Critto's v5 journal Options

[critto]

Okay. Really, the mod is totally fun and pleasure, but in the name of all that sacred, next version should ease up on spiders a little bit.
I thought 2 drow ambushes were hard to beat with those annoying spiders being everywhere. Apparantly, I was mistaken.
Deeper underdark. Cave with an instant supply of whisper spiders (where they just keeping coming from nowhere). Really, how can I beat this thing? They dispel everything, they somehow draw characters from place to themselves, and sometimes they just kill chars instantly. Why is that? Why no info about the damage being done or save-throw being made (dwarf-kensai, instantly dead. huh?). And, finally, there are just TOO DAMN much of them, my characters can't handle them, even though I have a fighter-heavy party (vagrant, kensai, blade, berserker-cleric, sorc, thief/mage). I am doing buffs, of course, but they are being dispelled very soon and there is no point and time in refreshing them. Summons doesn't help much too (tried 5 hasted mordy swords). Tried magic (adwh, chain lightnings), but they are magic resistant, as it seems.
I am no great tactician, but how am I supposed to win that battle? :) Just keep reloading and hope for better save-throws and no instant-kills? I would be really glad to have some advices on that battle. This is the first one in the game which makes me feel annoyed, instead of being interested, having fun and searching for better tactics.

[critto]

Spider drain stats like Inteligence and Wisdom, much like Mind _Flayers. You'll have a hard time if your characters have low INT and WIS scores. If a score reaches 0, insta death occurs.

Whisper Spiders don't have the ability to instantly kill characters, but they have a chance per hit to drain INT and WIS. Do your warriors have low INT and WIS? If so, it can explain why they die fast against these creatures.

Well, that certainly explains things. Even I don't understand the logic (how spiders can drain int and wis?), it now makes sense. My dwarf-kensai is not a wise fella indeed :) You know, actually illithids were annoying too because of their INT drain. But that is maybe just me being lame tactician. In fact, I used to "buff" my fighters with intelligence potions in non-IA games before fighting any illithids (maybe it is even more lame by IA standarts, but in fact I don't see any harm or cheating in such pre-buffs). Anyway, at least with illithids we can see who's been drained with help of special pictograms on character portrait. Maybe it's possible to add such a pic (or a message in the log) in case of the spiders? What do you think, Sicret? :) That'd be helpful, I think.

2 Kerkes:
No, ADHW didn't work, because of magic res. Btw, how exactly high is their resistance? Because, it seemed pretty much pointless to me to try and low-res all those spiders. If they have high MR, then it is totally not the right tactic here. Thanks for the other hints, I will try them out tomorrow.

2 Sikret:
Thanks for the info about lariat. I don't know how I missed messages in the log. Still though, that ability creates the main problem in this particular battle, because with every new spider some character (usually, the same one) is being dragged. This is bad for two reasons: a) he's constantly out of action, only takes the beating; b) he's being rounded by spiders which means he's going to be killed very soon. Is it because spiders think that character is trying to run away?

Also, spells that bypass MR - it is a sunfire and fireball, if I am not mistaken (too bad my sorc doesn't know them; we'll see what t/m can do, I guess)?

Well, thanks for your help. I will try another take on them tomorrow :)

This post has been edited by critto: Feb 11 2009, 08:27 PM

[Sikret]

Well, that certainly explains things. Even I don't understand the logic (how spiders can drain int and wis?)

Well, Whisper spiders are mainly defined as creatures with offensive "mental" abilities.

Anyway, at least with illithids we can see who's been drained with help of special pictograms on character portrait. Maybe it's possible to add such a pic (or a message in the log) in case of the spiders? What do you think, Sicret? That'd be helpful, I think.

Their INT and WIS draining ability already adds an "ability score drained" icon to the target's portrait. Haven't you noticed it? The reason you didn't notice the icon can be that your character dies too fast (due to his low stats) before you can even notice that the icon was added to his portrait.

Also, spells that bypass MR - it is a sunfire and fireball, if I am not mistaken

Fireball doesn't bypass MR. Sunfire, Dragon's Breath and Vampiric Touch do

SPOILER!

Vampiric Touch is not an area affecting spell. It can only be cast on one taret and requires touching the target, but on the other hand, it will inflict more amount of damage than Sunfire to those spiders.

Well, thanks for your help. I will try another take on them tomorrow

You are welcome. Let us know how you defeat them on your next try.