Final battle TOB (Acension)- help needed

Midas26

Hello all,

I've been trying to finish the game with an evil party but I seem to not be able to finish the final battle with the five without any cheesy tactics (such as endless spiketraps, delayed fireballs / skulltraps, army of planeters with project image etc).

My party setup goes like this:
Main - Sorcerer lvl 27(Robe of vecna, amulet of power, staff of the magi, 3 wish scrolls)
Sarevok - lvl 33 (Ravager +6 / Gram the sword of grief +5)
Korgan - lvl 33 ( Axe of the unyielding +5 and Crom Faeyr)
Viconia - lvl 36 (Flail of ages +5 and immunity of 70%+ to almost everything)
Edwin - lvl 26
Jan - lvl 18/24
with the help of Bodhi.

My most successful strategy so far is that my main character casting improved alacrity, blinding Yaga-Shura and rendering him harmless (until I'll decide to slay him with Harm spell), Dragonbreath on Sendai to stop her first spell and then removing her protections and magic resistance. Afterwards just casting magic missiles on her to interrupt her spell casting while not killing her. Meanwhile the rest of my party focus on the remaining 3 with my summons(elementals and a Fallen-Planater).

All seems good but the problem is surprisingly Illasera. With her invisibility that cannot be dispelled(thus not being able to blind her unless I have a druid) and deadly 7/2 attacks which are always no miss, dispel any protection, somethings stun and do 30-40 dmg with each hit, there is no way to keep her alive. Especially when it seems she goes first on Edwin and Jan even when they are invisible and slay them with 2 or 3 arrows each.

So, unwillingly I have to rush with Sarvevok/Korgan with Hardness on and slay her and see how Melissan swoops in and simply killing because it's too much to deal with her with the remaining 4 Bhallspawns.

I would appreciate any help or idea on how to finish this battle. Specifically on how to deal with Illasera without killing her until I soften up the rest of the Five. Or alternatively, a whole different strategy which does not involve cheesy tactics would also be helpful.

Thanks in advance!

wubble

tried glitterdust?

velehal

Some quick tips:
Is she immune to level drain? If not, Bodhi should be able to kill her quickly.
Or if you have Reflection Shield, use it against her.
Jan or any mage can be protected against her arrows by PFMW.
Bodhi with Improved Haste can be also great help in the battle.
If you have scrolls of Black Blade of Disaster and Time Stop, Jan can use them with Improved Haste and possibly Time Traps to weaken/kill Illasera and/or Sendai.
Also few hits wit Flail of Ages +5 slow anybody who can be slowed.

Midas26

First thanks for the tips!
A reminder, this is Illasera ascension's lethal version and she's much more powerful and annoying than the normal one.

Wubble, she seems immune to any detection spells and even true sight.
The only time I manage to blind her was when I did it with a good aligned party with Jaheira casting "nature's beauty". But it's too easy doing so, because the five just ran around the map blinded doing nothing (with occasionally Abazigal bumping into someone and casts Maze on him).

Velehal, protection spells seems to be disabled at first hit so they are not very helpful.
Also the point is not to kill her(any one of my fighters with free action on and hardiness on can do it without taking serious damage) but to prevent her from causing havoc and slaying my spellcasters until the rest of the five are injured badly.

velehal

If I remember correctly, PFMW should protect against her arrows.

wubble

trying to remember how I did it... it was only a month and a half ago.

Midas26

I wish it would, it would have been much less harder than it is right now. It just get dispelled after the first hit

Yannir

Drop Viconia's AC so it's worse than your arcane guys, looks like the AI controls them to target enemies based on AC. That should get Illasera to target her instead. Have her cast Physical Mirror, so Illasera will be targeted by her own arrows. Slow her as well if you can.

She'll probably change tactics after that so you'll have to adapt again.

Midas26

Worked Yannir! it gave the the extra time I needed to injure Balthazar and Abazigal enough without getting my spellcasters slayed in a second / getting Melissan too early in. I've always wondered why she always targeted Jan first. I figured because he is a spellcaster and has the lowest amount of hp, but it was because his AC is the highest of all.

Yannir

Glad to help.
Edit: I noticed the AC-targeting behaviour during my fight with the Planar Hunters, they were always going after my thief and ranger 1st instead of my spellcasters. It struck me as weird so I looked my chars over and noticed they were targeted in order of how high their AC was.

Musigny

A general remark on your approach.
It is not necessary to weaken all of them before proceeding to the slaughter in sequence.
Amel will collapse each time one of the five drops dead...

I don't know how you play. Perhaps you make things more complicated than they are.
With the magic power you have, bringing Illasera down during a magic outburst (targetting her and her friends on the right side of the map) is probably not that hard.