How do you beat the final battle with Ascension installed?
Arvendor
Member Posts: 19
Pretty much as the title says. No matter what I do I always seem to get utterly smashed in final fight in ToB with the Ascension mod installed. I doubt it is level or party composition related either as all other encounters up to that point pose no problem what so ever. So I pose this question to those people who have beaten it: How did you do it? As an example let's assume I am using a party consisting of:
- A Berserker
- A Paladin
- A Mage/Thief dual
- A Mage
- A Cleric
I'd especially be interested in hearing the order in which I should be taking down enemies in this fight as well.
- A Berserker
- A Paladin
- A Mage/Thief dual
- A Mage
- A Cleric
I'd especially be interested in hearing the order in which I should be taking down enemies in this fight as well.
1
Comments
Apologies in advance.
Could anyone lay out what actually happens in the ascension mod please.
Keep seeing it mentioned and obviously have figured that you end up fighting every Tom, Dick and Harry you have ever met.
But how does it pan out/work?
Where does it take place?
And why does any of it happen?
It is a difficulty enhancing mod. It has components that makes the lackluster ToB bosses harder and smarter. Illasera is totally revamped into a deadly archer with amazing abilities on hit, (30 damage, dispel/knock back/uncounsiness/spell failure! Any mage hit by her is dead so pro from magic weapons or the Reflex shield is a must!) Gromnir, Abazigal, Balthazar are buffed and have more allies, Sendai is largely unchanged, however Oversight mod has a component that turns Sendai fight into a nightmare!
SPOILERS AHEAD:
Its main component however, totally revamps the final battle of ToB. Firstly, the final boss resurrects all your old foes: first you battle beefed up Irenicus&Bodhi and a duo of fallen solars. Final boss also affects Imoen, she will turn slayer and attack the party. (If you weather her attacks for some time and do not kill her, she turns back to normal. If you kill her she stays dead.)
In the main final battle, it takes in the same place, Throne of Bhaal, and since the final boss has amazing control over the Bhaal essence, all ToB bosses are brought back by the big boss as her puppets, and you fight the final boss and all of them against your party at the same time. Final boss is unkillable before all of the other bosses are dead. Killing the other bosses weaken the final boss a bit, and once all others are dead she becomes beatable. There are some variables, though, if you are good aligned and have other prequisites, you may convince Balthazar to fight by your side, instead of killing him in his original battle. Or if you are evil and offer Bodhi what she craves, she may fight by your side. Sarevok also turns against you by the final boss's urging, and you fight him in his bg1 form, if you have not redeemed him. (ie:turned him chaotic good by dialogue.)
In the end, the final battle is epic and can be very, very difficult to manage. However, with high enough party level, decent gear and tactics, the battle is very doable and quite fun. Some expert players have even solo-no-reloaded it.
There is also a companion TurnAround mod, which is an add-on to Ascension, it allows you to bring back some old friends, since you also have some control over the throne, you can resurrect Yoshimo, Dynaheir, Xzar, Khalid, or even Gorion (or your mother Alianna) to fight by your side to even the odds a bit. They do not join the party normally but fight by your side like summons, and although they are weaker than the bosses, they may be helpful. Some good dialogue to have, too, like if you romance Jaheira and choose to bring Khalid back.
As for tactics, open up with some prelaid traps, good summons, and use time stop to quickly eliminate some more troublesome members. Illasera is my go-to first target as she is easier to kill, but can be the worst if left unchecked, her arrows cause dispel/stun/casting failure so she can't be allowed to live. If Balthazar is an ally, have him hit Lunar Stance that makes him immune to timestop and he can happily smack the enemies in your chain-time stops.
However if Balthazar is an enemy it becomes harder as he is immune to time stop. The big boss is also immune to timestop but she does not join the battle before one of the lesser bosses is dead, so it is a tactic to wound them all to badly wounded, then kill one, bring the bad boss, and then quickly eliminate all of the wounded bosses one by one, the shock from their deaths also weaken the big boss and causes her to fall uncouncious momentarily from the backlash, so this tactic also disrupts her fatal timestop/teleport to pc/whirlwind of death combos. YOU MUST BE CAREFUL not to give her an opening, never get caught with your pants down, always have a protection from magical weapons active when she time stops, or have pro form magic weapons when hit contingency, or if not an arcane caster, immediately hit the new ability 'focus' that gives immunity to time stop when she starts a time stop OR SHE WILL MURDER YOU, causing a reload and making all your hard work to kill other bosses go down the drain.
If you have a protection from magic scroll, use on Sendai it neutralises her well. Abazigal hits hard but can be kited/delayed some by summons. Your mages MUST have protection from magic weapons active all the time to avoid a fatal arrow from Ilasera. Sarevok can be dominated if you have a mindflayer control circlet (all others are immune) Yaga Shura is very hard to damage, but cold damage (triple cone of cold triggers) or a succesful harm spell (critical strike hla for a f/c or f/d) tames him. Maze/Imprisonment also can take him out of the fight for some time, but the big boss or Sendai can use Freedom.
Thankyou.
(BTW your post is not appearing in spoilers )
And this all takes place at the "Throne", on that ring platform?
And the essence pools, do they still happen with their respective foes?
You don't get to fight the final boss in intervals like the original, however. You fight Irenicus&Bodhi&Solars&Imoen at your arrival, then do the pools and fight the army of demons, and then trigger the final battle after the last pool. In the final battle, the boss sends the all other bosses together first, and joins the fray after one is killed. Once all of them are killed, she becomes killable, however on insane difficulty she continously summons armies of demons (with nasty, nasty abilities) when left alone. The protagonist is given an ability to wrestle the control of demons, but she can also wrest them back, and if you play a tug of war too long you are bound to lose.
I don't know how to place spoiler brackets, but well, I guess anyone who reads about Ascension already knows about the ToB bosses and the like. I did not even name the final boss.
@Arvendor
After reading the above, no idea at all.
Apart from go make a calming cup of tea after throwing your PC out of the window.
Good luck.
@lunar TurnAround sounds very interesting, is it by chance EE compatible?
http://forums.pocketplane.net/index.php/topic,29516.0.html?PHPSESSID=724de919f5f8a1c3d58635d36295d1b3
I haven't tried it on ee myself, though.
You may wish to consider laying out some early traps and summons to keep your opponents distracted. Prioritise one side for a custom chain contingency and try to distract the other side. Incapacitating opponents can be better than killing them due to the Mel factor with mazes etc. Usually Yaga-Shura and a disabled Sendai are easiest to ignore while Illasera is first to go.
be a mage
memorize shape change (level 9).
Prepare a spell trigger with: tensors transforation, protection from magic weapons, enchanted weapon weapon
Prepare a contingency with protection from magic weapons on hurt
Prepare a chain contingency with protection from magic weapons spell immunity: divination, spell immunity: abjuration on enemy sighted.
cast improved invisibility, and shape change before the fight. Go in the fight and cast some spells at people, focus on the ones that weaken them and also summon a planetar. Cast shapechange before protection from magic wears off, choose mind flayer form and activate the spell trigger.
You now drain 5 intelligence per hit until they all die fro brain death, you attack 8 times per round (more than one attack every second) with the accuracy of a fighter. They can't hit you, you are immune to everything.
- enemies being immune to stat drain
- enemies requiring +4 weapons to hit
- your spells running out as a result of repeated timestops and enemies using PfMW
Sarevok is vulnerable to charm, so if you still have a Control Circlet from the mind flayer city back in SoA, definitely use it on Sarevok early. Same goes for a Protection from Magic scroll on Sendai (and Abazigal if you can spare one).
Note that your entire party gets rested after you activate each pool once the demons are gone, so it's a good idea to use up some of your better spells before you activate the pools.
Melissan will appear the moment that one of the Five is dead, so you can intentionally delay her entry to the fight by bringing several of the Five to Near Death instead of outright killing them. Then you can kill them in rapid sequence, repeatedly knocking Melissan unconscious (she falls down whenever one of the Five dies) and allowing you to fight the final stage of the battle with fewer enemies at a time.
Melissan is immune to nearly all disablers except for stun. The Wand of Paralyzation is a good option against her if you hit her with three Pierce Shield spells (a Chain Contingency, possibly set to "Helpless" and triggered via a fast-casting Project Image spell) and a Greater Malison. There's a rather high chance of success, and if it works, she'll be stunned for 10 rounds, which is more than enough for most parties to kill her. If your damage output isn't high enough, you can use more charges from the Wand of Paralyzation.
Definitely use Focus the moment you hear Melissan casting an alteration spell. Unless you're a warrior with extremely high damage resistance or a mage with PFMW, she will get a guaranteed kill with Time Stop->Teleport Without Error->Greater Whirlwind Attack. Note that Melissan deals slashing damage in Ascension, so jelly form will not grant full immunity.
And also earlier talks with him are very important. You must show yourself to feel tainted by the Bhaal blood and to act good natured towards innocents or something similar.
"Charisma 19 + Reputation 20 was enough!
Here is the route that worked
2-2-3-2-1-1-1-3-3-1-1-2-1"
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/847595#Comment_847595
Time-traps were a dire necessity, especially to take out Abazigal. He hit like a friggin Mac truck. I ended up accidentally cheesing the last part. Mellissan got stuck, probably from the pathing issues that were made worse in EE, and I just had Viconia, Imoen, and Edwin shred her with energy blades.
Lol, that's a good one. In the original I couldn't get any party members to make it across a single screen width without getting stuck on each other. Now I can reliably get the whole party across any map that isn't the Firewine Ruins in a single click.
I cannot convince Balthazar to side with me. I have 20 rep, 19 Cha and 18 Wis, and my Char is CN. When I talk to him, after choosing 2nd option, then I only get 1 that says "But you are a child of Bhaal as well - what happens to you?" and he either wants to fight me, or dies.
Anyone can help?