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"Maybe this time" [NO-RELOAD THREAD]: "The Tale of TEN THOUSAND Trials"

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  • MusignyMusigny Member Posts: 1,027
    edited July 2015
    @Blackraven
    In the vanilla game "spawned" liches are created if you have 2M+ XP.
    As you play with SCS you may meet them at 0+ or 400K+ or 1M+ XP depending on the component settings. IIRC there are four choices and the mapping is 1M (choices 1 and 3), 400K (2), 0(4) but I suggest you crosscheck this information.

    Shameless self-promotion: in my Tactics2 work, I rewrote Ishan's component to read the user's inputs.
    There are three vanilla thresholds (400k, 1M, 2M), you can modify them and choose whatever you want. The component will fix the obvious errors. And there is also a separate value for the top level undead group that includes such a lich. I wrote it for the specific challenges, such as a solo no reload.
    Post edited by Musigny on
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    Thanks @Musigny. Dagny had already circa 1.5M xp.
    Nice that you're making your Tactics update customizable!
  • MusignyMusigny Member Posts: 1,027
    Certainly you already know it, but other readers may want to know that there are four occurences of such liches (in the vanilla game):
    -Ghoul Village (Unseeing Eye) - I love the fight because there are also other undeads which are created in any case but that's a dangerous place for a low/mid level solo no reload (and there is nothing wonderful to gain in a solo playthrough)
    -Temple Ruins - twice
    -Spellhold maze
    That may influence your quest sequence (depending on your XP).
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    @Musigny: Good to see a new entrant to the challenge. Good luck!

    Statistically speaking, your results are probably normal. Most things in general are fairly normal.

    Or, more insightfully, an elven Fighter/Mage has high minimum ability scores, so a 4d6 roll should regularly result in high values.
  • MusignyMusigny Member Posts: 1,027
    @semiticgod
    Thanks ! Don't expect to see many Sidonie updates in the near future (btw I haven't forgotten your particular mod topic).

    The min values are 9 7 6 9 3 8, not so influencial on a 75+ score. I think 91 is marginallly high but it probably does not matter. I mean I will die anyway :smile:
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    @Musigny, hey there hi there! Nice to see you enter the challenge, even if you're going to take your time :) Safe travels for Sidonie. (Nice portrait, I've used some of Magali Villeneuve's myself.)

    @semiticgod, good luck with your new run, and good to see your new kits in action. I know what you mean by experimenting and no-reloading at the same time... Enjoy your minimal reload adventure.
  • HenkeBHenkeB Member Posts: 97
    Bhane update:

    The group just cleared the bandit camp.
    With a full group there is not much sneaking so it was a full on assault with max number of summons.
    Tent fight was over in a few seconds.

    Before that I did all that I wanted to to around the wilderness, including book from Dhurlags tower and flesh golem cave.
    Viconia took two hits from a fleshgolem and died. Her low HP are annoying.

    Edwin have left the group, since I had freed Dynahier earlier there was no way I could kill her so Edwin left.
    I will miss the extra firepower, but now Im moving towards cloakwood with a group of 5.
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    Good progress @HenkeB! I hope you can stay focused in BG city.
  • MusignyMusigny Member Posts: 1,027
    edited July 2015
    A little update for Sidonie.
    I restarted the game, long story short:
    Everything went fine up to the meeting with Neera. I accepted to help her and faced the red wizards.
    Unfortunately a commoner decided to come closer to watch the fight. Neera who is out of your control likes to cast color spray. The commoner collapsed and turned red. I saw it coming without being able to act fast enough: While I was trying to accelerate the red wizards fate, Neera moved back and decided to go and bash the commoner. 5 rep points lost. The witch is not even in my team! Who said wild magic is the main problem with such a concentrate of stupidity?
    Imoen did not die, I did not die but I did not want to continue the game even though the penalty is not important.
    Post edited by Musigny on
  • Serg_BlackStriderSerg_BlackStrider Member Posts: 210
    edited July 2015
    Musigny said:



    By essence Fireballs are very useful against groups (SCS mines for instance) but I prefer to simply buy the equivalent amulet sold by one of the Carnival merchants.

    Necklace of Missiles is way better than Wand of Fire (IMO) as it has Power level 9 so bypass MGoI/GoI.

  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    @Musigny: I couldn't send the zip file you requested via email, so I've attached it here. It actually contains all of the files for the kit, since I've updated them. The mage kit .tp2 file you asked for is included separately from the main .tp2 file, titled "mage section," in the same folder. The CLAB file, "CLABPHMA," is in the PhaseSpiderKit/CLAB/ folder, with the other CLAB files. The .spl, .itm, .cre, and .eff files for the mage kit are the same as for the other kits.

    I have one more request: could you re-create the replacement spells for Detect Evil and Infravision? I've updated them so that they're re-usable even if they are interrupted, just like the Pocket Plane spell. I notice the PhaseSpiderKit/resfiles/specific/ files you created before are "NEW" files, not .spl files, so I know I can't just copy over them myself. The updated versions are in the same folder as the main .tp2 file, SPPR104 and SPWI111.

    So you know, I've replaced the normal HLAs for all classes with a set of unique Phase Spider HLAs common to all class types. Phase Spider druids, mages, thieves, and paladins will all receive variants of the Evasion, Set Exploding Trap, Whirlwind Attack, and other HLAs. This was the only way to prevent Phase Spiders from stacking GWW, Assassination, and Critical Strike for 80 APR. I also have prevented Phase Spiders from benefiting from the Robe of Vecna or the Amulet of Power--they can still wear the items and gain some of the benefits, but they won't be able to get any spells down to casting time zero, which will balance out the Improved Alacrity ability.

    The HLAs don't quite replicate the originals, again for balance reasons. If you want to know the details:

    Evasion: permanent +2 bonus to AC, saves, and movement rate. Selectable twice. AC bonuses may bypass AC cap.
    Hardiness: permanent +15% to all resistances, including magic resistance, and +10 to HP. Selectable twice.
    Spider Spawn: summons 1d4 spiders with special immunities. Selectable twice.
    Assassination: +3 to hit and automatic backstabs at triple damage for two rounds. Selectable twice. Cannot be used with Whirlwind Attack.
    Set Spike Trap: 10d6 piercing damage with a save vs. breath for half, 10d6 poison damage with a save vs. death for half. Selectable twice.
    Set Exploding Trap: Web, -4 penalty to save, party friendly. Also decreases THAC0, AC, and saves vs. breath by 1 for five rounds, no save. Selectable twice.
    Alchemy: Creates a vial of poison, usable by any class, that grants the user Poison Weapon for 5 rounds, non-stackable. Deals 13 damage per second for 3 seconds on a failed save vs. death at -2. A creature hit once by the poison cannot be poisoned again for 2 rounds. The vial may be used once per day. Selectable twice; a second selection produces an additional vial.
    Invisibility: The caster is undetectable by any creature, including liches and demons, for 1d4 rounds. Selectable twice.
    Dimension Door: 15% chance to teleport the spider randomly on every ranged hit. Selectable twice.
    Regeneration: Regenerates 2 HP per second for 5 rounds, non-stackable. Selectable twice.
    Whirlwind Attack: Doubles attacks per round for 2 rounds at the cost of -3 to hit, damage, and AC. Selectable twice. Cannot be used with Assassination.

    Notably, spellcasters don't get their normal HLAs. That's why I added in the unique Spider Spawn (the spiders it summons are really strong) to replace Summon (Fallen) Deva/Planetar. There are no Dragon's Breath or Storm of Vengeance or Greater Elemental Summoning spells, but I feel these HLAs make sense for a Phase Spider of any class.
  • MusignyMusigny Member Posts: 1,027
    edited July 2015
    Serg_BlackStrider said:

    Necklace of Missiles is way better than Wand of Fire (IMO) as it has Power level 9 so bypass MGoI/GoI.

    Very nice!
    I was less ambitious. I just wanted Imoen to cast those fireballs during the fight with Mulahey.

    No issue with the first levels of the mines.
    The fight with the very last group in front of the lvl3 exit starts well
    Fire and Ice and arrows. Everyone dies but the shaman.

    image


    And then the girls very poorly manage the end of the fight. They fail to disrupt his (second) spell casting. Imoen switches to a panic mode and Sidonie tries to chase the shaman. Happy ending but no congratulations...

    image


    At this point they decide to rest and they go back to town to take no risk.

    Mulahey's den.
    Sidonie pretends to work for Tazok.
    Imoen monitors the narrow crossing and Sidonie stays with Mulahey.
    And again when hostilities start, the girls play their fire and ice score.
    Sidonie cools Mulahey down. Imoen get rid of the rats in two steps.

    image
    image


    Mulahey surrenders or more exactly plays for time. Sidonie takes this opportunity to clean the rest of the first wave.
    and... bis repetita.

    image
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    The girls still have to bury a couple of "surviving" skeletons.

    image


    And they free the depressive elf.
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    edited July 2015
    EDIT: Just fixed a crippling bug via a simple reboot. I re-installed the entire game, but all I needed to do was restart my computer.
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    Because of the re-installation, when I loaded up Eliza's game, the kits were messed up--I think the problem is that the kits were installed in a different order, and so the game couldn't recognize them. This meant I had to move the save back to the "mpsave" folder, re-create all of the characters save Eliza (technically she's a Fighter/Mage now, but she has the bonuses she's supposed to have, so whatever), and SK them up to resemble their old selves before moving the save back to the "save" folder.

    There was also some trouble with the Bog Witch kit, since I had updated the kit description, but it was too long, and hence the game crashed on character creation (there's a character limit on kit descriptions, it seems).

    Anyway, I finally got everything working again. As usual, we skip over the undead room trigger of Firkraag's lair, even though, at less than 1 million XP, we shouldn't be encountering any of the vampires I'm afraid of. We just kill the Greater Wraith and prepare for Samia.

    We get luck once again with Steal Shadow and Charm: we get a clone of Kaol, and Legdoril is about to fall into our hands. A Confusion and Emotion spell, bolstered by Greater Malison, wreck the remainder of the enemy party.
    image

    I can't help but notice that enemies, at least in SCS, take a second or two to take action. That gives us a pretty significant advantage at the start of combat, as we can begin our casting before they can.

    Kaol gets crushed by Minute Meteors, while his clone, safely protected by Shadow Door and hiding in the corner, has nothing to do: all of the enemies are already either knocked out or confused. We slay the sleepers, followed by the confused, but spare Legdoril, as he's fallen prey to our Charm spell.

    He's still confused when the battle is over, so I have Minerva Charm him again to maintain our control over him, until the confusion wears off. Our newly pliable dwarven cleric joins us in fight the Guardians of King Strohm's rather small maze.
    image

    We do most of the work, however. Legdoril doesn't have many useful spells here, and his melee abilities are mediocre. Instead, we get one of the Guardians' shadow to help us out. The shadows have the same spell set as the Efreeti from the Efreeti Bottle. Magic Missile helps us interrupt the Invisibility spells that the Guardians use to prepare Sunfire spells.
    image

    For the wolfweres, we fill the hall with Otyughs, who no longer go hostile midway through combat. They serve as a good buffer to cast Steal Shadow, which evens out the fight.
    image

    Notice the Otyughs are black and shadowy. This is a side effect of Steal Shadow: the only way to make simulacra shadowy, and given them the penalties they need to be balanced, is to use a VERY complicated mix of spells, and as a result, critters which are summoned at the right time suffer all of the shadow penalties, and also get the creepy coloration.

    We've only got one +3 ranged weapon, the Crimson Dart, so there's only so much we can do to the Adamantite Golem from a distance. I position Gloom in front to absorb the golem's poison clouds, have Eliza throw the Crimson Dart from behind her, while Bloody Howard tries to take the golem's shadow. Finally, the golem fails its save vs. polymorph, and we turn its shadow against it.
    image

    Because the Adamantite Golem is a fairly high-level construct, its shadow's attack weapon has a high enough enchantment to harm it.
  • MusignyMusigny Member Posts: 1,027
    A little summary.

    Zones explored so far:

    image
    image


    In those areas but not covered:
    - Bassilus
    - Prism bounty (overlook)
    - Vampiric wolves if any - Temple
    - Revenant - Tombs
    - Nashkel's graveyard easter egg
    - Zordral - Carnival (overlook - anyway not ready when I visited the carnival for the first time)

    Some of them are little XP reserves. Some are pointless.

    The girls have 23700 XP.
    Imoen is a level 6 thief to dual class at level 7 (40K XP).
    Sidonie is a level 4/4 fighter-mage who was mostly played as a fighter with wands but she is a nice mage too, noticeably thanks to the "evermemory" ring doubling the number of first level spells she can cast and a better spell catalog (including stinking cloud, web, glitterdust, mirror image, blind, spook etc...)

    Three low-risk moments (undertaken risks)
    - Hunting wolves, The fairy dragon took damage (additional note: in the EE version, the fairy dragon has a bad AC). Stupid.
    - Tarnesh at the very beginning. Because you initially rely on a good/bad saving throw.
    - Neira. A bit risky because of the required timing during this battle. It would have been better to benefit from a good magical power (spells or wands, the wand of frost for instance).
    Two "you were born to die" moments (unexpected):
    - Nashkel's mine, third level, battle against the last group including a shaman. Sidonie was not in danger but things might have gone wrong for Imoen. I must also mention an earlier sequence of Dice20 rolled by Kobold archers against Sidonie. Nothing critical but Sidonie had to quaff two potions. The latter situation was essentially caused by a bad progression and positioning. I am not entirely sure about the underlying cause of the shaman incident.
    - Ankheg met in the Tomb area. Huge damage on Sidonie. Dialogs interrupt your actions and I forgot to manage it in that case.

    Issues:
    - dazed/inactive ogres and more recently gnolls unable to reacquire a target. Same behaviour observed with Neira in a series of tests specifically run to trigger this behaviour (outside the no-reload challenge). I initially thought this was an interference with the familiar. Not so sure now and no further investigations.
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    I notice we haven't done the De'Arnise Hold yet, so we take a detour on the way back to Athkatla. We wipe out Trolls with Sunfire, Acidic Burst, and sometimes just physical attacks, and even the Spirit Trolls don't give us trouble. Nor does the Yuan-ti Mage pose a major threat: he's easily debuffed and disrupted with Warding Whip at our hands.
    image

    Bloody Howard, with Full Plate and the Girdle of Piercing, is a good enough tank to absorb all of the Trolls' attacks.
    image

    Ara Minerva takes care of the golems.
    image

    It's very cool to have an Iron Golem on our side, if only temporarily. It turns hostile right after it finishes off the last of its brethren.

    The Umber Hulks fall to Cloudkill; TorGal dies to Sunfire and the Flail of Ages, which is now Bloody Howard's main weapon. The De'Arnise Keep is safe.

    But Nalia asks us to take over, and I don't want the fighter stronghold. She doesn't take it too well. Her words are hard to hear. We feel pretty darn bad.
    image

    But we don't have to let Isaea Roenall take over. We have a fix for this:

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    Problem solved!
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    edited July 2015
    A special version of Arkanis Gath spawns in if you attack Renal Bloodscalp. It's supposed to prevent the player from breaking the game, if they turn the Shadow Thieves hostile before getting the option to side with Bodhi. Arkanis Gath has the MINHP1 item, which makes him immune to basically everything except for stat drain kills. He also uses the STDEATH sword, a +3 short sword with long range that slays the target on hit (opcode 55).

    Death Ward can protect us from the instant death effect, though Arkanis Gath is still a strong melee fighter. Before we attack Renal, we pre-cast Teleport Field and summon a couple of Otyughs to keep the enemy from bothering us. Now that we have Improved Haste, we're sure to kill him with STR drain if we combined Called Shot with Minute Meteors. To speed up the process, we hit him with Ray of Enfeeblement after striking him a few times.
    image

    He fails his save... but he's not dead. Ray of Enfeeblement should set his STR to 5, which should instantly kill him, as the STR drain from Called Shot will put that far below zero.

    This means our Called Shot abilities aren't doing STR damage. All they do is penalize THAC0 and saving throws. Prior experience showed me that kit abilities for dual-classed characters are cast at the second class's level, so at level 12, we should be doing STR drain. After all, I've seen an Archer(13)/Thief deal extra piercing damage with Called Shot, which requires a caster level of 16.

    Later testing found that Eliza needs to be level 14, for some reason, to deal STR drain. It's not too far off, but we can't win this fight. We just kill Renal Bloodscalp instead.
    image

    We only came here for his boots, anyway. We flee the Docks and ally ourselves with Bodhi.

    Now, when we invade Aran Linvail's lair later on, we'll have an unkillable death machine chasing us the whole time. That's going to be tricky.

    But Charm can help us with that.
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