Arcadia v. Yaga Shura (Or The Battle of the Invincibles)
Prior to their battle, Arcadia and Yaga-Shura shared a reputation for invincibility. They both had their Achilles' heals, however, and the question was who would find the others'. Arcadia learned that a witch in a glade held the secret to Yaga-Shura invincibility. Yaga-Shura, in contrast, never discovered what it takes to kill Arcadia: ~7 Ruby Rays or, in the alternative, 40-60 rounds.
Let's take a look at Arcadia's defenses.
Melee Weapons: With her equipped items, buffs, and a Potion of Invulnerability Arcadia has a base AC of -18. Factoring in II and Pro Evil that becomes -22 or -24, depending on the enemy. Potions of Absorption can make that -34 in the case of evil blunt weapon wielders, like Yaga-Shura. Good path immunity covers non-magical weapons while ProMW can cover magical weapons if and when a warrior with +2 or higher weapons activates an HLA. Mirror Images and Stoneskins can catch occasional hits with +2 or higher weapons. Blunt weapon wielders -again like Yaga-Shura- can also face 110% resistance to blunt damage via Hardiness + Roranach's + Defender. Melee weapons are rarely a threat.
Range Weapons: Most arrows are +1 or unenchanted. When Arcadia encounters +2 or greater arrows, she can equip the Reflection Shield.
Energy Attacks: Running Protection from Fire, Protection from Cold, Protection from Acid, Protection from Electricity, and Protection from Magical Energy Arcadia enjoys immunity to all energy attacks. The Ring of Gaxx covers poison.
Save or Else Spells: Arcadia's unbuffed saves are sufficient, so long as potions are available to counter Malison. Her unbuffed save v death is -5, her unbuffed save v spells is -4. Her buffed saves are excellent.
Debuff Spells: So long as her buffs are running, Arcadia is nearly invincible, and debuffing her is not easy. Arcadia starts mage battles runing SI:A + SI:D + Spell Shield + Improved Invisibility + Spell Deflection + Spell Turning. She keeps a Spell Shield and two additional Spell Immunities at L5. She also keeps a SI:A +SI:D + Spell Shield Trigger and MSDs in reserve at L3. What does that mean? SI:A + SI:D stops the obvious stuff. Let's try a crazy over kill assault on Arcadia's defenses, say: Wish- I wish for my enemies magical defenses to be utterly destroyed-> Spell Strike -> Ruby Ray x 3 -> Breach. That should wipe out everything on anyone right? Against Arcadia, that gets enemies nowhere. The Wish would be caught by Spell Shield and Arcadia would counter with a Spell Shield cast from her book. The Spellstrike (assuming the foe could target it through II) would then hit the refreshed Spell Shield. Ruby Ray 1 would take down the Spell Turning, Ruby Ray 2 would eliminate Spell Deflection, at which point, Arcadia would counter with an MSD. Ruby Ray 3 would reach Spell Immunity. Arcadia would counter with her SI:A + SI:D + Spell Shield Trigger. The Breach (again, assuming the foe could target it through II) would then hit the MSD. SI:A + SI:D would remains in place to stop Remove and True Sight. A Spell Shield would still be there to catch any spell protection removers. MSDs would still be available to catch Breaches targeted through II.
Basically, Arcadia can't be defeated unless her buffs are taken down and it takes a lot of spell slots -a lot of spell slots- to remove her buffs. Yaga-Shura had only one high level mage at his side. Anyone want to guess at Yaga-Shura's odds in this fight? Right.
To the battle. In the interest of freeing up slots at L3-L6, Arcadia took her specific protections and a Spell Shield through Contingencies and a Sequencer. Those spells all have long durations, meaning Arcadia could count on them to last through the Yaga fight.
Arcadia sent Yaga packing with a sling bullet. She then buffed while awaiting his return. SI:D + Potion of Invisibility insured that Yaga's army wouldn't interrupt the buff session.
Finally Yaga arrived. I was expecting him to be close, but not this close...
Arcadia darted away and found the space she needed to cast Improved Alacrity. She then filled out her buffs, took her Black Blade of Disaster, and went to work. The Cleric was down within half a round.
When i first saw the Lieutenant Mage, I was tempted to Power Word her. I decided, instead, to be sporting and let her get her buffs up. Upon swinging back by the mage's position, however, Arcadia, still running Improved Alacrity, noticed that the mage remained unbuffed. Your friends are dying and all you've done is cast Stoneskins? That's just lazy. Have a PW: B for that.
Meanwhile, Arcadia activated Greater Whirlwind + Critical Strike to nix the Lieutenant Fighter and the Lieutenant Thief. In addition to their awesome defenses, F/Ms are blessed with the ability to stack HLAs via Improved Alacrity. They also enjoy privileged access to one of the best weapons in the game: the Black Blade of Disaster
Understatement of the year: You need more than healing, friend!
And Lieutenant Thief: Are you really going to keep your range weapon equipped with a Black Blade of Disaster Greater Whirlwind/Critical Strike coming your way? If you insist...
The Lieutenant Mage was next on the hit list but when the mage remained invisible even after her Mislead had been nixed, Arcadia decided to forget about her and leave her to wander blind on the corner of the map.
Time for Yaga. Due to Arcadia's Potion of Absorption enhanced AC, Yaga couldn't hit consistently. Arcadia, meanwhile, had no trouble connecting. Whirlwinds quickly brough Yaga down to Injured.
Arcadia finished with Foebane under ProMW. She took no damage in the fight.
Fin!
I haven't decided whether Abazigal or Sendai will be next. I'm leaning toward Abazigal.
Best,
A.
Btw. Do we all agree that we prefer the spoiler tag approach to posting images? If so, I'll switch to.
Retour en haut
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. So I was thinking of making a quick exit from the Underdark by killing Adalon. After killing the drow guarding the Underdark exit (using a couple of mordy swords to pin them in place inside several cloudkills), then using summons and MMM to fight through the drow guarding the bridge, I checked the drow merchants and realised it would be nice to get the Staff of Earth and Robe of the Evil Archmagi in addition to various scrolls before the city turns hostile. Emptying containers realised a decent amount of funds (about 12,000 for ammunition alone), which allowed the purchase of the desired equipment along with a few scrolls, like spell sequencer and spell immunity, which might genuinely be useful (as opposed to the dross I normally buy 
).
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