Yeah, i did the same math @Grond0 and you are right when focusing on improved Haste and fastest killing speed. For Korgath the difference between both combos doesnt matter as he has endless Maze Traps so the Dragons will never ever be able to touch him. And with Su´kka i used Blackrazor + GWW spamming for maximum effect - no need for improved Haste here, no?
EDIT: Korgath just started the fight against Abazigal to see whats going on. Holy cow - this is no fun anymore! Korgath needs to roll a 20 to get in a hit - lol. With Abazigals Heal in mind this looks absolutely impossible. Maybe its time for some kind of magic trick...
After doing some reasearch things looked pretty grim for Korgath as Abazigal is immune to death magic, petrification and vorpal hits. Harm would work but is out of reach - too bad. This left open one more choice and Korgath tried a lot to make it work. After heavy suffering - and a lot of fails - he finally came up with the following solution:
Yes - after a lot of tries Korgath couldnt believe it but big bad Abazigal degenerated into a completly mindless beast. From now on things were really easy:
5. Buff up APR and THAC0 and hack him to pieces
This took some while and after bringing him down to "nearly dead" Korgath realized a problem: Thanks to his mindless state Abazigal is not able to talk anymore so the cutscene wont trigger. Thanks to the good gods Korgath had spared some words of salvation:
6. Remove Magic
The cutscene triggered and Abazigal finally went down - GG!
Only Balthi and two more pocket plane challenges left before hunting down Melissan...
@Harpagornis It was a very long read. Really interesting and fun though
And the little solo experience I have had was pure mage on core way back when, that was... challenging but fun. Did a couple of hours on a Wild mage at one point too. Definitely learnt the hard way how inconvenient wild surges can be.
@Grond0 That was probably the one thing I was hesitating over. Just from what I've read so far, ac has been quite important for melee at least, and with a lack of armour and gauntlets, it could certainly make things tricky. Especially if I want to conserve potions of anything. So some food for thought.
In the end, i've slept on it and still haven't decided. This has always been my problem when starting anything in this game... I just can't settle on a class Got a few hours before work so plenty of time to settle on one!
@Harpagornis looks like you're on the home stretch! Here's hoping Korgath will bring home the goodies!
Also I had a question for everyone, what sort of rules do you set yourselves for resting, if any?
I've settled on trying Kensai to see how it goes. I've never done it before so hopefully some fun can be had. Now I just need to settle on whether I want to have high charisma for cheaper recharges, or high wisdom for potential wish spell.
Might also run another class on the side just to break it up a bit. What do we think for that? Sorcerer, paladin or Blade?
I have only one rule about resting : as much as I want ! Let's be honest here... If I hadn't rest after EVERY SINGLE duergar I fought, I would never have left the first few fights of Chateau Irenicus. On LoB, there's no "easy" fight : it makes even gibberlings tough as balls. This challenge is more about gameplay than roleplaying, really. If you're not outright cheating, everything's ok in my book.
For a kensai, go grab the Shield Amulet at the Nashkel Carnaval; it will help tremendously. Also, make sure you have a range weapon proficiency, like daggers or axes. And buy LOTS of them. As a fighter, kiting will be necessary more often than not. If your willing, I would install Unfinished Business just to make the Kivan's sidequest (kick him out just before the fight start) to net you a nice returning throwing dagger +2.
I'd go with wisdom over charisma, if only for general Wish abuse at higher level. Charisma is easily taken care of with the Ring of human influence (it sets charisma at 18).
You can start another class if you want, but, LoB fights are much longer than usual. I recommend sticking with one character at least through SoD, just to stay focus on one playstyle. Also, post your progress here !! It's the best way not to fall in the lap of the devil of restartitis... Otherwise, I'd like to see a bard take on this challenge, so Blade would be my second pick.
Also I had a question for everyone, what sort of rules do you set yourselves for resting, if any?
I've settled on trying Kensai to see how it goes. I've never done it before so hopefully some fun can be had. Now I just need to settle on whether I want to have high charisma for cheaper recharges, or high wisdom for potential wish spell.
Might also run another class on the side just to break it up a bit. What do we think for that? Sorcerer, paladin or Blade?
@Viper_Alvein I've experimented a fair amount with restrictions on resting, but haven't done that recently. I'm a bit odd in that I don't allow the use of healing potions - for a lot of characters resting thus becomes vital to keep HPs up. If you want to reduce resting make sure your kensai is a dwarf. Getting up to constitution 20 with the tome means you get natural regeneration and will therefore heal while you're travelling between areas.
Personally I wouldn't worry too much about the wish spell - that's a long way off. However, for a solo player you will normally have plenty of money so charisma isn't too vital either (and if playing arcane you only need to start with 13 anyway and boost with tome + friends).
I've played this challenge a lot with a sorcerer. It's certainly possible to make progress, but it's harder work than with a fighter-type (the same would apply with a blade). As I play no-reload though my perceptions are a bit skewed. Anyway, I think the best advice to offer is just to play what you fancy. Any class can do well and you'll be more likely to stick with whatever you choose if it feels right to you .
What - 1k posts while i was sleeping? Damn! Never thought this challenge would take so long. But its still fun - thanks to all participants and viewers!
Special Thanks:
@Grond0 + @Blackraven : For pointing out small little details that i am constantly missing and writing very informative texts that gave me a lot of new ideas for my own runs. Too bad your "Play No Reload"-Charm still isnt working on me! If both of you would play "normally" Melissan would be double-dead long ago! No?
@chimaera: For showing us the power of Spellcasters and making me interested in the crazy looking SR-Mod. Still waiting for a proven way to beat Big B without it though!
@Victor_Creed_SFV: For putting your run together in a video series that i am sometimes watching when chilling around. Hope you will get back soon - Sarevok is still waiting!
@Arctodus: The one who will take revenge for Su´kka the fallen Barbarian. Will there be final salvation or will Amelyssan prevail once more? We will see! Not to forget: Thanks for digging out your good old D&D Handbook!
@Viper_Alvein: Test around a bit to get a feeling what class looks comfortable when facing this special challenge. Kensai sounds like a lot of pain and even more patience so the classic F/M might be the safer choice. Bards should be big fun too and i cant see a reason why they shouldnt do well until late game. At the end its up to you!
Korgath is still resting after his cheesy victory over Abazigal...
One last thing to work out and I'll be able to make a start. Weapon proficiencies I'm a little torn at this point, I want scimitars/quarterstaffs, but the longswords (blackrazor in particular) are just really nice . Then there's flail of the ages, and as @Arctodus said, I'll need at least some form of ranged weapon for the fun kiting. So I'm at least considering a point in axes for that side of things. I do apologise if i'm asking or inferring lots of questions, just trying to give myself a strong base to work off.
Oh I suppose there is in fact two things. Whether I dual at 9 or 13. If i Dual at 9 then I'm doing it mid SoD and that sounds like it could be all kinds of hell. 13 Gives the extra 1/2 apr but does mean I'm going to an underpowered mage for awhile.
@Grond0 Doing that no reload looked like it was crazy intense. Smallest slip up, as you showed, just kills you. The worst part about it all, is I'm almost certain I want to try that at some point, just not for awhile... a long while Respect for you doing it though, mighty impressive.
@Harpagornis I definitely considered F/M Multi, but the masochist in me just couldn't pass up the opportunity of tormenting myself by going pure kensai. When I know something is a bad idea, sometimes I just can't help myself. Hence my solo mage back in the day when I had little to no understanding of the spells.
Thank you all for the help so far in getting prepped!
As @Arctodus pointed out earlier its a good idea to get some points in throwing weapons. My Cavalier used his Throwing Axes a lot and it worked great until a specific point in SoD. For Longswords i only really care about Blackrazor and Daystar as they are quite useful against Dragons/Undeads. Flail of Ages + Defender of Easthaven is a great combo for pure Warriors and helped my Barbarian a lot! The slow effect is a real mage killer and makes kiting and repositioning so much easier.
But i dont think that the weapons will be your main task as the Kensai/Mage combo might run into some kind of gamestopper in SoD. As your Kensai lacks the ability to shoot arrows and will also not be the greatest tank the infamous Crusader Attacks on Coalition Camp will be a neverening nightmare without strong AoE or heavy CC. This means: Dualing the Kensai at level 9 so you can still reach Mage level 10 at the 500k xp cap. I dont know how hard it will be to level the Mage up in SoD but with heavy Nymph Cloak cheese it should be quite doable.
@Viper_Alvein I really wouldn't recommend trying to finish off SoD with a low level mage - I think you'll find enough challenge with a kensai . I would dual at 13, but my focus tends to be on what prepares you best for late ToB - so late dualling makes sense to me, though you may prefer otherwise. In LoB some of the normal mage strategies don't work as well, but summons are still great and I don't think you'd find it too hard recovering your kensai levels even if you dualled at 13.
Kiting is going to be your friend in many, many fights for a LoB kensai (even if you use the shield amulet regularly) - so if it were me I would put early proficiency points into axes (though you might prefer daggers - axes do more damage and are probably the better long-term option, but their weapon speed is slower which makes it a bit more difficult to use them for kiting at early levels). If you're after Twinkle as a scimitar then you could put points into that at levels 3 and 6 to check out how well that works in melee.
I'll make a save if/when I make level 9, and see how far i can take pure kensai, and if it blows up in my face i'll dual at 9 and see how that works out. Worse case scenario just have to switch it up and try something else. But plenty of time to figure that out.
Getting the feeling I may have to forego scimitars in favour of getting grand mastery in long swords, blackrazor and daystar are just too good.Then again, I'm thinking BBoD with a belm or kundane in the offhand could be quite vicious too with imp haste and tensers, guess it depends on the opponent. Two points in quarterstaff naturally for SotM cheese wouldn't go astray. Axes, Quarterstaff, Two weapon fighting, and scimitars. or Axes, Quarterstaff, Two Weapon fighting and Longswords. Other option is forego grand mastery altogether and just go for specialisation across them and that way get two points in flails. I shall have to ponder this some more.
Sometimes I think I enjoy the planning stages of these challenges more than the actual challenges
@Grond0 Given any thoughts to trying this challenge again as another class? Or tormenting yourself with another Frey Attempt?
@Harpagornis Yeah, I have to admit I'm pretty sure if this run is going to stall anywhere it'll definitely be in SoD. Hopefully some persistence and patience will get me through!
If you can find a way through the Crusader Waves level 13 should be the way to go @Viper_Alvein. IF! But i would not wait up to this point cause you will have big trouble getting your Mage to 10 after that - be warned! I also wont complain too much about Grandmastery - its nice to have but not essential in my opinion. Dont forget to add one or two points for the Mace of Disruption to instakill these damn Liches!
Anyway: Good luck with your Kensai - may the patience be with you!
@Viper_Alvein I did a few attempts with a dwarven defender some time ago. That was much easier (though easier is probably the wrong word - it was less vulnerable when I make mistakes), but didn't really capture my imagination. I suspect I am working up to giving Frey another go - after all masochism rules OK .
I can confirm that grandmastery is not really necessary for a fighter type. Su'kka, @Harpagornis' barbarian, couldn't put more than two pips in proficiency and went all the way to Amelyssan. Flexibility is much more important, because certain weapon can by themselves win fights.
I'd say that it's even more true for a kensai that will eventuallly dual, thus have limited proficiency points. Plan ahead on what you want to use and spread your proficiencies accordingly.
I updated the Hall of Fame and added @Viper_Alvein to the challenger list: Good luck!
Korgath trapped and kited the Favored of Cyric down without too many problems. Balthazar is waiting. Will Korgath try to fight him? Holy cow - never ever! This guy is such a pain - better walk the path of diplomacy!
Korgath finally met Balthazar. I really love the creepy background sound while trying to convince him in a quite long conversation especially when knowing that any misstep would lead to a hopeless battle.
With Reputation at 20 and Charisma at 19 Korgath picked the following answers - the only viable route for evil chars:
2-2-3-2-1-1-1-3-3-1-1-2-1
Remember this one @Arctodus or your run will be doomed!
However: Even after winning Balthazar as an ally there was a big and evil surprise waiting for Korgath cause Amelyssan tranformed four Monks into deadly enemies. All of them can use the same special moves as Balthazar so you will get stunned and knocked all day long - until you are dead. To make things even worse Amelyssan is throwing all kinds of high level spells including Time Stops.
Korgaths only chance was to seperate the enemies using Maze Traps. As Amelyssan always was the first one to reappear Korgath used all of his Spike and normal Traps to get in as much damage as possible. But it was still not enough. He was quite horrified when realizing that all enemies were immune to his Time Stop Traps so he had to buff himself up while avoiding the deadly Monks. He circled around over and over again while Balthazar had trouble to hold his ground. Whenever Amelyssan showed herself up he rushed in and attacked with improved Haste to wear down her protections. Balthazar was already down to "badly injured" before Korgath finally got in the last hit at Amelyssan who escaped before meeting her doom...
OK then. Frey has been re-commissioned this morning and is aiming to get a bit further than the SoD prologue this time. So far he has: - run Shoal round with his sling to get to level 3. - farmed carrion crawlers and dire wolves in the same area (neither of which move around after being blinded) to get to level 4 and obtain invisibility to be able to travel safely. There was one bit of hard work required when an attempted rest was interrupted by a dire wolf. That saved against 3 attempts to blind it, so Frey ran the wolf round to get far enough away to try and rest again - and another wolf appeared. Then another, then still another . He wasn't ever actually attacked, but wolves aren't the easiest things to kite and with 4 of them chasing him things were distinctly dodgy and when I finally managed to get space to try one more rest that was in a position where Frey would have had to leave the area if resting had failed again - but it didn't. - Algernon was shot for his cloak and that was used to charm Dushai and move him away from nosy neighbours to where he could also be shot down. - a few quests on the way down to Nashkel restored reputation enough to get CLW as a Bhaal power (despite being unable to convince Ardrouine that all the worgs were dead). During that Frey also got to level 5. Web now allowed him to safely blind enemies with ranged attacks, as well as to run melee enemies around in a web (using Dushai's ring) to speed up killing them. - clearing out the southern areas got him to level 6 and adding skull trap to his damage repertoire. Belatedly, he then made things easier for himself by picking up Meilum's bracers. I made my first significant mistake at Firewine though with Bentan. After charming him I sent him to get beaten up by kobolds, but reflexively finished him off with a magic missile. That's a good idea against most enemies in order to maximise XP, but doing that to Bentan undid much of the work Frey did to raise his reputation . - he's currently at Durlag's Tower, where beating up a couple of battle horrors and a number of ghasts has pushed him up to level 7. He's not taken any damage in the run to date and I'll be trying to keep that going for a while longer.
Kiera the Neutral Good Kensage is born. (Only thing I may have cheated with was to EEkeeper her appearance to that of a female elf mage )
So far things have gone relatively smoothly, except for a few minor hiccups along the way like running out of throwing axes. Although slow, Kiera's journey has been going well so far. She killed an ogre, returned Joia's ring, sold a ring of wizardry, beat up some ogrillons and calmed down a drunk.
Having done all that she watched on as an army of gnolls slaughtered Drizzt, an attempt at the killing blow failed which was probably for the best. With two new scimitars in hand, she took a quick trip to the Nashkel carnival, picking up the shield amulet and necklace of missiles. Feeling decidedly more equipped, she headed to Mutamin's garden for a bit of basilisk killing, and hopefully a golden girdle.
Korax proved most useful stunning Mutamin who after that point didn't stand a chance and soon enough she was level 5. After a brutal deconstruction by Kirian's group she decided the golden girdle could wait until later. A trip to high hedge followed where she picked up the claw of kazgaroth. Despite the con hit, it has been useful pick up thus far. Have to see how it holds up. Next Melicamp was dechickened and upon reaching level 6 it was time to call it a day.
I'm definitely seeing some difficult times ahead, however if there's one thing I've learnt from this challenge already is that it certainly asks you to think outside the box with how to deal with situations. So far so fun though.
Wish I could say I've taken no damage this run like @Grond0, but I'd never get through the sentence with a straight face
Well, despite that call for bed, Kiera needed that golden girdle. With the newly acquired algernon's cloak, a carefully placed charm on kirian, followed by a couple of Kirian's charms on Lindin, Kirian and Lindin fell, and the golden girdle was acquired. This was of course followed by a hasty retreat back to Beregost where some more progress shall be made tomorrow!
Good to see Frey back in action @Grond0 - may the door to SoD open soon. Hopefully!
Looks like a smooth run so far @Viper_Alvein. Looks like your preparation put you in the right spot. Keep going!
Korgath in the meanwhile has killed the Ravager. Oh dear, this was the the easiest of all challenges in the pocket plane. Here his strat:
1. Call a summon near the barrier so you can move through once the battle is starting 2. Lure the Bone Blades far away from the Ravager 3. Maze them 4. Equip Everards Sling + Shield of Reflection 5. Buff up 6. Attack the big beast while laughing that his own missiles are constantly damaging him 7. Dring a cup of tea 8. Drink another cup of tea 9. Rebuff if needed 10. Wait until the Ravager goes down
He is never trying to get into melee range and will shoot himself over and over again. Too bad...
So the time has finally come to face Amelyssan again. Oh dear, i hate this battle so much after failing hard with Su´kka. One question i still have: Is it essential to take all of the Big Five down first to kill Amelyssan (like in the BG1 Sarevok fight)? I read somewhere the she gets bonus HP for each of the Big Five that are still alive. Anything else to remember?
Frey completed the ticklish job of clearing the basilisks from the roof without having any protection against their gaze attacks. He left for now though the third battle horror and doom guard as the skeleton archers there are not easy to kill without being attacked - so he left them until stoneskin was available.
Moving on to the Lighthouse he used a charmed creature to absorb the poison arrows of the first group of sirines. With protection against charm provided by MSD he then managed to charm one of the sirines and used that to occupy the attention of another. He should have had plenty of time to kill the second one - with another MSD available as well - but I made the mistake of trying to blind it instead of using magic missiles. It saved against 11 blind spells during that sequence and I also wasn't attacking it all the time with sling (trying to get it to wear down the charmed sirine further so I could finish that off afterward while it was feebleminded). By the time I decided I should just be killing the first sirine I was on to the second MSD. That would still have been plenty of time if I'd used wands or scrolls, but I was trying to avoid those and with just sling damage things were touch and go - and as it happened the sirine was still just alive when MSD expired. I was too slow to cast invisibility to prevent the charm being launched and that proved fatal - my experience of the '90%' elf resistance to sleep and charm is that rarely helps and I suspect the implementation is bugged (I've tested to confirm that the similar resistance of the half-elf certainly is).
Is it essential to take all of the Big Five down first to kill Amelyssan (like in the BG1 Sarevok fight)? I read somewhere the she gets bonus HP for each of the Big Five that are still alive. Anything else to remember?
I've never played it I'm afraid, but I suspect it probably is necessary to kill the others - though I look forward to you proving me wrong . This will be Korgath's greatest challenge, but if he can pull it off immortality awaits ...
Okay, i tested it just to get certainty. The result: Korgath is doomed!
Its indeed like the Sarevok battle cause as long as one of the Big Five is alive she will fully heal at the Energy Pool whenever she drops low to "nearly dead". Not only one time: Endless times!
Its already quite some work to kill one or two of them - but killing all? Plus Amelyssan who constantly summons in demons, uses Time Stops and can stun you to death? Holy cow - this is indeed Korgaths greatest challenge. Maybe its time to get in all the Scrolls he lost thanks to ToB-import.
This battle will need some heavy planning. And even more luck...
EDIT: Things are getting even worse. After killing all of the Big Five AND bringing her down she summons in a horde of Demons AND instantly gets fully healed again. This is getting a bit hopeless no?
Okay i collected the most important informations i could remember...
Main issues when fighting Amelyssan and the Big Five:
Sendai: Her most dangerous spells are Implosion and Heal The first will stun and kill you the other one will fully heal any of the Big Five again and again and again. Someone said that a Protection from Magic Scroll ued on her will help a lot. Have to be tested!
Illasera: Her enchanted arrows are absolutely devastating so Reflection Shield is the best answer here.
Yaga-Shura: He is the Warriors Bane as he not only got 1226 HP but also 99% resistance to all kinds damage. This means: Heavy magic or better cold damage is essential!
Gromnir-Il-Khan: Pure Warrior that hits hard and is quite sturdy. Still the easiest one!
Abazigal: He is a miracle to me. In some fights he randomly moves around doing nearly nothing in the next round he casts Time Stop and hacks you down to pieces in no time. His spell protections will make it very hard to take him down!
Amelyssan: She is an absolute horror! Multiple Planetars or Devas, nearly endless demon gating, Time Stops and the ability to stun-on-hit. Thanks to her Absolute Immunity spell +6 weapons are needed to constantly damage her. The instant Heal trigger are making things even worse...
Have i forgotten something? Any ideas to counter this? Maybe Korgath has to Feeblemind all of them first...
EDIT: Okay, i think i got the first part of the fight -> Simulacrum + Skull Traps! This should be good for ~200 Skull Traps if i put all scrolls together. Will this be enough to kill the Big Five? We will see...
Hey everyone, nice activity here, with Arctodus' warrior making good progress, Frey back in action, and a new Kensai roaming the Sword Coast! I'm once again impressed with @Harpagornis's work. I think it's fair to import a big pack of mage scrolls into your game if that improves Korgath's chances at the Throne. I would think PfMW, Mordy Swords, Imprisonments etc can really make a difference.
As a no-reloader my options for this challenge are extremely limited. The Ducal Palace basically requires Invisibility on Duke Jannath and/or some summons to help out. This means I need either (part) arcane casting or, and this I realized later, a Druid with Pixie Dust. I started a playthrough with a Fighter/Illusionist, but soon found that I really wanted to play something that requires different tactics, preferably a martial character. Long story short, here's Annick, Dark Moon Monk:
I rolled her for a non-LoB playthrough. For this run I would have preferred 17 CON for the Claw of Kazgaroth. However I couldn't be bothered with rerolling her.
I've never played a Monk before, so I still need to familiarize myself with the class. So far progress has been slow. She's been doing a lot of kiting with her throwing daggers, taking advantage of her superior movement speed. Some time ago Thalanthyr produced a returning +1 throwing dagger for her, but that's more a convenience thing than a significant upgrade.
There have been a few close calls already: - a Kobold archer north of Beregost when Annick was still level 1
-a heavy blow from Tenya as a punishment for not getting inside the young Cleric's home fast enough,
- and an even fiercer strike from Meilum due to a misclick while retreating from the warrior.
She changed tactics with the latter from ranged attacks with her throwing dagger for sneak attacks with Drizzt's Icingdeath scimitar. Annick placed all her skill points in MS/HiS. At level 5 this grants her a stealth score of 55/55. Even so, she's very slow at killing things compared to my Cleric/Illusionists who would use disablers (Blind, Hold Person) and Familiar and Skeletons to help them out. I already said my expectations for Annick are low (unless I were to allow reloads), but so far it's fun, so will see how far she gets
Aaah, welcome back to the show @Blackraven! Has been quite some time, no?
Dark Moon Monks are one of my old favourites! Some time ago i played one through IWD and BG using HoF/LoB only. It was a very tough run until higher levels and with SCS also in action things are even harder. I would be really impressed if you manage to beat the Palace Ambush without reload but - hey - why not?
SoD on the other hand would be really tough at the end. I have worked a bit on a plan to get through the Crusader Attacking Waves but never tested it out. But thats a pretty long way to go.
I have parked Korgath for the moment and will do some tests in the next days just to get a clearer view what is going to work against the Big Five. So far it seems that this will be a very magic heavy battle that will have to count on every scroll. We will see!
EDIT: Just have to pull this one out to show how powerful Dark Moon Monks can be! Do you remember Yxunomei in IWD - one of the hardest battles in the whole game that make people cry? Not so for the Monk! One Quivering Palm and the battle is over before it has begun! Ah - one of these golden memories that came out of surprise cause i thought: Hey, this will never work but - damn - lets try it out nevertheless. And it worked. Hrhrhr. To bad this will not work against Amelyssan...
One more thing to point out after fighting my way through ToB and all of the Big Five. This one should especially please @Victor_Creed_SFV:
The "Harm"onization works wonders even against the bosses:
Illasera? "Harm"onized with ease! Gromnir? "Harm"onized after several tries as his magic resistance can be annoying! Yaga-Shura? The tough one gets "harm"onized with ease - if you can hit him! Sendai? Reduce her Magic Resistance and she will be "harm"onized in no time! Abazigal? One "Harm"onization switches this battle from hard to supereasy! Balthazar? No need to fight him - but it should work too, no?
As you can see Harm is (most probably) working against all of the Big Five! This spell absolutely rocks the house and the only enemy so far that is constantly resisting it is big bad Kangaxx. But there are other ways to beat him, no?
VERY BIG EDIT: Tested Harm against Amelyssan and - what can i say: It worked. LOL! Just some Lower Resistances before and the "Harm"onizer triggered on the sixth try! Should remember this one for my next Druid!
Yaga-Shura: He is the Warriors Bane as he not only got 1930 (?) HP but also 99% resistance to all kinds of physical damage. This means: Magic or elemental damage is essential!
He has 99% resistance against *any* type of damage except Cold, for which he has 50% I think, or maybe it was -50%. Or maybe just 0%, I don't quite remember.
You can just Wand of Cold him to death. It takes a long time but it's doable.
Comments
EDIT: Korgath just started the fight against Abazigal to see whats going on. Holy cow - this is no fun anymore! Korgath needs to roll a 20 to get in a hit - lol. With Abazigals Heal in mind this looks absolutely impossible. Maybe its time for some kind of magic trick...
1. Buff up
2. Multiple Lower Resistances
3. Greater Malison
4. Feeblemind (!)
Yes - after a lot of tries Korgath couldnt believe it but big bad Abazigal degenerated into a completly mindless beast. From now on things were really easy:
5. Buff up APR and THAC0 and hack him to pieces
This took some while and after bringing him down to "nearly dead" Korgath realized a problem: Thanks to his mindless state Abazigal is not able to talk anymore so the cutscene wont trigger. Thanks to the good gods Korgath had spared some words of salvation:
6. Remove Magic
The cutscene triggered and Abazigal finally went down - GG!
Only Balthi and two more pocket plane challenges left before hunting down Melissan...
And the little solo experience I have had was pure mage on core way back when, that was... challenging but fun. Did a couple of hours on a Wild mage at one point too. Definitely learnt the hard way how inconvenient wild surges can be.
@Grond0 That was probably the one thing I was hesitating over. Just from what I've read so far, ac has been quite important for melee at least, and with a lack of armour and gauntlets, it could certainly make things tricky. Especially if I want to conserve potions of anything. So some food for thought.
In the end, i've slept on it and still haven't decided. This has always been my problem when starting anything in this game... I just can't settle on a class
Also I had a question for everyone, what sort of rules do you set yourselves for resting, if any?
I've settled on trying Kensai to see how it goes. I've never done it before so hopefully some fun can be had. Now I just need to settle on whether I want to have high charisma for cheaper recharges, or high wisdom for potential wish spell.
Might also run another class on the side just to break it up a bit. What do we think for that? Sorcerer, paladin or Blade?
For a kensai, go grab the Shield Amulet at the Nashkel Carnaval; it will help tremendously. Also, make sure you have a range weapon proficiency, like daggers or axes. And buy LOTS of them. As a fighter, kiting will be necessary more often than not. If your willing, I would install Unfinished Business just to make the Kivan's sidequest (kick him out just before the fight start) to net you a nice returning throwing dagger +2.
I'd go with wisdom over charisma, if only for general Wish abuse at higher level. Charisma is easily taken care of with the Ring of human influence (it sets charisma at 18).
You can start another class if you want, but, LoB fights are much longer than usual. I recommend sticking with one character at least through SoD, just to stay focus on one playstyle. Also, post your progress here !! It's the best way not to fall in the lap of the devil of restartitis... Otherwise, I'd like to see a bard take on this challenge, so Blade would be my second pick.
Personally I wouldn't worry too much about the wish spell - that's a long way off. However, for a solo player you will normally have plenty of money so charisma isn't too vital either (and if playing arcane you only need to start with 13 anyway and boost with tome + friends).
I've played this challenge a lot with a sorcerer. It's certainly possible to make progress, but it's harder work than with a fighter-type (the same would apply with a blade). As I play no-reload though my perceptions are a bit skewed. Anyway, I think the best advice to offer is just to play what you fancy. Any class can do well and you'll be more likely to stick with whatever you choose if it feels right to you
Special Thanks:
@Grond0 + @Blackraven : For pointing out small little details that i am constantly missing and writing very informative texts that gave me a lot of new ideas for my own runs. Too bad your "Play No Reload"-Charm still isnt working on me! If both of you would play "normally" Melissan would be double-dead long ago! No?
@chimaera: For showing us the power of Spellcasters and making me interested in the crazy looking SR-Mod. Still waiting for a proven way to beat Big B without it though!
@Victor_Creed_SFV: For putting your run together in a video series that i am sometimes watching when chilling around. Hope you will get back soon - Sarevok is still waiting!
@Arctodus: The one who will take revenge for Su´kka the fallen Barbarian. Will there be final salvation or will Amelyssan prevail once more? We will see! Not to forget: Thanks for digging out your good old D&D Handbook!
@Viper_Alvein: Test around a bit to get a feeling what class looks comfortable when facing this special challenge. Kensai sounds like a lot of pain and even more patience so the classic F/M might be the safer choice. Bards should be big fun too and i cant see a reason why they shouldnt do well until late game. At the end its up to you!
Korgath is still resting after his cheesy victory over Abazigal...
So I'm at least considering a point in axes for that side of things. I do apologise if i'm asking or inferring lots of questions, just trying to give myself a strong base to work off.
Oh I suppose there is in fact two things. Whether I dual at 9 or 13. If i Dual at 9 then I'm doing it mid SoD and that sounds like it could be all kinds of hell. 13 Gives the extra 1/2 apr but does mean I'm going to an underpowered mage for awhile.
@Grond0 Doing that no reload looked like it was crazy intense. Smallest slip up, as you showed, just kills you. The worst part about it all, is I'm almost certain I want to try that at some point, just not for awhile... a long while
@Harpagornis I definitely considered F/M Multi, but the masochist in me just couldn't pass up the opportunity of tormenting myself by going pure kensai. When I know something is a bad idea, sometimes I just can't help myself. Hence my solo mage back in the day when I had little to no understanding of the spells.
Thank you all for the help so far in getting prepped!
But i dont think that the weapons will be your main task as the Kensai/Mage combo might run into some kind of gamestopper in SoD. As your Kensai lacks the ability to shoot arrows and will also not be the greatest tank the infamous Crusader Attacks on Coalition Camp will be a neverening nightmare without strong AoE or heavy CC. This means: Dualing the Kensai at level 9 so you can still reach Mage level 10 at the 500k xp cap. I dont know how hard it will be to level the Mage up in SoD but with heavy Nymph Cloak cheese it should be quite doable.
Have i forgot something? For sure...
Kiting is going to be your friend in many, many fights for a LoB kensai (even if you use the shield amulet regularly) - so if it were me I would put early proficiency points into axes (though you might prefer daggers - axes do more damage and are probably the better long-term option, but their weapon speed is slower which makes it a bit more difficult to use them for kiting at early levels). If you're after Twinkle as a scimitar then you could put points into that at levels 3 and 6 to check out how well that works in melee.
Getting the feeling I may have to forego scimitars in favour of getting grand mastery in long swords, blackrazor and daystar are just too good.Then again, I'm thinking BBoD with a belm or kundane in the offhand could be quite vicious too with imp haste and tensers, guess it depends on the opponent. Two points in quarterstaff naturally for SotM cheese wouldn't go astray.
Axes, Quarterstaff, Two weapon fighting, and scimitars. or Axes, Quarterstaff, Two Weapon fighting and Longswords. Other option is forego grand mastery altogether and just go for specialisation across them and that way get two points in flails. I shall have to ponder this some more.
Sometimes I think I enjoy the planning stages of these challenges more than the actual challenges
@Grond0 Given any thoughts to trying this challenge again as another class? Or tormenting yourself with another Frey Attempt?
@Harpagornis Yeah, I have to admit I'm pretty sure if this run is going to stall anywhere it'll definitely be in SoD. Hopefully some persistence and patience will get me through!
Anyway: Good luck with your Kensai - may the patience be with you!
@Harpagornis I'd forgotten about good old Mace of Disruption, thanks for the reminder!
Thank you both for the advice, I think its time to get this show on the road!
I'd say that it's even more true for a kensai that will eventuallly dual, thus have limited proficiency points. Plan ahead on what you want to use and spread your proficiencies accordingly.
Korgath trapped and kited the Favored of Cyric down without too many problems. Balthazar is waiting. Will Korgath try to fight him? Holy cow - never ever! This guy is such a pain - better walk the path of diplomacy!
With Reputation at 20 and Charisma at 19 Korgath picked the following answers - the only viable route for evil chars:
2-2-3-2-1-1-1-3-3-1-1-2-1
Remember this one @Arctodus or your run will be doomed!
However: Even after winning Balthazar as an ally there was a big and evil surprise waiting for Korgath cause Amelyssan tranformed four Monks into deadly enemies. All of them can use the same special moves as Balthazar so you will get stunned and knocked all day long - until you are dead. To make things even worse Amelyssan is throwing all kinds of high level spells including Time Stops.
Korgaths only chance was to seperate the enemies using Maze Traps. As Amelyssan always was the first one to reappear Korgath used all of his Spike and normal Traps to get in as much damage as possible. But it was still not enough. He was quite horrified when realizing that all enemies were immune to his Time Stop Traps so he had to buff himself up while avoiding the deadly Monks. He circled around over and over again while Balthazar had trouble to hold his ground. Whenever Amelyssan showed herself up he rushed in and attacked with improved Haste to wear down her protections. Balthazar was already down to "badly injured" before Korgath finally got in the last hit at Amelyssan who escaped before meeting her doom...
Time for the dreaded Ravager no?
- run Shoal round with his sling to get to level 3.
- farmed carrion crawlers and dire wolves in the same area (neither of which move around after being blinded) to get to level 4 and obtain invisibility to be able to travel safely. There was one bit of hard work required when an attempted rest was interrupted by a dire wolf. That saved against 3 attempts to blind it, so Frey ran the wolf round to get far enough away to try and rest again - and another wolf appeared. Then another, then still another
- Algernon was shot for his cloak and that was used to charm Dushai and move him away from nosy neighbours to where he could also be shot down.
- a few quests on the way down to Nashkel restored reputation enough to get CLW as a Bhaal power (despite being unable to convince Ardrouine that all the worgs were dead). During that Frey also got to level 5. Web now allowed him to safely blind enemies with ranged attacks, as well as to run melee enemies around in a web (using Dushai's ring) to speed up killing them.
- clearing out the southern areas got him to level 6 and adding skull trap to his damage repertoire. Belatedly, he then made things easier for himself by picking up Meilum's bracers. I made my first significant mistake at Firewine though with Bentan. After charming him I sent him to get beaten up by kobolds, but reflexively finished him off with a magic missile. That's a good idea against most enemies in order to maximise XP, but doing that to Bentan undid much of the work Frey did to raise his reputation
- he's currently at Durlag's Tower, where beating up a couple of battle horrors and a number of ghasts has pushed him up to level 7. He's not taken any damage in the run to date and I'll be trying to keep that going for a while longer.
So far things have gone relatively smoothly, except for a few minor hiccups along the way like running out of throwing axes. Although slow, Kiera's journey has been going well so far. She killed an ogre, returned Joia's ring, sold a ring of wizardry, beat up some ogrillons and calmed down a drunk.
Having done all that she watched on as an army of gnolls slaughtered Drizzt, an attempt at the killing blow failed which was probably for the best. With two new scimitars in hand, she took a quick trip to the Nashkel carnival, picking up the shield amulet and necklace of missiles. Feeling decidedly more equipped, she headed to Mutamin's garden for a bit of basilisk killing, and hopefully a golden girdle.
Korax proved most useful stunning Mutamin who after that point didn't stand a chance and soon enough she was level 5. After a brutal deconstruction by Kirian's group she decided the golden girdle could wait until later. A trip to high hedge followed where she picked up the claw of kazgaroth. Despite the con hit, it has been useful pick up thus far. Have to see how it holds up. Next Melicamp was dechickened and upon reaching level 6 it was time to call it a day.
I'm definitely seeing some difficult times ahead, however if there's one thing I've learnt from this challenge already is that it certainly asks you to think outside the box with how to deal with situations. So far so fun though.
Wish I could say I've taken no damage this run like @Grond0, but I'd never get through the sentence with a straight face
Looks like a smooth run so far @Viper_Alvein. Looks like your preparation put you in the right spot. Keep going!
Korgath in the meanwhile has killed the Ravager. Oh dear, this was the the easiest of all challenges in the pocket plane. Here his strat:
1. Call a summon near the barrier so you can move through once the battle is starting
2. Lure the Bone Blades far away from the Ravager
3. Maze them
4. Equip Everards Sling + Shield of Reflection
5. Buff up
6. Attack the big beast while laughing that his own missiles are constantly damaging him
7. Dring a cup of tea
8. Drink another cup of tea
9. Rebuff if needed
10. Wait until the Ravager goes down
He is never trying to get into melee range and will shoot himself over and over again. Too bad...
So the time has finally come to face Amelyssan again. Oh dear, i hate this battle so much after failing hard with Su´kka. One question i still have: Is it essential to take all of the Big Five down first to kill Amelyssan (like in the BG1 Sarevok fight)? I read somewhere the she gets bonus HP for each of the Big Five that are still alive. Anything else to remember?
Moving on to the Lighthouse he used a charmed creature to absorb the poison arrows of the first group of sirines. With protection against charm provided by MSD he then managed to charm one of the sirines and used that to occupy the attention of another. He should have had plenty of time to kill the second one - with another MSD available as well - but I made the mistake of trying to blind it instead of using magic missiles. It saved against 11 blind spells during that sequence and I also wasn't attacking it all the time with sling (trying to get it to wear down the charmed sirine further so I could finish that off afterward while it was feebleminded). By the time I decided I should just be killing the first sirine I was on to the second MSD. That would still have been plenty of time if I'd used wands or scrolls, but I was trying to avoid those and with just sling damage things were touch and go - and as it happened the sirine was still just alive when MSD expired. I was too slow to cast invisibility to prevent the charm being launched and that proved fatal - my experience of the '90%' elf resistance to sleep and charm is that rarely helps and I suspect the implementation is bugged (I've tested to confirm that the similar resistance of the half-elf certainly is).
Its indeed like the Sarevok battle cause as long as one of the Big Five is alive she will fully heal at the Energy Pool whenever she drops low to "nearly dead". Not only one time: Endless times!
Its already quite some work to kill one or two of them - but killing all? Plus Amelyssan who constantly summons in demons, uses Time Stops and can stun you to death? Holy cow - this is indeed Korgaths greatest challenge. Maybe its time to get in all the Scrolls he lost thanks to ToB-import.
This battle will need some heavy planning. And even more luck...
EDIT: Things are getting even worse. After killing all of the Big Five AND bringing her down she summons in a horde of Demons AND instantly gets fully healed again. This is getting a bit hopeless no?
Main issues when fighting Amelyssan and the Big Five:
Sendai: Her most dangerous spells are Implosion and Heal The first will stun and kill you the other one will fully heal any of the Big Five again and again and again. Someone said that a Protection from Magic Scroll ued on her will help a lot. Have to be tested!
Illasera: Her enchanted arrows are absolutely devastating so Reflection Shield is the best answer here.
Yaga-Shura: He is the Warriors Bane as he not only got 1226 HP but also 99% resistance to all kinds damage. This means: Heavy magic or better cold damage is essential!
Gromnir-Il-Khan: Pure Warrior that hits hard and is quite sturdy. Still the easiest one!
Abazigal: He is a miracle to me. In some fights he randomly moves around doing nearly nothing in the next round he casts Time Stop and hacks you down to pieces in no time. His spell protections will make it very hard to take him down!
Amelyssan: She is an absolute horror! Multiple Planetars or Devas, nearly endless demon gating, Time Stops and the ability to stun-on-hit. Thanks to her Absolute Immunity spell +6 weapons are needed to constantly damage her. The instant Heal trigger are making things even worse...
Have i forgotten something? Any ideas to counter this? Maybe Korgath has to Feeblemind all of them first...
EDIT: Okay, i think i got the first part of the fight -> Simulacrum + Skull Traps! This should be good for ~200 Skull Traps if i put all scrolls together. Will this be enough to kill the Big Five? We will see...
I'm once again impressed with @Harpagornis's work. I think it's fair to import a big pack of mage scrolls into your game if that improves Korgath's chances at the Throne. I would think PfMW, Mordy Swords, Imprisonments etc can really make a difference.
As a no-reloader my options for this challenge are extremely limited. The Ducal Palace basically requires Invisibility on Duke Jannath and/or some summons to help out. This means I need either (part) arcane casting or, and this I realized later, a Druid with Pixie Dust.
I started a playthrough with a Fighter/Illusionist, but soon found that I really wanted to play something that requires different tactics, preferably a martial character. Long story short, here's Annick, Dark Moon Monk:
I've never played a Monk before, so I still need to familiarize myself with the class. So far progress has been slow. She's been doing a lot of kiting with her throwing daggers, taking advantage of her superior movement speed. Some time ago Thalanthyr produced a returning +1 throwing dagger for her, but that's more a convenience thing than a significant upgrade.
There have been a few close calls already:
- a Kobold archer north of Beregost when Annick was still level 1
Even so, she's very slow at killing things compared to my Cleric/Illusionists who would use disablers (Blind, Hold Person) and Familiar and Skeletons to help them out.
I already said my expectations for Annick are low (unless I were to allow reloads), but so far it's fun, so will see how far she gets
Dark Moon Monks are one of my old favourites! Some time ago i played one through IWD and BG using HoF/LoB only. It was a very tough run until higher levels and with SCS also in action things are even harder. I would be really impressed if you manage to beat the Palace Ambush without reload but - hey - why not?
SoD on the other hand would be really tough at the end. I have worked a bit on a plan to get through the Crusader Attacking Waves but never tested it out. But thats a pretty long way to go.
I have parked Korgath for the moment and will do some tests in the next days just to get a clearer view what is going to work against the Big Five. So far it seems that this will be a very magic heavy battle that will have to count on every scroll. We will see!
EDIT: Just have to pull this one out to show how powerful Dark Moon Monks can be! Do you remember Yxunomei in IWD - one of the hardest battles in the whole game that make people cry? Not so for the Monk! One Quivering Palm and the battle is over before it has begun! Ah - one of these golden memories that came out of surprise cause i thought: Hey, this will never work but - damn - lets try it out nevertheless. And it worked. Hrhrhr. To bad this will not work against Amelyssan...
The "Harm"onization works wonders even against the bosses:
Illasera? "Harm"onized with ease!
Gromnir? "Harm"onized after several tries as his magic resistance can be annoying!
Yaga-Shura? The tough one gets "harm"onized with ease - if you can hit him!
Sendai? Reduce her Magic Resistance and she will be "harm"onized in no time!
Abazigal? One "Harm"onization switches this battle from hard to supereasy!
Balthazar? No need to fight him - but it should work too, no?
As you can see Harm is (most probably) working against all of the Big Five! This spell absolutely rocks the house and the only enemy so far that is constantly resisting it is big bad Kangaxx. But there are other ways to beat him, no?
VERY BIG EDIT: Tested Harm against Amelyssan and - what can i say: It worked. LOL! Just some Lower Resistances before and the "Harm"onizer triggered on the sixth try! Should remember this one for my next Druid!
You can just Wand of Cold him to death. It takes a long time but it's doable.