@Grond0 Well that was the first mistake I noticed when watching Drizzt getting killed. I've always played a good character so it didn't come to my mind, I just though Ferret would be able to smuggle the Rift device out of the Unseeing Lair. Punishment for my ignorance now is +2 AC, have to do with Icingdeath, and I probably never even get to the Unseeing Lair anyway. Live and learn I guess.
Frere has done some grinding away of low to medium XP creatures in multiple areas. The only time he experimented with something a bit more difficult was the ankheg near Tenya. The advantage there is the ability to run away easily and he nearly killed it several times swapping between running it round when it tried to melee and tanking when it switched to ranged weapon. The creature several times found a critical when it needed one, but eventually its luck ran out on the 8th or 9th attempt.
Not long after that killing a worg took him to level 7. Now able to call upon the mighty nymphs he should be able to make rather quicker progress.
Well the mistake took only two minutes to start to bother me too much, because I'm ocd power gamer things like that get me. And as I'm only 15 minutes in, Natural lost the battle to three Gnolls, wasn't even close. But this is ok as from death you always evolve as a stronger character.
Natural Redux (now that's a cool name) is now Lawful Good and instead of ** in Bows, * in Single-Weapon Style.
With the help of his nymphs Frere made short work of the battle horrors at Durlags Tower. He then went to clear the ankhegs away from their nest - getting up to level 8 as a result and being able to put his full plate back on. If he'd waited to level up until he had the XP for level 9 he would have been able to achieve grand mastery with scimitars, but will now have to wait for level 12 in SoD to do that (or much more likely die first).
My friend @Vynn asked me why i am not playing with an Archer after reading about my nonstop out-of-stealth-shooting. Good question. I remember that i have played an Elven Archer up to Big B and reloaded the old save putting away all no-go-items. With DoHM she got an THAC0 of -9 (-10 after critting) including Racial Enemy along with 16-21 damage (plus magic damage from Void Arrows) and 7/2 APR. Which sounded quite good even with Big B´s Imp. Invisbility.
The result however was really depressing. The damage dealt to Big B was far too low (only 12-17 thanks to 50% DR vs missiles) and once the support vanished and Mi started running out of Void Arrows Big B was still far too healthy (missing too much!). Now the lack of Fractal Blade and the missing second point in Scimitars proved to be fatal even though avoiding the teleporting demons worked suprisingly well. Without heavy luck - constant hits and lot of crits - the Archer seems to have a very tough time. I did not tested close combat and stopped after three test runs just BELIEVING that Xandra will SOMEHOW find a way through this horror. If she gets this far...
Sarevok is still alive as Xandra has started gathering supplies and creating plans how to beat him in style. Hopefully!
- Candle Keep, bought 360 arrows, Large Shield, Helmet and Ninjato for peanuts. Why Ninjato is fifth of the prize of Scimitar even though it's better? Bothered Firebead for 300 gold, which left me 450 when I left - Girdle, Diamond, Ring of Wizardy and walking to Friendly Arm Inn alone netted 11k gold. Bane is good for money hoarders because you can sell all your trinkets - Marl 900 xp - Going to Nashkel a Bandit almost killed me, I was left 16/33 hp after three hits. Ankheg Armor, Pearl, Noober 400 xp - Drizzt Scimitars and after I sold the loot I had 16k gold already, for walking around about 15 minutes - Killed Sonner for the Bowl 2500 xp, 1st level up - Vitiare ranged with 40 arrows 125 xp, a nobleman was also fed up with him, almost got the ko
- Samuel rep +1, PfM, Star Sapphire and Ring of Fire Protection, Wand of Frost - Firebead rep +1 and bothered him with another 300 gold, 2nd level up - Brage rep +1, 1000 xp, 1750 gold - Ingot 235 xp, Halberd +2, Stinking Cloud, Blur - Bought Full Plate and still had 20k gold left - Mellicamp, Wolf + Skeli 185 xp, success 2000 xp, rep +1, 3rd level up, another * Bow - Drienne 200 xp, rep +1, PfU - Joias Ring, lured the 5 Hobgoblins to the fort and had 5 on 5 match, which was one sided
- Shoal kited with 42 arrows, 5000 xp, 4th level up, 2nd level spells - Albert 1000 xp, Chromatic Orb, Cloudkill - 2x Ogrillons kited with 53 arrows, 350 xp, Mirianne's letter 300 xp, 750 gold, 5th level up - Girdle Ogre kited with 32 arrows, 270 xp, 200 gold - Hentold dagger 900 xp, WoMS etc. - Went past Tarnesh with Invisibility and returned the Girdle first time ever 800 xp - Ardouines Wargs meleed, 860 xp, rep +1 - Jared bear kited with 52 arrows, 1000 xp, Frost Boots, finally some gear - Gnar and Hairtooth kited with 48 arrows, 350 xp, Brawling Gloves and 6th level up and 2nd invisibility so it was time to make some moves - With two invisibility fetched the Cha and Con tomes - Kited Bjornins Half-Ogres with 120 arrows, 1080 xp, rep +1
Currently level 4/4, 70 hp with 19 con and familiar, 30k gold and I'm 20/20 with Friends, so it's time to do some shopping. Well, mostly arrows and spells.
Before this fight Xandra realized that Rangers can use Mental Domination Scrolls - how sweat! As you can buy one in Ulgoths Beard and find one in Durlags Tower she decided to give it a try against Wudai (Save vs Spells: 8 incl. -2 penalty).
Luck was on her side and thanks to the attack-follow-trick Wudai and Xandra went inside the temple to face Sarevok himself. Before the battle the priestress summoned a big bad Skeleton Warrior that took her down without problems (she cant hit it) once she turned hostile again.
Xandra triggered the talking and waited until everyone has moved to Sarevok before using the Skeleton Warrior to lure Angelo away from the others. As the poor Mage also cannot harm the undead creature and its magic resistance negated all spells this fight was very onesided.
The incoming SKeleton Warrior died shortly after so Xandra focused on the remaining ones firing Arrows of Detonation out of stealth on Diarmid while immediately retreating over and over again. 22 Fireballs later Semaj, Tazok and Diarmid also transformed into Skeletons - time to face the big one.
Sarevok himself got hit with an Arrow of Dispelling which left him helpless against the fast moving and hard hitting Xandra. At the end 116 Acid Arrows decorated the evil brother before he finally went down. HP loss this time: Zero!
With 38 Arrows of Detonation left and 20+5 incoming from SoD there is more than enough room to burn down the Crusaders later on. But first: Korlasz! Without summons and invisibility this could lead to a swift end. Lets hope not!
I had half a mind to tackle the Nashkel Mine with Frere, but decided to wait until he could go invisible. Instead he continued to target some high value enemies, e.g. Narcillicus and her mustard jellies (tackled separately) and Meilum. At Durlag's Tower all the ghasts were peppered with throwing daggers before I thought I'd timed things perfectly against Riggilo - a doom turning him hostile a fraction of a second before several hold monster spells were cast. Somehow though he managed to take a potion of invisibility before the spells landed
- that didn't save him for long though thanks to resting and using nymph confusion from out of sight.
Downstairs I spent ages trying to confuse one of the greater dopplegangers before eventually concluding they must be immune (unlike the ones at the Palace). Switching tactics Frere used nymphs to successfully drag one of the dopplegangers away and killed that (after waiting for haste to finish). There were a few phase spiders that had teleported in at various times during all this and another of those had joined the chase with the doppleganger. Frere only needed to kill that to reach level 9, but had a nasty shock when a slight movement error following a teleportation saw him poisoned. With HPs draining away fast he wouldn't have had time to switch floors and rest, so it was a good job that slow poison worked .
Finally the phase spider lay dead and Frere was able to take his final BG1 level.
His intelligence is still a bit suspect and he's unable currently to use green scrolls, so had no way to safely get the tome. I'll have to try and remember to pick that up later though.
My friend @Vynn asked me why i am not playing with an Archer after reading about my nonstop out-of-stealth-shooting. Good question. I remember that i have played an Elven Archer up to Big B and reloaded the old save putting away all no-go-items. With DoHM she got an THAC0 of -9 (-10 after critting) including Racial Enemy along with 16-21 damage (plus magic damage from Void Arrows) and 7/2 APR. Which sounded quite good even with Big B´s Imp. Invisbility.
The result however was really depressing. The damage dealt to Big B was far too low (only 12-17 thanks to 50% DR vs missiles) and once the support vanished and Mi started running out of Void Arrows Big B was still far too healthy (missing too much!). Now the lack of Fractal Blade and the missing second point in Scimitars proved to be fatal even though avoiding the teleporting demons worked suprisingly well. Without heavy luck - constant hits and lot of crits - the Archer seems to have a very tough time. I did not tested close combat and stopped after three test runs just BELIEVING that Xandra will SOMEHOW find a way through this horror. If she gets this far...
Now you know what I had to deal with! That extra missile resistance is a huge cut to damage output, and the kiting necessary to maintain distance only makes things a lot worse. Losing access to specialization also costs the Archer a whole attack per round in melee.
With an effective THAC0 of -7 (11 base, -3 kit bonuses, -3 DEX, -3 Corinth's Bow, -3 arrows, -1 elf bonus, -1 Helm of Balduran, -4 grandmastery), you should have a 55% hit rate due to needing a 9 to hit Belhifet's -16 AC with Improved Invisibility. The average damage you should deal to Belhifet with 80 Void-tipped Arrows and 60 Arrows +3 is 1053.25, not counting Belhifet's regeneration. The formula I used is
with +3 to damage from kit bonuses, +5 from grandmastery, +4 from Corinth's Bow, and +4 from the racial enemy bonus, as well as 4.5+3 magic damage from the Void-tipped Arrows. So you're just shy of dealing enough damage to kill him assuming average rolls, and regeneration puts you about 200 short assuming the fight lasts 100 rounds.
But Arrows of Detonation will definitely even the odds, to the extent that I'm sure you can manage the fight as an Archer without reloading. Without access to Enchanted Weapon, the Archer won't be able to hit Belhifet directly with Arrows of Detonation, nor will Cornugons be vulnerable (they need +2 weapons to hit), but you can still target the Abishais, Hamatulas, and Erinyes with Arrows of Detonation, and the missile damage will hit everyone, including Belhifet and the Cornugons. If your racial enemy bonuses apply (and they should), you'll be dealing a lot more damage per arrow than my Archer/Mage Frisk was. You'll just need Durlag's Goblet (it is a healing potion) to survive all the damage you'd be inflicting on yourself, plus double Potions of Magic Shielding to block the Cornugons' Absorb Health spells unless Protection from Magic blocks it in your install. Every 17 Arrows of Detonation should wipe out all of Belhifet's minions (it takes 320 damage to kill a Cornugon), not counting the ones he summons while you're still tanking, and deal 150 damage to Belhifet himself.
But that doesn't account for other factors. If you have too many Hamatulas on the map, their Barbed Defenses will slow down your Arrows of Detonation because you won't be able to drink Durlag's Goblet fast enough to restore all the HP you lose. Plus, the Abishais have much less HP than the other demons and will die early, allowing Belhifet to slip through your wall of demons and deal up to 200 damage per round to your Archer directly.
I calculate that your Bane of the Wizard Slayer Archer has nearly identical damage output to my Archer/Mage: with THAC0 of -7 instead of -9 but an extra +5 damage, you deal 1053.25 damage to my 1043.25 before expending all +3 arrows, including the Void-tipped Arrows. My Archer/Mage barely survived, but if they had more Potions of Heroism, they could have used the last of their Arrows of Detonation and Durlag's Goblet charges and dealt a lot more damage to Belhifet. On the other hand, my Archer/Mage had the Wand of Monster Summoning, which bought us extra time to kite, and I don't know how much damage that ended up getting us.
But from the very beginning. After stealth-peacing Porios and using PfU to sneak through enemy lines Xandra had two plans: Try to dominate the Assassin near the door mechanism (Save vs Spells 11 incl. -2 penalty) or try it on her own casting Entangle to slow down the guards.
Xandra decided to give it a try and casted Mental Domination - with success. Together they sneaked right to Korlasz preparing a devilish move. Buffed up with DoHM she placed the Assassin in the back of Korlaz and immediately after the first Arrow of Dispelling landed the following happened:
With one brutal backstab her new friend has won the battle as Korlaz surrendered right after that blow. Phew! How lucky Xandra was became clear after testing the fight a bit more. To make it short: It was depressing. Without the ally Xandra got obliterated over and over again especially as Korlaz was rebuffing with Mirror Images and Stoneskins three times. Time for her guards to stun Xandra to death, or backstab her down, or get down a hard hitting Unholy Blight. With other words: This one was pure luck as the charming had a 50/50 chance.
Time to move on to the city visiting the next temple...
That was one of the main problems in my Archer test fights against Big B @semiticgod: No Potions to buff up...
I was worried in the Nashkel Mine about the possibility of the kobold shaman using Oracle - Pixie Dust is slow casting, so the chance of being able to re-establish it would be limited. To try and get around that I summoned 3 nymphs and turned them invisible with a view to using them to cloud the shaman's aura. Unfortunately the kobold roadblock was in place and after waiting some minutes I decided it wasn't going to break up. The nymphs showed themselves to drag enemies out of position while Frere went to rest. Trying again he found that once more the kobolds had managed to establish a block. The nymphs let him through there, but I couldn't be bothered to go and find somewhere to rest this time and decided to just make a run for it - if necessary going right out of the back door to the mine. Fortunately though the shaman ignored Frere and he was able to rest in Mulahey's cave before clearing the kobolds outside with nymphly help. While he was invisible, nymphs then tried to dominate Mulahey and succeeded at the first attempt - the poor cleric was then cut down by his own skeleton warrior.
Tranzig stood no chance against a first use of insect plague, opening the way to the Bandit Camp. There, Frere rested in order to enter Tazok's tent both invisible and with ironskins active. While out of sight of Raemon he summoned a couple of nymphs and put on lightning protection. The nymphs then caused a distraction by attacking Venkt while Frere raided the chest. He got enough space to put pixie dust back on outside to avoid any potential danger from ambushes - and indeed Molkar tried an ambush, though I think Frere would have found it easy enough to run from them even if not invisible.
On arrival at the FAI I found that Frere had left the tent too quickly and the chapter change hadn't triggered. He still had the letters in his inventory though so a quick trip back sorted that out (waving invisibly to the amazons on the way).
He passed through the Cloakwood invisibly, just stopping off on the way to pick up Spider's Bane (using right-click and the inventory screen to stay invisible). Drasus and co were variously confused, held, dominated and electrocuted - but all ended up as worm food. Next up will be Davaeorn.
- Shopping in High Hedge 240 acid arrows, all healing potions, all protection scrolls and bunch of spells, which cost about 15k. Time to turn money into xp. - Mutamin Garden, Protection from Petrification and kited Basilisks with Acid arrows, lesser took about 25, greater about twice, killed all the 8 Lesser and 2 Greater Basilisks, 25 200 xp with 8k gold (240 acid arrows). Me and Korax pwned Mutamin, then Korax committed suicide against the mob. Got to level 5/5 and also found Knock and Blur. - Bought another 240 acid arrows, Mad Arcand 1275 xp, Carrion Crawler kited with acid arrows. - Neera Gem Bag - Durlag's Tower, kited the one Lesser and three Greater Basilisks with acid arrows, 22 400 xp, level up, * Flail - Kirinhale 4000 xp, looted all the upper levels with Invisibility and Knock, 9k loot. - Brun, with two Invisibilities fetched the body, 500 xp, Ghost Armor and Dire Charm, 3k loot. - Resist Fear, Shield, PfE, Blur and meleed Tarnesh 120 xp - PfE, Blur, Mirror Image and meleed Karlat 270 xp - PfE, Blur, Mirror Image and meleed Neira 650 xp - Kaldo Krumm and Dryad 850 xp, level up
Currently at level 6/6, 94 hp and 23k gold. The last two levels are probably the most important ones though.
Okay, Coastway Crossing is cleared. Nothing special. Kited down the spider groups while negating webs with Spiders Bane. Tricked Teleria with out-of-stealth-shots. Skipped the vampire. Visited all stone menhirs and cleared the Dwarven Mines using PfU. Sided with the Lich this time as the undead have proven to be more reliable against the Crusader Attacks. Triggered brigde cutscene under stealth to avoid fighting. Reached level 9 and put a second point into Short Swords.
63 Arrows of Dispelling and Detonation have been stored in the quiver - should be more than enough. However: Except for Korlasz SoD so far is nothing special even with Bane - its time to go for a real challenge soon: The Temple and Morentherene are waiting! I fear that the first of six PfM scrolls will have to be used there. Not to forget: Bag of Holding finally leaves some space in the inventory.
Did some interesting testing and calculations with Martyr's Morningstar and Enchanted Weapon vs. Bel. And yes, with * in Single Weapon Style, Martyr's Morningstar 19 and 20 are always critical hits with hp reduction effect, even if your Thac0 is 100.
Average damage per 20 hits with 19 Strength and ** in Flails, (32+32)*0,75+340 = 388 dmg Average attacks to kill Bel 1130/388*20 = 58 attacks Average time to kill Bel 58 / 3 apr = 19 rounds (excluding regen)
So Violet Potion isn't even needed, actually it's probably adviced not to take it to have more health. This actually makes Thac0 pretty useless in that fight, because the critical effect does relatively so much more damage.
EDIT: Found something even more interesting, you don't even need the Enchanted Weapon to apply the critical effect vs. Bel. It doesn't do normal damage without it, but it always does the critical effect 170 dmg with 19 and 20. This opens more classes vs. Bel, because you don't need to be mage to use Martyr's Morningstar.
EDIT: More, there's more, Bel's Thac0 is pretty monstrous -12, but you can lower it to -9 with Strength spell (no save, MR doesn't negate), because it sets his 25 (22+3) strength to 21 (18/50+3). This also cuts his damage per hit by 5.
EDIT: Found something even more interesting, you don't even need the Enchanted Weapon to apply the critical effect vs. Bel. It doesn't do normal damage without it, but it always does the critical effect 170 dmg with 19 and 20. This opens more classes vs. Bel, because you don't need to be mage to use Martyr's Morningstar.
That's true in v2.3, but I think it's being changed in v2.5.
Inside the Cloakwood Mine Frere went down to Davaeorn's level invisibly. The guard there was dominated by nymphs and dragged the battle horrors back one at a time to be beaten up. Unfortunately the guard broke his weapon just as the second one died, but I still tried to use him to beat Davaeorn up - thinking that could be done over time using rests and farsight. After the first domination finished though Davaeorn disappeared. I've never seen that behavior before, but he just instantly teleported away (not using dimension door). Going invisibly to check where he was found him in a side room, but also resulted in him using his sequencer. Though Frere was out of sight of Davaeorn he got blocked in by the arriving guards and even the nymphs showing themselves couldn't get those to move.
He made a first use of Bhaal horror to try and reduce instant attacks - thinking that the archers blocking him in would move backwards even if they saved. That worked well and he put his boots of speed on for the first time to run to Davaeorn's private elevator before the mage could react. Coming back he tried to use nymphs to dominate Davaeorn using farsight, but a number of attempts at that failed. Deciding to whittle the guards down a bit first the nymphs used confusion and domination to good effect - and after a couple of goes at that I saw that Davaeorn himself was confused. However, further attempts at that failed after the guards were all dead - as did hold and dominate. I think that was all pretty unlucky, but took it's toll on my patience. As a result when, after summoning yet another group of nymphs, Frere started casting Pixie Dust at the entrance I didn't immediately run away when Davaeorn appeared and cast web on the nymphs. I wasn't sure that the area of effect would include Frere, but it did and he was held. All the nymphs were also held, meaning that Davaeorn was free to target Frere and a few MMMs and a sunfire later his journey came to an end.
Why Ninjato is fifth of the prize of Scimitar even though it's better?
There were several 'exotic' weapons which weren't part of BG stocks originally. When they were added the coding wasn't the same as the original ones - meaning that the Ninjato is not just cheaper, but will never break due to iron fatigue .
She sneaked through enemy lines avoiding invisbility dispel and soaking up the trap in the caves (72 damage this time).
Ziatar: Triggered talking and closed door nearby. Moved to the sweet spot where the Half-Dragon wont react to enemy fire and shot her down with 25 Acid Arrows. Grabbed her loot.
Neothelid: With PfM & PfP active Xandra immediately retreated once the first Mordi Sword appeared closing the door. Wait. Once the beast ported over she played hit & run - which proved to be quite painful without potion buffs. I reacted to slow when Poison Nova came out eating 108 damage. But that was not enough as Xandra got constantly hit but the crushing attacks while the poison under its ground also did his job dropping her to 18 HP once. Seven charges of Durlags Goblet were needed before another 32 damage crit put the beast down.
Akanna: Lured the Aerial Servants away and closed the door. The poor priestress could do nothing...
Shadow Aspect: With another PfU scroll Xandra moved in and out to get Fractal Blade only - Good bye!
Morentherene: Daggered down. Grabbed scales and sneaked out...
Bridgefort: Got Void arrows +3 and Dragonshield. Surrendered and shot the Fire Elemental down with Arrows +2 - job done.
Lets see if Xandra can reach the Crusader Attacks once more!!
P.S. The problem with Martyrs no more working in 2.5 without Enchanted Weapon is a another downside for Bane runs - has been pointed out earlier. But even with Martyrs still working the whole fight seems more like a gamble.
Strength of One on Big B also works even though its duration is limited to 1 turn!
As my tests have shown its not that easy to get the Myconid Bloom-Sack as PfM does not protect against the Feeblemind or Confusion of the Myconids. So if one save fails its instant GG. Maybe Xandra will come back later when she got the Ankheg summons...
I forgot that the Ankheg are called from a Necklace... things are getting worse with every step. Same for the Mephits... a ring... nooo!
Without summons the Crusaders will be even more painful - not to mention Big B himself. Damn... i need those Myconids!
EDIT: The Helm of Unwavering Purpose would do the job. Too bad i could not open the chest...
Wait until night. Put on Stealth Boots. Click the floor. Right in the moment the container opens and the neutral (!) Myconids appear: Cancel the action and quickly (!) hit pause button. Stealth and move out with Speed Boots (otherwise you might get confused from the spores around). Use out-of-stealth-shots and the quick-restealth-trick to take down the Myconid Elder as he wanders around randomly searching you. Job done!
WARNING: You really (!) have to be quick getting out of his sight again otherwise the Myconid Elder will shoot his pacifying spores which will feeblemind you (Save vs Death).
With other words: Doom finally approached Xandra who failed her save. Once stealth ran out she was still feebleminded and cut into pieces...
DAMN IT!!!!!!
Think its finally time to test out Big B just to see what can be done - or not...
EDIT: This is most depressing. With Violet Potion Xandra goes down nearly instantly (77 HP!). Caelar and Myconids will not always soak attention so any attack on Xandra immediatley forced Durlags Goblet. The damage dealt before the support goes down is ridicolous. Holy cow - this is bad news. Maybe F/M can get through thanks to decent protections. But only with an ocean full of luck. Druids can do it with Harm. Theoretically. All else? Vanish into oblivion...
Back in Durlag's Tower, kited all the Ghasts and Phase Spiders with acid arrows, passed all others including Greater Dobbelgangers with invisibility, and looted the whole level. Found two Detonators and Dispel arrows. Before activating Love I farmed enough Ghasts and Spiders to reach final level 7/7, 106 hp, 4th level spells, additional half apr and rested.
Activated Love, invisibility, move, hit with one Detonator to get them moving, invisibility. Waited so that Love was by himself and close the stairs, lured him with acid arrows to the stairs and upstairs. Had to skip level couple times to escape his Dire Charm, but he followed eventually. Lured him to the entrance level where he wanted to make his base, he doesn't follow outside nor second level, so basically you can skip levels to heal and rest, he don't mind staying in the entrance level. Grinded him with one hit, and escaping his spells to upstairs and outside alternating it when he got to inconvenient position. And when he was his last legs I cast Minor Globe of Invulnerability and meleed him down.
Got the Wardstone to next level. With another MGoI I opened the Dire Charm chest with 5x Haste Scrolls, and used haste to pick the Helmet and ran out of the room before doors closed. After Cloudkills ended, I opened the door, invisibility and picked the Goblet, didn't fight anybody. All in all the place netted 18k gold. And now with Invisibility, Haste and Durlag's Goblet things should get easier.
I did the fight some more times with Ranger now and i have to say: Nope! Looks like he´s out too...
I could now roll another Druid and pray that Harm will land but - to be honest - with no-reload on board this will take some weeks before going through Big B alone. Is this still fun? Maybe for @Grond0!
Another problem i got is that most of the "normal" fights are too easy while Big B got pushed even more.
But i fear there is no other cure than using more mods - or create one on your own. Or create new rules.
As i am not in the mood of playing dozens of Druids up to Big B to waste them one after another before Harm will do the trick i got another idea:
Legacy of Thelynn'ss [Legacy]
- No Armor, Helm or Shield - No Gloves or Bracers - No Wands or Mage Scrolls
Scribing scrolls is still allowed as well as Ion Stones!
This is more or less a Kensai-related-challenge. Should be more work than a normal one but far from impossible like Bane. At least regarding Big B. Sounds like a plan no?
I could now roll another Druid and pray that Harm will land but - to be honest - with no-reload on board this will take some weeks before going through Big B alone. Is this still fun? Maybe for @Grond0!
I don't know about that . I did restart Frere and got up to level 6. However, trying to hunt down the last golem in the cave it once more disappeared into the wall. This time though when I walked past it emerged and one-shotted me (I guess I shouldn't have left my sling equipped)!
Deciding I fancied something rather easier I restarted Vent, who is a berserker expected to dual to mage. I'm not using any restrictions with him (other than my normal ones), but since I've hardly touched SoD in LoB (and never done any test battles) I'm not really expecting great things from this 'easy' challenge .
I decided to give the Legacy of Thelynn´ss a try and reanimated Brakko the Half-Orc once more:
As i havent played Fighter/Thief for quite some time now cause of OP´ness it will be interesting to see how easy he can beat oppostion with the new restrictions. Lets hope stealth will rule them all. Bandit Ambushes however might be painful. We will see!
Damn Mulahey is pretty trivial with Durlag's Goblet. Spirit Armor, Blur, PfE, Haste done. Had to use Goblet 3 times because I got boxed in and had to grind the Kobbo's and Skelis out of my way. Summon, Haste, Invis and made him attack Nimbul, Rasaad and guards joined in, I escaped some of his spells inside the store couple times, but then I also joined the fun and down he went. Tranzig same fate, but had again to skip levels to escape some spells, but after a while he was out and dead.
Bandit Camp, tried to charm Taurgoz, didn't work, so I just lured everybody bottom of the level which emptied the tent, invis, and got the papers. Didn't have a good plan to kill Venkt or Hakt so I left them be for now, maybe when I find some more speed?
Cloakwood, killed Taslois for the Cloak, haste, invis and picked up the Spider Bane and quickly escaped, and found my way to the mines. Lured the two guards to other side of the bridge, smacked down. Then lured Drasus with acid arrows, and just meleed him down, which took a while and had to use 16 times the goblet.
Lured Genthorn away, invis and waited his haste to end and meleed down, twice the Goblet. Kysus had my Fireshield, so he was next. Greater Malisoned both and tried to charm Kysus but didn't work, tried it couple more times but no. Then I just lured him away to the woods, and soaked his spells with the Goblet, he summoned Spider and I went invisible and waited it to go away. Then I just simply smacked him down.
Interestingly charm spamming has changed to goblet smacking, and picking up the goblet before Mulahey was a wise move I think. Lets see what Davaeorn has for us.
Comments
Not long after that killing a worg took him to level 7. Now able to call upon the mighty nymphs he should be able to make rather quicker progress.
Natural Redux (now that's a cool name) is now Lawful Good and instead of ** in Bows, * in Single-Weapon Style.
The result however was really depressing. The damage dealt to Big B was far too low (only 12-17 thanks to 50% DR vs missiles) and once the support vanished and Mi started running out of Void Arrows Big B was still far too healthy (missing too much!). Now the lack of Fractal Blade and the missing second point in Scimitars proved to be fatal even though avoiding the teleporting demons worked suprisingly well. Without heavy luck - constant hits and lot of crits - the Archer seems to have a very tough time. I did not tested close combat and stopped after three test runs just BELIEVING that Xandra will SOMEHOW find a way through this horror. If she gets this far...
Sarevok is still alive as Xandra has started gathering supplies and creating plans how to beat him in style. Hopefully!
- Candle Keep, bought 360 arrows, Large Shield, Helmet and Ninjato for peanuts. Why Ninjato is fifth of the prize of Scimitar even though it's better? Bothered Firebead for 300 gold, which left me 450 when I left
- Girdle, Diamond, Ring of Wizardy and walking to Friendly Arm Inn alone netted 11k gold. Bane is good for money hoarders because you can sell all your trinkets
- Marl 900 xp
- Going to Nashkel a Bandit almost killed me, I was left 16/33 hp after three hits. Ankheg Armor, Pearl, Noober 400 xp
- Drizzt Scimitars and after I sold the loot I had 16k gold already, for walking around about 15 minutes
- Killed Sonner for the Bowl 2500 xp, 1st level up
- Vitiare ranged with 40 arrows 125 xp, a nobleman was also fed up with him, almost got the ko
- Samuel rep +1, PfM, Star Sapphire and Ring of Fire Protection, Wand of Frost
- Firebead rep +1 and bothered him with another 300 gold, 2nd level up
- Brage rep +1, 1000 xp, 1750 gold
- Ingot 235 xp, Halberd +2, Stinking Cloud, Blur
- Bought Full Plate and still had 20k gold left
- Mellicamp, Wolf + Skeli 185 xp, success 2000 xp, rep +1, 3rd level up, another * Bow
- Drienne 200 xp, rep +1, PfU
- Joias Ring, lured the 5 Hobgoblins to the fort and had 5 on 5 match, which was one sided
- Shoal kited with 42 arrows, 5000 xp, 4th level up, 2nd level spells
- Albert 1000 xp, Chromatic Orb, Cloudkill
- 2x Ogrillons kited with 53 arrows, 350 xp, Mirianne's letter 300 xp, 750 gold, 5th level up
- Girdle Ogre kited with 32 arrows, 270 xp, 200 gold
- Hentold dagger 900 xp, WoMS etc.
- Went past Tarnesh with Invisibility and returned the Girdle first time ever 800 xp
- Ardouines Wargs meleed, 860 xp, rep +1
- Jared bear kited with 52 arrows, 1000 xp, Frost Boots, finally some gear
- Gnar and Hairtooth kited with 48 arrows, 350 xp, Brawling Gloves and 6th level up and 2nd invisibility so it was time to make some moves
- With two invisibility fetched the Cha and Con tomes
- Kited Bjornins Half-Ogres with 120 arrows, 1080 xp, rep +1
Currently level 4/4, 70 hp with 19 con and familiar, 30k gold and I'm 20/20 with Friends, so it's time to do some shopping. Well, mostly arrows and spells.
Xandra vs Sarevok [Bane Edition]
Before this fight Xandra realized that Rangers can use Mental Domination Scrolls - how sweat! As you can buy one in Ulgoths Beard and find one in Durlags Tower she decided to give it a try against Wudai (Save vs Spells: 8 incl. -2 penalty).Luck was on her side and thanks to the attack-follow-trick Wudai and Xandra went inside the temple to face Sarevok himself. Before the battle the priestress summoned a big bad Skeleton Warrior that took her down without problems (she cant hit it) once she turned hostile again.
Xandra triggered the talking and waited until everyone has moved to Sarevok before using the Skeleton Warrior to lure Angelo away from the others. As the poor Mage also cannot harm the undead creature and its magic resistance negated all spells this fight was very onesided.
The incoming SKeleton Warrior died shortly after so Xandra focused on the remaining ones firing Arrows of Detonation out of stealth on Diarmid while immediately retreating over and over again. 22 Fireballs later Semaj, Tazok and Diarmid also transformed into Skeletons - time to face the big one.
Sarevok himself got hit with an Arrow of Dispelling which left him helpless against the fast moving and hard hitting Xandra. At the end 116 Acid Arrows decorated the evil brother before he finally went down. HP loss this time: Zero!
With 38 Arrows of Detonation left and 20+5 incoming from SoD there is more than enough room to burn down the Crusaders later on. But first: Korlasz! Without summons and invisibility this could lead to a swift end. Lets hope not!
Downstairs I spent ages trying to confuse one of the greater dopplegangers before eventually concluding they must be immune (unlike the ones at the Palace). Switching tactics Frere used nymphs to successfully drag one of the dopplegangers away and killed that (after waiting for haste to finish). There were a few phase spiders that had teleported in at various times during all this and another of those had joined the chase with the doppleganger. Frere only needed to kill that to reach level 9, but had a nasty shock when a slight movement error following a teleportation saw him poisoned. With HPs draining away fast he wouldn't have had time to switch floors and rest, so it was a good job that slow poison worked
His intelligence is still a bit suspect and he's unable currently to use green scrolls, so had no way to safely get the tome. I'll have to try and remember to pick that up later though.
With an effective THAC0 of -7 (11 base, -3 kit bonuses, -3 DEX, -3 Corinth's Bow, -3 arrows, -1 elf bonus, -1 Helm of Balduran, -4 grandmastery), you should have a 55% hit rate due to needing a 9 to hit Belhifet's -16 AC with Improved Invisibility. The average damage you should deal to Belhifet with 80 Void-tipped Arrows and 60 Arrows +3 is 1053.25, not counting Belhifet's regeneration. The formula I used is
=(80*(4.5+3+0.5*(3+5+4+4))+60*(3.5+3+3+5+4+4)*0.5)*0.55
with +3 to damage from kit bonuses, +5 from grandmastery, +4 from Corinth's Bow, and +4 from the racial enemy bonus, as well as 4.5+3 magic damage from the Void-tipped Arrows. So you're just shy of dealing enough damage to kill him assuming average rolls, and regeneration puts you about 200 short assuming the fight lasts 100 rounds.
But Arrows of Detonation will definitely even the odds, to the extent that I'm sure you can manage the fight as an Archer without reloading. Without access to Enchanted Weapon, the Archer won't be able to hit Belhifet directly with Arrows of Detonation, nor will Cornugons be vulnerable (they need +2 weapons to hit), but you can still target the Abishais, Hamatulas, and Erinyes with Arrows of Detonation, and the missile damage will hit everyone, including Belhifet and the Cornugons. If your racial enemy bonuses apply (and they should), you'll be dealing a lot more damage per arrow than my Archer/Mage Frisk was. You'll just need Durlag's Goblet (it is a healing potion) to survive all the damage you'd be inflicting on yourself, plus double Potions of Magic Shielding to block the Cornugons' Absorb Health spells unless Protection from Magic blocks it in your install. Every 17 Arrows of Detonation should wipe out all of Belhifet's minions (it takes 320 damage to kill a Cornugon), not counting the ones he summons while you're still tanking, and deal 150 damage to Belhifet himself.
But that doesn't account for other factors. If you have too many Hamatulas on the map, their Barbed Defenses will slow down your Arrows of Detonation because you won't be able to drink Durlag's Goblet fast enough to restore all the HP you lose. Plus, the Abishais have much less HP than the other demons and will die early, allowing Belhifet to slip through your wall of demons and deal up to 200 damage per round to your Archer directly.
I calculate that your Bane of the Wizard Slayer Archer has nearly identical damage output to my Archer/Mage: with THAC0 of -7 instead of -9 but an extra +5 damage, you deal 1053.25 damage to my 1043.25 before expending all +3 arrows, including the Void-tipped Arrows. My Archer/Mage barely survived, but if they had more Potions of Heroism, they could have used the last of their Arrows of Detonation and Durlag's Goblet charges and dealt a lot more damage to Belhifet. On the other hand, my Archer/Mage had the Wand of Monster Summoning, which bought us extra time to kite, and I don't know how much damage that ended up getting us.
But from the very beginning. After stealth-peacing Porios and using PfU to sneak through enemy lines Xandra had two plans: Try to dominate the Assassin near the door mechanism (Save vs Spells 11 incl. -2 penalty) or try it on her own casting Entangle to slow down the guards.
Xandra decided to give it a try and casted Mental Domination - with success. Together they sneaked right to Korlasz preparing a devilish move. Buffed up with DoHM she placed the Assassin in the back of Korlaz and immediately after the first Arrow of Dispelling landed the following happened:
With one brutal backstab her new friend has won the battle as Korlaz surrendered right after that blow. Phew! How lucky Xandra was became clear after testing the fight a bit more. To make it short: It was depressing. Without the ally Xandra got obliterated over and over again especially as Korlaz was rebuffing with Mirror Images and Stoneskins three times. Time for her guards to stun Xandra to death, or backstab her down, or get down a hard hitting Unholy Blight. With other words: This one was pure luck as the charming had a 50/50 chance.
Time to move on to the city visiting the next temple...
That was one of the main problems in my Archer test fights against Big B @semiticgod: No Potions to buff up...
Tranzig stood no chance against a first use of insect plague, opening the way to the Bandit Camp. There, Frere rested in order to enter Tazok's tent both invisible and with ironskins active. While out of sight of Raemon he summoned a couple of nymphs and put on lightning protection. The nymphs then caused a distraction by attacking Venkt while Frere raided the chest. He got enough space to put pixie dust back on outside to avoid any potential danger from ambushes - and indeed Molkar tried an ambush, though I think Frere would have found it easy enough to run from them even if not invisible.
On arrival at the FAI I found that Frere had left the tent too quickly and the chapter change hadn't triggered. He still had the letters in his inventory though so a quick trip back sorted that out (waving invisibly to the amazons on the way).
He passed through the Cloakwood invisibly, just stopping off on the way to pick up Spider's Bane (using right-click and the inventory screen to stay invisible). Drasus and co were variously confused, held, dominated and electrocuted - but all ended up as worm food. Next up will be Davaeorn.
- Mutamin Garden, Protection from Petrification and kited Basilisks with Acid arrows, lesser took about 25, greater about twice, killed all the 8 Lesser and 2 Greater Basilisks, 25 200 xp with 8k gold (240 acid arrows). Me and Korax pwned Mutamin, then Korax committed suicide against the mob. Got to level 5/5 and also found Knock and Blur.
- Bought another 240 acid arrows, Mad Arcand 1275 xp, Carrion Crawler kited with acid arrows.
- Neera Gem Bag
- Durlag's Tower, kited the one Lesser and three Greater Basilisks with acid arrows, 22 400 xp, level up, * Flail
- Kirinhale 4000 xp, looted all the upper levels with Invisibility and Knock, 9k loot.
- Brun, with two Invisibilities fetched the body, 500 xp, Ghost Armor and Dire Charm, 3k loot.
- Resist Fear, Shield, PfE, Blur and meleed Tarnesh 120 xp
- PfE, Blur, Mirror Image and meleed Karlat 270 xp
- PfE, Blur, Mirror Image and meleed Neira 650 xp
- Kaldo Krumm and Dryad 850 xp, level up
Currently at level 6/6, 94 hp and 23k gold. The last two levels are probably the most important ones though.
63 Arrows of Dispelling and Detonation have been stored in the quiver - should be more than enough. However: Except for Korlasz SoD so far is nothing special even with Bane - its time to go for a real challenge soon: The Temple and Morentherene are waiting! I fear that the first of six PfM scrolls will have to be used there. Not to forget: Bag of Holding finally leaves some space in the inventory.
But first some resting...
Did some interesting testing and calculations with Martyr's Morningstar and Enchanted Weapon vs. Bel. And yes, with * in Single Weapon Style, Martyr's Morningstar 19 and 20 are always critical hits with hp reduction effect, even if your Thac0 is 100.
Average damage per 20 hits with 19 Strength and ** in Flails, (32+32)*0,75+340 = 388 dmg
Average attacks to kill Bel 1130/388*20 = 58 attacks
Average time to kill Bel 58 / 3 apr = 19 rounds (excluding regen)
So Violet Potion isn't even needed, actually it's probably adviced not to take it to have more health. This actually makes Thac0 pretty useless in that fight, because the critical effect does relatively so much more damage.
EDIT: Found something even more interesting, you don't even need the Enchanted Weapon to apply the critical effect vs. Bel. It doesn't do normal damage without it, but it always does the critical effect 170 dmg with 19 and 20. This opens more classes vs. Bel, because you don't need to be mage to use Martyr's Morningstar.
EDIT: More, there's more, Bel's Thac0 is pretty monstrous -12, but you can lower it to -9 with Strength spell (no save, MR doesn't negate), because it sets his 25 (22+3) strength to 21 (18/50+3). This also cuts his damage per hit by 5.
He made a first use of Bhaal horror to try and reduce instant attacks - thinking that the archers blocking him in would move backwards even if they saved. That worked well and he put his boots of speed on for the first time to run to Davaeorn's private elevator before the mage could react. Coming back he tried to use nymphs to dominate Davaeorn using farsight, but a number of attempts at that failed. Deciding to whittle the guards down a bit first the nymphs used confusion and domination to good effect - and after a couple of goes at that I saw that Davaeorn himself was confused. However, further attempts at that failed after the guards were all dead - as did hold and dominate. I think that was all pretty unlucky, but took it's toll on my patience. As a result when, after summoning yet another group of nymphs, Frere started casting Pixie Dust at the entrance I didn't immediately run away when Davaeorn appeared and cast web on the nymphs. I wasn't sure that the area of effect would include Frere, but it did and he was held. All the nymphs were also held, meaning that Davaeorn was free to target Frere and a few MMMs and a sunfire later his journey came to an end.
She sneaked through enemy lines avoiding invisbility dispel and soaking up the trap in the caves (72 damage this time).
Ziatar: Triggered talking and closed door nearby. Moved to the sweet spot where the Half-Dragon wont react to enemy fire and shot her down with 25 Acid Arrows. Grabbed her loot.
Neothelid: With PfM & PfP active Xandra immediately retreated once the first Mordi Sword appeared closing the door. Wait. Once the beast ported over she played hit & run - which proved to be quite painful without potion buffs. I reacted to slow when Poison Nova came out eating 108 damage. But that was not enough as Xandra got constantly hit but the crushing attacks while the poison under its ground also did his job dropping her to 18 HP once. Seven charges of Durlags Goblet were needed before another 32 damage crit put the beast down.
Akanna: Lured the Aerial Servants away and closed the door. The poor priestress could do nothing...
Shadow Aspect: With another PfU scroll Xandra moved in and out to get Fractal Blade only - Good bye!
Morentherene: Daggered down. Grabbed scales and sneaked out...
Bridgefort: Got Void arrows +3 and Dragonshield. Surrendered and shot the Fire Elemental down with Arrows +2 - job done.
Lets see if Xandra can reach the Crusader Attacks once more!!
P.S. The problem with Martyrs no more working in 2.5 without Enchanted Weapon is a another downside for Bane runs - has been pointed out earlier. But even with Martyrs still working the whole fight seems more like a gamble.
Strength of One on Big B also works even though its duration is limited to 1 turn!
As my tests have shown its not that easy to get the Myconid Bloom-Sack as PfM does not protect against the Feeblemind or Confusion of the Myconids. So if one save fails its instant GG. Maybe Xandra will come back later when she got the Ankheg summons...
I forgot that the Ankheg are called from a Necklace... things are getting worse with every step. Same for the Mephits... a ring... nooo!
Without summons the Crusaders will be even more painful - not to mention Big B himself. Damn... i need those Myconids!
EDIT: The Helm of Unwavering Purpose would do the job. Too bad i could not open the chest...
Wait until night. Put on Stealth Boots. Click the floor. Right in the moment the container opens and the neutral (!) Myconids appear: Cancel the action and quickly (!) hit pause button. Stealth and move out with Speed Boots (otherwise you might get confused from the spores around). Use out-of-stealth-shots and the quick-restealth-trick to take down the Myconid Elder as he wanders around randomly searching you. Job done!
WARNING: You really (!) have to be quick getting out of his sight again otherwise the Myconid Elder will shoot his pacifying spores which will feeblemind you (Save vs Death).
With other words: Doom finally approached Xandra who failed her save. Once stealth ran out she was still feebleminded and cut into pieces...
DAMN IT!!!!!!
Think its finally time to test out Big B just to see what can be done - or not...
EDIT: This is most depressing. With Violet Potion Xandra goes down nearly instantly (77 HP!). Caelar and Myconids will not always soak attention so any attack on Xandra immediatley forced Durlags Goblet. The damage dealt before the support goes down is ridicolous. Holy cow - this is bad news. Maybe F/M can get through thanks to decent protections. But only with an ocean full of luck. Druids can do it with Harm. Theoretically. All else? Vanish into oblivion...
Activated Love, invisibility, move, hit with one Detonator to get them moving, invisibility. Waited so that Love was by himself and close the stairs, lured him with acid arrows to the stairs and upstairs. Had to skip level couple times to escape his Dire Charm, but he followed eventually. Lured him to the entrance level where he wanted to make his base, he doesn't follow outside nor second level, so basically you can skip levels to heal and rest, he don't mind staying in the entrance level. Grinded him with one hit, and escaping his spells to upstairs and outside alternating it when he got to inconvenient position. And when he was his last legs I cast Minor Globe of Invulnerability and meleed him down.
Got the Wardstone to next level. With another MGoI I opened the Dire Charm chest with 5x Haste Scrolls, and used haste to pick the Helmet and ran out of the room before doors closed. After Cloudkills ended, I opened the door, invisibility and picked the Goblet, didn't fight anybody. All in all the place netted 18k gold. And now with Invisibility, Haste and Durlag's Goblet things should get easier.
I could now roll another Druid and pray that Harm will land but - to be honest - with no-reload on board this will take some weeks before going through Big B alone. Is this still fun? Maybe for @Grond0!
Okay, time for another deep thinking...
But i fear there is no other cure than using more mods - or create one on your own. Or create new rules.
As i am not in the mood of playing dozens of Druids up to Big B to waste them one after another before Harm will do the trick i got another idea:
Legacy of Thelynn'ss [Legacy]
- No Armor, Helm or Shield
- No Gloves or Bracers
- No Wands or Mage Scrolls
Scribing scrolls is still allowed as well as Ion Stones!
This is more or less a Kensai-related-challenge. Should be more work than a normal one but far from impossible like Bane. At least regarding Big B. Sounds like a plan no?
Deciding I fancied something rather easier I restarted Vent, who is a berserker expected to dual to mage. I'm not using any restrictions with him (other than my normal ones), but since I've hardly touched SoD in LoB (and never done any test battles) I'm not really expecting great things from this 'easy' challenge
As i havent played Fighter/Thief for quite some time now cause of OP´ness it will be interesting to see how easy he can beat oppostion with the new restrictions. Lets hope stealth will rule them all. Bandit Ambushes however might be painful. We will see!
Bandit Camp, tried to charm Taurgoz, didn't work, so I just lured everybody bottom of the level which emptied the tent, invis, and got the papers. Didn't have a good plan to kill Venkt or Hakt so I left them be for now, maybe when I find some more speed?
Cloakwood, killed Taslois for the Cloak, haste, invis and picked up the Spider Bane and quickly escaped, and found my way to the mines. Lured the two guards to other side of the bridge, smacked down. Then lured Drasus with acid arrows, and just meleed him down, which took a while and had to use 16 times the goblet.
Lured Genthorn away, invis and waited his haste to end and meleed down, twice the Goblet. Kysus had my Fireshield, so he was next. Greater Malisoned both and tried to charm Kysus but didn't work, tried it couple more times but no. Then I just lured him away to the woods, and soaked his spells with the Goblet, he summoned Spider and I went invisible and waited it to go away. Then I just simply smacked him down.
Interestingly charm spamming has changed to goblet smacking, and picking up the goblet before Mulahey was a wise move I think. Lets see what Davaeorn has for us.