Pure arcane spellcaster solo bgee black pits.
DrakeICN
Member Posts: 623
So, this thread is an investigation towards whether it is possible to beat BG ee (1, not 2) black pits, using a solo pure arcane spellcaster. My guess, going into this project, is that no, it cannot be done. Sooner or later you will run into a powerful warrior with insane saving throws and magical protection or just a shitton of HP, and thats that. I especially think the fire giant and rakshaasa will be insurmountable obstacle. As it turns out, however, no, wizards really can solo the black pits!!!
We start off with some disclaimers;
With that out of the way, lets discuss which pure arcane spellcaster is the best pick;
Warning: I started writing this before I actually beat the game. Due to a circumstance with the final fight, I am not sure the game is beatable without dragon disciples extra HP.
Race; There are only four races that get spellcaster classes.
Stats; Obviously, you will want 18 str, 19 dex and 15 (you get 1 extra at lvl 5) or 16 con for an elven dragon disciple for the combat bonuses. You will also want 15 charisma, because that is the lowest a sorc can go, which with Friends (see below) gives you 21 charisma, which maximises store discounts, and 9 int, so you can use all scrolls and wands. There are rumors that some scrolls and wands reguire more than 9 int, but I am to lazy to confirm this. Wisdom can be ignored. Thus, you need to roll minimum 77, which should take, like, maybe one reroll... if you did not already get it from the top?
Skills: Daggers is actually a good choice, despite dealing less dmg than staffs, since there are also throwing knives and... wait what? Ok, there arent. Again, there is not really a choice here, you just go with the flow and pick staff.
The first two spells I recommend are Shield and Friends.
I use shield as a buff before EVERY fight in the black pits, and friend before I buy anything.
Alignment: You'd think it wouldn't matter, but some enemy clerics have smite good. Others probably have smite evil. So, you might want to pick neutral, but honestly, those smite goods never dealed enough damage to be decisive, so pick whatever. Ironically, I usually play a chaotic neutral alignment, I only picked good because it felt more appropriate for a rebellious prisoner of the drow.
Name; I named my (female) dragon disciple "Skankeeta", feel free to use that name if you lack for imagination.
Some general hints;
Finally, and needless to say, the fights can be beaten in any number of ways - I present my solutions.
We start off with some disclaimers;
1. Has this been done before? Probably. I entered the pits, thinking *I* should beat them using only a wizard. Would kinda spoil the fun if I read someone elses guide beforehand, now would it not? So, if that is my attitude, why did I write this guide? Well, first off to show that it can be done. The solution to all fights are in spoiler tags. You do not need to click them. Secondly, I sometimes like watching people play games on youtube, instead of playing them myself, because I am curious but not curious enough to invest my time. If there are others like me, those people can now read this guide and do not need to try it themselves. Third, why does anyone post anything online, ever, whether they admit it or not? For this --> http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=e-peen
2. Bards are NOT pure arcane spellcasters. Whatever your counter-argument is, I dismiss it with contempt, because a class that can dualwield bastard swords is NOT a pure arcane spellcaster class. Also evident in that bards use the thief THAC0 level progression. Needless to say - in case the word 'pure' is somehow unclear to you - any multi or dual class is also disqualified. Now, my answer to the question whether a bard or multimage could solo bgee black pits is "I dunno, I havent tried it", but my guess is "Hell yes, especially a blade or kensai mage".
3. This is not a no reload challenge. Personally, I find no reload challenges stupid, because even a high level char could fail a save against finger or death or somesuch by dumb luck... er.. dumb unluck, and then 20-40 hours of precious game play is forever wasted. Also, some of the fights depend on luck, you may need to try them more than once.
4. I play it on core rules, except when leveling, where I flip it to normal to get all my HP:s. I think at least some of the fights are challenging enough this way. But I dont think it is that very very different on harder difficulties, because of wizards reliance on mirror image and stone skin, so I think it should be doable also at higher difficulties. Havent tried it, true, but still. I am also politically opposed to higher difficulties resulting in tougher generic monsters, or weaker PC:s. Higher difficulties should lead to more generic monsters and better AI and never weaker PC:s, although bossmonsters may get a little tougher, some more levels and/or learn some more trix. A simple damage tweak is, I think, just lazyness on the devs part.
5. This is a legit vanilla play. Also, fighting lower tier fights is not permitted. Now, I havent actually attempted a lower tier fight, but I guess you get some gold and XP for that? I consider the XP and gold restrictions as part of the challenge, and while you anyway cannot gain more than 10 levels, you might be more powerful than you are supposed to be, for some of the fights. So, the current fight only. Also, by the time you reach the last fights you will be swimming in gold like Scrooge McDuck anyway.
2. Bards are NOT pure arcane spellcasters. Whatever your counter-argument is, I dismiss it with contempt, because a class that can dualwield bastard swords is NOT a pure arcane spellcaster class. Also evident in that bards use the thief THAC0 level progression. Needless to say - in case the word 'pure' is somehow unclear to you - any multi or dual class is also disqualified. Now, my answer to the question whether a bard or multimage could solo bgee black pits is "I dunno, I havent tried it", but my guess is "Hell yes, especially a blade or kensai mage".
3. This is not a no reload challenge. Personally, I find no reload challenges stupid, because even a high level char could fail a save against finger or death or somesuch by dumb luck... er.. dumb unluck, and then 20-40 hours of precious game play is forever wasted. Also, some of the fights depend on luck, you may need to try them more than once.
4. I play it on core rules, except when leveling, where I flip it to normal to get all my HP:s. I think at least some of the fights are challenging enough this way. But I dont think it is that very very different on harder difficulties, because of wizards reliance on mirror image and stone skin, so I think it should be doable also at higher difficulties. Havent tried it, true, but still. I am also politically opposed to higher difficulties resulting in tougher generic monsters, or weaker PC:s. Higher difficulties should lead to more generic monsters and better AI and never weaker PC:s, although bossmonsters may get a little tougher, some more levels and/or learn some more trix. A simple damage tweak is, I think, just lazyness on the devs part.
5. This is a legit vanilla play. Also, fighting lower tier fights is not permitted. Now, I havent actually attempted a lower tier fight, but I guess you get some gold and XP for that? I consider the XP and gold restrictions as part of the challenge, and while you anyway cannot gain more than 10 levels, you might be more powerful than you are supposed to be, for some of the fights. So, the current fight only. Also, by the time you reach the last fights you will be swimming in gold like Scrooge McDuck anyway.
With that out of the way, lets discuss which pure arcane spellcaster is the best pick;
Dismissed; Blank mage. There is literally no reason to play this! Specialist mages gets a very important +2 to defeat enemy save throws, for certain spells depending on their specialisation, as well as an extra spell per level. Now, they lose access to some spells, but if that bothers you, pick a wild mage!
Dismissed: Sorcerer. That one extra spell per level over specialist mages is not enough of an advantage to compensate for a lack of choice. Note that this deficiency is generally not a thing - just pick the best spells - when you do not solo. To the contrary, it is an advantage, as you never when what you will encounter, and picking the for the moment best spell means you will not "waste" memory slots by occupying them for rarely used spells. Sorcerers just suck in the black pits, and only when they solo.
So, wild mage, specialist mage or dragon disciple then? They all have unique advantages, which in my mind makes them fairly equal;
Specialist mages; That +2 to beat enemy saving throws is a REALLY strong argument.
Wild mage; Can learn spells well above their level, and use them via the wild surge spell.
Dragon disciple; Bonus to armor class, HP, fire resistance and an ability thats kind of like a weak fireball, earned at lvl 3? Hell yes! Also note that the fire breath is AOE, which lets it pass some magical defences, and that it is resolved as a breath attack and not a spell (at least I think so?) which also lets it bypass other magical defences. Unfortunately, the breath attack is a cone, which makes it kind of useless when they surround you, which they do a lot when you solo. A less obvious advantage is that early level you will save gold, as you do not need to buy scrolls to learn spells.
So, what did I pick? Well, despite the crippling access to spells, I still went with Dragon Disciple. Since you solo, your spellcaster will be subjected to melee attacks all the time, and even a bonus of as little as +1 AC means every single attack against you ever made have a 5% less chance of hitting. That quickly stacks and over the course of the black pits alone adds up to houndreds of damage you did NOT receive... and dragon disciples gets a total of +3 AC by level 10. Further, those extra HP means you will survive where lesser spellcasters did not.
Dismissed: Sorcerer. That one extra spell per level over specialist mages is not enough of an advantage to compensate for a lack of choice. Note that this deficiency is generally not a thing - just pick the best spells - when you do not solo. To the contrary, it is an advantage, as you never when what you will encounter, and picking the for the moment best spell means you will not "waste" memory slots by occupying them for rarely used spells. Sorcerers just suck in the black pits, and only when they solo.
So, wild mage, specialist mage or dragon disciple then? They all have unique advantages, which in my mind makes them fairly equal;
Specialist mages; That +2 to beat enemy saving throws is a REALLY strong argument.
Wild mage; Can learn spells well above their level, and use them via the wild surge spell.
Dragon disciple; Bonus to armor class, HP, fire resistance and an ability thats kind of like a weak fireball, earned at lvl 3? Hell yes! Also note that the fire breath is AOE, which lets it pass some magical defences, and that it is resolved as a breath attack and not a spell (at least I think so?) which also lets it bypass other magical defences. Unfortunately, the breath attack is a cone, which makes it kind of useless when they surround you, which they do a lot when you solo. A less obvious advantage is that early level you will save gold, as you do not need to buy scrolls to learn spells.
So, what did I pick? Well, despite the crippling access to spells, I still went with Dragon Disciple. Since you solo, your spellcaster will be subjected to melee attacks all the time, and even a bonus of as little as +1 AC means every single attack against you ever made have a 5% less chance of hitting. That quickly stacks and over the course of the black pits alone adds up to houndreds of damage you did NOT receive... and dragon disciples gets a total of +3 AC by level 10. Further, those extra HP means you will survive where lesser spellcasters did not.
Warning: I started writing this before I actually beat the game. Due to a circumstance with the final fight, I am not sure the game is beatable without dragon disciples extra HP.
Race; There are only four races that get spellcaster classes.
Dismissed; Half-elves. Half-elves gets no bonus elves do not get, but suffer the same restrictions on specialist mages.
So, elves, humans and gnomes remains.
Humans: can choose any specialist mage.
Elves: Near immunity to sleep and charm, +1 dex (= +1 AC and to hit with ranged weapons)
Gnomes: Incredible bonus to save vs spells.
Humans are only useful if you want a specialist mage not available to the other races. Yes, elves get -1 con which is very relevant for dragon disciples... however, gnomes cannot be dragon disciples, and you are restricted to 10 levels, so you will only get +1 con for a human, which is 19, and thus still insufficient for regen. But even if you did not, 1 HP regen every turn means your char would have like, at most, 3 or 4 extra HP during the length of one black pits battle = shit! Elf would still be the better choice. So, elf it is then.
So, elves, humans and gnomes remains.
Humans: can choose any specialist mage.
Elves: Near immunity to sleep and charm, +1 dex (= +1 AC and to hit with ranged weapons)
Gnomes: Incredible bonus to save vs spells.
Humans are only useful if you want a specialist mage not available to the other races. Yes, elves get -1 con which is very relevant for dragon disciples... however, gnomes cannot be dragon disciples, and you are restricted to 10 levels, so you will only get +1 con for a human, which is 19, and thus still insufficient for regen. But even if you did not, 1 HP regen every turn means your char would have like, at most, 3 or 4 extra HP during the length of one black pits battle = shit! Elf would still be the better choice. So, elf it is then.
Stats; Obviously, you will want 18 str, 19 dex and 15 (you get 1 extra at lvl 5) or 16 con for an elven dragon disciple for the combat bonuses. You will also want 15 charisma, because that is the lowest a sorc can go, which with Friends (see below) gives you 21 charisma, which maximises store discounts, and 9 int, so you can use all scrolls and wands. There are rumors that some scrolls and wands reguire more than 9 int, but I am to lazy to confirm this. Wisdom can be ignored. Thus, you need to roll minimum 77, which should take, like, maybe one reroll... if you did not already get it from the top?
Skills: Daggers is actually a good choice, despite dealing less dmg than staffs, since there are also throwing knives and... wait what? Ok, there arent. Again, there is not really a choice here, you just go with the flow and pick staff.
The first two spells I recommend are Shield and Friends.
I use shield as a buff before EVERY fight in the black pits, and friend before I buy anything.
Alignment: You'd think it wouldn't matter, but some enemy clerics have smite good. Others probably have smite evil. So, you might want to pick neutral, but honestly, those smite goods never dealed enough damage to be decisive, so pick whatever. Ironically, I usually play a chaotic neutral alignment, I only picked good because it felt more appropriate for a rebellious prisoner of the drow.
Name; I named my (female) dragon disciple "Skankeeta", feel free to use that name if you lack for imagination.
Some general hints;
1. The ONE advantage mages have over other classes (except bards) is the ability to use spells and scrolls. Yes, they are expandable. Yes, you do not get unlimited gold in the black pits. But quite frankly, I dont think you can beat the black pits without them. However, do avoid using them for battles where you deem you do not need them, to save gold.
2. Buy premium equipment as soon as you can afford it. Fights get progressively harder so you will likely need to buy that amulett or whatever sooner or later anyways - which would have made the earlier fights where you were counting your gold like some greedy dwarf easier! The stores update twice, get all you can afford as soon as possible - especially if stores have updated twice already. There is nothing more to wait for!
3. This one is obvious, but I still mention it, just in case; buff away right before you talk to Baeloth - that way, you can start the battle using offensive spells. Also, obviously, start buffing with the spell that lasts the longest. I.E stone skin - shield - mirror image - blur. Many spells that in the main game are mostly useless, like blur, are actually good in the pits, simply because you can buff several spells in rapid succesion - compare to a main game encounter, where ramping up all those buffs could mean missing part of or the entire fight.
4. Spell and bash; again obvious, but just in case you were not already aware of this, you can only cast one spell every round, but the rest of the round can be used to bash skulls. Thus, spell, bash, spell takes the same time as spell spell. Also, I am not 100% sure exactly how this works, because often it is even spell, bash, bash, spell, despite the fact that mages only have one attack per round. I think spell rounds are longer than attack rounds or somesuch? Or maybe spells have some kind of "hidden" cooldown? Whatever the case, dont stand around absorbing dmg like a fool, when you could be the one dealing dmg instead!
5. Some spells lock you in place, like burning hands and aganezzars scorcher. Avoid these spells, if able (I mean, some of them are really good, such as the dragon breath ability of dragon disciples). Also avoid, if able, spells with a long casting time, such as armor. Except that armor is a buff spell, so for those it doesnt matter, as they are preferably cast right before you talk to Baeloth... except that shield is vastly superior to armor so there is no reason to use armor. But, you know, keep casting times short.
2. Buy premium equipment as soon as you can afford it. Fights get progressively harder so you will likely need to buy that amulett or whatever sooner or later anyways - which would have made the earlier fights where you were counting your gold like some greedy dwarf easier! The stores update twice, get all you can afford as soon as possible - especially if stores have updated twice already. There is nothing more to wait for!
3. This one is obvious, but I still mention it, just in case; buff away right before you talk to Baeloth - that way, you can start the battle using offensive spells. Also, obviously, start buffing with the spell that lasts the longest. I.E stone skin - shield - mirror image - blur. Many spells that in the main game are mostly useless, like blur, are actually good in the pits, simply because you can buff several spells in rapid succesion - compare to a main game encounter, where ramping up all those buffs could mean missing part of or the entire fight.
4. Spell and bash; again obvious, but just in case you were not already aware of this, you can only cast one spell every round, but the rest of the round can be used to bash skulls. Thus, spell, bash, spell takes the same time as spell spell. Also, I am not 100% sure exactly how this works, because often it is even spell, bash, bash, spell, despite the fact that mages only have one attack per round. I think spell rounds are longer than attack rounds or somesuch? Or maybe spells have some kind of "hidden" cooldown? Whatever the case, dont stand around absorbing dmg like a fool, when you could be the one dealing dmg instead!
5. Some spells lock you in place, like burning hands and aganezzars scorcher. Avoid these spells, if able (I mean, some of them are really good, such as the dragon breath ability of dragon disciples). Also avoid, if able, spells with a long casting time, such as armor. Except that armor is a buff spell, so for those it doesnt matter, as they are preferably cast right before you talk to Baeloth... except that shield is vastly superior to armor so there is no reason to use armor. But, you know, keep casting times short.
Finally, and needless to say, the fights can be beaten in any number of ways - I present my solutions.
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Comments
Interrim: Dont forget to cast friends, before buying anything. A golden girdle of Urnst tips the scale insanely in your favor, for the next two fights, but do not buy anything else. You will need that gold for wands.
1st fight: A group of diseased gibberlings. Buff with shield before you talk to Baeloth, and you can then just bludgeon them to death. You need to be very unlucky to perish here.
2nd fight: A group of healthy gibberlings. Without buff and belt, very difficult, with buff and belt, I think it is mathematically possible to lose this one, but I am not convinced.
Interrim; buy two sleep scrolls, and one ice wand. Chose magic missile, or perhaps spook, as your new spell.
3rd fight: From gibberlings to this??? WTF!!? This fight is a group of drunkards, supposedly, but feels more like the main game party after they have defeated Nashkel mines. To beat this one, quickly pace closer to the enemy and use one of the sleep scrolls. Bash Reginald if he fell unconscious. Use dragon breath - if you moved right, you should be able to hurt all of them. Bash Reginald or Bort. If Reginald is still conscious, use the second sleep scroll. If not, use ice wand on Bort, bash Bort, use ice wand again, if Bort is still alive, bash and follow up with magic missile. Kill them as fast as you can, otherwise they will use healing potions. Then kill Reginald, and then the rest by first choosing sleeping targets, then choosing wounded targets. You might get lucky the first time, but realistically, expect this one to take a couple of tries.
Interrim: If you remembered to use friends, and if you bought nothing more than I suggested, you should now afford a fire wand. Buy that, and also the fear wand. Learn mirror image.
4th fight: A horde of hobgoblins *yawn*... of shit wait! They have wizards. Two of them, that cast aganazzars scorcher. Fuckity fuck! Alright, chill. Remember that fire wand? Use it! (Once only, you need the rest of those charges for later battles.) Try to catch as many minions as you can in the blast, and make sure that at least one of the wizards is hurt, then follow up with dragons breath. One down, one to go. Use the fear wand on the other one, then follow him around. Most likely, mage #2 will be mirror imagined. Use magic missile to remove the clones, then folllow up with an ice wand charge. That should be the end of that! Now, hopefully you have one mirror image left. Use that, and you will live a little longer. If you only used one sleep scroll last fight, great! Sleep them and brain them. Otherwise, you are in a bit of a pickle. While the hobgoblins will struggle to hit you, you will also struggle to hit them! In a fair fight, you could take maybe one... if you are lucky! They also have lots of healing potions, so it is not even fair. Use magic missile, if you have any left, then proceed to bash them. If you grow low on HP, use wands, but try to conserve them for later fights. It is doable using one fire wand charge, one fear wand and two charges of ice wand (one for wizard, one for fighter). If a wizard locks you with agannons scorcher, walk around to get fighters in the line of fire. Also if scorched, do not cast spells, because the chance of failure is very high. Observe that you need a bit of luck for this fight, so you may have to try it more than once.
Interrim: Chose spook and melfs magic arrow. Cast a shield as normal, but do not (!) cast a mirror image.
5th fight: Meet Llyrk, the necromancer. He is protected by a shield, a stone skin and a minor spell turner. You can rush him and catch him and as many skeletons as possible in a dragons breath, that should interrupt his stinking cloud. The alternative is to rush him, so that he catches himself in the stinking cloud, and hope that you save vs spell and he fails. Immediately when you see him cast the spell, use dragons breath. If you timed it right, the dragons breath should kill most skellies and hurt Llyrk. Either way, ignore the skellies completely from this point forward. Proceed to cast spook on Llyrk four times, that should defeat his minor spell turning - though, minor spell turning is appearently a bit iffy, and may require five spells, meaning you must waste a melfs acid arrow. Either way, when the spell turning is down, bombard him with your two or three remaining melfs. This should take care of him. If it doesnt, either accept your defeat... or use an ice wand charge. That one bypasses minor spell turning! The skellies will crumble when Llyrk succumbs.
6th fight: A horde of ogres. Unforunately, I know of no other way of beating them, other than the lemur-tactic of running around them in circles. First thing you do, is to pace closer to the ogre mage, so that he is in line of sight (he likes to hide behind the pillars, so targeting him outright may get you stuck in the ground, while the the herd pummels you to goo), then either cast magic missile on him, to get rid of some mirror images, or spook him. Herd the other ogres into a line and unleash your dragon breath and if you can, also catch the ogre mage, run, fire wand. Try to avoid using mirror image, you need to dish out a lot of dmg in this fight, and need every spell you got for this purpose. If the ogre mage use agannons scorcher, catch the other ogres in the line of fire. Because you have a horde of thugs swinging wildly at you and a mage blasting you with spells, you are likely to need the vampiric touch scroll. Use it on the most invasive ogre to finish him off. Keep running, but shift your focus on the ogre mage now. Try spook, then follow up with magic missile if he is still protected by mirror image, then melfs acid arrow, until he is dead and gone! Ogres are vastly superior fighters, so only try it if you have lots of HP and they very little. Hopefully, by now, most of them should be dead or damaged from dragons breath and the fire wand blast. If not, unleash whatever spells you have remaining, or try to pacify them with your emotion scroll. In an emergency, use the wands.
Interrim: If you will, make a backup save before you level, so if you regret picking slings you can come back to darts, or vive versa. When you level up, chose skull trap. This is the last fight before the vendors update their stock, so do not buy any belts or rings - if you find something better after this fight, you will have wasted some money. Go crazy with scrolls for this one, because it is a difficult one. I recommend getting one scroll of minor seguencer and store two melfs acid arrows in that one before you rest. Remember, the sequencer is permanent until used, so it basically give you an extra 2 spell slots, castable with but a moments notice. Then get one scroll of stone skin and one scroll of fire shield (and these you use after you rest, duh). Other scrolls that might help are chaos, dire charm, detect invisibility and spell trust. Also buy five healing potions and one antidote. You might need them, might not. Happy hunting!
7th fight: Throw everything you got at the enemy, in as rapid a sequence as you can manage. Take out Krancor the Old and/or Wylliam Brand first. Krancor is also an excellent target for charm spells, as he will both dish out and soak a lot of damage. Use healing potions as often as you need. Thats really all the help I can give. It is a difficult one!
Interrim: Do you even need to ask? Chose protection from evil, blur, vampiric touch and stone skin. Buy belt of hill giant strength, a +1 staff and Xarniers extra hands. Swoosh! You just went from 18 THACO to 13 (but to be fair, 1 was from levelling, not from items) and -2 AC to -5. You are now also protected with stone skin, on top of mirror image. Suddenly, bludgeoning your enemies to death became a viable option again. Also buy a +1 sling and 40 +1 bullets - you never know when ranged attacks will be preferable! Cloak of displacement and paws of cheetah (although the lemur tactic of running around in circles is boooring) are also good options, as is the ring of minor spell turning and amulett of spell warding, but buy these things in good time, when you can afford them. Dont forget to sell your old belt. Every little gold coin counts!
8th fight: Four (or is it six? who cares?) ankhegs. This one should be a cakewalk.
9th fight: A horde of low HP spiders? Oh, if only I hade some kind of fiery AOE ability... wait a second! Finnish Parker the druid off with a melfs acid arrow, and use skull trap to deal with any surviving spiders. If a sword spider survived, spook it to get some breathing room.
Interrim: For a sorcerer, this is probably the most difficult choice. There are so many good lvl 4 spells, and you can only get 1 more. Minor sequencer or greater malison? A free double melfs acid arrow... or 20% extra chans of wreaking havoc with your spells? And also, improved invisibility, that lets you hide so you can heal and buff in peace? In the end, minor sequencer won, but I am still not convinced I picked right! (Remember to cast sequencer before you rest. It is permanent until you use it!) For level 2 spell, the only good spells remaining are horror and glitterdust. Not only is it like a detect invisibility (which is really useful against enemy wizards), it may also even the odds against fighters (if they fail their save) slightly for four rounds. Level 3 also only have two good spells left: dire charm and spell thrust. I picked spell thrust, because high level enemies have quite high save, and dire charm may not work much of the time.
Hindsight note: Detect illusion would probably have been a better pick for lvl 2 spell, as it also cancels mirror image, and bypass magical resistance and anti-magic spells. Also, testing out dire charm scrolls seems to suggest most enemies in the pits are somehow hardcoded to resist charm spells. You gain control but then immidiately lose it again. Do not pick any charm spells, for they have been crippled.
10th fight: Oh my, is this a prank by Baeloth? Some itsy bitsy thieves and two shadows!!? Well, Baeloth is nice enough to warn you there are traps about (as if that would make any difference), so stand put and show those wimps what a handful of wellplaced (skull)traps of your own can do. Shadows are susceptible to magic missiles and melfs acid arrows.
11th fight: This fight however is really difficult. Five portals that continously spawn a neverending army of gnats. They would not be a problem, if not for their ability to drain your strength and your levels. Oh, and there is also an ogre mage in the center - greet him with a fistful of melfs acid arrow using your sequencer to get him out of your hair for three rounds, then rush the nearest portal and bash away. The portals have 100% magic resistance, but they can be damaged with dragons breath. Keep moving, so that you are not surrounded and overwhelmed. If you have to, clear out gnats with skulltraps, and try to catch the ogre mage in the blast. Also keep melfing the ogre mage to keep his spells in a permanent state of interrupt. The amulett of spell protection reduce the risk of the gnats draining your strength, thereby stranding you. Properly used, the wand of monster summoning provides a temporary respite, by distracting the enemy hordes. Once the portals are destroyed, fire wand and skull trap the enemy hordes, then spam all remaining spells, then bash their skulls in. Because the gnats are not very high level, mirror image and stone skin are really helpful, and you have a decent chance to do some damage with your staff (whenever you are not drained of strength). Even so, you need persistence and luck to beat this one!
Interrim: I think Chaos is the best pick, though I am not sure. Oracle is helpful as well, when figting mages, of course. Or phantom blade maybe? For this fight, I sequenced two glitterdust instead of melfs acid arrow. Buy lots of healing potions, just in case.
Hindsight note: Chaos will not work on some enemies.
12th fight: This one is tricky, but nowhere near as tricky as the 11th fight, so dont fret. Use skulltrap on the fighters as a welcome gift, then rush one of the mages and bash. When the fighters close in, cast Chaos and hopefully you will get some of that. Bash the berserker (the lady with the hammer) since she has lots of HP and is immune to chaos. Ignore the mages for now. Use the glitterdust sequencer, it even the odds against the fighters, and then alternate between bashing and skull trap. Unfortunately, the mages invisibility cannot be dispelled by glitterdust, because of warding spells. If you get rid of the fighters, you should win simply by endurance. The spellcasters will deplete a ton of spells that mostly will not harm you, while you chip away on their iron skin and magic mirrors with your staff.
Interrim: Oh yeah!!! 40000 gold and lots of new toys to play with!!! What to buy, what to buy? Well, lets start with what NOT to buy; belt of stone giant strength. Going from 19 to 20 str does not decrease THAC0. It only gives you one measly extra dmg - so it is that or 25 potions of extra healing. Then is sun soul bullets. More expensive than +2 bullets, and only gives +1 THAC0. In theory, they give one more dmg, however, that dmg is fire, and as we well know by now, a lot of things in the pits are fire resistant. Hmmm... Robe of the good/bad/ugly archmagi is also a bit uncertain. It actually gives you 1 AC worse protection than the shield spell does - and it cannot be dispelled. But (thank whatever deity you prefer) one of the reasons a wizard can survive so long, here in the black pits, is because nobody so far have bothered dispelling our buffs. On the other hand, not casting shield free up one more magic missile but on the other other hand, so uh, the first hand, magic missile certainly seems to be a favored spell among mages here in the pit. It does increase saving throws with +1... and five % magic resistance is not nothing. In the very least, buying this can wait while we give it a good thinking through.
Ok, lets move on to what we should buy. Finally, we can buy a head garment, but damnit, they are all good, so it is not an easy pick. (They are also all stones. How do you equip a stone on your head? Secure it with bandages made sticky by dipping them in toad slime?) No, wait, scratch that, one HP every five rounds is way to little to make a real difference, so the choice is +1 AC or +1 THAC0 and 8 HP (which would take 40 rounds to regen with the stone we dismissed). Tough choice indeed... in the end, I went with THAC0 and HP:s. Secondly, now we regret getting a skill point in slings instead of darts, if that is what we did. Asps nest is almost gamebreakigly good... wait, they ARE gamebrakingly good. Scratch that thought. Get 40 +2 bullets (you can always buy more later, should you ever need more) and of course a +2 staff. Bag of plenty +1 is just dumb - you can buy 6 stacks of 20 +2 bullets for a better price than that. Yes yes, in the main game, 120 bullets is nothing and you run out rather quick, but this is not the main game, this is the pits. Another obvious pick is the +2 staff, as is the amulett of power. Unfortunately, you can only have one ring, as one hand is occupied by the slave ring. I consider changing items during a fight a lemur tactic, but before, not so much. So, dont sell yoyr minor spell turning ring; use it right before a fight, then change. Change to what, though? There is a +2 protection ring... but there is also a +2 protection cloak... but then you must ditch your blur cape... there is also a regen ring... The way I see things, there are two good options; keep the blur cape, don a +2 ring, when injured, switch to regen ring OR get +2 cape and don the regen ring. I did the latter, to decrease the amount of micromanagement, even though the blur cape stacks nicely with the +2 ring against death saving throws and missile attacks. But really, what seals the deal is the capes built in improved haste and improved invisibility. This cloak is awesome! There is also a fire ring that gives +50 fire resistance, which stacks nicely with the dragon disciple innate fire resistance of 50 on lvl 10 and it has a flame strike to boost! Ok, so I did get the fire ring AND the regen ring, and YES, I intend to switch midbattle when injured. Twas just too tempting to keep my anti-lemur morals intact. Anyway, I am already using paws of the cheater, so why not?
Speaking of boots, are you kidding me!!? Shit, shit and shit with a cherry on top. I think I'll just keep my cheetah boots, thank you very much. Lets move back to belts. Hmmm... belt of inertial barrier catches my fancy. Certainly, I am not thinking of getting that, and switching midbattle to my hill giant belt whenever I must bash skulls, no sirree. Especially not as a way to compensate for the fact that wizards are not allowed to use strength potions, I would never do that! No lemuring over here mam, move along. I also picked up the wand of monster summoning and cloudkill - I dont think the illithid restocks again, but, just in case, I dont wanna miss out.
Any extra cash should be spent of potions of exta healing, and lower magic resistance scroll and perhaps also greater malison scrolls. Dont use the scrolls willy-nilly though, save them for a certain fire giant and a certain tiger. Oracle, phantom blade and breach scrolls might also come in handy against a certain sorcerer - but there is no rush to get theese.
Finally, as a preparation for the next fight, also buy the ring the victor.
13th fight: Two slimes and two trolls. Since slimes poison you, which interferes with spellcasting, and trolls regenerate, frustrating your attempts to bash them to death, deal with the slimes first, chug an elixir, and proceed to spell bash bash spell the trolls to the nearest compost heap. Magic missiles and skull traps are excellent against the slimes, but be careful. You must finish them off with fire (so wait, maybe there is ONE reason to buy solar bullets)! Melfs acid arrow is good against trolls, so prioritize it over mirror image for this one - you want to dish out dmg fast to prevent regeneration, and you still have stone skin, after all. Your new items fancy abilities of improved haste and flamestrike also aids in troll slaying.
Interrim: Did you notice just how much stronger you are now!? It is mostly due to the amulett of power, cutting down casting times significantly.
14th fight: Some clay golems and a shambling mound. Use the cloak to haste yourself, then bash away at the clay golems. Use spells on the shambling mound only, because the clay golems are magic resistant. *Yawn* Next!
Interrim; You are started to accumulate quite some wealth, yes? Now is the time - if you havent already - to buy an archmagi robe. It is also time to say bye bye to your paws of the cheetah, buy boots of the north instead.
15th fight: Some ice lizards. They have a freeze aura that often interrupts your spells, and they have loads of healing potions. No matter! Blast them with everything you got, especially skull traps. And dragons breath, of course, they take double damage from fire. Use your fire wands like crazy, you dont really need them no more after this fight. You may also need one or two healing potions of your own. Noteworthy is that for some reason chaos does not seem to work on ice lizards, which is slightly annoying!
Interrim: Buy a scroll of greater malison, a scroll of cold protection, a scroll of fire protection, all fire shield (blue) scrolls, a scroll of phantom blade and all remaining scrolls of ice storm. Also buy potions of extra healing and two oils of speed. On top of the normal buffs you give yourself, use the scrolls of cold and fire protection, and one of the oils of speed.
16th fight: In this fight, you will meet a fire giant and some fire elementals. You are immune to the fire elemtals attacks, but they are still a pest, because they deplete your mirror images and stone skins and may surround you. The reason you bought the archmagi robe is to help protect against the giants special attack, that cause a minor quake, and may knock you unconscious. The quake attack is rolled against death, and having the robe gives you another +1 chance of remain standing. Also, despite dealing no damage, their attacks still makes you flinch, which may interrupt spells. Initiate the fight by using one of the fire shield (blue) scrolls, followed by slingshotting the nearest fire elemental, then switch to staff when the enemy draws close. Whatever you do, do not get surrounded! When the enemy has clumped, fairly, back off a bit and use the greater malison scroll. Keep bashing fire elementals, the follow up with chaos. If you get lucky, the giant will now attack the elementals, keeping him off your shapely arse for one second. Keep bashing fire elementals, and use the ice storm scrolls in as rapid succession as you can. That should take care of those pests, now focus your attention on the giant. First, spook him. If succesfull, you have bought yourself time to - if necessary - replenish mirror image and stone skin. Then use the phantom blade spell, and charge into combat. Do not (!) use melfs acid arrows against him, you need those mirror images. Vampire touch is excellent against him. Dont forget to replenish your fire shield (blue) if necessary. You will only drain HP with your first touch, but the others will still deal damage. Soon, you will be able to title yourself giant slayer!
Prepping:
Fighting: