Improved Anvil v6 no-reload run (or few-reload run) - an attempt
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saros_shadow_follower
, juin 01 2013 11:43
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#102
Posté 03 août 2013 - 07:28
saros_shadow_follower
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Edit: All videos are uploaded. Enjoy and comment!
First of all, let me tell you, get a vacant day or something before attempting this. I rested my mind on 4 occasions while game was paused mid-battle. Resting in this fight is possible, but unfortunately - very disadvantageous. Still, if you wanna test something mid-fight and are really frustrated with starting over and killing those initial Golems time and again, just lure the Rakshasa Prince in a non-visible area via summons, and then you can save the game.
Chapter 9, Part 3, the Epic Divine Encounter:
The encounter triggers when all of the Pocket Plane tasks are completed. I think it checks the Ravager's death specifically.
My party's fighting power was simply too low. The obvious choice became soon clear: I should've focused on raising Sarevok's experience to his first HLA, or perhaps even the second one (really needs that THAC0 reduced to the max). For the sake of fair play, I used on him only the amount of xp gained by Imoen, which brought him to level 20 and his first HLA (Hardiness). He starts at 2 700 000 unlike her (she starts at 2 500 000). Base THAC0 is 1.
Whom do we fight:
A Rakshasa Prince. I haven't checked any enemy with NearInfinity or whatever, info I get is by monitoring the enemy. The Prince's abilities and spells:
Edit: Wears a helmet.
High-rate regeneration.
High-rate resistance to all physical damage (I've been told it's 75%) and naturally, immunity to missile fire.
Grand AC and THAC0. Grand damage.
Immunity to all sorts of other damage (poison, elemental, acid, magical damage).
Immunity to all sorts of disabling and draining effects and spells.
Immunity to spells level 1-8 (I think Cernd's Fist of Glory IAv6 HLA cannot affect him, but can affect the other Rakshasas with grand result). Basically, the only 9-level spell that has any effect on him for a very small amount of damage is Bigby's Crushing Hand (in IA, no save, ignores MR, inflicts 4d10 crushing damage only once)
Wields a magical scimitar that can:
1) Slow party members failing save vs Wands at -5 (much like nerfed FoA +5);
2) Has a chance per hit to lower all of the target's magical and elemental resistances by 25% and physical resistances by 5% (cumulative with other hits). I don't know how much this ability lasts, but I'd say about 5 rounds.
3)Has a much higher chance to dispel specific and combat protections (these include Hardiness, Stone and Ironskins, and Armor of Faith) on hit. Not sure about illusions though, but I stayed away from those spells for other reasons.
Has an unlimited amount of Dragon Breaths, Greater Malisons, Remove Magicks (I think he's higher-than-36 mage level, he dispelled my arcane buffs with unerring precision far too often), Lower Fire Resistances, Slow and ADHW spells. All his spells are instacast, barring ADHW, which has either a regular casting time of 8 or of 5, unsure which.
The Prince's "Lower Fire Resistance" ability is identical to the one of Red Dragons, meaning: Cumulative, AoE, decreases Fire Res by 50%, but unlike a dragon's, it LASTS for the duration of the fight (no expiration). Still, he won't cast it if he doesn't detect a target with 50% or more Fire Resistance.
Has 6 Absolute Immunities which he will activate: 2 at Injured, 2 at Badly Injured, 2 at Near-Death. He is immune to Dispel and Remove Magic, which means that he would regenerate almost completely even if he activated AI at Near-Death, and completely if activated at Badly Injured.
Has an unlimited number of Universal Purge Magic abilities that strip the party of all buffs (well, except for undispellable ones like Giant Strength or Foreknowledge). He will use them regularly once every 11 or 12 rounds, unless he detects Spell Immunity Abjuration or less than 5 active party members, in which case he will fire them much faster or even right away (in the case with SI:A or so I've been told, never cast it).
The Universal Purge kicks in a couple seconds after being cast, but it also stops all characters frozen in their action (another IA v6 bug or cheat). Meaning spells cast during the Universal purge are lost.
Is surrounded by a level 9 Fireshield called Field of Repulse that inflicts serious magic damage as punishment and requires save vs Spells or the fighter hitting him is thrown backwards and Unconscious. Meaning he needs more than 1 round to rejoin the fight after being Repulsed.
Will dispel with "just a glance" things like Absolute Immunity or PFMW. Not even an action is required on his side. Just cheating. Only thing you'll see when he does that is a short line: "Your puny magic will not stop me!". He will even dispel PFMW on summons (Greater Djinnis).
The Rakshasa prince appears in the center of the Pocket Plane, with all party members encircling him, regardless of their position beforehand.
He will almost immediately gate 3 golems. One Ultra Golem in the SE corner (down-right), second Ultra Golem in the NW corner (upper-left) and a Supreme Elemental Golem in the SW (lower-right) corner.
These Ultra Golems don't fire Purge Magicks, but will gate up to 6 Amber Golems if allowed time to live and of course, if they notice a party member in the first place.
The Amber Golems will lower electrical resistance of the party member hitting them by 25%, much like to this moment. once an Amber Golem lowers the target's electrical resistance, it REMAINS lowered for the duration of the fight! Which is a blatant IA cheat, since Amber Golems did lower electrical resistance so far, but it returned to normal after 3-4 rounds.
The Supreme Elemental Golem won't fire any Purge Magic either. There is only one other Supreme Golem in the game whom we didn't fight (Watcher's Keep, level 3), it was either him or the Green Wyrm. But take it from me, this one is a lot easier than Helm's Supreme Elemental Golem.
The Supreme's abilities:
Gates several (3 I think) Elemental Golems and starts gating them really fast.
Is surrounded by a permanent 9-level FireShield called Elemental Backlash that inflicts Fire, Cold, Electrical and Acid damage as punishment and also has some save or else effects (dunno what exactly are those effects, all my chars were under six Invoke Courages when fighting him, always saved).
Is extremely high damage resistant (max damage with Critical strike and str of 25 is 4 or 5 with some weapons that have grand base damage, like the Staff of the Ram +6).
Lowers the target's Fire, Cold, Electrical AND Acid resistances by 10% on each successful hit (cumulative with other hits, lasts for 5-6 rounds or so).
The Prince cannot be killed while these three golems are alive.
Also, the Prince has 4 Noble Rakshasas that he will gate in the following manner: First wave of 2 IF a party member is in his field of vision - at the 6th round of the battle.
Each Noble Rakshasa gates in 2 Horrid ones, naturally.
Next he will gate 1 about 2 or 3 rounds before his second Universal Purge.
And the most dangerous one will be gated a round before his third Universal Purge. Fighting a Noble Rakshasa, 2 Horrid ones and the Prince with all your buffs being dispelled in the middle of the fight is not something very easy.
Noble Rakshasas have instacast Dragon Breath, Slow, Greater Malison and Remove Magic. They prefer shooting either Greater Malison or Remove Magic though in the start.
Horrid ones naturally have only instacast ADHW and Remove Magic. They will shoot either if they see a character with low magical energy resistance.
None of the Remove Magicks should be underestimated, even the lowly 17-level Horrid Rakshasas dispel things like Mazzy's Invoke Courage, Greater Djinni buffs, all important potion buffs (Giant Strength, Magic Shielding, Stone Form, Heroism).
So now comes the prebuff. We enlist Mazzy and cast all long-lasting buffs (up to 5 rounds). We cast them even on Sarevok. Unfortunately Mazzy cannot pre-buff Sarevok with Invoke Courages. No limited charge items or limited potions used in the prebuff.
Sarevok is well armed. We have rebought Gram the Sword of Grief, which will be his main weapon. His proficiencies are *****Two-Handed Sword, **Halberd, **Two-Weapon style. He has 1 Hardiness. His saves are excellent even at joining level (in fact, after raising him to level 20 the only change was his save vs Breath worsened by 1). He wears the unupgraded Human Flesh (4 to saves, 20% MR), two rings +2 (cannot wear a +4 with that armor), a cloak +2 and an amulet +1 (which was swapped for the Amulet of Seldarine soon enough to increase his MR).
With the knowledge I have now I'd definitely consider investing 75 000 gp in the upgraded Warblade for him (the version that gives +2 to Str, Con and Dex), because with it and a proper girdle he could easily reach static str 25. Still, even as it is, we had enough Giant Str potions to keep him at 25 str.
More importantly his saves with this gear were excellent, worst of them all being save vs Spells at -5.
Concerning saves: We need saves of -4 to save 100% vs any nasty effect. With that malisons and remove magicks flying around, we cannot rely on conventional ways to improve saves. Rings +4 are extremely important (everyone that can - wears, even the R-C who had donned a regular Full Plate to be able to do so). Amulets +1 are in all cases better than the Amulet of Spell Warding, which doesn't provide protection vs the Prince's Scimitar (Wands) or Dragon Breath spell (breath). Unfortunately, unless when circling around, there wasn't much use of the Shield of the Order or the Foebane blade. Bane the Riskbreaker used Foebane in the beginning, but then swapped it for a different weapon combination.
OK at the beginning we needn't worry about saves, since those are deep into the negative for all party members except Sarevok and for the entire summoned army.
The army is summoned in about 1 turn, with 2*Wishes for Rest. This can be attempted multiple times, since we actually didn't use any limited charge items as a prebuff.
There is little need to prebuff Jack and Bane with Stoneskins from the Judgment Day sword. Jack is the first target of the Prince's Remove Magic and his Skin will be dispelled. And Bane really doesn't need one.
The army is buffed with Improved Haste naturally, except for the last 5 summons gated after the 2nd Wish (2 Greater Swanmays, 1 Queen, 1 Greater Djinni, 1 Noble Spider), those were simply Hasted by a Greater Djinni. Better than nothing.
That 1-turn buffing included between-Wishes ProEnergy casting on Torham Zed the Ranger-Cleric, Bane and even Sarevok. No point in casting it on Jack Sparrow the Vagrant, as I said, first Remove Magic target. Torham also found the time to cast Aid on Seri Flamehair the Sorceress, Saros Shadow Follower the Berserker-Mage and on himself.
ProEnergy is important. It allows the target to endure much longer the Supreme Golem's lowering resistance hits, and also to regain health on each successful hit on him.
We needed even the mages to be more effective combatants. Polymorph Self (as can be seen) helps enormously here. Didn't wanna waste a 6-level slot with Saros on the Giant Strength spell, so instead chose to buff Seri lightly with regular Strength and give her the Girlde of Lordly Might, effectively increasing her Str to 21. Saros had a Giant Strength in a Contingency as can be seen from the video:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Some explanations on the first part of this fight.
Summons are: 3 Noble Spiders, 3 Greater Djinnis, 3 Swanmay Queens, 6 Greater Swanmays and a Planetar.
Farsight is extremely important for adequate summon control.
Noble Spiders inflict no damage vs Ultra Golems, thus they are excellent to distract the Rakshasa prince.
The Planetar has +3 weapons, he cannot harm anyone except lowly Rakshasas or minion Golems. He's better used for Healing, but unfortunately if he draws the attention of an enemy, he bites the dust in 2 hits.
If the Ultra Golems see no party member, they won't gate any Amber golems.
Keeping everyone away from Jack in the beginning is important for keeping their buffs active, well at least until that Remove Magic lands.
Mages are prebuffed with PFMW so that they don't draw the Prince's attention. Scrolls used because those 6-level slots are extremely valuable, and we have 88 PFMW scrolls. Not like we're gonna take those to the grave with us.
Changing Seri to a spider immediately helps her activate Shocking Grasp scroll when she has reached the Supreme Golem (1 round needed for that since moving in the Spider form is slow).
Saros opens with his one and only Alacrity with reduced casting time of 4, which allows him to restore Jack's buffs (if they're dispelled) and cast protections on Seri in the spider form (if he cast it as prebuff, they're lost when Seri changes shape to a spider), also lights the battlefield with Farsights.
When a character with Shocking Grasp attacks and the Grasp vanishes, that character stays in place doing nothing. That's why I had to keep a close look when both mages successfully hit the golem, and to re-assign them to attack.
The Golem Slayer rod was created particularly for this fight. It was very useful, but I think that even without it, Seri would've just used the Staff of the magi with a good result. Not a significant difference.
Critical strikes should be used on the Supreme and Elemental golems, I also had sequencers loaded with Rays of Fragmentation shot at instant speed to ensure the quicker Elemental Golem's demise. However, 3 Criticals are enough - no more. We need to preserve those, since we WON'T rely on Wish for Rest. Even if it's given as an option, I won't pick it!
The SE Ultra Golem didn't have enough time to gate an Amber golem before dying. The other one couldn't, being killed by summons only.
I've been told that if a Vagrant completes the insanely ridiculous Ancient Secret of Suldanesselar quest, he now receives 12 Swanmay Elders that help greatly. But since I cannot control those, they add a random element in the fight which I don't like. Moreover, I don't consider this fight to be very hard if resources are used right, we don't NEED any extra help vs the Golems. The Swanmay Elders aren't so good vs the Prince or so I hear (yeah, it would be stupid other way, Prince killed without lifting a finger).
Barbarian Essences: We start drinking those during the fight with the SE Ultra Golem. 5 for Jack, Sarevok and Saros, 4 for Torham and Bane. We simply are a couple short. I really needed a sixth for PC and a fifth for Torham.
Edit: Since Bane is using JD sword off-hand after the first Universal Purge, his physical resistances are 100%. Jack has 110% due to the Red Coral armor, and can go up to 125% if equipping the Flail of Defending and Wounding which only he can use.
After the 3 golems are dead (the order is Supreme Elemental-Elemental-SE Ultra, in the meantime if the summons killed NW ultra they help with the SE one, leave a couple to distract the Prince), we continue buffing with Barbarian Essences.
And we present a party member to the Prince from below, in order to have the Noble Rakshasas gating as conveniently as possible. The Prince is immediately led away. We dealt with the Rakshasas with the help of our still huge Summon army. No Criticals are required. Probably should've re-loaded a Spell Sequencer for Saros with triple Remove Magic. 7-th level slots aren't extremely useful, or I could just use a scroll.
In the end we even have the time to charm Cernd via a Mind Flayer circlet. Some info about that:
My original plan was enlisting 4 extra NPCs, preferably mages, who could cast PFME, Improved Haste, Limited Wish or Wish (Imoen) via Mindflayer circlets (those last for 6 hours, you see Cernd being green after the fight ended). These extra party members are treated as summons, meaning that their buffs are not dispelled by Universal Purge.
What went wrong with that:
All NPCs vanish once the fight starts (they don't appear even when the fight ends). I tested disbanding Sarevok after the 1st Universal Purge and charming him with a Circlet (so that his buffs aren't constantly Purged, and so that he takes only Core damage by not being a party member). However, after doing that, he just disappeared.
Apparently the only NPC missed by this inexplicable effect (another IA v6 cheat, if you ask me) is Cernd, so I prepared a good set of spells on him (well, he's a druid after all, his useful spells are limited to Bless, not a very strong Mass Heal and MS IV which gates Anacondas). Bless and the Anacondas were useful though. Anyhing that improves party THAC0 by 1 is good.
Edit: Anacondas are maybe the most resilient to damage of all IA v6-introduced new summons.
BTW charmed Cernd doesn't behave exactly like a summon, he will attack anyone in his field of vision automatically, but at least he won't be automatically headed for PC's direction (as all other IA v6 summons do, that behavior of theirs is stupid and extremely dangerous, IA v6 summons are scripted really, really bad).
Now comes an equally hard part of the fight. Sure, we've dealt with most enemy summons, but we had all our buffs and an enormous army of our own.
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
To understand what's happening now, some explanations are needed:
The Prince's casting pattern is very easy to remember, but it can differ. He will cast the following after an Universal Purge:
1) Greater Malison (only at a party member who's not under Magic Shielding potion, however he's stupid and will cast GM at a character protected from GoI)
2) Slow (at a party member)
3) Dragon Breath (at a target that's less than 50% protected from Fire) or Lower Fire Resistance (at a target with more than 50%)
4) ADHW (even if everyone around has 100% or more magical damage resistance)
5) Remove Magic (only at a party member)
The pattern differs (usually the Prince skips spells or casts damaging spells earlier) if he sees only summons or only an immune to his spells character.
After this sequence has ended, he repeats it, and after the 2nd Remove Magic he activates Universal Purge.
The thing to consider between the next 2 purges are, of course, Noble Rakshasas. Also, we had to bring him twice to Injured to activate his first 2 Absolute Immunities. There is no time to waste! Our Barbarian Essences are expiring (they last 10 turns). This battle has to be won before the prince purges for the 8th time. OK we still have 1 free attempt (essences will start expiring after the 9th Universal Purge).
Our buffing sequence:
We use PFME scrolls with Seri (had 29 brought to the fight, looted 3 more from Noble Rakshasas, one dropped ADHW sadly, in this fight Horrid Rakshasas drop 0) to quickly buff Bane and Sarevok.
Saros casts Improved Haste on both of them (OK Bane may consider Hasting himself on an occasion, he has 3 total, and they can't be dispelled by Remove Magic).
Fighters can move forward once the casting is started - it will be completed. So both Bane and Sarevok are ready for battle in a bit more than 1 round (Chant and Bless active on them too).
Seri continues with PFME scrolls on Torham.
Torham casts Chant, then Righteous Magic, after that he gulps a Stone Form potion, decreasing his saves by 3.
Cernd casts Bless.
Jack has to be monitored carefully, because he has to activate Magic Shielding potion right when the Prince shoots his Malison on him. Consuming the potion afterwards is no good. The effect of the Malison stays even though the animation from the portrait vanishes. Another IA v6 bug or cheat.
We did some serious item redistribution when the party was assembled after the 1st purge, which I'd better describe here:
Helm of Balduran went to PC (static save vs Spells -4),
Fire-protective items all pulled out of packs. Drizzt's scimitar, Frostbrand, being one of the most essential - this weapon should not be sold, but instead stored in Wk level 1 and used in ToB. Also, the Helmet of Defense would be very useful in this entire fight, incredibly stupid IA bug for not getting it!
Rings should be used with all due care! They worsen saves by 2, and as you can see below, in almost all cases I used them party members were incapacitated by the Breath.
In this particular instance when Torham was incapacitated, I should stack 2 Potions of Stone Form - he can take it, his Dexterity being 19 (would've dropped to 1, but at least his saves would be excellent, I didn't expect him to fail a Breath save with his -2). But unfortunately while Unconscious, the Prince obviously hit him for he was Slowed, which was extremely unpleasant. It totally messed up my fight plan and I had to play a guerilla war against that Remove Magic, but it worked.
The trick with fire-resistant items was to equip them in the moment of a Breath and unequip them afterwards, in order to avoid lowering Fire res. Escaping the Breath area is easy enough, but then again, the Prince regenerates fast during that time.
The Breath takes some time before hitting everyone, fire resistant items should be kept equipped (I made just one such mistake with Sarevok later, but it wasn't fatal).
Attacking the enemy is safe during Slow and ADHW. With the right gear, during Dragon Breath too. Potions of Fire Resistance are good, in order to bring the negative fire value into the 0 or below 50%.
So basically we have 3 rounds in which to inflict enough damage on the enemy. Running around with Jack prior to that is essential, since we don't wanna his resistances lowered until it's absolutely necessary.
Perhaps here is a good place to describe the vital spell picks for this fight. Arcane and divine:
Torham Zed:
Level 1: Bless, Armor of Faith
Level 2: Chant, DUHM, Aid - all essential. Didn't have the time to cast Aid though.
Level 4: had Holy Power, didn't cast it even once. No time! Thinking about it, I should probably go for it and then increase Str to 24 with a Storm Giant str potion.
Level 5: Iron Skins (he has only 80% physical res), Righteous Magic
Level 6: Heal, Wondrous Recall
Level 7: 1 Foreknowledge, 10 Greater Restorations. Thinking of it now, probably should go for something like 8 Foreknowledge, 3 GR. Foreknowledge is a vital buff to the R-C, increasing his extremely bad saves by 1, and his very bad THAC0 as well. Plus, it's not dispelled by an Universal Purge, so unlike Aid, it can be used a bit before expected Universal Purge as a prebuff.
Saros Shadow Follower:
Level 2: Blur. Never used one. His saves are excellent.
Level 3: Remove Magic vs the lower Rakshasas.
Level 4: Polymorph self (naturally), 4*Farsight (essential), 1 Stoneskin (just in case, we don't need that spell after the 1st Purge)
Level 6: 8 Improved Haste, 2 PFME. Improved Haste is much more important to Saros, because Seri can keep it up with PFME scroll castings. But he needed 2 PFME in order to refresh both PFME and IHaste on him twice more via Spell Trigger. If he attempts that Trigger on another, the PFME will fail, but still it's an option if another besides him urgently needs Improved Haste.
Seri also had such a trigger, to be used as an additional Improved Haste on a warrior. In the end, she didn't have to use it.
Level 7: 6 Limited Wishes, 4 Mordy Swords (erased 1 Mordy Sword when reequipping rings)
Level 8: 7 PFE,1 Foreknowledge. Same as with Torham. Should be the opposite: 7 Foreknowledges, 1 PFE. PFE is not the greatest spell. First of all, it grants only 75 % magic damage resistance, which is just NOT ENOUGH on Insane. Second, it prompts the Prince to use Lower Fire Resistance. I just kept it active on mages after purges when expecting Noble Rakshasas.
Level 9: 1 Alacrity, 6 Wishes
Saros cannot wish for Rest of Double-length TS+IA. Those options just appear blank in his list of choices (meaning, if he gets both of them from a Wish, he'll actually have only 3 other possibilities to pick from). But still he can wish for party PFME, mass IHaste or party IHaste.
First Noble Rakshasa is easy enough, we still have some of our powerful summons (Greater Djinnis). However we had to plan carefully for where the second one is spawned,that's why Jack went to the left.
OK, now it's only the Prince:
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
You see what happens if we make mistakes (during the part 14-17). First of all, the mistake of not switching Staves with Saros got us an unexpected Lower FIre Res. Next, the Prince was extremely lucky to chain 7 special hits with his scimitar, bringing Jack's physical resistances to 85% and his magical damage resistance to -50% despite Jack's gear and potion of Magic shielding which normally give him +125% magical damage resistance. That pulled him out of the fight effectively. Had to equip FoDaW and hold him in place (not attacking) to keep him alive. That of course hidered the fighting power of the party and they couldn't bring the Prince to Badly Injured fast enough, resulting in the Prince's Remove magic, and also the Prince dispelling Bane's PFME on hit, which further hindered the party's performance. We had to rely on some further buffing and guerilla war to bring the enemy to Badly Injured, but it finally worked, and Jack's resistances started getting back to normal. Here was also my big mistake with Sarevok, unequipping his gear prematurely. He was lucky with the damage, but he was on 200 HP, I don't think that the enemy can score max damage, he needs to get max of 10d10*2(Insane difficulty) because Sarevok always saves vs Breath. And I was ready to cast Greater Restoration if anything went completely wrong.
Part 18 is Regaining ground. We buffed very well, but the fact is that the Prince's Absolute Immunity has yet to wane, thus we lost a round and a half attacking. But prompt buffing and the use of Criticals ensured enough damage dealt in just 1 and a half round.
Now since we don't expect any more lowly Rakshasas, there is no need to waste a second Magic Shielding potion during the Prince's second cast sequence to counter his Greater Malison. We can just as effectively use a combination of the Shield of the Order + Stone Form potion. After all, we're waiting for enemy AI expiration as well as for the next Universal Purge, there is no need to waste precious potions.
The Absolute Immunity in video 19 may have looked like the 5th, but it was actually the 4th, activated a bit late (not at Badly Injured, but at Near-Death). Still, we have only 3 more times to "kill" the Rakshasa prince, but those are hands down the hardest (have to bring him to Near-Death in 3-round interval).
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
So we start with the quick buffing after the next Purge. The sorceress' eight 9-level spell slots and nine 6-th level slots were reserved for just this moment. The key element is seeing what we get from the first 3 Wishes (2 from Seri under Alacrity, 1 from Saros) and then buff everyone with what's missing (if anything's missing, that is). Improved Haste is basically easier to get (2 options), but PFME is slower to cast on everyone even under Alacrity. But you see the picture, even if we don't get everything from Wishes, we just add the needed component, be it Improved Haste or PFME. Of course the best chain of Wishes is for Stat increase to 25, Mass Improved Haste (either) and Party PFME. So with all 5 fighters buffed well in a bit more than 1 round, it's not really that hard to bring the Prince to Near-Death thrice more.
Brought 3 Heroism Potions and 3 Power potions for the fight, as you can see they helped a lot. Quick-time THAC0 reduction is great. Should bring more along for the R-C probably. Probably should invest some gold in some more Storm Giant potions. I used my 2 Giant Strength scrolls in the last assault as prebuff, those aren't Purged.
Naturally, PC has to be watched constantly. First to ensure that he's the Rakshasa Prince's melee target, second to ensure that his magical and physical damage resistances are high enough. Chaining Magic Shielding potions in this case is acceptable for keeping his Magical damage resistance high enough. Of course if the Prince is too lucky with his hits PC would have to stand still or even equip the JD sword off-hand if his physical resistances drop below 100% with FoDaW main.
Ended the fight with both Seri and Saros' triggers (containing Improved Haste) unused, also the Darkfire Bow and the Amulet of Cheetah Speed Improved Haste unused, Bane had 1 Improved Haste unused, Saros had 1 Wish, and we had 2 scrolls of Wish unused. Also 18 PFME scrolls. 18 PFME scrolls, multiple Giant Strength potions (Fire and Storm), 16 Magic Shielding potions. So we basically still had a lot of options remaining, even not considering that last Wish for Rest which I chose not to pick. I could, although all party buffs would be dispelled, but then again I'd have 8 more Wishes restored immediately to refresh those buffs, and refreshed PFMW to protect the lone Sorceress from the Fallen Planetar and Elemental Golem appearing next to her, but I said NO wishing for rest and I'm sticking to that!
I will make one last post, concerning item usefulness, spell usefulness and what changes would I make to spell selection and item upgrade for a no-reload run with this same party. This post will conclude this topic. I will definitely make a successful no-reload following the steps of the current party and learning/fixing their mistakes in order to be successful this time!
Edit: All videos are uploaded. Enjoy and comment!
First of all, let me tell you, get a vacant day or something before attempting this. I rested my mind on 4 occasions while game was paused mid-battle. Resting in this fight is possible, but unfortunately - very disadvantageous. Still, if you wanna test something mid-fight and are really frustrated with starting over and killing those initial Golems time and again, just lure the Rakshasa Prince in a non-visible area via summons, and then you can save the game.
Chapter 9, Part 3, the Epic Divine Encounter:
The encounter triggers when all of the Pocket Plane tasks are completed. I think it checks the Ravager's death specifically.
My party's fighting power was simply too low. The obvious choice became soon clear: I should've focused on raising Sarevok's experience to his first HLA, or perhaps even the second one (really needs that THAC0 reduced to the max). For the sake of fair play, I used on him only the amount of xp gained by Imoen, which brought him to level 20 and his first HLA (Hardiness). He starts at 2 700 000 unlike her (she starts at 2 500 000). Base THAC0 is 1.
Whom do we fight:
A Rakshasa Prince. I haven't checked any enemy with NearInfinity or whatever, info I get is by monitoring the enemy. The Prince's abilities and spells:
Edit: Wears a helmet.
High-rate regeneration.
High-rate resistance to all physical damage (I've been told it's 75%) and naturally, immunity to missile fire.
Grand AC and THAC0. Grand damage.
Immunity to all sorts of other damage (poison, elemental, acid, magical damage).
Immunity to all sorts of disabling and draining effects and spells.
Immunity to spells level 1-8 (I think Cernd's Fist of Glory IAv6 HLA cannot affect him, but can affect the other Rakshasas with grand result). Basically, the only 9-level spell that has any effect on him for a very small amount of damage is Bigby's Crushing Hand (in IA, no save, ignores MR, inflicts 4d10 crushing damage only once)
Wields a magical scimitar that can:
1) Slow party members failing save vs Wands at -5 (much like nerfed FoA +5);
2) Has a chance per hit to lower all of the target's magical and elemental resistances by 25% and physical resistances by 5% (cumulative with other hits). I don't know how much this ability lasts, but I'd say about 5 rounds.
3)Has a much higher chance to dispel specific and combat protections (these include Hardiness, Stone and Ironskins, and Armor of Faith) on hit. Not sure about illusions though, but I stayed away from those spells for other reasons.
Has an unlimited amount of Dragon Breaths, Greater Malisons, Remove Magicks (I think he's higher-than-36 mage level, he dispelled my arcane buffs with unerring precision far too often), Lower Fire Resistances, Slow and ADHW spells. All his spells are instacast, barring ADHW, which has either a regular casting time of 8 or of 5, unsure which.
The Prince's "Lower Fire Resistance" ability is identical to the one of Red Dragons, meaning: Cumulative, AoE, decreases Fire Res by 50%, but unlike a dragon's, it LASTS for the duration of the fight (no expiration). Still, he won't cast it if he doesn't detect a target with 50% or more Fire Resistance.
Has 6 Absolute Immunities which he will activate: 2 at Injured, 2 at Badly Injured, 2 at Near-Death. He is immune to Dispel and Remove Magic, which means that he would regenerate almost completely even if he activated AI at Near-Death, and completely if activated at Badly Injured.
Has an unlimited number of Universal Purge Magic abilities that strip the party of all buffs (well, except for undispellable ones like Giant Strength or Foreknowledge). He will use them regularly once every 11 or 12 rounds, unless he detects Spell Immunity Abjuration or less than 5 active party members, in which case he will fire them much faster or even right away (in the case with SI:A or so I've been told, never cast it).
The Universal Purge kicks in a couple seconds after being cast, but it also stops all characters frozen in their action (another IA v6 bug or cheat). Meaning spells cast during the Universal purge are lost.
Is surrounded by a level 9 Fireshield called Field of Repulse that inflicts serious magic damage as punishment and requires save vs Spells or the fighter hitting him is thrown backwards and Unconscious. Meaning he needs more than 1 round to rejoin the fight after being Repulsed.
Will dispel with "just a glance" things like Absolute Immunity or PFMW. Not even an action is required on his side. Just cheating. Only thing you'll see when he does that is a short line: "Your puny magic will not stop me!". He will even dispel PFMW on summons (Greater Djinnis).
The Rakshasa prince appears in the center of the Pocket Plane, with all party members encircling him, regardless of their position beforehand.
He will almost immediately gate 3 golems. One Ultra Golem in the SE corner (down-right), second Ultra Golem in the NW corner (upper-left) and a Supreme Elemental Golem in the SW (lower-right) corner.
These Ultra Golems don't fire Purge Magicks, but will gate up to 6 Amber Golems if allowed time to live and of course, if they notice a party member in the first place.
The Amber Golems will lower electrical resistance of the party member hitting them by 25%, much like to this moment. once an Amber Golem lowers the target's electrical resistance, it REMAINS lowered for the duration of the fight! Which is a blatant IA cheat, since Amber Golems did lower electrical resistance so far, but it returned to normal after 3-4 rounds.
The Supreme Elemental Golem won't fire any Purge Magic either. There is only one other Supreme Golem in the game whom we didn't fight (Watcher's Keep, level 3), it was either him or the Green Wyrm. But take it from me, this one is a lot easier than Helm's Supreme Elemental Golem.
The Supreme's abilities:
Gates several (3 I think) Elemental Golems and starts gating them really fast.
Is surrounded by a permanent 9-level FireShield called Elemental Backlash that inflicts Fire, Cold, Electrical and Acid damage as punishment and also has some save or else effects (dunno what exactly are those effects, all my chars were under six Invoke Courages when fighting him, always saved).
Is extremely high damage resistant (max damage with Critical strike and str of 25 is 4 or 5 with some weapons that have grand base damage, like the Staff of the Ram +6).
Lowers the target's Fire, Cold, Electrical AND Acid resistances by 10% on each successful hit (cumulative with other hits, lasts for 5-6 rounds or so).
The Prince cannot be killed while these three golems are alive.
Also, the Prince has 4 Noble Rakshasas that he will gate in the following manner: First wave of 2 IF a party member is in his field of vision - at the 6th round of the battle.
Each Noble Rakshasa gates in 2 Horrid ones, naturally.
Next he will gate 1 about 2 or 3 rounds before his second Universal Purge.
And the most dangerous one will be gated a round before his third Universal Purge. Fighting a Noble Rakshasa, 2 Horrid ones and the Prince with all your buffs being dispelled in the middle of the fight is not something very easy.
Noble Rakshasas have instacast Dragon Breath, Slow, Greater Malison and Remove Magic. They prefer shooting either Greater Malison or Remove Magic though in the start.
Horrid ones naturally have only instacast ADHW and Remove Magic. They will shoot either if they see a character with low magical energy resistance.
None of the Remove Magicks should be underestimated, even the lowly 17-level Horrid Rakshasas dispel things like Mazzy's Invoke Courage, Greater Djinni buffs, all important potion buffs (Giant Strength, Magic Shielding, Stone Form, Heroism).
So now comes the prebuff. We enlist Mazzy and cast all long-lasting buffs (up to 5 rounds). We cast them even on Sarevok. Unfortunately Mazzy cannot pre-buff Sarevok with Invoke Courages. No limited charge items or limited potions used in the prebuff.
Sarevok is well armed. We have rebought Gram the Sword of Grief, which will be his main weapon. His proficiencies are *****Two-Handed Sword, **Halberd, **Two-Weapon style. He has 1 Hardiness. His saves are excellent even at joining level (in fact, after raising him to level 20 the only change was his save vs Breath worsened by 1). He wears the unupgraded Human Flesh (4 to saves, 20% MR), two rings +2 (cannot wear a +4 with that armor), a cloak +2 and an amulet +1 (which was swapped for the Amulet of Seldarine soon enough to increase his MR).
With the knowledge I have now I'd definitely consider investing 75 000 gp in the upgraded Warblade for him (the version that gives +2 to Str, Con and Dex), because with it and a proper girdle he could easily reach static str 25. Still, even as it is, we had enough Giant Str potions to keep him at 25 str.
More importantly his saves with this gear were excellent, worst of them all being save vs Spells at -5.
Concerning saves: We need saves of -4 to save 100% vs any nasty effect. With that malisons and remove magicks flying around, we cannot rely on conventional ways to improve saves. Rings +4 are extremely important (everyone that can - wears, even the R-C who had donned a regular Full Plate to be able to do so). Amulets +1 are in all cases better than the Amulet of Spell Warding, which doesn't provide protection vs the Prince's Scimitar (Wands) or Dragon Breath spell (breath). Unfortunately, unless when circling around, there wasn't much use of the Shield of the Order or the Foebane blade. Bane the Riskbreaker used Foebane in the beginning, but then swapped it for a different weapon combination.
OK at the beginning we needn't worry about saves, since those are deep into the negative for all party members except Sarevok and for the entire summoned army.
The army is summoned in about 1 turn, with 2*Wishes for Rest. This can be attempted multiple times, since we actually didn't use any limited charge items as a prebuff.
There is little need to prebuff Jack and Bane with Stoneskins from the Judgment Day sword. Jack is the first target of the Prince's Remove Magic and his Skin will be dispelled. And Bane really doesn't need one.
The army is buffed with Improved Haste naturally, except for the last 5 summons gated after the 2nd Wish (2 Greater Swanmays, 1 Queen, 1 Greater Djinni, 1 Noble Spider), those were simply Hasted by a Greater Djinni. Better than nothing.
That 1-turn buffing included between-Wishes ProEnergy casting on Torham Zed the Ranger-Cleric, Bane and even Sarevok. No point in casting it on Jack Sparrow the Vagrant, as I said, first Remove Magic target. Torham also found the time to cast Aid on Seri Flamehair the Sorceress, Saros Shadow Follower the Berserker-Mage and on himself.
ProEnergy is important. It allows the target to endure much longer the Supreme Golem's lowering resistance hits, and also to regain health on each successful hit on him.
We needed even the mages to be more effective combatants. Polymorph Self (as can be seen) helps enormously here. Didn't wanna waste a 6-level slot with Saros on the Giant Strength spell, so instead chose to buff Seri lightly with regular Strength and give her the Girlde of Lordly Might, effectively increasing her Str to 21. Saros had a Giant Strength in a Contingency as can be seen from the video:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Some explanations on the first part of this fight.
Summons are: 3 Noble Spiders, 3 Greater Djinnis, 3 Swanmay Queens, 6 Greater Swanmays and a Planetar.
Farsight is extremely important for adequate summon control.
Noble Spiders inflict no damage vs Ultra Golems, thus they are excellent to distract the Rakshasa prince.
The Planetar has +3 weapons, he cannot harm anyone except lowly Rakshasas or minion Golems. He's better used for Healing, but unfortunately if he draws the attention of an enemy, he bites the dust in 2 hits.
If the Ultra Golems see no party member, they won't gate any Amber golems.
Keeping everyone away from Jack in the beginning is important for keeping their buffs active, well at least until that Remove Magic lands.
Mages are prebuffed with PFMW so that they don't draw the Prince's attention. Scrolls used because those 6-level slots are extremely valuable, and we have 88 PFMW scrolls. Not like we're gonna take those to the grave with us.
Changing Seri to a spider immediately helps her activate Shocking Grasp scroll when she has reached the Supreme Golem (1 round needed for that since moving in the Spider form is slow).
Saros opens with his one and only Alacrity with reduced casting time of 4, which allows him to restore Jack's buffs (if they're dispelled) and cast protections on Seri in the spider form (if he cast it as prebuff, they're lost when Seri changes shape to a spider), also lights the battlefield with Farsights.
When a character with Shocking Grasp attacks and the Grasp vanishes, that character stays in place doing nothing. That's why I had to keep a close look when both mages successfully hit the golem, and to re-assign them to attack.
The Golem Slayer rod was created particularly for this fight. It was very useful, but I think that even without it, Seri would've just used the Staff of the magi with a good result. Not a significant difference.
Critical strikes should be used on the Supreme and Elemental golems, I also had sequencers loaded with Rays of Fragmentation shot at instant speed to ensure the quicker Elemental Golem's demise. However, 3 Criticals are enough - no more. We need to preserve those, since we WON'T rely on Wish for Rest. Even if it's given as an option, I won't pick it!
The SE Ultra Golem didn't have enough time to gate an Amber golem before dying. The other one couldn't, being killed by summons only.
I've been told that if a Vagrant completes the insanely ridiculous Ancient Secret of Suldanesselar quest, he now receives 12 Swanmay Elders that help greatly. But since I cannot control those, they add a random element in the fight which I don't like. Moreover, I don't consider this fight to be very hard if resources are used right, we don't NEED any extra help vs the Golems. The Swanmay Elders aren't so good vs the Prince or so I hear (yeah, it would be stupid other way, Prince killed without lifting a finger).
Barbarian Essences: We start drinking those during the fight with the SE Ultra Golem. 5 for Jack, Sarevok and Saros, 4 for Torham and Bane. We simply are a couple short. I really needed a sixth for PC and a fifth for Torham.
Edit: Since Bane is using JD sword off-hand after the first Universal Purge, his physical resistances are 100%. Jack has 110% due to the Red Coral armor, and can go up to 125% if equipping the Flail of Defending and Wounding which only he can use.
After the 3 golems are dead (the order is Supreme Elemental-Elemental-SE Ultra, in the meantime if the summons killed NW ultra they help with the SE one, leave a couple to distract the Prince), we continue buffing with Barbarian Essences.
And we present a party member to the Prince from below, in order to have the Noble Rakshasas gating as conveniently as possible. The Prince is immediately led away. We dealt with the Rakshasas with the help of our still huge Summon army. No Criticals are required. Probably should've re-loaded a Spell Sequencer for Saros with triple Remove Magic. 7-th level slots aren't extremely useful, or I could just use a scroll.
In the end we even have the time to charm Cernd via a Mind Flayer circlet. Some info about that:
My original plan was enlisting 4 extra NPCs, preferably mages, who could cast PFME, Improved Haste, Limited Wish or Wish (Imoen) via Mindflayer circlets (those last for 6 hours, you see Cernd being green after the fight ended). These extra party members are treated as summons, meaning that their buffs are not dispelled by Universal Purge.
What went wrong with that:
All NPCs vanish once the fight starts (they don't appear even when the fight ends). I tested disbanding Sarevok after the 1st Universal Purge and charming him with a Circlet (so that his buffs aren't constantly Purged, and so that he takes only Core damage by not being a party member). However, after doing that, he just disappeared.
Apparently the only NPC missed by this inexplicable effect (another IA v6 cheat, if you ask me) is Cernd, so I prepared a good set of spells on him (well, he's a druid after all, his useful spells are limited to Bless, not a very strong Mass Heal and MS IV which gates Anacondas). Bless and the Anacondas were useful though. Anyhing that improves party THAC0 by 1 is good.
Edit: Anacondas are maybe the most resilient to damage of all IA v6-introduced new summons.
BTW charmed Cernd doesn't behave exactly like a summon, he will attack anyone in his field of vision automatically, but at least he won't be automatically headed for PC's direction (as all other IA v6 summons do, that behavior of theirs is stupid and extremely dangerous, IA v6 summons are scripted really, really bad).
Now comes an equally hard part of the fight. Sure, we've dealt with most enemy summons, but we had all our buffs and an enormous army of our own.
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
To understand what's happening now, some explanations are needed:
The Prince's casting pattern is very easy to remember, but it can differ. He will cast the following after an Universal Purge:
1) Greater Malison (only at a party member who's not under Magic Shielding potion, however he's stupid and will cast GM at a character protected from GoI)
2) Slow (at a party member)
3) Dragon Breath (at a target that's less than 50% protected from Fire) or Lower Fire Resistance (at a target with more than 50%)
4) ADHW (even if everyone around has 100% or more magical damage resistance)
5) Remove Magic (only at a party member)
The pattern differs (usually the Prince skips spells or casts damaging spells earlier) if he sees only summons or only an immune to his spells character.
After this sequence has ended, he repeats it, and after the 2nd Remove Magic he activates Universal Purge.
The thing to consider between the next 2 purges are, of course, Noble Rakshasas. Also, we had to bring him twice to Injured to activate his first 2 Absolute Immunities. There is no time to waste! Our Barbarian Essences are expiring (they last 10 turns). This battle has to be won before the prince purges for the 8th time. OK we still have 1 free attempt (essences will start expiring after the 9th Universal Purge).
Our buffing sequence:
We use PFME scrolls with Seri (had 29 brought to the fight, looted 3 more from Noble Rakshasas, one dropped ADHW sadly, in this fight Horrid Rakshasas drop 0) to quickly buff Bane and Sarevok.
Saros casts Improved Haste on both of them (OK Bane may consider Hasting himself on an occasion, he has 3 total, and they can't be dispelled by Remove Magic).
Fighters can move forward once the casting is started - it will be completed. So both Bane and Sarevok are ready for battle in a bit more than 1 round (Chant and Bless active on them too).
Seri continues with PFME scrolls on Torham.
Torham casts Chant, then Righteous Magic, after that he gulps a Stone Form potion, decreasing his saves by 3.
Cernd casts Bless.
Jack has to be monitored carefully, because he has to activate Magic Shielding potion right when the Prince shoots his Malison on him. Consuming the potion afterwards is no good. The effect of the Malison stays even though the animation from the portrait vanishes. Another IA v6 bug or cheat.
We did some serious item redistribution when the party was assembled after the 1st purge, which I'd better describe here:
Helm of Balduran went to PC (static save vs Spells -4),
Fire-protective items all pulled out of packs. Drizzt's scimitar, Frostbrand, being one of the most essential - this weapon should not be sold, but instead stored in Wk level 1 and used in ToB. Also, the Helmet of Defense would be very useful in this entire fight, incredibly stupid IA bug for not getting it!
Rings should be used with all due care! They worsen saves by 2, and as you can see below, in almost all cases I used them party members were incapacitated by the Breath.
In this particular instance when Torham was incapacitated, I should stack 2 Potions of Stone Form - he can take it, his Dexterity being 19 (would've dropped to 1, but at least his saves would be excellent, I didn't expect him to fail a Breath save with his -2). But unfortunately while Unconscious, the Prince obviously hit him for he was Slowed, which was extremely unpleasant. It totally messed up my fight plan and I had to play a guerilla war against that Remove Magic, but it worked.
The trick with fire-resistant items was to equip them in the moment of a Breath and unequip them afterwards, in order to avoid lowering Fire res. Escaping the Breath area is easy enough, but then again, the Prince regenerates fast during that time.
The Breath takes some time before hitting everyone, fire resistant items should be kept equipped (I made just one such mistake with Sarevok later, but it wasn't fatal).
Attacking the enemy is safe during Slow and ADHW. With the right gear, during Dragon Breath too. Potions of Fire Resistance are good, in order to bring the negative fire value into the 0 or below 50%.
So basically we have 3 rounds in which to inflict enough damage on the enemy. Running around with Jack prior to that is essential, since we don't wanna his resistances lowered until it's absolutely necessary.
Perhaps here is a good place to describe the vital spell picks for this fight. Arcane and divine:
Torham Zed:
Level 1: Bless, Armor of Faith
Level 2: Chant, DUHM, Aid - all essential. Didn't have the time to cast Aid though.
Level 4: had Holy Power, didn't cast it even once. No time! Thinking about it, I should probably go for it and then increase Str to 24 with a Storm Giant str potion.
Level 5: Iron Skins (he has only 80% physical res), Righteous Magic
Level 6: Heal, Wondrous Recall
Level 7: 1 Foreknowledge, 10 Greater Restorations. Thinking of it now, probably should go for something like 8 Foreknowledge, 3 GR. Foreknowledge is a vital buff to the R-C, increasing his extremely bad saves by 1, and his very bad THAC0 as well. Plus, it's not dispelled by an Universal Purge, so unlike Aid, it can be used a bit before expected Universal Purge as a prebuff.
Saros Shadow Follower:
Level 2: Blur. Never used one. His saves are excellent.
Level 3: Remove Magic vs the lower Rakshasas.
Level 4: Polymorph self (naturally), 4*Farsight (essential), 1 Stoneskin (just in case, we don't need that spell after the 1st Purge)
Level 6: 8 Improved Haste, 2 PFME. Improved Haste is much more important to Saros, because Seri can keep it up with PFME scroll castings. But he needed 2 PFME in order to refresh both PFME and IHaste on him twice more via Spell Trigger. If he attempts that Trigger on another, the PFME will fail, but still it's an option if another besides him urgently needs Improved Haste.
Seri also had such a trigger, to be used as an additional Improved Haste on a warrior. In the end, she didn't have to use it.
Level 7: 6 Limited Wishes, 4 Mordy Swords (erased 1 Mordy Sword when reequipping rings)
Level 8: 7 PFE,1 Foreknowledge. Same as with Torham. Should be the opposite: 7 Foreknowledges, 1 PFE. PFE is not the greatest spell. First of all, it grants only 75 % magic damage resistance, which is just NOT ENOUGH on Insane. Second, it prompts the Prince to use Lower Fire Resistance. I just kept it active on mages after purges when expecting Noble Rakshasas.
Level 9: 1 Alacrity, 6 Wishes
Saros cannot wish for Rest of Double-length TS+IA. Those options just appear blank in his list of choices (meaning, if he gets both of them from a Wish, he'll actually have only 3 other possibilities to pick from). But still he can wish for party PFME, mass IHaste or party IHaste.
First Noble Rakshasa is easy enough, we still have some of our powerful summons (Greater Djinnis). However we had to plan carefully for where the second one is spawned,that's why Jack went to the left.
OK, now it's only the Prince:
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
You see what happens if we make mistakes (during the part 14-17). First of all, the mistake of not switching Staves with Saros got us an unexpected Lower FIre Res. Next, the Prince was extremely lucky to chain 7 special hits with his scimitar, bringing Jack's physical resistances to 85% and his magical damage resistance to -50% despite Jack's gear and potion of Magic shielding which normally give him +125% magical damage resistance. That pulled him out of the fight effectively. Had to equip FoDaW and hold him in place (not attacking) to keep him alive. That of course hidered the fighting power of the party and they couldn't bring the Prince to Badly Injured fast enough, resulting in the Prince's Remove magic, and also the Prince dispelling Bane's PFME on hit, which further hindered the party's performance. We had to rely on some further buffing and guerilla war to bring the enemy to Badly Injured, but it finally worked, and Jack's resistances started getting back to normal. Here was also my big mistake with Sarevok, unequipping his gear prematurely. He was lucky with the damage, but he was on 200 HP, I don't think that the enemy can score max damage, he needs to get max of 10d10*2(Insane difficulty) because Sarevok always saves vs Breath. And I was ready to cast Greater Restoration if anything went completely wrong.
Part 18 is Regaining ground. We buffed very well, but the fact is that the Prince's Absolute Immunity has yet to wane, thus we lost a round and a half attacking. But prompt buffing and the use of Criticals ensured enough damage dealt in just 1 and a half round.
Now since we don't expect any more lowly Rakshasas, there is no need to waste a second Magic Shielding potion during the Prince's second cast sequence to counter his Greater Malison. We can just as effectively use a combination of the Shield of the Order + Stone Form potion. After all, we're waiting for enemy AI expiration as well as for the next Universal Purge, there is no need to waste precious potions.
The Absolute Immunity in video 19 may have looked like the 5th, but it was actually the 4th, activated a bit late (not at Badly Injured, but at Near-Death). Still, we have only 3 more times to "kill" the Rakshasa prince, but those are hands down the hardest (have to bring him to Near-Death in 3-round interval).
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
So we start with the quick buffing after the next Purge. The sorceress' eight 9-level spell slots and nine 6-th level slots were reserved for just this moment. The key element is seeing what we get from the first 3 Wishes (2 from Seri under Alacrity, 1 from Saros) and then buff everyone with what's missing (if anything's missing, that is). Improved Haste is basically easier to get (2 options), but PFME is slower to cast on everyone even under Alacrity. But you see the picture, even if we don't get everything from Wishes, we just add the needed component, be it Improved Haste or PFME. Of course the best chain of Wishes is for Stat increase to 25, Mass Improved Haste (either) and Party PFME. So with all 5 fighters buffed well in a bit more than 1 round, it's not really that hard to bring the Prince to Near-Death thrice more.
Brought 3 Heroism Potions and 3 Power potions for the fight, as you can see they helped a lot. Quick-time THAC0 reduction is great. Should bring more along for the R-C probably. Probably should invest some gold in some more Storm Giant potions. I used my 2 Giant Strength scrolls in the last assault as prebuff, those aren't Purged.
Naturally, PC has to be watched constantly. First to ensure that he's the Rakshasa Prince's melee target, second to ensure that his magical and physical damage resistances are high enough. Chaining Magic Shielding potions in this case is acceptable for keeping his Magical damage resistance high enough. Of course if the Prince is too lucky with his hits PC would have to stand still or even equip the JD sword off-hand if his physical resistances drop below 100% with FoDaW main.
Ended the fight with both Seri and Saros' triggers (containing Improved Haste) unused, also the Darkfire Bow and the Amulet of Cheetah Speed Improved Haste unused, Bane had 1 Improved Haste unused, Saros had 1 Wish, and we had 2 scrolls of Wish unused. Also 18 PFME scrolls. 18 PFME scrolls, multiple Giant Strength potions (Fire and Storm), 16 Magic Shielding potions. So we basically still had a lot of options remaining, even not considering that last Wish for Rest which I chose not to pick. I could, although all party buffs would be dispelled, but then again I'd have 8 more Wishes restored immediately to refresh those buffs, and refreshed PFMW to protect the lone Sorceress from the Fallen Planetar and Elemental Golem appearing next to her, but I said NO wishing for rest and I'm sticking to that!
I will make one last post, concerning item usefulness, spell usefulness and what changes would I make to spell selection and item upgrade for a no-reload run with this same party. This post will conclude this topic. I will definitely make a successful no-reload following the steps of the current party and learning/fixing their mistakes in order to be successful this time!
Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 05 août 2013 - 03:25 .
#103
Posté 03 août 2013 - 09:24
saros_shadow_follower
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Extra chapter:
First of all, let me say I consider facing vanilla Mel right now to be beneath me in every possible way.
Remarks on the EDE valuable items and spells (or Which would I change for a more solid tactic):
R-C's buffing:
Holy Power + Storm Giant Str potions instead of Righteous Magic/DUHM. After all, under Holy Power he still has better THAC0 than under Righteous Magic. And after he gulps a potion, he becomes a fighting machine.
Foreknowledge before each Purge (so a total of 7, plus initial one - 8, I still have Hindo's Doom and Improved Cat Figurine as additional Greater Restoration effects). Both the saving throw bonus and THAC0 bonus are extremely vital to the R-C.
B-M's buffing:
Foreknowledge before each Purge (so a total of 6, with 2 scrolls, that still leaves him 2 Protection from Energy castings, plus a scroll we preserved - more than enough)
Spell Sequencer with Remove Magicks before each of the two last Noble Rakshasas spawn (for quick usage in mid-battle). 4 Limited Wishes are sufficient for regaining the R-C's 2nd level spells.
Cernd:
7 Defensive Harmony spells at level 4.
All slots Fire Elemental level 6
Circlet of the Woods shouldn't be sold. A bit faster casting speed is always good. Plus, he's good as an extra party member vs Abazigal. So his +4 cloak upgrade for 50 000 gp at this point can also prove valuable. The Circlet too, but it's way too expensive, so no.
Equipping Montolio's Cloak on PC when he was under Magic Shielding effect. Any THAC0 bonus is important.
Switching to the Truth longsword in PC's off-hand when under 25 stat increase Wish effect. PC wasn't under Bless, and the sword provides it (1 THAC0 bonus).
Consuming Potions of Power in the last 3 rushes with Saros rather than Potions of Heroism.
Keeping a very close eye on fire-resistant items after a DB takes effect and unequipping them promptly (not too soon, but not leaving any behind).
Stacking 2 Stone Form potions on the R-C whenever equipping fire-res ring.
Using 1* Critical Strike with PC and the RB on each offensive on the prince after the 2nd. And using 2*Criticals on each offensive after the 4th. That's a total of 8 CS per fighter we need to preserve. 9, to be on the safe side. Following that, I'd consider Bane's HLAs to be 14 Criticals - 6 Hardinesses for the next run. He wasn't Breached as much as PC with those tactics I applied. He never got to even half of his Hardinesses after he got his 5th.
Shocking Grasp in spellbook for Seri, prebuffing a Contingency (scroll) on her with Shocking Grasp, trigger on hit. Minor sequencer (scroll) with LMD on self to trigger that Shocking Grasp. I never used Chromatic Orb in the entire game, it can be switched to Shocking Grasp easy for the next run.
Valuable resources for EDE:
Limited charge items:
Stone Form potions for this fight: Best if R-C has 10-15, PC 10, Sarevok 10, other 5. So a total of 45-50 potions of Stone Form created before the start of the fight are good to have. Be very careful with those! Gulping 2 kills a character with 18 or less dex. Only special characters with increased Dex can gulp 2 and survive.
Fire Resistance potions: The ones obtained throughout the game are valuable and more than enough for everyone, no need to purchase more, but DON'T SELL those.
Magic Shielding potions: 25 are sufficient. It's really HOW you use them, not how many you have. Sarevok doesn't need any even if hit by Malison - he can just drink a Stone Form and his saves will again be excellent.
PFME scrolls: Don't sell any, bring as many as possible here. No need to buy any either, so do the test show. Start using those after the first purge, and up to the 5th. Of course, also good as last resort alternative. Can be cast even in the mid-fight by the B-M without fear of intteruption, and much faster than a PFME spell. Invaluable.
Improved Haste scrolls: I didn't use it, but it's extremely important to have as last alternative.
Giant Strength scrolls: Undispellable Storm Giant str effect. Very valuable.
Foreknowledge scrolls: Extremely good to have spare.
Giant Strength, Heroism and Power potions: All extremely valuable. Should've used Potions of Power instead of Heroism on Saros for 1 more THAC0 bonus (Heroism drops it by 1, Power by 2).
Polymorph Self and Shocking Grasp scrolls: 1 of each is enough, also important to turn the Sorc into a fighting machine in the start.
Wish and Limited Wish scrolls: All that we can muster. Playing with Aesgerath 2 times for the Wish scroll is extremely important.
Golden Cat Figurine and Hindo's Doom: additional Greater Restoration effects usable by anyone are great to have.
Superior Healing potions: 20-25 per party fighter are sufficient obviously. So any above 125 can be sold.
PFMW scrolls: 10 are more than enough for this fight (actually we used only a couple) the rest can be sold (not that they're very expensive or anything, but any last minute gold is great).
Should've brought more Alchemy-created Potions of Vitality, for the R-C. He really needs to gulp one after each Greater Restoration casting.
Powerful summoning devices: Both the Ring of Greater Djinni Summoning and Golden Spider figurine were extremely essential!
Other summoning devices are also good to have, they may be needed at certain point, no matter how lowly they seem.
Essential weapons:
Foebane +5
Judgment Day +5 (used for the 20% physical res and +2 str as an off-hand weapon mainly)
FoDaW +5 (used defensively if PC's physical resistances went too low)
Axe of the Unyielding +5 - main assault weapon, because with grandmastery in Axes, PC's attacks went to 10 instead of staying at 8. 2 more APR are extremely important vs the Prince!
Hammer of Thor: Used mostly off-hand by PC as a Str-increasing weapon.
Phosphorous +4: Perhaps one of the most useful weapons throughout the game, here it also shines mainly because of the static Str increase it provides.
Runehammer, FoA - +5 weapons for the R-C
Any shield, helm, weapon or ring (but not armor!) that comes free with Fire res bonus is extremely valuable. That doesn't mean that the Supreme Shelter or Volcano are worth forging.
Frostbrand and the Helm of Brilliance: Extremely important to hold ground vs Dragon Breaths, as any other free fire-resistant weapon or misc! I could get 2 such scimitars, but I consider it not fair. Best if 1 is sold, 1 preserved in WK. Never even once I regretted bringing the Helm of Brilliance along. It's a must!
Royal Elemental Staff: Essential!
Dragon Lord and Poseidon's Wrath halberds: Dragon Lord is essential (immunity to Dragon Breath spell), without Poseidon's wrath we can win with this tactic, but it's still very good to have.
Staff of the Ram +6 is a must! It's the most damaging weapon vs the Rakshasa prince, dealing 11 easy.
Either Gram or Psion's Blade for Sarevok in the worst case scenario
Armor and Misc:
Girdle of Fire and Cloud Giant strength
Bracers of Blinding Strike (even a short-time lasting Improved Haste is good to have)
Amulet of Cheetah Speed, Darkfire bow (I could use Taralash on PC to run faster than the Prince, but he'd still hit me when turning around)
Boots of Speed for everyone (always 1 pair short when creating the Boots of the Ranger lord, however those are extremely essential because of the permanent IHaste)
Belt of Inertial Barrier
Shield of the Order
Human Flesh (vanilla, not IA upgraded)
Cloaks and Rings +2 for everyone (killing Elminster saves about 70 000 gp needed for Sarevok's +2 cloak and ring upgrades).
Rings +4 for everyone that can use them (expensive, but necessary, unfortunately). OK the Sorceress can go along with a +3 ring for most of the game, and she doesn't need a +4 ring in EDE, so probably two +4 rings are more than enough plus the improved Gaxx +5, naturally.
Helm of Balduran
Staff of the Magi
All Fire-res helmets, shields and rings
Amulets +1 for those fighters that don't have a +2. Seldarine is the best amulet for Sarevok.
Ioun Stones that are found/upgraded: All of them were used here: Crimson, Indigo, Lavender, Wong Fei. The purchased one remained unused (Silver)
A regular Full Plate for the R-C to be able to wear a +4 ring.
Priest spells:
Chant, Bless (Cernd), DUHM, Foreknowledge, Righteous Magic, Wondrous Recall, Heal, and to a bit smaller than expected extent: Greater Restoration.
Mage spells:
Improved Haste, PFME (to somewhat smaller extent, scrolls were much more important), Wish (but not for Rest), Alacrity (speed up buff), Foreknowledge (speed up buff, THAC0 and saves bonus for Saros), Farsight, and to a very small extent - Protection from Energy and some other elemental protection spells cast by Saros in the beginning.
Non-Essential items (or things I shouldn't bring along or create):
Golem Slayer +5: The weapon is worth more than 170 000 gp (considering all ingredients' market cost) and has a very insignificant usage. Staff of the magi would deal less damage vs the golems, but let's face it, Seri didn't hit that often despite of her 8 APR and relatively good THAC0. NOT worth it
A third +4 ring: Turns out Seri doesn't need a +4 ring here. So for this particular fight she can take off her +4 ring, and give it to Torham, who will give her his +2 ring and voila! More than 310 000 gp preserved.
Taralash, Ring of Free Action: Thought these may come in handy. Apparently I was wrong. Sure the Free Action ring is good to prevent the Slow effect if PC is standing and taking damage from the Prince, but by doing so, his magical damage resistance would be constantly too low. No thanks. Still I'd sell just Taralash, and preserve the ring just in case (for future runs, that is).
Boots of Etherealness, Mana Bow, Grandmaster's Armor, all enchanted shortswords, Lilarcor, the Shield of Harmony, the Equalizer, the Blue Dragon Plate and even the Great Wyrm Plate are all expendable at this point.
Number of non-useful scrolls that should be sold were preserved too: 88 PFMW ones (I really needed only 8-10 of these max), 8 ProElements scrolls, Stoneskin scrolls, prot from Fire/Cold/Acid/Electricity, Hand of Undoing, Ray of Fragmentation.
From the miscs: Ring of Anti-Venom, Periapt of Life Protection, Ring of Invisibility, Amulet of Spell Warding, Metaspell Influence amulet and one +1 amulet of protection are all obsolete. Naturally I've heard that the +2 saves from the Spell Warding amulet are excellent against the Field of Repulse, however I fear that this info is no good since the amulet also worsens the wearer's save vs Breath and vs Wands by 1. Probably it could be put to some use by the R-C, but only if he has found and wears the Helmet of Defense.
Brought along a number of other items, like multiple Chaotic Commands and Free Action scrolls, scrolls of Spell Immunity, Remove Magic, Monster Summoning VI and VII, and other. Some of them were obviously useless, some I didn't have to use (probably could cast MS VII from a scroll, a YuanTi is always powerful).
That's a huge amount of money in those items, probably above 600 000 gp. This would leave more than enough money for the +5 Warblade upgrade for Sarevok and for Cernd's Improved +4 cloak.
Different Sorceress spell picks for this fight:
Level 1: Shocking Grasp instead of Chromatic Orb
Level 3: Flame Arrow instead of Vampiric Touch
Level 4: Minor Spell Sequencer instead of Ice Storm
Level 5: Cone of Cold instead of Larloch's Interrupter
Level 7: Monster Summoning V instead of Mantle (3*Limited Wish scrolls are more than enough)
The first choice is obvious...using the spell in conjuction with a sequencer/trigger and Polymorph self. And I never used the Chromatic Orb. Ever.
Vampiric Touch was meant to be used to increase the Sorc's HP when on lower xp levels, effectively bringing her out of the PW:Kill range. Since she gained 60 HP at level 10, that was never necessary. On higher levels, it was supposed to help vs various dangerous golems, which was never needed as well. However, the lack of a powerful damage spell at level 3 (Flame Arrow) felt very badly vs opponents such as Abazigal, the WindMaster, and even vs various mages after their MR was lowered. After all, Flame Arrow is the most damaging spell available at level 3. All other 3-rd level picks were extremely useful until the very end (including Haste). OK the Lightning bolt was just for 1 fight (vs the Supreme Gith leader) but that fight is very hard so LB is essential.
Never used Mantle either. Originally it was meant to be used vs Hardwood/Web golems + multiple Stoneskins. However Seri didn't have to face them. Or Absolute Immunity was sufficient to keep them at bay. MS V calls Salamanders, which unlike Mordy Swords come Hasted. They also have quite a lot more HP than a Mordy Sword and cannot be brought down by a single ADHW spell. A Salamander Noble can successfully distract the Rakshasa prince for 15 rounds full, by running around under Farsight. Plus, the Salamander Noble regenerates and is a far better fighter vs the Prince compared to the lowly swords. With the help of the Salamander Nobles, I can actually consume the Barbarian essences later, and in the meantime trigger the last two Noble Rakshasas AFTER (and not before) an Universal Purge.
Speaking of different spell picks, I'd also consider Cone of Cold as fourth pick at level 5, instead of Larloch's Interrupter. The Interrupter is hands down one of the most USELESS spells created by the mod's designer. It may be good for the enemies, but not for the party mages. That will liberate me one spell at level 4 (something else than Ice Storm), which may be either Minor Sequencer or Fireshield: Blue. Probably Minor Sequencer, because the Fireshield Blue was used only on one occasion.
Edited: Valuable NPCs:
Without any doubt, the lead goes to:
Mazzy Fentan: She is no fighter on Insane, but her Invoke Courage buffs helped win many tough battles unconditionally, from chapter 3 up to the very last one.
And the other:
Aerie :In the very beginning: an additional caster in the Copper Coronet, as well as most charming person for making purchases during the entire chapter 3.
Yoshimo: In the very beginning, a very useful xp and gold boost - both in Chateau Irenicus and in the Slums/Bridge/Docks. Helpful in Brynnlaw for some extra xp. Extremely valuable in chapter 6 when he provides 400 000 more xp to the party.
Jan Jansen: Temporary party thief for almost the entire adventure. Very important.
Jaheira: Invaluable starting gold, item and xp boost.
Imoen: Invaluable buffing assistance in chapters 4 and 5 (so following the main plot including Yoshi's betrayal and Imoen's rejoining is in fact most profitable to a 5-person party). Invaluable assistance vs the Ancient Dragon At the very least, although any other mage could do the same - Jan or Nalia for example, Imoen has most Breaches than any other naked mage at her level.
Cernd: Very valuable in Abazigal fight and EDE, even though low-leveled.
Sarevok: An excellent and necessary addition for the last fight. His high starting xp makes him easy to bring to level 20 or even 21 with careful planning. That's all he needs really. Even at level 17, he's still decent enough.
First of all, let me say I consider facing vanilla Mel right now to be beneath me in every possible way.
Remarks on the EDE valuable items and spells (or Which would I change for a more solid tactic):
R-C's buffing:
Holy Power + Storm Giant Str potions instead of Righteous Magic/DUHM. After all, under Holy Power he still has better THAC0 than under Righteous Magic. And after he gulps a potion, he becomes a fighting machine.
Foreknowledge before each Purge (so a total of 7, plus initial one - 8, I still have Hindo's Doom and Improved Cat Figurine as additional Greater Restoration effects). Both the saving throw bonus and THAC0 bonus are extremely vital to the R-C.
B-M's buffing:
Foreknowledge before each Purge (so a total of 6, with 2 scrolls, that still leaves him 2 Protection from Energy castings, plus a scroll we preserved - more than enough)
Spell Sequencer with Remove Magicks before each of the two last Noble Rakshasas spawn (for quick usage in mid-battle). 4 Limited Wishes are sufficient for regaining the R-C's 2nd level spells.
Cernd:
7 Defensive Harmony spells at level 4.
All slots Fire Elemental level 6
Circlet of the Woods shouldn't be sold. A bit faster casting speed is always good. Plus, he's good as an extra party member vs Abazigal. So his +4 cloak upgrade for 50 000 gp at this point can also prove valuable. The Circlet too, but it's way too expensive, so no.
Equipping Montolio's Cloak on PC when he was under Magic Shielding effect. Any THAC0 bonus is important.
Switching to the Truth longsword in PC's off-hand when under 25 stat increase Wish effect. PC wasn't under Bless, and the sword provides it (1 THAC0 bonus).
Consuming Potions of Power in the last 3 rushes with Saros rather than Potions of Heroism.
Keeping a very close eye on fire-resistant items after a DB takes effect and unequipping them promptly (not too soon, but not leaving any behind).
Stacking 2 Stone Form potions on the R-C whenever equipping fire-res ring.
Using 1* Critical Strike with PC and the RB on each offensive on the prince after the 2nd. And using 2*Criticals on each offensive after the 4th. That's a total of 8 CS per fighter we need to preserve. 9, to be on the safe side. Following that, I'd consider Bane's HLAs to be 14 Criticals - 6 Hardinesses for the next run. He wasn't Breached as much as PC with those tactics I applied. He never got to even half of his Hardinesses after he got his 5th.
Shocking Grasp in spellbook for Seri, prebuffing a Contingency (scroll) on her with Shocking Grasp, trigger on hit. Minor sequencer (scroll) with LMD on self to trigger that Shocking Grasp. I never used Chromatic Orb in the entire game, it can be switched to Shocking Grasp easy for the next run.
Valuable resources for EDE:
Limited charge items:
Stone Form potions for this fight: Best if R-C has 10-15, PC 10, Sarevok 10, other 5. So a total of 45-50 potions of Stone Form created before the start of the fight are good to have. Be very careful with those! Gulping 2 kills a character with 18 or less dex. Only special characters with increased Dex can gulp 2 and survive.
Fire Resistance potions: The ones obtained throughout the game are valuable and more than enough for everyone, no need to purchase more, but DON'T SELL those.
Magic Shielding potions: 25 are sufficient. It's really HOW you use them, not how many you have. Sarevok doesn't need any even if hit by Malison - he can just drink a Stone Form and his saves will again be excellent.
PFME scrolls: Don't sell any, bring as many as possible here. No need to buy any either, so do the test show. Start using those after the first purge, and up to the 5th. Of course, also good as last resort alternative. Can be cast even in the mid-fight by the B-M without fear of intteruption, and much faster than a PFME spell. Invaluable.
Improved Haste scrolls: I didn't use it, but it's extremely important to have as last alternative.
Giant Strength scrolls: Undispellable Storm Giant str effect. Very valuable.
Foreknowledge scrolls: Extremely good to have spare.
Giant Strength, Heroism and Power potions: All extremely valuable. Should've used Potions of Power instead of Heroism on Saros for 1 more THAC0 bonus (Heroism drops it by 1, Power by 2).
Polymorph Self and Shocking Grasp scrolls: 1 of each is enough, also important to turn the Sorc into a fighting machine in the start.
Wish and Limited Wish scrolls: All that we can muster. Playing with Aesgerath 2 times for the Wish scroll is extremely important.
Golden Cat Figurine and Hindo's Doom: additional Greater Restoration effects usable by anyone are great to have.
Superior Healing potions: 20-25 per party fighter are sufficient obviously. So any above 125 can be sold.
PFMW scrolls: 10 are more than enough for this fight (actually we used only a couple) the rest can be sold (not that they're very expensive or anything, but any last minute gold is great).
Should've brought more Alchemy-created Potions of Vitality, for the R-C. He really needs to gulp one after each Greater Restoration casting.
Powerful summoning devices: Both the Ring of Greater Djinni Summoning and Golden Spider figurine were extremely essential!
Other summoning devices are also good to have, they may be needed at certain point, no matter how lowly they seem.
Essential weapons:
Foebane +5
Judgment Day +5 (used for the 20% physical res and +2 str as an off-hand weapon mainly)
FoDaW +5 (used defensively if PC's physical resistances went too low)
Axe of the Unyielding +5 - main assault weapon, because with grandmastery in Axes, PC's attacks went to 10 instead of staying at 8. 2 more APR are extremely important vs the Prince!
Hammer of Thor: Used mostly off-hand by PC as a Str-increasing weapon.
Phosphorous +4: Perhaps one of the most useful weapons throughout the game, here it also shines mainly because of the static Str increase it provides.
Runehammer, FoA - +5 weapons for the R-C
Any shield, helm, weapon or ring (but not armor!) that comes free with Fire res bonus is extremely valuable. That doesn't mean that the Supreme Shelter or Volcano are worth forging.
Frostbrand and the Helm of Brilliance: Extremely important to hold ground vs Dragon Breaths, as any other free fire-resistant weapon or misc! I could get 2 such scimitars, but I consider it not fair. Best if 1 is sold, 1 preserved in WK. Never even once I regretted bringing the Helm of Brilliance along. It's a must!
Royal Elemental Staff: Essential!
Dragon Lord and Poseidon's Wrath halberds: Dragon Lord is essential (immunity to Dragon Breath spell), without Poseidon's wrath we can win with this tactic, but it's still very good to have.
Staff of the Ram +6 is a must! It's the most damaging weapon vs the Rakshasa prince, dealing 11 easy.
Either Gram or Psion's Blade for Sarevok in the worst case scenario
Armor and Misc:
Girdle of Fire and Cloud Giant strength
Bracers of Blinding Strike (even a short-time lasting Improved Haste is good to have)
Amulet of Cheetah Speed, Darkfire bow (I could use Taralash on PC to run faster than the Prince, but he'd still hit me when turning around)
Boots of Speed for everyone (always 1 pair short when creating the Boots of the Ranger lord, however those are extremely essential because of the permanent IHaste)
Belt of Inertial Barrier
Shield of the Order
Human Flesh (vanilla, not IA upgraded)
Cloaks and Rings +2 for everyone (killing Elminster saves about 70 000 gp needed for Sarevok's +2 cloak and ring upgrades).
Rings +4 for everyone that can use them (expensive, but necessary, unfortunately). OK the Sorceress can go along with a +3 ring for most of the game, and she doesn't need a +4 ring in EDE, so probably two +4 rings are more than enough plus the improved Gaxx +5, naturally.
Helm of Balduran
Staff of the Magi
All Fire-res helmets, shields and rings
Amulets +1 for those fighters that don't have a +2. Seldarine is the best amulet for Sarevok.
Ioun Stones that are found/upgraded: All of them were used here: Crimson, Indigo, Lavender, Wong Fei. The purchased one remained unused (Silver)
A regular Full Plate for the R-C to be able to wear a +4 ring.
Priest spells:
Chant, Bless (Cernd), DUHM, Foreknowledge, Righteous Magic, Wondrous Recall, Heal, and to a bit smaller than expected extent: Greater Restoration.
Mage spells:
Improved Haste, PFME (to somewhat smaller extent, scrolls were much more important), Wish (but not for Rest), Alacrity (speed up buff), Foreknowledge (speed up buff, THAC0 and saves bonus for Saros), Farsight, and to a very small extent - Protection from Energy and some other elemental protection spells cast by Saros in the beginning.
Non-Essential items (or things I shouldn't bring along or create):
Golem Slayer +5: The weapon is worth more than 170 000 gp (considering all ingredients' market cost) and has a very insignificant usage. Staff of the magi would deal less damage vs the golems, but let's face it, Seri didn't hit that often despite of her 8 APR and relatively good THAC0. NOT worth it
A third +4 ring: Turns out Seri doesn't need a +4 ring here. So for this particular fight she can take off her +4 ring, and give it to Torham, who will give her his +2 ring and voila! More than 310 000 gp preserved.
Taralash, Ring of Free Action: Thought these may come in handy. Apparently I was wrong. Sure the Free Action ring is good to prevent the Slow effect if PC is standing and taking damage from the Prince, but by doing so, his magical damage resistance would be constantly too low. No thanks. Still I'd sell just Taralash, and preserve the ring just in case (for future runs, that is).
Boots of Etherealness, Mana Bow, Grandmaster's Armor, all enchanted shortswords, Lilarcor, the Shield of Harmony, the Equalizer, the Blue Dragon Plate and even the Great Wyrm Plate are all expendable at this point.
Number of non-useful scrolls that should be sold were preserved too: 88 PFMW ones (I really needed only 8-10 of these max), 8 ProElements scrolls, Stoneskin scrolls, prot from Fire/Cold/Acid/Electricity, Hand of Undoing, Ray of Fragmentation.
From the miscs: Ring of Anti-Venom, Periapt of Life Protection, Ring of Invisibility, Amulet of Spell Warding, Metaspell Influence amulet and one +1 amulet of protection are all obsolete. Naturally I've heard that the +2 saves from the Spell Warding amulet are excellent against the Field of Repulse, however I fear that this info is no good since the amulet also worsens the wearer's save vs Breath and vs Wands by 1. Probably it could be put to some use by the R-C, but only if he has found and wears the Helmet of Defense.
Brought along a number of other items, like multiple Chaotic Commands and Free Action scrolls, scrolls of Spell Immunity, Remove Magic, Monster Summoning VI and VII, and other. Some of them were obviously useless, some I didn't have to use (probably could cast MS VII from a scroll, a YuanTi is always powerful).
That's a huge amount of money in those items, probably above 600 000 gp. This would leave more than enough money for the +5 Warblade upgrade for Sarevok and for Cernd's Improved +4 cloak.
Different Sorceress spell picks for this fight:
Level 1: Shocking Grasp instead of Chromatic Orb
Level 3: Flame Arrow instead of Vampiric Touch
Level 4: Minor Spell Sequencer instead of Ice Storm
Level 5: Cone of Cold instead of Larloch's Interrupter
Level 7: Monster Summoning V instead of Mantle (3*Limited Wish scrolls are more than enough)
The first choice is obvious...using the spell in conjuction with a sequencer/trigger and Polymorph self. And I never used the Chromatic Orb. Ever.
Vampiric Touch was meant to be used to increase the Sorc's HP when on lower xp levels, effectively bringing her out of the PW:Kill range. Since she gained 60 HP at level 10, that was never necessary. On higher levels, it was supposed to help vs various dangerous golems, which was never needed as well. However, the lack of a powerful damage spell at level 3 (Flame Arrow) felt very badly vs opponents such as Abazigal, the WindMaster, and even vs various mages after their MR was lowered. After all, Flame Arrow is the most damaging spell available at level 3. All other 3-rd level picks were extremely useful until the very end (including Haste). OK the Lightning bolt was just for 1 fight (vs the Supreme Gith leader) but that fight is very hard so LB is essential.
Never used Mantle either. Originally it was meant to be used vs Hardwood/Web golems + multiple Stoneskins. However Seri didn't have to face them. Or Absolute Immunity was sufficient to keep them at bay. MS V calls Salamanders, which unlike Mordy Swords come Hasted. They also have quite a lot more HP than a Mordy Sword and cannot be brought down by a single ADHW spell. A Salamander Noble can successfully distract the Rakshasa prince for 15 rounds full, by running around under Farsight. Plus, the Salamander Noble regenerates and is a far better fighter vs the Prince compared to the lowly swords. With the help of the Salamander Nobles, I can actually consume the Barbarian essences later, and in the meantime trigger the last two Noble Rakshasas AFTER (and not before) an Universal Purge.
Speaking of different spell picks, I'd also consider Cone of Cold as fourth pick at level 5, instead of Larloch's Interrupter. The Interrupter is hands down one of the most USELESS spells created by the mod's designer. It may be good for the enemies, but not for the party mages. That will liberate me one spell at level 4 (something else than Ice Storm), which may be either Minor Sequencer or Fireshield: Blue. Probably Minor Sequencer, because the Fireshield Blue was used only on one occasion.
Edited: Valuable NPCs:
Without any doubt, the lead goes to:
Mazzy Fentan: She is no fighter on Insane, but her Invoke Courage buffs helped win many tough battles unconditionally, from chapter 3 up to the very last one.
And the other:
Aerie :In the very beginning: an additional caster in the Copper Coronet, as well as most charming person for making purchases during the entire chapter 3.
Yoshimo: In the very beginning, a very useful xp and gold boost - both in Chateau Irenicus and in the Slums/Bridge/Docks. Helpful in Brynnlaw for some extra xp. Extremely valuable in chapter 6 when he provides 400 000 more xp to the party.
Jan Jansen: Temporary party thief for almost the entire adventure. Very important.
Jaheira: Invaluable starting gold, item and xp boost.
Imoen: Invaluable buffing assistance in chapters 4 and 5 (so following the main plot including Yoshi's betrayal and Imoen's rejoining is in fact most profitable to a 5-person party). Invaluable assistance vs the Ancient Dragon At the very least, although any other mage could do the same - Jan or Nalia for example, Imoen has most Breaches than any other naked mage at her level.
Cernd: Very valuable in Abazigal fight and EDE, even though low-leveled.
Sarevok: An excellent and necessary addition for the last fight. His high starting xp makes him easy to bring to level 20 or even 21 with careful planning. That's all he needs really. Even at level 17, he's still decent enough.
Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 05 août 2013 - 03:51 .
#104
Posté 05 août 2013 - 03:34
AnonymousHero
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(Was re-reading a bit through the thread...)
I might be mistaken since it's been a while (several years) since I played vanilla, but I think this is actually vanilla behavior. Anything that can see through invisibility can target invisible characters with single-target spells, i.e. behaves as if the character were visible. I believe most Liches in vanilla could see through invisibility and I would guess Azamantes would be included in that.
Azamantes blatantly cheats by casting Imprisonment on an Invisible character (not Improved Invisible, just plain Invisibility).
I might be mistaken since it's been a while (several years) since I played vanilla, but I think this is actually vanilla behavior. Anything that can see through invisibility can target invisible characters with single-target spells, i.e. behaves as if the character were visible. I believe most Liches in vanilla could see through invisibility and I would guess Azamantes would be included in that.
#105
Posté 05 août 2013 - 03:47
saros_shadow_follower
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AnonymousHero wrote...
(Was re-reading a bit through the thread...)Azamantes blatantly cheats by casting Imprisonment on an Invisible character (not Improved Invisible, just plain Invisibility).
I might be mistaken since it's been a while (several years) since I played vanilla, but I think this is actually vanilla behavior. Anything that can see through invisibility can target invisible characters with single-target spells, i.e. behaves as if the character were visible. I believe most Liches in vanilla could see through invisibility and I would guess Azamantes would be included in that.
First of all, Azamantes is not vanilla. He is IA v6 improved.
Second of all, almost all IA enemies can detect (and attack) fully invisible characters or cast AoE spells at them (Remove Magic, ADHW, Dragon Breath). What they cannot do is targeting an Invisible or Improved Invisible character with a spell. Azamantes himself cannot, for example, cast Ruby Ray of Reversal or Breach at a character who's Invisible or Improved Invisible. He also cannot cast Imprisonment on an Improved Invisible character. But he CAN cast it on an Invisible character. Tested 3 times. That is the cheat I'm talking about. In IA v6, there are only very few vanilla enemies that can target a character under Invisibility or Improved Invisibility - those are positioned on level 3 of Watcher's keep - Tahazaar's imps, Aesgerath and I think one of his mages.
Edit: Hive mothers too (they're vanilla).
Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 05 août 2013 - 03:53 .
#106
Posté 05 août 2013 - 05:05
AnonymousHero
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Oh, of course Azamantes is improved -- I'm not arguing that. What I'm arguing is that the mechanic which allows enemies that can see invisible to target invisible characters with single-target spells is vanilla. But then, maybe IA Azamantes cannot see through invisibility...?
#107
Posté 05 août 2013 - 07:43
saros_shadow_follower
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AnonymousHero wrote...
Oh, of course Azamantes is improved -- I'm not arguing that. What I'm arguing is that the mechanic which allows enemies that can see invisible to target invisible characters with single-target spells is vanilla. But then, maybe IA Azamantes cannot see through invisibility...?
He cannot target through Invisibility. Or should not. Perhaps you're right. Probably he has been fixed not to target through Improved Invisibility only, and not through plain Invisibility. Then again, if that's true, he should be able to Breach through plain Invisibility, which he didn't. So no. A different flaw in his scripting perhaps. Anyway, it's not supposed to be done by an IA monster - regardless of type - be it a lich or dragon even. In that sense, it's a cheat since any experienced IA player is under the impression that enemies cannot target his own Invisible or Improved Invisible characters before dispelling their invisibility first.
Edit: Concerning that vanilla mechanic which allows characters to be targeted by enemy spells under Invisibility or Improved Invisibility - it's changed by IA v6. As I said, no IA-improved enemy is able to target a party member under Invisibility with a spell that specifically says: target or touched creature.
Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 05 août 2013 - 07:47 .
#109
Posté 30 mars 2014 - 08:21
Sadon
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Resurrecting the thread a bit here, but I felt that the response was underwhelming, probably because so few people play IA. As someone who's played through the mod (posted some about it on the Sorcerers forum under the name Ruben) I simply wish to say that this is very impressive stuff and thank you for posting about it so thoroughly here. This thread is a gold mine for players getting into IA looking for advice.
Some questions (if you're still reading these forums), apologies if they're already answered, but I haven't read through all of your posts.
Do you think a Vagrant PC is stronger than a Necromancer?
What was the reason for having (lawful) evil alignment on the sorceress?
Do you think playing a 5-character party is vastly superior to a 6-character one? Are there instances where the script checks for less-than-6 party members and punishes you? I've heard that Sikret is very pro 6-man parties
I'll maybe post more questions as I read more of the posts.
#110
Posté 01 avril 2014 - 09:34
Aasim
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Do you think a Vagrant PC is stronger than a Necromancer?
What was the reason for having (lawful) evil alignment on the sorceress?
Do you think playing a 5-character party is vastly superior to a 6-character one? Are there instances where the script checks for less-than-6 party members and punishes you? I've heard that Sikret is very pro 6-man parties
I'll maybe post more questions as I read more of the posts.
My 2 cents about these (I'm an "ex" Anvil player).
Vagrant is not more powerful then a Necro, quite the opossite.
5-character party isn't (imo) superior. For "optimum" preformace, you'll want 2 dual-wielders, 1 two-handed specialist, 1 sorcerer (important since he gains early access to powerful summons), 1 cleric (best dual R-C). And an additional arcane caster, either a Necro PC, or a dualed berserker who can also be your 2-handed weapons user (mainly halberds).
Fwiw, the "best" party for a relatively easy run w/o much exploits is PC Necro, 2x Riskbreaker, Berserker(9)-mage (crucial character), and Cernd. You might add in either a custom Sorcerer or another Auramaster. This nets you absurd power for both early and late game stages.
5 person parties don't have any "cheese-checks" specifically, but all parties do (example - a fighter/mage protagonist won't find Spell Immunity until Bodhi even if traveling with a full party and similar).
#111
Posté 02 avril 2014 - 05:30
Flamedance
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What was the reason for having (lawful) evil alignment on the sorceress?
I'm guessing because of "The Four", one of the few mods compatible with IA ( and also made by Sikret). It adds some very powerful items to the game, that can only be used by evil mages.
EDIT: nvm. I see Saros doesn't have "The Four"Installed. In that case: i have no idea:)
#112
Posté 02 avril 2014 - 07:18
Aasim
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What was the reason for having (lawful) evil alignment on the sorceress?
I'm guessing because of "The Four", one of the few mods compatible with IA ( and also made by Sikret). It adds some very powerful items to the game, that can only be used by evil mages.
EDIT: nvm. I see Saros doesn't have "The Four"Installed. In that case: i have no idea:)
Holy word spells. Or unholy. Whichever affects only good-aligned casters.
#113
Posté 11 août 2014 - 12:58
saros_shadow_follower
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Resurrecting the thread a bit here, but I felt that the response was underwhelming, probably because so few people play IA. As someone who's played through the mod (posted some about it on the Sorcerers forum under the name Ruben) I simply wish to say that this is very impressive stuff and thank you for posting about it so thoroughly here. This thread is a gold mine for players getting into IA looking for advice.
Some questions (if you're still reading these forums), apologies if they're already answered, but I haven't read through all of your posts.
Do you think a Vagrant PC is stronger than a Necromancer?
What was the reason for having (lawful) evil alignment on the sorceress?
Do you think playing a 5-character party is vastly superior to a 6-character one? Are there instances where the script checks for less-than-6 party members and punishes you? I've heard that Sikret is very pro 6-man parties
I'll maybe post more questions as I read more of the posts.
You can write me directly in FaceBook or Skype if you have more questions - you have both.
A 5-person party is stronger than 6-person party if you don't use any infinite xp exploits (only the finite ones). Still, if you don't have 2 Riskbreakers in the party formation, you'll definitely need a 6th character at the very end to win a no-reload insane run, it's easy to train for example Sarevok to lvl 20 in ToB only which will be sufficient.
The Evil-aligned mage is in order to be able to use the Staff of the Magi. Incidentally it makes the mage immune to Unholy word (in IA v.5 and v.6 there is no Holy Word spell - it has been deleted.
A Vagrant PC is definitely weaker than a Necromancer PC. Recast Vital Energy is the reason why. Also, all Dragon battles are very easy with a necromancer protagonist who can buff Breached warriors or debuff the dragon without any fear of being Silenced. Thus the battle vs the Ancient Dragon is very easy even for a 24-level PC necro, while a Vagrant should wait for 32-33 mage level of his companion mages in order to reassure that their buffs aren't easily dispelled and that their Remove Magic will work effectively.
You can watch my videos of the no-reload Vagrant strategies, they're on youtube.
#114
Posté 21 août 2014 - 07:14
AnonymousHero
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Resurrecting the thread a bit here, but I felt that the response was underwhelming, probably because so few people play IA. As someone who's played through the mod (posted some about it on the Sorcerers forum under the name Ruben) I simply wish to say that this is very impressive stuff and thank you for posting about it so thoroughly here.
(Only posting because Saros posted a few days ago.)
I can only second this. I've never played IA, but looking at the videos and being mindful of the ridiculous amount of special-casing that Sikret put into IAv6 (just to avoid a repeat of the IAv5 solo no-reload Saros completed successfully) this is incredibly impressive.
