11 réponses à ce sujet

[Bhryaen]

Just wondering... Is there any way to win that? High level archers, melee, & mages all descending on your little band at once while you can't move without high electrical damage for each chessboard sqaure... I've considered 100% electrical resistance for everyone, inviso potions, and nondetection spells or items, plus maybe True Seeing on one char to be able to see the invisible opponent King, but is that really the only way? (And will it even work?) Clearly Vanilla Durlag's never counted on the SCS version.

I've already tried my usual surefire Bhaalspawn-success of sowing Chaos (spell) in my passage, but it seems even with 95% of the opponent chess pieces in Chaos they still come straight at my party as if unaffected. I've tried running my tank with his single 5th lvl cleric spell of immunity to electricity up to swing around one side after the King, but either the uber-archers or the uber-pawns get him in a few rounds even with -14AC. Plus the King is invisible, so there's no way to expose him.

Not to mention the fact that I have no idea which of my chars is the queen, king, or bishops.

I swear I've beat this in Vanilla in solo at least 3 times or more...

[Grond0]

Bhryaen wrote...

Just wondering... Is there any way to win that? High level archers, melee, & mages all descending on your little band at once while you can't move without high electrical damage for each chessboard sqaure... I've considered 100% electrical resistance for everyone, inviso potions, and nondetection spells or items, plus maybe True Seeing on one char to be able to see the invisible opponent King, but is that really the only way? (And will it even work?) Clearly Vanilla Durlag's never counted on the SCS version.

I've already tried my usual surefire Bhaalspawn-success of sowing Chaos (spell) in my passage, but it seems even with 95% of the opponent chess pieces in Chaos they still come straight at my party as if unaffected. I've tried running my tank with his single 5th lvl cleric spell of immunity to electricity up to swing around one side after the King, but either the uber-archers or the uber-pawns get him in a few rounds even with -14AC. Plus the King is invisible, so there's no way to expose him.

Not to mention the fact that I have no idea which of my chars is the queen, king, or bishops.

I swear I've beat this in Vanilla in solo at least 3 times or more...

My usual tactic is not to move at all.  If all characters make use of fireballs through one means or another right at the start of combat, this should thin out the opposition nicely.

[Bhryaen]

Grond0 wrote...
My usual tactic is not to move at all.  If all characters make use of fireballs through one means or another right at the start of combat, this should thin out the opposition nicely.

Damn, I was hoping to use that tactic on the absurdly powerful Grey Clan "wind horrors" (+ uber-cleric) outside the FAI. Looks like I'll be abandoning that mod earlier than I thought given that I can only buy so much ordinance for non-Fireball casters...

[Grond0]

Bhryaen wrote...

Grond0 wrote...
My usual tactic is not to move at all.  If all characters make use of fireballs through one means or another right at the start of combat, this should thin out the opposition nicely.

Damn, I was hoping to use that tactic on the absurdly powerful Grey Clan "wind horrors" (+ uber-cleric) outside the FAI. Looks like I'll be abandoning that mod earlier than I thought given that I can only buy so much ordinance for non-Fireball casters...

There's actually quite a bit of it about.  My casters don't normally keep fireball as wands are so easily obtained.  For the others I think there are 2 necklasses, several potions of explosions and numerous lesser exploding potions.  You could also think about putting in other distractions, such as web or cloudkill.

I agree with you about the difficulty of the wind horrors in open combat.  You might try leading them to the golem as a distraction - works surprisingly well.

Modifié par Grond0, 15 janvier 2011 - 06:56 .

[Bhryaen]

Grond0 wrote...There's actually quite a bit of it about.  My casters don't normally keep fireball as wands are so easily obtained.  For the others I think there are 2 necklasses, several potions of explosions and numerous lesser exploding potions.  You could also think about putting in other distractions, such as web or cloudkill.

I agree with you about the difficulty of the wind horrors in open combat.  You might try leading them to the golem as a distraction - works surprisingly well.

Those wind horrors took 6 blasts of Fireball and explosives over 2 rounds... and came out only Injured or Badly Injured... *sigh* I won't be using that mod again... Didn't know about the golem though...

The wands can't be used by anyone other than mages or bards though, right? So mages using them is pointless if Fireball can be memorized for the round instead. Oh, heh... minor point... and I only have 4 chars. Alternately a volley of 6 simultaneously might be nice. Now 2 of my chars are Fireball-casting mages (including [EDIT]11th level Imoen), so it's just a matter of being able to blast enough with the other two. I don't anticipate surviving many rounds of the Durlag Chessboard if I don't wipe out most in the 1st round. Short of that I see only wasting my 5 arrows of Detonation (didn't kill the damn Iron Throne mercs in time) or tossing potions for the 2 nonmages in the 2nd round (if it gets that far.) (I used up the Carnival Necklace of Missiles much earlier, but, well, I don't want to give up the nice +1 AC Amulet for the 2nd necklace...)

Still... with the golem as a backup for wind horrors, I'm going for fireworks solution!

Modifié par Bhryaen, 15 janvier 2011 - 07:31 .

[Grond0]

Bhryaen wrote...
The wands can't be used by anyone other than mages or bards though, right? So mages using them is pointless if Fireball can be memorized for the round instead.

This is true if you are sure you have enough spells.  Personally I think it's nice to use the wand and have, say, an extra set of Melf missiles handy.

I used up the Carnival Necklace of Missiles much earlier, but, well, I don't want to give up the nice +1 AC Amulet for the 2nd necklace...)

Rather than use up charged items and lose them for good, why not sell them to a shopkeeper when they get low?  You can then buy or steal them back and, hey presto, they're fully charged.  Also I'm not sure how great the +1 amulet is.  Unless you've modded the restrictions you can normally only use one AC enhancing item, so a ring or cloak could be used instead of the amulet.  There are far more rings / cloaks / amulets available than a party of 4 (or even 6) can make use of.

[Bhryaen]

First of all, thanks again! Obliterated most of 'em in the first round
and the uberknights were nearly gone when I dealt with them. Even the
King was Near Death and the Queen, well... not around for the rest of
the fireworks... Of course I was fighting the air aspect preliminarily, discovered that there's a slight gap from when Imoen gets queasy and we get teleported, so I prepped everyone with Nondetection first, and after the Air Aspect went down I healed up everyone quick, then everyone downed Inviso & electricity resistance potions and also cast Haste. A moment later- just in time- we were teleported. All I really used were two bottle bombs plus Fireballs, but the four did enough. The pawns were all laid out in a row before they could target anyone! Actually it was a lot closer than I intended because my main char tried to tank one of the uberknights and got struck to about 2 HP left- just lucked out really... When all else fails, bomb the bejeezus out of 'em!

Grond0 wrote...
Personally I think it's nice to use the wand and have, say, an extra set of Melf missiles handy.

Do they really do anything though? I memorized it but I can't see the damage factor, and it looks like one of those friendly fire type spells, no? If it were to last several rounds or something maybe. Or do you mean Acid Arrows? I may just not know how to use them... Anyway I like wands, but I'm far too stingy about slot space so I have them sitting like unused trophies in a chest on the streets of Baldur's Gate. Instead I use quickslots on each char only for potions of Healing, Antidote, Invisibility- i.e., emergencies. Then I keep more potions on my tank and main char even though I seldom use them. For this one battle I used more Inviso potions than the entire rest of the game (everything except Sarevok and the Grey Clan, though I'm just going to get revenge on the wind horrors and roll my eyes at that mod...) That said Inviso potions saved Imoen's and my life a couple times, and Antidote is always a surprise need.

I used up the Carnival Necklace of Missiles much earlier, but, well, I don't want to give up the nice +1 AC Amulet for the 2nd necklace...)

Grond0 wrote...
Rather than use up charged items and lose them for good, why not sell them to a shopkeeper when they get low?  You can then buy or steal them back and, hey presto, they're fully charged.

This is so true, but I only discovered this trick too late afterwards in a post by corey_russell on the No Reload thread. The other thing is that if you use it up to the last charge (and the Hard Times version of the Necklace of Missiles has only 3 charges apparently, or at least the Carnival one did) then you have to tote it around until you get it to the merchant again. Again my greed for slot space comes in, so tossing bottles means that afterward I have an open space in inventory to fill with, say, a 10 gp necklace! Wow! Of course now that I've finally got 100K gp with nothing left to buy, it means I may be overestimating my inventory real estate...

Grond0 wrote...
Also I'm not sure how great the +1 amulet is.  Unless you've modded the restrictions you can normally only use one AC enhancing item, so a ring or cloak could be used instead of the amulet.  There are far more rings / cloaks / amulets available than a party of 4 (or even 6) can make use of.

I'm not sure how many are in the game, but I've had to do constant item juggling to get the right combinations on each particular char. As for the Baldur's Gate City luck amulet that the woman just plopped in my hands after I broke into her house, well... It's probably just +1AC, but I did mod away the protection stack restriction so it counts, and I'd rather get that extra 1 point of AC to have attackers miss me (relatively) 5% more often than alternately be more likely to be hit and unable to use a fireball because the attacker is too close or a charmed party member or too near "innocents", etc. Of course a well-placed fireball can also save me from being attacked at all as I just witnessed on a chessboard...

Modifié par Bhryaen, 16 janvier 2011 - 01:17 .

[Bhryaen]

Grond0 wrote...
You could also think about putting in other distractions, such as web or cloudkill.

I wanted to mention on this... I don't know what mod did it but the first time in the game that I even found Cloudkill was just now in Durlag's. It wasn't for sale at High Hedge or the Sundries, and I'd never found it anywhere else. When I finally saw it- after so many battles where it might've been useful- it seemed one of my less potent spells given the new enemies. Maybe Sarevok would like some...

[Humanoid_Taifun]

There should be a scroll of Cloudkill on Lendarn (in the Firewine Ruins).

[Grond0]

Bhryaen wrote...

Grond0 wrote...
You could also think about putting in other distractions, such as web or cloudkill.

I wanted to mention on this... I don't know what mod did it but the first time in the game that I even found Cloudkill was just now in Durlag's. It wasn't for sale at High Hedge or the Sundries, and I'd never found it anywhere else. When I finally saw it- after so many battles where it might've been useful- it seemed one of my less potent spells given the new enemies. Maybe Sarevok would like some...

I agree it's not one of my favourites, but there are occasions when it comes in handy.  A combination of cloudkill with an incapacitating spell such as web or stinking cloud can do wonders and in vanilla it's also a nice challenge to get your tank placed just on the edge of a cloudkill so that those attacking and supporting mages are coughing their lungs out.

In addition to the scroll in the firewine ruins there's also one sitting in a hole in the ground in the vanilla game in the area south-east of Nashkel.

In relation to use of necklases I wouldn't normally wear a necklace of missiles permanently, but would carry it around (preferably in a gem bag) to get swapped in at the appropriate time.  The same thing would be done with other periodically useful bits of jewelry, such as rings of invisibility and energy.

[The-Scot]

I doubt this battle can be beaten without an arcane caster. For my victory I loaded up my warriors with Free Action potions and Insulation Potions, then threw out some summons, Web and Cloudkill on one side of the field followed up by an Alpha Strike of Fireballs, and then had my fighters rush the King while my casters debuffed him.

[Bhryaen]

Speaking of Sarevok liking Cloudkill and sowing Chaos in my passage... After a miserable battle with Aec'Letec in which I twice witnessed the same char chunked to become a ghast, and then a disappointing battle with wind horrors which can take 15 firebombs and remain near death undead killing machines, the battle with Sarevok involved my supposed nemesis simply lingering up there in the fog, apparently content to let me "do my worst" (unlike the chessboard pieces that instantly bumrush the party with uberhaste) until ready to melee him. So I did my worst with Cloudkill and the same chessboard tactic of maximum explosions (20-30? in effect, literally every bottle I'd ever collected and bought) which (after an actual brief but open initial battle with Angelo) left only Sarevok and his Prot-from-Magic archer buddy. Apparently Sarevok regenerates, so all his injury grunts during the bombing were just to throw me off... A single Chaos spell encouraged Sarevok to steal my XP bonus by killing his archer buddy first in only 2 rounds (making my earlier attempted open fights with him look pathetic), and subsequently left him alone and confused and ready for summons. Somehow I thought the SCS final battle would look different- i.e., with a single bomb blast triggering them all to come down after us- but SCS actually made the chessboard the most overwhelming battle of the game, with Aec'Letec coming in 2nd only because after hours of luring buddies upstairs and several rounds of hurriedly swallowing Mirror Image, he fell with a single Cloudkill. (The gratuitiously overpowered Grey Clan no longer counts for anything in my book.)

[EDIT: I forgot the SCS version of the Ulcaster final battle, arguably most overwhelming, though I didn't turn to the forum for that solution, so...]

Modifié par Bhryaen, 18 janvier 2011 - 02:52 .