I still haven't fought Sendai because RL issues meant I couldn't play with sound (I want to hear the incantations as a warning), so I dealt with the Pocket Plane trials instead, using Dimension Door to skip over the barriers that kept me out of the last two. PFMW and the damage alone of the Scorcher Ammunition was enough to deal with the first four, with a planetar as a target and Enchanted Weapon to hit Semaj through his own PFMW spell, but the Ravager posed a bigger problem.
The Ravager is immune to +3 weapons and below, so the Scorcher Ammunition could only hit it if we used a Bone Blade as a target. And with the Ravager's regeneration at 30 HP per round and its 75% physical damage resistance, we could only expect to deal 30 net damage per round, which meant it would take over 50 rounds on average to take it down. Without using scrolls or some Spell Trap shenanigans, I couldn't get enough PFMW spells to last the whole fight (although the un-nerfed spell table would have let me do it with some Absolute Immunity spells on top), Called Shot was the best way to take down the Ravager. But since Time Stop wasn't an option, I needed to use a clone.
It was simple in theory but required careful positioning to avoid roasting Frisk, who had buffed with a Potion of Storm Giant Strength just in case I did something stupid. Frisk cast PFMW followed by Simulacrum, the clone cast PFMW, and Frisk cast Improved Haste on the clone, who took position behind the Ravager and attacked the Bone Blades surrounding Frisk. With two castings of Called Shot and careful counting of the clone's attacks per round (I've mentioned that clones cancel orders in my install), eventually the clone was able to drain the Ravager's 24 STR.
Looks like I have Wheels of Prophecy installed, which means I'll have to fight that Cambion who casts Time Stop, along with the Fallen Solar. I'll probably approach with Time Stop and burn a Protection from Magic scroll on the Cambion, but the Fallen Solar will be a problem, since I think he starts the fight invisible and is immune to +3 weapons and below. He has 19 STR, so maybe Called Shot during Time Stop on a separate target (maybe a planetar) would let us land a kill without giving the Fallen Solar a chance to repeatedly Heal itself.
Disabling the XP cap had no discernable effect, but I don't think I'll bother figuring out how to make it work, since reaching level 32 or even 33 would only get Frisk an extra hit point anyway.
Talk-blocking Sendai let me summon a couple extra planetars and a clone before combat began, and a lucky Holy Word spell from a planetar neutralized the first mage's spellcasting--very lucky indeed, because it spared us the trouble of fussing with a hostile Fallen Planetar. Mostly Frisk and their clone just shredded everything with the Scorcher Ammunition, trying to navigate so that the drow took the full force of the projectiles without destroying our celestials in the process. Later on, we used Enchanted Weapon to target our own celestials as a means of bypassing Sendai's PFMW spells. All the while, Frisk faded in and out with the Staff of the Magi and cast PFMW whenever they broke invisibility to attack. Notable, Sendai's final form used Implosion on a planetar, which could have been dangerous if she had used it on Frisk and we had not buffed with Spell Turning.
Then we had to fight dozens of monks and fighters in Amkethran because I didn't want Saemon Havarian to smuggle us into Balthazar's monastery (the smuggler's cave caused constant crashes in previous installs and I haven't tried that option since). The celestials were immune to nearly everything the enemy through out, even though the monks ostensibly should have had +4 fists. There were two mages who were immune to Holy Word by virtue of having a neutral alignment, but they never used any mage HLAs, attacking almost exclusively with disablers. I made a point of keeping Frisk out of the way for most of the fight, but foolishly broke invisibility to use the Scorcher Ammunition. It certainly sped things up, and it didn't get Frisk into trouble, but it could have been dangerous if several things went wrong and I failed to address the situation properly. I don't see how I could have died, exactly, but that doesn't mean it was safe.
With 20 reputation, 20 adjusted CHA with the Ring of Human Influence and Algernon's Cloak, and a Chaotic Good alignment, we were able to recruit Balthazar.
Unfortunately, since I accidentally installed the Wheels of Prophecy mod, we had to fight a mage version of Melissan with Balthazar's help right after that discussion. Holy Word spells probably disabled Melissan's spells on the first round, but Frisk and a pre-cast Simulacrum clone used the Scorcher Ammunition to disrupt her spells and shred her Stoneskins and HP by targeting the Bhaal-Touched critters around her. Melissan drops an awesome ring that gives +3 to AC and saves and an extra level 9 spell slot, but I've avoided using any mod-introduced items in this run.
Also because of Wheels of Prophecy, we have to fight a Cambion with a Time Stop spell alongside a Fallen Solar and 2 Glabrezus, 2 Mariliths, and 2 Balors. We approached during Time Stop, but as it turns out, using the Scorcher Ammunition during Time Stop cannot remove Stoneskins or deal extra piercing damage: while the fire damage strikes multiple times, the piercing damage only strikes twice, as if all the attacks you made during Time Stop counted as a single one. The fire damage did still disrupt the Cambion's Time Stop spell, and while the Cambion was invisible and untargetable during our next Time Stop (bear in mind that I was maintaining a safe distance at all times; we didn't engage the enemy group until much later), Frisk was still able to target the other demons by casting Enchanted Weapon. This dealt more piercing damage than the previous attempt, but the Cambion appeared to take little or no damage.
Finally, I used one more Time Stop spell once the Cambion broke invisibility and used a Protection from Magic scroll on him. Dual-wielding the Firetooth Dagger and Belm allowed us to get him to Near Death, but he survived the Time Stop and cast PFMW, forcing us to use the Scorcher Ammunition to finish him off.
The only real way we could deal any damage to the Fallen Solar was to use the Scorcher Ammunition or else burn a whole bunch of Time Stop spells to hit him with the Runehammer or something, so we used the Glabrezus and Balors as a target. It was a long process and Frisk had to cast PFMW many times to avoid getting debuffed by an arrow or the Fallen Solar's sword (it didn't help that I didn't have a spare Enchanted Weapon spell memorized, which would have let our clone contribute), but eventually we brought it down. Note that the Balors in this fight also use Implosion.
You just have to make sure Irenicus does not spot you @semiticgod which is an easy thing with Far Sight and closing the door once the summons are in. The most funny thing is: Once he is nearly dead and your summons go away he will cast all kinds of spells on himself. If i remember correctly he also called in a Planetar once which went hostile and attacked him.
Go upstairs once he is at 1 HP and collect the mad wizards. The normal talking triggers and shortly after he surrenders - job done!
@semiticgod The Ravager +6 can also kill Fallen Solar with 10% chance every hit, I noticed it being the only way for Cavalier killing it, because otherwise it would just teleport away and heal it self everytime it got badly injured.
Damn the game just got a lot harder in Spellhold, Golem cursed me which means no healing, other than regen. Is there really no way other than temple cure for fighters?
Damn the game just got a lot harder in Spellhold, Golem cursed me which means no healing, other than regen. Is there really no way other than temple cure for fighters?
As far as I remember only scroll/spell of remove curse works against that, not temple. Might have been changed tho I haven't gotten cursed and not reloaded in a looong time.
As far as I remember only scroll/spell of remove curse works against that, not temple. Might have been changed tho I haven't gotten cursed and not reloaded in a looong time.
Damn if that's the case, well I hope temple still cures, because playing without healing the rest of the game would really suck.
This is the first charname for me in last eight starts that haven't got anykind of ability to remove curse itself, so it came little pit surprise to me, wasn't expecting it.
Well Spellhold was still a gentle breeze even without healing with 93 DR, Speed potion doubling the regen from Ring of Gaxx and Ring of Regeneration, which means I can take 85 dmg per round without losing any. And I did use the @Harpagornis method against Irenicus. Sim and summoned two Efreeti's and two Kitthix's, Farsight from Book of Infinite Spells, and summons destroyed Irenicus easily and he escaped soon as I brought the mages in the room.
Now think what would have happened when afflicted with the Bane of the Wizard Slayer @histamiini.
Krell the Human Avenger has started and kited down Shoal with 52 bullet stones. I fear that progress will be minimal thanks to RL but maybe its time to slow down everything a bit and enjoy the atmosphere foremost...
I'm about to do a messy, non-optimized test run of Ascension Melissan. I think it will go smoothly even without maximum micromanagement, but even if I win, I'll have to do it all over again when the real fight begins.
I've been uncertain about the wisdom of a test run. It'll mean I'm more familiar with the fight, but it's also going to make me a lot more nervous during the real fight. I usually like to speed through these things to get things over with and do away with the anxiety, but this run is important enough that I'm willing to spend a couple extra hours feeling nerve-wracked and anxious.
The other risk is that I'll underestimate the challenge if things go smoothly, and fail to micromanage properly during the real fight. I'm going to have to really dedicate every ounce of my attention to this fight and stay focused.
If I do make it during the real fight, it'll be the first solo no-reload LoB SCS+Ascension run ever documented.
If I don't make it, I don't know how I'll react. My hopes are sky-high, and dying to Belhifet in the last run took an emotional toll on me. Dying to Melissan will be much, much worse.
Frere just hit a new low. He was up to level 6 and had killed the sirines at the Lighthouse and 2 of the 3 golems. Trying to pull the last one outside he lost sight of it for a moment and when he reversed course it had disappeared. He rapidly checked the whole cave to make sure it hadn't just moved away quickly, being careful to avoid the dire charm trap, before concluding it had disappeared into a wall as enemies sometimes do. If you know where they are when that happens you can tempt them out again with area damage like a fireball, but that wasn't an option for Frere. Therefore he went to get the treasure hoard - naturally moving straight over the trap in the process ...
After doing Shoal and let the Tiax Ghast do its job he managed to clear Mutamins Garden too hitting level 7 - Nymphs are calling! Thanks to Imp. Invisbility he sneaked to the basilisks in Durlags Tower and poisened them down with PfP + Web + Strength of One + Sword Spider reaching level 8. I will try to use the @Grond0 rule of not farming stuff to make things more interesting. But smacking down some Ankhegs in the cave should be okay - no?
Too bad i dont have more time to play on - maybe tomorrow...
P.S. I really forgot that Avengers cannot wear Ankheg Plate. Lol. But who needs Armor? No one!
P.P.S. The spell options of Avengers are really refreshing after playing Totemic Druid for so long - this should get funny later on!!
Maybe you should switch to the Bane of the Wizard Slayer and pick a class you are more confident with @Grond0?
Oh it's not a question of confidence - I'm eminently capable of killing any character I play . However, I had already decided to try something new before you posted. Initially I was planning on a wild mage and was looking through my portraits for something new that was suitable for that. However, I came across a portrait that looked familiar for some reason and decided to give Swishy the swashbuckler a go with that (using just my normal restrictions).
So far, so good - up to level 6 and obviously not the same issue about hard to obtain XP in future as with the wizard slayer. Swashbucklers are not very strong in the early game, but all his points have gone into stealth, so there should be plenty of stealth attacks round corners coming up. By swashbuckler standards Swishy also has exceptionally good HPs, which can't hurt .
Seven visited City of Caverns, meh, nothing interesting besides couple of nice items. Sim PfM, 100 FR and killed the Balor in Underdark.
Beholder dungeon, Sim PfM and killed the first two Beholders and then watched couple Mind Flayers destroy half of the dungeon, smacked them down and the smacked the Hive Mother down. Rested, and another Sim PfM, and smacked the rest of the Beholders including the Elder Orb. They really could do nothing against PfM, other than steal your items which you got back once they died. Got the Amulet of Spell Warding, which means better armor than Full Plate and still -5 saves vs. spell.
Mind Flayer dungeon, 2x Mind Focusing, 3x Intelligence Potion, Potion of Absorbtion, Blunt Girdle and Drow Full Plate and I got Int to 40 and AC vs crushing to -29. And the dungeon really offered no resistance, drank couple Int potions here and there, but it never got below 25. Gww'd Master Brain casually at the end, didn't have to use RoR once, which was huge improvement to the last run. Finally starting to feel relaxed with the Flayers. Got 4x Control Circlets and Staff of Command.
Kuo Toa dungeon, Sim PfM and Mace of Distruption vs. level drain, they still packed a punch as they could blind me through PfM and had to use RoR four times until they were dead. Got the last component for Crom Fayer and Soul Reaver which might come handy. Didn't bother with the rest.
Did the guests for the Drow, nothing interesting, and stole the eggs with invisibility as @Grond0 suggested. And Adalon pwned everybody for me to exit the Underdark. That was pretty easy going I've to say.
I did my test run for Ascension Melissan. I still have a problem to work out, but most of the plans I had are functional.
I mishandled the fight with Irenicus at first, but apparently the ideal course of action is to use a Time Stop scroll on the first round and then dedicate several castings of Time Stop to killing the Fallen Solars with Improved Haste, Belm, and the Black Blade of Disaster. It would take lots of Time Stops to do it, but it's our only good way of tackling the Fallen Solars, as they're immune to +3 weapons and below, making our planetars useless and the Scorcher Ammunition impractical.
With the Fallen Solars dead, we'd probably do okay against Irenicus and Bodhi. Protection from Undead doesn't work at the Throne of Bhaal, but PFMW will keep her at bay, and she has no defense against the Scorcher Ammunition buffed with Enchanted Weapon, while Irenicus is doomed the moment the original mage breaks invisibility: we have a Protection from Magic scroll lined up for him.
As for the pool fights, we can just run over them with planetars and the Scorcher Ammunition.
For the Five, we equip the Shield of Reflection to keep off Illasera and use a Protection from Magic scroll on Abazigal on the first round. In the next 2 rounds, Frisk casts PFMW and uses another Protection from Magic scroll on Sendai. Then things get messy, but the basic principle is that we want to bring the Five to Near Death. We were able to do this fairly well, but I don't know if things will go the same way during the real fight.
I'm still puzzling over the final phase. We have PFMW and Focus to deal with Melissan's Time Stops and we can land kills on the Five with the Scorcher Ammunition to get them out of the way, but Melissan apparently summons two Fallen Solars when she enters the fight.
Time Stop could let us kill the Fallen Solars, but the problem is that Melissan is immune to Time Stop, which means she can attack us or our celestials during Time Stop, or even cast her own Time Stop to supersede ours, which would be fatal if we didn't have Focus active. The good news is that our clone can use Focus as well, which means we could, with excellent micromanagement, kill a single Fallen Solar in one Time Stop. In practice, that means 3 Time Stops for 2 Fallen Solars. But that's 4 uses of aura across 9 rounds and 2 characters when we need to constantly think about re-casting PFMW as well maintaining both Improved Haste and Black Blade of Disaster.
Realistically, that's not gonna happen with only 3 castings of Time Stop. And the more times we try to cast Time Stop, the greater the chance I'll screw up the timing of PFMW and leave Frisk vulnerable during a Time Stop of Melissans. It's especially dangerous because the spell notifications I have will look identical for both Frisk and their clone!
I could land a Called Shot kill with +5 darts using a clone, however, which would take down a single Fallen Solar in a single Time Stop. Even so, that could be very complicated and it would be easy to screw it up. We couldn't repeat the process; I can only summon a new Simulacrum clone 20 rounds after I first create it.
Alternatively, we could use Called Shot on the Scorcher Ammunition and try to land a kill on a Fallen Planetar outside of Time Stop. But that's dependent on positioning and not really under my control.
Testing found that STR drain can kill Melissan, but it caused a weird bug where the whole fight started over as if we had just entered the map. I don't really care if Melissan's death is buggy; I'll consider it a success simply if she dies. I know from previous experience that killing Melissan with stat drain does not break the game in this case: the last time I did it, the Solar appeared and we were able to trigger the ending cutscene by speaking to it, even without Melissan present.
We can't really afford to lose much time in this fight. Castings of PFMW only last so long, unless I scribe more PFMW scrolls before this fight... which I think I will do. Failing to keep SI: Abjuration on hand is also dangerous; the Fallen Solars cast Mordenkainen's Disjunction, a guaranteed dispel effect.
My plan to kill Melissan in 2 rounds was overoptimistic. Although it's quite possible--in fact, it's pretty likely to work--there's a chance of failure that depends on the availability of alternative targets. The issue is that I can't hit Melissan or the Fallen Solars directly with the Scorcher Ammunition; I have to choose an alternative target and drag the scorcher projectiles over Melissan. But if my alternative target dies too soon and I don't have a ready replacement, the effort could fail.
But the prospects of dealing with those Fallen Solars conventionally is actually bad enough that it might be worth it. Frisk can theoretically drain 33 STR with a single casting of Called Shot, or 53 STR with both castings consecutively. I only need to land 19 of those 33 or 53 hits to kill Melissan. It really depends on whether I have good targets or not.
But that's the thing. During the test run, our pre-summoned planetars vanished shortly after Melissan entered the field, as did our clone.
Maybe the optimal method is to go low-pressure against the Five and high-pressure against Melissan: let most of the Five stay in good shape, and then use them as targets to kill Melissan with Called Shot while PFMW gives me 4 rounds of total immunity. There's practically no chance that Frisk would be unable to find an adequate target, and with -15 THAC0, the odds of missing should be only 5% against any of them... at which point we'd be banking on the assumption that Frisk doesn't roll critical misses 50% of the time, the odds of which are functionally zero.
But I'll be creating some clay golem familiars via the Golem Construction mod, and a Perfect Clay Golem seems like it would be invincible: 100% resistance to magic and non-crushing damage; a base save vs. death of 3, or -1 in LoB, which should be enough to guarantee survival against a Fallen Solar's vorpal strikes; and immunity to stat drain.
Come to think of it, maybe I could just wipe out half of the Five with a clone using Called Shot on a Perfect Clay Golem and then use the same trick on Melissan the moment she arrives. Both phases of the fight could end in less than 5 rounds.
If anyone's wondering why I haven't been using clay golems this whole time, the reason is simple: the components for creating them are limited, I can't reload if they get destroyed in a bad fight, and they don't get LoB bonuses because they're counted as familiars.
They seem like great tanks for this fight, though, since the only critters who deal crushing damage are Yaga-Shura and Gromnir. Even so, 90 HP can disappear very quickly in LoB mode.
@semiticgod LoB bonuses apply to familiars in vanilla, I think EET breaks it.
Seven actually didn't have all the components for Crom Faeyr, so I needed to visit the Planar Sphere. Sim dealt the Golem so no curse. Smacked the Halfings, invisibility and skipped the other Golems. Lavok, Sim PfM on me and then on Lavok, smacked down. Tolgerias and the mage Sim PfM'd and smacked down. Wave +4 was good here slaying Fire Elementals, Salamanders, Efreeti and saving some grinding. Got the Crom Faeyr.
Bodhi's lair was again PfU'd, also Sim PfU'd Drizzt and Arkanis for some extra help. Suldanesselar is funny because as suggested here, you don't have to fight single fight, just gather the items with invisibility and place them in the altar, then find the two pieces which opens the door to Tree of Life. But I still smacked Nizi down because it was less of a hassle than removing all the items.
Lets see if Seven can kill Irenicus by doing nothing.
With all your metagame knowledge you should really switch to more restrictive rules be it Bane of the Wizard Slayer, Poverty or something new @histamiini. Same for @semiticgod. Personally i lost interest in "normal" LoB+SCS no-reload as there are too many exploits or ways to cheese the game into the ground. Boosting enemy stats is just not enough and even the SCS AI is still dumb like bread in most cases. On the good side i could state: It has been a long and very joyful way getting to this point - working out perfect strategies or workarounds for (nearly) every encounter. But the result - at least for me - is also a bit depressing...
At the end @Grond0 was maybe the only one playing the game "right". No healing, no farming, no test encounters - taking risks whenever they cross his way to die in the most creative ways. He is just the best...
@Harpagornis Personally I don't like poverty, because it's basically spell casting run and rules out fighter classes. But I'm thinking trying Bane next, as it removes some of the cheese, but still allows fighters to play. But I still would like to finish no-reload first, hopefully with Six or Seven. But if they fail, then decide if Eight is going to be C/M no-reload or something for Bane.
Does anyone know how -2 AC is applied in the Hell Trials, wiki claims that it doesn't help beyond -20 AC, but that's just for items right? Dex and modifiers still apply with it beyond -20 AC?
Irenicus at Tree of Life. Used Sim PfM + invisibility before killing the last parasite, but forgot that Sim doesn't follow, so I couldn't PfM Irenicus, and which then meant a play of hide&seek. Ran away invisible, and waited his spells, protections and summons to dissappear, before casually smacking him down. For what ever reason, his summons always fight against him in my installation.
Hell Trials, chose protection against +1 weapons, 20/20/20 elemental resistances, +2 saves, +2 Str and -2 AC, which meant I turned to Lawful Evil. But this is fine as it also means Soul Reaver fun which is better. Also someone called Sarevok tried to tickle me with his normal weapon, smacked down.
End battle. Summoned five elementals and activated the battle, turned invisible and ran quickly to bottom of the level, turned invisible again after dispels hit me, and let the elementals keep company for the enemies a while. Jon wasted some of his spells and I waited his Planetar to unsummon.
Red Dragon Scale + Ring of Fire Control and -7,-7,-3,-8,-8 saves meant that I could lure Glabrezus and Balors onto me, and just casually smack them down one by one.
Sim, invisibility, and PfM on Irenicus, who then was Gww'd down.
Another death created by my wife - i really should not play when she is around...
Krell had cleared Mulahey with Nymphs using Imp. Invisibility before to sneak through the mines. Bandit Camp called again. Hah, this should be easy - shouldnt it? At least i thought so and buffed up Krell who sneaked into the tent grabbing the documents. So far so good. But then my wife suddenly started talking from the side which irritated me for about half a second so everyone had turned hostile before i could hit the pause button. What to do? Run or try to go invisible? Krell decided to run through with Boots of Avoidance and Fire Salamander form (best AC and also speedy) but right before he reached the exit Venkts Horror landed. Save or no save was now the only question. It was "no save" and Krell started running around helplessly several seconds before the Elite Archers took him down in swift manner. DAMN IT!!!
The Avenger is really nice but dying like this cries for another run. Hmmm, why not trying out a pure Ranger afflicted by the Bane of the Wizard Slayer? "This could get interesting" was my initial thought and so i imported an old character with 18/00 strength that i had saved maybe a year ago (but never played). However: Say hello to Xandra the Elven Ranger!
Will she be able to reach Avernus proving that Warriors can still beat Big B even when being cursed? Lets see...
At the end @Grond0 was maybe the only one playing the game "right". No healing, no farming, no test encounters - taking risks whenever they cross his way to die in the most creative ways. He is just the best...
Yep - I was intending to post that I was just the best at dying, but having just read your post about wifely interference I think you might be starting to get the hang of it Harpagornis .
Does anyone know how -2 AC is applied in the Hell Trials, wiki claims that it doesn't help beyond -20 AC, but that's just for items right? Dex and modifiers still apply with it beyond -20 AC?
I remembered checking up on this not very long ago and, surprisingly enough, managed to find the appropriate post reasonably quickly (it's correct that the Hell Trials won't improve your AC if you're already up against the cap; the only straight AC adjustments that go beyond the cap are dexterity and single weapon proficiency, though you can get further benefits from some spells and adjustments to specific weapon types).
Xandra started strong kiting down Shoal and one Carrion Crawler after charming a nice little wolf. Not to forget: The Mad Arcand was pleased getting back his lost ring. With level 3 Xandra traveled to Beregost peacing Marl and just for fun she tried charm animal on Tiax. For whatever reason he went green for half a second which was time enough to let him call in his Ghast. A bug? However: With her new undead friend she cleared the spider house and smacked down Silke (i never liked her!) which put her right to level 4. Time to collect Drizzt´s equipment (which will be very handy for Rangers!) and maybe afterwards visit Mutamins Garden once more. Too bad time is lacking so Xandra will have to wait a little bit more - good night!
Seven met Illasera, Reflection Shield, invisibility and lured her to bottom of the map, and smacked her down. She still took lot of Gww's to die, probably 10. First trial in Pocket Plane, blocked the door with a summon so that I could play with the whole level, and lured the first mob to the central area and smacked them down, damn commoners. Second mob, the same fate although they were a little tougher Knights. And lastly smacked Duke Eltan, Aran Linvail and Ellesime all down. Nothing too hard.
Did all the quests in Saradush getting rep to 20. Prison 1st level was done with single PfU. 2nd level,
poor souls, even if they had +2 weapons or better, they still wouldn't have any kind of chance. Sim PfM'd both mages and smacked through rest of the level. Went to the main level, and back luring the fighters, who I smacked down. Rested, invisibility and Sim PfM'd and killed the Battle Mage. Rest, Sim PfM, and went to upstairs.
The Power of Dwarven Defender.
Smacked everything that moved in the room down, including Gromnir and all of his many minions. Three time-stops, multiple Glabrezus, Efreetis, Elementals could do absolutely nothing to stop the juggernaut dwarf.
@histamiini Are you sure you have Ascension installed ? Aren't you suppose to fight Irenicus and Bodhi in the Pocket Plane challenge before going to Saradush ?
@Arctodus Yeah evil ones get a lot easier first Pocket Plane battle, apparently it always pays to be evil. I think good balance would've been if Balty couldn't be reasoned being evil, now there's no disadvantage being evil and you can get best rewards from hell and hack with the Soul Reaver, and even get Bodhi to leave in the end battle I think.
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The Ravager is immune to +3 weapons and below, so the Scorcher Ammunition could only hit it if we used a Bone Blade as a target. And with the Ravager's regeneration at 30 HP per round and its 75% physical damage resistance, we could only expect to deal 30 net damage per round, which meant it would take over 50 rounds on average to take it down. Without using scrolls or some Spell Trap shenanigans, I couldn't get enough PFMW spells to last the whole fight (although the un-nerfed spell table would have let me do it with some Absolute Immunity spells on top), Called Shot was the best way to take down the Ravager. But since Time Stop wasn't an option, I needed to use a clone.
It was simple in theory but required careful positioning to avoid roasting Frisk, who had buffed with a Potion of Storm Giant Strength just in case I did something stupid. Frisk cast PFMW followed by Simulacrum, the clone cast PFMW, and Frisk cast Improved Haste on the clone, who took position behind the Ravager and attacked the Bone Blades surrounding Frisk. With two castings of Called Shot and careful counting of the clone's attacks per round (I've mentioned that clones cancel orders in my install), eventually the clone was able to drain the Ravager's 24 STR.
Looks like I have Wheels of Prophecy installed, which means I'll have to fight that Cambion who casts Time Stop, along with the Fallen Solar. I'll probably approach with Time Stop and burn a Protection from Magic scroll on the Cambion, but the Fallen Solar will be a problem, since I think he starts the fight invisible and is immune to +3 weapons and below. He has 19 STR, so maybe Called Shot during Time Stop on a separate target (maybe a planetar) would let us land a kill without giving the Fallen Solar a chance to repeatedly Heal itself.
Disabling the XP cap had no discernable effect, but I don't think I'll bother figuring out how to make it work, since reaching level 32 or even 33 would only get Frisk an extra hit point anyway.
Talk-blocking Sendai let me summon a couple extra planetars and a clone before combat began, and a lucky Holy Word spell from a planetar neutralized the first mage's spellcasting--very lucky indeed, because it spared us the trouble of fussing with a hostile Fallen Planetar. Mostly Frisk and their clone just shredded everything with the Scorcher Ammunition, trying to navigate so that the drow took the full force of the projectiles without destroying our celestials in the process. Later on, we used Enchanted Weapon to target our own celestials as a means of bypassing Sendai's PFMW spells. All the while, Frisk faded in and out with the Staff of the Magi and cast PFMW whenever they broke invisibility to attack. Notable, Sendai's final form used Implosion on a planetar, which could have been dangerous if she had used it on Frisk and we had not buffed with Spell Turning.
Then we had to fight dozens of monks and fighters in Amkethran because I didn't want Saemon Havarian to smuggle us into Balthazar's monastery (the smuggler's cave caused constant crashes in previous installs and I haven't tried that option since). The celestials were immune to nearly everything the enemy through out, even though the monks ostensibly should have had +4 fists. There were two mages who were immune to Holy Word by virtue of having a neutral alignment, but they never used any mage HLAs, attacking almost exclusively with disablers. I made a point of keeping Frisk out of the way for most of the fight, but foolishly broke invisibility to use the Scorcher Ammunition. It certainly sped things up, and it didn't get Frisk into trouble, but it could have been dangerous if several things went wrong and I failed to address the situation properly. I don't see how I could have died, exactly, but that doesn't mean it was safe.
With 20 reputation, 20 adjusted CHA with the Ring of Human Influence and Algernon's Cloak, and a Chaotic Good alignment, we were able to recruit Balthazar.
Unfortunately, since I accidentally installed the Wheels of Prophecy mod, we had to fight a mage version of Melissan with Balthazar's help right after that discussion. Holy Word spells probably disabled Melissan's spells on the first round, but Frisk and a pre-cast Simulacrum clone used the Scorcher Ammunition to disrupt her spells and shred her Stoneskins and HP by targeting the Bhaal-Touched critters around her. Melissan drops an awesome ring that gives +3 to AC and saves and an extra level 9 spell slot, but I've avoided using any mod-introduced items in this run.
Also because of Wheels of Prophecy, we have to fight a Cambion with a Time Stop spell alongside a Fallen Solar and 2 Glabrezus, 2 Mariliths, and 2 Balors. We approached during Time Stop, but as it turns out, using the Scorcher Ammunition during Time Stop cannot remove Stoneskins or deal extra piercing damage: while the fire damage strikes multiple times, the piercing damage only strikes twice, as if all the attacks you made during Time Stop counted as a single one. The fire damage did still disrupt the Cambion's Time Stop spell, and while the Cambion was invisible and untargetable during our next Time Stop (bear in mind that I was maintaining a safe distance at all times; we didn't engage the enemy group until much later), Frisk was still able to target the other demons by casting Enchanted Weapon. This dealt more piercing damage than the previous attempt, but the Cambion appeared to take little or no damage.
Finally, I used one more Time Stop spell once the Cambion broke invisibility and used a Protection from Magic scroll on him. Dual-wielding the Firetooth Dagger and Belm allowed us to get him to Near Death, but he survived the Time Stop and cast PFMW, forcing us to use the Scorcher Ammunition to finish him off.
The only real way we could deal any damage to the Fallen Solar was to use the Scorcher Ammunition or else burn a whole bunch of Time Stop spells to hit him with the Runehammer or something, so we used the Glabrezus and Balors as a target. It was a long process and Frisk had to cast PFMW many times to avoid getting debuffed by an arrow or the Fallen Solar's sword (it didn't help that I didn't have a spare Enchanted Weapon spell memorized, which would have let our clone contribute), but eventually we brought it down. Note that the Balors in this fight also use Implosion.
Tomorrow we go to the Throne of Bhaal.
Go upstairs once he is at 1 HP and collect the mad wizards. The normal talking triggers and shortly after he surrenders - job done!
Might have been changed tho I haven't gotten cursed and not reloaded in a looong time.
This is the first charname for me in last eight starts that haven't got anykind of ability to remove curse itself, so it came little pit surprise to me, wasn't expecting it.
Oh yeah, and temple did remove the curse, phew.
Krell the Human Avenger has started and kited down Shoal with 52 bullet stones. I fear that progress will be minimal thanks to RL but maybe its time to slow down everything a bit and enjoy the atmosphere foremost...
I've been uncertain about the wisdom of a test run. It'll mean I'm more familiar with the fight, but it's also going to make me a lot more nervous during the real fight. I usually like to speed through these things to get things over with and do away with the anxiety, but this run is important enough that I'm willing to spend a couple extra hours feeling nerve-wracked and anxious.
The other risk is that I'll underestimate the challenge if things go smoothly, and fail to micromanage properly during the real fight. I'm going to have to really dedicate every ounce of my attention to this fight and stay focused.
If I do make it during the real fight, it'll be the first solo no-reload LoB SCS+Ascension run ever documented.
If I don't make it, I don't know how I'll react. My hopes are sky-high, and dying to Belhifet in the last run took an emotional toll on me. Dying to Melissan will be much, much worse.
Good luck @semiticgod!!! Too bad your character is a Mage so the run doesnt count...
Maybe you should switch to the Bane of the Wizard Slayer and pick a class you are more confident with @Grond0?
After doing Shoal and let the Tiax Ghast do its job he managed to clear Mutamins Garden too hitting level 7 - Nymphs are calling! Thanks to Imp. Invisbility he sneaked to the basilisks in Durlags Tower and poisened them down with PfP + Web + Strength of One + Sword Spider reaching level 8. I will try to use the @Grond0 rule of not farming stuff to make things more interesting. But smacking down some Ankhegs in the cave should be okay - no?
Too bad i dont have more time to play on - maybe tomorrow...
P.S. I really forgot that Avengers cannot wear Ankheg Plate. Lol. But who needs Armor? No one!
P.P.S. The spell options of Avengers are really refreshing after playing Totemic Druid for so long - this should get funny later on!!
So far, so good - up to level 6 and obviously not the same issue about hard to obtain XP in future as with the wizard slayer. Swashbucklers are not very strong in the early game, but all his points have gone into stealth, so there should be plenty of stealth attacks round corners coming up. By swashbuckler standards Swishy also has exceptionally good HPs, which can't hurt
Beholder dungeon, Sim PfM and killed the first two Beholders and then watched couple Mind Flayers destroy half of the dungeon, smacked them down and the smacked the Hive Mother down. Rested, and another Sim PfM, and smacked the rest of the Beholders including the Elder Orb. They really could do nothing against PfM, other than steal your items which you got back once they died. Got the Amulet of Spell Warding, which means better armor than Full Plate and still -5 saves vs. spell.
Mind Flayer dungeon, 2x Mind Focusing, 3x Intelligence Potion, Potion of Absorbtion, Blunt Girdle and Drow Full Plate and I got Int to 40 and AC vs crushing to -29. And the dungeon really offered no resistance, drank couple Int potions here and there, but it never got below 25. Gww'd Master Brain casually at the end, didn't have to use RoR once, which was huge improvement to the last run. Finally starting to feel relaxed with the Flayers. Got 4x Control Circlets and Staff of Command.
Kuo Toa dungeon, Sim PfM and Mace of Distruption vs. level drain, they still packed a punch as they could blind me through PfM and had to use RoR four times until they were dead. Got the last component for Crom Fayer and Soul Reaver which might come handy.
Did the guests for the Drow, nothing interesting, and stole the eggs with invisibility as @Grond0 suggested. And Adalon pwned everybody for me to exit the Underdark. That was pretty easy going I've to say.
I mishandled the fight with Irenicus at first, but apparently the ideal course of action is to use a Time Stop scroll on the first round and then dedicate several castings of Time Stop to killing the Fallen Solars with Improved Haste, Belm, and the Black Blade of Disaster. It would take lots of Time Stops to do it, but it's our only good way of tackling the Fallen Solars, as they're immune to +3 weapons and below, making our planetars useless and the Scorcher Ammunition impractical.
With the Fallen Solars dead, we'd probably do okay against Irenicus and Bodhi. Protection from Undead doesn't work at the Throne of Bhaal, but PFMW will keep her at bay, and she has no defense against the Scorcher Ammunition buffed with Enchanted Weapon, while Irenicus is doomed the moment the original mage breaks invisibility: we have a Protection from Magic scroll lined up for him.
As for the pool fights, we can just run over them with planetars and the Scorcher Ammunition.
For the Five, we equip the Shield of Reflection to keep off Illasera and use a Protection from Magic scroll on Abazigal on the first round. In the next 2 rounds, Frisk casts PFMW and uses another Protection from Magic scroll on Sendai. Then things get messy, but the basic principle is that we want to bring the Five to Near Death. We were able to do this fairly well, but I don't know if things will go the same way during the real fight.
I'm still puzzling over the final phase. We have PFMW and Focus to deal with Melissan's Time Stops and we can land kills on the Five with the Scorcher Ammunition to get them out of the way, but Melissan apparently summons two Fallen Solars when she enters the fight.
Time Stop could let us kill the Fallen Solars, but the problem is that Melissan is immune to Time Stop, which means she can attack us or our celestials during Time Stop, or even cast her own Time Stop to supersede ours, which would be fatal if we didn't have Focus active. The good news is that our clone can use Focus as well, which means we could, with excellent micromanagement, kill a single Fallen Solar in one Time Stop. In practice, that means 3 Time Stops for 2 Fallen Solars. But that's 4 uses of aura across 9 rounds and 2 characters when we need to constantly think about re-casting PFMW as well maintaining both Improved Haste and Black Blade of Disaster.
Realistically, that's not gonna happen with only 3 castings of Time Stop. And the more times we try to cast Time Stop, the greater the chance I'll screw up the timing of PFMW and leave Frisk vulnerable during a Time Stop of Melissans. It's especially dangerous because the spell notifications I have will look identical for both Frisk and their clone!
I could land a Called Shot kill with +5 darts using a clone, however, which would take down a single Fallen Solar in a single Time Stop. Even so, that could be very complicated and it would be easy to screw it up. We couldn't repeat the process; I can only summon a new Simulacrum clone 20 rounds after I first create it.
Alternatively, we could use Called Shot on the Scorcher Ammunition and try to land a kill on a Fallen Planetar outside of Time Stop. But that's dependent on positioning and not really under my control.
Testing found that STR drain can kill Melissan, but it caused a weird bug where the whole fight started over as if we had just entered the map. I don't really care if Melissan's death is buggy; I'll consider it a success simply if she dies. I know from previous experience that killing Melissan with stat drain does not break the game in this case: the last time I did it, the Solar appeared and we were able to trigger the ending cutscene by speaking to it, even without Melissan present.
We can't really afford to lose much time in this fight. Castings of PFMW only last so long, unless I scribe more PFMW scrolls before this fight... which I think I will do. Failing to keep SI: Abjuration on hand is also dangerous; the Fallen Solars cast Mordenkainen's Disjunction, a guaranteed dispel effect.
My plan to kill Melissan in 2 rounds was overoptimistic. Although it's quite possible--in fact, it's pretty likely to work--there's a chance of failure that depends on the availability of alternative targets. The issue is that I can't hit Melissan or the Fallen Solars directly with the Scorcher Ammunition; I have to choose an alternative target and drag the scorcher projectiles over Melissan. But if my alternative target dies too soon and I don't have a ready replacement, the effort could fail.
But the prospects of dealing with those Fallen Solars conventionally is actually bad enough that it might be worth it. Frisk can theoretically drain 33 STR with a single casting of Called Shot, or 53 STR with both castings consecutively. I only need to land 19 of those 33 or 53 hits to kill Melissan. It really depends on whether I have good targets or not.
But that's the thing. During the test run, our pre-summoned planetars vanished shortly after Melissan entered the field, as did our clone.
Maybe the optimal method is to go low-pressure against the Five and high-pressure against Melissan: let most of the Five stay in good shape, and then use them as targets to kill Melissan with Called Shot while PFMW gives me 4 rounds of total immunity. There's practically no chance that Frisk would be unable to find an adequate target, and with -15 THAC0, the odds of missing should be only 5% against any of them... at which point we'd be banking on the assumption that Frisk doesn't roll critical misses 50% of the time, the odds of which are functionally zero.
But I'll be creating some clay golem familiars via the Golem Construction mod, and a Perfect Clay Golem seems like it would be invincible: 100% resistance to magic and non-crushing damage; a base save vs. death of 3, or -1 in LoB, which should be enough to guarantee survival against a Fallen Solar's vorpal strikes; and immunity to stat drain.
Come to think of it, maybe I could just wipe out half of the Five with a clone using Called Shot on a Perfect Clay Golem and then use the same trick on Melissan the moment she arrives. Both phases of the fight could end in less than 5 rounds.
They seem like great tanks for this fight, though, since the only critters who deal crushing damage are Yaga-Shura and Gromnir. Even so, 90 HP can disappear very quickly in LoB mode.
Seven actually didn't have all the components for Crom Faeyr, so I needed to visit the Planar Sphere. Sim dealt the Golem so no curse. Smacked the Halfings, invisibility and skipped the other Golems. Lavok, Sim PfM on me and then on Lavok, smacked down. Tolgerias and the mage Sim PfM'd and smacked down. Wave +4 was good here slaying Fire Elementals, Salamanders, Efreeti and saving some grinding. Got the Crom Faeyr.
Bodhi's lair was again PfU'd, also Sim PfU'd Drizzt and Arkanis for some extra help. Suldanesselar is funny because as suggested here, you don't have to fight single fight, just gather the items with invisibility and place them in the altar, then find the two pieces which opens the door to Tree of Life. But I still smacked Nizi down because it was less of a hassle than removing all the items.
Lets see if Seven can kill Irenicus by doing nothing.
At the end @Grond0 was maybe the only one playing the game "right". No healing, no farming, no test encounters - taking risks whenever they cross his way to die in the most creative ways. He is just the best...
Hell Trials, chose protection against +1 weapons, 20/20/20 elemental resistances, +2 saves, +2 Str and -2 AC, which meant I turned to Lawful Evil. But this is fine as it also means Soul Reaver fun which is better.
End battle. Summoned five elementals and activated the battle, turned invisible and ran quickly to bottom of the level, turned invisible again after dispels hit me, and let the elementals keep company for the enemies a while. Jon wasted some of his spells and I waited his Planetar to unsummon.
Red Dragon Scale + Ring of Fire Control and -7,-7,-3,-8,-8 saves meant that I could lure Glabrezus and Balors onto me, and just casually smack them down one by one.
Sim, invisibility, and PfM on Irenicus, who then was Gww'd down.
Seven rocks on.
Krell had cleared Mulahey with Nymphs using Imp. Invisibility before to sneak through the mines. Bandit Camp called again. Hah, this should be easy - shouldnt it? At least i thought so and buffed up Krell who sneaked into the tent grabbing the documents. So far so good. But then my wife suddenly started talking from the side which irritated me for about half a second so everyone had turned hostile before i could hit the pause button. What to do? Run or try to go invisible? Krell decided to run through with Boots of Avoidance and Fire Salamander form (best AC and also speedy) but right before he reached the exit Venkts Horror landed. Save or no save was now the only question. It was "no save" and Krell started running around helplessly several seconds before the Elite Archers took him down in swift manner. DAMN IT!!!
The Avenger is really nice but dying like this cries for another run. Hmmm, why not trying out a pure Ranger afflicted by the Bane of the Wizard Slayer? "This could get interesting" was my initial thought and so i imported an old character with 18/00 strength that i had saved maybe a year ago (but never played). However: Say hello to Xandra the Elven Ranger!
Will she be able to reach Avernus proving that Warriors can still beat Big B even when being cursed? Lets see...
I remembered checking up on this not very long ago and, surprisingly enough, managed to find the appropriate post reasonably quickly (it's correct that the Hell Trials won't improve your AC if you're already up against the cap; the only straight AC adjustments that go beyond the cap are dexterity and single weapon proficiency, though you can get further benefits from some spells and adjustments to specific weapon types).
Did all the quests in Saradush getting rep to 20. Prison 1st level was done with single PfU. 2nd level,
poor souls, even if they had +2 weapons or better, they still wouldn't have any kind of chance.
The Power of Dwarven Defender.
Smacked everything that moved in the room down, including Gromnir and all of his many minions. Three time-stops, multiple Glabrezus, Efreetis, Elementals could do absolutely nothing to stop the juggernaut dwarf.
After all this work the whole challenge feels like a walk in the park. If we do not count @Grond0 celebrating the beauty of death!
EDIT: Evil ones have to fight Duke Eltan and friends - only the good ones meet Irenicus and Bodhi in the pocket plane @Arctodus!