Alessia the Barbarian in SoD. Invisibility to Potros, double invisibility and PfU to Korlasz, and made her surrender after 6xFireball + Invisibility combo, saving the Detonators. lv9 *Flail.
Teleria doesn't agro if you don't talk to her, got Stone Ally. We listened Dwarves getting killed, picked up the amulets and Helm of Dumathoin which will be imported to SoA. We reached Coldhearth with Invisibility and PfU, and made a deal with him. Hid behind the tent for the parlay.
Morentherene daggered, Ziatar burned out of sight, Akanna stood no chances with ultra buffed Barbarian. Bridge mage interrupted with Ring of Energy.
In Hephernaan Basement, with Barbarian speed we managed to pass Belben first ever time unnoticed, and only coming back he got his forced dialogue out. We had 480k xp before the Crudasers attacked, and they were burned with 75xDetonators. lv10
Ashatiel easily killed, Trix was tricked going outside the map once.
3xPfF, 3xPfC, 3xPfE, 3xPfA, PfP
8xMind Focus, Violet, Fortitude
Speed, 2xInvulnerability, Clarity, Power, Fire Shield Red from the Staff
With optimal gear we now had -9 Thac0 and started the lift. Lift went fast, and we used the last Green Abishai to get our final buffs. 30xHeroism (14hp piece), Speed, 2xInvul, Clarity and Power. We had 611hp when we started the fight with Bel. Yet it still took 13xDurlag's Goblet, one time refresh of Speed, 2xInvul, Clarity and Power to beat him. I was using Cloverleaf for -1 Thac0, and -4AC vs Slashing from Protector of Unworthy is possibly better, as I think some of the attacks get cancelled when hit. Barbarian passes SoD and proves that all Fighters can beat Belhifet with the Goblet, and without Champions Strength scrolls. Well except perhaps Wizard Slayers.
Next is the most trouble yet for Barbarian, in Irenicus Dungeon without anykind of Invisibility.
@XDarkStrikerX Seems like you had fun with Melissan. Believe me it's the same feeling we all have with her in this challenge. There's so much going on in the final battle, that it's very hard to predict, or go for the exact planned tactic. More so as the battle evolves with different Ascension and SCS-versions.
Another detail that i've missed using spell damage against Mel. I retried using a spell sequencer and a spell trigger, which i totally forgot about. One with 3x flame arrow and the other one with 3x death fog. Also used my 1 scroll of Incendiary cloud. Mel died to around 26-27 magic shot from The Victor using 2x spell striking wands without me needing to shoot her with the sling this time.
Also tried using Vhailor's helm which, to my surprise, doesn't get dispelled by true sight like when i tried using PI, which means additional death fog, ice storm, sunfire and flame arrows. Didn't need any spell striking wand doing that, casting all spells and finishing with the Victor finished her shorty after my Sim expired. It's getting better and better! Unnecessary as long as rift device is a thing but it does feel more satisfying
@alice_ashpool Harm should work if you didn't nerf it with SCS for a one shot. Her MR is reduced to 70% when all of the Five are dead so a lucky harm right after should work, especially with critical strike. The problem is to get there however, as my only plan was Feeblemind and reduce their HP to a one-three shot so not sure how to deal with the Five. Literally nothing work on the Mage side to disable her. It doesn't say that she's immune to stone to flesh, but i'm pretty sure that wand of wonder wouldn't work either.
@XDarkStrikerX I Really appreciate how the victor sees use all the way through, where other items fall by the wayside, the humble laserbeam ring keeps on delivering.
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Anyway, I know its not BG but I've been messing around in IWD1 again (my perma-novelty seeking). Was thinking about "what was hardest" and so took a solo lvl 1 (edit: level 1 start, not level 1 all the way through!) Transmuter on HoF to Kuldahar... what sweet hell. Probably going to tap out before I finish vale of shadows though. there's only so many hours in a day and it's getting harder.
Off topic IWD1 stuff:
As far as I can see, there is only a very specialist way to do it - though others might know better ways:
Maxed Str for +2 damage
Starting spells: Expeditious retreat, find familiar, [something else] + grab the chromatic orb and minor mirror image scroll - reload if fail to scribe either.
Familiar: Imp
Weapons: dual daggers and sling
Then use imps polar bear and mustard jelly form as applicable getting to level 7 chromatic orb stun - right about the first time going in the shipment cave. There were a couple of choke points in the cave but mustard jelly is immune to everything so the main limit is the imp's polymorph duration - just lots of resting. Had to expeditious retreat through kuldarhar vale (my 2 deaths, though this was about the 5th run working out what I was doing) as I could see no way to deal with all the goblins before polymorph ran out on the imp - no safe place to rest to refresh chromatic orbs. Bought Web and ground Vale of Shadows yetis + shadows with spider-imp for enough XP that I could go to HoW if wanted. Thats about where I lost the will to live.
I am curious though, if a solo mage, specialist or otherwise can get through the game with the serious restriction on spellscrolls. An interesting challenge.
As far as I can see, there is only a very specialist way to do it - though others might know better ways:
Maxed Str for +2 damage
Starting spells: Expeditious retreat, find familiar, [something else] + grab the chromatic orb and minor mirror image scroll - reload if fail to scribe either.
Familiar: Imp
Weapons: dual daggers and sling
Then use imps polar bear and mustard jelly form as applicable getting to level 7 chromatic orb stun - right about the first time going in the shipment cave. There were a couple of choke points in the cave but mustard jelly is immune to everything so the main limit is the imp's polymorph duration - just lots of resting. Had to expeditious retreat through kuldarhar vale (my 2 deaths, though this was about the 5th run working out what I was doing) as I could see no way to deal with all the goblins before polymorph ran out on the imp - no safe place to rest to refresh chromatic orbs. Bought Web and ground Vale of Shadows yetis + shadows with spider-imp for enough XP that I could go to HoW if wanted. Thats about where I lost the will to live.
I am curious though, if a solo mage, specialist or otherwise can get through the game with the serious restriction on spellscrolls. An interesting challenge.
I'm pretty sure @Harpagornis has beaten IWD HoF with a level 1 mage.
Me, prefer the cheesiness of sorcerers, druids and clerics. :P
So i've just tested again against Amelyssan. Turns out that if you can wear an helmet and boots, you can totally crush her, being only affected by 25% of her slashing damage which get totally nullified by Ravager form regen while having 400+ hp.
All credit due to @histamiini
So in ravager form
Only thing required:
The frost embrace boots for non-dispellable cold immunity (don't forget them in spellhold).
Ring of fire control for fire immunity (she won't cast comets or dragon breath)
Roranach horn (helmet from Grommir) for crushing damage immunity.
Belt of Inertial barrier if you don't want to take a potion to negate the magical damage.
Last Ascension evil challenge bonus (25% all melee damage)
Optional Shield of Reflection to keep Solars from shooting you when she spawns (shouldn't do much anyway).
She only seem to use melee attacks once she tele-stomp you, she won't spawn anything else or use timestop again so the goal is to wait for her to summon all of her demons, then teleport away to the edge of a pool. She'll teleport on you, teleport just aside of her so you can actually hit her and move a bit if you want. Melee her to death on auto-attack and unleash for some additionnal damage over time. She's also vulnerable to critical strike so this definitely speed this up.
So now, this should cover all classes except wizard slayer and pure mage, mages can defeat Mel using damaging spells like i did however. I think that the regen is good enough to overcome another 25% of crushing damage but i didn't try it. My health was definitely full at all time. Ravager form should probably be good for The Five too, especially if using a PFM on Sendai (this should work i assume). You really just have to teleport away if you need any healing, which shouldn't happen too often anyway with immunity and only receiving 25% of slashing and piercing damage.
Edit: Just tried without Roranach Horn, the ravager form can overcome her damage still. She won't hit you at all time at -16 AC using Spirit Shield +2 Cloak and it is enough to heal off the 25% damage from crushing and slashing. Even monks can do it and mages if they wish to do it this way.
Barbarian in Irenicus Dungeon. Imported Alessia with 500k xp. Anyone know why some chars import over 500k xp and some don't? Anyway Smoke Mephit was just about killed without any healing with DuHM and Rage combo giving 25 strength. With Lightning Mephit we got better rolls and killed it faster. We refused answering to the Djinni. Then started the heart attack run. We first ran to Activation Stone and picked up the two Extras. Then we ran to Sewage Golem room, activated him, and picked up double Scimitars. Ran through Smoke Mephit corridor to Otyugh room and picked up the Speed. Before using it we lured the corridor Duergars away, and made around trip through the cell room to clear the way. But passing back we were caught by the Otyugh and it Slowed us so we actually had to use our Speed before picking up the Portal Key. We got poisoned getting it, and slowly escaped the level picking up Balduran's Helm on the way. We managed to heal ourselves to 112hp in the next level. Lured the Mephits to the room before and closed the door, hacked the portals in less than 10 rounds with DuHM+Rage. Ran to the exit picking up Ring +1 and escaped with 87hp left. We only made 2k gold, Helm of Balduran and Ring +1 from the Dungeon. But that's small beans when we still had our life.
Absolutely love the Barbarian voice (#1) in SoA, waargh. First thing, looting Thieves Guild and getting the Nymph's Cloak. We made just enough money to buy it, and two Invisibility potions. Mad Cleric was easily beaten with DuHM+Rage. Looted the Temple area. Used the other Invisibility potion to pick up Renfeld and carried him to Harper Hold. Graveyard guests, and then looted the place. Bridge Guest done to point before reporting. Reti took one Extra Healing, got Missile Boots. Charmed Welther and made him attack Corhvale. Got Silver Pantaloons. Bought our rep to 14 and reported the Bridge Murders. lv11 with 10 DR.
Helped Neera to her Stronghold and picked up the Hairband for Mereth, to get Amulet +2. We charmed Brennan from Seven Vales gang, and he attack followed us outside. He was first attacked by some Shadow Thieves, who actually failed to kill him, freaking imbeciles. No matter as you can attack the Bouncer without making it or anyone else red circle. And the Bouncer wasted Brennan. Got our first reusable Invisibility. You don't want to attack Brennan yourself, because he's scripted to escape and if you're not fast enough, so long Invisibility ring. Same tactic for Orcslicer, although he went yellow circle at near death, and almost killed the Bouncer. Charmed both Pooky and Aemon. Aemon had three summon spells, and they loaded everything on Mencar. Alessia needed couple hits to finish the fight. Bought Ring of Air Control for second reusable Invisbility.
At De'Arnise we first killed the four dogs away from Otyugh prying eye, and opened the gate. Then started looting the place. Got FoA +2 among other loot, no way of Dispelling Glaicus yet, as he's got -1 vs. Breath. Picked up Belm +2 from Druid Grove under Invisibility, and we now had 4apr. Did the rescue guest in Neera's hideout for the Spell Turning Shield. We drank double PfF's and easily wasted the Mephits in Rayic home. Then repeated the Fireball trap to kill the guy. Maevar was precharmed and killed by his own gang. Beast Master doesn't agro if you get hit from Invisibility, freed the slaves, lv12 *Axe. In Goverment district we summoned the Cowled Wizards by casting Improved Invisibility on ourselves. And neutral Guards killed them all, including Zallanora. Got some Invisibility potions and gold, but no high level scrolls. We used PfP and repeated the Cloudkill trap to kill the Slavers.
Sanasha and Prebek level skipped with Spell Turning and Rage. Easy Umar Hill guests, lv13 with 4.5 apr. Bought Vhailor's Helm and we beat the Windspear Paladins with couple RoR's. The Bandits needed no healing after buffing in the top room freely. Invisibility to Tazok who was easily wasted. But I was being overrun by ever coming Orog's as I failed ot close the doors, and after spending RoR we went invisible and escaped. Rested in Firkraag's Lair, came back and beat the Orog's. Got the Sewer Key. For the Sewer Mindies PfU, 5xHeroism, 2xInvul, Speed, and we picked up Wand of Wonder. Conster level skipped with Spell Turning and Rage. Once he was out of spells we cloned and killed him. Started the Firkraag xp-loop, and the first wand got us to lv15 *Axe 15DR, and with second we got to lv17.
We attacked Glaicus, and he actually surrendered the Acid head so we didn't have to kill him, built FoA +3. We bought Azuredge +3 and killed the Undead in Temple Sewers. With couple PfU's we hunted the three minor Liches. Kangaxx was casually ranged with Azuredge, and after transformation Stoned first hit from WoW. lv18 *Two-Handed Sword after the bridge riddle. WK1 cleared to point of the 8 Statues with Clone, lv19 20dr. Next WoW got us to lv21, *Two-Handed Sword, WW and GWW.
We only had 22k gold, and dualing loop looming ahead we needed to start making money. Although I had a lot of jewels and scrolls, we wanted to sell them for the Shaguain merchant. Looted rest of the Windspear Dungeon but didn't yet fight Samia's gang, 1500 gold. Easily killed the Druids in Faldorn Cave exit, lv22 with Power Attack. Cernd challenged Faldorn, and he leveled in the pit getting the Greater Werewolf token. First he went Invisible with a potion, then when Faldorn revealed him, Cernd used Invisibility ring. Waited her summons out, the same again. Then Cernd attacked and even blinded, Faldorn couldn't do much with Cernds regen. Only used one Invisibility potion. Djinnis easily killed with Clone. Rest of the Trademeet, Traya lured away and killed for Thac0 Cloak, and then we companied Rasaad to City Gates.
Temple Ruins was overrun with Clone, used one PfU on Shadow Lord and couple WoW strikes on Thaxll. Lv23 with Cricital Strike and 60k gold. In Amphitheater Quickblade was killed by Clone. Hammerhelm party smoked with Clone and Efreeti for the map update. Dalton killed for the 3xMirror Image ring. Did the easy tests in Heretic Temple, mostly for Gem of Seeing, lv24 *Halberd, Smite. Then we bought 63 Stone to Flesh scrolls, and with 60k gold we had enough money to complete the high level dual. First we took Barbarian lv25 with GWW, and then started the boring dual. Boring in a way that we were going to level up only after dual was completed. That way we could use 6 of the 8 Thief27 pips as a Barbarian. Thief lv1, *Long Sword, *Single Weapon Style, Detect Illusion 40. Rechargin the WoW with Sister Garlena costs 4900 gold with 20/20 economy. The dualing xp-loop probably took a hour and half, but I had to spread it for few hours because it's boring as hell. Nevertheless we got the 3750000 Thief xp's after killing Firkraag the one last time, and still had 16k gold left.
The power gaming approach got us to this:
Barbarian25/Thief27
205 hp (+ LoB Familiar)
20 dr
0 base Thac0
2 base apr
3/4/4/4/5 saves
Backstab Immunity
+2 Movement Rate
HLA (10)
* Power Attack
* Critical Strike
* Smite
* Whirlwind
** Greater Whirlwind
* Assasination
* Set Spike Trap
* Set Time Trap
* Use Any Item
Skills
30 Pick Pockets
100 Open Locks
100 Find Traps
100 Set Traps
100 Detect Illusion
195 Move Silently
195 Hide In Shadows
5x Backstab
6x Set Snare
7x Rage
Started Chapter 3. Used PfU to kill Lassal and waited Bodhi out. We still wanted Speed Boots before we leaving so we had to do Haerdelis guest. Mekrath Smited. Landing in Planar Prison was leveled with 9 Cloudkills, got Boots of Speed. Next big party was smoked too and got Thac0 gloves. Warden was depleted from spells and whirlwinded to pieces. Interestingly there's only two Farsights in SoA. We bought both for Irenicus, and bunch of scroll summons. Also learned the permanent Mind Flayer form from Limited Wish scroll just in case. Then we sailed to Brynnlaw.
Nothing too hard, Perth was Smited and we surrendered one point of Intelligence in the Dream. The Asylum was basic grinding, got Boots of the North and Grounding from the Tokens. Irenicus was a fun one, my Clone Smited him from Farsight, and he actually got stuck inside the same test tube we were in. How you like them apples? But this was not all good as Clone couldn't do anything with the Djinnis in a way. But after those got unsummoned we could send summons after summons in, depleting Irenicus from spells. Once my last Fire Elemental started pawning him we released the prisoners. We had to whirlwind him with Azuredge, and after Wanev hit him with double Wiltings from Time Stop he escaped.
Got 115k selling my stuff to Shaguain merchant. City of Caverns was basic smacking, for the King we had 7 Spike Traps. In Underdark we killed the Balor with Time Trap and Mind Flayer form. 70k gold got us all the interesting things on sale in Underdark.
Then it was time for the major transformation. After Adalon had turned us to a Drow, we changed to a Drow Ravager, and escaped the Magic Damage with Belt of Inertial Barrier. With Sentinel +4 on we now had -20 AC +modifiers, 460hp, 70dr and 30hppr regen. It actually took so much energy that it broke the right button from my mouse, the second time playing Baldur's Gate. Other downside is that Boots of Speed stopped working, and Haste. Nevertheless we warrantied our mouse and are using a replacement for the rest of the run. The first test was against the bridge Drows, and it showed how hilariously powerful we were. Casually hacked them to pieces not getting below 450hp. The motley crew party got us as low as 440hp. For Mind Flayer waylay we still had to use Invulnerability because our saves were -3, and I don't know if the Rage immunity gives protection against Psionic Maze. Thief Assassination works with Ravager doing 5x damage per hit.
Phaere gave us some time to rest, which for us meant going to war. Alchra Diagott the Lich was the toughest opponent yet and got us to 436hp. Vithal conjured impossible amount of Monsters, but could do little. Interestingly the whole Kuo-Toa empire couldn't outdo the Lich and only got us to 450hp. After killing the Tyrant we got three days vacation, which we used first to attack the Mind Flayer dungeon. With only Invulnerability and few Mind Focuses we slaughtered all, and even they couldn't outdo Diagott that still held the record of hurting us. Got Fire Control ring, and we now had 100 Fire, and Cold resistance. Picked up Staff of Command and left, got rep back to 18 after saving the slaves.
We then took the Beholder dungeon head on. At one point we were tanking Elder Orb, Hive Mother, 8xBeholders, 2xEfreetis and 8xGauths with no worries in the world. Killed some of them including Elder Orb and Hive Mother and casually looted and left. Then the five Demon Knights. Only thing they got through with their spells was Blindness, but even then they only got us to low as 376hp, which is probably going to be a record for some time. Underdark was now cleared from enemies, and we didn't even brake a sweat. After this "resting" period we reported on duty. Deirex summoned us a Planetar, and we weren't kiting for nobody, as we were out of its -2 vs. Death Kill(13). It only managed to do us 6hp damage, but it Healead itself near death and respectfully unsummoned rather than died. Deirex was easy pray after that, and we're now back at 100k gold. Rather than completing the Drow's wishes, we escaped Underdark, beating the proximity trap in the exit area with whirlwind speed. And now we can roam the SoA as a Barbarian/Thief/Drow/Ravager.
Op as hell, but refreshing change of pace with no need to plan or buff for every encounter.
Imported Alessia with 500k xp. Anyone know why some chars import over 500k xp and some don't?
In BGEE (including SoD), you can accumulate XP beyond the cap. However, every time you load a save - and only when you load a save - your XP is reset down to the cap. The longer you go without a load at the end, the more XP past the cap you get.
At Planar Sphere nothing was stopping Alessia the Drow Ravager. Golems cursed us, but that meant nothing with our regen. First time ever we killed everybody, well almost as we needed Efreeti to finish one Snow Troll. In Promenade Kryin waylayd us, and we said no chance in hell. Amazing battle started and I bet the town guard hadn't seen something like that ever. And yet they had no chance.
Circus walked through and we got rep to 19. Tarnor's gang couldn't get my hp lower than 455. Got Helm of Dumathoin for more DR, but I'm probably going to stick with Balduran as I like hitting more. Walked through Undead Bridge, Beholder lair and casually smacked Unseeing Eye without the Rift Device, which took awhile with his 95 DR. Then cleaned the place from enemies including the Blind Priests. Wasted Gaal and then commissioned Roger to smuggle the Rift Device out from the sewers. There's really no need, but as we are going for the most op run ever, why not? Reported back to temple and we got rep back to 20. Guarded Compound put up nice show, but only got us to 410hp. Samia's Gang casually smacked.
Only thing I can't really kill easily are Trolls as Ravager weapon only does Cold damage. But we lured Tor'Gal away from others, and used Flame Arrow scroll after he was unconcious. The big battle with rest of the Trolls and Yuan'ti Mages was the most trouble yet for Ravager. Had first to kill all the summons, then the mages and then one Giant Troll with Flame Arrow. Then needed both Efreeti, and Clone with FoA +3 to wipe the rest. The eight Statues in WK1 managed to get us to low as 332hp. They didn't hold the record long as the two Fire-Giants in WK2 got us to 299hp and we had to use our HLA's. Rest of the level provided no challenge. Tried prawling with Chromatic Demon couple minutes, but it was taking too long only hitting his Fire form, so I just stoned him with WoW.
WK3 we first killed all in the Dead Magic Balor room, then attacked Tahazzar. The fight took a long ass time as I first tried fighting the Glabrezus as I got stuck in the corner. But as I had killed like 10 of them I noticed that Tahazzar was Gating them in as they died. So I stoned his ass from afar, and then plowed my way through. Then we passed Wild Magic Quasit room, and killed everybody in the Succubus room. Ka'rashur went smoothly as I first unloaded all HLA's on him. Then we passed Wild Magic Quasit room to Wild Magic Tiefling room and killed everybody. Played twice with Aesgareth for Wish scroll losing both. Then we managed to stone all but one Tiefling with WoW, and then attacked Aesgareth. He was down after few HLA's.
WK4. Another interesting opponent for Drow Ravager is Magic Golem, as I couldn't hit them, nor could my Clone. So we had to left them be. Githyanki slaughtered in couple patches. Saladrex stoned. Mind Flayers are still the enemies we have to buff for, 10x Mind Focus, Absorbtion and Invulnerability. Had to take 5x Mind Focuses for the last party, and overall it lasted about two hours as my Absorption ended just before. Buffing with the Machine the best boon was 5 Magic Resistance, as now we had 100 MR with Ravager form, Ring of Gaxx and Kaligun's Amulet.
WK5, brawled the Green Dragon to death, which took a while it Healing itself twice. But it could barely hurt me. Spirit Warrior test, North-East-Search-North-East-North-Painting-West-Archway has never failed me. Mind Seal was super annoying, as Aurumach had Time Stop ability every three rounds or so blocking my regen, and with that they took the record of most hurt as they got Alessia to 256hp. Once Aurumach was down, the rest of Rilmanis fell easily. Spirit Seal Azamantes we used PfU just because we had so many of those.
For Final Seal, 7x Spikes killed Nalmissra, Charmed the Hive Mother with Control Circlet, and managed to stone Y'tossi with first hit from WoW. In about two rounds three of the six enemies dealt with. Xei Win Toh was whirlwind vs. whirlwind and he lost. We then brawled with Ameralis and Planetar, Hive Mother fighting Huntress. They had no chance. Then Alessia smacked the Huntress, and lastly the Hive Mother. Got Wish scroll and apr gloves, which currently only benefits clone. That concludes Watcher's Keep as I didn't bother with Demi Lich or Demogorgon.
Cleared North Forest for third Time Stop scroll. Picked up Silver Horn and Improved it to Iron one for some additional summons as I couldn't use the Elemental Staffs. Bodhi's upstairs cleared with one PfU, then Smited Bodhi to the upper room and hacked her to first dialogue. This summoned his minions, and we left Bodhi to the room and killed them. Drizzt attacked Bodhi and Hazarmaveth and got killed. We then killed Hazarmaveth before turning on to Bodhi. After she healed second time we stoned her with WoW. Picked up Kitthix for third summon.
Last challenge left for us was Twisted Rune, and we tanked all of them at the same time not worrying about much, even with multisummons and double Planetar's. Interestingly they could hardly injure Alessia. It was nice fireworks to watch though.
Time for Suldanesselar. Passed the city mostly Invisible and brawled Nizi easily to death. 20% Dispel per hit is a nice addition for Ravager weapon taking Dragon's Haste out. But even without it the fight was hopeless for Nizi. Only thing Ravager form misses being the best at everything is better Thac0, as the base Thac0 is actually 0 and the weapon doesn't have bonus, although it acts like +5 weapon. Rillifane then cleansed the place, and after looting and selling me stuff for the high buying merchant, we had 290k gold. Irenicus brawled head on and he could do little.
In Hell we first brawled the Dragon for 5th Time Stop scroll. Then gave the Genie the sword back, but then double Smited it stopping it from leaving. We got the Blackrazor +3 and -2 save tear, which we used immediatelly. We now had undispellable -5 saves so that eliminates need to buff for any Kill or Psionic effects, well until Melissan that is. Next we picked up the AC tear and used it for -8 AC bonus, because Big Metal Unit doesn't work well with Ravager form, and we wanted to reach the AC cap.
Alessia vs. Slayer. We summoned our three minions, Kitthix, Berseker and Efreeti to keep Slayer some company as we retreated. First we casually brawled the double Balors who could do nothing. Then the double Glabrezus who could hurt us even less. Then the Drow Ravager took Slayer head on and he couldn't really hurt us either. At the end of the battle we were forced to transform back to our human form. That concludes SoA, and we didn't heal once since reaching Drow Ravager, and only really buffed for the Mind Flayers.
We took Illasera with Reflection Shield and FoA +3, and after separating her from the minions, we easily killed her with triple Whirlwinds and a Critical Strike. Built bunch of stuff with Cespenar including FoA+4 which we equipped before transforming back to Ravager. The other weapon we chose was Blackrazor +3, and off hand the Reflection Shield. Wondrous Gloves are actually better for us, as apr doesn't affect Ravager form, and with them we get the -1 Thac0 and achieve the AC cap with -4 Ravager, -6 Reflection Shield, -7 Helm of Balduran, -8 Wondrous Gloves, -10 Ring of Gaxx, -12 Cloak +2 and -8 Hell bonuses. We will tune our loadout still a little, when we get the items we need. And if we weren't tough bastard to kill yet, we also took the LoB familiar with 58 hp bonus, to 518 overall hp.
We were then pleasantly surprised, as we actually got back the Drow Ravager form, so we actually don't need to bother with the giant circle even in ToB.
Another interesting opponent for Drow Ravager is Magic Golem, as I couldn't hit them, nor could my Clone. So we had to left them be.
Summons should help here - the horn of Valhalla is guaranteed to get you something with a nonmagical attack, and the wand of monster summoning has a chance. Scrolls of Monster Summoning 1 would have a better chance.
Edit note: I was wrong about the berserk warriors. You want other summons; see my post below.
Summons should help here - the horn of Valhalla is guaranteed to get you something with a nonmagical attack, and the wand of monster summoning has a chance. Scrolls of Monster Summoning 1 would have a better chance.
I thought about using the Horn, but thought it would die or unsummon before hurting the golems enough, and there's no need to fight them anyway. Somehow I've forgotten that I could use the WoMS all together...
The berserk warrior only lasts one turn, true. Then again, magic golems are weak against melee; their attack is ranged-only, so melee attacks get +4 to hit and damage.
...
Wait, no. The berserk warrior (all types) wields "DAX1H01", which has the stats of a +1 battle axe. Including that it's magical. Scratch that option. But looking closer, there are really quite a lot of summons that have nonmagical attacks. Two items that do work here: Efreeti bottle, black spider figurine. The latter is particularly useful with its long duration, although the poison won't help.
MS 1 gets you a kobold commando (nonmagical melee, 2 magical and 20 nonmagical arrows), an ogrillon (nonmagical), a worg (nonmagical), or a rabid dog (nonmagical).
MS 2 gets you a gnoll elite (nonmagical), a dire wolf (magical), a hobgoblin elite (nonmagical melee, 20 magical and 18 nonmagical arrows), or an ogre (magical). The wand draws from this list.
MS 3 gets you an ettercap or an ogre berserker, both of which have magical attacks.
Among other spells ...
Spider Spawn gets you nonmagical attacks at the lowest caster level, and magical at higher level. Same with Animate Dead. Mutated Crawlers (Carrion Summons) have nonmagical attacks. So do invisible stalkers. And djinni, and efreeti. Even the nishruu and hakeashar have nonmagical attacks, although those don't deal damage.
@jmerry Efreeti doesn't work either as it has +4 weapon. I actually needed it to finnish Demi Kangaxx the last run when I forgot to bring +4 weapon. Tried Kitthix and hitting 18 and above it was able to kill one of them, so one rest is perhaps needed for them. Still perhaps the only option for Fighter based Ravager if clone doesn't have correct weapons equipped.
One interesting thing I also found is that if you turn to Ravager again being a Ravager, you lose your status effects like immunities and regeneration, and unequip your shield. But you maintain everything else like hp bonus, base AC, Thac0, saves, and resistances. Losing 30hppr regen is bad, but at the same time you gain ability to haste your character to 10 apr, and double movement rate from the boots. So it's pretty interesting switch.
Looking again ... right, it's SUMEFREE, not EFREETSU. With the item, you get a weapon that deals 2d8 crushing damage at enchantment 4. With the mage spell, you get a weapon that deals 3d8 crushing damage and isn't magical. The item summon also has a one-point THAC0 edge.
Why the game has two different summoned efreeti which aren't quite identical to each other, I'll never know.
@histamiini have you found instances where ravager-bonuses get dispelled while in drow-raverger form? - I was messing around with Adalon and she managed to dispel my ravager form bonus HP.
@alice_ashpool No, only have had a forced Ravager form ending after killing the Slayer. If Adalon dies, it will Dispel his Drow Illusion though, and you should be back at normal Ravager, or Human.
The berserk warrior only lasts one turn, true. Then again, magic golems are weak against melee; their attack is ranged-only, so melee attacks get +4 to hit and damage.
...
Wait, no. The berserk warrior (all types) wields "DAX1H01", which has the stats of a +1 battle axe. Including that it's magical. Scratch that option. But looking closer, there are really quite a lot of summons that have nonmagical attacks. Two items that do work here: Efreeti bottle, black spider figurine. The latter is particularly useful with its long duration, although the poison won't help.
MS 1 gets you a kobold commando (nonmagical melee, 2 magical and 20 nonmagical arrows), an ogrillon (nonmagical), a worg (nonmagical), or a rabid dog (nonmagical).
MS 2 gets you a gnoll elite (nonmagical), a dire wolf (magical), a hobgoblin elite (nonmagical melee, 20 magical and 18 nonmagical arrows), or an ogre (magical). The wand draws from this list.
MS 3 gets you an ettercap or an ogre berserker, both of which have magical attacks.
Among other spells ...
Spider Spawn gets you nonmagical attacks at the lowest caster level, and magical at higher level. Same with Animate Dead. Mutated Crawlers (Carrion Summons) have nonmagical attacks. So do invisible stalkers. And djinni, and efreeti. Even the nishruu and hakeashar have nonmagical attacks, although those don't deal damage.
You can also just use your fists to beat opponents up - I often do that with the magic golem before summoning Kitthix to finish it off when unconscious ...
@histamiini like Grond0 said also don't forget about fists! If you don't have a second weapon equipped, your clone could damage one enough to only needing to deal the killing blow with a summon once unconsious. I used planetar's fist + insect swarm on my F/I. I think only Ogres are using magical weapons using WoMS. Have you tried using traps on your sims? I don't know their enchantment level however and didn't try it myself, the golems have pretty poor save so a Snare could slay it. Don't forget about the wand of fire either for trolls!
On a side note, i've found a way to be able to deal with Skeleton Warriors on a mage character during BG1 (unnecessary but i like it when nothing stand in my way). Those were a real pain for my F/I. Jelly form deal ranged crushing damage and the THAC0 scale with dexterity while the damage with strength, which means it can be a real skeleton warrior crusher.
@alice_ashpool No, only have had a forced Ravager form ending after killing the Slayer. If Adalon dies, it will Dispel his Drow Illusion though, and you should be back at normal Ravager, or Human.
I tested it again, and yeah, attacking her at all (while in drow-ravager form) dispels the drow illusion, also dispelling ravager HP, regen, and attacks, buuuuut, you are still in "ravager form" and so will still "lose control" despite having none of the upsides of ravager...who'da known.
First Pocket Plane challenge was easy smacking for Alessia, they hardly got 20hp damage on us. In Saradush we got rep to 18 resurrecting the father and 19 after helping the Elves. Then did the easy quests. Got rep back to 20 releasing the prisoners. We took whole Gromnir's party head on, and they hurted us very little. Left Gromnir to last just for the sake of it. We now had 375k gold selling our loot.
Got Neera out for a stroll. We were waylay'd by the Thayan's and she got killed in a second. No matter the Drow Ravager grinded all of them to a pulp. Then the mass of Yuan-ti's got the same fate and we left AI to handle them. From the market we bought Kazrah's Shield +4, Golden Girdle, Cloak of the Lich, Wand of Cloudkill, Wand of Wonder, Wand of Polymorphing and bunch of high level spells. After trapping the place we killed the priest for 4th RoR. And Szass Tam teleported us back immediatelly after seven Spikes reduced his health to 1. Resurrected Neera and said so long.
We used PfU for Master Wraith. Passed Yaga-Shura's stronghold mostly Invisible. Tried battling Berenn and Brimstone at the doorway, but noticed Brimstone doing 110 fire damage and had to back off. Apparently something had affected our Fire Resistance which was -50. Waited it to heal and returned to the doorway. After this mishap we easily dominated them in a brawl. Imix barely hurt us either with 100 FR. Checking it back the culprit for the FR-penalty were the Fell Cats with on hit -25 FR for 90s. With Nyalee we first killed our double, which luckily wasn't a real Drow Ravager, as we would've been in a world of hurt. After easily killing Nyalee we left for Yaga-Shura's camp.
Alessia vs. Yaga-Shura. First we didn't even try to beat the Bridge script for Yaga's army, but took them as a welcomed warm up. This took awhile, as 60 of them came. But again they could barely hurt us. This took 4 hours in game time. Then we hit Yaga and he buggered off. He came back with even more friends, and we started the brawl with Yaga, in the middle of the glorious fireworks. Beautiful sight, but Yaga was soon badly injured where as Alessia was just getting started. So we gave him a breather and smacked her Lieutenants to death. Then we finished him with Whirlwind style.
Second Pocket Plane challenge barely hurt us, and we got Regeneration because we still hadn't enough of it. With Ravager 30hppr, Regeneration 18hppr, Ring of Gaxx 2hppr and Whirlwind we could now heal full 100 hp per round. Oasis grinded for items, and after selling them we had half a million in gold. We then took Rasaad for a short stroll and after getting waylay'd and getting the map update I sent him back to Pocket Plane. We ground all the Sharran's in our way to the stronghold and then killed them all inside. We found Night Walkers, Headband of Devout for 1 turn Righteous Magic, and Cloak of the Dark Moon which gives -2AC, -2 Saves at night, 3x 100 MDR for 4 hours and allows using a magical armor.
Dragonis was brawled to death, he hardly managed to hurt Alessia. Lizard Men were tougher and managed to get Alessia to 450hp. Next one was something new for us, as we weren't naturally fast enough to overcome Greater Werewyvern's regen at -9 Thac0. We used Emotions Hope and Courage, and Circlet of Lost Souls to get -13 Thac0 and used Righteous Magic from Headband of Devout. Then unloaded three Whirlwinds and a Critical Strike finished it. The double Lizard Man Shaman room almost broke our streak of no healing as we went below 100hp, but rather than using RoR we went Invisible. And after recovering we were fast enough to thin the Lizard Men, and after those were dead it was done. Although it took a while to grind the multisummons. Anadramatis only managed to lower our Magic Resistance to 40, other than that he hardly hurt us. Picked up the Wingbuffet amulet and Yellow Dragon Scales which Cespenar forged to an armor. With it we were now immune to also Piercing damage. Getting back we were ambushed with bunch of Cornugons and Pit Fiends who did hardly hurt us. Piercing immunity was pretty bad for Kuo-toa stronghold too.
In Sendai Enclave the Drow Captain party faired mediocrely, hurting us 100 hp and getting our MR lower. But whenever this happens we use Rage to counter possible Maze. And even if that hits, there's still possible escape with Dispel from PfM during the animation. Thelynn's army was beaten easily, then we beat the Spiders. Yochol's area was no problem either. Used PfU for Odamaron, yet we still had to brawl bunch of his summons. Ogremoch knows how to brawl with undispellable unlimited Stoneskins, 1500 hp and terrible fists that Dispel on hit and hurt like hell. But we are the Mike Tyson of brawlers, we're immune to his Earthquake Sleep and equipped Roranach's Horn for crushing immunity and just let it happen, only my Cold damage hurting him. Brawl of ages took about 3 hours in game time, but Ogremoch couldn't do anything to stop his everlasting sleep. Captain Egeissag brawl is pretty funny thing after Ogremoch. I didn't want to embarrass him so I let him hack in a while. Then cast Righteous Magic, Assasination and doing 142 dmg per hit he was down after 4 hits in Mike Tyson style. For the last Mindies we took 15x Mind Focus, 4h Protection from Magic Energy from the Cloak and 2x Absorptions. Mindies were no match, and after them we casually brawled the few mages and fighters.
Alessia vs. Sendai. Emotion Hope and Courage, Righteous Magic and first whirlwinded the Cleric Statue that could cast Deva and prevent leaving through Invisibility. Then backed to a corner and unloaded HLA's to oncoming extremely potent Drows. They have -33 Thac0, Whirlwinds and could potentially chew up even the Drow Ravager if we weren't careful. Killed some of them and then the mages got multisummons going which was actually good for us as there was a corridor for just one of the Drow at the time, and Alessia smacked them as they came. After awhile the first assault was ground to dust. It went better than expected not getting below 300hp. After the Drows were gone the Statues were easy pray. Sendai arrived and after wasting her summons including Deva she had no chance, beat her to the ground. Third Pocket challenge we beat the Slayer and got Dark Taint. Picked up the rope in Amkethran and having 750k gold we bought all the interesting scrolls. Avoided 2/3 of the rep guests if we needed to change equipment and do Ravager change again, so I could maintain 20 rep to lure Balthazar on our side.
For the quadruble Dragon attack we equipped Shadow Dragon Scale and we now were immune to all of their Breath attacks. Fire, Acid and Poison. First brawled the double Acid Dragons Olinissimous and Zirimanat'ryl, then Ithy'nassendra the Poison Dragon who Healed once, and lastly Carnifex the Fire Dragon. None of them really hurt Alessia who now stood on a Dragon graveyard. Brawled all to death in the Eyeball area, even the Tyrant Golems which took a while with their DR. Next was a big surprise, as I was force changed to Slayer for Bondari and to a Human form a second time. No worries though as we changed back to Drow Ravager, bought rep back to 18, and did the couple rep guests for the Mayor and Marlowe. We then built the BMU just in case. FII'Yissetat casually brawled to death.
Alessia vs. Abazigal. We entered the room with Protection from Magical Energy from the Cloak, Frost Boots, Fire Control Ring, Shadow Scale and Reflection Shield giving us 100 FR/CR/ER/AR/PR/MR/MDR. First up was Tamah and the six Frost Salamanders who hardly hurt us. Before death Tamah went Ethereal and buggered off, so we rested in Pocket Plane which makes Tamah appear again and do nothing as we killed her. Such a weird SCS-mechanic. Then we hunted down the four elemental Drakes. For Abazigal we switched to Full Plate and Ring +2 giving us -6 undispellable save to counter all of his abilities, AC cap -20 or -33 AC vs. slashing. Reflection Shield is useful here as it's the only item that counters his Lower Electric Resistance spell. Ravager is naturally immune to his Sleep 24s -6 vs. Spell from Earthquake and his single Imprisonment. And if he was to try Lower Resistance, we could counter it with Rage to stop his single Maze. The Dragon tried Lower Electric Resistance which Alessia laughed at. It took awhile to get first hit on after his multiple PfMW's, but after Dispelling his Haste, the fight was done. He only got Alessia down to 450 hp.
For the third Pocket Plane challenge we easily beat the Favored of Cyric and got Hand of Murder. Balty was conviced to join me with 2-2-3-2-1-1-1-3-3-1-1-2-1-1 dialogue line. In the final Pocket Plane challenge the Drow Ravager brawled the Ravager and six Bone Blades all together in melee, first ever time for me. They just couldn't overcome our 30hppr regen with 70DR, 100CR and -33 AC vs. Slashing. No buffs or HLA's needed. Got the -25 DR which completes our undispellable final form.
Still we could have picked couple items to make us even stronger. Silver Dragon Scale would heal us 2hp per hit, which with 95 DR nullifies damage if it's lower than 40 per hit. But we didn't do the Dorn guest line in SoA so we couldn't continue it in ToB. And also Gorgon Plate would give -2 modifier vs. Slashing compared to other armors. We can currently hit undispellable -35 AC vs. Slashing with -20 AC cap, -6 modifier from 25 Dex, -7 modifier from armors, and -2 from Sensate amulet PfE. Next up Throne of Bhaal.
@histamiini Those are some insane stats, make me want to restart right away! I'm really thinking either a fighter/thief (Ravager Copypasta ) , mage/thief (Bel huh... i got an ''alternate'' way that shouldn't require 1 hp trick, but it won't be a NR strat either, not even near), Blade or Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple/Wild Mage. Also is it possible to do the EE companions quests without recruiting them to the party? Its the thing that is keeping me from trying wild mage in the first place... I want that circlet. As always, good job! That was very fast too.
@XDarkStrikerX If you're thinking using Ravager, remember that one of the down sides is disabled spell casting, so casters aren't that well suited for it.
No you need to recruit them for a short while, like move them from point a to point b. I've always maintained the rule that you can recruit them to advance their necessary guest parts, but can not control them in fights. That way you wont get blocked from any content in the game, and it doesn't really change the spirit of playing solo that much.
Alessia vs. Throne of Bhaal. Started the fight casually with just Emotion Hope and Courage, then started casting Time Stop scroll, which Jon beat us to. But as Balty had used Lunar Stance for immunity he started smacking the other Solar. Once Jon's Time Stop ended I got mine on and we killed the other Solar. Two more Time Stops from both Jon and Alessia killed the other Solar too, and as Alessia was casting already third Time Stop, we used this to kill Bodhi, as she's the next bothersome of them. Healed Balty with RoR as he was almost dead. After this Jon was slightly outmatched by Drow Ravager and Balty. The pools were easy fighting, Balty smacking Cambions, me keeping him alive with RoR and tying most of the battle including Balors. Mariliths were the most trouble as always with evercasting PfMW's.
After Big Six arrived we started attacking Yaga as he has the most health, and could potentially kill others near death with his annoying Fireballs. Balty died pretty quickly, but Alessia had no trouble of tanking the mayhem. Hacked Yaga twice near death, and both times Planetars Healed him, so I first concentrated on something else. Also noticed that Yaga doesn't actually shoot Fireballs if your FR is 100. After Celestials unsummoned we hacked Yaga to near death. But disaster hit as I was watching the wrong health bar in the chaos and accidentally killed Yaga. Well this summoned Melissan and double Fallen Solar's and I was little bit worried of getting trapped in the mass of summons, and Solar's Healing everybody.
But that was not the case. The Solars buggered off hiding and only Melissan started attacking Alessia. This was fine as she wasn't really hurting us at all, other than with on hit save penalty. And after my saves got worse I equipped Cloak of the Lich to stop any Deaths happening. Then Alessia just casually continued killing others, first Gromnir, then Illasera, Abazigal and Sendai. Once there was only one minion left, Sarevok, Melissan finally got her multisummons going. That's probably scripted that way. Anyway she multisummoned Cambions too and I wasn't too keen smacking Sarevok them around. So we Charmed Sarevok with Control Circlet, as he's the only one that can be Charmed, and Melissan did the work for us.
We Teleported to one of the pools, but Melissan arrived and being super angry summoned an incredible amount of help, so we again Teleported to another pool. After she Teleported on to us again something happened to her. Her spirit was broken. Apparently Alessia looked so godlike in power that she just stood there doing nothing and gave up, and we just smacked her around freely. And after awhile she was out. That's quite funny as she's the one usually breaks the spirit of others.
Some random thoughts.
- Permanent Ravager exploit is probably the most op exploit there is, coupled with Drow exploit there's hardly downsides other than disabled casting. And it's rather slow char with Free-Action, but which can also be circumvented double turning to Ravager. Which consequently removes all status effects, but leaves most of the other stuff.
- Most hurt we got was interestingly the double Lizard Man Shaman room in Abazigal lair, where we went below 100hp. But that's probably because we didn't thought it as a trouble beforehand. Other than that we didn't heal once after reaching Drow Ravager.
- After the Tear exploit in Abyss trials, there's really not much that could end the run for Ravager. Only thing I see practically ending the run, if you're trapped in multisummons and summoners have evercasting summons. Like what almost happened with Tahazzar. Luckily I could stone his ass from afar.
- If Drow Ravager is the most op exploit, Barbarian25/Thief27 is probably the most op Drow Ravager with additional 20 DR and UAI.
- If Drow Ravager is the most op exploit, Barbarian25/Thief27 is probably the most op Drow Ravager with additional 20 DR and UAI.
While you are probably right in terms of unkillability and final battle, I really like Jester Ravager which I had some fun with lately.
You can sing jesters Song while ravaging and on current version of LoB its quite deadly (not using a fixpack or anything) since you don't have to roll vs hit on unconscious., so killing summons is relatively easy, ofc depending on the speed they get summoned.
@Victor_Creed_SFV Definitely, and 75 DR is perfectly fine for final battle I think.
Dark Moon Monk would be good, double the speed of slow Ravager, 127MR naturally, long casting Mirror Image and Blur, normal weapon immunity etc. Interestingly Thac0 bonus and Frozen Fist don't work with Ravager, because the weapon isn't a fist.
Kensai would overcome of Ravager's mediocre Thac0 (-7) with additional 13 bonus, and give monster damage, over 50 per hit with 13 bonus and Kai. Or even dualing to Thief. Kensai24/Thief would still give -8 bonuses to Thac0/dmg.
Dwarven Defender's Defensive Stance scales with Ravager bonus, and DD would hit 100DR in Slayer form already at 4M xp. Lv40 it's 11 turns of 100 DR. It also doesn't halve Ravager speed like it would normally do. Shorty bonus doesn't come to play in Ravager form though.
Inquisitor is good Dispelling everybody. Priest of Lathander would be good, but sadly the stackable apr bonus from Boon doesn't affect Ravager apr.
Swashbuckler will do almost the same as Kensai, getting +8 Thac0/dmg bonus, and in addition hit -20 AC without gear. Swashbuckler can also hit 10 apr with Whirlwind. Hard to get past Bel though.
Also if you turn Ravager after using Improved Haste, you get 10 apr for the duration of the spell and double speed. Mages could be useful if you didn't care about reputation.
EDIT: Hah, you can still cast spells through sequencers, triggers and contingencies if you take the innate ability SCS-option, and don't need to turn to back to human. This makes mages more than viable alternative for Ravager.
Didn't know about DD not getting slowed in Ravager form, nice find!
Wild Mage can also cast WHILE in Ravager form, but needs TOB to even use NRD somewhat safely and while before that you could just not NRD there is still that 5% chance of death.
The thread has been inactive for a while, now with the release of 2.6 i might restart a solo/lob playthrough soon. I'm busy at the moment, not sure if i'll have the time to start and finish it before the end of the year but i'm eager to start for sure. I'm really thinking going with what i know first to see what changed as i'm not that experienced yet playing SCS LoB (only did Sirus the F/I, didn't do another one since, will also do an all content run like last time to see if some secondary fights changed). I didn't try it at all yet so i'm eager to see if they patched the LoB ST bug which would be interresting. Apparently, no more temporary abilities for clones so no shapechange transfert (didn't use it last time), no more Drizzt cheese and no more rod of resurrection to heal, i didn't read the whole thing but it will definitely change things for many classes and won't make success as easy for sure (well i think). I'm also considering a party run either at the same time or shortly after.
Hopefully one of you show us how it's done soon! There is no other thread that i enjoyed to read as much as this one so far no matter the game. SCS is still 33.7 and ascension 2.0.14 so i'm still up to date. Reinstalling SCS right now, see you soon!
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Teleria doesn't agro if you don't talk to her, got Stone Ally. We listened Dwarves getting killed, picked up the amulets and Helm of Dumathoin which will be imported to SoA. We reached Coldhearth with Invisibility and PfU, and made a deal with him. Hid behind the tent for the parlay.
Morentherene daggered, Ziatar burned out of sight, Akanna stood no chances with ultra buffed Barbarian. Bridge mage interrupted with Ring of Energy.
In Hephernaan Basement, with Barbarian speed we managed to pass Belben first ever time unnoticed, and only coming back he got his forced dialogue out. We had 480k xp before the Crudasers attacked, and they were burned with 75xDetonators. lv10
Ashatiel easily killed, Trix was tricked going outside the map once.
3xPfF, 3xPfC, 3xPfE, 3xPfA, PfP
8xMind Focus, Violet, Fortitude
Speed, 2xInvulnerability, Clarity, Power, Fire Shield Red from the Staff
With optimal gear we now had -9 Thac0 and started the lift. Lift went fast, and we used the last Green Abishai to get our final buffs. 30xHeroism (14hp piece), Speed, 2xInvul, Clarity and Power. We had 611hp when we started the fight with Bel. Yet it still took 13xDurlag's Goblet, one time refresh of Speed, 2xInvul, Clarity and Power to beat him. I was using Cloverleaf for -1 Thac0, and -4AC vs Slashing from Protector of Unworthy is possibly better, as I think some of the attacks get cancelled when hit. Barbarian passes SoD and proves that all Fighters can beat Belhifet with the Goblet, and without Champions Strength scrolls. Well except perhaps Wizard Slayers.
Next is the most trouble yet for Barbarian, in Irenicus Dungeon without anykind of Invisibility.
Also tried using Vhailor's helm which, to my surprise, doesn't get dispelled by true sight like when i tried using PI, which means additional death fog, ice storm, sunfire and flame arrows. Didn't need any spell striking wand doing that, casting all spells and finishing with the Victor finished her shorty after my Sim expired. It's getting better and better! Unnecessary as long as rift device is a thing but it does feel more satisfying
@alice_ashpool Harm should work if you didn't nerf it with SCS for a one shot. Her MR is reduced to 70% when all of the Five are dead so a lucky harm right after should work, especially with critical strike. The problem is to get there however, as my only plan was Feeblemind and reduce their HP to a one-three shot so not sure how to deal with the Five. Literally nothing work on the Mage side to disable her. It doesn't say that she's immune to stone to flesh, but i'm pretty sure that wand of wonder wouldn't work either.
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Anyway, I know its not BG but I've been messing around in IWD1 again (my perma-novelty seeking). Was thinking about "what was hardest" and so took a solo lvl 1 (edit: level 1 start, not level 1 all the way through!) Transmuter on HoF to Kuldahar... what sweet hell. Probably going to tap out before I finish vale of shadows though. there's only so many hours in a day and it's getting harder.
Off topic IWD1 stuff:
Maxed Str for +2 damage
Starting spells: Expeditious retreat, find familiar, [something else] + grab the chromatic orb and minor mirror image scroll - reload if fail to scribe either.
Familiar: Imp
Weapons: dual daggers and sling
Then use imps polar bear and mustard jelly form as applicable getting to level 7 chromatic orb stun - right about the first time going in the shipment cave. There were a couple of choke points in the cave but mustard jelly is immune to everything so the main limit is the imp's polymorph duration - just lots of resting. Had to expeditious retreat through kuldarhar vale (my 2 deaths, though this was about the 5th run working out what I was doing) as I could see no way to deal with all the goblins before polymorph ran out on the imp - no safe place to rest to refresh chromatic orbs. Bought Web and ground Vale of Shadows yetis + shadows with spider-imp for enough XP that I could go to HoW if wanted. Thats about where I lost the will to live.
I am curious though, if a solo mage, specialist or otherwise can get through the game with the serious restriction on spellscrolls. An interesting challenge.
I'm pretty sure @Harpagornis has beaten IWD HoF with a level 1 mage.
Me, prefer the cheesiness of sorcerers, druids and clerics. :P
All credit due to @histamiini
So in ravager form
Only thing required:
The frost embrace boots for non-dispellable cold immunity (don't forget them in spellhold).
Ring of fire control for fire immunity (she won't cast comets or dragon breath)
Roranach horn (helmet from Grommir) for crushing damage immunity.
Belt of Inertial barrier if you don't want to take a potion to negate the magical damage.
Last Ascension evil challenge bonus (25% all melee damage)
Optional Shield of Reflection to keep Solars from shooting you when she spawns (shouldn't do much anyway).
She only seem to use melee attacks once she tele-stomp you, she won't spawn anything else or use timestop again so the goal is to wait for her to summon all of her demons, then teleport away to the edge of a pool. She'll teleport on you, teleport just aside of her so you can actually hit her and move a bit if you want. Melee her to death on auto-attack and unleash for some additionnal damage over time. She's also vulnerable to critical strike so this definitely speed this up.
So now, this should cover all classes except wizard slayer and pure mage, mages can defeat Mel using damaging spells like i did however. I think that the regen is good enough to overcome another 25% of crushing damage but i didn't try it. My health was definitely full at all time. Ravager form should probably be good for The Five too, especially if using a PFM on Sendai (this should work i assume). You really just have to teleport away if you need any healing, which shouldn't happen too often anyway with immunity and only receiving 25% of slashing and piercing damage.
Edit: Just tried without Roranach Horn, the ravager form can overcome her damage still. She won't hit you at all time at -16 AC using Spirit Shield +2 Cloak and it is enough to heal off the 25% damage from crushing and slashing. Even monks can do it and mages if they wish to do it this way.
Damn now I really want to play wild mage, which can still cast in ravager form. :P
Wouldn't be able to wear the helm but I think thats ok.
Absolutely love the Barbarian voice (#1) in SoA, waargh. First thing, looting Thieves Guild and getting the Nymph's Cloak. We made just enough money to buy it, and two Invisibility potions. Mad Cleric was easily beaten with DuHM+Rage. Looted the Temple area. Used the other Invisibility potion to pick up Renfeld and carried him to Harper Hold. Graveyard guests, and then looted the place. Bridge Guest done to point before reporting. Reti took one Extra Healing, got Missile Boots. Charmed Welther and made him attack Corhvale. Got Silver Pantaloons. Bought our rep to 14 and reported the Bridge Murders. lv11 with 10 DR.
Helped Neera to her Stronghold and picked up the Hairband for Mereth, to get Amulet +2. We charmed Brennan from Seven Vales gang, and he attack followed us outside. He was first attacked by some Shadow Thieves, who actually failed to kill him, freaking imbeciles. No matter as you can attack the Bouncer without making it or anyone else red circle. And the Bouncer wasted Brennan. Got our first reusable Invisibility. You don't want to attack Brennan yourself, because he's scripted to escape and if you're not fast enough, so long Invisibility ring. Same tactic for Orcslicer, although he went yellow circle at near death, and almost killed the Bouncer. Charmed both Pooky and Aemon. Aemon had three summon spells, and they loaded everything on Mencar. Alessia needed couple hits to finish the fight. Bought Ring of Air Control for second reusable Invisbility.
At De'Arnise we first killed the four dogs away from Otyugh prying eye, and opened the gate. Then started looting the place. Got FoA +2 among other loot, no way of Dispelling Glaicus yet, as he's got -1 vs. Breath. Picked up Belm +2 from Druid Grove under Invisibility, and we now had 4apr. Did the rescue guest in Neera's hideout for the Spell Turning Shield. We drank double PfF's and easily wasted the Mephits in Rayic home. Then repeated the Fireball trap to kill the guy. Maevar was precharmed and killed by his own gang. Beast Master doesn't agro if you get hit from Invisibility, freed the slaves, lv12 *Axe. In Goverment district we summoned the Cowled Wizards by casting Improved Invisibility on ourselves. And neutral Guards killed them all, including Zallanora. Got some Invisibility potions and gold, but no high level scrolls. We used PfP and repeated the Cloudkill trap to kill the Slavers.
Sanasha and Prebek level skipped with Spell Turning and Rage. Easy Umar Hill guests, lv13 with 4.5 apr. Bought Vhailor's Helm and we beat the Windspear Paladins with couple RoR's. The Bandits needed no healing after buffing in the top room freely. Invisibility to Tazok who was easily wasted. But I was being overrun by ever coming Orog's as I failed ot close the doors, and after spending RoR we went invisible and escaped. Rested in Firkraag's Lair, came back and beat the Orog's. Got the Sewer Key. For the Sewer Mindies PfU, 5xHeroism, 2xInvul, Speed, and we picked up Wand of Wonder. Conster level skipped with Spell Turning and Rage. Once he was out of spells we cloned and killed him. Started the Firkraag xp-loop, and the first wand got us to lv15 *Axe 15DR, and with second we got to lv17.
We attacked Glaicus, and he actually surrendered the Acid head so we didn't have to kill him, built FoA +3. We bought Azuredge +3 and killed the Undead in Temple Sewers. With couple PfU's we hunted the three minor Liches. Kangaxx was casually ranged with Azuredge, and after transformation Stoned first hit from WoW. lv18 *Two-Handed Sword after the bridge riddle. WK1 cleared to point of the 8 Statues with Clone, lv19 20dr. Next WoW got us to lv21, *Two-Handed Sword, WW and GWW.
We only had 22k gold, and dualing loop looming ahead we needed to start making money. Although I had a lot of jewels and scrolls, we wanted to sell them for the Shaguain merchant. Looted rest of the Windspear Dungeon but didn't yet fight Samia's gang, 1500 gold. Easily killed the Druids in Faldorn Cave exit, lv22 with Power Attack. Cernd challenged Faldorn, and he leveled in the pit getting the Greater Werewolf token. First he went Invisible with a potion, then when Faldorn revealed him, Cernd used Invisibility ring. Waited her summons out, the same again. Then Cernd attacked and even blinded, Faldorn couldn't do much with Cernds regen. Only used one Invisibility potion. Djinnis easily killed with Clone. Rest of the Trademeet, Traya lured away and killed for Thac0 Cloak, and then we companied Rasaad to City Gates.
Temple Ruins was overrun with Clone, used one PfU on Shadow Lord and couple WoW strikes on Thaxll. Lv23 with Cricital Strike and 60k gold. In Amphitheater Quickblade was killed by Clone. Hammerhelm party smoked with Clone and Efreeti for the map update. Dalton killed for the 3xMirror Image ring. Did the easy tests in Heretic Temple, mostly for Gem of Seeing, lv24 *Halberd, Smite. Then we bought 63 Stone to Flesh scrolls, and with 60k gold we had enough money to complete the high level dual. First we took Barbarian lv25 with GWW, and then started the boring dual. Boring in a way that we were going to level up only after dual was completed. That way we could use 6 of the 8 Thief27 pips as a Barbarian. Thief lv1, *Long Sword, *Single Weapon Style, Detect Illusion 40. Rechargin the WoW with Sister Garlena costs 4900 gold with 20/20 economy. The dualing xp-loop probably took a hour and half, but I had to spread it for few hours because it's boring as hell. Nevertheless we got the 3750000 Thief xp's after killing Firkraag the one last time, and still had 16k gold left.
The power gaming approach got us to this:
Barbarian25/Thief27
205 hp (+ LoB Familiar)
20 dr
0 base Thac0
2 base apr
3/4/4/4/5 saves
Backstab Immunity
+2 Movement Rate
Weapon Profeciency (20)
** Axe
** Flail
** Halberd
** Katana
** Long Sword
** Scimitar
** Sling
** Two-Handed Sword
* Single-Weapon Style
*** Two-Weapon Style
HLA (10)
* Power Attack
* Critical Strike
* Smite
* Whirlwind
** Greater Whirlwind
* Assasination
* Set Spike Trap
* Set Time Trap
* Use Any Item
Skills
30 Pick Pockets
100 Open Locks
100 Find Traps
100 Set Traps
100 Detect Illusion
195 Move Silently
195 Hide In Shadows
5x Backstab
6x Set Snare
7x Rage
Started Chapter 3. Used PfU to kill Lassal and waited Bodhi out. We still wanted Speed Boots before we leaving so we had to do Haerdelis guest. Mekrath Smited. Landing in Planar Prison was leveled with 9 Cloudkills, got Boots of Speed. Next big party was smoked too and got Thac0 gloves. Warden was depleted from spells and whirlwinded to pieces. Interestingly there's only two Farsights in SoA. We bought both for Irenicus, and bunch of scroll summons. Also learned the permanent Mind Flayer form from Limited Wish scroll just in case. Then we sailed to Brynnlaw.
Nothing too hard, Perth was Smited and we surrendered one point of Intelligence in the Dream. The Asylum was basic grinding, got Boots of the North and Grounding from the Tokens. Irenicus was a fun one, my Clone Smited him from Farsight, and he actually got stuck inside the same test tube we were in. How you like them apples?
Got 115k selling my stuff to Shaguain merchant. City of Caverns was basic smacking, for the King we had 7 Spike Traps. In Underdark we killed the Balor with Time Trap and Mind Flayer form. 70k gold got us all the interesting things on sale in Underdark.
Then it was time for the major transformation. After Adalon had turned us to a Drow, we changed to a Drow Ravager, and escaped the Magic Damage with Belt of Inertial Barrier. With Sentinel +4 on we now had -20 AC +modifiers, 460hp, 70dr and 30hppr regen. It actually took so much energy that it broke the right button from my mouse, the second time playing Baldur's Gate.
Phaere gave us some time to rest, which for us meant going to war. Alchra Diagott the Lich was the toughest opponent yet and got us to 436hp. Vithal conjured impossible amount of Monsters, but could do little. Interestingly the whole Kuo-Toa empire couldn't outdo the Lich and only got us to 450hp. After killing the Tyrant we got three days vacation, which we used first to attack the Mind Flayer dungeon. With only Invulnerability and few Mind Focuses we slaughtered all, and even they couldn't outdo Diagott that still held the record of hurting us. Got Fire Control ring, and we now had 100 Fire, and Cold resistance. Picked up Staff of Command and left, got rep back to 18 after saving the slaves.
We then took the Beholder dungeon head on. At one point we were tanking Elder Orb, Hive Mother, 8xBeholders, 2xEfreetis and 8xGauths with no worries in the world. Killed some of them including Elder Orb and Hive Mother and casually looted and left. Then the five Demon Knights. Only thing they got through with their spells was Blindness, but even then they only got us to low as 376hp, which is probably going to be a record for some time. Underdark was now cleared from enemies, and we didn't even brake a sweat. After this "resting" period we reported on duty. Deirex summoned us a Planetar, and we weren't kiting for nobody, as we were out of its -2 vs. Death Kill(13). It only managed to do us 6hp damage, but it Healead itself near death and respectfully unsummoned rather than died. Deirex was easy pray after that, and we're now back at 100k gold. Rather than completing the Drow's wishes, we escaped Underdark, beating the proximity trap in the exit area with whirlwind speed. And now we can roam the SoA as a Barbarian/Thief/Drow/Ravager.
Op as hell, but refreshing change of pace with no need to plan or buff for every encounter.
Circus walked through and we got rep to 19. Tarnor's gang couldn't get my hp lower than 455. Got Helm of Dumathoin for more DR, but I'm probably going to stick with Balduran as I like hitting more. Walked through Undead Bridge, Beholder lair and casually smacked Unseeing Eye without the Rift Device, which took awhile with his 95 DR. Then cleaned the place from enemies including the Blind Priests. Wasted Gaal and then commissioned Roger to smuggle the Rift Device out from the sewers. There's really no need, but as we are going for the most op run ever, why not? Reported back to temple and we got rep back to 20. Guarded Compound put up nice show, but only got us to 410hp. Samia's Gang casually smacked.
Only thing I can't really kill easily are Trolls as Ravager weapon only does Cold damage. But we lured Tor'Gal away from others, and used Flame Arrow scroll after he was unconcious. The big battle with rest of the Trolls and Yuan'ti Mages was the most trouble yet for Ravager. Had first to kill all the summons, then the mages and then one Giant Troll with Flame Arrow. Then needed both Efreeti, and Clone with FoA +3 to wipe the rest. The eight Statues in WK1 managed to get us to low as 332hp. They didn't hold the record long as the two Fire-Giants in WK2 got us to 299hp and we had to use our HLA's. Rest of the level provided no challenge. Tried prawling with Chromatic Demon couple minutes, but it was taking too long only hitting his Fire form, so I just stoned him with WoW.
WK3 we first killed all in the Dead Magic Balor room, then attacked Tahazzar. The fight took a long ass time as I first tried fighting the Glabrezus as I got stuck in the corner. But as I had killed like 10 of them I noticed that Tahazzar was Gating them in as they died. So I stoned his ass from afar, and then plowed my way through. Then we passed Wild Magic Quasit room, and killed everybody in the Succubus room. Ka'rashur went smoothly as I first unloaded all HLA's on him. Then we passed Wild Magic Quasit room to Wild Magic Tiefling room and killed everybody. Played twice with Aesgareth for Wish scroll losing both. Then we managed to stone all but one Tiefling with WoW, and then attacked Aesgareth. He was down after few HLA's.
Deck of Many things gave nothing to us.
1st Draw, SI:Abjuration, SI:Evocation RUIN
2nd Draw, SI:Alteration, SI:Enchantment VOID
3rd Draw, SI:Conjuration ERINYES
WK4. Another interesting opponent for Drow Ravager is Magic Golem, as I couldn't hit them, nor could my Clone. So we had to left them be. Githyanki slaughtered in couple patches. Saladrex stoned. Mind Flayers are still the enemies we have to buff for, 10x Mind Focus, Absorbtion and Invulnerability. Had to take 5x Mind Focuses for the last party, and overall it lasted about two hours as my Absorption ended just before. Buffing with the Machine the best boon was 5 Magic Resistance, as now we had 100 MR with Ravager form, Ring of Gaxx and Kaligun's Amulet.
WK5, brawled the Green Dragon to death, which took a while it Healing itself twice. But it could barely hurt me. Spirit Warrior test, North-East-Search-North-East-North-Painting-West-Archway has never failed me. Mind Seal was super annoying, as Aurumach had Time Stop ability every three rounds or so blocking my regen, and with that they took the record of most hurt as they got Alessia to 256hp. Once Aurumach was down, the rest of Rilmanis fell easily. Spirit Seal Azamantes we used PfU just because we had so many of those.
For Final Seal, 7x Spikes killed Nalmissra, Charmed the Hive Mother with Control Circlet, and managed to stone Y'tossi with first hit from WoW. In about two rounds three of the six enemies dealt with. Xei Win Toh was whirlwind vs. whirlwind and he lost. We then brawled with Ameralis and Planetar, Hive Mother fighting Huntress. They had no chance. Then Alessia smacked the Huntress, and lastly the Hive Mother. Got Wish scroll and apr gloves, which currently only benefits clone. That concludes Watcher's Keep as I didn't bother with Demi Lich or Demogorgon.
Cleared North Forest for third Time Stop scroll. Picked up Silver Horn and Improved it to Iron one for some additional summons as I couldn't use the Elemental Staffs. Bodhi's upstairs cleared with one PfU, then Smited Bodhi to the upper room and hacked her to first dialogue. This summoned his minions, and we left Bodhi to the room and killed them. Drizzt attacked Bodhi and Hazarmaveth and got killed. We then killed Hazarmaveth before turning on to Bodhi. After she healed second time we stoned her with WoW. Picked up Kitthix for third summon.
Last challenge left for us was Twisted Rune, and we tanked all of them at the same time not worrying about much, even with multisummons and double Planetar's. Interestingly they could hardly injure Alessia. It was nice fireworks to watch though.
Time for Suldanesselar. Passed the city mostly Invisible and brawled Nizi easily to death. 20% Dispel per hit is a nice addition for Ravager weapon taking Dragon's Haste out. But even without it the fight was hopeless for Nizi. Only thing Ravager form misses being the best at everything is better Thac0, as the base Thac0 is actually 0 and the weapon doesn't have bonus, although it acts like +5 weapon. Rillifane then cleansed the place, and after looting and selling me stuff for the high buying merchant, we had 290k gold. Irenicus brawled head on and he could do little.
In Hell we first brawled the Dragon for 5th Time Stop scroll. Then gave the Genie the sword back, but then double Smited it stopping it from leaving. We got the Blackrazor +3 and -2 save tear, which we used immediatelly. We now had undispellable -5 saves so that eliminates need to buff for any Kill or Psionic effects, well until Melissan that is. Next we picked up the AC tear and used it for -8 AC bonus, because Big Metal Unit doesn't work well with Ravager form, and we wanted to reach the AC cap.
Alessia vs. Slayer. We summoned our three minions, Kitthix, Berseker and Efreeti to keep Slayer some company as we retreated. First we casually brawled the double Balors who could do nothing. Then the double Glabrezus who could hurt us even less. Then the Drow Ravager took Slayer head on and he couldn't really hurt us either. At the end of the battle we were forced to transform back to our human form. That concludes SoA, and we didn't heal once since reaching Drow Ravager, and only really buffed for the Mind Flayers.
We took Illasera with Reflection Shield and FoA +3, and after separating her from the minions, we easily killed her with triple Whirlwinds and a Critical Strike. Built bunch of stuff with Cespenar including FoA+4 which we equipped before transforming back to Ravager. The other weapon we chose was Blackrazor +3, and off hand the Reflection Shield. Wondrous Gloves are actually better for us, as apr doesn't affect Ravager form, and with them we get the -1 Thac0 and achieve the AC cap with -4 Ravager, -6 Reflection Shield, -7 Helm of Balduran, -8 Wondrous Gloves, -10 Ring of Gaxx, -12 Cloak +2 and -8 Hell bonuses. We will tune our loadout still a little, when we get the items we need. And if we weren't tough bastard to kill yet, we also took the LoB familiar with 58 hp bonus, to 518 overall hp.
We were then pleasantly surprised, as we actually got back the Drow Ravager form, so we actually don't need to bother with the giant circle even in ToB.
Edit note: I was wrong about the berserk warriors. You want other summons; see my post below.
...
Wait, no. The berserk warrior (all types) wields "DAX1H01", which has the stats of a +1 battle axe. Including that it's magical. Scratch that option. But looking closer, there are really quite a lot of summons that have nonmagical attacks. Two items that do work here: Efreeti bottle, black spider figurine. The latter is particularly useful with its long duration, although the poison won't help.
MS 1 gets you a kobold commando (nonmagical melee, 2 magical and 20 nonmagical arrows), an ogrillon (nonmagical), a worg (nonmagical), or a rabid dog (nonmagical).
MS 2 gets you a gnoll elite (nonmagical), a dire wolf (magical), a hobgoblin elite (nonmagical melee, 20 magical and 18 nonmagical arrows), or an ogre (magical). The wand draws from this list.
MS 3 gets you an ettercap or an ogre berserker, both of which have magical attacks.
Among other spells ...
Spider Spawn gets you nonmagical attacks at the lowest caster level, and magical at higher level. Same with Animate Dead. Mutated Crawlers (Carrion Summons) have nonmagical attacks. So do invisible stalkers. And djinni, and efreeti. Even the nishruu and hakeashar have nonmagical attacks, although those don't deal damage.
One interesting thing I also found is that if you turn to Ravager again being a Ravager, you lose your status effects like immunities and regeneration, and unequip your shield. But you maintain everything else like hp bonus, base AC, Thac0, saves, and resistances. Losing 30hppr regen is bad, but at the same time you gain ability to haste your character to 10 apr, and double movement rate from the boots. So it's pretty interesting switch.
Why the game has two different summoned efreeti which aren't quite identical to each other, I'll never know.
You can also just use your fists to beat opponents up - I often do that with the magic golem before summoning Kitthix to finish it off when unconscious ...
On a side note, i've found a way to be able to deal with Skeleton Warriors on a mage character during BG1 (unnecessary but i like it when nothing stand in my way). Those were a real pain for my F/I. Jelly form deal ranged crushing damage and the THAC0 scale with dexterity while the damage with strength, which means it can be a real skeleton warrior crusher.
I tested it again, and yeah, attacking her at all (while in drow-ravager form) dispels the drow illusion, also dispelling ravager HP, regen, and attacks, buuuuut, you are still in "ravager form" and so will still "lose control" despite having none of the upsides of ravager...who'da known.
Got Neera out for a stroll. We were waylay'd by the Thayan's and she got killed in a second. No matter the Drow Ravager grinded all of them to a pulp. Then the mass of Yuan-ti's got the same fate and we left AI to handle them. From the market we bought Kazrah's Shield +4, Golden Girdle, Cloak of the Lich, Wand of Cloudkill, Wand of Wonder, Wand of Polymorphing and bunch of high level spells. After trapping the place we killed the priest for 4th RoR. And Szass Tam teleported us back immediatelly after seven Spikes reduced his health to 1. Resurrected Neera and said so long.
We used PfU for Master Wraith. Passed Yaga-Shura's stronghold mostly Invisible. Tried battling Berenn and Brimstone at the doorway, but noticed Brimstone doing 110 fire damage and had to back off. Apparently something had affected our Fire Resistance which was -50. Waited it to heal and returned to the doorway. After this mishap we easily dominated them in a brawl. Imix barely hurt us either with 100 FR. Checking it back the culprit for the FR-penalty were the Fell Cats with on hit -25 FR for 90s. With Nyalee we first killed our double, which luckily wasn't a real Drow Ravager, as we would've been in a world of hurt. After easily killing Nyalee we left for Yaga-Shura's camp.
Alessia vs. Yaga-Shura. First we didn't even try to beat the Bridge script for Yaga's army, but took them as a welcomed warm up. This took awhile, as 60 of them came. But again they could barely hurt us. This took 4 hours in game time. Then we hit Yaga and he buggered off. He came back with even more friends, and we started the brawl with Yaga, in the middle of the glorious fireworks. Beautiful sight, but Yaga was soon badly injured where as Alessia was just getting started. So we gave him a breather and smacked her Lieutenants to death. Then we finished him with Whirlwind style.
Second Pocket Plane challenge barely hurt us, and we got Regeneration because we still hadn't enough of it. With Ravager 30hppr, Regeneration 18hppr, Ring of Gaxx 2hppr and Whirlwind we could now heal full 100 hp per round. Oasis grinded for items, and after selling them we had half a million in gold. We then took Rasaad for a short stroll and after getting waylay'd and getting the map update I sent him back to Pocket Plane. We ground all the Sharran's in our way to the stronghold and then killed them all inside. We found Night Walkers, Headband of Devout for 1 turn Righteous Magic, and Cloak of the Dark Moon which gives -2AC, -2 Saves at night, 3x 100 MDR for 4 hours and allows using a magical armor.
Dragonis was brawled to death, he hardly managed to hurt Alessia. Lizard Men were tougher and managed to get Alessia to 450hp. Next one was something new for us, as we weren't naturally fast enough to overcome Greater Werewyvern's regen at -9 Thac0. We used Emotions Hope and Courage, and Circlet of Lost Souls to get -13 Thac0 and used Righteous Magic from Headband of Devout. Then unloaded three Whirlwinds and a Critical Strike finished it. The double Lizard Man Shaman room almost broke our streak of no healing as we went below 100hp, but rather than using RoR we went Invisible. And after recovering we were fast enough to thin the Lizard Men, and after those were dead it was done. Although it took a while to grind the multisummons. Anadramatis only managed to lower our Magic Resistance to 40, other than that he hardly hurt us. Picked up the Wingbuffet amulet and Yellow Dragon Scales which Cespenar forged to an armor. With it we were now immune to also Piercing damage. Getting back we were ambushed with bunch of Cornugons and Pit Fiends who did hardly hurt us. Piercing immunity was pretty bad for Kuo-toa stronghold too.
In Sendai Enclave the Drow Captain party faired mediocrely, hurting us 100 hp and getting our MR lower. But whenever this happens we use Rage to counter possible Maze. And even if that hits, there's still possible escape with Dispel from PfM during the animation. Thelynn's army was beaten easily, then we beat the Spiders. Yochol's area was no problem either. Used PfU for Odamaron, yet we still had to brawl bunch of his summons. Ogremoch knows how to brawl with undispellable unlimited Stoneskins, 1500 hp and terrible fists that Dispel on hit and hurt like hell. But we are the Mike Tyson of brawlers, we're immune to his Earthquake Sleep and equipped Roranach's Horn for crushing immunity and just let it happen, only my Cold damage hurting him. Brawl of ages took about 3 hours in game time, but Ogremoch couldn't do anything to stop his everlasting sleep. Captain Egeissag brawl is pretty funny thing after Ogremoch. I didn't want to embarrass him so I let him hack in a while. Then cast Righteous Magic, Assasination and doing 142 dmg per hit he was down after 4 hits in Mike Tyson style. For the last Mindies we took 15x Mind Focus, 4h Protection from Magic Energy from the Cloak and 2x Absorptions. Mindies were no match, and after them we casually brawled the few mages and fighters.
Alessia vs. Sendai. Emotion Hope and Courage, Righteous Magic and first whirlwinded the Cleric Statue that could cast Deva and prevent leaving through Invisibility. Then backed to a corner and unloaded HLA's to oncoming extremely potent Drows. They have -33 Thac0, Whirlwinds and could potentially chew up even the Drow Ravager if we weren't careful. Killed some of them and then the mages got multisummons going which was actually good for us as there was a corridor for just one of the Drow at the time, and Alessia smacked them as they came. After awhile the first assault was ground to dust. It went better than expected not getting below 300hp. After the Drows were gone the Statues were easy pray. Sendai arrived and after wasting her summons including Deva she had no chance, beat her to the ground. Third Pocket challenge we beat the Slayer and got Dark Taint. Picked up the rope in Amkethran and having 750k gold we bought all the interesting scrolls. Avoided 2/3 of the rep guests if we needed to change equipment and do Ravager change again, so I could maintain 20 rep to lure Balthazar on our side.
For the quadruble Dragon attack we equipped Shadow Dragon Scale and we now were immune to all of their Breath attacks. Fire, Acid and Poison. First brawled the double Acid Dragons Olinissimous and Zirimanat'ryl, then Ithy'nassendra the Poison Dragon who Healed once, and lastly Carnifex the Fire Dragon. None of them really hurt Alessia who now stood on a Dragon graveyard. Brawled all to death in the Eyeball area, even the Tyrant Golems which took a while with their DR. Next was a big surprise, as I was force changed to Slayer for Bondari and to a Human form a second time. No worries though as we changed back to Drow Ravager, bought rep back to 18, and did the couple rep guests for the Mayor and Marlowe. We then built the BMU just in case. FII'Yissetat casually brawled to death.
Alessia vs. Abazigal. We entered the room with Protection from Magical Energy from the Cloak, Frost Boots, Fire Control Ring, Shadow Scale and Reflection Shield giving us 100 FR/CR/ER/AR/PR/MR/MDR. First up was Tamah and the six Frost Salamanders who hardly hurt us. Before death Tamah went Ethereal and buggered off, so we rested in Pocket Plane which makes Tamah appear again and do nothing as we killed her. Such a weird SCS-mechanic. Then we hunted down the four elemental Drakes. For Abazigal we switched to Full Plate and Ring +2 giving us -6 undispellable save to counter all of his abilities, AC cap -20 or -33 AC vs. slashing. Reflection Shield is useful here as it's the only item that counters his Lower Electric Resistance spell. Ravager is naturally immune to his Sleep 24s -6 vs. Spell from Earthquake and his single Imprisonment. And if he was to try Lower Resistance, we could counter it with Rage to stop his single Maze. The Dragon tried Lower Electric Resistance which Alessia laughed at. It took awhile to get first hit on after his multiple PfMW's, but after Dispelling his Haste, the fight was done. He only got Alessia down to 450 hp.
For the third Pocket Plane challenge we easily beat the Favored of Cyric and got Hand of Murder. Balty was conviced to join me with 2-2-3-2-1-1-1-3-3-1-1-2-1-1 dialogue line. In the final Pocket Plane challenge the Drow Ravager brawled the Ravager and six Bone Blades all together in melee, first ever time for me. They just couldn't overcome our 30hppr regen with 70DR, 100CR and -33 AC vs. Slashing. No buffs or HLA's needed. Got the -25 DR which completes our undispellable final form.
Still we could have picked couple items to make us even stronger. Silver Dragon Scale would heal us 2hp per hit, which with 95 DR nullifies damage if it's lower than 40 per hit. But we didn't do the Dorn guest line in SoA so we couldn't continue it in ToB. And also Gorgon Plate would give -2 modifier vs. Slashing compared to other armors. We can currently hit undispellable -35 AC vs. Slashing with -20 AC cap, -6 modifier from 25 Dex, -7 modifier from armors, and -2 from Sensate amulet PfE. Next up Throne of Bhaal.
No you need to recruit them for a short while, like move them from point a to point b. I've always maintained the rule that you can recruit them to advance their necessary guest parts, but can not control them in fights. That way you wont get blocked from any content in the game, and it doesn't really change the spirit of playing solo that much.
After Big Six arrived we started attacking Yaga as he has the most health, and could potentially kill others near death with his annoying Fireballs. Balty died pretty quickly, but Alessia had no trouble of tanking the mayhem. Hacked Yaga twice near death, and both times Planetars Healed him, so I first concentrated on something else. Also noticed that Yaga doesn't actually shoot Fireballs if your FR is 100. After Celestials unsummoned we hacked Yaga to near death. But disaster hit as I was watching the wrong health bar in the chaos and accidentally killed Yaga. Well this summoned Melissan and double Fallen Solar's and I was little bit worried of getting trapped in the mass of summons, and Solar's Healing everybody.
But that was not the case. The Solars buggered off hiding and only Melissan started attacking Alessia. This was fine as she wasn't really hurting us at all, other than with on hit save penalty. And after my saves got worse I equipped Cloak of the Lich to stop any Deaths happening. Then Alessia just casually continued killing others, first Gromnir, then Illasera, Abazigal and Sendai. Once there was only one minion left, Sarevok, Melissan finally got her multisummons going. That's probably scripted that way. Anyway she multisummoned Cambions too and I wasn't too keen smacking Sarevok them around. So we Charmed Sarevok with Control Circlet, as he's the only one that can be Charmed, and Melissan did the work for us.
We Teleported to one of the pools, but Melissan arrived and being super angry summoned an incredible amount of help, so we again Teleported to another pool. After she Teleported on to us again something happened to her. Her spirit was broken. Apparently Alessia looked so godlike in power that she just stood there doing nothing and gave up, and we just smacked her around freely. And after awhile she was out. That's quite funny as she's the one usually breaks the spirit of others.
Some random thoughts.
- Permanent Ravager exploit is probably the most op exploit there is, coupled with Drow exploit there's hardly downsides other than disabled casting. And it's rather slow char with Free-Action, but which can also be circumvented double turning to Ravager. Which consequently removes all status effects, but leaves most of the other stuff.
- Most hurt we got was interestingly the double Lizard Man Shaman room in Abazigal lair, where we went below 100hp. But that's probably because we didn't thought it as a trouble beforehand. Other than that we didn't heal once after reaching Drow Ravager.
- After the Tear exploit in Abyss trials, there's really not much that could end the run for Ravager. Only thing I see practically ending the run, if you're trapped in multisummons and summoners have evercasting summons. Like what almost happened with Tahazzar. Luckily I could stone his ass from afar.
- If Drow Ravager is the most op exploit, Barbarian25/Thief27 is probably the most op Drow Ravager with additional 20 DR and UAI.
You can sing jesters Song while ravaging and on current version of LoB its quite deadly (not using a fixpack or anything) since you don't have to roll vs hit on unconscious., so killing summons is relatively easy, ofc depending on the speed they get summoned.
Dark Moon Monk would be good, double the speed of slow Ravager, 127MR naturally, long casting Mirror Image and Blur, normal weapon immunity etc. Interestingly Thac0 bonus and Frozen Fist don't work with Ravager, because the weapon isn't a fist.
Kensai would overcome of Ravager's mediocre Thac0 (-7) with additional 13 bonus, and give monster damage, over 50 per hit with 13 bonus and Kai. Or even dualing to Thief. Kensai24/Thief would still give -8 bonuses to Thac0/dmg.
Dwarven Defender's Defensive Stance scales with Ravager bonus, and DD would hit 100DR in Slayer form already at 4M xp. Lv40 it's 11 turns of 100 DR. It also doesn't halve Ravager speed like it would normally do. Shorty bonus doesn't come to play in Ravager form though.
Inquisitor is good Dispelling everybody. Priest of Lathander would be good, but sadly the stackable apr bonus from Boon doesn't affect Ravager apr.
Swashbuckler will do almost the same as Kensai, getting +8 Thac0/dmg bonus, and in addition hit -20 AC without gear. Swashbuckler can also hit 10 apr with Whirlwind. Hard to get past Bel though.
EDIT: Hah, you can still cast spells through sequencers, triggers and contingencies if you take the innate ability SCS-option, and don't need to turn to back to human. This makes mages more than viable alternative for Ravager.
Wild Mage can also cast WHILE in Ravager form, but needs TOB to even use NRD somewhat safely and while before that you could just not NRD there is still that 5% chance of death.
Hopefully one of you show us how it's done soon! There is no other thread that i enjoyed to read as much as this one so far no matter the game. SCS is still 33.7 and ascension 2.0.14 so i'm still up to date. Reinstalling SCS right now, see you soon!