Ok ... So ... WTH!? Shade Lord SCS?!?!

Spungi

Did he just activate GODMODE with this mod or something?! Been throwing my party at that fight for the past hour, and have yet to get him past barely injured... I mean, what?!

I ended up removing the improved Shade Lord part, cause I could not see any way of beating him... He would level drain my entire team in like 1 round, and then proceed to 1 shot them. GG well played >.<

What am I missing?! I made a seperate save so I could go back and bash his head in, just so I can say I did it :P

AnonymousHero

I personally don't play with this component, but it might help others who do if you specified your party composition, levels and such.

The only thing I can offer given your post is to use all the NPP items you have, and if possible to cast the Clerical NPP spell on everyone who isn't protected by an item -- it only lasts a short while though so you may not have enough time to protect everyone if you "just" have one cleric. Focus on protecting the people you need to kill the Shade Lord and use Restoration (or Resurrection) on the people you can't protect. (It may be worth kicking non-essential people out of the party before the fight and having them rejoin later if you purposely play without resurrection.)

Blackraven

The only other way I know, besides using NPP on your warriors and bashing him, is by casting Insect Plague on him once or twice. Once he starts panicking he won't drain you anymore and you can easily kill him off..

Dexter

I've never found improved shade lord too difficult. I usually wait till chapter 6 before I go to dragon areas though. Did you beat the shadow dragon? If you did I can't see how you can't beat the shadow lord. If a recall correctly 1 sunray is enough to kill everyone in that fight

Spungi

I barely managed to beat the dragon, had my PC standing as the only one, hehe... The odd thing is, that no matter the weapon I used he seemed to be immune. My paladin is carrying a +4 Warblade and MMM didn't seem to do anything either.
I'll try insect plague, or coming back later that's how it goes when I want the shadow dragon armor:)
Daystar is worth a shot aswell, think I'll go pick it up:)

Gotural

The shade Lord is really easy but you need to read the combat log and to understand what is going on. He has an aura which level drain everyone every round in a medium radius, so put your party a bit further than your melee characters. What I did with my level 10 party was to throw Dorn, Korgan enraged and my Blackguard in melee and destroy him while Viconia was summoning some skeletons and Edwin/Jan were casting some Haste/Slow spells. He casted some buffs at some point, including Black Blade of Disaster so I waited a bit with my skeletons tanking him for a bit because he's very slow (like a lich) so you can kite him if needed.

Spungi

I want that aura! But as stated, I tried with NPP on my Paladin, went in with haste, fully buffed (DuHM, Bless, chant etc.) And with +4 weapon (I got Warblade on the dragon) I don't think he landed a single hit, even after I threw Breach at him... He was immune to everything?! That's what wondered me So eventually my protections dropped, I got level drained and he wiped the floor with me :P ...

He's such a meanie!

Gotural

He probably protected himself from Breach, with layers of spells protection.

Or maybe a bug in the installation, but it's rarer.

Spungi

Could be ... I need a spellstrike scroll! :P Or just engage, run out and wait forever! Must drop sometime... Right?

Skie

This was indeed a very tough fight, and after a dragon no less >.<
First I rushed it and got rid of altar and shadows, you can use the escape down the stairs and back up tactic.
Then I used Dorn + Korgan with NPP, and had the rest of the team stand far enough from the drain effect and use missile weapons. The sun bullets you find in the temple work nicely.
You just need to wait out his protection spell, and once it's off, lay down a lot of damage before he restores it.
Stuff like haste/potions of speed help.

semiticgoddess

I just killed the Shade Lord 10 minutes ago without a fuss. Before entering the area, I cast Invisibility on all of my party members but one. The last one used a Protection from Undead scroll on herself. She slew the Shadow Altar, Shadow Patrick, and the Shade Lord itself, with Minute Meteors and Sunfire. The enemies could not see any of us, and one of us was perfectly free to attack.

Protection from Undead is my standard fallback for SCS2 Shade Lord. I don't really like fussing with the battle. No fight with level drain is much fun.

If you don't like Protection from Undead scrolls, Spell Immunity: Necromancy will block the Darkling Aura spell that causes the level drain. If there's a member of your party that can't get Negative Plane Protection, have them use ranged weapons instead, and let the people with NPP hold the Shade Lord back.

lunar

Yup, si:necromancy blocks his nasty aura. He has a very, very nasty special abity that permanently kills any character and transforms him/her into a shadow, he has perma-killed Jaheira and Nalia in one no-reload of mine. I think it may be his aura, it either has a chance to do so or does so on a failed save vs death. Take care!

The aura has low radius so stay far, far away! Drown him in summons and insect plagues. Use protection from undead scrolls, use all of them! Throw Azuredge at him that may insta-kill him! For added cruelty I removed the Azuredge from the stores and gave it to Shadelord, so I actually have to kill him without it. (In my game, Merella used to have the legendary weapon, but still got corrupted by the Lord)

Lord_Tansheron

Never had trouble with the Shade Lord, but then again I usually save the dungeon for after Underdark because it doesn't have anything I want, and contains two Liches that are harder than the rest of the bosses combined :P

semiticgoddess

The Liches don't appear in the Temple Ruins at lower levels. Even with SCS2's increased-difficulty random encounters, you can go through the dungeon in the early game without seeing anything nastier than a Bone Golem, a couple of Skeleton Warriors, and a couple of Mummies. No liches at all.

Lord_Tansheron

I guess that could be true, don't think I've gone there early enough then. Still nothing there I'd need early in the game, though, so I welcome a nice little challenge later in the game.

Max_Damage

Depends on your character level, i ve definately seen a lich there... and in the Spellhold's maze.

Lord_Tansheron

I always see Liches there. Have I really never been there at low levels? Or is that a result of my SCS settings, maximum difficulty dungeon spawns etc. That's probably it.

Gallowglass

Yes, @Lord_Tansheron, I reckon it must be your SCS settings. Playing without SCS, I don't usually meet liches in the Temple Ruins even when I leave it until Chapter 6.

ScotGaymer

I dunno guys.

Granted I haven't played SCS on BG2EE, only played it on BG2, but IMO SCS2 has always been stupidly hard. Like insane levels of hard.
For me I played BG with SCS and it was a brilliant balance of challenge and fun; so when I ported to BG2 i auto downloaded it and it just slaughtered me and I could not get the hang of it at all. It just seemed to cross from challenge to frustrating somewhere along the line.

So I completely get the OPs frustration.

If SCS hasn't been further tweaked and balanced from BG2 then it may not necessarily be that hes at the Shade Lord in later chapters. It may just be that its just set at a level of difficulty thats beyond some of us; or perhaps the Shade Lord requires a specific strat in SCS?

Or could be a bug? Lol.

Sorry just had to say something because a lot of people immediately assumed that the OP must have done something wrong; when SCS is just frigging hard. lol.

semiticgoddess

@ScotGaymer: SCS's difficulty depends on your install options as well as your strategy. If you let all enemy mages pre-buff, then the difficulty is going to be quite high, since you need to either weather their many spells or break down their defenses. And not all parties are structured to break down their defenses. But if you don't let enemy mages pre-buff in your install, but you pre-buff your own characters, then you will find yourself at a pretty nice advantage.

You can't really generalize about a mod that's as customizable as SCS. Yes, the Shade Lord is tough, but it's an optional component, as the OP points out, and the rest of the mod will work fine if you exclude the Shade Lord component during your install. Don't want to deal with Spirit Trolls casting Unholy Blight? Tweak your install. Don't want to deal with Darkling Aura? You can tweak your install.

Bodhi's powers too ridiculous? Tweak the install.
Want to be able to use Breach without needing Pierce Magic or Secret Word? Tweak the install.
Don't want enemy grunts chugging potions? Tweak the install.
Want to play Spellhold without losing your items? Tweak the install.
Don't want to fight Liches in random encounters? Tweak the install.

Yes, depending on your install options, SCS can be absolutely brutal. But if you exclude some of the tougher components, SCS can be pretty tame.

I wasn't assuming the OP did anything wrong. I merely pointed out a simple shortcut if you don't want to tackle the Shade Lord head on: attack it under the effects of Protection from Undead. We were suggesting ways the OP could overcome the obstacle... which is exactly what the OP requested.

Lord_Tansheron

"Hard" is a relative term, and a lot of SCS is just having the right tools for the job. It's entirely possible to just end up in a bad place at a bad time, before you have what you need. Without the right toolbox, things will indeed seem prohibitively challenging - but as with any challenge, conquering it is what makes it fun. Once you get the hang of SCS's quirks, it's not that daunting a task anymore to get through it. Heck, I even find it too easy in places now :P

But as always, difficulty is a HIGHLY subjective thing. Some people like it hard. Some like it challenging. Some like it mildly difficult. Think of SCS as ordering a curry, and it's up to you how spicy you want it to be. But who knows - if you try an extra pepper, you may find you like it

lunar

ScotGaymer said:

I dunno guys.

Granted I haven't played SCS on BG2EE, only played it on BG2, but IMO SCS2 has always been stupidly hard. Like insane levels of hard.
For me I played BG with SCS and it was a brilliant balance of challenge and fun; so when I ported to BG2 i auto downloaded it and it just slaughtered me and I could not get the hang of it at all. It just seemed to cross from challenge to frustrating somewhere along the line.

So I completely get the OPs frustration.

If SCS hasn't been further tweaked and balanced from BG2 then it may not necessarily be that hes at the Shade Lord in later chapters. It may just be that its just set at a level of difficulty thats beyond some of us; or perhaps the Shade Lord requires a specific strat in SCS?

Or could be a bug? Lol.

Sorry just had to say something because a lot of people immediately assumed that the OP must have done something wrong; when SCS is just frigging hard. lol.

Shadelord is unique in scs as it has new powers, a darkling aura that level drains everyone in the radius each round (!) and has a chance to perma-kill everyone and transform them into a shadow every round (!!!) on top of that Shadelord is a high lvl scs-mage. (Though not a lich, IIRC he got hit by Insect plague, so no spell immunity)

IIRC, in the vanilla Shadelord is just another highish lvlish mage or something and easy to kill. According to game lore, he was supposed to be so powerful and dangerous that a sun god, Amaunator, had to interfere to imprison his evil. He was that big of a threat. I like what scs does with him, making him as scary and dangerous as in the lore.

If you don't know his new abilities and are unprepared, you will die. Heck, even prepared and buffed with pro from undead scrolls, negative plane protection and death ward spells, and with si:necromancy (these spells all protect you from his powers) I lost Jaheira and Nalia permanently there, once.