Machine of Lum The Mad, Kayla cleared the area and found yet another Simulacrum scroll. Githyanki Camp, waited the Planetar to unsummon and with invisibility passed to Saladrex, petrified.
Sim PfU, invisibility, PfU on the Demilich and I hacked it down, it had time to summon Planetar, which I had to first kite down. Charmed the Githyanki captain, who got beat up, then Mazed, but snapped out of it. Charmed Gish who got killed, then the captain again and now he got killed, looted the place.
Mind Flayer dungeon, 2x Mind Focusing, 4x Int (40), Storm, Invulnerability, Absorbtion (-35 AC), Spirit Armor, Stoneskin, Blur, PfE, Mirror Image, Improved Haste, SI:Abjuration and started hacking the mobs down. First mob 4x Mind Flayers, 4x Umber Hulks. Second mob 5x Mind Flayers, 5x Umber Hulks, 2x Ulitharids. After that rested, and buffed the same again. Third mob, 4x Mind Flayers, 2x Umber Hulks, 5x Ulitharids, all hacked down with one help from RoR. Quickly escaped the Vampiric Ulitharids before the doors closed.
Poem of Kayla - "Charmed Garock, and as he and Rock had a brawl, I slayed the Salamanders with Wave +4."
Improvements from the machine and Kayla found the final form. Item based AC with Robe of Vecna and 6 apr weapons is decent -12, which means that I can almost close the AC gap with just casting Spirit Armor and Blur.
Final Seal level, Test of Stamina is pretty hard when with invisibility you only have to stay still like a minute. The Green Dragon got double petrified a second after he threatened Kayla, let the slaughter begin indeed.
Spirit Warrior, N-E-Search-N-E-N-Scare-W-Archway-Attack done. Mind Seal, Aurumach was Sim Charmed, Ferrumachs hacked down and finally Aurmach hacked down. Interestingly had to use Carsomyr first time to dispel his non stopping Mirror Image, as I didn't have Sim to cast PfM anymore. Note to self, use also PfM next time.
Spirit Seal, Sim PfU, Sim PfM on Azamantes and hacked all down, had to use True Sight when Azamantes went invisible.
Heart Seal, Y'Tossi got killed by 7 Spike Traps, Sim charmed Hive Mother with Control Circlet then got PfM on Zauviir and Nalmissra. Hive Mother attacked Huntress where's I hacked Nalmissra, Xei Win Toh and Zauviir all down. Then Kayla used Improved Haste on the Huntress so that he could kill the Hive Mother. Lastly I lured Huntress on to another 5 Spike and Time Stop traps, and few hits after that she was dead.
Now I can have 7 apr with Crom Fayer +5, Scarlet Ninjato +3, Gauntlets and Improved Haste, or 9 apr with Firetooth +3. Don't think Demogorgon is threat to anyone, he's weak, so I'm going to leave him be. Also made 140k gold for the final spending spree.
Night of the Long Fangs, Bard edition. Buffs, Sim PfM on Draconis and hacked down, twice.
FII'Yissetat doesn't have +2 weapon so she was easily hacked down, first accepted her surrender and then wasted her for both rewards.
Quadruple dragon ambush. Buffed up, Sim and started hitting with WoW, and Zirimanat'ryl was petrified almost immediatelly. Then it took a while to petrify Olinissimous, and my Sim had already dissappeared. Ityh'Nassendra spawned soon after, and after 7 hits he was petrified. Got rest in as Carnifex didn't spawn close to me. Buffs, Sim, WoW wasn't working on him so Sim PfM'd him, and we started hacking him old school, and the fight was closer than I would've liked.
Eyeball area was completely skipped with invisibility, Anadramatis hacked old school for the 12h Improved Invisibility ring.
Abazigal's lair, drakes vorpalled with Ravager, rest in Pocket Plane, Salamanders slayed with Wave and Tamah hacked down old school, another rest in Pocket Plane until confronting the main dragon. Buffed up, PfMW and activated Abazigal and hacked him until he transformed to a dragon. Then hit him with Greater Malison, 2x Lower Resistance Spell Trigger, first of the three scrolls I had. Feeblemind followed and then it was just trivial thing to hack him down, although still had to buff, Sim, and cast Remove Magic to activate his death script.
Sendai Enclave outside area all hacked down, inside and hasted Myconid army is pretty dope.
Barracks, buffed, Sim PfM and all hacked down with ease. Spider area completely skipped with invisibility. Next area lured the two Glabrezus away and hacked down, cleared the area. Odamaron, SiM PfU all including the lich so his contingencies didn't even trigger. Hacked down. Ocremoch charmed with Control Circlet and after he wasted the Greater Earth Elementals I slayed him with the Ravager. Then I listened Nabassu kill all, including Diaytha.
Final Mind Flayer dungeon, 2x Mind Focusing, 4x Int (40), Absorbtion (-34 AC) and normal spell buffs. Hacked all down with ease, until the two mages appeared and started removing my Spell Immunity, rest, another buff, SiM PfM on them and done.
Sendai time, but first I went and recharged all my wands for the special plan. Cloak of No-Detection is pretty op in this area because non can see through invisibility, except few summons, so I jumped on the cleric Sendai and killed him before he could summon the Fallen Deva, and the fight was basically over. Sim casually used Wish spells, praticularly in search of the Lower Resistance one, but with three Wishes he didn't get it. Nevermind, 40 Cloudkills was still enough to kill all the Drow in the Area. Pocket Plane and rest.
Back in, and Sim casted Time Stop without any risk of seeing and hacked 4 Sendai's down. Another rest in Pocket Plane, and Sim then hacked the last mage Sendai with Time Stop. Real Sendai appeared, no problem, Sim then casually hacked her down with 3 consecutive Time Stops. So my 50% double basically defeated Sendai. In list of op things, I rate the 6x Time Stop Simulacrum pretty high.
Next the last three Pocket Plane challenges and word with Balty.
2nd Pocket Plane challenge, Sim hacked Slayer down with 5 consecutive Time Stops, reward DUHM. 3rd challenge, Sim struggled hitting assassins during the Time Stop, two hits and the he always stopped, why does that sometimes happen? Anyway Kayla easily defeated them with PfMW, reward 5 MR and Negative Plane Protection. Convinced Balty to join me, 2-2-3-2-1-1-1-3-3-1-1-2-1. Final challenge, summon door trick and lured the Bone Blades other side of the Pocket Plane, then started hacking Ravager away. And omg did it take awhile, when he can dispel you through everything, I was basically left with 2,5 apr hacking with FoA +4, Crom Fayer +5, and 10 base Thac0. Luckily he doesn't do much damage because Kayla has protection from +1 weapons, and is vulnerable to slow, which halves his ridiculous 30 hppr regen. Got the 25 DR, although don't think it will have much effect on success or fail...
Throne of Bhaal, buff up, invisibility and in we go. Kayla first ordered Balty attack Bodhi so that she wouldn't start to hunt her down, and then quickly went far away from the mayhem. Fallen Solars followed, and they were dispelling my buffs, and my Sim, so I had to waste 3 Time Stop scrolls (of 6) to Vorpal them out. Killed Imoen because she wasn't leaving, but then I could retreat to one of the pools. 7 Spike traps almost killed Irenicus, took only few swings from Kayla to finish him. Bodhi was immune to Spike Traps and Vorpals, so I had to hack her down normally. 2x Succubus lured away and hacked, no -10 charm for Kayla. 2 Alu-fiends lured away with Reflection shield and hacked down. Then the pain in the ass Mariliths, 3 apr Ravager wasn't working fast enough because they were doing too much damage and my protection spells were out, so there was only one solution, and after 33 hits from WoW all were stoned. I then let AI wipe the skelis off, and first phase was done.
But can't rest yet, because I had to beat one of the pools before I could retreat to the Pocket Plane. Activated the lower right pool, because I think it's the easiest. Started hacking the Babaus outside, Offensive spin again coming handy because spells were out. Except they were gating themselves in at the rate I was killing them, what the hell? Luckily after like ten Babaus, they were all dead. Then lured the rest of them out one by one and hacked down, 2 Alu-Fiends, 2 Nabassus and 1 Glabrezu. Oh and the last of the Mariliths got the special treatment. Only casualty were the three Time Stop scroll, the last two pools should be easier because now I can prepare for them.
2nd pool, Kayla put 7 Spike Traps for the Balor, although it still wasn't enough Sim hacked the Balor, a Cambion and a Glabrezu during 3 Time Stops. Then Kayla picked up the rest one by one, 2 Babaus, Nabassu, 2 Alu-Fiends, Succubus and a Marilith. 3rd pool was done with the exact same method, except at the end my WoW got depleted and I had to hack the Marilith old school with FoA +5. Lastly the two Cambions were divided and as WoMS were tanking them, Kayla sniped them with arrows.
It maybe have to wait next week before I've time to tackle the Big 6 and Melissan.
So I found out that Yaga-Shura has MDR of 99 which completely ruins my plan of using Skull Traps, even though I can cast 400 of them, they'll do only 1 dmg per trap against him. And not only that, but it also seems that scrolls have a fixed level of casting, and lot less than casting them from a book, like Animate Dead scroll will only summons 5HD Skeli, and Skull Trap scroll is a 10d6, so it does only 33/2 average damage when saved, which is half what I though it would be. Is this intended, have scrolls always had fixed casting level?
So I don't know how I'm going to deal them now, I may be able to kill everyone else with 400 Skull Traps but Yaga-Shura needs hacking. Maybe try to kill everyone else, but Sarevok and Yaga-Shura, charm Sarevok and try to kill Yaga before Melissan has a field day.
Is this intended, have scrolls always had fixed casting level?
It is intended - in the unmodded game scrolls have always cast at level 10. That means scrolls are particularly powerful in BG1 where levels are low, but not so good in BG2. Not all spells scale by level of course, so the scroll casting level doesn't always make a difference.
Actually I can cast unlimited amount of Skull Traps, with resting in Pocket Plane. One rest and I can cast 20 scroll Skull Traps from Vhailor's Helm and 8 from the book. So all is not lost, it will only take only about two hours to cast 1200 Skulls for Yaga-Shura.
It's dicey. Two Skull Traps tend to only do the damage of a single Skull Trap if they hit on the same frame. Putting them in the same place is usually a waste.
@histamiini: What's the door trick for the Ravager?
@semiticgod That's good to know, I still have to test is more before trying it. Summon door trick, when placed on the magical barrier summons will stop the barrier activating in the Pocket Plane challenges.
Some more testing, Yaga-Shura is the only hard bastard to kill with traps, because with 99 MDR he only takes 1 dmg from them. But in my testing all Skulls will damage him even on the same spot. With Melissan you only need like 50 book Skull Traps, buff 100 MR, Time Stop, hit Melissan with 3x Lower Resistance trigger, and lure her onto the traps, and when Time Stop ends, boom. Help from Vhailor's Helm Sim I can put about 25 Skulls on single rest, but after 100 Skulls I already got bored. So it will take some time before I'll have 1200 Skulls for Yaga-Shura. So much so, that I'll continue Trabb from Irenicus dungeon.
The dynamic duo has been busy today. Trabb smashed Irenicus dungeon with hasted skelis. Bought rep from 8 to 14, looted Maevar's Guild Hall and temples, bought Nymph cloak with 6k and was left 8k gold left. Seven Vales mob, charmed Riesling and Amon, 5 Skelis, Amon charmed Orcslicer, Haste and after an absolute mayhem only Trabb and one of the Skelis were standing.
Started Harper Hold, De Arnise, level up, Glaicus dispelled, looted the place with invisibility, got the FoA +3 and after selling loot had 27k gold. Mekrath was pawned by Skelis, got the RoR and sold my 50 Extra Healing potions and improved to 39k gold. Circus quest was done in like a minute, Kalah hacked down after buffing, another level up. Temple sewers mob, dominated Rengard, 5 Skelis, Haste and Rengard sacrificed himself to kill Gaius. Rest, 5 hasted Skelis and Zorl got killed. Another rest and wiped out the rest, 46k gold.
Did guests in the Graveyard and started the slaves guest in Copper Coronet, 57k. Druid Grove and Cernd pawned Faldorn in Greater Werewolf form, finished the guests in Trademeet. Finished Skinner guest, Slaver guests and did the Sword guest in the sewers. After selling all the loot Trabb was sitting already at 100k gold and 20/20 economy. Bought Robe of Vecna, Shield of Balduran and Vhailor's Helm and started Chapter 4 with 60k. After next level and getting Improved Haste, xp-loop should be go.
Meanwhile Kayla has conjured 400 Skull Traps for Yaga (and Sendai).
@histamiini: I'm surprised they all hit him. In my experience, they could only be stacked up to a certain point, and that was well short of 100.
Did you notice any slowdown or lagging in the process? I've noticed a dramatic slowdown from 50 Symbol, Stun spells, and I know @Alesia_BH suffered multiple crashes from stacking Ice Storm spells in her solo sorcerer run against Melissan. 1200 Skull Traps might crash even on a high-end computer, and slowdown might cause the game to eat your inputs and prevent you from pausing or casting a spell during a critical period.
Keeping the camera away from the Skull Traps should reduce the lag.
@semiticgod I didn't notice slow downs, or any ill effects, but I did test it to only with 100 Skulls, and I do have high end computer though. I can't control the camera, because the Skulls go off during the dialogue with Melissan.
Day of the double grind. After getting another level starting Umar Hills etc. Trabb went and started the Gauth xp-loop. Made my way with invisibility to the Undead Bridge and cleared the place with skelis. After hacking the first double Gauths with Improved Haste I saw that I was still too weak, it took ages and I had to use all my defensive buffs. But after switching to 5 hasted skelis it turned to a much easier task, six rounds of spell casting, and then forget. Trabb has now made three levels to 14/13 and from the next level starts to get HLA's.
Meantime Kayla has managed to set up no less than 1000 Skulls on the battlefield, so Melissan might be go already today.
Btw setting up Skulls with Simulacrum I found what causes the "couple attacks, stop" bug that Sim sometimes does. If you make for example a casting action during the pause and then unpause, Sim goes all wonky and you have to recast your actions constantly, because it'll forget what it was doing after the round ends. Nothing cures that but summoning another Sim. So always unpause before making actions with Sim. Anyone else noticed that?
Damn that was some grind. Trabb managed to get to the xp cap, and Kayla has set up Throne of Bhaal for the final confrontation. There's 1200 scroll/book skulls for Yaga-shura (Sendai), 140 book skulls and 7 spikes for Abazigal (Gromnir, Illasera) and 100 book skulls for Melissan, making the grand total of Skull Traps 1440. My plan is to charm Sarevok, retreat, watch Melissan kill Sarevok, hit Melissan with 3x Lower Resistance trigger and with Time Stop get her onto the traps. I think I'll leave it tomorrow though because I'm knackered.
Kayla vs. Melissan. Skulls went out beautifully (although lowest FPS hit 5) and killed all but Sarevok, charmed Sarevok with Control Circlet and ran away. Watched Melissan kill Sarevok and hit Time Stop, and during it I hit Melissan with 3x Lower Resistance trigger and positioned us besides the Skull Traps. Surprise, Melissan was immune to them, and soon after with no exit plan Kayla was stomped.
Another nr Melissan, another fail. Jeesh, how does Melissan always have something for everything, as in my testing she wasn't immune to magic damage, but now she suddenly was? After investigating it a while, turns out that when ever one of the Big 6 is killed, it sends feedback to Melissan, and for no reason ups her 50 MDR to 120. And after that there's no way to damage her with Skull Traps. Delayed Blast Fireball still works because she has only 50 FR, but the game crashes when 100 DBF goes off after detonating 1300 Skull Traps. So weirdly Skulls won't crash, but they don't work anymore, DBF do work, but they crash the game. See Melissan has something for everything. I also found out that detonating about 1500 Skull Traps is the limit for one "load" before it crashes the game, which can be reset with save reload.
I'll still try to find the tactic against her, there's to be a somekind of stinky cheese that even she can't take.
EDIT: I think I found positions for the Skulls below 1500 limit, so that all of the Big 6 will be wiped off during the dialogue, even Sarevok who spawns last. And no feedback will be sent to Melissan, which keeps her MDR at 50.
Not quite optimal placement because I didn't start over, but used an older save to add Sarevok traps. With optimal placement you can do with about 1400 Skull Traps, 1170 for Yaga Shura's side, 140 (book + 7 Spike Traps) for Abazigal's side and 90 (book) for Melissan. Consequently if you're ready to spend about 3 hours for preparation, any class that can cast Skull Traps, can trivialize Melissan battle. Although the limit of Skull Traps might be different with different computers, before it crashes, in mine the limit is somewhere around 1500 Skull Traps overall in the level.
Surprise, Melissan was immune to them, and soon after with no exit plan Kayla was stomped.
Sorry to see Mel found one final wrinkle to use against you @histamiini. However, from looking at your video it looks like you should have her sussed next time .
I would like to raise a complaint though about the video you posted. That was nice and short in itself, but had a Youtube link to the Constable Savage sketch in Not the Nine O'Clock News - and that had a further link to a whole series of the program. After bringing back my university days watching that I conclude that it is entirely your fault that I've not done any work this afternoon .
@histamiini: I'm sad to see your Blade fall. That was a brilliant run!
Your Skull Trap placement was very clever. I'd never have thought of isolating a set of Traps for Melissan and using Time Stop to prevent anyone from triggering them too early. It's a genius move and made a hideously complicated fight look like a cakewalk.
@semiticgod It's Jester voice set I think. It's also somewhat lucky that I can stay well below the 1500 trap limit in the fight, because one of the properties of Skull Trap is that it's detonated 20 ft but affects 30 ft, so Sarevok traps can be delayed enough for him to spawn, but they can still affect also Yaga-Shura.
In the meantime Trabb managed to smuggle the Rift Device out from the sewers with the help of Ferret. Although only one I can think using it against is the Ravager.
Hmm I was just thinking that Trabb (C/M) might be even more optimal character for the end battle. As none of the Big 6 or Melissan are immune to Harm, and as Yaga-Shura has 0 MR, I can Harm him from the get go, which will kill him instantly because they all have below 20 hp kill script I think. Same applies to Melissan after I hit her with 3x Lower Resistance trigger. All of this will spare me from casting about 1000 Skull Traps, and still keep the fight trivial.
@semiticgod I'm not really Harm expert, so I need still to practice and test it out. Yaga-Shura has -9 AC and my max Thac0 is with Base 6, Power (-2), Duhm (-7), Helm/Gauntlets (-2) and Staff of Ram +6 (-6), -10 which gives me 19/20 chance of landing Harm on Yaga I think. Melissan has -14 AC so it will not be guaranteed hit with my Thac0. Implosion is interesting thought, it gives a guaranteed hit and can be used with harm? I need to test these out.
I've almost never used Harm, so I'm certainly no expert either. However, I thought that was a touch spell - so you wouldn't get a weapon or strength bonus. I'm not sure if unarmed bonuses would help.
Your best friends landing it: Boosting Base THAC0 (Helm, Gauntlets, Potion of Power etc.). But as @Grond0 stated weapon or strength bonus will not work with it. Thats why Totemic Druid/Fighter was so great. Thanks to superb base THAC0 he nearly never misses. Critical Strike is even better. Or Smite. @Vynn used Implosion with Harm but all he said was "tricky" as Harm needs one round to cast. But you can switch the order: Harm first then Implosion. As Harm lasts two rounds you will be in a good position landing it - if Implosion stuns. The wand of paralyzation is another candidate that Korgath used in his run to very good use even against Mel herself. So many options... and so many things that can go wrong...
I am sure that you will crush Mel next time @histamiini. She is clearly running out of tricks isnt she?
I could Chain Contingency Harm and Tenser Transformation's which would give me -5 Thac0. But it's still not guaranteed to hit Yaga, and I would not be able to cast Harm for two turns, so I would have to use Skull Traps for Melissan. Which isn't really big deal though, as if I could avoid traps only for Yaga it would be great.
Comments
Sim PfU, invisibility, PfU on the Demilich and I hacked it down, it had time to summon Planetar, which I had to first kite down. Charmed the Githyanki captain, who got beat up, then Mazed, but snapped out of it. Charmed Gish who got killed, then the captain again and now he got killed, looted the place.
Mind Flayer dungeon, 2x Mind Focusing, 4x Int (40), Storm, Invulnerability, Absorbtion (-35 AC), Spirit Armor, Stoneskin, Blur, PfE, Mirror Image, Improved Haste, SI:Abjuration and started hacking the mobs down. First mob 4x Mind Flayers, 4x Umber Hulks. Second mob 5x Mind Flayers, 5x Umber Hulks, 2x Ulitharids. After that rested, and buffed the same again. Third mob, 4x Mind Flayers, 2x Umber Hulks, 5x Ulitharids, all hacked down with one help from RoR. Quickly escaped the Vampiric Ulitharids before the doors closed.
Poem of Kayla - "Charmed Garock, and as he and Rock had a brawl, I slayed the Salamanders with Wave +4."
Improvements from the machine and Kayla found the final form. Item based AC with Robe of Vecna and 6 apr weapons is decent -12, which means that I can almost close the AC gap with just casting Spirit Armor and Blur.
Still 1 apr and Ravager component to find.
Spirit Warrior, N-E-Search-N-E-N-Scare-W-Archway-Attack done. Mind Seal, Aurumach was Sim Charmed, Ferrumachs hacked down and finally Aurmach hacked down. Interestingly had to use Carsomyr first time to dispel his non stopping Mirror Image, as I didn't have Sim to cast PfM anymore. Note to self, use also PfM next time.
Spirit Seal, Sim PfU, Sim PfM on Azamantes and hacked all down, had to use True Sight when Azamantes went invisible.
Heart Seal, Y'Tossi got killed by 7 Spike Traps, Sim charmed Hive Mother with Control Circlet then got PfM on Zauviir and Nalmissra. Hive Mother attacked Huntress where's I hacked Nalmissra, Xei Win Toh and Zauviir all down. Then Kayla used Improved Haste on the Huntress so that he could kill the Hive Mother. Lastly I lured Huntress on to another 5 Spike and Time Stop traps, and few hits after that she was dead.
Now I can have 7 apr with Crom Fayer +5, Scarlet Ninjato +3, Gauntlets and Improved Haste, or 9 apr with Firetooth +3. Don't think Demogorgon is threat to anyone, he's weak, so I'm going to leave him be.
FII'Yissetat doesn't have +2 weapon so she was easily hacked down, first accepted her surrender and then wasted her for both rewards.
Quadruple dragon ambush. Buffed up, Sim and started hitting with WoW, and Zirimanat'ryl was petrified almost immediatelly. Then it took a while to petrify Olinissimous, and my Sim had already dissappeared. Ityh'Nassendra spawned soon after, and after 7 hits he was petrified. Got rest in as Carnifex didn't spawn close to me. Buffs, Sim, WoW wasn't working on him so Sim PfM'd him, and we started hacking him old school, and the fight was closer than I would've liked.
Eyeball area was completely skipped with invisibility, Anadramatis hacked old school for the 12h Improved Invisibility ring.
Abazigal's lair, drakes vorpalled with Ravager, rest in Pocket Plane, Salamanders slayed with Wave and Tamah hacked down old school, another rest in Pocket Plane until confronting the main dragon. Buffed up, PfMW and activated Abazigal and hacked him until he transformed to a dragon. Then hit him with Greater Malison, 2x Lower Resistance Spell Trigger, first of the three scrolls I had. Feeblemind followed and then it was just trivial thing to hack him down, although still had to buff, Sim, and cast Remove Magic to activate his death script.
Tomorrow should be Sendai's turn.
Barracks, buffed, Sim PfM and all hacked down with ease. Spider area completely skipped with invisibility. Next area lured the two Glabrezus away and hacked down, cleared the area. Odamaron, SiM PfU all including the lich so his contingencies didn't even trigger. Hacked down. Ocremoch charmed with Control Circlet and after he wasted the Greater Earth Elementals I slayed him with the Ravager. Then I listened Nabassu kill all, including Diaytha.
Final Mind Flayer dungeon, 2x Mind Focusing, 4x Int (40), Absorbtion (-34 AC) and normal spell buffs. Hacked all down with ease, until the two mages appeared and started removing my Spell Immunity, rest, another buff, SiM PfM on them and done.
Sendai time, but first I went and recharged all my wands for the special plan. Cloak of No-Detection is pretty op in this area because non can see through invisibility, except few summons, so I jumped on the cleric Sendai and killed him before he could summon the Fallen Deva, and the fight was basically over. Sim casually used Wish spells, praticularly in search of the Lower Resistance one, but with three Wishes he didn't get it. Nevermind, 40 Cloudkills was still enough to kill all the Drow in the Area. Pocket Plane and rest.
Back in, and Sim casted Time Stop without any risk of seeing and hacked 4 Sendai's down. Another rest in Pocket Plane, and Sim then hacked the last mage Sendai with Time Stop. Real Sendai appeared, no problem, Sim then casually hacked her down with 3 consecutive Time Stops. So my 50% double basically defeated Sendai. In list of op things, I rate the 6x Time Stop Simulacrum pretty high.
Next the last three Pocket Plane challenges and word with Balty.
Only Throne of Bhaal left.
But can't rest yet, because I had to beat one of the pools before I could retreat to the Pocket Plane. Activated the lower right pool, because I think it's the easiest. Started hacking the Babaus outside, Offensive spin again coming handy because spells were out. Except they were gating themselves in at the rate I was killing them, what the hell? Luckily after like ten Babaus, they were all dead. Then lured the rest of them out one by one and hacked down, 2 Alu-Fiends, 2 Nabassus and 1 Glabrezu. Oh and the last of the Mariliths got the special treatment. Only casualty were the three Time Stop scroll, the last two pools should be easier because now I can prepare for them.
It maybe have to wait next week before I've time to tackle the Big 6 and Melissan.
So I don't know how I'm going to deal them now, I may be able to kill everyone else with 400 Skull Traps but Yaga-Shura needs hacking. Maybe try to kill everyone else, but Sarevok and Yaga-Shura, charm Sarevok and try to kill Yaga before Melissan has a field day.
1040hp 25DR 50MR 25MDR Sarevok (can be charmed)
0704hp 00DR 50MR 00MDR Illasera
0566hp 00DR 84MR 00MDR Sendai
1010hp 00DR 65MR 50MDR Abazigal
1190hp 60DR 00MR 99MDR Yaga-Shura
1580hp 75DR 70MR 50MDR Melissan
@histamiini: What's the door trick for the Ravager?
Started Harper Hold, De Arnise, level up, Glaicus dispelled, looted the place with invisibility, got the FoA +3 and after selling loot had 27k gold. Mekrath was pawned by Skelis, got the RoR and sold my 50 Extra Healing potions and improved to 39k gold. Circus quest was done in like a minute, Kalah hacked down after buffing, another level up. Temple sewers mob, dominated Rengard, 5 Skelis, Haste and Rengard sacrificed himself to kill Gaius. Rest, 5 hasted Skelis and Zorl got killed. Another rest and wiped out the rest, 46k gold.
Did guests in the Graveyard and started the slaves guest in Copper Coronet, 57k. Druid Grove and Cernd pawned Faldorn in Greater Werewolf form, finished the guests in Trademeet. Finished Skinner guest, Slaver guests and did the Sword guest in the sewers. After selling all the loot Trabb was sitting already at 100k gold and 20/20 economy. Bought Robe of Vecna, Shield of Balduran and Vhailor's Helm and started Chapter 4 with 60k. After next level and getting Improved Haste, xp-loop should be go.
Meanwhile Kayla has conjured 400 Skull Traps for Yaga (and Sendai).
Did you notice any slowdown or lagging in the process? I've noticed a dramatic slowdown from 50 Symbol, Stun spells, and I know @Alesia_BH suffered multiple crashes from stacking Ice Storm spells in her solo sorcerer run against Melissan. 1200 Skull Traps might crash even on a high-end computer, and slowdown might cause the game to eat your inputs and prevent you from pausing or casting a spell during a critical period.
Keeping the camera away from the Skull Traps should reduce the lag.
Meantime Kayla has managed to set up no less than 1000 Skulls on the battlefield, so Melissan might be go already today.
Btw setting up Skulls with Simulacrum I found what causes the "couple attacks, stop" bug that Sim sometimes does. If you make for example a casting action during the pause and then unpause, Sim goes all wonky and you have to recast your actions constantly, because it'll forget what it was doing after the round ends. Nothing cures that but summoning another Sim. So always unpause before making actions with Sim. Anyone else noticed that?
Another nr Melissan, another fail. Jeesh, how does Melissan always have something for everything, as in my testing she wasn't immune to magic damage, but now she suddenly was? After investigating it a while, turns out that when ever one of the Big 6 is killed, it sends feedback to Melissan, and for no reason ups her 50 MDR to 120. And after that there's no way to damage her with Skull Traps. Delayed Blast Fireball still works because she has only 50 FR, but the game crashes when 100 DBF goes off after detonating 1300 Skull Traps. So weirdly Skulls won't crash, but they don't work anymore, DBF do work, but they crash the game. See Melissan has something for everything.
I'll still try to find the tactic against her, there's to be a somekind of stinky cheese that even she can't take.
EDIT: I think I found positions for the Skulls below 1500 limit, so that all of the Big 6 will be wiped off during the dialogue, even Sarevok who spawns last. And no feedback will be sent to Melissan, which keeps her MDR at 50.
Not quite optimal placement because I didn't start over, but used an older save to add Sarevok traps. With optimal placement you can do with about 1400 Skull Traps, 1170 for Yaga Shura's side, 140 (book + 7 Spike Traps) for Abazigal's side and 90 (book) for Melissan. Consequently if you're ready to spend about 3 hours for preparation, any class that can cast Skull Traps, can trivialize Melissan battle.
I would like to raise a complaint though about the video you posted. That was nice and short in itself, but had a Youtube link to the Constable Savage sketch in Not the Nine O'Clock News - and that had a further link to a whole series of the program. After bringing back my university days watching that I conclude that it is entirely your fault that I've not done any work this afternoon
Your Skull Trap placement was very clever. I'd never have thought of isolating a set of Traps for Melissan and using Time Stop to prevent anyone from triggering them too early. It's a genius move and made a hideously complicated fight look like a cakewalk.
What voice set were you using?
In the meantime Trabb managed to smuggle the Rift Device out from the sewers with the help of Ferret. Although only one I can think using it against is the Ravager.
so you wouldn't get a weapon or strength bonus. I'm not sure if unarmed bonuses would help.
Your best friends landing it: Boosting Base THAC0 (Helm, Gauntlets, Potion of Power etc.). But as @Grond0 stated weapon or strength bonus will not work with it. Thats why Totemic Druid/Fighter was so great. Thanks to superb base THAC0 he nearly never misses. Critical Strike is even better. Or Smite. @Vynn used Implosion with Harm but all he said was "tricky" as Harm needs one round to cast. But you can switch the order: Harm first then Implosion. As Harm lasts two rounds you will be in a good position landing it - if Implosion stuns. The wand of paralyzation is another candidate that Korgath used in his run to very good use even against Mel herself. So many options... and so many things that can go wrong...
I am sure that you will crush Mel next time @histamiini. She is clearly running out of tricks isnt she?