Hey @Harpagornis, my Stalker has around 20k XP, that's before taking on any Basilisks. He's done most if not all of the fetch and talk quests, looted the ankheg cave with stealth, allied with Tenya, weathered the glyph of warding and magic missile traps in Alaric's cave, picked up Drizzt's scimitars, slain Shoal and recently Meilum (with a few backstabs and with the Army Scythe). I'm still not really comfortable with expoliting the so-called basilisk loop, but I've allowed myself to buy the Darkveil cowl, a rogue rebalancing item for thieves and rangers that makes them immune to petrification (but giving the user a +2 Thac0 penalty against creatures with gaze attacks). Thus I can not only slay the basilisks in Mutamin's garden but also those on top of Durlag's Tower. (Potions of mirrored eyes might work in combination with backstabs, but since I'm more interested in SoD than in BG1, I've decided not to complicate things too much for now.)
There haven't been any close calls or anything yet. In fact the biggest "whoah" moment didn't involve Leon but Branwen and Zeke: Pretty funny no? But horrible in a role-played playtrhough where Branwen is to play a prominent part in a party.
Lyzz smashed the palace ambush down without any problems once the Dopplegangers got dispelled one after another. The poor Mage alone could not do anything and was taken out swiftly once his charm broke. These arrows are really (too) powerful. Only Sarevok left now!!
I tested the Crusader Attacks with Cleric/Thief again. Not good. My idea to charm the beasts did not work that great as they save nearly all the time. IF one could charm the big Ogre Yarok the battle would turn into our favour but as he uses Rage right at the start this is NO option. Damn it. I am also still searching for a safe way to place Glyphs of Warding in big numbers but the wandering and spawning troops are a real pain. There must be a way. There must...
Any ideas are welcome!
P.S. Its over. Well - BG1... Angelo got dispelled and kited while the rest was burned down with Necklace of Missiles (Semaj 22, Diarmid 37 & Tazok 39). After that it was all about kiting Sarevok with Acid Arrows. Thanks to many, many critical misses Lyzz had to shoot 124 of them before her evil brother went down. Pah! Lets hope that the remaining 36 will be enough for Korlasz. Yeah, they should be. However: Sling + Wand of Heaven with Cleric/Thief felt somehow smoother. Too bad i still cannot find a way through these damn Crusader Attacks...
Back again doing some calculations, but I really need to confirm this, are the finxxxx.cre files correct in NearInfinity considering the Ascension final battle? (not taking LoB into account)
As i did not put points into single weapon spec she had -33 AC against slashing when fighting Amelyssan. As her THAC0 is -20 she needed to roll 13+ to land a hit. NearInfinity is wrong @histamiini!
Is it though? NearInfinity she has -7 Thac0, but modified -3 (strenght), -5 (LoB) and -5 (weapon) puts it at -20.
I am not using NearInfinity but looking at enemies using CTRL+Q @histamiini. Sir Vanderley should probably win a straight 1vs1 against Amelyssan as she tends to ""forget" casting her spells and "only" uses summons (Devas, Demons etc.) as long as you keep her busy. Your main problem will be to survive until everyone else is dead. This will be a long and painful way where so many things can go wrong that this is THE fight i fear most in a no-reload-run at the moment. IF one gets there! LOL. With reloads and proper preparation - why not?
Hah, i think i got a way through the Ogre/Troll wave for my Cleric/Thief!!!!!
The key thing is to charm everyone around... Soldiers... but even more important... the NPC Mages! With their power (Web, Fireball, Confusion, Summon Monsters, Entangle etc.) i nearly beat it even without Glyphs of Warding and without buffing up my main char. Put in the damage of the Glyphs and some good tanking thanks to stacked Potions of Power and the Ogre/Trolls will fall. Thats good. Thats very good!!!
P.S. No, no, no. The third wave is the end. Without the NPC Mage support they just overrun my troops. Even worse: They dispel all my Potion of Power buffs so tanking is no option. The own summons are far too weak to stop them... *ROAR*
Looks like a decent plan @histamiini! But dont forget: Solars and Balors are also able to instakill you - happened to me more than one time with Su´kka. If you get lucky Abazigal will do more or less nothing. If you get unlucky he will use his Time Stop just out of vision, run up to you and hack you to pieces. This guy can be a real deathmachine. Dominating Sarevok could be tricky cause once he gets killed by the others Amelyssan will immediately join the party - thats maybe not what you want. Also worth to mention: If you got the immunity to normal and +1 weapons Sarevok will not be able to hit you. However: This fight might get really interesting!
@Harpagornis Doesn't Death Ward protect against Vorpal hits? At least that was my plan against them, although kiting is another. I wonder if there's possibility park Sarevok somewhere out of the battle? Yeah I got all the "good" effects from Hell, pretty much forced because I didn't want to get fallen.
There might be a way to beat the third Crusader Wave as my last test with Cleric/Thief has shown!
Support: War Mages Starting Summons: Five Skeleton Warriors Traps: 7 (2x Dosias resting power!!)
Once the battle started all Crusaders were already down to injured thanks to the traps. With constant Necklace of Missile burning, slinging and summon respawning (Myconids, Ankhegs, Golem) this slowed the Cavaliers and Clerics very much down and most of them were badly wounded shortly after. As the enemies wasted their Dispel Magic on the summons (lol) Brakko rushed in to tank. Luck was on his side and Sundermaul procced the first Earthquake knocking several crusaders down and killing some others. Shortly after the rest was cleaned up with the remaining War Mages. GG!!!
This means: With good preparation and flawless execution a Cleric/Thief is able to beat the Crusader Attacks even on a no-reload-run. Time to prove it in real - no?
P.S. Does Death Ward protect against Vorpal Hits? Maybe @Grondo or @semiticgod can give you the answer!
@Harpagornis Doesn't Death Ward protect against Vorpal hits? At least that was my plan against them, although kiting is another. I wonder if there's possibility park Sarevok somewhere out of the battle? Yeah I got all the "good" effects from Hell, pretty much forced because I didn't want to get fallen.
According to the wikia it does, but I play with aTweaks, which has its own component that ensures Death Ward protects against vorpals. You might consider installing that component on top of your current install, just to be sure. It shouldn't be a problem as aTweaks is supposed to be installed pretty much last.
Did you pick up Hindo's Doom? It gives you an undispellable Death Ward as long as you have the blade equipped. Can be worthwhile in case you run out of spells or get dispelled.
@Harpagornis: Before EE, Death Ward did not block vorpal strikes unless it was modded. In EE, Death Ward blocks vorpal strikes. I'm reasonably certain SCS has a component to grant vorpal strike immunity to Death Ward.
However, based on the sword used by SCS planetars, Death Ward is NOT a guarantee of survival against a planetar's vorpal strike. The dispel effect of the planetar's sword, which acts as if Dispel Magic was cast at the planetar's level (25 in normal mode; 37 in LoB mode), triggers before the vorpal strike, which means it's extremely easy for a planetar to dispel Death Ward and then impose a vorpal strike. Only non-dispellable save bonuses are a sure way to block a planetar's vorpal strike, so you'll either need a -1 item-based save vs. death (-3 if you're an unkitted character and that save bug isn't fixed) or the Spell Revisions-exclusive Improved Mantle variant, which grants an undispellable +20 to AC and saving throws.
I don't know about non-SCS planetars, though. I think the dispel magic effect is the same, but I'm not sure. All I know is that in vanilla, a planetar's vorpal strike offers no saving throw.
Hindo's Doom will block it, but only if it's upgraded.
Note that while the Balor in the Underdark has an instant death effect that displays the string "Vorpal strike," the effect is actually a slay opcode, so Death Ward will block it regardless of the game version.
With new courage thanks to my tests and due to a heavy infestation with Restartitis i have decided to give Brakko the Half-Orc Cleric/Thief another chance. The decision was even easier when looking at a godlike 95 roll after only a couple of tries. Sometimes fate smiles upon you - no?
With some luck (and time) Brakko will start rolling tomorrow. I will do some more testings with his former incarnation just to make sure nothing will go wrong during the Crusader Attacks. Lets hope he will get there!
With all this cautious planning of @histamiini we will see Amelyssan and friends going down like a sack of potatoes! No?
P.S. Thanks @semiticgod for this really insightful information. One always learns new things here!
@semiticgod I didn't know Vorpals actually needed a save. I've very good save vs death, natural -1, something like -7 with my end game gear. So basically I don't need to worry them at all?
@Harpagornis Haha we'll see. Sometimes I feel like I'm playing the game more in my head than in actual game. In my head I never have much problems, the reality is often whole new ball game.
@histamiini: Most vorpal strikes offer a save in the vanilla game, I think, except for planetar vorpal strikes. Those only offer a saving throw with SCS installed.
Also note that the Fallen Solars from Ascension have a 15% chance of landing a vorpal strike to a planetar's 25% chance. Both offer a save vs. death at -2 and bypass magic resistance and spell protections.
A Fallen Solar's vorpal strike is much easier to avoid, though. Their melee attacks do not dispel magic at all, and while their arrows dispel magic at a flat level of 22 (even in LoB mode) and also automatically remove specific protections like Death Ward, there's only an 85% chance of it happening, which is mutually exclusive with the 15% chance of a vorpal strike.
Still, their arrows come fast and it's entirely possible for them to remove Death Ward with one arrow and then kill you with a vorpal strike a second later, so you should really have either a -1 save vs. death (or -3 for unkitted characters because of the bug), PFMW, or the Shield of Reflection.
Brakko the Half-Orc Cleric/Thief started his journey into the unknown. After the usual route Shoal -> Drizzt -> Nashkel + Carnival -> Algernons Cloak he used Korax the Ghoul and one lesser Basilisk (later on two Skeletons) to clear Mutamins Garden in no time while only using Zekes Stone to Flesh Scroll once on a Greater Basilisk. No XP-Loop this time cause Brakko wants to earn his new powers. Mutamin himself - as well as his Basilisks - were helpless against the Skeletons who hacked everything down relentlessly while ignoring petrification and most magic. With level 5/6 reached Brakko buried Dushai in Ulghots Beard and will now start his reputation boosting. Sanctuary and Skeleton Warriors should keep him safe. Hopefully!
P.S. I am always realizing that the first levels are the most joy for me. Starting with no powers while every single critter could end the journey rather quickly is always thrilling again.
Brakko died in real @Grond0 style to Krumm. Really? Yes!
Everything seemed too easy after Caldo was charmed and two Skeletons joined the party while Brakko was slinging from the backline. With an easy victory in mind i went afk without hitting the pause button. Once i came back not Krumm was lying dead on the ground but an unexpected death screen welcomed me. What happened? Without checking Brakkos ammunition before the battle he had only 2 bullets left (even though i could swear he had another 80 in his quiver). He therefore switched to Bassilus Hammer (who got death-charmed before) and tried to cut down Krumm - without success. The evil villain also switched his target and clubbed down poor Brakko with a last painful 18 damage hit. Hmmmm... i think i should really use the pause button. Sometimes. Always!!!
Illasera tries to kill me, went invisible and separeted her from the rest. Changed to Reflection Shield after seeing her arrows hit like a truck. Melee 1on1 she was no match for Sir Vanderley. Got taste of the end battles fighting Irenicus, Bodhi and Sarevok at the same time. First time they took me kind of surprise, and I got trapped and killed. Next time I was ready, tried to dominate Sarevok, but this Sarevok was immune to it. Used PfU to stop Bodhi, kited Planetars and other summons until they dissappeared and waited Irenicus to waste all his spells. Then I just meleed them down one by one.
Normal fighters did nothing after getting Protection to +1 Weapons, so most such fights I just let AI do the work. Prison undead were all turned. Fight with Gromnir went like this, killed one opponent, downstairs to heal, then killed another. Waited mages to waste their spells, then Gww'd them down. After killing like five of them I just tanked down the rest and Gromnir.
Master Wraith was no match for me, nor the undead band after it. In Fire Giants Stronghold tanked pretty much everything to a point when Fire Salamanders started attacking. And they quickly killed me couple times doing ridiculous amount of fire damage. How was this happening when I had 127 fire protection? I quickly glanced my stats, and it suddenly was -128? What in earth? Well had to disperse them and take them in small groups. Brimstone dragon was hilariously easy, blocked by the door and killed by my Throwing Axe. Imix died to me and Deva. Nyalee and her band was dispersed and hunted down.
Yaga-Shura next. Went invisible and separeted Yaga-Shura, and simply tanked him down with 100 crushing resitance and FoA +4. Second challenge I used the summon in door trick to get the whole Pocket Plane as fighting ground, and then it was just matter of hunting everyone down one by one. I was pretty surprised when I got Regeneration as my reward. I possibly answered to Solar in a wrong way, I thought we would have chatted after the battle. Anyway on to Amkethran.
Brakko died in real @Grond0 style to Krumm. Really? Yes!
Everything seemed too easy after Caldo was charmed and two Skeletons joined the party while Brakko was slinging from the backline. With an easy victory in mind i went afk without hitting the pause button. Once i came back not Krumm was lying dead on the ground but an unexpected death screen welcomed me. What happened? Without checking Brakkos ammunition before the battle he had only 2 bullets left (even though i could swear he had another 80 in his quiver). He therefore switched to Bassilus Hammer (who got death-charmed before) and tried to cut down Krumm - without success. The evil villain also switched his target and clubbed down poor Brakko with a last painful 18 damage hit. Hmmmm... i think i should really use the pause button. Sometimes. Always!!!
Time for another restart with poor Brakko! ;;)
Now that's the sort of death I admire . Incidentally, it is quite possible that you did have more bullets available. The game has an option as to whether you go into melee at the end of an existing stack of ammunition or at the end of the whole quiverful - you might want to check what you've got that set to.
In Fire Giants Stronghold tanked pretty much everything to a point when Fire Salamanders started attacking. And they quickly killed me couple times doing ridiculous amount of fire damage. How was this happening when I had 127 fire protection? I quickly glanced my stats, and it suddenly was -128?
@histamiini some enemies have the ability to reduce resistances. You may be able to spot that happening by keeping an eye on the battle text.
Brakko finally got his revenge after doing the same "lets-get-some-fast-xp-tour". This time he was already level 6/6 and able to summon three Skeleton Warriors. Together with charmed Caldo poor Krumm went down like a sack of potatoes while Brakko was slinging with fully (!) loaded quivers.
Once he brought wounded Samuel back to the FAI reputation 20 was reached so its now time to buy some decent stuff in Ulgoths Beard before moving on with the main quest. Brakko the third is feeling stronger than ever. Not to forget: Dushai was charmed on the very first try this time. Never happened before. Must be a good sign - no?
Draconis gated some Glabrezu's and Nabassu's, I went invisible and they immediatelly attacked Draconis and defeated his human form for me. Then I tanked out his dragon form.
Anadramatis, kited down his double haste, until I noticed that his weapon was actually ineffective against me. Then I just Gww'd him down and when he accepted defeat I accepted his surrender, and his Amulet of Wing Buffet immunity. Except my Gww was still going and he dropped dead the next hit. So I conveniently got also his scales for the Yellow Dragon Scale Armor.
Kuo-Toa area was fairly trivial when they couldn't hit me. Olhydra I ranged with Throwing Axe +4. One problem though, the monk didn't give me a rope so I can't advance anywhere. Isn't he supposed to give a rope?
@histamiini: I've also seen Anadramatis attacking with bare fists. It's a bug where the dragon is erroneously assigned no weapon. You chose the good options in Hell in SoA, which included immunity to +1 weapons and less, hence the dragon's inability to touch you.
@histamiini: I overlooked that part of your post. You have Ascension installed, and one of its components changes the dungeon so that monk no longer gives you the rope. Instead, you have to go back to Amkethran and ask the innkeeper for some rope, which you get for free. When you get back to Draconis' area, there will be another fight.
Comments
Not to forget: How is your Stalker doing @Blackraven! Hope he is still alive!
I'm still not really comfortable with expoliting the so-called basilisk loop, but I've allowed myself to buy the Darkveil cowl, a rogue rebalancing item for thieves and rangers that makes them immune to petrification (but giving the user a +2 Thac0 penalty against creatures with gaze attacks). Thus I can not only slay the basilisks in Mutamin's garden but also those on top of Durlag's Tower. (Potions of mirrored eyes might work in combination with backstabs, but since I'm more interested in SoD than in BG1, I've decided not to complicate things too much for now.)
There haven't been any close calls or anything yet. In fact the biggest "whoah" moment didn't involve Leon but Branwen and Zeke:
Pretty funny no? But horrible in a role-played playtrhough where Branwen is to play a prominent part in a party.
I tested the Crusader Attacks with Cleric/Thief again. Not good. My idea to charm the beasts did not work that great as they save nearly all the time. IF one could charm the big Ogre Yarok the battle would turn into our favour but as he uses Rage right at the start this is NO option. Damn it. I am also still searching for a safe way to place Glyphs of Warding in big numbers but the wandering and spawning troops are a real pain. There must be a way. There must...
Any ideas are welcome!
P.S. Its over. Well - BG1... Angelo got dispelled and kited while the rest was burned down with Necklace of Missiles (Semaj 22, Diarmid 37 & Tazok 39). After that it was all about kiting Sarevok with Acid Arrows. Thanks to many, many critical misses Lyzz had to shoot 124 of them before her evil brother went down. Pah! Lets hope that the remaining 36 will be enough for Korlasz. Yeah, they should be. However: Sling + Wand of Heaven with Cleric/Thief felt somehow smoother. Too bad i still cannot find a way through these damn Crusader Attacks...
Hah, i think i got a way through the Ogre/Troll wave for my Cleric/Thief!!!!!
The key thing is to charm everyone around... Soldiers... but even more important... the NPC Mages! With their power (Web, Fireball, Confusion, Summon Monsters, Entangle etc.) i nearly beat it even without Glyphs of Warding and without buffing up my main char. Put in the damage of the Glyphs and some good tanking thanks to stacked Potions of Power and the Ogre/Trolls will fall. Thats good. Thats very good!!!
P.S. No, no, no. The third wave is the end. Without the NPC Mage support they just overrun my troops. Even worse: They dispel all my Potion of Power buffs so tanking is no option. The own summons are far too weak to stop them... *ROAR*
Big 7 Stats (NearInfinity)
STR 19
HP 260*3+80 = 860
AC -6
D/W/P/B/S -2/0/-1/-1/1 (-5)
S/C/P/M 25/25/25/25
F/C/E/A 0/0/0/0
MR 25
Weapon 1 +4 Crushing 20 FR
Thac0 0-3-5-4 = -12
Sarevok
STR 1800
HP 320*3+80 = 1040
AC -8
D/W/P/B/S -3/-1/-3/-3/0 (-5)
S/C/P/M 25/25/25/25
F/C/E/A 25/25/25/25
MR 50
Weapon 1 +5 Slashing
Thac0 0-3-5-5 = -13
Sendai
STR 14
DEX 19
HP 162*3+80 = 566
AC 9
D/W/P/B/S -5/-2/-2/1/-1 (-5)
S/C/P/M 0/0/0/0
F/C/E/A 0/0/0/0
MR 84
Weapon 1 +5 Crushing
Thac0 6-0-5-5 = -4
Weapon 2 +5 Missile
Thac0 6-3-5-5 = -7
Yaga-Shura
STR 23
HP 370*3+80 = 1190
AC -8
D/W/P/B/S -2/0/-1/-1/1 (-5)
S/C/P/M 60/60/60/60
F/C/E/A 60/20/60/60
MR 0
Weapon 1 +5 Crushing
Thac0 0-5-5-5 = -15
Abazigal
STR 22
HP 310*3+80 = 1010
AC -12
D/W/P/B/S -4/-2/-3/-3/-1 (-5)
S/C/P/M 0/0/0/0
F/C/E/A 0/0/100/0
MR 65
Weapon 1 +5 Slashing
Thac0 -8-4-5-5 = -20
Illasera
STR 17
DEX 18
HP 208*3+80 = 704
AC 6
D/W/P/B/S -4/-2/-3/-3/-1 (-5)
S/C/P/M 0/0/0/0
F/C/E/A 0/0/0/0
MR 50
Weapon 1 +5 Missile
Thac0 3-2-5-5 = -9
Weapon 2 +2 Slashing
Thac0 3-1-5-2 = -5
Amelyssan
STR 19
DEX 20
HP 500*3+80 = 1580
AC -10
D/W/P/B/S -3/-2/-1/-1/-5 (-5)
S/C/P/M 75/75/75/75
F/C/E/A 50/50/50/50
MR 70
Weapon 1 +5 piercing
Thac0 -7-3-5-5 = -20
Weapon 2 +4 Missile
Thac0 -7-3-5-4 = -19
So my grand plan is to get Balthazar's support, charm Sarevok, PfM Sendai and use these instead of low AC build of BMU:
Roranach's Horn +50 Crushing
Defender of Easthaven +20 Slashing/Piercing/Crushing
Belt Of Inertial Barrier +25 Missile
Yellow Dragon Scale Armor +50 Piercing/Missile
Ascension Modification +25 All
Damage Resistance (item based)
Slashing 45
Piercing 95
Crushing 95
Missile 100
3xAoF and 3xHardiness in the reserves.
Only slashing would be problem, and after dominating Sarevok it would make Abazigal the only problem.
Support: War Mages
Starting Summons: Five Skeleton Warriors
Traps: 7 (2x Dosias resting power!!)
Once the battle started all Crusaders were already down to injured thanks to the traps. With constant Necklace of Missile burning, slinging and summon respawning (Myconids, Ankhegs, Golem) this slowed the Cavaliers and Clerics very much down and most of them were badly wounded shortly after. As the enemies wasted their Dispel Magic on the summons (lol) Brakko rushed in to tank. Luck was on his side and Sundermaul procced the first Earthquake knocking several crusaders down and killing some others. Shortly after the rest was cleaned up with the remaining War Mages. GG!!!
This means: With good preparation and flawless execution a Cleric/Thief is able to beat the Crusader Attacks even on a no-reload-run. Time to prove it in real - no?
P.S. Does Death Ward protect against Vorpal Hits? Maybe @Grondo or @semiticgod can give you the answer!
Did you pick up Hindo's Doom? It gives you an undispellable Death Ward as long as you have the blade equipped. Can be worthwhile in case you run out of spells or get dispelled.
However, based on the sword used by SCS planetars, Death Ward is NOT a guarantee of survival against a planetar's vorpal strike. The dispel effect of the planetar's sword, which acts as if Dispel Magic was cast at the planetar's level (25 in normal mode; 37 in LoB mode), triggers before the vorpal strike, which means it's extremely easy for a planetar to dispel Death Ward and then impose a vorpal strike. Only non-dispellable save bonuses are a sure way to block a planetar's vorpal strike, so you'll either need a -1 item-based save vs. death (-3 if you're an unkitted character and that save bug isn't fixed) or the Spell Revisions-exclusive Improved Mantle variant, which grants an undispellable +20 to AC and saving throws.
I don't know about non-SCS planetars, though. I think the dispel magic effect is the same, but I'm not sure. All I know is that in vanilla, a planetar's vorpal strike offers no saving throw.
Hindo's Doom will block it, but only if it's upgraded.
Note that while the Balor in the Underdark has an instant death effect that displays the string "Vorpal strike," the effect is actually a slay opcode, so Death Ward will block it regardless of the game version.
With some luck (and time) Brakko will start rolling tomorrow. I will do some more testings with his former incarnation just to make sure nothing will go wrong during the Crusader Attacks. Lets hope he will get there!
With all this cautious planning of @histamiini we will see Amelyssan and friends going down like a sack of potatoes! No?
P.S. Thanks @semiticgod for this really insightful information. One always learns new things here!
@Harpagornis Haha we'll see. Sometimes I feel like I'm playing the game more in my head than in actual game. In my head I never have much problems, the reality is often whole new ball game.
Also note that the Fallen Solars from Ascension have a 15% chance of landing a vorpal strike to a planetar's 25% chance. Both offer a save vs. death at -2 and bypass magic resistance and spell protections.
A Fallen Solar's vorpal strike is much easier to avoid, though. Their melee attacks do not dispel magic at all, and while their arrows dispel magic at a flat level of 22 (even in LoB mode) and also automatically remove specific protections like Death Ward, there's only an 85% chance of it happening, which is mutually exclusive with the 15% chance of a vorpal strike.
Still, their arrows come fast and it's entirely possible for them to remove Death Ward with one arrow and then kill you with a vorpal strike a second later, so you should really have either a -1 save vs. death (or -3 for unkitted characters because of the bug), PFMW, or the Shield of Reflection.
P.S. I am always realizing that the first levels are the most joy for me. Starting with no powers while every single critter could end the journey rather quickly is always thrilling again.
Everything seemed too easy after Caldo was charmed and two Skeletons joined the party while Brakko was slinging from the backline. With an easy victory in mind i went afk without hitting the pause button. Once i came back not Krumm was lying dead on the ground but an unexpected death screen welcomed me. What happened? Without checking Brakkos ammunition before the battle he had only 2 bullets left (even though i could swear he had another 80 in his quiver). He therefore switched to Bassilus Hammer (who got death-charmed before) and tried to cut down Krumm - without success. The evil villain also switched his target and clubbed down poor Brakko with a last painful 18 damage hit. Hmmmm... i think i should really use the pause button. Sometimes. Always!!!
Time for another restart with poor Brakko!
Illasera tries to kill me, went invisible and separeted her from the rest. Changed to Reflection Shield after seeing her arrows hit like a truck. Melee 1on1 she was no match for Sir Vanderley. Got taste of the end battles fighting Irenicus, Bodhi and Sarevok at the same time. First time they took me kind of surprise, and I got trapped and killed. Next time I was ready, tried to dominate Sarevok, but this Sarevok was immune to it. Used PfU to stop Bodhi, kited Planetars and other summons until they dissappeared and waited Irenicus to waste all his spells. Then I just meleed them down one by one.
Normal fighters did nothing after getting Protection to +1 Weapons, so most such fights I just let AI do the work. Prison undead were all turned. Fight with Gromnir went like this, killed one opponent, downstairs to heal, then killed another. Waited mages to waste their spells, then Gww'd them down. After killing like five of them I just tanked down the rest and Gromnir.
Master Wraith was no match for me, nor the undead band after it. In Fire Giants Stronghold tanked pretty much everything to a point when Fire Salamanders started attacking. And they quickly killed me couple times doing ridiculous amount of fire damage. How was this happening when I had 127 fire protection? I quickly glanced my stats, and it suddenly was -128? What in earth? Well had to disperse them and take them in small groups. Brimstone dragon was hilariously easy, blocked by the door and killed by my Throwing Axe. Imix died to me and Deva. Nyalee and her band was dispersed and hunted down.
Yaga-Shura next. Went invisible and separeted Yaga-Shura, and simply tanked him down with 100 crushing resitance and FoA +4. Second challenge I used the summon in door trick to get the whole Pocket Plane as fighting ground, and then it was just matter of hunting everyone down one by one. I was pretty surprised when I got Regeneration as my reward. I possibly answered to Solar in a wrong way, I thought we would have chatted after the battle. Anyway on to Amkethran.
Once he brought wounded Samuel back to the FAI reputation 20 was reached so its now time to buy some decent stuff in Ulgoths Beard before moving on with the main quest. Brakko the third is feeling stronger than ever. Not to forget: Dushai was charmed on the very first try this time. Never happened before. Must be a good sign - no?
Draconis gated some Glabrezu's and Nabassu's, I went invisible and they immediatelly attacked Draconis and defeated his human form for me.
Anadramatis, kited down his double haste, until I noticed that his weapon was actually ineffective against me.
Kuo-Toa area was fairly trivial when they couldn't hit me. Olhydra I ranged with Throwing Axe +4. One problem though, the monk didn't give me a rope so I can't advance anywhere. Isn't he supposed to give a rope?
Your run isn't no-reload, is it?