I wish I could help with you with some good suggestions, as you did for me with Glorydd, but my knowledge of that part of the game is minimal (even vanilla). All I can do is wish you the best of luck in the endgame.
Don't worry. Captain Swarmi is on it. He'll come up with something. 
Arcadia v Draconis (or You Can't Run But You Sure Can Hide)
Arcadia has defeated Draconis without sustaining any injuries. It was a good victory, but it was also a lengthy battle that tapped a limited resource: True Sight scrolls. Draconis hid repeatedly using illusions, forcing Arcadia to reach into her Bag of Holding and draw down her scroll collection. Hopefully Arcadia won't come up short on divination magics sometime later in her adventure.
Human form Draconis is a powerful caster in my install. And I suspect that in an aTweaks setup human Draconis may be more trouble than dragon Draconis. Take note Aasim and Serg.
After taking his buffs, Draconis's opened with Wish: I wish for time itself to become my servant! That grants a double length Improved Alacrity Time Stop.
He used the time to summon a whole lot of demons. And yes: it can be a little disconcerting to see: Draconis- Casts Summon Fiend, Draconis- Aura Cleansed; Draconis- Casts Summon Fiend, Draconis- Aura Cleansed over and over again.
And just before his Wish double length Improved Alacrity Time Stop ended, he cast another Time Stop, giving him a total of three Time Stop sequences. When it was over, Draconis emerged running Absolute Immunity (which grants immunity to all weapons of all enchantments in my install) and encased in demonic gates. This could get ugly, huh?
It did look pretty bad.
When faced with a threat like that, I often just pause and check my defenses, to confirm that everything is sound.
The Stoneskins are up, Mirror Images are up, AC is where it needs to be, the saves are where they need to be- ProMWs are in reserve, Improved Mantles are in reserve: What are we waiting for Captain Swarmi? Let's beat'em up.
Soon enough, they were chunked. That's when Draconis returned to the scene. It made sense to check the defenses again, this time with an eye on the spell protections: the Spell Shield and Spell Immunities were still in place, along with the Spell Deflection, the Spell Turning and comprehensive Specific Protections. That meant Arcadia could safely use her aura offensively: Arcadia was immune to spell damage and Draconis couldn't possibly take down Arcadia's defenses in less than 2 rounds. Arcadia went on the offensive with the Rod of Reversal to clear the way for Breach. And when Draconis cast an Incendiary Cloud -rather than putting pressure on Arcadia's defenses- she was freed to use her aura offensively again. This time she brought the Breach.
Now human form Draconis was in trouble. He'd stay on the defensive for the rest of the fight. He did, however, manage to stay in the game for a while through use of Abjuration spells and Illusions -long enough to run some of Arcadia's protections down- and that, in a sense, was a victory for human form Draconis. He forced use of a True Sight scroll and had perhaps earned his dragon for a window of opportunity later on.
Nonetheless, the Sling of Seeking finished him, causing his transformation.
On to dragon form Draconis. Arcadia basically won this fight in the opening. Against a missile weapon wielder, Draconis has two tactical assets: he has a high base movement rate and a range weapon that does acid damage. If you deprive him of those assets, he is helpless.
Arcadia entered the dragon form phase running Protection from Acid and an Oil of Speed. And as soon as Draconis flipped, Arcadia pulled a SI:A + SI:D + Spell Shield trigger.
Draconis begins battles hasted, running ProMW. And so long as that haste effect is active, he is dangerous. But with a refreshed SI:A and a Spell Shield in place, Arcadia was free to go Warding Whip->Breach without fear that her Protection from Acid would be dispelled.
And once the Breach landed, it was dispelling arrow time: no more haste effect, no more hope for Draconis. His range weapon is foiled, and he's slow. He's as good as dead now.
He couldn't run, but, again, he sure could hide! After taking a beating from the Sling of Seeking, he figured out that he was done, and kept disappearing. Arcadia had to burn another True Sight scroll. Once Draconis was revealed, however, Arcadia took the battle to him so that he wouldn't vanish again. ProMW->Greater Whirlwind finished him.
Fin!
I'll post on Abazigal tomorrow.
Best,
A.
Thon left the graveyard, heading for the gate district, to avoid the suna ambush and visit watcher's keep. Suna thought differently, and ambushed immediately. I duly dug in the potion bag and pulled out a potion of firebreath. Wait, why are you going to melee range, .. OK do it to Suna, oh right, single target, but at least she's near death, one hit chunked her, and then I realised I was wide open to whatever the rest felt like doing. Admittedly not much, but I used the fear bhaal ability, and that made the entire fight trivial. Which it probably was to start anyway. On the plus side her sword sorts out my web problems.
However I'm not one to let a game-changer derail me from a plan of action (even when it should), so off we went to the keep. Oh wait, she did spend a night in the stable, and even took out that lich without any trouble at all. The Keep went probably as expected by most of you, however I was quite surprised.
What can I say. Vampiric wraiths hit really hard, and move as fast as barbarians. Thon got to the exit portal, but the transition seemed to be taking pretty long, and those wraiths weren't missing at all. So she's dead. I shut down, completely resolved that I hate this challenge, and am never trying again.
Anyway, here's NewThon. I got him about halfway through the first level so far, dungeon-be-gone's looking like a must for Thon3.
So she's dead. I shut down, completely resolved that I hate this challenge, and am never trying again.
Hope your latest not-attempt provides better luck.
@Alesia: Nice work against Draconis. Even in vanilla, he gives my solo characters fits.
@Potty: Sorry to hear of Thon's demise. Hopefully you new incarnation will have more success.
@Grond0: Nice work against Irenicus. Remember you don't have to loot the bodies at the Tree of Life fight, all loot shows up under the PC in Hell - you DO need to loot any bodies in Hell, as you get transferred to the woods and stuff would get left behind.
@Grond0: Glad to see the Army is still on the march. Good luck in ToB!
@Potty1: Condolences. Those Watcher's Keep vampiric wraiths are dangerous. They've ended more than one run. Keep Thon II safe!
Best,
A.
And very educational write-up about Draconis, Alesia (pretty much as always). Many thanks for that!
Thanks.
@Alesia: Nice work against Draconis. Even in vanilla, he gives my solo characters fits.
That's understandable. In vanilla Draconis is the toughest dragon and one of the most dangerous creatures: he's formidable in melee, he's fast when hasted, and he has a breath weapon that is relatively difficult to foil. As an F/M, Arcadia could nullify Draconis's assets, but that's not true of all characters. I understand why some player/character combinations have trouble with him. I can definitely think of characters that I'd dread fighting him with.
Best,
A.
@Grond0: Your group is going great! Do you forsee any problems in completing the Trilogy with this team? Sendai?
They are still performing well below their capabilities. If properly handled I think they would make mincemeat of everything, but there's not much chance of that happening with me in charge ...
Quick Note on Arcadia's Game:
In upcoming posts, you may notice that Arcadia has multiple Wands of Spell Striking. Just so everyone is clear on how that happened, the second one was created by: Wish- Create a random wand in caster's inventory.
Wands of Spell Striking are among the wands created by that spell.
Best,
A.
We've cleared the sewers, the Cult of the Eyeless, and Firkraag.
Shiled of Balduan: About 14000 gp
Being able to tank gauth eyebeams: Priceless
And here I thought I was cynical and jaded.
How many vamps did Vanja just chunk anyway?
Wolf where? Where wolf? Doesn't matter, they all look the same when they're chunky.
You know, I completely forgot that these guys just pop into this room from out of nowhere. This was the most trouble we've been in so far, if not for Cloak of the Sewers: Rat then this would probably have been the end.
Tazok just doesn't learn. If you mess with the sorceress, you get the berserker.
Oh, hi Conster. If I'd known you'd be here I'd have prepared a PW:Silence. Oh. wait, I DID prepare a PW:Silence.
You know, if I had bit it here, I would have been very, very upset.
Next stop: The thieve's guild.
Arcadia, Half-Elven Fighter/Mage: Pocket Plane Challenge 2
I neglected to post on Pocket Plane Challenge 1, which is kind of a shame since it was probably Arcadia's most interesting fight in ToB. The second Pocket Plane Challenge wasn't as interesting -Arcadia breezed through it- but I thought I'd post on it, nonetheless, just to remind the SCS players, that Pocket Plane Challenges 1 & 2 are potentially dangerous. One of Blackraven's memorable runs ended in PPC2 and I've had some close calls in PPC1.
Arcadia will make his look trivial, but that's simply because her abilities are suited to the fight. Other characters would find it difficult.
Arcadia entered the challenge running her long duration buffs and a few critical short duration buff, notably SI:A + SI:D + II. Her Contingencies fired. She then cast Improved Alacrity and filled out her buffs, taking GWW and Crtical Strike amongst others.
Evil Arcadia, Angelo, and Tamoko were all chunked within a couple rounds.
Semaj got off a Time Stop, but by then Arcadia had already started making progress on his protections via wands.
Semaj countered with a ProMW. Arcadia finished him with unenchanted dart Smite->unenchanted long sword GWW.
Arcadia should fight Abazigal this evening- assuming basketball doesn't interfere. ![=]](https://lvlt.forum.bioware.com/public/style_emoticons/default/sideways.png)
Best,
A.
You know, if I had bit it here, I would have been very, very upset.
I'm glad Isa made it! Close call!
Best,
A.
I'm glad Isa made it! Close call!
Best,
A.
Seems that's what happens when you're distracted and in in a hurry to get the heck out of the dungeon and run into a group of hobos, incuding a shaman who gets lucky with hold person. At least Isa wasn't poisoned, slow/neutralize poison is not a cleric spell Shea has prepped.
Congrats on surviving Pocketplane challenge no. 2 Alesia! (It's the furthest I've ever got, with my BH Norgath.)
Interestingly the setting looks different from the one in my setup (less pleasant), though the fight itself appears to be the same.
Nishike, glad to see you squeeze through there
Interestingly the setting looks different from the one in my setup (less pleasant), though the fight itself appears to be the same.
That's a good/evil distinction, I believe. If your character is good, you fight your counterpart in the lava pits, and then it transforms into the oasis after the battle. If your character is evil, it's the other way around. Here you can see the battlefield after good path Arcadia prevailed.
Best,
A.
Btw. The water in the oasis heals, whereas the lava in the pits does fire damage. That fight is marginally easier in the lava setting, I'd say, assuming you are protected from fire.
That's a good/evil distinction, I believe. If your character is good, you fight your counterpart in the lava pits, and then it transforms into the oasis after the battle. If your character is evil, it's the other way around.
Wow, nice. Didn't know that. Norgath was Lawful Neutral at the time but had started out as Lawful Evil. I vaguely recall faux Norgath healing all the time...
Norgath was Lawful Neutral at the time but had started out as Lawful Evil. I vaguely recall faux Norgath healing all the time...
That's interesting. He started lawful evil, was lawful neutral at the time, and got the oasis?
Did he select all the good path options in hell?
I'm not sure of the exact mechanics (note the words "I believe" in my first post on the subject). I don't really have a suitable sample: my character alignments and hell trial decisions aren't that diverse.
Let me check some of my old saves. Hold on....
Best,
A
Ok. I have no idea how it works.
Neutral Good, good path Abigail
Lawful Good, good path Alicia
I'm not seeing the pattern. I'll try more.
Best,
A.
Ok. I think I get it now. I think it depends on the dialogue choices in the conversation with the solar, before the challenge.
Let me test.
Best,
A.
Yeah. It's an awkward thing to test because you have to go through the Yaga Shura fight repeatedly, but that appears to be it.
What I noticed was that the characters who fought in the oasis got Regeneration as a Bhaalspawn power. That's the Bhaalspawn power that comes with the evil dialogue choices.
So, when Alisa was pleasant and in the end said this:
She fought in the lava pits, which turned into the oasis. She got Mass Healing as her power.
When the same character, Alisa, was snarly and in the end said this:
She fought in the oasis, which turned into the lava pits. She got Regeneration as her power.
I'd need a larger sample size to be certain, but I'm semi-sure that's it.
Best,
A.
That's interesting. He started lawful evil, was lawful neutral at the time, and got the oasis?
Did he select all the good path options in hell?
Revised Hell Trials. Norgath fought Sarevok in Hell, but picked the other good options, which was sufficient to become LN.
Anyway, thanks for testing. Good to know what causes the differences in the Pocketplane Challenge, and in the rewards.
Retour en haut
