To be fair, I think Kangaxx getting killed by a high-level Sunray cast by a high-level cleric is reasonable. I mean look at it this way, Clerics/Priests are innately anti-undead, more so if they are followers of Lathander who is especially against any form of undead. I doubt even Myrkul could come out unscathed during a battle with a high-level priest. If I were Kangaxx, my first reaction upon seeing a priest would be to cast Trap the Soul on him, as I know he/she would be my greatest nemesis.
To be fair, I think Kangaxx getting killed by a high-level Sunray cast by a high-level cleric is reasonable. I mean look at it this way, Clerics/Priests are innately anti-undead, more so if they are followers of Lathander who is especially against any form of undead. I doubt even Myrkul could come out unscathed during a battle with a high-level priest. If I were Kangaxx, my first reaction upon seeing a priest would be to cast Trap the Soul on him, as I know he/she would be my greatest nemesis.
I mean, when you consider that a high enough level cleric can just blow up Kangaxx outright with Turn Undead, Sunray doesn't seem the slightest bit unreasonable.
He's pretty easy honestly, I usually build my party, acquire Daystar(bridge district) and Carsomyr(Get keldorn) then make a b-line for the necros. A hasted, buffed, fighter heavy party should be able to dispatch the first form pretty quickly regardless of character level and the trick to the second form is to make sure a raging berserker engages first (so korgan or charname) because they're immune to imprison. You can then use the Sunray charge from daystar to kill him outright. Sometimes Daystar's sunray isn't enough but it also does pretty decent damage to him in melee, as does Flail of Ages(iirc) and Carsomyr.
I mean, when you consider that a high enough level cleric can just blow up Kangaxx outright with Turn Undead, Sunray doesn't seem the slightest bit unreasonable.
In retrospect, I must say I'm starting to agree with you. I just encountered Bodhi and apparently she's immune to Sunray and anything that destroys her outright. So Kangaxx should be likewise as well, at least in its demi-lich form.
The point for me where the "ultimate vs ultimate" showdowns in all these sorts of RPGs usually fail to hold up is that I never run solo and a "party of ultimates vs a single ultimate" is difficult to make challenging. Most of the enemies, even the highest level ones, can't withstand multiple simultaneous attacks per round. Even a small party of 3 or 4 could be very disproportionate since they would gain XPs faster than a full party. To reverse the normal scenario of party vs solo baddie, I am trying to imagine taking on the twisted rune as a solo character, what kind of character classes and skills and levels I would need to defeat simultaneous incoming attacks from a group with similar levels to what my typical party might have, and I am coming up short without massively metagaming the whole thing. I guess I need to go read some of the solo threads to see what strategies have been found useful for this, maybe I could change my habits to make things more entertaining.
It's very difficult to realistically simulate high-level battles, simply because of all the constraints. Technical, for one - player intelligence always trumps AI, so it's already a skewed balance. Then there's lore - at certain high levels, D&D characters just become ridiculously powerful (mages in particular) and the entire lore breaks down anyway once things like lvl 40 adventurers are involved (levels which would be more appropriate for nigh-omnipotent supreme deities under the D&D rule set the game is based on). And there's the inherent problem of party size as well, which can be exploited both at low levels (smaller parties reach their peak faster) and at high levels (larger parties put out more damage because level scaling tapers off dramatically), which would require super-powerful boss enemies that completely break the lore and logic (as most modern games tend to design things, with e.g. HP values on enemies orders of magnitude higher than players' etc.).
And then, of course, there's meta-knowledge. While you can try your best not to save-scum, some knowledge will always taint the outcome. On the one hand, you can argue it's just substitution for preparations that you would undergo had you the detailed means and information (which go far beyond the technical limitations of a game) - on the other hand, it can very quickly turn into truly prophetic vision, where the future is literally known, anticipated, and prepared for (this can be subconsciously, too).
TL;DR: We live in an imperfect world, and at the end of the day this is just a game - a very simplified simulation meant to approximate a fictional internal logic. Compromises that go outside that logic may be warranted in the spirit of better difficulty balance (the oft-derided "cheating" AI).
i discovered that you can use "staff of wonder" until you petrify him (game considers you killed him and registrates the 55000 experience points, lol). It was weird to see that happens. I did unpetrify him just to see what happens, but he instantly killed (imprisoned) one of my characters. So, you can hit him when he is petrified to kill him, just to complete the job. WEIRD...
he should not do it, unless ee changes it.
but probably the ring can be pickpocketed by a thief or bard in the split second the lich form appears and while is still blue.
an other way can be to turn him to flash using a pi, so the clone get imprisoned, this buy you the time to make the 1 hp dmg that is needed to kill him.
talking about traps i really appreciate how in tactics mod on most of the situations where you can set traps using your meta knowledge very low level enemies are spawn some instants before the real enemies so the traps are triggered and used when the real enemy appears. is still possible to use traps and are still very powerful, but you have to lure the enemy into them or push him with he ring of ram or the staff of the ram.
i personally don't regard as cheese using the pfu or pfm scrolls, the shield of balduran and other items that by design make the battles against some types of enemies really easy. to use something for what it is clearly designed to do is regular gameplay in my book. and actually i never use the 2 kind of scrolls and the shield, i don't even remember the last time i did it, for me such things are a present from the game creators to the novice players, to let them beat battles that without those items can be too hard for them. i regard using feeblemind on blue characters a better candidate for cheese.
Stoned creatures have most items destroyed if "gore" is enabled in the game options. Otherwise all items survive. However, there is an exception that some quest items also survive whatever option you have. I don't think that would include the Ring of Gaxx, as the exception was intended to avoid the destruction of items required to complete the game, but I'm not sure about that.
Protection from Udead is protection from undead. How people can think it's cheat or cheese is utterly beyond me. You aren't going to hack and slash your way out without any magic or healing, you may just do it right.
Wait, protection from undead is considered OP? I've always just sold those, or left them behind. Can someone break this down for me? How does that keep Gaxx from spamming imprisonment? As for his demi-lich form, I've always quickly pulled out everyone but a fighter with a protection from magic scroll and a +4 weapon.
edit 1 yes
edit 2 no, the effect can be dispelled by an aoe spell, and it is not an invisibility as even undeads that see trough invisibility naturally don't react to you. the undeads are scripted to ignore you if you are protected by that scroll.
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It usually takes me 2 or 3 tries.
And btw he threatens me and ends with something to the effect of "at them, boys!" this makes me lol
To reverse the normal scenario of party vs solo baddie, I am trying to imagine taking on the twisted rune as a solo character, what kind of character classes and skills and levels I would need to defeat simultaneous incoming attacks from a group with similar levels to what my typical party might have, and I am coming up short without massively metagaming the whole thing. I guess I need to go read some of the solo threads to see what strategies have been found useful for this, maybe I could change my habits to make things more entertaining.
And then, of course, there's meta-knowledge. While you can try your best not to save-scum, some knowledge will always taint the outcome. On the one hand, you can argue it's just substitution for preparations that you would undergo had you the detailed means and information (which go far beyond the technical limitations of a game) - on the other hand, it can very quickly turn into truly prophetic vision, where the future is literally known, anticipated, and prepared for (this can be subconsciously, too).
TL;DR: We live in an imperfect world, and at the end of the day this is just a game - a very simplified simulation meant to approximate a fictional internal logic. Compromises that go outside that logic may be warranted in the spirit of better difficulty balance (the oft-derided "cheating" AI).
but probably the ring can be pickpocketed by a thief or bard in the split second the lich form appears and while is still blue.
an other way can be to turn him to flash using a pi, so the clone get imprisoned, this buy you the time to make the 1 hp dmg that is needed to kill him.
talking about traps i really appreciate how in tactics mod on most of the situations where you can set traps using your meta knowledge very low level enemies are spawn some instants before the real enemies so the traps are triggered and used when the real enemy appears. is still possible to use traps and are still very powerful, but you have to lure the enemy into them or push him with he ring of ram or the staff of the ram.
i personally don't regard as cheese using the pfu or pfm scrolls, the shield of balduran and other items that by design make the battles against some types of enemies really easy. to use something for what it is clearly designed to do is regular gameplay in my book. and actually i never use the 2 kind of scrolls and the shield, i don't even remember the last time i did it, for me such things are a present from the game creators to the novice players, to let them beat battles that without those items can be too hard for them. i regard using feeblemind on blue characters a better candidate for cheese.
Stoned creatures have most items destroyed if "gore" is enabled in the game options. Otherwise all items survive. However, there is an exception that some quest items also survive whatever option you have. I don't think that would include the Ring of Gaxx, as the exception was intended to avoid the destruction of items required to complete the game, but I'm not sure about that.
Wait, protection from undead is considered OP? I've always just sold those, or left them behind. Can someone break this down for me? How does that keep Gaxx from spamming imprisonment? As for his demi-lich form, I've always quickly pulled out everyone but a fighter with a protection from magic scroll and a +4 weapon.
edit: So, this would work for ANY lich or vampire encounter?
edit2: Is there no way a lich can counter it? Like True Sight?
edit 2 no, the effect can be dispelled by an aoe spell, and it is not an invisibility as even undeads that see trough invisibility naturally don't react to you. the undeads are scripted to ignore you if you are protected by that scroll.