Shadow Aspect in LOB settings, hmm…hello…?

islandking

OK, so that Shadow Aspect in old temple of Bhaal (it IS Bhaal’s temple right? So why the child of Bhaal’s always mention it in journal as Cyric’s :-(?) really gives me the creeps, first, killing the lizard lady seems to trigger it to appear on map, and since then it’s beginning to infinitely use Mislead, effectively blocking saving function within that temple so I have to backtrack to previous map in order to save.

Second, more deadly, it’s visible for only a blink of second before it goes invisible again, without True Sight in my party, my only option of hitting it is limited to Aoe spells, and it has huge resistance to fire and a large pool of HP, it took me 70+ charges of Wand of Fire, 20+ charges of Gift of the Lost One, and several Fire breath potions to finally silence it. The party gains 6000xp, really...REALLY?

Anyone who uses True Sight on it? How it fares? And knowing its bestiary data can surely open some other ways to deal with it, such as is it immunity to fear? etc. But I’m of little interest to try them as it’s now…

JuliusBorisov

There was a discussion about dealing with Shadow Aspect on LoB in @Harpagornis ' thread.

Check https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/832275/#Comment_832275 and https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/832939/#Comment_832939

SoD is full of interesting and fresh fights on LoB

islandking

Oh, forgot I also tossed some Fireballs on it, oh dear...

islandking

@JuliusBorisov I'm not saying it's not fun, just shouldn't force players to use True Sight & Detect Illusion only, BG should be of freedom not limitation right?
Not to mention the way it uses Mislead (even if no enemies sighted) block Saving from the whole map which should be corrected in the next patch.

ThacoBell

Thats the rub with higher difficulties. As you keep going up, eventually you HAVE to use the *correct* techniques, instead of the fun ones.

islandking

@ThacoBell Yeah, I guess that's a bit of downside with higher difficulties, most parts are fun though, don't think other modes attract me any more after experiencing lob, let's see what waits as I go deeper :-)

Ardanis

islandking said:

JuliusBorisov I'm not saying it's not fun, just shouldn't force players to use True Sight & Detect Illusion only, BG should be of freedom not limitation right?

There's another low-level wizard spell that can dramatically reduce its ability to hide. And yet another one can be used in conjunction with Dispel/Remove Magic and party killing the clone real fast.

islandking

@Ardanis I dunno, all those save-or-else AOE status effects spells should work, provided it's not immune to them, but please tell me what they are as I already said I'm of little interest to find out its bestiary data as I personally consider it not a very good idea design-wise to force player to know it.

Ardanis

Glitterdust makes its targets unable to go invis for 4 rounds.
Hold Undead can paralyze it outright, but need to remove active invis first (should be doable with full party and some summons).
Greater Malison also helps to bypass its saves.

islandking

@Ardanis Thanks, Glitterdust is a good hit, never knew it's a undead, maybe I'll try other effects like silence etc in next run.

Harpagornis

Protection from Undead + True Sight = Easiest Kill ever

islandking

Harpagornis said:

Protection from Undead + True Sight = Easiest Kill ever

Yeah, I got that, guess that Shadow Aspect pretty much surprised me as it was my first time playing SoD , I didn't expect a creature with so many immunities to suddenly show up in a place like that

pijani

Harpagornis wrote: »

Protection from Undead + True Sight = Easiest Kill ever

there is no protection from the undead scrole in this expansion pack. Only way to have it is to bring it with you from original game

jmerry

Oh, and a correction to something that was said above.

Glitterdust sets the "CANNOT_TURN_INVISIBLE" spellstate. This does not actually prevent creatures from turning invisible. Spells and effects that turn things invisible don't check for it. Most AI scripts don't check for it in applying invisibility effects; the only ones I'm aware of that do are party member combat scripts. So it talks a big game, but the actual effect of Glitterdust is a one-time reveal and four rounds of blindness. If the save is failed, which is rather unlikely when you're trying to hit a powerful monster that has the additional save bonus of improved invisibility.

True Seeing/True Sight also sets that spellstate, but it backs that up by revealing invisible creatures once per round for its duration. Enemies might still go invisible, but they'll be knocked back out of it quickly. And more importantly in this case, it removes the Mislead at its source rather than just the invisibility effect.