I think Sarevok's saves are all supposed to be 1 in the base game. The LoB bug increases that to 6, but if you've got the fix applied that should reduce it back to 1. LoB then applies an adjustment to the roll of 5, so that effectively his save is -4. That means I suspect that you will struggle to give him any chance of failing his save, even with using doom etc, which means Sarevok would take no damage at all from the glyphs. Backstabs might be the way to go compared to that .
Is a possible alternative to run Sarevok around a skeleton or elemental? That would require a lot of precision over a long period, but might still be preferable to fist backstabs ...
Yeah, saving the summons would be the best way @Grond0 but can you give me a reliable way to get rid of Semaj and Tazok after the talking? There is no Spike Growth or Insect Plague available for Cleric... hmmmm...
If fist backstabbing is the way to go it might be a good idea to remember "Unfailing Endurance" as Fatigue might kill any chance of success in the long run - no?
From your proposed action plan it looks like it could well be possible to have the air elemental and 1 skeleton left with only Sarevok to go. I'm not sure what the duration of the elemental is, but if that is 1 turn per level it probably won't last long enough to do too much damage to Sarevok. A skeleton though should be more durable. Avoiding Sarevok attacking it for a long period though would be pretty challenging, so I would suggest you keep your fists ready .
IF Sarevoks Haste gets dispelled AND we manage to avoid any Skeleton Warrior adds playing hit and run with two summons should be doable - i have done the same with Spirit Lions before @Grond0. The duration of the Air Elemental should be 26 turns which is a lot time for some punching.
One main problem is: The more i inveest in Dispel Magic to - potentially - get rid of Sarevoks Haste the less Skeletons i can summon. With four spell slots this can get tricky as sometimes even four Dispels are not enough. But without Skels on the other hand we are most likely doomed.
But - stop - wait a moment! There is another option i had sometimes used with my Druids: What about dominating Semaj?
After looking at Semajs reworked spell pool i must say: Wow!
1x Spider Spawn
1x Lesser Air Elemental
1x Monster Summoning III
1x Nishruu
That looks like a LOT potential. This looks good - very good!
So at the end it will most likely be all about Haste or no Haste!
But - stop - wait a moment! There is another option i had sometimes used with my Druids: What about dominating Semaj?
After looking at Semajs reworked spell pool i must say: Wow!
1x Spider Spawn
1x Lesser Air Elemental
1x Monster Summoning III
1x Nishruu
That looks like a LOT potential. This looks good - very good!
If you've installed the save bug fix you would need to nerf his saving throws somehow in order to have any chance at all of dominating him. I like your earlier plan more ...
Casting Doom on Semaj is no problem as he will remain neutral until either Dominate ends or you talk to Sarevok. So the perfect combo is to cast Doom + Dominate once you brought him down to nearly zero cause then you can get in more summons and can cast Fireball to burn him and Tazok down - hopefully.
The only thing that can go wrong is that Dominate wont work so you have to rest and repeat - same for Tamoko. Yes, all of this might take a lot of time but there isnt much that can go wrong - as long as you do not move into Sarevoks vision by accident.
So the current plan might be:
Diarmid: Instakilled by 80+ Glyphs of Warding
Semaj: Invsibility dispelled -> hacked down to nearly zero -> Doom+Dominate -> Summons + Fireball
Tazok: Invsibility dispelled -> hacked down to nearly zero -> Summons + Fireball for the kill
Angelo: Aerial Servant + Air Elemental + Skeleton (who will soak up Chromatic Orb!)
It will be essential to park the appearing Skeleton Warriors so they wont aggro when fighting Sarevok. Using the Aerial Servant + Air Elemental + Skeleton should be not too complicated IF his Haste got dispelled. Its just a matter of patience and concentration. And even if he manages to take them down at one point there is always the option to fist stab him. This could get really funny!
So all in all the whole plan seems quite simple. Its flawless execution however is written on another sheet of paper!
Alessia advanced to Dragonspear Castle attack, but...
Chapter 8, Teleria doesn't activate if you get hit from Invisibility, casual kill. Three skelis and WoMS did just enough damage to save the Vampire. Cloak of Minor Arcana improved my caster level by 1, which in level 10 means, level 7 hd Skeleton Warriors, who absolutely massacred the undead fighting the dwarves. The Lich was done with PfU, Speed, Power, 2x Mind Focus, Biter +2 and Secret Revealed. I was able to hit above 16, so with 4 apr once in a round it was enough.
Chapter 9, Morentherene daggered, Ziatar burned. Managed to charm Akanna first hit from Algernon's cloak, and she was soon killed. Doing the Bridgefort guests Alessia got to max level of 11. Bridge Mage was interrupted with 3 Hasted Skeletons and a Cloudkill.
Chapter 10, did the mundane guests, used second last PfU to kill the undead with OGL in the cave, and got the Silence Amulet. Again the Lich in the Kanaglym was a close one, 4 Hasted Skeletons just about killed it. Looted the Crown of Lies from Hephernaan's room with 100 MR and quickly escaped.
Crusader Attacks, and I had plenty of stuff, and Dosia could refresh my spells 3 times before dying.
I charmed Safanna and Dorn and moved them away, then laid 11 Skull Traps for the final wave from castings. Then 16 Skull Traps from scrolls for the troll wave, 5 Skeleton Warriors backline, 5 pre Webs, 2 pre Cloudkills to interrupt Ogre Mages and before activating the wave Dosia refreshed my spells. Interestingly both mages and Yarok stayed uninjured, as has been the current bug with certain characters since 2.5. Only two Trolls died after my initial Fireball, and even though I mistakenly took the rogues for this battle, the Skelis bought enough time to kill most of them, and then WoMS lastly wiped Yarok and one Mage off.
Mage wave, 8 pre Skull Traps, 5 pre Webs, 1 pre Cloudkill. And Wizard Slayers helped me to easily wipe the mages. One thing to remember here is to stay out of Stysich Dispel.
Paladin wave, 8 pre Skulls, 5 pre Webs, 5 pre Cloudkills, started the fight with 3x Web sequencer, then 4x Cloudkills, 2x Web sequencer. And they didn't stand a chance.
Fore the last wave I got final refresh from Dosia and she died. Then 5 Skeli backline, and after my initial 11 Skulls did some damage, I hit them with 3x Skull sequencer and only three named ones was left. And Skelis quickly swept them away. Didn't need Goblet once.
One hour waiting at Dragonspear Castle attack produced 46 Invul and 38 Speed, but only 9 Power and 5 Invisibility potions. Problem though, as I can't pass the blob of fighters. I've now waited another half a hour and the game is beginning to become sluggish. Anyone got ideas how to pass the chokepoint?
Too bad: The spawning seems to be endless - which could also work in your favour if the Crusaders manage to push back your allies far enough. But most likely the blob will then grow to insane numbers. With the other characters i had Arrows of Detonation cleaning the field far enough to slip through. Any comparable damage options available @histamiini? A well placed Teleport Field could get you through the wall as well - no?
@Harpagornis Teleport Field is a great idea. I've Wand of Fire to hit them but it's quite slow, and I already got confused and almost died when I got too close. I'm two hours deep currently and Crusaders have pushed to the last doorway, so I'm going to wait a some before trying Teleport Field.
Damn my only Teleport Field worked almost, as it allowed Crusaders pass the allied wall. But it didn't matter because unkillable de Lance was surrounded an all mighty blob of his own that was also blocking the way. Started hitting with WoF and it cleared some of them, but it wasn't quick enough. In the end Alessia died from something, which I couldn't catch what it was. Oh well, I'm still going to try Bel out before continuing my Cavalier run.
The Otilluke Fireshield Blue tactic against Belhifet is going to be hard one to succeed, as Otilluke makes your character visible again when casting it. And after Otilluke ends, you've to wait a round before you can drink Invisibility potion, and at that time you're free lunch to all. Possibly if you had 300 hp from Power Potions everytime Otilluke ends, the tactic could work.
After two days of preparing every step finally the moment of truth had come – lets go:
1. Cleared the Temple from all Bats
For this one Ziad used his Skels to hunt down all Bats as they would otherwise pretrigger the Glyphs.
2. Placed 2x 100 Glyphs of Warding at the spawning points of Diarmid and Angelo
This took quite some time and 49 rests outside the temple. Thanks to Bhaal that resting is safe here!
3. Dominated Tamoko and lured her into the temple summoning an Aerial Servant
This took several tries but once in the temple she was feeded to her summon who had an easy time hitting the bare fisted Cleric. Fun Fact: Its not possible to move her out of the temple again as each time a new Tamoko will spawn outside. Too bad she only gets the updated spell pool so casting several Aerial Servants is not possible.
4. 3x Dispel Magic to break invisbility of Semaj & Tazok while also getting rid of Sarevoks Haste
This one took lots of tries as often times only one of them appeared. Rest and repeat.
5. Used the Aerial Servant to hack Semaj and Tazok to nearly zero
The Aerial Servant quickly put down both and while Ziad had planned to call in a Skeleton for the final work the Servant critted down both to 15 HP and 25 HP (one has to remember that this elemental fury can crit for up to 90 damage). Avoiding an instakill here is essential as Diarmid and Angelo would no longer port making Sarevok immortal.
6. Casted Doom + Mental Domination on Semaj to get in more summons
This one also proved to be difficult forcing several rest & repeats. Once working Semaj called in one Air Elemental, one Sword Spider and two big bad Ogres. Short note: 53 tries were needed to get everything working up to this point soaking away nearly two hours and lots of concentration – could have been worse!
7. Let Semaj cast Vitriol Sphere on himself while the summons attacked Tazok
Timing was essential here cause when Semaj killed himself Ziad had to instantly trigger the talking so Diarmid and Angelo would still teleport in. We did not use the Fireball scroll as its damage in most tests wasnt high enough to even kill one of them (unless the HP was <10). However: Ziad sneaked to Sarevok right in the moment when Semaj died and only several seconds after Sarevoks talk Tazok also got punched down by the Ogres. Even better: Angelo wasted his Chromatic Orb on the summons.
8. Let the 100 Glyphs of Warding instakill Diarmid
Nearly at the same time Semaj and Tazok died Diarmid could not withstand the incoming lightning damage which instantly burned him into the ground. And again some luck was needed here as he randomly avoids the Glyphs completly even though the chance seem to be <10%.
9. Use the Aerial Servant + Air Elemental + Skeleton to kill Angelo
As Angelo joined the fight against the Ogres he was already visible making it easy for Ziad to splitpull him from the rest. And with Chromatic Orb no longer available the Aerial Servant moved into this vision range pulling him near the entrance where the others – plus the stealthed Ziad – were waiting. Chosing the Servant as his target is mandatory as he is the only one being immune to his weapon attacks. However: Thanks to the number of his protection spells the killing took several minutes while the only damage he could get out was one Fireball. Once dead the summons also hacked down the Skeleton Warrior using - at least until it was nearly dead - one summon as a running dummy while the others punched the undead on the run. By this way the incoming damage was minimzed so the summons were only barely injured before moving into the final phase of this battle.
10. Taking on Sarevok
Before pulling Sarevok Ziad parked the three remaining Skeleton Warriors in the NW corner so his summons would only have to deal with Sarevok himself. And thanks to the good gods his Haste spell had been dispelled at the beginning making things A LOT easier. However: The rest of the battle was all about patience and quick reaction so whenever Sarevok switched his target his new prey started running in circles while the others continued the punching. Ziad often times tried to play the decoy himself giving especially the Aerial Servant good times to land his 15-45 damage blows (-6 THAC0, 2APR). This strategy worked wonders for quite some time especially as another bug triggered which froze Sarevoks AC at -7 instead of -18. I still dont know when and why this happens but in this case we happily welcomed it (even though it still feels a bit wrong). It did not take half an hour – including lots of pausing and only taking a hit here and there – before Sarevok was down to 196 HP and Ziad decided to go all in: What could go wrong? One minute later he nearly regretted his decision as the Skeleton Warrior and shortly after the Air Elemental were easily smashed by Sarevok. Damn it. With only the Aerial Servant left Ziad he already prepared for some fist stabbing before the last and only summon landed two 35 and 32 damage hits putting an end to his evil brother...
Summary: Lots of things that can go wrong even though everything can be resetted up to point six. Its only after committing to the killing of Semaj and/or Tazok when things have to be done in one go with Sarevoks Haste – dispelled or not dispelled – seems to be the crunching point. Sure we got lucky that the AC bug triggered as with an AC of -18 the final phase would have lasted much longer openening up the gates for more errors so we most likely would have to rely on fist stabbing. We had prepared for this variation by memorizing 1x Unfailing Endurance. Lets hope fate continues to smile upon Ziad...
With BG1 being such a hard piece of work it would be a real pity if Ziad VIII. would fail against Korlasz - no?
First Ziad stealthed up to Porios peacing him up - so far so easy.
Going downstairs we were really thrilled as the following undead army with Bonebats cannot be avoided by stealth. Fighting them could have been a major pain but - you know it - Ziad had another trump prepared for this: Shadowstep!
We were not sure if it would work but after sneaking as far as possible Shadowstep freezed the undead and even the Bonebats couldnt do anything. Once Ziad slipped through all they did was searching into the direction of the Amnian Soldiers - poor ones.
Ziad now could easily stealth through enemy lines preparing three raged up Skeletons (plus a normal one) for Korlasz who also got silenced before moving in. Like intended they had an easy time with her triggering the talking in less than half a minute.
A quick rush through to very first dungeon of SoD showing once more the power of a Shadowdancer.
Lord Vanderley has gotten quite far already. The usual fetching stuff in the beginning, killing Algernon, buying rep back to 11 before killing Dushai so that I wouldn't get Fallen with 6 reputation. Dushai was easily lured with Wand of Missiles and hacked to pieces in 2nd level without anybody seeing. After this bought rep to 14 and used one Invisibility potion to reach Mulahey. He took my word, and I charmed him after resting 3 times. Fed him to the Kobbos and tried to escape without spending second Invisibility potion, but double hits from Kobbos forced me to drink it. Giving the Hentold dagger back Lord leveled again, and got another Invisibility potion. Charmed Minsc killed Nimbul, and charmed Marl ko'd Tranzig. Got level 4 doing the rest of the reputation run to 20/20. Getting Ring of Free Action and Ring of Fire, Cavalier was now immune to Charm, Fear, Poison, Fire, Hold, Paralyze, Web, Entangle, Grease and Slow. Bought Cloak of Displacement, Greenstone Amulet, Sandthief ring and couple priest scrolls.
Only charmed Taurgosz in Bandit Camp for the Full Plate, and looted then tent with Invisibility, Protection from Lightning and Greenstone Amulet. Venkt managed to dispel my buffs but I was able to escape, I had -17 AC vs missile so not a lot hit me. For once free charm attempt against Lamalha worked, but Zeela broke her weapon almost immediatelly, so it took some time her to get ko'd. Then I killed her with Wand of Missiles and got Power Potion for my troubles. Fetched Cha tome without insibility, bying Hairtooth off and killing couple Xvarts. But the Con tome was damn expensive, two uses from the ring, about 2k a pop. Used one Sandthief charge in Spider Area to reach the mines, right click looting Spider Bane on the way. Forked 13k on recharging the ring, but didn't want to spend 2k on every invisibility charm attempt on Drasus, because I could get the Boots of Speed for free from Lothander. So I used 2k charge to reach the Davaeorn's guard who got charmed first strike. Used another 2k charge for the Battle Horrors. Got Level 5. Leaving the place I found out that I needed to talk Rill first before Miners would use the key, so that burned four grands again.
Usual charm tactics against Ragefast and Ramazith again. After getting the green Protection from Petrification from Elfsong Tavern and Carnival I did the xp-loop. Made level 8 and before leaving Mutamin Garden the pet still petrified Kirian's party. Lothander was charmed and hacked for the Boots of Speed. Charmed gamesmen then ko'd Marek which took probably an hour, but it was nice break from the game. Charmed the second Merchant in Seven Suns, so that I only had to fight one Doppelganger at a time, and beat it without any buffs.
Iron Throne, charmed Diayb but trying to lure the other assassin, both followed. So I had to let Diayab fall. Charmed Naaman behind the pillar, who cast free insivisibility on me, then charmed Aasim. And they attacked the assassins. After killing Kaalos, I let Shennara kill them. I got the PfU and didn't need anything else. Used three 2k Invisibility charges but got 10k loot, so 4k profit. Potion of Invisibility for the Ogre Mage waylay. Charmed and killed the Iron Throne leaders, looted catacombs after getting Duhm in the library, and escaped. That took Potion of Absorption, Shield Amulet, Cloud Giant Strength and three Invisibilities. After recharging the Sandthief ring I had 27k gold still left. Greater Doppelganger was no match for Cavalier.
Although Krystin followed Slythe, unhasted Larze still managed to almost kill him. I only needed to give the killing blow. Then fed Quenash to the Air Elemental. Before doing Palace Ambush I needed Durlag's Goblet. Looted Durlag's Tower upstairs and fed Riggolo to the Ghost. Cleared the Ghasts from the basement with Freeaction Ring. Warder level passed and looted with Fire Resistance ring, Sandthief ring, Potion of Absorption. But before fighting Love I still wanted the Ring of Energy. Denak was charmed and fed to Spiders. Managed to lure Love to the basement, and 36 hits from Ring of Energy was enough, he couldn't touch me. It is the general tactic for all, well except Wizard Slayers. Looted the next level for Durlag's Goblet which Cavalier can use naturally, one of Chaotic Commands, PfE '10, Mental Domination and Champion's Strenght scrolls of each. I'm not probably going to bother with the one OGL and Champion's Strength in the last level.
Easily took Tarnesh and the Piercing Girdle Ogre 1on1. Then Caldo and Krumm easily 1on2 without any buffs. Palace Ambush, parked charmed assassin, mage and shaman away and easily wasted the three Greater Doppelgangers. Then easily hacked the assassin. Shaman was tougher and took 6 times the Goblet. For the mage I charmed all the 6 fists, but it still put up a hell of a fight. Sarevok killed Belt and all the Fists before I got the surrendering blow.
Sarevok. Started with four Oil of Fiery Burnings and six Potion of Explosions, then 32 strikes from the OGL was enough to kill all of Semaj, Angelo, Tazok and Diarmid. Hit Sarevok 55 times with OGL, leaving 10 hits for Korlasz. At this point Sarevok was on 490 hp, which should be easy for Ring of Energy (full ring average 700 damage). Oil of Speed and started kiting him. 35 hits from Ring of Energy was enough, also only used one PfU as kiting the Skelis was easy. Invisibility to Porios, PfU to Korlasz, waited 4 hours, 5 times out of sight OGL + Invisibility potion combo and Korlasz surrendered when talked.
So the Cavalier passed BG1 fairly easily using mostly general tactics, that any class except Wizard Slayer could use. Only trouble comes from financing the Invisibility ring, but that's small nuicance as there's enough money in BG1 to go around. On the balance Cavalier doesn't need to bother about charm attempts, nor getting poisoned, nor fire traps, and can spam Durlag's Goblet naturally which is a great insurance policy.
Chapter 8, Teleria doesn't activate if you get hit from invisibility, and her Stone Golem is free lunch too after that. With Stone Ally and additional cleric buffs easily wasted the undead bothering dwarfs. The lich was toast too with PfU and Secret Revealed. Hid behind parlay, didn't bother with the Vampire. Also got to level 9 with cleric spells. Although only Sanctuary is usefull in this stage.
Chapter 9, Morentherene daggered, Ziatar burned. It took 4 attempts to Charm Akanna, but then she got killed. Surrendered the fort. Bridge Mage was interrupted with Ring of Energy and then Lord easily tanked all the enemies alone.
Troll wave took 2 Stone Golems, Mephits, Myconids, 4 times the Goblet and took about 80 rounds, but it wasn't really close one. Mage wave took 3 Myconids and couple Ankhegs. For the paladin wave I rebuffed my hp and took two Absorptions as most of them have crushing weapons, 4 Ankhegs and jumped on Rhayla because she could dispel. Rhayla fel before I had to use first Goblet, and then it was basic tanking haway. Final wave used Clasp of Helm to dispel their illusions and tanked away with last Myconids and Stone Ally.
This time I didn't wait in Dragonspear Castle, because I had enough Heroism and Power potions, but just ran to Ashatiel and sliced her dead. Picked up Blazing Glory +3 as it's slightly better than Icingdeath +3, I have ** in both Scimitars and Flails so apr is the same. Trix tricked and after resting and buffing stormed upwards.
Lord Vanderley vs. Belhifet
2x PfF, PfC, PfE, PfA
8x Mind Focus
Storm
Speed
2x Invulnerability
Power
PfE '10
The lift was easy enough as I was hit probably three times, drank 21 Heroism potions. Lastly 7 Champion's Strengths, Violet, Fortitude and after escaping Bel's dispel attacked him. It didn't take long for Lord lord over Bel and before Champion's Strengths were done, Bel was done too.
That concludes SoD, no trouble at all, Crusader Attacks needing the most of attention. Cavalier should also have no trouble in Irenicus Dungeon, with single Sanctuary.
If we played without the XP cap, a poverty sorcerer run would be eminently doable, even no-reload. It wouldn't necessarily be unbalanced, either; you'd need lots more XP to get level 7 or 8 spells, and that would require some more thorough questing.
I agree, without xp cap it would be very interesting. If Sorcerer could in some miracle get past SoD, it would get very strong in SoA. But SoD is pretty much unsurpassable obstacle, at the moment at least.
It's good to see that @Harpagornis is still learning new strategies to use in this challenge. A lot of the game has been broken down, and it looks like the only gap between us and more successful runs is execution: we know how to handle the key threats, but executing them reliably makes it difficult to do things no-reload. If poverty no-reload runs prove possible, then we have more stuff to investigate. I find it more fulfilling to develop new strategies than to practice old ones.
I've been thinking about a speedrun for this challenge--what's the fastest way you could beat this challenge no-reload? The first things that came to mind were Fighter/Mage/Clerics, Fighter/Mage/Thieves, Fighter/Illusionists, Fighter/Mages, Blades, and Cleric of Lathander->Mages.
A Blade gets the early advantage of a free haste effect that will speed up BG1, but will be more sluggish later in BG2 due to low APR and non-HLA summons. The classes with fighter and mage levels will all be very efficient overall, but I think the Cleric of Lathander/Mage, dual-classed at cleric level 2, might actually have the strongest hand for a saga run.
For BG1 and SoD, it will be able to lean heavily on the Wand of Fire and Wand of Monster Summoning, much like the other classes. Once you get to BG2, though, you can combine the Wand of Lightning trick with Boon of Lathander for a few rounds of extremely high damage output: it cranks your APR up to 5 with any weapon and gives you +6 to hit, damage, and saving throws. It won't last long, since it will only last for the average of your levels in rounds (a level 2 dual-class at mage level 12 would last (12+2)/2=7 rounds), but it'll grant spectacular damage very early on in the game, and it will get access to Summon Planetar much faster than the other classes. It will require very little XP compared to other classes, since so little of its power depends on level. Low XP needs means less time completing quests.
Note that any character with access to Sunfire can combine it with the Wand of Lightning trick to deal 6d6 damage per level, up to 90d6 at level 15. That's the fastest way of doing the Gauth XP loop.
My Archer run took 38 hours and 38 minutes, not counting a couple setbacks from bugs. How fast do you think we could do this challenge?
Also, Malavon's Rage should work with the Wand of Lightning trick, so that's 120d4 piercing damage for a level 7 spell slot instead of 90d6 fire damage for a level 5 spell slot in the case of Sunfire (150 damage assuming successful saving throws, or 157.5 for Sunfire). Fewer critters are immune to piercing damage than fire damage and the casting time of 1 would let you offload a whole bunch of them in a single second under Improved Alacrity, so it might be a game-changer in certain circumstances.
Also, the higher dice count will actually make it distinctly stronger than Sunfire if you can also cast Chant (the projected average damage would be 195 instead of 150 assuming perfect saving throws).
Also, Mind Blank grants immunity to intoxication, making the Wish intoxication option much safer. Plus, since the Wand of Lightning trick works just fine with Wish, you have an excellent shot at landing both Wish-resting and Wish intoxication without having to rest or use too many Project Image spells. With Wish intoxication active, a WoL-boosted Malavon's Rage would deal 240 damage assuming perfect saves.
Also, Great Shout stuns for 6 seconds with no save at the cost of knocking the caster unconscious for 10 rounds on a failed save vs. spell, so if you can guarantee you won't fail your save vs. spell, it's almost a guaranteed stun-lock. Only the 2-second pause effect on self will force a delay and allow a stunned target to break out for a couple seconds before you can re-stun it.
Also, Iron Body sets your APR to 2 and it looks like you can dispel the iron fists without cost, since none of the spell's benefits come from the fists themselves (note that the fists and spell both apply the base 2 APR). Characters with poor base APR or low STR (Iron Body sets your STR to 25!) can improve their damage output by combining Iron Body with a scroll of Black Blade of Disaster or a similar scroll.
Also, the (Greater) Divine Protection spell should let characters with both cleric and mage levels maintain Slayer form indefinitely if they use a Spell Trigger or something to cast it right before the 1500 magic damage hits, or cast it before switching to Slayer form (I forget which method works, but I think it's the former, and you can do both anyway). That will give 5 base APR and 25 STR to Cleric/Mages and Fighter/Mage/Clerics at the cost of disabling their spells.
Also, Impervious Sanctity of Mind and Mind Blank appear to grant immunity to berserk, which opens up new options for dual-classed War Hulks and makes a certain Slayer mod more useful. There's a mod somewhere that lets your Slayer form upgrade with XP, and the final form, the Ravager, available at 6 million XP, imposes periodic berserk effects at random. The Divine Protection trick to maintain Slayer form indefinitely is even stronger with that mod, since the Ravager form gets high damage resistances that will stack with Hardiness and the final Pocket Plane fight bonuses.
Speedruns are somethings i never got in touch with @semiticgod but are for sure another interesting option to push this challenge into a new direction. All those poverty runs have teached us so many new things that the game keeps being fresh until now. Even better: Battles that looked impossible at first sight forced us to get creative with the limited resources available. Beating Sarevok for instances the first time with a poverty Druid felt at least like beating the whole series.
The poverty adventure of Ziad VIII. continues:
Baldurs Gate was quick business before heading to Costway Crossing.
Meeting the Lich:
This one was really tricky after feeding the Dwarves to the Undead to get all five Amulets. The first room had to be cleared of the two Bonebats using raged up Skels and one rest-retreat once they got killed. Also nice: The Shadowed Soul wasnt fast enough to heal up the 4x 17-24 damage (3/2 APR, THACO 1) of the beefed up Skeletonn Warriors. With the Bonebats gone Ziad could now easily move in and out whenever a rest should be needed.
As the Bronze Sentry repeatedly smashed the Skels in no time Ziad let them just run by –remember that they not only hit harder but also recieve +2 movement speed. At the pillars they decoyed the undead so he could sneak in while also being protected by Repulse Undead. The Skels did the job perfectly so he managed to activate all four pillars opening the Lichs door.
A quick Shadowstep followed by another rest outside before summoning four fresh raged up Skels who went into the newly opened room luring all Undead away to the side so Ziad could easily sneak through. Repulse Undead also made sure any potential Bone Bat nearby would be pushed away as they are the only ones that could still attack & paralyze him while in stealth.
Thanks to the five amulets he convinced the Lich to join the battle against Caelar which might be very helpful against the Crusader Attacks later on. With two Skels still around he then moved back using another Shadowstep to avoid any Bone Bats before sneaking out without any problems. With the essential stuff finished he then used his Skels to clear several groups of undead to soak up Experience to reach Level 9 as soon as possible.
Spider hunting:
The spider groups then got cleared with Skels + Free Action so they would not get webbed by the Gargantuam Spiders even though the eastern group with several Sword Spiders forced Ziad to rest and retreat two times. Too bad Greater Command mostly failed against the spiders...
Teleria: Hacked to pieces without retaliation
Ikros & Isabella: Joined with the Vampire and let the raged up Skels clean the house
Crusaders at the Bridge: Restealted after the cutscene and waited for the talking
Forest of Wyrms: Raged up Skels and Greater Command to clean the whole map including the Spider Nest which took more than twenty rests. The price for all this pain was reaching Cleric Level 9 for some extra spells.
Getting into the temple of Bhaal: In the Bugbear Cave Ziad casted Divine Protection (immune to damage fo 3 rounds) to negate the deadly Spike Trap while using Shadowstep to avoid the invsisiblity dispel of the Shaman.
vs Ziatar: Protected from Remove Fear Ziad stealthed up to Ziatar to splittpull her away from the Mages. Right after the talking and buffing he casted Divine Protection again negating her deadly poison breath while also closing the nearby door to cut off the reinforcment. Once Ziatar was alone in the corridor she had a hard time dealing with the raged up Skels even though she managed to cast Sanctuary and heal up a bit. At the end this wasnt enough and she went down without killing a single Skel.
vs Neothelid: With Chaotic Commands up and Divine Protection memorized for emergeny (Poison Nova!) four raged up Skels moved in but got repelled two times cause two many Magic Swords appeared while the Neothelid prefered hiding in the underground. On the third try the Skels quickly critted it down to nearly dead so once it reappeared they hacked it to pieces with three Skels still up.
vs Akanna: Lured the Air Elementals away and to be 100% sure dispelled their invsibility with True Seeing. With Akanna on her own four Skels jumped on her while Ziad also managed to get Silence out. The poor Cleric – without any options but fighting in close combat – quickly got hacked to pieces. Raging all Skels up wasnt even needed here...
With the Wardstone finally in his hands Ziad stealthed out again not bothering about Morentherene.
Lost the Cleric/Mage speedrun in the Cloakwood. I ran out of Potions of Invisibility due to using up an Invisibility spell by fighting Maneira et al, and was unable to escape a spider ambush alongside Molkar et al. I could have escaped using a Potion of Freedom to dodge a Web Tangle, but failed to consider it.
Okay, we're back up to speed, though it took some false starts. It takes 1 hour at 60 FPS to hit Cleric/Mage level 3/5, get the Greenstone Amulet and other mandatory goodies, charge the Wand of Monster Summoning up to 100 at 20/20 economy, and arrive at the bandit camp. By comparison, the Archer took 90 minutes to reach the bandit camp (though we're not necessarily getting all relevant loot in the same order), so we're going much faster, but still not as much as I'd have wanted.
Mutamin is nastier in SCS v32. Instead of using Sleep, Blindness, and Slow on Korax, he uses Monster Summoning I, and sometimes that's enough to bring Korax down. It is no longer possible to reliably have Korax clear out Mutamin's Garden with no assistance besides missile weapons on paralyzed basilisks; Mutamin can actually kill him.
I'm thinking we're going to want to try a different strategy against Sarevok. Waiting out the 100-round Protection from Magic scroll on Diarmid is time-consuming even at 60 FPS.
The "normal" Speedrunners nearly always go for Blade in BG1 but as you mentioned @semiticgod they will have a harder time later on.
But why arent you going for the Basilisk XP Loop? If hitting max level is mandatory this is the way to go - no?
Mutamin - at least in my installation - already summoned monsters in 2.4 so there was always a little risk involved losing Korax against him. But Cleric/Mage could just silence him before going in for an easy kill.
Skull Traps + Glyphs should easily instakill Diarmid but - yeah - its also quite time consuming. The usual Fireballl burning also runs into Tazoks fire resistance potion. Maybe Dispel Magic on him first? Summons could be another key element - but you already have a plan for this in mind - no?
Comments
Is a possible alternative to run Sarevok around a skeleton or elemental? That would require a lot of precision over a long period, but might still be preferable to fist backstabs ...
If fist backstabbing is the way to go it might be a good idea to remember "Unfailing Endurance" as Fatigue might kill any chance of success in the long run - no?
One main problem is: The more i inveest in Dispel Magic to - potentially - get rid of Sarevoks Haste the less Skeletons i can summon. With four spell slots this can get tricky as sometimes even four Dispels are not enough. But without Skels on the other hand we are most likely doomed.
But - stop - wait a moment! There is another option i had sometimes used with my Druids: What about dominating Semaj?
After looking at Semajs reworked spell pool i must say: Wow!
1x Spider Spawn
1x Lesser Air Elemental
1x Monster Summoning III
1x Nishruu
That looks like a LOT potential. This looks good - very good!
So at the end it will most likely be all about Haste or no Haste!
If you've installed the save bug fix you would need to nerf his saving throws somehow in order to have any chance at all of dominating him. I like your earlier plan more ...
The only thing that can go wrong is that Dominate wont work so you have to rest and repeat - same for Tamoko. Yes, all of this might take a lot of time but there isnt much that can go wrong - as long as you do not move into Sarevoks vision by accident.
So the current plan might be:
Diarmid: Instakilled by 80+ Glyphs of Warding
Semaj: Invsibility dispelled -> hacked down to nearly zero -> Doom+Dominate -> Summons + Fireball
Tazok: Invsibility dispelled -> hacked down to nearly zero -> Summons + Fireball for the kill
Angelo: Aerial Servant + Air Elemental + Skeleton (who will soak up Chromatic Orb!)
It will be essential to park the appearing Skeleton Warriors so they wont aggro when fighting Sarevok. Using the Aerial Servant + Air Elemental + Skeleton should be not too complicated IF his Haste got dispelled. Its just a matter of patience and concentration. And even if he manages to take them down at one point there is always the option to fist stab him. This could get really funny!
So all in all the whole plan seems quite simple. Its flawless execution however is written on another sheet of paper!
It is hard to believe no one has already thought of it isn't it
Alessia advanced to Dragonspear Castle attack, but...
Chapter 8, Teleria doesn't activate if you get hit from Invisibility, casual kill. Three skelis and WoMS did just enough damage to save the Vampire. Cloak of Minor Arcana improved my caster level by 1, which in level 10 means, level 7 hd Skeleton Warriors, who absolutely massacred the undead fighting the dwarves. The Lich was done with PfU, Speed, Power, 2x Mind Focus, Biter +2 and Secret Revealed. I was able to hit above 16, so with 4 apr once in a round it was enough.
Chapter 9, Morentherene daggered, Ziatar burned. Managed to charm Akanna first hit from Algernon's cloak, and she was soon killed. Doing the Bridgefort guests Alessia got to max level of 11. Bridge Mage was interrupted with 3 Hasted Skeletons and a Cloudkill.
Chapter 10, did the mundane guests, used second last PfU to kill the undead with OGL in the cave, and got the Silence Amulet. Again the Lich in the Kanaglym was a close one, 4 Hasted Skeletons just about killed it. Looted the Crown of Lies from Hephernaan's room with 100 MR and quickly escaped.
Crusader Attacks, and I had plenty of stuff, and Dosia could refresh my spells 3 times before dying.
Skull Traps 8 + 3 (sequencer) + 16 (scrolls)
Webs 6 + 2 (sequencer) + 20 (scrolls)
Cloudkill 5 + 7 (scrolls)
7 hd Skeleton Warriors 5
I charmed Safanna and Dorn and moved them away, then laid 11 Skull Traps for the final wave from castings. Then 16 Skull Traps from scrolls for the troll wave, 5 Skeleton Warriors backline, 5 pre Webs, 2 pre Cloudkills to interrupt Ogre Mages and before activating the wave Dosia refreshed my spells. Interestingly both mages and Yarok stayed uninjured, as has been the current bug with certain characters since 2.5. Only two Trolls died after my initial Fireball, and even though I mistakenly took the rogues for this battle, the Skelis bought enough time to kill most of them, and then WoMS lastly wiped Yarok and one Mage off.
Mage wave, 8 pre Skull Traps, 5 pre Webs, 1 pre Cloudkill. And Wizard Slayers helped me to easily wipe the mages. One thing to remember here is to stay out of Stysich Dispel.
Paladin wave, 8 pre Skulls, 5 pre Webs, 5 pre Cloudkills, started the fight with 3x Web sequencer, then 4x Cloudkills, 2x Web sequencer. And they didn't stand a chance.
Fore the last wave I got final refresh from Dosia and she died. Then 5 Skeli backline, and after my initial 11 Skulls did some damage, I hit them with 3x Skull sequencer and only three named ones was left. And Skelis quickly swept them away. Didn't need Goblet once.
One hour waiting at Dragonspear Castle attack produced 46 Invul and 38 Speed, but only 9 Power and 5 Invisibility potions. Problem though, as I can't pass the blob of fighters. I've now waited another half a hour and the game is beginning to become sluggish. Anyone got ideas how to pass the chokepoint?
After two days of preparing every step finally the moment of truth had come – lets go:
1. Cleared the Temple from all Bats
For this one Ziad used his Skels to hunt down all Bats as they would otherwise pretrigger the Glyphs.
2. Placed 2x 100 Glyphs of Warding at the spawning points of Diarmid and Angelo
This took quite some time and 49 rests outside the temple. Thanks to Bhaal that resting is safe here!
3. Dominated Tamoko and lured her into the temple summoning an Aerial Servant
This took several tries but once in the temple she was feeded to her summon who had an easy time hitting the bare fisted Cleric. Fun Fact: Its not possible to move her out of the temple again as each time a new Tamoko will spawn outside. Too bad she only gets the updated spell pool so casting several Aerial Servants is not possible.
4. 3x Dispel Magic to break invisbility of Semaj & Tazok while also getting rid of Sarevoks Haste
This one took lots of tries as often times only one of them appeared. Rest and repeat.
5. Used the Aerial Servant to hack Semaj and Tazok to nearly zero
The Aerial Servant quickly put down both and while Ziad had planned to call in a Skeleton for the final work the Servant critted down both to 15 HP and 25 HP (one has to remember that this elemental fury can crit for up to 90 damage). Avoiding an instakill here is essential as Diarmid and Angelo would no longer port making Sarevok immortal.
6. Casted Doom + Mental Domination on Semaj to get in more summons
This one also proved to be difficult forcing several rest & repeats. Once working Semaj called in one Air Elemental, one Sword Spider and two big bad Ogres. Short note: 53 tries were needed to get everything working up to this point soaking away nearly two hours and lots of concentration – could have been worse!
7. Let Semaj cast Vitriol Sphere on himself while the summons attacked Tazok
Timing was essential here cause when Semaj killed himself Ziad had to instantly trigger the talking so Diarmid and Angelo would still teleport in. We did not use the Fireball scroll as its damage in most tests wasnt high enough to even kill one of them (unless the HP was <10). However: Ziad sneaked to Sarevok right in the moment when Semaj died and only several seconds after Sarevoks talk Tazok also got punched down by the Ogres. Even better: Angelo wasted his Chromatic Orb on the summons.
8. Let the 100 Glyphs of Warding instakill Diarmid
Nearly at the same time Semaj and Tazok died Diarmid could not withstand the incoming lightning damage which instantly burned him into the ground. And again some luck was needed here as he randomly avoids the Glyphs completly even though the chance seem to be <10%.
9. Use the Aerial Servant + Air Elemental + Skeleton to kill Angelo
As Angelo joined the fight against the Ogres he was already visible making it easy for Ziad to splitpull him from the rest. And with Chromatic Orb no longer available the Aerial Servant moved into this vision range pulling him near the entrance where the others – plus the stealthed Ziad – were waiting. Chosing the Servant as his target is mandatory as he is the only one being immune to his weapon attacks. However: Thanks to the number of his protection spells the killing took several minutes while the only damage he could get out was one Fireball. Once dead the summons also hacked down the Skeleton Warrior using - at least until it was nearly dead - one summon as a running dummy while the others punched the undead on the run. By this way the incoming damage was minimzed so the summons were only barely injured before moving into the final phase of this battle.
10. Taking on Sarevok
Before pulling Sarevok Ziad parked the three remaining Skeleton Warriors in the NW corner so his summons would only have to deal with Sarevok himself. And thanks to the good gods his Haste spell had been dispelled at the beginning making things A LOT easier. However: The rest of the battle was all about patience and quick reaction so whenever Sarevok switched his target his new prey started running in circles while the others continued the punching. Ziad often times tried to play the decoy himself giving especially the Aerial Servant good times to land his 15-45 damage blows (-6 THAC0, 2APR). This strategy worked wonders for quite some time especially as another bug triggered which froze Sarevoks AC at -7 instead of -18. I still dont know when and why this happens but in this case we happily welcomed it (even though it still feels a bit wrong). It did not take half an hour – including lots of pausing and only taking a hit here and there – before Sarevok was down to 196 HP and Ziad decided to go all in: What could go wrong? One minute later he nearly regretted his decision as the Skeleton Warrior and shortly after the Air Elemental were easily smashed by Sarevok. Damn it. With only the Aerial Servant left Ziad he already prepared for some fist stabbing before the last and only summon landed two 35 and 32 damage hits putting an end to his evil brother...
Summary: Lots of things that can go wrong even though everything can be resetted up to point six. Its only after committing to the killing of Semaj and/or Tazok when things have to be done in one go with Sarevoks Haste – dispelled or not dispelled – seems to be the crunching point. Sure we got lucky that the AC bug triggered as with an AC of -18 the final phase would have lasted much longer openening up the gates for more errors so we most likely would have to rely on fist stabbing. We had prepared for this variation by memorizing 1x Unfailing Endurance. Lets hope fate continues to smile upon Ziad...
First Ziad stealthed up to Porios peacing him up - so far so easy.
Going downstairs we were really thrilled as the following undead army with Bonebats cannot be avoided by stealth. Fighting them could have been a major pain but - you know it - Ziad had another trump prepared for this: Shadowstep!
We were not sure if it would work but after sneaking as far as possible Shadowstep freezed the undead and even the Bonebats couldnt do anything. Once Ziad slipped through all they did was searching into the direction of the Amnian Soldiers - poor ones.
Ziad now could easily stealth through enemy lines preparing three raged up Skeletons (plus a normal one) for Korlasz who also got silenced before moving in. Like intended they had an easy time with her triggering the talking in less than half a minute.
A quick rush through to very first dungeon of SoD showing once more the power of a Shadowdancer.
Only charmed Taurgosz in Bandit Camp for the Full Plate, and looted then tent with Invisibility, Protection from Lightning and Greenstone Amulet. Venkt managed to dispel my buffs but I was able to escape, I had -17 AC vs missile so not a lot hit me. For once free charm attempt against Lamalha worked, but Zeela broke her weapon almost immediatelly, so it took some time her to get ko'd. Then I killed her with Wand of Missiles and got Power Potion for my troubles. Fetched Cha tome without insibility, bying Hairtooth off and killing couple Xvarts. But the Con tome was damn expensive, two uses from the ring, about 2k a pop. Used one Sandthief charge in Spider Area to reach the mines, right click looting Spider Bane on the way. Forked 13k on recharging the ring, but didn't want to spend 2k on every invisibility charm attempt on Drasus, because I could get the Boots of Speed for free from Lothander. So I used 2k charge to reach the Davaeorn's guard who got charmed first strike. Used another 2k charge for the Battle Horrors. Got Level 5. Leaving the place I found out that I needed to talk Rill first before Miners would use the key, so that burned four grands again.
Usual charm tactics against Ragefast and Ramazith again. After getting the green Protection from Petrification from Elfsong Tavern and Carnival I did the xp-loop. Made level 8 and before leaving Mutamin Garden the pet still petrified Kirian's party. Lothander was charmed and hacked for the Boots of Speed. Charmed gamesmen then ko'd Marek which took probably an hour, but it was nice break from the game. Charmed the second Merchant in Seven Suns, so that I only had to fight one Doppelganger at a time, and beat it without any buffs.
Iron Throne, charmed Diayb but trying to lure the other assassin, both followed. So I had to let Diayab fall. Charmed Naaman behind the pillar, who cast free insivisibility on me, then charmed Aasim. And they attacked the assassins. After killing Kaalos, I let Shennara kill them. I got the PfU and didn't need anything else. Used three 2k Invisibility charges but got 10k loot, so 4k profit. Potion of Invisibility for the Ogre Mage waylay. Charmed and killed the Iron Throne leaders, looted catacombs after getting Duhm in the library, and escaped. That took Potion of Absorption, Shield Amulet, Cloud Giant Strength and three Invisibilities. After recharging the Sandthief ring I had 27k gold still left. Greater Doppelganger was no match for Cavalier.
Although Krystin followed Slythe, unhasted Larze still managed to almost kill him. I only needed to give the killing blow. Then fed Quenash to the Air Elemental. Before doing Palace Ambush I needed Durlag's Goblet. Looted Durlag's Tower upstairs and fed Riggolo to the Ghost. Cleared the Ghasts from the basement with Freeaction Ring. Warder level passed and looted with Fire Resistance ring, Sandthief ring, Potion of Absorption. But before fighting Love I still wanted the Ring of Energy. Denak was charmed and fed to Spiders. Managed to lure Love to the basement, and 36 hits from Ring of Energy was enough, he couldn't touch me. It is the general tactic for all, well except Wizard Slayers.
Easily took Tarnesh and the Piercing Girdle Ogre 1on1. Then Caldo and Krumm easily 1on2 without any buffs. Palace Ambush, parked charmed assassin, mage and shaman away and easily wasted the three Greater Doppelgangers. Then easily hacked the assassin. Shaman was tougher and took 6 times the Goblet. For the mage I charmed all the 6 fists, but it still put up a hell of a fight. Sarevok killed Belt and all the Fists before I got the surrendering blow.
Sarevok. Started with four Oil of Fiery Burnings and six Potion of Explosions, then 32 strikes from the OGL was enough to kill all of Semaj, Angelo, Tazok and Diarmid. Hit Sarevok 55 times with OGL, leaving 10 hits for Korlasz. At this point Sarevok was on 490 hp, which should be easy for Ring of Energy (full ring average 700 damage). Oil of Speed and started kiting him. 35 hits from Ring of Energy was enough, also only used one PfU as kiting the Skelis was easy. Invisibility to Porios, PfU to Korlasz, waited 4 hours, 5 times out of sight OGL + Invisibility potion combo and Korlasz surrendered when talked.
So the Cavalier passed BG1 fairly easily using mostly general tactics, that any class except Wizard Slayer could use. Only trouble comes from financing the Invisibility ring, but that's small nuicance as there's enough money in BG1 to go around. On the balance Cavalier doesn't need to bother about charm attempts, nor getting poisoned, nor fire traps, and can spam Durlag's Goblet naturally which is a great insurance policy.
Chapter 9, Morentherene daggered, Ziatar burned. It took 4 attempts to Charm Akanna, but then she got killed. Surrendered the fort. Bridge Mage was interrupted with Ring of Energy and then Lord easily tanked all the enemies alone.
Troll wave took 2 Stone Golems, Mephits, Myconids, 4 times the Goblet and took about 80 rounds, but it wasn't really close one. Mage wave took 3 Myconids and couple Ankhegs. For the paladin wave I rebuffed my hp and took two Absorptions as most of them have crushing weapons, 4 Ankhegs and jumped on Rhayla because she could dispel. Rhayla fel before I had to use first Goblet, and then it was basic tanking haway. Final wave used Clasp of Helm to dispel their illusions and tanked away with last Myconids and Stone Ally.
This time I didn't wait in Dragonspear Castle, because I had enough Heroism and Power potions, but just ran to Ashatiel and sliced her dead. Picked up Blazing Glory +3 as it's slightly better than Icingdeath +3, I have ** in both Scimitars and Flails so apr is the same. Trix tricked and after resting and buffing stormed upwards.
Lord Vanderley vs. Belhifet
2x PfF, PfC, PfE, PfA
8x Mind Focus
Storm
Speed
2x Invulnerability
Power
PfE '10
The lift was easy enough as I was hit probably three times, drank 21 Heroism potions. Lastly 7 Champion's Strengths, Violet, Fortitude and after escaping Bel's dispel attacked him. It didn't take long for Lord lord over Bel and before Champion's Strengths were done, Bel was done too.
That concludes SoD, no trouble at all, Crusader Attacks needing the most of attention. Cavalier should also have no trouble in Irenicus Dungeon, with single Sanctuary.
He already has made some progress in SoD - lets hope i will get some time tomorrow to write it all down!
After this I'm going to try taking poverty Sorcerer as far as possible, which reading you posts is getting further and further in my mind.
If the poverty Sorcerer manages to get into SoA alive not even the sky will be a limit...
Too bad the Ziads run will most likely end against the Crusader Attacks and even if not Big B will be another gamble.
I've been thinking about a speedrun for this challenge--what's the fastest way you could beat this challenge no-reload? The first things that came to mind were Fighter/Mage/Clerics, Fighter/Mage/Thieves, Fighter/Illusionists, Fighter/Mages, Blades, and Cleric of Lathander->Mages.
A Blade gets the early advantage of a free haste effect that will speed up BG1, but will be more sluggish later in BG2 due to low APR and non-HLA summons. The classes with fighter and mage levels will all be very efficient overall, but I think the Cleric of Lathander/Mage, dual-classed at cleric level 2, might actually have the strongest hand for a saga run.
For BG1 and SoD, it will be able to lean heavily on the Wand of Fire and Wand of Monster Summoning, much like the other classes. Once you get to BG2, though, you can combine the Wand of Lightning trick with Boon of Lathander for a few rounds of extremely high damage output: it cranks your APR up to 5 with any weapon and gives you +6 to hit, damage, and saving throws. It won't last long, since it will only last for the average of your levels in rounds (a level 2 dual-class at mage level 12 would last (12+2)/2=7 rounds), but it'll grant spectacular damage very early on in the game, and it will get access to Summon Planetar much faster than the other classes. It will require very little XP compared to other classes, since so little of its power depends on level. Low XP needs means less time completing quests.
Note that any character with access to Sunfire can combine it with the Wand of Lightning trick to deal 6d6 damage per level, up to 90d6 at level 15. That's the fastest way of doing the Gauth XP loop.
My Archer run took 38 hours and 38 minutes, not counting a couple setbacks from bugs. How fast do you think we could do this challenge?
Also, the higher dice count will actually make it distinctly stronger than Sunfire if you can also cast Chant (the projected average damage would be 195 instead of 150 assuming perfect saving throws).
Also, Mind Blank grants immunity to intoxication, making the Wish intoxication option much safer. Plus, since the Wand of Lightning trick works just fine with Wish, you have an excellent shot at landing both Wish-resting and Wish intoxication without having to rest or use too many Project Image spells. With Wish intoxication active, a WoL-boosted Malavon's Rage would deal 240 damage assuming perfect saves.
Also, Iron Body sets your APR to 2 and it looks like you can dispel the iron fists without cost, since none of the spell's benefits come from the fists themselves (note that the fists and spell both apply the base 2 APR). Characters with poor base APR or low STR (Iron Body sets your STR to 25!) can improve their damage output by combining Iron Body with a scroll of Black Blade of Disaster or a similar scroll.
Also, the (Greater) Divine Protection spell should let characters with both cleric and mage levels maintain Slayer form indefinitely if they use a Spell Trigger or something to cast it right before the 1500 magic damage hits, or cast it before switching to Slayer form (I forget which method works, but I think it's the former, and you can do both anyway). That will give 5 base APR and 25 STR to Cleric/Mages and Fighter/Mage/Clerics at the cost of disabling their spells.
Also, Impervious Sanctity of Mind and Mind Blank appear to grant immunity to berserk, which opens up new options for dual-classed War Hulks and makes a certain Slayer mod more useful. There's a mod somewhere that lets your Slayer form upgrade with XP, and the final form, the Ravager, available at 6 million XP, imposes periodic berserk effects at random. The Divine Protection trick to maintain Slayer form indefinitely is even stronger with that mod, since the Ravager form gets high damage resistances that will stack with Hardiness and the final Pocket Plane fight bonuses.
The poverty adventure of Ziad VIII. continues:
Baldurs Gate was quick business before heading to Costway Crossing.
Meeting the Lich:
This one was really tricky after feeding the Dwarves to the Undead to get all five Amulets. The first room had to be cleared of the two Bonebats using raged up Skels and one rest-retreat once they got killed. Also nice: The Shadowed Soul wasnt fast enough to heal up the 4x 17-24 damage (3/2 APR, THACO 1) of the beefed up Skeletonn Warriors. With the Bonebats gone Ziad could now easily move in and out whenever a rest should be needed.
As the Bronze Sentry repeatedly smashed the Skels in no time Ziad let them just run by –remember that they not only hit harder but also recieve +2 movement speed. At the pillars they decoyed the undead so he could sneak in while also being protected by Repulse Undead. The Skels did the job perfectly so he managed to activate all four pillars opening the Lichs door.
A quick Shadowstep followed by another rest outside before summoning four fresh raged up Skels who went into the newly opened room luring all Undead away to the side so Ziad could easily sneak through. Repulse Undead also made sure any potential Bone Bat nearby would be pushed away as they are the only ones that could still attack & paralyze him while in stealth.
Thanks to the five amulets he convinced the Lich to join the battle against Caelar which might be very helpful against the Crusader Attacks later on. With two Skels still around he then moved back using another Shadowstep to avoid any Bone Bats before sneaking out without any problems. With the essential stuff finished he then used his Skels to clear several groups of undead to soak up Experience to reach Level 9 as soon as possible.
Spider hunting:
The spider groups then got cleared with Skels + Free Action so they would not get webbed by the Gargantuam Spiders even though the eastern group with several Sword Spiders forced Ziad to rest and retreat two times. Too bad Greater Command mostly failed against the spiders...
Teleria: Hacked to pieces without retaliation
Ikros & Isabella: Joined with the Vampire and let the raged up Skels clean the house
Crusaders at the Bridge: Restealted after the cutscene and waited for the talking
Forest of Wyrms: Raged up Skels and Greater Command to clean the whole map including the Spider Nest which took more than twenty rests. The price for all this pain was reaching Cleric Level 9 for some extra spells.
Getting into the temple of Bhaal: In the Bugbear Cave Ziad casted Divine Protection (immune to damage fo 3 rounds) to negate the deadly Spike Trap while using Shadowstep to avoid the invsisiblity dispel of the Shaman.
vs Ziatar: Protected from Remove Fear Ziad stealthed up to Ziatar to splittpull her away from the Mages. Right after the talking and buffing he casted Divine Protection again negating her deadly poison breath while also closing the nearby door to cut off the reinforcment. Once Ziatar was alone in the corridor she had a hard time dealing with the raged up Skels even though she managed to cast Sanctuary and heal up a bit. At the end this wasnt enough and she went down without killing a single Skel.
vs Neothelid: With Chaotic Commands up and Divine Protection memorized for emergeny (Poison Nova!) four raged up Skels moved in but got repelled two times cause two many Magic Swords appeared while the Neothelid prefered hiding in the underground. On the third try the Skels quickly critted it down to nearly dead so once it reappeared they hacked it to pieces with three Skels still up.
vs Akanna: Lured the Air Elementals away and to be 100% sure dispelled their invsibility with True Seeing. With Akanna on her own four Skels jumped on her while Ziad also managed to get Silence out. The poor Cleric – without any options but fighting in close combat – quickly got hacked to pieces. Raging all Skels up wasnt even needed here...
With the Wardstone finally in his hands Ziad stealthed out again not bothering about Morentherene.
Bridgefort next...
Mutamin is nastier in SCS v32. Instead of using Sleep, Blindness, and Slow on Korax, he uses Monster Summoning I, and sometimes that's enough to bring Korax down. It is no longer possible to reliably have Korax clear out Mutamin's Garden with no assistance besides missile weapons on paralyzed basilisks; Mutamin can actually kill him.
I'm thinking we're going to want to try a different strategy against Sarevok. Waiting out the 100-round Protection from Magic scroll on Diarmid is time-consuming even at 60 FPS.
But why arent you going for the Basilisk XP Loop? If hitting max level is mandatory this is the way to go - no?
Mutamin - at least in my installation - already summoned monsters in 2.4 so there was always a little risk involved losing Korax against him. But Cleric/Mage could just silence him before going in for an easy kill.
Skull Traps + Glyphs should easily instakill Diarmid but - yeah - its also quite time consuming. The usual Fireballl burning also runs into Tazoks fire resistance potion. Maybe Dispel Magic on him first? Summons could be another key element - but you already have a plan for this in mind - no?