The Nashkel Mine, Nimbul and Tranzig were all done without problems. At the Bandit Camp I was intending to hop in and out, killing the odd bandit while wearing down their stocks of ammunition. However, on about the 3rd time of doing that Fred was ambushed by giant spiders and had to use an invisibility potion to negate their webs. With those in short supply he went to Ulgoth's Beard and killed Dushai (charming him first with Algernon's Cloak to drag him away from others) to get his ring.
Back at the Bandit Camp Fred worked his way laboriously through lots of bandits. The combination of vicious melee capability from Taurgosz and Venkt's potentially deadly spells was quite a hard nut to crack though. Eventually I resorted to using Algernon's Cloak again to charm Taurgosz and Venkt insta-killed him with a chromatic orb. I saved the game there and with only a few bandits + Venkt remaining things should then have been fairly easy. However, I made the mistake of starting the game up briefly in between calls for work. When I immediately travelled back to the Bandit Camp I was still a bit preoccupied and just a tiny bit slow in running when Venkt released a horror and Fred failed to save. A couple of magic missile spells then made sure he wouldn't survive.
Ah, the good old Dwarven Defender - would have been my other choice if not going with a Barbarian. Fine progress @Grond0 until you got too greedy at the Bandit Camp. Or why are you taking such risks? You got max level already. Just for the gold? Or the challenge? Its a real pity to see Fred going down to bad bad Venkt!
Su´kka made only little progress due to lack of time. She collected all Anti-Dragon-Items in the WIndspear Dungeon and is not far away from Firkraag. I am really confident up to now but when Su´kka hears the word "dragon" she is aware of danger. Maybe she will try it just for the fun...
EDIT: Okay Su´kka got some beating from Firkraag. Its quite terrifying as Firkraag is MUCH more dangerous now. He constantly dispels every buff while killing summons with Deathspell. And thanks to neverending recasts of Stoneskin even 8 Whirlwind Attacks in a row are not able to bring him down to injured. Su´kka needs Arrows of Dispelling. But even then it should be tough. He eats tons of damage while he hurts a lot even with Hardiness. Nizidramanii'yt, the Black Dragon in Suldanessalar will be the end. Or maybe i am just too dumb in fighting dragons!
EDIT: Walkthrough says you need the Golden Goblet of Life from its body to break the seal on the palace gates. O_o
Which you can get by giving the dragon all your gold and items. Fortunately, it has a problem noticing the huge pile of items under your feet at the time you offer the trade ...
I haven't actually tested that in the EE, but I imagine it still works. If not then see if you can get Nizi fixated on Ras. Several rounds of GWWs from you + clone should make a decent hole even in a dragon .
EDIT: Walkthrough says you need the Golden Goblet of Life from its body to break the seal on the palace gates. O_o
Which you can get by giving the dragon all your gold and items. Fortunately, it has a problem noticing the huge pile of items under your feet at the time you offer the trade ...
I haven't actually tested that in the EE, but I imagine it still works. If not then see if you can get Nizi fixated on Ras. Several rounds of GWWs from you + clone should make a decent hole even in a dragon .
Looool - thats good to know @Grond0. Outsmarting the AI - i like that one! Will test it - if Su´kka gets this far.
For Fred's next attempt I speeded things up and took on the Nashkel Mine at just level 5 rather than 8 - also before having acquired a full load of equipment. That made the mine a bit of a grind, but Fred completed it eventually and then moved on to the Bandit Camp. Rather than fight everyone this time Fred burned a couple of potions of invisibility to get in and out of the main tent. After Raemon had his conversation there the occupants in the tent don't come out to fight, which reduces the odds against significantly. That tempted Fred to stick around long enough to charm Taurgosz and inherit his equipment after he was killed - far better than paying for a suit of full plate like last time .
Edit: regrettably though I couldn't resist going back to try and clear the camp. The outside enemies were all done and most of those from within the tent, but Venkt proved a problem thanks to his ability to shrug off being charmed within a matter of seconds (I don't know if that's intended or just a script bug). I had him at near death at one point, but Fred was also at near death after being hit by a 42 HP magic missile (as well as being chased by a bandit) and ran away. Losing patience a bit later Fred didn't immediately run away after being blinded and failed to see a fatal horror coming ...
I'll have one more go and see if I can play safe this time .
Once more Fred got to the Bandit Camp - and this time he's successfully cleared it . He got a helping hand early on when Venkt followed him out of the tent on his initial entrance, while the exterior was still non-hostile - Venkt paying the price for taking him on one-to-one. One bit of equipment was lost when I forgot to pick up Mulahey's equipment before resting and his boots evaporated, but otherwise things are looking good. Fred has a massive 128 HPs at level 8 - that's only 8 off the maximum possible and about 30 more than his previous incarnations . Although low HPs are rarely the cause of death they're always nice to have, so let's see if I can look after him for a while longer ...
Nice to see that your safer approach works so far @Grond0 - keep on rolling!
Su´kka solved Spellhold and is not far away from level 29! Everything was quite easy - except for the upgraded Yuan-Ti Mage Party and Irenicus himself. Su´kka skipped the first while Irenicus was really painful until she decided to drink anti-magic-potions.
Problems she faced in this very special fight: The Su´kka Clone is a monster that hits like a truck and is very hard to take down -> Unequipping helped a lot here! The Planetar is godlike and kills everything in no time -> Summons for distraction Irenicus himself is untouchable -> Su´kka had to wait for incoming dispels or until protection spells ran out
Even with "endless" summon recasts -> Wand of Air -> Wand of Fire (!) the fight is tough as Irenicus throws some Deathspells in between. But the most ridicoulus moment came when Irenicus reached "nearly dead" and Su´kka throught: Game over! One Heal-spell later he was at full HP using a sequencer that also instakilled Su´kka as Rage expired and magic resistance failed. I hate this battle... even more as any healing potion is not working. Bug or intended? The no-healing alone lead to several "you loose" moments.
On her successful try Su´kka used the Simulacrum mainly for fast summoning so that there were always several Fire Elements on the battlefield. Together with magic protection she only had to make sure not to run into one of the enemy summons - mainly the Planetar. Once Irencius was loosing his protections she rushed in using five GWW´s to finish him off quickly. The Flail of Ages slow helped a lot here! Once Irenicus fled Su´kka was badly injured and used invisibility to get away from the incoming Assassins.
I am very happy to leave Spellhold - i never liked this part of the game. With improved Irenicus i like it even less.
The City of Caverns and the Underdark are waiting...
EDIT: Su´kka survived the Githyanki Ambush -> Mirror Image, Hardiness, Summons and cleaned the City of Caverns from all Rebels. Its a pity that the Sahuagin are so weak. Well lets see it as a nice rest before the fearsome Drow. Btw: Su´kka reached Level 29!
Fred did defeat Davaeorn, though it was a lot of work. It took a while to get down to his level (constantly retreating to rest to get HPs back), where Fred used a potion of invisibility to wait for all Davaeorn's guards to appear. Based on prior experience I expected that they would stay in the same place (surrounding Davaeorn) while Fred rested. Instead, when he came back to the area he found the majority of the guards grouped at the entrance.
He only just survived running to the other end to use the other exit, but once aware of the danger was able to do that more easily on succeeding trips and eventually wore the guards down and killed Davaeorn.
However, the time and patience that took wore on me a bit and during the fight with Davaeorn I stuck around against my better judgement at one point and had to use a potion of magic blocking against a chromatic orb. I forgot momentarily that would dispel shield protection and when the potion ran out Fred was faced with a potentially lethal magic missile on the way with no more potions of magic blocking available. For the first time in a very long while in single player I resorted to a potion of healing there, against my personal no-reload rules .
I was thinking at the time I might stretch a point to allow that, since I wouldn't expect to play no-reload on arrival in SoD anyway and Fred did continue to the City and do a fair amount there. However, I don't feel right about it, so will end the run at this point.
You are too strict with your poor Fred @Grond0! But at the end its your choice...
Su´kka is slowly working through the Underdark and started infiltrating the Drow city. Damn - i absolutely hate the improved Mindflayers. They are so tough and sucking Su´kka brain away in no time. Or throwing some Maze spells inbetween whenever Rage is down. Only with the help of summons and full buffs she managed to free the Drow Priestress. Well - several reloads were needed cause one of the Drows died to them. This means: I will NOT go to this hilarious Mindflayer Complex. Beholders? No problem! Kua-Toa? Manageable! But lots of Mindflayers? Brrrrrr.....
BtW: Su´kka reached level 30!
EDIT: Oh dear - the Underdark is full of terror that lurks around every corner. Nothing but fighting - and neverending xp. Su´kka reached level 33 but still lacks the item for the demon summoning. The Beholders are cleared - only the Ancient one left. But this beast is absolutely untouchable as it constantly casts his damn protection layers and is doing quite some damage. The Kua-Toas on the other hand are on dope. They run and hit like there is no tomorrow while swarming in from every direction thanks to improved call for help. Will be tough work to get to the Prince but at the end it should be just a matter of time - and retreat + rest abuse.
Okay - Su´kka escaped from the Underdark and is now level 35!!
What a xp ride this was! When looking back the hardest fight was the Mindflayer Ambush - they are just a pain for warriors! The Beholders can be tricked with Balduran Shield Swapping while the Kua Toas are failing hard against Elements or Boots of Etherealness as they use non-magical weapons. Quite funny! Su´kka killed the insane regenerating Kua Toa Prince with Simulacrum and GWW spamming. After this she double tricked the Drow so the summoned Demon killed both Priests.
To get the Silver Dragon Blood for improved Human Flesh Su´kka helped Adalon in killing the Aboleth. Thanks to some retreat-resting she survived both waves and pleased Adalon. With her help and many Fire Elementals they killed the guardians of the surface exit. Bodhi is waiting!
P.S. Su´kka also tried to fight Adalon but even with constant summon recast, some Arrows of Dispelling in between and many double GWW-Rage she only got her to "injured" before Adalon deathspelled all summons and crushed Su´kka quite hard - the 80% DR is just not enough in the long run...
After an epic battle Su´kka defeated improved Bodhi - that was tough!
To protect against her and the Vampire Mages Su´kka used nearly everything at her disposal: Oil of Speed, Potion of Heroism, Level-Drain-Protection from Mace of Disruption and Rage, Fire Resistance 100%, Cold Resistance 100%, Magic Resistance 100%, Potion of Regeneration, Mirror Image, Free Action, lots of Fire Elementals, Hardiness, Sunray, Simulacrum and lots of GWW´s.
Fully buffed double Su´kka fired Sunrays (Daystar + Helm of Brilliance) which took down the first vampires. The Fire Elementals worked as fine distractions together with Drizzt who was standing right in the middle of the heat - doing nothing (LoB Bug!). Double Su´kka retreated behind the tank line while killing any following Vampire with GWW plus Mace of Disruption.
Thanks to Arrows of Dispelling the protections from the Vampire Mages went down and made them easy targets for some GWW´s. Drizzt in the meanwhile was tanking like a god and due to all of her own summons Bodhi was unable to reach Su´kka in the backline.
After all Vampires including the Mages went down only the summons - Wolves and Grimwarders - were left. Maybe Su´kka would have been able to kill Bodhi but she decided to play it cheap using some resting upstairs. Fully recovered she cleaned most summons - who were mainly attacking Drizzt only.
Facing Bodhi in close combat proved to be fatal even with buffs as the blood drinking kills Su´kka in no time. Not to forget: Thanks to her decent HP it takes many, many GWW´s getting her to "near death". This left open only one safe choice: Su´kka had to use Ranged Weapons! With the Throwing Axe +3 and 12 GWW´s she kited Bodhi to death. Only problem was her insta-healing to full health which stretched the battle even more. After another kiting round using her superior speed thanks to Haste & Improved Haste Su´kka brought Bodhi down with a mighty hit from her Throwing Axe...
Its quite interesting that Su´kka did not use any protections after resting - only some Rage in between to make sure no CC would turn the tide. And thanks to the gods of light that Bodhi is not immune to missile weapons. Otherwise this could have been a neverending nightmare...
Luckily it was not so Su´kkas next stop is Suldanessalar. Time for some rest...
To get the Silver Dragon Blood for improved Human Flesh Su´kka helped Adalon in killing the Aboleth.
Good stuff Harpagornis. I'm a bit confused by the reference to the silver dragon blood though - is there an alternative route to killing Adalon to get it?
To get the Silver Dragon Blood for improved Human Flesh Su´kka helped Adalon in killing the Aboleth.
Good stuff Harpagornis. I'm a bit confused by the reference to the silver dragon blood though - is there an alternative route to killing Adalon to get it?
Yes there is - its part of a mini-mod called "Adalons Blood". Smoother than fighting Adalon but still not an easy ride. However: Su´kka is now wearing the upgraded Human Flesh - what a tasty armor!
I have a question regarding HLA´s and especially ToB - which i have played only twice.
Sure GWW is GREAT in most situations but sometimes Su´kka has to tank. Especially all the big boss fights will last long. How many Hardiness will be needed there? Are four enough? Or better eight thanks to LoB Hitpoint madness? Even more? Thanks for your help!
I've never played ToB with LoB, so it's hard to judge. Playing on core I would have 2 hardinesses, but you probably want more than that. My (uninformed) view would be that you probably don't want more than about 4 as you will get into diminishing returns. With a number of the enemies I suspect that if you can't win using melee by that stage then you probably can't manage it at all with those tactics.
Hhmmmm... yeah you might be right @Grond0 - especially the heavy hitters like dragons are veery hard to tank. @Victor_Creed_SFV using the Dwarven Defender against Draconis had a hard time even with 90% DR. And unlike him Su´kka will not be able to get the Silver Dragon Armor as its part of Dorns Double-Dragon-Quest. If Su´kka manages to get into ToB Draconis will be her nemesis.
I can see it coming...
P.S. Su´kka has not much time and will do some preparation before moving on to the final chapter...
Su´kka is nearly done with her preparation for the last chapter of SoA and reached level 39!
Her main equipment at this point: Helm: Balduran's Helm Armor: Human Skin +5 Gloves: Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise Amulet: Amulet of Seldarine Bbelt: Belt of Inertial Barrier Ring 1: Ring of Kangaxx Ring 2: Ring of Fire Protection Bboots: Boots of Speed Cloak: Cloak of Mirroring Weapons: Flail of Ages +3, Mace of Disruption +2, Throwing Axe +3 Shield Slot: Defender of Easthaven Quick Slots: Bottle of Efreeti, Horn of Valhalla, Spider Figurine Arrows: Piercing + Acid + Fire + Dispelling
Ring of invisibility, Ring of Air Control, Ring of the Ram, Ring of Human Influence, Ring of Regeneration, Ring of Spell Turning, Ring of Protection +2, Ring of Free Action, Golden Pantaloons, Silver Pantaloons, Vhailor's Helm, Wand of Wonders, Book of infinite Spells, Shield of Balduran, Bracers of Blinding Strike, Heartseeker Bow +3, Firetooth +4, Helm of Brilliance, Ilbratha, Daystar, Staff of Fire, Staff of Earth, Staff of Air, Boots of Etheralness, Namarra, Adjatha the Drinker, Arbanes Sword, Crimson Chain +5, Glasses of Identification
I started Frey again, only to die quite quickly from 2 natural lightning strikes . I decided at that point it was probably time to reroll a replacement for Frey and quite quickly got a very nice total roll of 94 . I was a bit tempted to run with that unadjusted, but decided I was finding the game hard enough anyway!
One particular change with this version of Frey is that I didn't give him find familiar as a starting spell. That makes the early stages more challenging, but I've had plenty of practice now at appropriate tactics based on blindness and web (with the odd bit of help from Algernon's Cloak to shorten some encounters):D. However, death is always only a moment away: - in a first attempt with this Frey he died to a critical from a digger when his icon didn't respond to a mouse click and I didn't react quickly enough to try again. - a second attempt was going well with quite a few map areas cleared (though generally of low value XP, so only at level 5) and charisma and reputation up to 20. At Firewine Bridge I charmed Bentan and used him to attack some kobolds (expecting to profit from his scroll of protection from magic). Rather than leave him to it though I attempted to blind a kobold commando attacking him. That was successful, but not before he had rather meanly turned round and loosed a fatal shot at Frey. - in a third attempt Frey has survived without any ambushes the two area transitions necessary to go and kill Shoal and various wolves and carrion crawlers in her area. Now knowing invisibility, it should be possible to progress for a long way without ever even being attacked, but there tends to be a difference between what's possible and what actually happens ...
Edit: and the difference in the third attempt was a mis-click when attempting to go invisible after looting the ankheg nest. That gave a nearby ankheg just enough time for Frey's invisible body to suffer an acid bath .
Shield of Balduran -> Got it Foebane -> Watchers Keep has to wait a bit Soul Reaver -> Got it. Does the THAC0 penalty really works over and over again without save? Shadow Dragon Armor -> Yeah, that would be nice. Su´kka should try going for it - this will be fun! Reflection Shield -> forgot about it. But what happens when both targets have missile reflection?
Preferring GWW > Hardiness worked golden against the Shadow Dragon!
The splitted Earth Elementals soaked up nearly all leveldraining breaths so Su´kka was able to use GWW plus Firetooth for decent damage. Whenever the Shadow Dragon went invisible Su´kka used the time for resummoning and rebuffing. As it mostly attacked the Elementals Su´kka had a lot of free time for GWW´s and brought it down to "badly injured" before she had to switch to improved haste. Thanks to this summon-kiting she got only hit once by a breath while Rage nullified the leveldrain. At the end the Shadow Dragon was much easier than expected even with 1440 HP - just a matter of patience and positioning. No potions needed here!
Well done Harpagornis. You may find the ToB dragons a tougher proposition though, which is why I thought the Soul Reaver might help. I've not used that in LoB / SCS, but in the standard game it's effective at neutering the physical attacks from dragons and therefore might well give you the time you need to work through their HPs. Foebane potentially offers similar benefits in the standard game, but I suspect that Su'kka would get hit too regularly for that to be a good option in this challenge.
I'm not aware of any problems with the reflection shield. Normally it's clerics that use physical mirror against you, but they're not big on attacking you with missiles anyway - and you wouldn't need to defend against them if they did. I was thinking more of protecting against vorpal hits from fallen solar or possibly against the Ravager.
Another thing I didn't notice on your list was the Cloak of the Sewers. Rat form from that is an easy way to get 100% physical resistance - allowing you space to recover and rebuff during a battle against enemies without special attacks.
Yeah, the ToB Dragons will be a lot tougher for sure so if everything fails i might give Soul Reaver a try. Foebane i dont care while the Reflection Shield - as you mentioned - will have its niche.
Su´kka also collected the Cloak of Sewers - this is imba! I mean the little rat is untouchable by physical attacks so all i have to do is : Tranform into a rat and click the attack button while drinking a cup of tea - no?
Well, up to a point . If an enemy is going to give you any trouble it's highly likely to have some form of special attack in addition to physical damage - the maze attack from Abazigal for instance is a potential pain. In addition you don't do a huge amount of damage in rat form, so you're not going to bite a ToB dragon to death before you revert to human ...
Another thing I didn't notice on your list was the Cloak of the Sewers. Rat form from that is an easy way to get 100% physical resistance - allowing you space to recover and rebuff during a battle against enemies without special attacks.
I've been playing this game since it's first release and I never knew the rat form had that bonus! I'm always learning on these forums...
Okay Su´kka has made its way into Suldanessalar. She aquired all three items to activate Rillifane's Temple. While the Rakshasas are quite easy at that point the Black Dragon gave Su´kka huge (!) troubles. She brought him down to badly injured once but then failed her saving throw and instadied as i have missed another dispel that removed protections. The Earth Elementals are dying very quickly while the Dragon moves nearly as fast even when fully buffed. There might be a way to kite it down but this would take hours. Therefore Su´kka has chosen the easy path tricking the Dragon with @Grond0´s drop-items-to-the-ground-trick. It still works!
EDIT: Using some Hide & Charge put Irenicus to a swift end in Suldanessalar. Welcome to Hell...
Su´kka got it - Irenicus is dead - SoA is finished - finally!
The fight against Irenicus in Hell was easier than expected. With five Elementals waiting in the southern region Su´kka summoned Irenicus and his demons. When battle starts she ran to the south where the Elementals distracted the Demons and Irenicus. The only tricky part was: Surive his Time Stops and avoid the Planetar! Thanks to the distractions only Irenicus was still following Su´kka. She lured him to the northwestern part far away from the others and resummoned one Elemental after the other until all of his protection layers expired. Only then she used Simulacrum and rushed in for several double-GWW-spamming. When falling to "nearly dead" he used another trigger with double Fire Shields so Su´kka retreated while swapping to Firetooth. A last series of deadly Fire Bolts exploded on Irenicus taking him down to the ground! No potion or scroll used in this fight. We will need them later. Maybe!
A last note: The Slayer Form is bugged like hell with my mods. I used it in the fight against Sarevok to geet the Strength Bonus but i always died afterwards due to constant magic damage - regardless how long i used the Slayer. Thats a real pity...
Okay - time for some rest before moving on the the Throne of Bhaal. My prediction: Draconis will be Su´kkas end. We will see!
Comments
Back at the Bandit Camp Fred worked his way laboriously through lots of bandits. The combination of vicious melee capability from Taurgosz and Venkt's potentially deadly spells was quite a hard nut to crack though. Eventually I resorted to using Algernon's Cloak again to charm Taurgosz and Venkt insta-killed him with a chromatic orb. I saved the game there and with only a few bandits + Venkt remaining things should then have been fairly easy. However, I made the mistake of starting the game up briefly in between calls for work. When I immediately travelled back to the Bandit Camp I was still a bit preoccupied and just a tiny bit slow in running when Venkt released a horror and Fred failed to save. A couple of magic missile spells then made sure he wouldn't survive.
Su´kka made only little progress due to lack of time. She collected all Anti-Dragon-Items in the WIndspear Dungeon and is not far away from Firkraag. I am really confident up to now but when Su´kka hears the word "dragon" she is aware of danger. Maybe she will try it just for the fun...
EDIT: Okay Su´kka got some beating from Firkraag. Its quite terrifying as Firkraag is MUCH more dangerous now. He constantly dispels every buff while killing summons with Deathspell. And thanks to neverending recasts of Stoneskin even 8 Whirlwind Attacks in a row are not able to bring him down to injured. Su´kka needs Arrows of Dispelling. But even then it should be tough. He eats tons of damage while he hurts a lot even with Hardiness. Nizidramanii'yt, the Black Dragon in Suldanessalar will be the end. Or maybe i am just too dumb in fighting dragons!
BtW: Su´kka reached level 26!
EDIT: Walkthrough says you need the Golden Goblet of Life from its body to break the seal on the palace gates. O_o
I haven't actually tested that in the EE, but I imagine it still works. If not then see if you can get Nizi fixated on Ras. Several rounds of GWWs from you + clone should make a decent hole even in a dragon
Edit: regrettably though I couldn't resist going back to try and clear the camp. The outside enemies were all done and most of those from within the tent, but Venkt proved a problem thanks to his ability to shrug off being charmed within a matter of seconds (I don't know if that's intended or just a script bug). I had him at near death at one point, but Fred was also at near death after being hit by a 42 HP magic missile (as well as being chased by a bandit) and ran away. Losing patience a bit later Fred didn't immediately run away after being blinded and failed to see a fatal horror coming ...
I'll have one more go and see if I can play safe this time
Su´kka solved Spellhold and is not far away from level 29! Everything was quite easy - except for the upgraded Yuan-Ti Mage Party and Irenicus himself. Su´kka skipped the first while Irenicus was really painful until she decided to drink anti-magic-potions.
Problems she faced in this very special fight:
The Su´kka Clone is a monster that hits like a truck and is very hard to take down -> Unequipping helped a lot here!
The Planetar is godlike and kills everything in no time -> Summons for distraction
Irenicus himself is untouchable -> Su´kka had to wait for incoming dispels or until protection spells ran out
Even with "endless" summon recasts -> Wand of Air -> Wand of Fire (!) the fight is tough as Irenicus throws some Deathspells in between. But the most ridicoulus moment came when Irenicus reached "nearly dead" and Su´kka throught: Game over! One Heal-spell later he was at full HP using a sequencer that also instakilled Su´kka as Rage expired and magic resistance failed. I hate this battle... even more as any healing potion is not working. Bug or intended? The no-healing alone lead to several "you loose" moments.
On her successful try Su´kka used the Simulacrum mainly for fast summoning so that there were always several Fire Elements on the battlefield. Together with magic protection she only had to make sure not to run into one of the enemy summons - mainly the Planetar. Once Irencius was loosing his protections she rushed in using five GWW´s to finish him off quickly. The Flail of Ages slow helped a lot here! Once Irenicus fled Su´kka was badly injured and used invisibility to get away from the incoming Assassins.
I am very happy to leave Spellhold - i never liked this part of the game. With improved Irenicus i like it even less.
The City of Caverns and the Underdark are waiting...
EDIT: Su´kka survived the Githyanki Ambush -> Mirror Image, Hardiness, Summons and cleaned the City of Caverns from all Rebels. Its a pity that the Sahuagin are so weak. Well lets see it as a nice rest before the fearsome Drow. Btw: Su´kka reached Level 29!
However, the time and patience that took wore on me a bit and during the fight with Davaeorn I stuck around against my better judgement at one point and had to use a potion of magic blocking against a chromatic orb. I forgot momentarily that would dispel shield protection and when the potion ran out Fred was faced with a potentially lethal magic missile on the way with no more potions of magic blocking available. For the first time in a very long while in single player I resorted to a potion of healing there, against my personal no-reload rules
I was thinking at the time I might stretch a point to allow that, since I wouldn't expect to play no-reload on arrival in SoD anyway and Fred did continue to the City and do a fair amount there. However, I don't feel right about it, so will end the run at this point.
Su´kka is slowly working through the Underdark and started infiltrating the Drow city. Damn - i absolutely hate the improved Mindflayers. They are so tough and sucking Su´kka brain away in no time. Or throwing some Maze spells inbetween whenever Rage is down. Only with the help of summons and full buffs she managed to free the Drow Priestress. Well - several reloads were needed cause one of the Drows died to them. This means: I will NOT go to this hilarious Mindflayer Complex. Beholders? No problem! Kua-Toa? Manageable! But lots of Mindflayers? Brrrrrr.....
BtW: Su´kka reached level 30!
EDIT: Oh dear - the Underdark is full of terror that lurks around every corner. Nothing but fighting - and neverending xp. Su´kka reached level 33 but still lacks the item for the demon summoning. The Beholders are cleared - only the Ancient one left. But this beast is absolutely untouchable as it constantly casts his damn protection layers and is doing quite some damage. The Kua-Toas on the other hand are on dope. They run and hit like there is no tomorrow while swarming in from every direction thanks to improved call for help. Will be tough work to get to the Prince but at the end it should be just a matter of time - and retreat + rest abuse.
What a xp ride this was! When looking back the hardest fight was the Mindflayer Ambush - they are just a pain for warriors! The Beholders can be tricked with Balduran Shield Swapping while the Kua Toas are failing hard against Elements or Boots of Etherealness as they use non-magical weapons. Quite funny! Su´kka killed the insane regenerating Kua Toa Prince with Simulacrum and GWW spamming. After this she double tricked the Drow so the summoned Demon killed both Priests.
To get the Silver Dragon Blood for improved Human Flesh Su´kka helped Adalon in killing the Aboleth. Thanks to some retreat-resting she survived both waves and pleased Adalon. With her help and many Fire Elementals they killed the guardians of the surface exit. Bodhi is waiting!
P.S. Su´kka also tried to fight Adalon but even with constant summon recast, some Arrows of Dispelling in between and many double GWW-Rage she only got her to "injured" before Adalon deathspelled all summons and crushed Su´kka quite hard - the 80% DR is just not enough in the long run...
To protect against her and the Vampire Mages Su´kka used nearly everything at her disposal: Oil of Speed, Potion of Heroism, Level-Drain-Protection from Mace of Disruption and Rage, Fire Resistance 100%, Cold Resistance 100%, Magic Resistance 100%, Potion of Regeneration, Mirror Image, Free Action, lots of Fire Elementals, Hardiness, Sunray, Simulacrum and lots of GWW´s.
Fully buffed double Su´kka fired Sunrays (Daystar + Helm of Brilliance) which took down the first vampires. The Fire Elementals worked as fine distractions together with Drizzt who was standing right in the middle of the heat - doing nothing (LoB Bug!). Double Su´kka retreated behind the tank line while killing any following Vampire with GWW plus Mace of Disruption.
Thanks to Arrows of Dispelling the protections from the Vampire Mages went down and made them easy targets for some GWW´s. Drizzt in the meanwhile was tanking like a god and due to all of her own summons Bodhi was unable to reach Su´kka in the backline.
After all Vampires including the Mages went down only the summons - Wolves and Grimwarders - were left. Maybe Su´kka would have been able to kill Bodhi but she decided to play it cheap using some resting upstairs. Fully recovered she cleaned most summons - who were mainly attacking Drizzt only.
Facing Bodhi in close combat proved to be fatal even with buffs as the blood drinking kills Su´kka in no time. Not to forget: Thanks to her decent HP it takes many, many GWW´s getting her to "near death". This left open only one safe choice: Su´kka had to use Ranged Weapons! With the Throwing Axe +3 and 12 GWW´s she kited Bodhi to death. Only problem was her insta-healing to full health which stretched the battle even more. After another kiting round using her superior speed thanks to Haste & Improved Haste Su´kka brought Bodhi down with a mighty hit from her Throwing Axe...
Its quite interesting that Su´kka did not use any protections after resting - only some Rage in between to make sure no CC would turn the tide. And thanks to the gods of light that Bodhi is not immune to missile weapons. Otherwise this could have been a neverending nightmare...
Luckily it was not so Su´kkas next stop is Suldanessalar. Time for some rest...
Sure GWW is GREAT in most situations but sometimes Su´kka has to tank. Especially all the big boss fights will last long. How many Hardiness will be needed there? Are four enough? Or better eight thanks to LoB Hitpoint madness? Even more? Thanks for your help!
I can see it coming...
P.S. Su´kka has not much time and will do some preparation before moving on to the final chapter...
Her main equipment at this point:
Helm: Balduran's Helm
Armor: Human Skin +5
Gloves: Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise
Amulet: Amulet of Seldarine
Bbelt: Belt of Inertial Barrier
Ring 1: Ring of Kangaxx
Ring 2: Ring of Fire Protection
Bboots: Boots of Speed
Cloak: Cloak of Mirroring
Weapons: Flail of Ages +3, Mace of Disruption +2, Throwing Axe +3
Shield Slot: Defender of Easthaven
Quick Slots: Bottle of Efreeti, Horn of Valhalla, Spider Figurine
Arrows: Piercing + Acid + Fire + Dispelling
Ring of invisibility, Ring of Air Control, Ring of the Ram, Ring of Human Influence, Ring of Regeneration, Ring of Spell Turning, Ring of Protection +2, Ring of Free Action, Golden Pantaloons, Silver Pantaloons, Vhailor's Helm, Wand of Wonders, Book of infinite Spells, Shield of Balduran, Bracers of Blinding Strike, Heartseeker Bow +3, Firetooth +4, Helm of Brilliance, Ilbratha, Daystar, Staff of Fire, Staff of Earth, Staff of Air, Boots of Etheralness, Namarra, Adjatha the Drinker, Arbanes Sword, Crimson Chain +5, Glasses of Identification
Have i missed something?
One particular change with this version of Frey is that I didn't give him find familiar as a starting spell. That makes the early stages more challenging, but I've had plenty of practice now at appropriate tactics based on blindness and web (with the odd bit of help from Algernon's Cloak to shorten some encounters):D. However, death is always only a moment away:
- in a first attempt with this Frey he died to a critical from a digger when his icon didn't respond to a mouse click and I didn't react quickly enough to try again.
- a second attempt was going well with quite a few map areas cleared (though generally of low value XP, so only at level 5) and charisma and reputation up to 20. At Firewine Bridge I charmed Bentan and used him to attack some kobolds (expecting to profit from his scroll of protection from magic). Rather than leave him to it though I attempted to blind a kobold commando attacking him. That was successful, but not before he had rather meanly turned round and loosed a fatal shot at Frey.
- in a third attempt Frey has survived without any ambushes the two area transitions necessary to go and kill Shoal and various wolves and carrion crawlers in her area. Now knowing invisibility, it should be possible to progress for a long way without ever even being attacked, but there tends to be a difference between what's possible and what actually happens ...
Edit: and the difference in the third attempt was a mis-click when attempting to go invisible after looting the ankheg nest. That gave a nearby ankheg just enough time for Frey's invisible body to suffer an acid bath
Foebane -> Watchers Keep has to wait a bit
Soul Reaver -> Got it. Does the THAC0 penalty really works over and over again without save?
Shadow Dragon Armor -> Yeah, that would be nice. Su´kka should try going for it - this will be fun!
Reflection Shield -> forgot about it. But what happens when both targets have missile reflection?
Still some work to do...
The splitted Earth Elementals soaked up nearly all leveldraining breaths so Su´kka was able to use GWW plus Firetooth for decent damage. Whenever the Shadow Dragon went invisible Su´kka used the time for resummoning and rebuffing. As it mostly attacked the Elementals Su´kka had a lot of free time for GWW´s and brought it down to "badly injured" before she had to switch to improved haste. Thanks to this summon-kiting she got only hit once by a breath while Rage nullified the leveldrain. At the end the Shadow Dragon was much easier than expected even with 1440 HP - just a matter of patience and positioning. No potions needed here!
I'm not aware of any problems with the reflection shield. Normally it's clerics that use physical mirror against you, but they're not big on attacking you with missiles anyway - and you wouldn't need to defend against them if they did. I was thinking more of protecting against vorpal hits from fallen solar or possibly against the Ravager.
Another thing I didn't notice on your list was the Cloak of the Sewers. Rat form from that is an easy way to get 100% physical resistance - allowing you space to recover and rebuff during a battle against enemies without special attacks.
Su´kka also collected the Cloak of Sewers - this is imba! I mean the little rat is untouchable by physical attacks so all i have to do is : Tranform into a rat and click the attack button while drinking a cup of tea - no?
EDIT: Using some Hide & Charge put Irenicus to a swift end in Suldanessalar. Welcome to Hell...
The fight against Irenicus in Hell was easier than expected. With five Elementals waiting in the southern region Su´kka summoned Irenicus and his demons. When battle starts she ran to the south where the Elementals distracted the Demons and Irenicus. The only tricky part was: Surive his Time Stops and avoid the Planetar! Thanks to the distractions only Irenicus was still following Su´kka. She lured him to the northwestern part far away from the others and resummoned one Elemental after the other until all of his protection layers expired. Only then she used Simulacrum and rushed in for several double-GWW-spamming. When falling to "nearly dead" he used another trigger with double Fire Shields so Su´kka retreated while swapping to Firetooth. A last series of deadly Fire Bolts exploded on Irenicus taking him down to the ground! No potion or scroll used in this fight. We will need them later. Maybe!
A last note: The Slayer Form is bugged like hell with my mods. I used it in the fight against Sarevok to geet the Strength Bonus but i always died afterwards due to constant magic damage - regardless how long i used the Slayer. Thats a real pity...
Okay - time for some rest before moving on the the Throne of Bhaal. My prediction: Draconis will be Su´kkas end. We will see!