After redoing the fight against Irenicus its clear why it was so easy: The Slayer is bugged thanks to LoB-Mode. To make it short: Like Drizzt the Slayer-Irenicus isnt attacking at all - only using his spells. Please fix this!
Another problem occured: The game constantly crashes after the final talking of Ellesime so i have to import Su´kka manually into ToB. But if i do this any container is destroyed - even my bag of holding. This is total crap cause many of her magic items are just gone now. Is there a way around or will i have to create the items manually?
To the Hell with this damn "your-items-are-gone-bug" - Su´kka plays on!
Even when stripped down to core equip the first challenge - improved Illasera - was quite funny. Using invisibilty Su´kka lured Illasera away from the others - who could not see through it - and hacked her to pieces using Hardiness and GWW´s only - easy!
The first challenge in the pocket plane was also quite easy as the civilians cannot hurt Su´kka. Surrounded by them she killed the Knights and after that Elesinne, Eltan and Aran using Firetooth and finally Flail of Ages in combination with Hardiness and GWW. Thanks to magic resistance, spell turning and godlike saving throws not a single spell touched Su´kka.
At the moment she is on her way to Gromnir - this should be the first real challenge on her nearly-no-items-run. Phhhhh...
EDIT: Gromnir went down much easier than expected. The only trick was: Split them to victory and lure Gromnir away from his two Mage Guards using invisibility again. Double Su´kka activated Hardiness + GWW for a fast takedown. Fighting the whole group including the Mages proved to be fatal as they instantly summon two Fallen Planetars - ouch!
Looool - i have to take back everything i said about Foebane. After its upgrade this weapon is INSANE. Constantly healing Su´kka while buffing max HP to 500+ (!!) - this is just crazy. As it also hits like a truck its a nice addition to Flail of Ages. Slow enemies down first, then soak up their life with Foebane - hah!
Next stops for Su´kka will be Watchers Keep and hunting down Yaga Shura. But first: Time for some rest!
Nice to see the Five starting to evaporate in front of Su'kka. I didn't expect any real problems from Gromnir, but I can imagine you having to work hard in the 2nd Challenge - will Foebane be up to the challenge there?
Su´kka killed Yaga-Shura thanks to good old kiting while solving the second challenge in the pocket plane!
Forest of Mir - The Temple Killed the Shades and Horror using Hardiness + Rage + GWW while skipping the Undead Casters using invisibility. Talked to Nyalee.
Yaga-Shura's Lair Su´kka used invisibility to sneak through and avoided any fight after taking the Wardstones. On the second floor she lured the Dragon downstairs and kited the Fire Giants to death. After some retreat-resting Su´kka used Simulacrum + Hardiness + GWW´s to take Berenn down quite fast before he could summon his Planetar. She took both Hearts while skipping Imix the Fire Prince. Job done! Forest of Mir - The Temple Brought Nyalee the Heart of Yaga-Shura so he can be wounded but skipped the fight - who needs xp at this point? Siege Camp Thanks to invisibility its wasnt hard to split Yaga-Shura from his guards. As close combat was no option - he hits like a truck, uses a damn fire aura and pushes one away regularly - Su´kka had to fall back to good old kiting. This took a long time but was very safe as his Fireballs were unable to hit Su´kka. At the end it was a matter of time before he went down to a final bolt. Easier than expected!
Second Challenge in the Pocket Plane This one was - as @Grond0 predicted - the toughest nut so far. The easiest solution: Use invisibility to lure only the melee opponents - Su´kka II., Tamoko and Angelo - to the east near the gate where Su´kkas Simulacrum joined the fight. Thanks to Hardiness + Rage + GWW the evil Su´kka went down quite quickly. No more leveldraining attacks - good! Next target was the Kai-using Tamoko who hits hard but also goes down rather quickly. Su´kka used one more invisibility to heal up in between and smacked down the injured Tamoko and also Angelo - the easiest target of all as his backstabs are doing nothing to Su´kka. This left open the very dangerous Semaj. While the summons soaked up most of his spells Su´kka used the vision-breaking-pools to wait until Semajs protection spells - and the fearsome Planetar - expired. After that it was time for a fast smackdown using several GWW´s. Job done!
@billbisco: The drop-items-trick against the Black Dragon in Suldanessalar works quite easy. Drop your items to the ground - be it near the dragon or near the exit - and convince it to give you the Golden Goblet of Life while you give all your inventory and gold. After that just pick up your items on the ground - which the dragon for some reason is not taking into consideration - and move on.
Invisibility works quite nice if you face boss monsters that are surrounded by several guards. Be it Torgal, Yaga-Shura, Illasera, Gromnir or Irenicus. As only they will see trough the invisibility they are the only ones who will follow you while the others will stand still. As long as you lure the boss far enough the improved call for help will not work so you can face the boss in a "fair" 1vs1.
Okay, Sukka has now the choice: Sendai or Abazigal? Maybe she should test improved Draconis first even though it will be a hellride without the acid-protection. Thanks again to the your-items-are-gone-crap!
Did you get Blackrazor in the Hell Trials? The level drain from that is handy not just to reduce HPs and THAC0, but also reduce the damage taken from breath attacks.
Loooool - Draconis is dead, Draconis is dead, Draconis is dead!!!!!
This fight was.... a joke.... because.... Blackrazor owned Draconis so hard... he had no chance... breaths were not touching Su´kka even without acid protection... wing buffet was constantly missing... claw attacks did hurt but Blackrazor outhealed it... after 11 GWW´s the leveldrain triggered once more and instakilled Draconis who was "injured" only!
Does Blackrazor works against Abazigal too?
Another LOOOL @Grond0 cause i read your hint right after Draconis went down - too funny!
@Harpagornis. Thanks for the explanations! I get it now.
I don't understand the need to gimp yourself itemless. Why not just transfer your old and current save to an mp folder. Open your old save and then create 5 generic mules. Give Su'kka 'so items to each of them and then export them all with different names. Reload your current save and import each of the 5 different mules. Give the items back to Su'kka and delete the mules. Transfer your save back to SP.
It does. I don't have much experience of the SCS version of Abazigal though. I vaguely remember that his ranged maze attack is still a concern - if that's correct you really need to nerf/kill him quickly rather than using ranged attacks (and Blackrazor would be a good choice for that).
Wow - SCS is really pushing the limits. After returning to Abazigals Lair with the rope Su´kka had to fight two Black Dragons, a Green Dragon and the very dangerous Red Dragon Carnifex. Thanks to Blackrazor they all went down to leveldrain. This was tough. But Abazigal himself will be tougher - we will see!
Su´kka has killed everything but Abazigal refuses to die!
Su´kka is now beating more than half an hour at him but every time he gets to "badly injured" or "nearly dead" he uses "Heal" and is at full HP again. Happened the fifth time now - i am running out of magic protection. On the good side: The Magic Protection Scroll nullifies all of his nasty spells while the Cloak of Reflection protects against his heavy hitting breath. On the bad side: Leveldrain is NOT working - damn!
I cant see a way around this damn instaheal as it seems that he can cast it at will - with endless stacks. Any ideas?
I can't remember what he needs to hit him and what his saving throws are - does miscast magic from the axe have any chance? Is the heal actually instant - if just quick casting then keeping GWWs in reserve might allow you to interrupt them (or possibly using one of the continuing damage weapons)? Are you slowing him with FoA - that normally helps with spell casting as well as other things? Have you tried using the Soul Reaver - corrupting his THAC0 might possibly alter his script in helpful ways? Are you keeping a stream of summons going - giving him an easy target might lower the probability of using heal?
Incidentally, using all your magic protection here might make later fights rather difficult ...
I tried several weapons (Kachikos, Celestial) but he is ALWAYS making his saving throw. The Heal is insta and it seems that he is immune to spell failure. Slow from Flail of Ages does NOT work. Damn this Dragon is really tough - will keep on trying!
Right - I've had a few more goes with Frey, but none of them have got particularly far thanks to my habit of making little mistakes (if a fatal mistake can be described as little ). However, inspired by Su'kka's progress I'm trying again. This run didn't start promisingly when I accidentally activated the ogre clan while running Shoal round. I did dodge them for the 50 or so shots required to finish off Shoal, but the plan to kill carrion crawlers to get up to level 4 had to be abandoned. However, Frey made it safely to Beregost without any ambushes and work around there was sufficient to get up to level 4 - that was speeded up slightly by killing Algernon and using the odd charm to supplement blindness, e.g. sending Silke to take on the spiders.
Went to Firewine Bridge to charm Meilum and send him into combat in order to get his bracers. Then up to Ulgoth's Beard to use the cloak to pull Dushai away from the villagers before using run and shoot to kill him for his ring.
Travelled round doing reputation quests, using blind and run & shoot (with the occasional charm). Got to level 5 working hard to kill Charleston Nib's diggers to add web to disabling options (taking my only hit to date there, but fortunately not a critical). Melicamp was successfully revived this time, meaning reputation got up to 20 without the need to go to the Nashkel Mine. Picking up the charisma tome to take that to 20 (with the help of the cloak) then allowed some cheap shopping.
Got up to level 6 by killing a few ankhegs - that can be done safely by going invisible on first sight (stranding them on the surface) then webbing and blinding them without letting them see you while active. I'll head for Nashkel Mine next to activate Nimbul (and get access to his find familiar scroll).
Draconis against Human Form: Summons to survive Time Stop + Planetar but also to make him waste his protection spells. Once they are down → rush in and whirlwind him to death.
against Dragon Form: Hardiness + several GWW´s using Blackrazor will leveldrain him to death. Wing Buffets or Breathe never was a problem.as the healing of Blackrazor always kept Su´kka quite healty. No potion or scroll needed here.
Anadramatis Fighting this Yellow Dragon is a joke as he uses non-enchanted attacks that could not touch Su´kka. Leveldrain does not work but there is no need for it – just bring him to nearly dead and get the Breath Potion. Important: You get an amulet from him that immunizes against Wing Buffets – this will help very much later on!
Olhydra and the Kua-Toa Prison This is easy as well. While the Kua-Toas cannot harm Su´kka (immunity to normal weapons is so good!) the Greater Water Elementals go down quickly with Hardiness + GWW. As SCS makes you work a little harder for the rope that the Monk used to have Su´kka headed back to Amkethran, and got the Rope from the Tavern keeper.
Dragon Ambush Back to Abazigals Lair Su´kka had to fight several dragons in a row – otherwise the entrance keeps closed. The first one is tricky as you have to fight two black dragons at the same time. The tick was: Use one summon to distract one dragon while the other one follows Su´kka. Thanks to Hardiness + GWW + Blackrazor they will go down rather quickly. After resting Su´kka faced a Green Dragon thats hits even harder. Thanks to some luck he went down to the usual Hardiness + GWW + Blackrazor Combo without using any healing potion. Against the last one – a Red Dragon named Carnifex – Su´kka had to use several protection and healing potions as this beast hits like a truck. After some good running the leveldraining finally killed it. This was tough!
Scroll of Reversal To get the scroll Su´kka used invisibility to sneak through the Eyes and Beholders. Only one Tyrant Golem still followed but got killed to the usual Cloak of Mirror swapping while taking it down with several GWW´.s After talking to Iycanth the Mad Su´kka freed the statues using a Stone to Flesh Scroll and convinced the Heroes to get the Gauth Eyestalk. Bonus Effect: You now got all three pieces to create the very powerful Big Metal Unit. Therefore Su´kka returned to Amkethran. After getting the Big Metal Unit from the smith she revisited the smuggler cave. After helping Carras Su´kka also bought the Gargoyle Boots for some nice Stone Skin protection!
Fll'Yissetat Back in Abazigals Lair Su´kka met this good old Dragon. She used the Scroll of Reversal to free her of the geas which finally opened the way to Abazigal.
Abazigals Inner Sanctum SCS changes this fight in some ways. First you are rushed by four named Drakes that use different elemental breaths. As retreating does not work here Su´kka had to prepare very well for these four: Elemental Protection, Regeneration Potion, Hardiness + Stone Skin + Big Metal Unit. After this it was all about using GWW´s and Improved Haste to bring them down one after another. Leveldrain did not work here but the heal from Blackrazor proved to be very handy. If you survive the first minutes it will get a lot easier!
After the Drakes are down its time to hunt down all of the Frost Salamanders before engaging the Dragons. Thanks to Firetooth + GWW Su´kka avoided the damn Fire Shield and cleared the whole area. Just a matter of time!
Tamah Before engaging Abazigal himself Su´kka lured the Purple Dragon away from Abazigal and killed it with Hardiness + GWW + Blackrazor. Nothing special here – just the ususal leveldraining stuff!
Abazigal This one was the hell of a fight. In his Human Form he isnt a real threat at all – Su´´kka just stomped him into the ground. This changes dramatically once he changes into Dragon Form:
He is a Blue Dragon whose breath weapon works like a super-powered Chain Lightning spell. He he has 1680 Hit Points and can also cast spells like Earthquake, Imprisonment, Destroy Magic and Stone Skin over and over again.
To survive this madness Su´kka used: Anti-Wing-Buffet-Amulet, Cloak of Reflection to nullify the insane lightning breath, Negative Saving Throws to protect against Fear Effect, Protection from Magic Scroll to survive the Imprionment. As Abazigal nearly never uses his claws there was no need for Hardiness.
Even with all this protection Su´kka faced a big problem: Leveldrain did not work. Even worse: Abazigal will try to cast a Heal that will put him to full HP again if he drops to badly injured or nearly dead. The only way around was: Su´kka kept on hacking through his Stoneskins to bring him to badly injured – this may take a while but with all the protections Abazigal will not hurt you much. Right after that Su´kka summoned a Simulacrum that instantly used Protection from Magic while running io Abazigals back. From now on both Su´kka spammed GWW´s like crazy to hinder Abazigal from casting the Heal. With all the incoming damage Abazigal tried to retreat but both Su´kka relentlessy followed him to deliver a final deadly blow – victory!
So far this was by far the toughest challenge in ToB – can Sendai put an end to Su´kka path of destruction? We will see!
Impressive stuff from Su'kka there, but things aren't going to get any easier .
Getting through the Nashkel Mine was far more difficult for Frey than I expected. On the third level there is a pinch point just before the kobold shaman, but there should be room to get through there. However, the same sort of pathfinding glitch that's proved costly before caught Frey when he tried to get past and after a couple of failed attempts to get through movements of the kobolds blocked the apparent gap. After waiting about 10 minutes to see if they would move again and re-open the gap I tried attacking one of them and immediately going invisible again. That didn't work immediately and with dozens of kobolds now wandering around repeating the tactic was potentially risky, but it eventually worked on about the 5th attempt. After that things were more straight-forward: - resting in Mulahey's cave while using web and blindness to kill the kobolds outside. - webbing and blinding Mulahey to prompt his conversation. Frey was waiting at the entrance to leave before he could be attacked. Coming back in invisibly then meant Mulahey's reinforcements grouped around him, where they could be dealt with easily enough by webs and skull traps.
In Nashkel I decided to counter Rashaad's tendency to kill Nimbul by charming him first - meaning Frey got the XP. In Beregost Tranzig then died to some summoned monsters. Rather than go on to the Bandit Camp though Frey travelled around finishing off things previously left (just running away from the 2 SCS ambushing parties during that process). Clearing up various southern areas was enough for him to get to level 7.
At the basilisk area the use of wands meant the green scroll lasted easily long enough. Korax was recruited and sent in to paralyse Mutamin invisibly. He also managed to separate Kirian's party and some summoned monsters helped kill Kirian and Baerin before resting to web and blind the other two. Their death was just enough for level 8.
With stoneskin now available the battle horrors at Durlag's Tower (including the one guarded by skeleton archers) were relatively risk-free. A single mage protection from petrification scroll was enough to kill the lesser basilisk and blind the 3 greater basilisks on the roof. Along with all the ghasts in the upper tower that was enough for Frey's 9th and final BG1 level.
The tome at the Lighthouse was got with the help of summons against the sirines while the golems were mainly just meleed using mirror image and haste to complement stoneskins. Time to move on to the Bandit Camp next.
At the Bandit Camp Frey buffed up and looted the main tent - using invisibility to get out without the enemies following. Doing things that way round means that Venkt & co. don't respond to a call for help - thus making the rest of the Camp much easier. It still took a while, but regular charms and running skull traps along with invisible rests wore down the opponents. After looting the rest of the camp Frey then popped in and out of the main tent using skull traps to wear down the opposition a bit. Venkt was the only one to follow Frey outside, but he didn't appear to have anything to get past minor spell deflection and fell to magic missiles.
At the Cloakwood Mine Kysus was charmed. With his help just a couple of groups of summons were enough to finish off the others. Frey then worked down the mine, clearing Hareishan's level (mainly with skull traps) to ensure a safe retreat route. Frey only got into sight of Davaeorn while invisible to avoid being targeted. Once all his guards had been killed with a series of skull traps a couple of lots of summons disposed of Davaeorn.
Killing an innocent and stealing in Beregost ensured that Frey would get horror as a Bhaal ability. A few donations and tasks in Baldur's Gate put reputation back to maximum. I considered doing things more thoroughly in order to raise money to recharge items, but decided I had enough funds anyway. The cat tried pickpocketing some items I won't use now, but might need in SoD. However, when the cat was added to the backpack as well it automatically released the items back into inventory and items can only be stolen once so it can't do it again.
After reporting to Duke Eltan I was thinking SCS would require you to travel independently to Candlekeep, but the Duke sent Frey there directly. Even with being prepared I was only just able to pause in time to take a potion of magic blocking before being hit by what would probably have been a fatal assault by the waiting ogre magi.
In Candlekeep Frey just looted the tombs using his own buffs, though that was nearly fatal when I accidentally triggered the fireball trap outside the room with the strength tome on the way back out. All the occupants of the catacombs were left in peace.
Back in the City Slythe and Krystin went down to summons. At the palace hasted summons were followed up by casting spirit armour (from scroll) and improved invisibility on Belt. Two chaos attempts by scroll failed to have any impact, before a malison and another chaos affected one doppleganger. Meanwhile Belt had gone to near death and I put invisibility onto Liia before he died. With the doppleganger mage and cleric apparently out of spells that should have ensured victory from there, but I relaxed too soon! I sent Frey into one of the side rooms to top up summons from out of sight of the 3 remaining dopplegangers, but while doing that didn't notice that one of them had snuck up behind me. I did react and pause the game when my portrait suddenly turned rather red and expected to be able to move away before being attacked again - but another attack was apparently already on the way ...
Holy cow - the fight against SCS + LoB Sendai is total insanity. Once all statues are active Su´kka dies within seconds regardless of magic immunity and 80% DR. She is still trying to find a way through this madness. Best result so far: Four statues down! Anyway: This is one of the best battles in the whole series. More details later on when Su´kka hopefully smashed Sendai to the floor!
I will skip the rest of Sendais Enclave as its quite easy and most battles can be skipped thanks to invisibility. So lets go straight to one of the most challenging battles so far:
Before entering the Inner Sanctum Su´kka prepared herself: Magic Immunity, Elemental & Physical Resistances. Sendai has prepared seven statues in replication of herself. Each one represents a different class:. In order of appearance, they are; Cleric, Mage, Fighter/Thief, Berserker, Cleric/Mage, Fighter, and Thief.
One big changes that SCS introduces is that the statues will no longer wait until the previous one has activated. They will activate at short and regular time intervals regardless if the previous one has been killed. Even worse: Two Drows will spawn at the entrance each time a statue gets activated. Some of them will be Mages or Fighter/Mages. With other words: Chances are high that Su´kka will get overwhelmed in no time. If this is still not enough the Mages will summon two or three Dark Planetars. If this happens its game over.
On the good side are: 1. Invisibility – and some waiting – will break combat and allow Su´kka to escape to the Pocket Plane for some resting. 2. Only the Planetars are able to see through invisibility even though also the Mages may try to dispel it. 3. You can use summons or simulacrum to lure the enemies away giving you time to attack and kill another statue. 4. Double Su´kka makes short work of nealy any enemy without proper protections.
This lead to the following strategy: Kill the Fighter and Thief Statues first as they go down pretty fast. Su´kka killed the Berserker in the North-East first and rushed the Thief in the South-West next while using invisibilty. After retreating to the Pocket Plane she sneaked in again invisible. While the Simulacrum lured the enemies to the far eastern part another statue in the North-West went down to Firetooth + GWW so Su´kka was always out of vision of the big enemy group hunting the fake Su´kka (somehow call for help did not trigger).
The kill-one-statue-and-retreat-game continued until only the heavy protected Mages and the Drow Guards were left. As the Melee Fighters hit very hard – Stone Skin + Mirror Image + Hardiness is not enough to survive for one minute – double Su´kka killed several Drows on each return trip before using another invisibility potion.
To get down the Mages Su´kka used several summons to lure the Planetars away and make them waste their protection spells. Once the Planetars were gone Su´kka rushed in trying to get some hits. Whenever another spell sequencer triggersd she circled for some rounds until the protection expired and rushed in again to get another shot. This continued until the last statue died and the real Sendai appeared.
Before engaging her Su´kka used a last trip to the pocket plane. When going back she summoned an Earth Elemental that lured another Dark Planetar away. Once it disappeared Su´kka played the engage and wait game several times as Sendai uses a lot of protection spells. Whenever they expired she moved and tried to slow Sendai down with the Flail of Ages +5 or hurt her through the Stone Skins. She isnt a real danger once the Dark Planetar is away but thanks to her teleports and neverending protections it took some while before Su´kka was able to get in the killing blow...
Fighting Balthazar in the vanilla game was near to joking. But thanks to SCS + LoB this fight finally gets a lot more challenging and can easily go wrong. Balthazar – and also his Elite Guards - not only has the standard Monk abilities (Stunning Fist, Quivering Palm, Lay on Hands), but he also uses a lot of of special powers. The following list is what I have watched so far:
1. Shadow Stance - Invisibility 2. Shadow Kick – knocks back for a long distance and stuns several rounds – keep Rage up! 3. Second Wind - works like Heal so he is at full HP again – very frustrating! 4. Solar Stance - like Sunfire spell that works instantly, and will knock characters back. 5. Lunar Stance - a Spell Trigger that unleashes Bigby’s Crushing Hand, Magic Missiles, and Greater Malison at once –> Cloak of Mirroring! 6. Dragon Fist - Will damage and dispel buffs – say goodbye Stoneskin! 7. Chant - Allows Balthasar to switch his magic resistance for high physical damage. 8. Faster than the Eye: Works like a teleport 9. Hand of Murder: Increased damage and healing per hit – run!!
Su´kka buffed herself up with protections while using the Big Metal Unit to push her AC to -20. A Speed Potion also works golden as this battle is all about hit-and-run.
This means: Whenever Su´kka got the opportunity to catch Balthasar alone she rushed in and attacked him with Flail of Ages + GWW. Once the Monk Guards flood in or Balthasar tries to use one of his knockbacks/stuns Su´kka retreated. Keeping up Rage helped a lot as it negated at least the stun.
With some patience it wasnt that hard to drain his life slowly but surely while avoiding any CC. The critical moment comes when Balthasar is nearly dead cause now Su´kka had to be fast before he uses his second wind for instahealing up to full HP again. It took some tries but thanks to some good hits double Su´kka finally managed to get in the killing blow and clearing the way for the final battles.
Lol - after Balthazars death there is no call from Solaris. Su´kka had first to revisit the statues at the Elven Grove where she get ambushed by buffed up Demon Knight, a Tanari, a Succubus, two Mariliths and a Dark Planetar. This time there was no moving around - Su´kka had to fight them to activate the statues again which will trigger Slaris afterwards.
The good thing: You only have to kill the Planetar! Therefore Su´kka lured especially the Mariliths away killed the others and only then engaged the Planetar using Simulacrum. Thanks to Hand of Murder double GWW spamming the Celestial did not even get the chance to use its Heal. That was tough - now the dreaded Ravager is waiting or Su´kka!!
The last challenge before the final confrontation with Amelyssan starts and this is quite tough for a Warrior Class.
The Ravager alone is not to be taken easy as he hits hard, dispels any buffs, has many HP´s and decent resistances to all kinds of damage. To make things even worse there are severl Boneblades that will hack Su´kka down in no time together with the Ravager.
After trying Summons + Double Su´kka unleashing one GWW after another it was still not enough to bring him down before the damage gets lethal. Kiting did not work as the Ravager will use a hard hitting ranged attack that will waste healing potions quickly.
The only thing that worked: Use some elementals to lure the Bone Swords to the closed barrier in the west while engaging the Ravager in the eastern corner of the room. As call for help now does not triggered Su´kka had time to unleash everything on the Ravager. Thanks to 80% DR the incoming damage from the demon was manageable especially when slowing him down with Flail of Ages. After burning all of her GWW´s and all of her Improved Haste it still took some more hits to finally tear the Ravager apart. Job done - Okay „only“ Amelyssan is left...
Short summary of the progress so far: Even if Su´kka will fail against Amelyssan i am quite impressed how far the Barbarian has come. There was always one way or another to get past the different challenges. At least to this point its quite clear that there is no need for OP Combos like Fighter/Mage or something similar. But before facing Amelyssan its time for some rest...!
Just for the fun i put all resistances to 100%+ but somehow the HP still drops very fast. To bad that the Combat Log is somehow broken as it doesnt show the damage type or number (a bug that occured after installing SCS and some other mods).
First i thought that kiting with the Shield of Reflection would work but - no - the Fallen Solars are moving so fast that there is no escape. I also convinced Bodhi to join me but this summoned another Fallen Solar + Marilith + Succubus + Alu Demon. During the fight the screen is constantly shaking from some Earthquake so its hard to even see where Su´kka is running and which enemies are moving in which direction.
I will keep in trying but things are looking pretty grim at the moment...
EDIT: After some reading i am trying to install "Jimfix Mod" that fixes the probably unintentional summoning of the Demons around the Fallen Solar. Lets see if it works!
EDIT: After some reading i am trying to install "Jimfix Mod" that fixes the probably unintentional summoning of the Demons around the Fallen Solar. Lets see if it works!
Comments
Another problem occured: The game constantly crashes after the final talking of Ellesime so i have to import Su´kka manually into ToB. But if i do this any container is destroyed - even my bag of holding. This is total crap cause many of her magic items are just gone now. Is there a way around or will i have to create the items manually?
Even when stripped down to core equip the first challenge - improved Illasera - was quite funny. Using invisibilty Su´kka lured Illasera away from the others - who could not see through it - and hacked her to pieces using Hardiness and GWW´s only - easy!
The first challenge in the pocket plane was also quite easy as the civilians cannot hurt Su´kka. Surrounded by them she killed the Knights and after that Elesinne, Eltan and Aran using Firetooth and finally Flail of Ages in combination with Hardiness and GWW. Thanks to magic resistance, spell turning and godlike saving throws not a single spell touched Su´kka.
At the moment she is on her way to Gromnir - this should be the first real challenge on her nearly-no-items-run. Phhhhh...
EDIT: Gromnir went down much easier than expected. The only trick was: Split them to victory and lure Gromnir away from his two Mage Guards using invisibility again. Double Su´kka activated Hardiness + GWW for a fast takedown. Fighting the whole group including the Mages proved to be fatal as they instantly summon two Fallen Planetars - ouch!
Next stops for Su´kka will be Watchers Keep and hunting down Yaga Shura. But first: Time for some rest!
Forest of Mir - The Temple
Killed the Shades and Horror using Hardiness + Rage + GWW while skipping the Undead Casters using invisibility. Talked to Nyalee.
Yaga-Shura's Lair
Su´kka used invisibility to sneak through and avoided any fight after taking the Wardstones. On the second floor she lured the Dragon downstairs and kited the Fire Giants to death. After some retreat-resting Su´kka used Simulacrum + Hardiness + GWW´s to take Berenn down quite fast before he could summon his Planetar. She took both Hearts while skipping Imix the Fire Prince. Job done!
Forest of Mir - The Temple
Brought Nyalee the Heart of Yaga-Shura so he can be wounded but skipped the fight - who needs xp at this point?
Siege Camp
Thanks to invisibility its wasnt hard to split Yaga-Shura from his guards. As close combat was no option - he hits like a truck, uses a damn fire aura and pushes one away regularly - Su´kka had to fall back to good old kiting. This took a long time but was very safe as his Fireballs were unable to hit Su´kka. At the end it was a matter of time before he went down to a final bolt. Easier than expected!
Second Challenge in the Pocket Plane
This one was - as @Grond0 predicted - the toughest nut so far. The easiest solution: Use invisibility to lure only the melee opponents - Su´kka II., Tamoko and Angelo - to the east near the gate where Su´kkas Simulacrum joined the fight. Thanks to Hardiness + Rage + GWW the evil Su´kka went down quite quickly. No more leveldraining attacks - good! Next target was the Kai-using Tamoko who hits hard but also goes down rather quickly. Su´kka used one more invisibility to heal up in between and smacked down the injured Tamoko and also Angelo - the easiest target of all as his backstabs are doing nothing to Su´kka. This left open the very dangerous Semaj. While the summons soaked up most of his spells Su´kka used the vision-breaking-pools to wait until Semajs protection spells - and the fearsome Planetar - expired. After that it was time for a fast smackdown using several GWW´s. Job done!
Invisibility works quite nice if you face boss monsters that are surrounded by several guards. Be it Torgal, Yaga-Shura, Illasera, Gromnir or Irenicus. As only they will see trough the invisibility they are the only ones who will follow you while the others will stand still. As long as you lure the boss far enough the improved call for help will not work so you can face the boss in a "fair" 1vs1.
Okay, Sukka has now the choice: Sendai or Abazigal? Maybe she should test improved Draconis first even though it will be a hellride without the acid-protection. Thanks again to the your-items-are-gone-crap!
This fight was.... a joke.... because.... Blackrazor owned Draconis so hard... he had no chance... breaths were not touching Su´kka even without acid protection... wing buffet was constantly missing... claw attacks did hurt but Blackrazor outhealed it... after 11 GWW´s the leveldrain triggered once more and instakilled Draconis who was "injured" only!
Does Blackrazor works against Abazigal too?
Another LOOOL @Grond0 cause i read your hint right after Draconis went down - too funny!
I don't understand the need to gimp yourself itemless. Why not just transfer your old and current save to an mp folder. Open your old save and then create 5 generic mules. Give Su'kka 'so items to each of them and then export them all with different names. Reload your current save and import each of the 5 different mules. Give the items back to Su'kka and delete the mules. Transfer your save back to SP.
Su´kka is now beating more than half an hour at him but every time he gets to "badly injured" or "nearly dead" he uses "Heal" and is at full HP again. Happened the fifth time now - i am running out of magic protection. On the good side: The Magic Protection Scroll nullifies all of his nasty spells while the Cloak of Reflection protects against his heavy hitting breath. On the bad side: Leveldrain is NOT working - damn!
I cant see a way around this damn instaheal as it seems that he can cast it at will - with endless stacks. Any ideas?
Incidentally, using all your magic protection here might make later fights rather difficult ...
The tactic was simple: Bring him down to "badly injured" -> Simulacrum -> Double GWW him to death!!
He did not even get the chance to use his instaheal as the damage numbers rolled like crazy. Wonderful!
Will write down a detailed walkthrough of Abazigals Lair soon - time for some rest first!
Went to Firewine Bridge to charm Meilum and send him into combat in order to get his bracers. Then up to Ulgoth's Beard to use the cloak to pull Dushai away from the villagers before using run and shoot to kill him for his ring.
Travelled round doing reputation quests, using blind and run & shoot (with the occasional charm). Got to level 5 working hard to kill Charleston Nib's diggers to add web to disabling options (taking my only hit to date there, but fortunately not a critical). Melicamp was successfully revived this time, meaning reputation got up to 20 without the need to go to the Nashkel Mine. Picking up the charisma tome to take that to 20 (with the help of the cloak) then allowed some cheap shopping.
Got up to level 6 by killing a few ankhegs - that can be done safely by going invisible on first sight (stranding them on the surface) then webbing and blinding them without letting them see you while active. I'll head for Nashkel Mine next to activate Nimbul (and get access to his find familiar scroll).
Su´kka vs Abazigals Lair
Draconisagainst Human Form: Summons to survive Time Stop + Planetar but also to make him waste his protection spells. Once they are down → rush in and whirlwind him to death.
against Dragon Form: Hardiness + several GWW´s using Blackrazor will leveldrain him to death. Wing Buffets or Breathe never was a problem.as the healing of Blackrazor always kept Su´kka quite healty. No potion or scroll needed here.
Anadramatis
Fighting this Yellow Dragon is a joke as he uses non-enchanted attacks that could not touch Su´kka. Leveldrain does not work but there is no need for it – just bring him to nearly dead and get the Breath Potion. Important: You get an amulet from him that immunizes against Wing Buffets – this will help very much later on!
Olhydra and the Kua-Toa Prison
This is easy as well. While the Kua-Toas cannot harm Su´kka (immunity to normal weapons is so good!) the Greater Water Elementals go down quickly with Hardiness + GWW. As SCS makes you work a little harder for the rope that the Monk used to have Su´kka headed back to Amkethran, and got the Rope from the Tavern keeper.
Dragon Ambush
Back to Abazigals Lair Su´kka had to fight several dragons in a row – otherwise the entrance keeps closed. The first one is tricky as you have to fight two black dragons at the same time. The tick was: Use one summon to distract one dragon while the other one follows Su´kka. Thanks to Hardiness + GWW + Blackrazor they will go down rather quickly. After resting Su´kka faced a Green Dragon thats hits even harder. Thanks to some luck he went down to the usual Hardiness + GWW + Blackrazor Combo without using any healing potion. Against the last one – a Red Dragon named Carnifex – Su´kka had to use several protection and healing potions as this beast hits like a truck. After some good running the leveldraining finally killed it. This was tough!
Scroll of Reversal
To get the scroll Su´kka used invisibility to sneak through the Eyes and Beholders. Only one Tyrant Golem still followed but got killed to the usual Cloak of Mirror swapping while taking it down with several GWW´.s After talking to Iycanth the Mad Su´kka freed the statues using a Stone to Flesh Scroll and convinced the Heroes to get the Gauth Eyestalk. Bonus Effect: You now got all three pieces to create the very powerful Big Metal Unit. Therefore Su´kka returned to Amkethran. After getting the Big Metal Unit from the smith she revisited the smuggler cave. After helping Carras Su´kka also bought the Gargoyle Boots for some nice Stone Skin protection!
Fll'Yissetat
Back in Abazigals Lair Su´kka met this good old Dragon. She used the Scroll of Reversal to free her of the geas which finally opened the way to Abazigal.
Abazigals Inner Sanctum
SCS changes this fight in some ways. First you are rushed by four named Drakes that use different elemental breaths. As retreating does not work here Su´kka had to prepare very well for these four: Elemental Protection, Regeneration Potion, Hardiness + Stone Skin + Big Metal Unit. After this it was all about using GWW´s and Improved Haste to bring them down one after another. Leveldrain did not work here but the heal from Blackrazor proved to be very handy. If you survive the first minutes it will get a lot easier!
After the Drakes are down its time to hunt down all of the Frost Salamanders before engaging the Dragons. Thanks to Firetooth + GWW Su´kka avoided the damn Fire Shield and cleared the whole area. Just a matter of time!
Tamah
Before engaging Abazigal himself Su´kka lured the Purple Dragon away from Abazigal and killed it with Hardiness + GWW + Blackrazor. Nothing special here – just the ususal leveldraining stuff!
Abazigal
This one was the hell of a fight. In his Human Form he isnt a real threat at all – Su´´kka just stomped him into the ground. This changes dramatically once he changes into Dragon Form:
He is a Blue Dragon whose breath weapon works like a super-powered Chain Lightning spell. He he has 1680 Hit Points and can also cast spells like Earthquake, Imprisonment, Destroy Magic and Stone Skin over and over again.
To survive this madness Su´kka used: Anti-Wing-Buffet-Amulet, Cloak of Reflection to nullify the insane lightning breath, Negative Saving Throws to protect against Fear Effect, Protection from Magic Scroll to survive the Imprionment. As Abazigal nearly never uses his claws there was no need for Hardiness.
Even with all this protection Su´kka faced a big problem: Leveldrain did not work. Even worse: Abazigal will try to cast a Heal that will put him to full HP again if he drops to badly injured or nearly dead. The only way around was: Su´kka kept on hacking through his Stoneskins to bring him to badly injured – this may take a while but with all the protections Abazigal will not hurt you much. Right after that Su´kka summoned a Simulacrum that instantly used Protection from Magic while running io Abazigals back. From now on both Su´kka spammed GWW´s like crazy to hinder Abazigal from casting the Heal. With all the incoming damage Abazigal tried to retreat but both Su´kka relentlessy followed him to deliver a final deadly blow – victory!
So far this was by far the toughest challenge in ToB – can Sendai put an end to Su´kka path of destruction? We will see!
Getting through the Nashkel Mine was far more difficult for Frey than I expected. On the third level there is a pinch point just before the kobold shaman, but there should be room to get through there. However, the same sort of pathfinding glitch that's proved costly before caught Frey when he tried to get past and after a couple of failed attempts to get through movements of the kobolds blocked the apparent gap. After waiting about 10 minutes to see if they would move again and re-open the gap I tried attacking one of them and immediately going invisible again. That didn't work immediately and with dozens of kobolds now wandering around repeating the tactic was potentially risky, but it eventually worked on about the 5th attempt. After that things were more straight-forward:
- resting in Mulahey's cave while using web and blindness to kill the kobolds outside.
- webbing and blinding Mulahey to prompt his conversation. Frey was waiting at the entrance to leave before he could be attacked. Coming back in invisibly then meant Mulahey's reinforcements grouped around him, where they could be dealt with easily enough by webs and skull traps.
In Nashkel I decided to counter Rashaad's tendency to kill Nimbul by charming him first - meaning Frey got the XP. In Beregost Tranzig then died to some summoned monsters. Rather than go on to the Bandit Camp though Frey travelled around finishing off things previously left (just running away from the 2 SCS ambushing parties during that process). Clearing up various southern areas was enough for him to get to level 7.
At the basilisk area the use of wands meant the green scroll lasted easily long enough. Korax was recruited and sent in to paralyse Mutamin invisibly. He also managed to separate Kirian's party and some summoned monsters helped kill Kirian and Baerin before resting to web and blind the other two. Their death was just enough for level 8.
With stoneskin now available the battle horrors at Durlag's Tower (including the one guarded by skeleton archers) were relatively risk-free. A single mage protection from petrification scroll was enough to kill the lesser basilisk and blind the 3 greater basilisks on the roof. Along with all the ghasts in the upper tower that was enough for Frey's 9th and final BG1 level.
The tome at the Lighthouse was got with the help of summons against the sirines while the golems were mainly just meleed using mirror image and haste to complement stoneskins. Time to move on to the Bandit Camp next.
At the Cloakwood Mine Kysus was charmed. With his help just a couple of groups of summons were enough to finish off the others. Frey then worked down the mine, clearing Hareishan's level (mainly with skull traps) to ensure a safe retreat route. Frey only got into sight of Davaeorn while invisible to avoid being targeted. Once all his guards had been killed with a series of skull traps a couple of lots of summons disposed of Davaeorn.
Killing an innocent and stealing in Beregost ensured that Frey would get horror as a Bhaal ability. A few donations and tasks in Baldur's Gate put reputation back to maximum. I considered doing things more thoroughly in order to raise money to recharge items, but decided I had enough funds anyway. The cat tried pickpocketing some items I won't use now, but might need in SoD. However, when the cat was added to the backpack as well it automatically released the items back into inventory and items can only be stolen once so it can't do it again.
After reporting to Duke Eltan I was thinking SCS would require you to travel independently to Candlekeep, but the Duke sent Frey there directly. Even with being prepared I was only just able to pause in time to take a potion of magic blocking before being hit by what would probably have been a fatal assault by the waiting ogre magi.
Back in the City Slythe and Krystin went down to summons. At the palace hasted summons were followed up by casting spirit armour (from scroll) and improved invisibility on Belt. Two chaos attempts by scroll failed to have any impact, before a malison and another chaos affected one doppleganger. Meanwhile Belt had gone to near death and I put invisibility onto Liia before he died. With the doppleganger mage and cleric apparently out of spells that should have ensured victory from there, but I relaxed too soon! I sent Frey into one of the side rooms to top up summons from out of sight of the 3 remaining dopplegangers, but while doing that didn't notice that one of them had snuck up behind me. I did react and pause the game when my portrait suddenly turned rather red and expected to be able to move away before being attacked again - but another attack was apparently already on the way ...
Su´kka in the meanwhile solved the third challenge. The Slayer was a joke and had no chance against Hardiness + Stoneskin + GWW´s.
Su´kka is also close to Sendai - only the Mindflayers are left before the Sendai crazyness can start. We will see what happens next!
Su´kka vs Sendai
I will skip the rest of Sendais Enclave as its quite easy and most battles can be skipped thanks to invisibility. So lets go straight to one of the most challenging battles so far:Before entering the Inner Sanctum Su´kka prepared herself: Magic Immunity, Elemental & Physical Resistances. Sendai has prepared seven statues in replication of herself. Each one represents a different class:. In order of appearance, they are; Cleric, Mage, Fighter/Thief, Berserker, Cleric/Mage, Fighter, and Thief.
One big changes that SCS introduces is that the statues will no longer wait until the previous one has activated. They will activate at short and regular time intervals regardless if the previous one has been killed. Even worse: Two Drows will spawn at the entrance each time a statue gets activated. Some of them will be Mages or Fighter/Mages. With other words: Chances are high that Su´kka will get overwhelmed in no time. If this is still not enough the Mages will summon two or three Dark Planetars. If this happens its game over.
On the good side are:
1. Invisibility – and some waiting – will break combat and allow Su´kka to escape to the Pocket Plane for some resting.
2. Only the Planetars are able to see through invisibility even though also the Mages may try to dispel it.
3. You can use summons or simulacrum to lure the enemies away giving you time to attack and kill another statue.
4. Double Su´kka makes short work of nealy any enemy without proper protections.
This lead to the following strategy:
Kill the Fighter and Thief Statues first as they go down pretty fast. Su´kka killed the Berserker in the North-East first and rushed the Thief in the South-West next while using invisibilty. After retreating to the Pocket Plane she sneaked in again invisible. While the Simulacrum lured the enemies to the far eastern part another statue in the North-West went down to Firetooth + GWW so Su´kka was always out of vision of the big enemy group hunting the fake Su´kka (somehow call for help did not trigger).
The kill-one-statue-and-retreat-game continued until only the heavy protected Mages and the Drow Guards were left. As the Melee Fighters hit very hard – Stone Skin + Mirror Image + Hardiness is not enough to survive for one minute – double Su´kka killed several Drows on each return trip before using another invisibility potion.
To get down the Mages Su´kka used several summons to lure the Planetars away and make them waste their protection spells. Once the Planetars were gone Su´kka rushed in trying to get some hits. Whenever another spell sequencer triggersd she circled for some rounds until the protection expired and rushed in again to get another shot. This continued until the last statue died and the real Sendai appeared.
Before engaging her Su´kka used a last trip to the pocket plane. When going back she summoned an Earth Elemental that lured another Dark Planetar away. Once it disappeared Su´kka played the engage and wait game several times as Sendai uses a lot of protection spells. Whenever they expired she moved and tried to slow Sendai down with the Flail of Ages +5 or hurt her through the Stone Skins. She isnt a real danger once the Dark Planetar is away but thanks to her teleports and neverending protections it took some while before Su´kka was able to get in the killing blow...
The fourth challenge and Balthasar are waiting...
Su´kka vs Balthasar
Fighting Balthazar in the vanilla game was near to joking. But thanks to SCS + LoB this fight finally gets a lot more challenging and can easily go wrong. Balthazar – and also his Elite Guards - not only has the standard Monk abilities (Stunning Fist, Quivering Palm, Lay on Hands), but he also uses a lot of of special powers. The following list is what I have watched so far:1. Shadow Stance - Invisibility
2. Shadow Kick – knocks back for a long distance and stuns several rounds – keep Rage up!
3. Second Wind - works like Heal so he is at full HP again – very frustrating!
4. Solar Stance - like Sunfire spell that works instantly, and will knock characters back.
5. Lunar Stance - a Spell Trigger that unleashes Bigby’s Crushing Hand, Magic Missiles, and Greater Malison at once –> Cloak of Mirroring!
6. Dragon Fist - Will damage and dispel buffs – say goodbye Stoneskin!
7. Chant - Allows Balthasar to switch his magic resistance for high physical damage.
8. Faster than the Eye: Works like a teleport
9. Hand of Murder: Increased damage and healing per hit – run!!
Su´kka buffed herself up with protections while using the Big Metal Unit to push her AC to -20. A Speed Potion also works golden as this battle is all about hit-and-run.
This means: Whenever Su´kka got the opportunity to catch Balthasar alone she rushed in and attacked him with Flail of Ages + GWW. Once the Monk Guards flood in or Balthasar tries to use one of his knockbacks/stuns Su´kka retreated. Keeping up Rage helped a lot as it negated at least the stun.
With some patience it wasnt that hard to drain his life slowly but surely while avoiding any CC. The critical moment comes when Balthasar is nearly dead cause now Su´kka had to be fast before he uses his second wind for instahealing up to full HP again. It took some tries but thanks to some good hits double Su´kka finally managed to get in the killing blow and clearing the way for the final battles.
The good thing: You only have to kill the Planetar! Therefore Su´kka lured especially the Mariliths away killed the others and only then engaged the Planetar using Simulacrum. Thanks to Hand of Murder double GWW spamming the Celestial did not even get the chance to use its Heal. That was tough - now the dreaded Ravager is waiting or Su´kka!!
Su´kka vs Ravager
The last challenge before the final confrontation with Amelyssan starts and this is quite tough for a Warrior Class.The Ravager alone is not to be taken easy as he hits hard, dispels any buffs, has many HP´s and decent resistances to all kinds of damage. To make things even worse there are severl Boneblades that will hack Su´kka down in no time together with the Ravager.
After trying Summons + Double Su´kka unleashing one GWW after another it was still not enough to bring him down before the damage gets lethal. Kiting did not work as the Ravager will use a hard hitting ranged attack that will waste healing potions quickly.
The only thing that worked: Use some elementals to lure the Bone Swords to the closed barrier in the west while engaging the Ravager in the eastern corner of the room. As call for help now does not triggered Su´kka had time to unleash everything on the Ravager. Thanks to 80% DR the incoming damage from the demon was manageable especially when slowing him down with Flail of Ages. After burning all of her GWW´s and all of her Improved Haste it still took some more hits to finally tear the Ravager apart. Job done - Okay „only“ Amelyssan is left...
Short summary of the progress so far: Even if Su´kka will fail against Amelyssan i am quite impressed how far the Barbarian has come. There was always one way or another to get past the different challenges. At least to this point its quite clear that there is no need for OP Combos like Fighter/Mage or something similar. But before facing Amelyssan its time for some rest...!
2x Fallen Solar
4x Marilith
2x Succubus
2x Alu Fiend
+ Irenicus
+ Bodhi
+ Slayer Imoen
+ Endless Skeleton Warriors
Just for the fun i put all resistances to 100%+ but somehow the HP still drops very fast. To bad that the Combat Log is somehow broken as it doesnt show the damage type or number (a bug that occured after installing SCS and some other mods).
First i thought that kiting with the Shield of Reflection would work but - no - the Fallen Solars are moving so fast that there is no escape. I also convinced Bodhi to join me but this summoned another Fallen Solar + Marilith + Succubus + Alu Demon. During the fight the screen is constantly shaking from some Earthquake so its hard to even see where Su´kka is running and which enemies are moving in which direction.
I will keep in trying but things are looking pretty grim at the moment...
EDIT: After some reading i am trying to install "Jimfix Mod" that fixes the probably unintentional summoning of the Demons around the Fallen Solar. Lets see if it works!
Also, did you see the last page of https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/39319/the-nightmare-mode-legacy-of-bhaal-thread?