was interrupted by enemy's 'Burn Mortals' ability. However, the demon was already almost dead, and right when Astarta refreshed Alacrity and Alia shot her last Ice storm, the demon fell. After the ice stones stopped falling, two more corpses were discovered - that of a Fire Salamander Prince, and a Hybrid Mist, who fell as collateral casualties of the Ice Storms.

An important victory for the party! Recovered the blade of the Truth, the poison FoA head, Tuigan bow, and the key to the next level.

Travelled back to Cromwell, forged the Truth +5 longsword. Travelled to De'Arnise keep, used the forge to create the FoA +4. At least now every fighter in the party has a +4 or +5 weapon at his disposal. Of course, it would be very nice if the party had yet another +4 crushing weapon...will have to storm lvl 3 of Watcher's keep in order to try to forge the Rimed Club +4.

Also, the Nature's gift potion was forged. This potion is useable with UAI and grants 250 000 xp when consumed. Unfortunately, it disables the thieving skill button permanenty. Jack hasn't consumed it. Yet.

The Barbarian raised yet another level, hitting 39. Now he has ** in Flails, 13 Critical Strikes and 6 Hardinesses.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 24 mai 2011 - 09:42 .

[SpiffyKeen]

Tolman opted to help Nalia, so he and Aerie left town.  Of course, there were 2 ambushes by regular thugs along the way.  One happed before they could even leave Athkatla, and another in the wilderness.  Standard approach for both:  Aerie used the fire wand and Tolman used a combination of melee and ranged attacks (range mostly after the battle was in hand). 

At the keep, Tolman and Aerie told Nalia that they would take care of things on their own.  Tolman used backstabs and melee against trolls, and the standard fire arrows once they were down.  It worked well, since there were a lot of trolls by themselves.  However, for groups of trolls and for giant trolls, it took some more running around and multiple backstabs.  The yuan-ti mage was killed with one backstab.  Tolman opened the drawbridge gate, assembled the flail, and then he and Aerie rested to memorize free action for use against the stone golems. 

Tolman used his dual wield swords against flesh and stone golems, Lilarcor vs. the iron golem, and single wielded the Flail of the Ages with DUHM against the clay golem.  Aerie acted as decoy with stoneskin. 



In the lower dungeon, the trolls in big groups proved MUCH more difficult.  Tolman really only got in one backstab before being surrounded.  He kept hitting with two swords and used healing potions while Aerie used her fire wand, and eventually the trolls were all roasted.  Tolman used troll form (cloak of the sewers) to heal up, and stayed that way as Aerie sent cloudkill into next room.  TrollTolman with chaotic commands blocked the door to keep the umer hulks inside.  Then he backed out of room and healed more.  The final battle with TorGal was even harder.  Only one backstab with multiple giant trolls doesn't accomplish a whole lot (giant trolls really should be more experience).  Aerie added a fire wand blast, but none of the trolls fell down.  Then Tolman got slowed (I don't remember ever seeing this effect before) and almost killed!



He used more potions and Aerie hasted them both.  They all retreated back through the dungeon.  After getting back close to full HP with potions, Tolman engaged the trolls again.  He got strength drained, and Aerie used the fire wand again.  This time the trolls had taken enough damage, and they all fell soon after with Tolman luring them through the fire line. 



They finished looting the keep that Tolman then agreed to be lord of!  Both leveled up: Fighter9/Thief12 and Cleric10/Mage11. 

Back in Athkatla they sold off the loot, fininshed clearing the slave ship, stopped the murderers who burried a man, and exposed the tanner.  Aerie used stoneskin to avoid backstabs, and the frost wand was perfect for dealing a lot of damage to invisible Rune Assassins.  With more gold in pocket, Valen showed up, then Brus.  So Tolman paid Bayle, met with Aran, and leveled up 10/12.  Then he went back to the Temple District to confront Mekrath.  A long battle ensued with farsight and lots of summons.  Then Aerie protected up and activated those tiny meteors.  Eventually Mekrath fell, and Tolman sent Haer'Dalis back to his troop.  He also grabbed the amulet from the Talos priestess, returned to the docks, and continued the Mae'Var quests.  Most everything was standard tactics:  Free Action vs. stone golems, and summons and ranged attacks vs. Gethras. 



The final confrontation with Mae'Var himself was easy, but on the way out, a backstab killed Aerie.  Tolman was really mad, so he finished off the remaining thieves himself with as much overkill as possible ("Time for a bit of the rough and tumble!  A lot of rough, tumble, and exploding body parts!").  Then he raised Aerie at the Temple of Oghma.  After selling off their spoils, they had over 20,000 gold (the Mae'Var quests seem to be very lucrative).  Aerie drank some potions and then scribed a lot of mage scrolls.  Next up:  Trademeet. 

Modifié par SpiffyKeen, 28 mai 2011 - 05:48 .

[Khrondorr]

Im going to join the No reload challenge. I will be importing a Female Dwarf F/T from BG1 which I just finished in this thread. http://social.biowar...4065/61#7486791
 
Will run Vanilla with official patch. Only thing is Ill add a bag of holding at the start (didnt use one in BG1), since Ill run solo. I have soloed a Kensai/thief Dual before, so looking to see how this fairs. I am worried about Melissan fight if I make it that far. Sceen shot of starting char.

[saros_shadow_follower]

Astarta and party, further adventures:

After defeating the Chromatic Demon, the party set foot for MNORH, and completed the vanilla Paladin stronghold quests (including the Improved baron Metrich fight), except the last one - slaying Firkraag, which has to be postponed a bit. Alia raised a level (now 34).

Next, the party completed second Marvella task - killed a Noble marilith (forgot to cast Improved Haste, lame) and his 2 Abyssal Escorts, obtaining another Laeral's tear necklace and forging another +2 cloak (so far the party has 5 of these).

Watcher's keep, level 3. Unfortunately, the crushing-type +4 weapons are the most important ones for the party, and a fourth one is really needed. The party first visited the Stone Pillar room, from which they got The Purifier +4. Since the only one that can use it in the party is Jack Sparrow and he has no proficiency points in Bastard swords, the weapon is kinda useless. Next, the party pressed forward, avoiding (somehow) Tahazaar, but killing a pair of Alu-fiends (one teleported away) and a Succubus, next defeated Ka'rashur and his group (btw, the Imps and Cornugons in this group still cast their spells on Improved Invisible enemies freely, despite what Sikret claims that he'd fixed all these bugs), defeated a pair of demons-summoners (for a non-exploit using player - wait out all summons - Fire Elementals and Salamanders - before slaying the demons, for more xp), and then stumbled upon the Hybrid Tiefling and his gang.

The party was well prepared. Alia quickly rushed behind the Hybrid Tiefling after casting ProMW (so that no melee enemy targets her in close combat), and charged her Chain Contingency with triple Ruby Rays. Yhe result from this action is obvious, after all this is a Wild magic zone, but now Alia cannot use even regular Contingencies for 24 hours. And she needs those together with Remove Magics to dispel enemy mage's combat protections, once the SI: Abjuration is stripped. But if Alia cannot, then Astarta can. And the Contingency triggers right after the mage had cast ProMW, dispelling it immediately. In the meantime, the party slew the two Elite Planar Hounds. They dispel specific protections on hit and Confuse the target. However, they targeted the Barbarian, and his Rage is undispellable by their melee attack, so he wasn't confused (but his buffs were gone). Anyway, the Tiefling couldn't do much.

Loot from this battle - weapon (+3 staff) and armor (Neutral Archmage Robe) for the sorceress, Alia.

The party then took the right portal to the previous room, rested there, buffed there well, and returned to the Wild Magic tiefling zone, then took the northern portal to the Demon Knights.

WK lvl 3 demon knights are improved and are equal to those in Underdark in power and numbers (5). However, their protections were aptly dispelled by the mages, and the fighters were well prepared vs the enemy chain contingencies with ADHW and/or Bigby's fist by Free Action and proMagicEnergy (in addition to profire, of course). Enemies didn't even have the time to try to lower the party's Fire resistance.

The party rested, buffed with undispellable buffs, prepared adequate sequencers, and took the north portal to the Demon Wraith room.

The room is trapped, as in vanilla, however the Demon Wraith is improved, and the most dangerous trap is unavoidable. Yep, another of those stupid Purge Magic traps. However, the party has no time to detect and disarm the rest of the traps. The two mages, under alacrity (pre-buff), begin casting combat and specific protections and improved haste on the fighters as well. Good thing that Giant Strength is undispellable. However, Torham's ironskins are breached. However, he has a very good AC, further boosted by the undispellable Shield of the Archons, and takes no hits, and manages to refresh his Ironskins. While the two mages cast SI:Abjuration, and the sorceress tries to keep up with some adequate spells while Astarta tries to cast Protection from magical energy on everyone, the party fighters hold off the Slave Wraiths. Saros has been drained 3 levels, but there are no more dangerous hits, however now five Skeleton Warlords rise to join the fight, and the Demon Wraith is still untouched. The last Slave Wraith dies, Astarta and the Demon Wraith exchange Ruby Rays and strip each other of Spell Immunity Abjuration. However, Astarta is prepared and had previously refreshed Alacrity, and now has the advantage, and uses it to refresh SI and to cast Remove Magic, forcing the Demon Wraith to cast defensive spells for a couple of rounds. In the meantime, the fighters rearrange to face the new threat. The Riskbreaker, Saros, is the main target of the Skeleton Warlords, and he uses his Risk Decrement ability to even the chances. Alia on the other hand uses her alacrity to build up her own defences and to summon some fodder, while the Warlords fall one after another. The Demon Wraith tries in a desperate attempt to at least strip Astarta from her SI:Abjuration, however this is anticipated and countered. Critical Strikes help slay the Demon Wraith faster (because even with Str 25 a normal hit deals only 3-4 points of damage to it).

Loot: The Ice Dragon scales - the last ingredient of the Rimed Club +4, also a special book - the History of the Chosen of Mystra (needed to create the important Necromantic high-level spell, Recast Vital Energy).

Next the party travelled to Aesgerath's chamber, played with him for a while, tried twice to win the Spectral Brand scimitar, and was successful on the second draw. Phew. First draw was Strife vs Construct, however the second was Strength vs Defiance, so the demon was forced to give the Spectral Brand. It is an excellent weapon for disrupting spellcasters, since its elemental damage hasn't been nerfed and is applied on every hit, as in vanilla. And it's a +4 slashing weapon, perfect for the Barbarian, who has ** in Scimitars!

The party travelled back (no need to further explore this level, at least for now), and forged the Rimed Club +4 (has a chance to deal some cold damage on strike, and grants 50% cold resistance while equipped). Now everyone in the party has a +4 crushing weapon, and the Riskbreaker dual-wields a +5 and a +4 weapon.

The Ranger-Cleric (Torham) and the Assassin-Fighter (Jack Sparrow) both raised levels. Jack is now 23-27 lvl, and had a chance to put yet another star in Quarterstaves (so far ****), also picked Critical Strike as HLA.

[saros_shadow_follower]

Astarta and party, artifact collectors:

In order to survive the dangers ahead, the party had to prepare carefully and battle some less frightening enemies first. First name that comes to mind - Kangaxx. A nice +2 ring, grants immunity to poison - something which the party fighters lack (well, besides the Periapt of proof vs poison, but a +1 amulet is almost always the better choice in this case).

So, the party eliminated the two liches - Elemental and Shade - guarding Gaxx's parts. All Shade Liches in Improved Anvil 6.0 guard themselves with Spell Immunity Necromancy versus Disrupt Undead spell, however this makes them extremely vulnerable to high-level Dispel or Remove magic (the party doesn't need to strip an enemy SI:Abjuration). Anyways, the two liches were slain with ease, and then the party buffed well and pressed for Kangaxx.

In short, all battles require 5-6-7 minutes of serious buffing and an actual 2-3 minutes of fighting. Boring, but it has to be done. In the case of Gaxx, the party had to also include things like Death Ward (vs Imprisonment) and ProEnergy (vs the enemy various lower elemental resistance abilities) to the usual buffing. Astarta's timing was perfect, as her Alacrity was completed a second before the enemy buffs activated, and she cast ProMW under Alacrity. A Ruby Ray followed by a quick Remove Magic, and this is what happens to Kangaxx, who of course began with True Sight (interrupted). So the party has all their buffs active, including Mass Invisibility, and the desperate Chain Contingency does nothing. Even in Demilich form, Kangaxx loses health very quickly, despite the fact that the A-F, Captain Jack Sparrow, forgot to equip the Staff of Rynn and was unable to hit the target with his +3 halberd. While the Planetar's weapon appears to be ineffective, the party slew Kangaxx almost in the second when Jack switched to Staff of Rynn. Criticals did it.

The party got a Freedom scroll from this fight as well.

With the Ring of Gaxx equipped on the Riskbreaker, the party travelled to WK lvl 1 to challenge the Spider queen. Now, when all of  the fighters have a +4 crushing weapon, she is no match. The two mages protected themselves (they would not take any action in this fight, so they're just in the way), and the Queen gated in. However, she's immune to all types of attacks until she gives her speech. The queen is quite damage resistant, however she is not immune to Criticals.
The queen fell literally in a round and a half. The spiders focused on the Riskbreaker, who indeed got his Free Action dispelled, and seeing this, the Ghost spider released his Improved Web, but the rest of the party were under Free Action, and the Riskbreaker had excellent saves so he didn't get webbed. The fight was over very soon.

Loot from this fight - the Spider Queen eggs and a Bless scroll (both ingredients).

Using the eggs, the black spider figurine and the last Manual of Elaboration, the party forged the Golden Spider Fiigurine.

Next stop - the Temple ruins. Upon entering the area, the first thing that the party did was a Farsight spell centered on the entrance of the ruins, to check if the previously stirred Skelton Lord, Warlords, Grandlord and Shade lich are there waiting in ambush. Nope, they weren't. So the party travelled to the stairs, buffed well and entered. And a good thing they did that. A Skeleton Warlord and Grandlord intercepted them almost immediately, and were slain. In the next couple of rounds a Lord and Warlord arrived also to be slain. The slow Shade Lich arrived last, and lacking fighter support, fell very quickly.

The party dealt with another similar group after resting, collected the Symbol of Amaunator and the Shadow dragon stone, and pressed to Traxi's lair.

Traxi had to be defeated. Now. At least the shadow stone allows ample preparations - like for example summoning enough fodder for the battle, and even buffing with shortlived buffs. The R-C and the two mages backed a bit so they weren't in the sight of the dragon (because of his Greater silence, which he won't use on pure fighters or thieves).

Traxi is also immune to all attacks while neutral - first has to be challenged to fight. So the party did that, and even managed to quickly strip his Stoneskin, forcing Traxi to release his Spell trigger almost immediately. In the meantime Astarta completed Alacrity, followed by Remove Magic. However Traxi made the mistake to start True Sight chanting, and a moment later the Remove Magic hit him, dispelling his protections. The fighters used that moment with devastating results, while Astarta shot a second Remove Magic just in case something like a Contingency triggers or Traxi manages to refresh ProMW.

Loot: The usual. Besides that - a Permanency Scroll and a scroll of Vocalize, a needed ingredient for the necromantic Amulet of hades.

Next the party rested, rebuffed, and pressed to challenge the Shade lord. Last party buffs were two Alacrities. The enemy's buffs (he also had 2 Skeleton Grandlords on his side - however this is level-dependant). The first Grandlord fell quickly, thanx to a lucky Hard hit from the Riskbreaker (it looks like the enemy resistances are not taken under consideration when calculating the 'Hard Hit' damage). While the fighters took care of the second Grandlord (and Torham helped the injured with Greater Restoration), Astarta had already dispelled the enemy protections, and the Shade Lord fell. Protection from Magical Energy is important in this fight, because of the enemy 'Field of Dark Magic' fireshield, which retaliates with magical damage upon each successful melee hit.

The party assembled some important (although static) items from this fight, including a green scroll of Prot from level drain, and a Manual of Elaboration.

With the help of Cromwell were forged:

The Amulet of Hades (has some additional bonuses over the usual Amulet of Power - the most important being Immunity to Silence).
The Supreme Chain Mail +6 (for the Barbarian)
and the Shadow Dragon Scales +6

No one raised a level yet.

Edit: A little add-on. Using the newly-forged Amulet of Hades' power, the party challenged the City Gates' Grave lich. It is a dangerous opponent, since it uses Grave Silence. But one immune to silence high-level mage is enough to strip its defences, so it was chopped to pieces very quickly. The party obtained the Daystar sword and a Manual of Elaboration. Using the manual, the last permanency scroll, and some other ingredients, the party forged this item. The dagger seems useless since no one in the party can use it right, and even if someone could, any dagger in IA 6 is a weak weapon. However, it has 1 Assassination HLA, which might come in handy with grand mastery in Quarterstaves vs some opponents. But even a regular test with the dagger seems promising (and I have never seen a backstab Octuple damage before).

Edit: A little more add-on to this chapter:

Exploited a bit more, raised only Jack Sparrow's levels a bit - up to fighter level 30, for a bit more HLAs, a bit more overall HP, and of course, grand mastery in quarterstaves. He's now lvl 23-30 (A-F), has 4 Hardinesses, 5 Critical Strikes and 1 Smite as warrior HLAs.

Afterwards, decided to kill the wizards for their arrogant behavior earlier (when meeting with Limak). Killed 5 groups of lower level wizards, until finally, Zallanora and Khollynnus Paac appeared. Up to the moment they erected their defences, the fighters have already killed one of the nameless Cowled wizards. Zallanora somehow had lots of luck withstanding Astarta's first Remove Magic, that's why PC resorted to heavy artillery and released her Sequencer with triple Remove Magic. Now THAT Zallanora couldn't evade and her protections were dispelled. The party fighters seized this opportunity and a second later Zallanora fell. More enemies keep gating in. However in a flash Astarta refreshed Alacrity, cast triple RRR on Khollynnus Paac, and dispelled her protections too. Once Khollynnus died, no more enemies gated in, and the party easily took care of the remaining ones.

Nothing that valuable gained from these fights, except experience, some scrolls (but nothing that good from those) and of course, the right to use magic freely on the streets. Torham, the Ranger-Cleric, hit yet another level, and is currently levels 16-37 (needs only two levels to the experience cap). Alia is nearing mage level 35, and even the Riskbreaker is soon gonna hit level 40.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 31 mai 2011 - 08:30 .

[saros_shadow_follower]

Astarta and party,newest log entry:

There was a squirrel in the Promenade district that started a very peculiar quest...to go check on his brother in Umar Hills area, who again used the party to transfer some nuts (&bolts) to their uncle in the Bridge District. The last squirrel informed the party of a nearby assassination attempt at the  Balthis estate. So the party went to check what's happening there and found three Prime Assassinators (high-level thieves or more probably, fighter-thieves dualclass) stalking there. The Prime Assassinators were no match, although one actually managed to poison Captain Jack Sparrow. They dropped some potions and three +1 rings. Lord Balthis was grateful for the rescue, and rewarded the party with some meager items, but notified them of a nearby house (Pitre&Valeria's home), which was pinpointed as a Twisted Rune headquarters in the city limits. However the entrance's wards could only be breached via Adamantite dust. The party will have to come back later to this house.

The party checked once again the 'magical' container inside the Planar sphere, and found Protection from Energy scroll for Astarta.

The party afterwards immediately rushed to the Windspear hills area, forgetting to even forge another +2 ring of protection. Well, no matter. Proper tactic is all that matters when battling dragons. This included proper buffing ( Astarta buffed herself and the three fighters via ProEnergy in addition to ProFire), while Alia had some powerful summons conjured (a Planetar and 2 Greater Yuantis), while Torham (after buffing) summoned a Noble Spider via the figurine. Also, Torham and Alia have to stay far behind out of enemy sight so they're not Greater Silenced.

The Greater Yuantis are far more powerful than the Noble Spider or the Planetar, however they can still be easily evaporized via Death Spell. Besides, the Planetar is more often than not unaffected by the knockback effect of the Wing Buffet, and occupies the dragon's attention long enough for the party to regroup and take proper actions.

Anyway the Riskbreaker, the Barbarian, the Assassin-Fighter and the Necromancer (PC) charged forward alongside the summons to challenge Firkraag to a fight. Firkraag has the support of three waves of 3 Skeleton Warlords, and cannot be killed until the last one of those is alive. Basically it's like this: first wave has to be slain and Firkraag brought to near-death so that he summons the second wave and fully heals himself, rinse, repeat, third wave, and then Firkraag can be killed.

Firkraag can have any doubts he wants, all that the party wants to have is Carsomyr. Firkraag opened the fight with a Buffet, buffing away the summoned Yuantis, the Noble Spider and Grunt the Barbarian (but not the Planetar). Saros (Riskbreaker) and Captain Sparrow (Assassin-Fighter) stepped immediately forward, but were also buffeted while Astarta managed to finish her Alacrity at last. In the meantime, the dragon began chanting an Abjuration spell, and judging by the direction he faced my guess was that it was gonna be Breach on the Riskbreaker. So the Riskbreaker quickly consumed an Invisibility potion before the dragon could complete the spell. Once again double standards apply for Sikret's monsters, because where in a similar situation a party Breach would be rendered ineffective, the enemy one had no trouble at all bypassing Invisibility.

However, cheating enemies never prosper. While Astarta used her Alacrity and stripped enemy spell protections via Ruby Rays(NOT spellstrike of course - the dragon could just as easily refresh the Spell Shield afterwards, while there is no way for him to do it if the Spell Shield was Ruby Rayed for the next 20 rounds), Saros re-activated Hardiness. Astarta used mainly Breaches to strip the dragon of his defences, while the fighters defeated the first wave of Skeleton Warlords. Torham helped with a Greater Restoration too, while Astarta, constantly refreshing alacrities, used some time to refresh the Riskbreaker's fire and magical damage protection (ProFire + ProEnergy).

However, due to misclicking, Torham somehow charged forward, and the dragon immediately used that opportunity. Torham quickly ran back so that he would be the only one Silenced. However the dragon was forced to summon his second defence wave. Alia kept summoning stuff (Planetars when the previous one is slain, Greater Yuantis and even Elite Trolls) from behind, however Torham, now silenced, could now aid the fighters in a more direct way rather than casting Greater Restoration from behind. However the party fighters' Hardiness waned (and Saros was Breached once again), and Saros was indeed in bad shape, but he retreated, and while Grunt re-activated Hardiness, Saros used Risk Decrement to heal himself.Astarta under Alacrity helped once again Saros with ProFire, but then focused on dispelling the remaining enemy combat protecions rather than buffing the riskbreaker with ProEnergy once more. The third wave of Warlords finally appeared, but the party had enough manpower (with summons) to easily destroy them. Firkraag was out of Stoneskins, out of ProMW, and used his Lower Fire Resistance on the Planetar (instead on the party fighters), and the fighters were at the moment out of the ability's range, so their Fire resistance remained intact. His near-death Contingency was expected and immediately countered via Remove Magic, however before that spell could hit the enemy, a lucky strike from the Rimed Club inflicted 40 points of cold damage upon the dragon through the Stoneskin, and he fell.

Loot from this battle - static items, like the Ring of Fire Resistance, Red dragon blood, and of course, Carsomyr +5, which is an excellent weapon for Captain Sparrow, at least for now.

[saros_shadow_follower]

Astarta & party, further adventures:

Applying an unlimited gold exploit (for a very long time btw) the party now has enough millions to last throughout the expensive purchases/ upgrades of the entire game. Also, some random items, like for example more than 15 Green Scrolls of Protection from Poison (and some other green protection scrolls - mainly from Fire) were obtained by doing so.

The next assignment of the party was the third task of Marvella. Down in the Fire/Ice chambers of the Planar sphere is where the action takes place. The quest is called 'Treasure in the Ice Chamber' or 'Why is it so cold down here'. The second name is for a reason. Once every two rounds the message 'Why is it so cold down here' appears, all party members shiver and their actions are interrupted (fighters stop attacking, mages' currently casting spells are lost, all freeze in place, all are slowed with no save, all have +4 penalty to AC for the next 2 rounds).

Anyway, the party buffed very well, with ProEnergy added to ProCold (vs the Lower Cold Resistance ability of the Ice Golem), and Free Action upon the Improved Haste(vs the Ice Golem's Freezing Wind ability and vs the Slow effect each two rounds). The enemies below are an Ice golem and an Elemental golem, and until those are slain, the message 'Why is it so cold down here' keeps appearing every 2 rounds.

Alia cast Alacrity right before the party descended down the stairs. On the next level, Alia and Astarta immediately started Alacrity casting, however it was interrupted by the 'Why is it so cold down here' message, and their spells were lost. Alia, without losing any more time, rushed forward and her contingencies triggered. The Ice Golem released his Purge Magic on her, however she had few buffs altogether, and used her still running Alacrity to refresh her buffs right away. The two golems now had no other vulnerable to melee target in sight but the three Elite Trolls summoned by Alia's Chain Contingency. Alia used her Alacrity offensively at the end, releasing her Sequencers and Trigger and all her Larloch's Minor Drain spells upon the Ice Golem.

So the golems attacked the trolls, while in the same time the fighters activated their short-lasting abilities, and Astarta finished casting Alacrity. Astarta started her magical assault upon the Ice Golem while the four fighters engaged the golem in melee. When Astarta's LMD spells and sequencers were all shot, she began casting Rays of Fragmentation (casting time 1 in her case). The Ice Golem apparently wears a helmet (immune to Criticals), but that didn't save him. With the help of Astarta's 12 Vampiric Touches and remaining Rays of Fragmentation, and with Critical strikes, the Elemental golem was quickly slain as well. Loot - 30 000 gp from the Ice Chamber.

Marvella's last task - the party talked to Marvella for the last time, and she used Dimension Door to escape (for now), giving the party two scrolls - Foreknowledge and Limited Wish. Astarta immediately scribed Foreknowledge and used Alacrity and her six Wishes to get option for Rest. No luck. In the meantime, Pasha Mahmoud appeared, Astarta made peace with him and they stood together versus Marvella's gated monsters - a Noble Marilith, a Noble Rakshasa and an Elemental Golem. Of course, before that moment the party was buffed with undispellable buffs (Giant Str, Foreknowledge, Shield of the Archons, and in Astarta's case - Alacrity), and a bunch of summons were prepared for the fight as well. Astarta had also brought along the Guardian Golem of the Sphere to help in this battle. So Astarta started casting protections as fast as she could with her last seconds of running Alacrity. Her Contingencies also triggered promptly while party fighters activated their Hardinesses. Alia's contingencies also triggered, but that was unfavourable for the party, since the Noble Marilith didn't activate his True Sight, which was somewhat good - enemies couldn't target anyone with spells - but at the same time bad, because now Astarta couldn't cast Protection from Magical Energy on the fighters. The results were obvious a couple of rounds later, when the two Horrid Rakshasas (gated by the Noble Rakshasa) released their ADHW spells on the entire party. Jack was hit by only one of those (he wields Carsomyr), so his HP dropped to 50, however Saros and Torham were hit by two, and their HP were even lower (Torham 40, Saros 29). Grunt was uninjured, strange as it may seem. While Astarta kept alacrity active the whole time and shot Remove Magic after Remove Magic (depleting the Noble Marilith and his 2 Abyssal Escorts combat protections like Stoneskin and ProMW), Torham managed to heal everyone in the party via Greater Restoration and the party finally slew the Noble Rakshasa. BTW, I haven't the slightert idea why the Noble Rakshasa didn't fry the party fighters via Dragon Breath - they were unprotected from fire. The Guardian Golem proved to be a great treasure in this fight, since he's extremely damage resistant. However he can be killed in IA 6.0, so the Planetar Healed him and the golem was brand new, distracting one Rakshasa the entire time. In the meantime, the two Abyssal Escorts fell quickly (they're quite easy to slay without their constantly refreshed combat protections). The Noble Marilith was next in line. The two Horrid Rakshasas were next (they were actually more frightening than the Abyssal escorts, but not more than the Noble Marilith). And of course, the Elemental golem was last to fall.

Astarta kept track on Pasha Mahmoud the entire time, and he was even Healed once by the Planetar, but frankly, he took quite a little damage in this fight since the enemies were too focused on summons or party fighters, or the Guardian Golem (who survived, although on near-death again, and is going to be used even further in the Extended mage stronghold battles).

Loot from this battle - besides the Foreknowledge and Limited Wish scrolls, Pasha gave Astarta a scroll of Monster Summoning V (summons Fire Salamanders), and also a Laeral Tear's Necklace from the Noble Marilith (all Noble Mariliths drop one of those at death).

Alia raised a level here (lvl 35). Nothing much gained from the level up - 1 max HP and 1 stupid HLA - scribe scrolls.

The party left the Planar Sphere (will return in chapter 6 to finish the extended stronghold quests), and set foot for MNORH. The party rested there a couple of days in the right chamber (right before the right exit), and suddenly, Lady Vanya appeared.

Lady Vanya informed the party of a powerful organization which claimed Firkraag's lair for their own. The Rune Assassins must be stopped.

Ooooooo-kay. So the party travelled to Firkraag's lair, was assaulted (on lvl 2) by seven Elite Rune Assassins, then rested, buffed well, and climbed upstairs. Last party buffs were activated right before the battle ensued. The enemy mages (Assassin Coordinators) are immune to Slashing damage and use SI:Divination to hide themselves. The enemy cohort contains a couple of Golems (Gem and Coin), a couple of Master Assassins (fighter/thieves or more accurately Assassin->Fighters dual), a high-level assassin (the Guildmaster) with Use Any Item ability and  a handful of useful scrolls, two Assassin Coordinators and numerous Rune Assassins and Elite Rune Assassins. The battle is not so hard, provided that the party fighters can navigate freely and pick their targets adequately. However, due to numerous invisible crowding Rune and Elite Rune Assassins, this is very hard. Astarta (under running Alacrity) after shooting Remove Magic (to dispel enemy mages' protections) shot Greater Malison, and Alia's triple ADHW (Chain Contingency) really cleared the way for party fighters, who seized this opportunity, and before more (Elite) Rune Assassins were gated (either by the Guildmaster or by the two Master Assassins), they killed both enemy mages. The party slaughtered a Gem Golem while Astarta almost killed the Coin one via her anti-golem spells. The enemy numbers were so severely dwindled, that they couldn't really do anything and fell one after another - the Guildmaster fell last.

Loot: A +2 protection ring, Kaligun's Amulet of MR, a second Bless scroll, numerous +1 rings, many scrolls, including two Protection from Elements scrolls and two PW:Kill scrolls. And many sellable items.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 03 juin 2011 - 12:52 .

[saros_shadow_follower]

Astarta and party - Borinal, Unseeing Eye Cult, Guarded Compound and Orcus, Prince of the Unedad:

Borinal and his Amber Golem were so easy to defeat that I won't even bother to do so.

The Unseeing Eye quest was nothing out of ordinary. The Beholders and Gauths in IA 6.0 have much more HP than in the original game, however they also shoot their rays quite slowly, and even though both Gauths and Beholders have Anti-Magic rays, they don't use those very intelligently IMO. As far as the R-C is behind and helps the party with Greater Restorations, the battle is in favour of the party fighters. Mages - out of Beholder sight as well.

The battle with Teshal in the Ghoul City was somewhat notable. Teshal is a powerful Cleric, and gates in Bone Devils (which are not very hard to defeat) however due to high party levels, Teshal had the support of ta Skeleton Grandlords and a Warlord, and besides that, the random Undead encounter joins the fight (1 Shade Lich, 2 Skeleton Grandlords and 2 Warlords), so it was only Alia's quick Chain Contingency with three Elite Trolls summoned, and the Noble Spider which provided some fodder so that none of the fighters were chopped to pieces prematurely. Loot - a Manual of Elaboration, and some other static items.

The rest of the quest was very easy, and the party needed to finish it in order to obtain the last ingredient of the Periapt of Greater Protection - the Amulet of MR 5%, which is dropped by the Unseeing Eye.

The party didn't bother to slay Gaal and his followers, nor to report to the temple yet. However, they did report to Lady Vanya for defeating the Rune Assassins, and were rewarded with 2 of the rare Barbarian Essence potions + some gold.

They went straight for Cromwell, and created numerous +2 rings, also three +3 rings (one for Alia, one for Saros, one for Captain Sparrow). BTW, Cromwell actually accepted to create a +2 ring out of the party's last two +1 rings (actually, three are needed for the upgrade). Also, Cromwell failed to take the Amulet of MR 5% when forging the Periapt of Greater Protection (+2 AC, +2 bonus to saves, +15%MR, Immunity to poison), and failed to take a +2 ring when forging one of the +3 rings.

The Guarded Compound in IA 6.0 is only dangerous if the party doesn't expect the Purge Magic trap upon entering the 2nd floor. Once the trap is known, the tactic can be planned around it with ease.

The party entered the ground level, Sion and Ketta gave their usual speech, blah-blah. The party quickly slew the enemies on this level (vanilla summons like the Djinni and Nishruu fell to the Vhailor's Helmet Death Spell) - two Skeleton Lords, 2 Gem Golems and 2 Coin Golems, alongside respawning Assassins. The party afterwards looted the level, and buffed calmly with undispellable buffs only - Giant Strength, Foreknowledge on all three spellcasters, Shield of the Archons and True Sight for Torham, Soul Armor for Alia, and Improved Alacrities as last buffs for both arcane casters.

On the 2nd level, the party qucikly rushed forward through the nearest trap (which in IA 6 is a dispel illusions trap). Stalman's starting buffs triggered (Sion's are kind of late in this battle, dunno why), and the Purge Magic trap sprung out of nowhere. However this is expected, fighters activate Hardiness, Torham casts Iron Skins, while Alia and Astarta work hard on their own protections as well as party buffs. The time comes for offensive use of that Alacrity, and Alia's now prepared Contingency and Chain Contingency trigger, making the whole party invisible. While Astarta shot numerous Rays of Fragmentation in a blink (casting time 0), Koshi was the first victim of the party fighters. Torham added Defensive Harmony to improve party AC, while the Gem Golem (severely damaged by the Rays of Fragmentation and LMD spells) fell quickly. While Astarta Wished, Sion managed to cast True Sight. Stalman fell. The rest of the enemies were very quick to follow. Sion was last to fall. He even managed to refresh SI: Abjuration after he had been Ruby Rayed. Or so the party thought, as it turns out that one of the enemy fighters was still alive, but he died soon.

Loot from this battle - well, the CF katana. And a Prot from Level Drain scroll - third for the party.

Captain Sparrow raised a level (don't remember if it was before or after the Guarded Compound though) and chose Critical Strike as HLA. Saros also gained his last (40th) level, and chose Hardiness as HLA. Torham hit also level 38. In short, Jack has 3 more levels to raise, Torham 1, Alia 1, and Grunt 1. Astarta and Saros are at max levels both.

The party, overconfident with their recent victories (maybe TOO overconfident) decided that they may actually take on Orcus, the Prince of the Undead, with their current equipment and skills. This fight is usually delayed for chapter 6, when the party has far better gear, not only as protective items, but also as healing items and special spells. Things like the necromantic spell 'Recast Vital Energy' make this fight laughably easy. Let's see how it goes without it!

The fight went awry. Right at entering, the game was Paused, and the party members were given specific directions to follow. Torham is in the lower left part of the map (to the left of Orcus) and this is very important, as will be seen. Alia is in the opposite directions, while Astarta and the fighters are crowding near the entrance. Orcus gates in his first defence wave, the 8 Skeleton Grandlords.

As additional buffs, for this battle were used:

Potion of Defense for the Riskbreaker
Potion of Fortitude for the Riskbreaker (to increase his HP, be it temporarily)
Potions of Barbarian Essence for the three party fighters - to increase their resistance to physical damage by 20%. This way, Saros (with Hardiness and Chain Breaker Stance) has 85% physical res and -24 AC, Grunt has far worse AC, but he has stable 80% physical resistance with Hardiness and his innate resistances of the barbarian kit, while Captain Sparrow has 90% physical resistance, with Jansen's Adventurewear, the Master of Disciplines amulet and Hardiness.
Prot from Level Drain (green scrolls) for the Riskbreaker and Assassin-Fighter.

Alia's Contingencies triggered. Her contingencies were prepared 1 day ago, so that in that battle she could use Chain Contingency if need be. The party needed some meat fodder fast, and Alia was quick to provide it in the form of three Elite Trolls.

Orcus released his Grave Silence ability on Torham, as could be predicted. Of course, Torham was not anywhere near the rest of the party, because a silenced fighter is a dead fighter - cannot use Hardinesses and other innate abilities, which btw is totally moronic and unfixed by the mod's creator.

Astarta cast Alacrity, however her casting time was reduced by 4 only, which meant that she couldn't cast very fast her 11 Disrupt Undead spells. The tactic with these proved to be a total waste - the damage was not so significant, while at the same time the casting time of 3 is too long in this fight, and Astarta had other things to worry about - like Orcus' Ruby Rays and the surrounding Skeleton Grandlords, which required her ProMW to be constantly refreshed. Alia in the lower right corner summoned Greater Yuantis as most sturdy of her summons (and most helpful in melee too). Sparrow, Saros and Grunt defeated two of the Grandlords with relatively few hitpoints lost. A third Grandlord was slain - but Grunt paid too high a price, and was on very little health (but with active Barbarian Rage ability). Astarta, seeing that there is almost no use in Disrupting Undead, started Wishing, and got somewhat lucky with a Greater Restoration (since Torham is silenced and cannot cast it at present). The three fighters kept slaying Grandlords. Even Torham, in 1 on 1 with a Grandlord, managed to slay the enemy right at the moment when the Grandlord stripped him of his Iron Skins.

When the seventh Grandlord fell, Orcus gated in his second wave of defenders - three Master Vampires (who immediately gated 2 Vampire Brides each), and 4 Eminent Vampires. The party here did the enormous mistake to neglect the last Grandlord, who alone did enormous amount of damage to the Barbarian. Astarta countered Orcus' RRR with her spell protections, while the fighters used their Criticals on the Vampire Brides and the Eminent Vampires (all other enemies are immune to criticals) to clear some space and reduce enemy numbers quickly. While the party dealt with the Master Vampires, Orcus gated 4 Skeleton Lords (ha-ha), the Barbarian Rage was promptly refreshed, and since the Barbarian retreated (with many wounds), the enemies started hitting Captain Sparrow, who took little, but constant damage, bringing his total hp to 88, when Orcus surprised him with PW: Stun. Right in this moment, of course, party Hardinesses waned, and while Saros was on full health, and with splendid AC, and tried to help defeating the Skeleton Lords quickly via Risk Decrement, and Grunt managed to refresh Hardiness, Captain Sparrow was unable to refresh Hardiness, and logically - fell.

While the party fighters kept pummeling the Skeleton Lords, a new Master Vampire appeared near Alia (who was summoning an Elite Troll) and he and his 2 Vampire Brides drained 5 levels out of her until  she managed to  refresh ProMW. Alia eventually summoned a Planetar, who raised Captain Sparrow, but without his precious buffs (most importantly Prot lvl Drain and Barbarian Essence potion). Sparrow activated Hardiness, while Torham's silence finally wore off and he helped the party with Greater Restoration. Alia and Astarta helped the fighters by refreshing their Improved Hastes (Saros did it on his own). Sparrow also managed to don his armor (dunno why, sometimes even in the thick of battle this is possible) and of course, armed himself with the rest of his gear. The party (finally) focused on Orcus, however he summoned 4 more Skeleton Lords (and another Master Vampire appeared too), however Alia kept gating summons (Greater Yuantis mainly). A Noble Spider was also called on the party's side, and very soon after, Orcus fell. The party quickly dealt with the rest of the vampires ( couldn't avoid a couple of lvl-draining hits, as can be seen). BTW while still Orcus was alive, one Master Vampire and three Brides were chasing the poor R-C, who didn't have any more Shield of the Archons spells, and a lucky strike from a Vampire Bride drained 3 levels out of him, and thus - due to an in-game bug - all of his memorized 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th level spells were suddenly gone out of his book (he still had numerous slots - but those were suddently empty - the bug is similar to those associated with Dak'Kon Zerth blade and the Ring of Acuity). So the R-C's last 4 Greater Restorations were gone - just like that. Moreover, one Master Vampire appeared a couple of rounds AFTER Orcus was slain. No matter. All enemies died.

Loot from this battle - the Black Blood of Orcus and 7 Potions of Barbarian essence.

Using the Black Blood, the Manual of Elaboration and some gold, Astarta forged the Lord of the Underworld necromantic amulet (has several minor bonuses over the Amulet of Hades), but the amulet has the power to gate in a Skeleton Lord once per day, who is quite resistant to Slashing and Piercing damage, has lots of HP, very good combat abilities and excellent other immunities/resistances.

Notes for this battle:
Drink healing potions all of the time with the fighters until the R-C goes out of the Grave Silence.
Don't leave a fighter below 90HP. 
Use Prot lvl drain on all fighters, including the Barbarian (it was because of fear that his Rage will wane and won't be refreshed immediately that he didn't use healing potions for 2 rounds when he could)
After the Skeleton Grandlords are all slain, focus on Orcus with the help of the Necromancer - the rest of the enemies can wait (well, at least until the Skeleton Lords appear).

[Yield]

@saros:
man what mods do you use?
so crazy battles, so high levels, so much buffs lol