Solo Melissan FMT - Need Advice!

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• matrice Member Posts: 86

  February 2015

  protection from abjuration (=no dispel) + protection from magic weapon
  
  With that, you have enough time to kill her

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• semiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903

  February 2015 edited February 2015

  Time Traps? Spike Traps can take down Melissan quite easily, but Time Traps aren't much help at all. Do you have any Spike Traps? Hardiness? Do you have Defender of Easthaven? You can get very excellent physical damage resistances if you equip Jan's armor, the Defender of Easthaven, and/or activate Hardiness.
  
  You might need to use a Wish scroll to rest in between the fights. Lazarus should carry two of every scroll, so unless you've already bought and used up those scrolls, you're looking at two potential Wish rests, though you WILL need a Potion of Insight to get enough Wisdom to make Wish useful. Your 11 Wisdom will not be enough on its own. The Shapechange scroll is another big one, as the Iron Golem form gives 20% physical damage resistance and immunity to magic and all of the elements. Chain Contingency will also give you an emergency PFMW, Improved Haste, and Stoneskin effect. Those can also be put into a Spell Trigger.
  
  Got Assassination? That's quintuple damage for one round, but Melissan herself is immune. A better target might be one of the guardians.
  
  Need more healing? Try using a Rod of Resurrection, if you have it, instead of potions.
  
  Problems with Beholders? Use Spell Shield to block anti-magic rays, and you won't really need to equip the Shield of Balduran, which will weaken your melee output.
  
  Do you have Project Image? Projected images can attack if you equip speed weapons or attack while shapeshifted. Shapechange in particular will work well. If you cast Shapechange before Project Image, then your clone will have all the Shapechange abilities. Melissan can't be touched with the Mind Flayer attack, but other enemies are probably vulnerable.
  
  Do you have Mordenkainen's Sword? Animate Dead? With Project Image and Simulacrum, you can summon more than five summons at once. Spend a few rounds of downtime creating an army of Skeleton Warriors and Magical Swords, and you can make one of the encounters much easier.
  
  Simulacrum too weak? Use a Restoration scroll to bring it up to your Charname's level. It won't get all of its spell slots, but its spells will be cast at the right level. Otherwise your simulacrum's Animate Dead spell won't summon Skeleton Warriors.
  
  Remember that your clones get all of your HLAs, regardless of their level. Also remember that if you use, say Assassination, then the next clone you summon will not have it. So spawn your clones before you use up too many HLAs. Your clones can also use anything in your quick item slots, so that means extra castings of Wish via a scroll.
  
  Do you have Protection from Magic scrolls? Use them on an enemy spellcaster and they won't be able to cast a spell for 10 turns.
  
  Dying quickly? Use Protection from Magical Weapons. Almost nothing in the final battle attacks with nonmagical weapons. That's 4 rounds of near-invulnerability. Buy some scrolls if you don't think you have enough spell slots. You shouldn't need SI: Abjuration; I don't think anybody is going to use Breach on you. But an Anti-Magic Ray can take down PFMW, and Spell Shield will block that.
  
  Need something else? Try using Teleport Field. Two castings of that, and the enemy will be teleported around randomly every 3 seconds, which will effectively decrease their APR by forcing them to waste time running after you. I believe Melissan herself is immune, which means you won't have to chase her around or resort to ranged weapons.
  
  Want to use your Time Traps for something useful? Melissan might be immune, but her friends are not. Set up Time Traps for the battles in between, and take down the Mariliths before they can spam PFMW.
  
  Don't object to exploits? After beating the first phase of Melissan and the guardians right after, you can activate the energy pool thingy twice by putting a Mislead clone on the glowing bridge. This will spawn two copies of Melissan, the 2nd fight and the 3rd fight, and you can finish the battle by killing only the 3rd one, bypassing the 2nd Melissan and the 2nd guardian battle.
  
  More exploits? Do you have a Wand of Lightning? Those things fire 6 bolts, and if you target your main character with all six, and then immediately cast Blur (the whole process can be done while paused; click 1 six times to target your character, then cast Blur, then unpause), your FMT will cast Blur 6 times at once for -18 to AC and -6 to saving throws. This can also duplicate Hardiness, potions, and some other things as well.
  
  Other exploits? Well, if you've got a Chain Contingency scroll, you can put three Project Image spells in the contingency and set it to activate on "Helpless." Casting Project Image, your Charname goes helpless, and you get 4 clones at once. But remember that all the clones will vanish if your Charname gets hit, so you might want to use this to summon Skeleton Warriors and Magical Swords instead of using it for attack damage.
  
  Do you have Limited Wish? You might need a Potion of Insight for some of the options, but if you haven't already used them up, the one-time wishes include the ability to cast Chain Contingency, Time Stop, and Shapechange, but only once apiece.

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• Nexim Member Posts: 4

  February 2015

  Wow man, that's amazing! Did you copy + paste that? Just the info I was looking for! I will have to load my Final-Save and grab some of these items (I don't know wizard mechanics that well, just fighters mechanics )

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• semiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903

  February 2015

  @Nexim: Let us know how things play out.

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• Nexim Member Posts: 4

  February 2015

  Thanks. Do you happen to have a good strategy for a solo inquisitor? I am going to try that as well after I report back my victory of my evil FMT Carsomyr, ofc.
  
  Perhaps I should choose a different paladin kit than Inquisitor?

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• DJKajuru Member Posts: 3,300

  February 2015

  Nexim said:

  Thanks. Do you happen to have a good strategy for a solo inquisitor? I am going to try that as well after I report back my victory of my evil FMT Carsomyr, ofc.
  
  Perhaps I should choose a different paladin kit than Inquisitor?

  Among Paladin kits, Inquisitor is the one with greater chance of survival because of his excellent skills against enemy magic users. Just make sure that he's got items that give saving throw bonuses, and as soon as you can immunities. Also, keep scrolls of protection from undead/ restoration in your scroll case.
  
  With a good set of armor and Carsomyr your inquisitor will be a goody too shoes killing machine.

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• semiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903

  February 2015

  @Nexim: Inquisitors are indeed the strongest paladin kit. Maybe too much so, though I have never played one and seldom use Keldorn's powers when Keldorn joins the group.
  
  As far as a solo Inquisitor strategy, I would make a point of getting Lilarcor and the Shield of Harmony early on, as they have important immunities. Lilarcor blocks confusion and charm; the Shield of Harmony blocks confusion, charm, and hold (but not stun; you'll need the Ring of Free Action from Spellhold for that), and those will be the major game-enders for much of BG2. Also note that if you have 12 INT, 15 STR, 17 CON, and 18 CHA, your Inquisitor can wear Keldorn's armor and get Free Action early on, though I hear that doesn't work in BG2:EE, and the Free Action from Keldorn's armor doesn't include immunity to stun. You might also get immunity to stun from Arbane's Sword, but that might be a mod-implemented change.
  
  Or, you could just wear a Helm of Charm Protection and fire off a Dispel Magic whenever you see a disabler coming your way, since the Dispel Magic is all but guaranteed to free your character after it hits. But this would require the right timing, it still warrants immunity to charm, and there are some disablers, like Psionic Blast, that cannot be dispelled.
  
  As for instant death effects, you'll have to avoid Maze entirely (there's a Maze trap in Aran Linvail's lair if you side with Bodhi, which you can walk around) and you'll need to boost your saves to protect yourself from petrification, Disintegrate, and Finger of Death. Note that Keldorn's armor gives +1 to saves, as does the Ring of Earth Control. Potions of Stone Form, Invulnerability, and Magic Shielding can help as well.
  
  I don't know how you would get Carsomyr from Firkraag without mage spells. I seldom fight the guy until higher levels, but you'll want to nab the sword early on.

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• Nexim Member Posts: 4

  February 2015 edited February 2015

  semiticgod said:

  @Nexim: Inquisitors are indeed the strongest paladin kit. Maybe too much so, though I have never played one and seldom use Keldorn's powers when Keldorn joins the group.
  
  As far as a solo Inquisitor strategy, I would make a point of getting Lilarcor and the Shield of Harmony early on, as they have important immunities. Lilarcor blocks confusion and charm; the Shield of Harmony blocks confusion, charm, and hold (but not stun; you'll need the Ring of Free Action from Spellhold for that), and those will be the major game-enders for much of BG2. Also note that if you have 12 INT, 15 STR, 17 CON, and 18 CHA, your Inquisitor can wear Keldorn's armor and get Free Action early on, though I hear that doesn't work in BG2:EE, and the Free Action from Keldorn's armor doesn't include immunity to stun. You might also get immunity to stun from Arbane's Sword, but that might be a mod-implemented change.
  
  Or, you could just wear a Helm of Charm Protection and fire off a Dispel Magic whenever you see a disabler coming your way, since the Dispel Magic is all but guaranteed to free your character after it hits. But this would require the right timing, it still warrants immunity to charm, and there are some disablers, like Psionic Blast, that cannot be dispelled.
  
  As for instant death effects, you'll have to avoid Maze entirely (there's a Maze trap in Aran Linvail's lair if you side with Bodhi, which you can walk around) and you'll need to boost your saves to protect yourself from petrification, Disintegrate, and Finger of Death. Note that Keldorn's armor gives +1 to saves, as does the Ring of Earth Control. Potions of Stone Form, Invulnerability, and Magic Shielding can help as well.
  
  I don't know how you would get Carsomyr from Firkraag without mage spells. I seldom fight the guy until higher levels, but you'll want to nab the sword early on.

  I got lucky and rolled a 93 on my BG2:EE, where inquisitors are immune to STUN and CHARM effects. I shadowkeeper'd in the books from BG1, but only because I hate playing BG1 TUTU and importing my character.
  
  I have ++ in 2h swords ++ in 2h weapon style ++ in 2 weapon style and am sitting at 19 str, 19 dex, 19 con, 9 int, 13 wis, 17 cha ready to start this game. I can kill Firkraag with the Helm that gives simulacrum and Lilarcor iirc (been a long time) then eventually get imp haste from the cheetah necklace.
  
  I want to finish the FMT though, it was too easy (except melissan).
  I attempted the FMT as well, but I can't access Saradush any more. No wish or limited wish, no PFMW, no potions of insight, melissan will auto kill the 7 mordy swords I can summon with sunfire, and I don't have animate dead. No spike traps either. Do you know how I can finish my playthrough? Lol.

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• semiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903

  February 2015

  @Nexim: Saradush was destroyed, but Lazarus escaped to Amkethran. You should be able to find him in the floor above the inn on the west end of Amkethran. He should still have all the scrolls he had before, minus any you already bought in Saradush. Let me know if you can't find him.
  
  Also, Melissan should not be able to kill Magical Swords with Sunfire. Magical Swords are immune to all damage except for magical damage. But since Melissan uses Horrid Wilting, she will be able to clear them out. You can interrupt her spellcasting, but I would use those summons for the side battles, and save your other resources (HLAs and so forth) for Melissan herself.

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• lelag200 Member Posts: 125

  February 2015

  I thought Melissan was on your side?? There's an option to pick a fight with her?

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• semiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903

  February 2015

  @lelag200: You've never played through TOB. Melissan is indeed the last boss, and for interesting reasons. This is a general discussion board, hence the uncovered spoilers.

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• Nuin Member Posts: 451

  February 2015 edited February 2015

  Note that Inquisitors are stronger in groups than solo. There are too many items you could use to protect your character from magical effects (or strip them away) in solo but access to priest spells is not something you should casually take for granted. Remember that you lose your innate DUHM once you get Slayer Form, and a paladin running around with 25 Str/Dex/Con and Carsomyr or Hardiness + Armor of Faith + %resistance items is nothing to sneeze at. Then there's other things like Holy Power and Death Ward.
  For the record tho, Inquisitors are innately immune to charm and hold.
  
  The Melissan fight is a lesson in preparedness. Once you have everything you need the battle should go smoother.
  

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• lelag200 Member Posts: 125

  February 2015

  @semiticgod Oh yeah.. sorry it's been like 7 years since I last beat this all the way through, I was just a junior in high school then, ha.

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• hispls Member Posts: 166

  February 2015

  I see the chain contingency / project image trick posted here often but I was not able to get it to work in EE, was I doing something wrong or does this exploit not work in EE?

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• bbear Member Posts: 1,180

  February 2015 edited February 2015

  The melissan fight before the third guardian is a tough one. Here are my 2 cents.
  
  For solo FMT:
  

  
  Prepare a spell trigger: 3x Lower Resistance. Either your main or simulacrum cast the Bigby's Clench Fist (scroll) on Melissan. Spells cast from scroll cannot be disrupted, and if you land your spell, Melissan is guaranteed to be held. Have one character keep casting the Bigby's spell and the other character whirlwind the held Melissan.
  

  
  For solo Paladin:
  

  
  I haven't tried this before. I would imagine summon the deva and other summons to distract the other monsters and you concentrate on Melissan. I imagine this could be a drawn out fight utilize healing potions and the rod of resurrection.
  

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