V7 run (after years not playing IA) Options

[nicoper]

After years without playing, I could not resist V7 (hey, waiting since 2008 for it)
Thanks for the development team who achieved this!

Team Shaman protag + half orc Kensai + RB, my plan for the long run is to add Imoen/Neera as sorceresses and Sibel the new NPC

Lab
Jaheira, Minsc and Imoen added
Meet new V7 enemies (nice add-on, difficulty even as it was)
Exit lab
Join Sibel, dual her to cleric on the spot
Switch minsc for Nalia (as a pure mage)

Govt district to pick quests
During Hareischan ambush, good use of +3 weapon created by shaman
Jan/Viconia/Delon/Tolgerias to start quests

D'Arnise keep
Outside areas and ground floor

Trademeet
Meet rassad, kill wild animals

Druid grove
Bumped my head finding a way to kill Faldorn with shaman (disastrous attmept trying to shapeshift, dance, …), spirit fire each round did it easy (4 shots of it, Faldorn standing no more)
After a sleep in grove to collect next quest, tough encounter with werewolves for a new (v7) quest, so it seems.

Trademmet collect reward, buy staff+3

City
Suna seni
Start many quest but don't finish them because I wait for Sibel dual class activation to remove traps and lockpicking
Fallen paladin completed
Pay Gaelan, meet Aran
Mook
Baron ployer
Hexxat first quest (dismiss Nalia, keep hexxat for lockpicking needs)
Start Maevar
Montaron and xzar
Talk to kangaxx
Finish tanner
slaver ambush
Back to keep to lockpick a bit
help tiris
Do Rassad first quest

Pick Nalia back and go to shade grove
Shadow jailor executed
First ambush easy (2 bone 1 skel lord, 2 skel warrior and 1 mummy) because party level 9-11 (Sibel 9/9 warriors 10 and other casters 11)
Second bunch same (one less bone)
Open way to dragon and shade lord

City, free slaves in CC
Ambushed by night by 3 vampires
Forge yeti cloack and gloves in promenade
Bring necklace to Maevar
Parisa ambush, finally Sibel levels to 10 and activates dual-class!
Finish Maevar and refuse guild
Lilarcor

Exit city, Rasaad temple (without rasaad in party)

Back to city
Free haerdalis (give mirror to Mekrath) and open planar prison
Temple sewer to resume unseeing eye quest
On the way kill spiders guarding Hammer, good use of shaman (spiritual Clarity and entropy shield)
Party reaches 800kxp
Finish cult, start cleric stronghold, get and finish illithium quest (for ring as a reward)

Exit city, Finish keep level 2, open gates, forge FoA +3
Collect weapons from golems and creatures
Kill Torgal and accept keep, protag just 472 xp above the Million
During Torgal fight Shaman helped a lot: entropy shield (crushing), Mend body and mend group

Back to city
Finish slavers in slum district, collect reward from Henda
Another vampire ambush (Tanova)
Contact in docks killed for Aran
Crypt queen and king
Catacombs, spiders, spiders, spiders, undeads, Païna, deeper, stop before last room (for book of kaza quest)
Forge Morning star +3, cloak +2, paws of the furious cat, yeti cloak
Jaheira leaves (harper quest), hire korgan and do book ok kaza quest
join Jaheira, harper fight indoor then outdoor
Try Shadow dragon got blasted

Windspear
Undeads and rhuk
Golem ambush coin/gem/clay/bone (protag 1.19 Mxp)
horrible time with greater werewolve and dread wolves
Exit Windspear

WK, intend was to sell, Sibel ancestor village discovery, very nice
Forge nice items for sibel, SPOILER!

gloves are waiting somewhere (asked for a city place)

Did not fully grasp "leather"/"local coins" quest with merchants, have some local coins left on exit, Don't know if any further use of them
hard fight on exit from zone SPOILER!

golems

Some stronghold quests
Kill a lich for bones and scroll of spellstrike for shadow dragon
Nalia is abducted tehn freed
Finish shadow dragon (hard) and shade lord (easy, no reload), start ranger stronghold

Shaman and Sibel shine (means I am Learning how to use them efficiently)
This party has a new composition for me, low arcane (Nalia), Shaman protag, Jaheira, Sibel, Kensaï and RB
So far so good (Jaheira is for me top one of NPC pick for an IA run, have the feeling Sibel might claim the position, will see)

Some more strongholds
Talk to uncle squirrel
Mencar (Had to wait for Amon to exhaust his mantle scroll supply)
Forge shadow dragon armor, essence of chaos (for shaman)
Get bag of holding from pirates
Sewer party, wanted RRoR scrolls, wasted 2 and got none
Recover ring for temple and finish cleric stronghold

On my way to phosphorous
Planar Prison, never so easy, even if not enough RRoR scrolls so that I had to spend a long time with EBH to be able to peel warden later on
Buy potions and forge THE mace

Exit city, Delon calls for help with Umar
Kill witch and imp, no reload, simple plan:
- First kill wandering skeletons/demon/wraith… to prevent traffic jam
- Rest then buff (important to have prot from cold), my 2 IH go to Sibel and Kensaï, RB has his own IH, no potion (meant to be a first try, if failure would have add potions)
- Protag alone comes from North West corridor to trigger dialogue, have some Umar summons follow him (A lord and a minotaur in the end) and most important be the target of Umar remove magic
- rest of party and summons rush throuh East entrance, split to focus on imp , planetar and other enemy summons
- Nalia uses RRoR scrolls (3) to peel Umar then Breach*2
Overall planetar, 4 lords, 2 minotaurs and 2 spiders summoned by duo

Back to Windspear
spiders
Golem bunch number 2 (Coin/gem/bone/clay)
Undead ambush
Strat collecting mask pieces
Sibel levels to 14 (3 7th lvl cleric spells!)
open way to king strohm tomb
Free Garren child
Shaman level 14 (choose Creeping Doom)
Exit and start Paladin stronghold

Squirrel quest pre-spellhold over (did not get a barbarian essence as reward, though I was sure there was one, maybe a V7 change..)
finish paladin stronghold (apart sword)

In the mood to try some spicy fights:

Samia and party (1 reload because Kaol script has changed in V7)
Devised a very new for me and simple plan based on movement (do not spoil, no cheat no exploit of course)
Exiting dungeon Sibel receives a letter and an amulet

Founder of trademeet, easy (RB and creeping doom), staff of Rynn!
Forge circlet of golden flowers and Water's edge +4

Screaming statues
1st down and ten: just RB and Kensai Under NPP + Sibel with amulet of power, minor summons
2nd down and ten: same with anaconda and clerical buffs
3rd down and ten: IH*3 used (Sibel/RB/Kensai) + Clan hunter Under SoA + buffs, open with sunray from Sibel and CD from shaman, it was the fastest down of the 3

Thought I would add teshal to the list, he did died in my attempt, but skeletons wiped my party, will be back later

Back to grove to rest, new V7 encounter in trademeet (do not spoil), looked like endless waves, satisfied no reload and +4 staff as loot

Before sphere, need more IH, so recruit Neera (doing all her quest) instead of Nalia
Forge 3 rings +2, cloak +2, ring +3
Finish gong quest

Sphere

Will have to cheat a bit (reduce my xp and party accordingly) because spellhold cap is broken (Unexpected xp for Sibel quests I presume)
Forge boots of haste, rings +2 and go
Jaheira left behind, after pondering it, do not think party will be viable without 2 mages, chose Imoen and Neera because Nalia ring is available much later in the game and I need high level slots a plenty

Spellhold
Dradell met (new druid quest)
Just one amber in Crystal, is it V7 tuning?
Mithril an ordeal as usual, not very fun without swanmways or clan hunters, a matter of rabbits properly populating area and drinking oils of resurgence
Irenicus last stand no problem
V7 turn of events sounds nice and appealing
Ambers I found missing in Crystal have another Sibel-duty so it seems
Exit isle a new V7 druidquest way

Sahaugin city Nothing specific
Shaman gets mending ability (maybe got it earlier, did not have to use it)

Underdark
Decide a new (for me) course of action
illithid at entry
Two Kuo toa bunches
Straight into beholder cavern
Kill all beholders
Deeper than underdark
Could not believe it, no reload no danger, just one pfld scroll and one potion of magic shielding used on RB, RB and summons did it (btw troll from MS VI Under regen and IH is quite nice here)
Dungeon next door (illithid)
No problem with big brain and elemental golem (1 gem 4 brains)
West drow ambush
Free prisonners from contraption
Buy expensive Freedom scroll and free wizard, strat his quest
Enter west dungeon
Straight for demons, no casualty
start Killing kuo-toas
finish dungeon
Dwarf village
mages get HLA (Shaman has 2 already)
help then kill mage
East drow ambush, toned down (a lot), no spiders…
Enter drow city
1st quest
2nd quest
3rd quest
Member of house Despana
Sibel gets HLA nice new ones in V7!
New nice and quite tough V7 fight against demon after ritual


Somme feedbacks so far (exit underdark, protag level 19 with 3.9 Mxp)

*General play
I used to rely on heavy magic, with Necro protag, Nalia with just one IH was enough for pre-spellhold main part
Pre-spellhold, Jaheira (with noticeable help from clan hunter) is by far the most powerful NPC to pick, she is also great late game btw
Chapter 1 to 3, Jaheira and clan hunter tank, RB/Kensaï and Sibel slice, Nothing resists (apart shadow dragon)
Later, Shaman maintains warrior health, mages summon and cast spell from behind


Fights where I reloaded or gave up and comments:
- Faldorn, Discovery of Shaman against her
- first werewolves encounter (werewolves have been V7 buffed or I am growing too old)
- Shadow dragon because arrogant and wanted to take it early, with Sibel casting GR, walk in the park
- Samia (Kaol script changed in V7)
- Teshal: arrogance and too few IH too few +4 blunt weapons when I did the attempt
- Mithril golem (no comment)
- Demon in drow ritual (party has to be prepared, dilletantism means death)
- SPOILER!

werewolves in island

*Sibel
A real battle cleric, use her as a warrior with capacity to help with buff and at some point to cast GR for emergency
Her quest is nice, do not know if I missed Something, will see if replay (or spoilers)
Nice items
Balanced, she is very powerful but also very frail
Her quests give quite good xp (have some chapter 1-3 quests left I Always completed before, as well as tough fights I could do in V6 without being above spellhold cap)

*Shaman
A great many new and very usefull spells (on top of usual divine spells)
early game: spirit fire and spirit weapon
mid run and later: Spirit Clarity, entropy shield, recall spirit
Late chapter 3 and after: Primal ward, impervious sanctity of mind, all the mends (heal/regen/mass cure), storm shell (life changer against amber golems)
Since my party has 3 impressive damage dealers (RB/Kensaï/Sibel) but also very fragile ones, I mostly use shaman as support to Heal/mend and remove disabling effects
I only used spirit summons in the beginning, later I need Shaman ready to heal
Shaman can be offensive with spells (creeping doom is incredibly powerful) and can fight decently with weapons
Waiting eagerly to face some enemies that will make some new HLAs and spells appropriate (spirit form, favored of the spirits)

UPDATE 1

Exit underdark
Drizzt and Sibel Messenger met
Small teeth pass
Forest of Tethyr to meet Kruin
North forest
Druid grove (quest meeting)
Small teeth pass to save a druid from wolves, good helper there, couple of rounds to prepare, no big problem
New area with a tremendous fight waiting
SPOILER!

Bumped my head before I realized all waves did not have to be killed (only boss appearing after a while)

For those who played IA, reminded me a lot of my first times against dracolich, Yaga Sura or old one and their countless reloads
Still I Don't know how to deal efficiently whith Lycanthrops

Windspear
Windmaster
Firkraag
SPOILER!

Find what I was looking for deep in the dungeon

(druid quest)
Will wait before druid quest next step (afraid of next encounter which will likely be more difficult than previous one)

City
Stronghold quests (sphere/theater)
Finish squirrel quest
Send solamnic Knights home
Kill teshal
Clear illithid hideout

Spending some of my 700 000+ gp
Forge wave, poseidon's wrath, indigo ioun stone, greater robe of invocation, ring of djinni summoning, crom faer, ring +3, 2 rings +2, cat figurine and supreme shelter

Time to tackle Bodhi
SPOILER!

Find Howard glove (forged at the time in Sybil village) in Bodhi coffin

SPOILER!

then a very nice V7 new fight, do not spoil too much, let's say at first I thought there was some bug, but since I know the testing team, I knew such a bug would not have been missed, so I had to find (and found) out the design of it so the way to win. Great job guys!!!

Finish theater stronghold (keep it)

Go to sphere to tackle ancient priest

Meet a leather golem on exit (Sibel quest), quite rare in IA that meeting a golem just consist of mundane speech
Meeting a much less polite golem after the talk in copper coronet. Said previously I had to test Shaman as a fighter, here I had to, result is Shaman is quite strong and very adapted to this new V7 enemy: greater amber golem

Other Sibel meeting Under Copper coronet
New great ambush, which at first looks impossible to tackle, just spoil that you start debuffed and surrounded by "biting" enemies

What to do next apart forging with lady Elowen: Boots of the riskbreaker lord, glimmering amber amulet, chunk of reinforced amber, fruitful attempt

Forgot to go to guarded compound and its 3 targets (slavers, ancient lich and greater elemental)
Veni vidi vici and then forging pendant of recovered light, symbol of wisdom and golem slayer
Get lady Vania first quest

Many meetings:
Keep Messenger (flood)
A duchess? (not 100% sure) requiring help, linked to Sibel, SPOILER!

leading to clean governement district from some kind of horde
Painfull and dull duty, to spoil a bit and help future cleaners remember supreme leader fight and what to do with the helpers
Meet a Strange merchant and leather golem again, not in a hurry to follow quest, have my fill of amber creatures from now

To change a bit landscape go to clean troll mound

Perform Vania duty and collect reward

Back to underdark to collect magical pull and kill Ancient golem
Get ruby of the gods
Finish keep stronghold (Roenall fight) ans sphere
Merella quests (furnace/casket/cold), will talk to her later
Back to troll mound for Ancient mage

Forge Talisman of greater protection, cutthroat+5, talisman of greater shielding

Give bones and kill demilich
Kill grave in gate district
Meet Orcus

update 2

Forge hesperus (one good point for not having a necroprotag is to be able to forge this very nice weapons, only happened to me once with a riskbreaker protagonist)

Twisted rune
Looks like it is a bit improved (Vaxall and Shangalar) in V7

WK levels 1 and 2
Forge FoA +4, girdle of lordly might and golden spider
WK 3,
WK4, clear north and west zones

Finish Merella, meeting Pasha (thanks to IA tweaks) during a nice fight
Nothing left in the city apart a Sibel encounter I am not eager to meet too soon.
Forgot to say before I did not succeed to forge robe of the apprenti, so limak won't show (alas)

Forge 3 chunks of amber, Hammer +3, amulet of Styx, riskbreaker dream, girdle of majestic might and ring +2. Stop forging because no more money left

Some global feedback:
Shaman and Sibel are really good fighters, they can hit very hard
Shaman Healing is quite efficient during fight (and before, a buff with regen is never a bad idea)
I quite enjoy this party, no need for long buffing sequences (IH/regen are enough for most cases, archdeva and smilodon as unique summons)
Mage debuff and sometimes send summons
Cleric and Shaman HLAs and new spells very usefull, a lot of nice combos to experiment there
for example: against amber or greater amber golem, shaman Under spirit shift/storm shell/regen with paws of the furious cat can solo without trouble

Elven city, open way to tree of life
Shaman used as fighter against greater elemental in harpist house btw

Forge black onyx amulet and ring +2 and go for Sibel encounter
Tough wonderful fight, think I will not run without Sibel anymore in IA

A bit of spoil
SPOILER!

First some erosion by rats and lesser golems while you have to reach and kill a pool
Spoiler there: entering by the back door does not work anymore (hey, it is IA)
Do buff and summon before pool dies (1 or 2 rounds at maw until final standoff
Close quarter with many liches, skeleton grandlords and greater amber golem
An ally that should not turned
Avoid by all costs (meaning comet for example) a dispel magic from liches
using ring of the ram and comets to propel some (as much as you can) liches far away while you deal with golems and grandlords is a good idea

Final? druid quest fight
Another grand fight
SPOILER!

Waves of enemies before boss can be killed
Careful to keep your ally alive
name of creature in waves hints different vulnerabilities (did not find all of them, punching has to be done anyway)
Quite nice
Reminded me a bit of second travel to plane for those who had once a necroprotag
put a ? after final because a diviner owned party in the end

Loot demands a stop at Cromwell shop
Forge rust dragon armor and cloak, the undoer +5

Overview of party before tree of life:

Shaman 6.89 Mxp, lvl 25, kills 4%, AC -9, weapons: Silent hunt +4/ impaler
KensaÏ lvl 29 kills 34%, AC - 10, weapons: Rynn/lilarcor/poseidon
RB lvl 29 kills 35%, AC - 19, dual wielder, weapons: phosphorous/riskbreaker dream/cuthroat+5/FoA +4/water's edge +4/Hesperus +5
Sibel lvl 9/31 kills 18%, AC - 15 , - 22 with supreme Shelter, dual or sword and shield wielder, weapons: crom faer/king of clubs
Imoen lvl 24 kills 3%, AC - 10 , weapon: undoer +5
Neera lvl 24 kills 2%, AC 0 , weapons: sling of everard/staff +3

update 3

Tree of life, horrible time with hardwood golems, funny that one more (and a black dragon less) I switched from no to 9 reloads (until I shamely decided to drink barbarian essence potion for RB and Kensai)

Hell no problem, imho room for improvement there, sarevok should have helpers (I would propose 2-3 greater werewolves, a grave lich and 4-5 skeleton grandlords), why not land a couple of dragons (a black and a dracolich?) after good path is chosen with yellow dragon, irenicus should have a greater elemental (the naughty one summoning amber golems), two more demons ad 3 more death Knights with him

illasera
pocktplane
saradush
Neera ToB quest
Recover 2 hearts
Apart Illasera fight were I did prebuff a lot, very simple and straightforward way to prepare and deal with fights, IH on Shaman/RB/Sibel/Kensaï, hardiness on RB/Kensaï then pound, shaman heals/regens with mend, Sibel triggers GR if emergency, very little offensive spells needed, apart the pleasure to kill some EFG by Neera or Imoen Under alacrity (CO/AA/VT/CL)
Use summons very scarcely compared to my other runs, Archdeva, smilodon and Djinni mostly because they last a bit (even more Under shaman regen)

Back to WK
some golems, no milking just 4 minor spawns
Supreme Leader, a bit easier than I remembered (because shaman protag?) less golems gated and helpers went down fast.
Here some buffs, protection from Lightning, free action from cat figurine, potions of invulnerability on RB and Kensaï, layers on mages, foreknowledge everywhere
2 comets and a risk decrement opened the way, Mlar and Hracknir dead soon after, Imoen and Neera took care of anti-inquisitors (with help from RB/Kensaï), Sibel kept supreme occupied till pfmw no more then adios. Shaman mendig, a couple of creeping doom, prot from fire on party (forgot this buff) then pound in the end
Demilich and saladrex executed. Hopefully with foreknowledge Shaman casts fast (DW), just Neera imprisonned (one scroll less)

Sad that I won't get JD trials… (thought I had loaded the option with IA tweaks but no)

Forge two weapons among the bests imho: foebane +5 and staff of the ram +6, 2 rings +2, 2 rings +3 and a ring +4

Do golems and 14 out of 16 globes in a row (apart last red and last purple ones that is)
Great fun for vampires (purple 3), letting RB wielding hesperus in automatic mode is enough (just a potion of invulnerability and IH)
finish 4th red globe
Grave liches I wonder how to deal with, shaman can protect himself from silence, but damaging liches.....all others can harm liches a lot, but silence + dispel + stellar gravestone(s) means death
forge hammer of thor to pretend I am making progress
Grave liches
SPOILER!

True seeing for Sibel
Sibel and Neera near portals (middle room)
Imoen north on globe chamber (the one where liches gate)
Shaman unsilenceable at door
first round
RB/Kensaï (no buffs apart IH) archdeva, smilodon and djinni wait for liches and pound
Imoen alacrity (she casts fast), RRoR on each liches and retreat (got hit by LI)
RB risk decrement so that a lich is expelled in portal zone
RB and Kensaï run for lich
Neera casts timestop twice
After timestop Lich1 is obliterated, immobilized by implosion from shaman and hacked to pieces when pfmw no more

RB resumes trick to expel a lich in portal zone while summon resist against other liches
Same feature for Lich 2
Meanwhile Neera and Imoen summon yuan-tis and salamanders to keep other liches occupied near globes

3 rd lich comes by itself, has no more fireshield
Timestops, Implosion and hack

Those 3 liches gave full scroll loot btw

Last lich is attacked by RB and Kensaï, RB uses his last 2 risk decrements to wait for pfmw to expire, no full loot this time
Happy no one was silenced
Surviving gravestones and DB for RB and Kensaï was not that difficult with Sibel ready and out of silence reach

Have quite some spells and HLAs left, so open room wher more liches and grandlords await

Forge noble staff of fire (for imoen, to have a tenser on top of undoer)

Horde (802 arrows collected) and imps, ancient dragon and demogorgon remain for later

update 4

Give heart to nyalee triggering an argument with this lady
Fight with Yaga-Sura Always nice
Now my personnal second most difficult fight (first is demogorgon), oasys. Difficult here has to be understand as a fight I am not sure at all to win whatever cautions I take and moves I make.
4 or 5 tries ended in disaster (chunk) including one where I was happy to succeed 5 raise dead/resurrection before Sibel got chunked
Solution was to keep on the west side of map (where I entered)
Summoning arch deva farther east meant vengeance storm cast by enemies avoided mages and shaman
lot of mending ("green" regen and heal)
lot of AA/DB/FA/RRoR/breach under alacrity
I really like it

Meet Leather golem entering city, happy because it means new content
Some minor quests
forge girdle of cloud giant strength (for imoen)
enter tavern and…
For those who Don't read spoiler let's say Sibel family plot looks like an "little IA" by itself, including boss and final fight
SPOILER!

Ally makes a short speech
First a very bad omen
Debuffed, you face some 5 Liches, 6 greater amber golems and Grandlords spawning later on (just spoil there is a way to stop this spawn after a while)
Good think you have an uber-powerful ally and his leather golem companion
Odds look dramatic because first shot of liches (I suspect grave ones) might obliterate party
Fortunately ally supply buffs (just spoil you never will be able to match this)
Allies are more than good helpers, nonetheless there is a lot to do to finish this first wave, and buffs you benefit at start Don't last that much

Global handling for my party was RB/Shaman (while under spirit form)/Kensaï punching, targeting greater ambers in priority
Sibel was ready to GR, attacking grandlords, taking care to keep aura cleansed
Neera was casting spells Under IA (IH, RoF, comet, MSV, MSVI...)
Imoen casting spells then attacking with Undoer (she is a very good contributor to decrease Golem hp)
Once shaman out of spirit form, mending and raising dead once (Kensaï, not at full health, got hit by critical from 2 greater ambers the same second, some 170 damage, no comment)

After stopping grandlords "fountains", worse happens, the initial speech mentioned a greater dracolich, sheer nightmare is on the way
Some clues (I had so many reloads that I could get some informations):
Helpers are vital, but cannot kill dragon alone
Without Virtus Arcanis alive, dragon is permanently under pfmw, so invulnerable to weapons
Greater Dracolich breath makes Great Wyrm breath look like a rabbit fart, even a 200+hp char hit by breath while no resistance on is chunked
each dracolich jit with claw makes ~70 damage
Dragon has huge physical resistance, so damage per round is pityfull
Some (thanks Virtius for the hint) magic has effect, for a small amount of damage
I felt like fighting a supreme golem, casting pfmw, breathing like great wyrm and abazigail together and casting debilitating spells

Winning run, big spoiler inside spoiler below:















To be protected from fire/elec, RB and Kensaï had to keep being in Virtus LOS (Virtus casts PFE)
Blunt weapons damage very low against greater Dracolich
Kensaï does 3 to 6 damage/hit (with poseidon, a must use weapon here I would say)
RB does 3 to 7 with axe
Leather golem ~2 average/hit
ADHW (mages or Virtus) 4 to 7, had 19 ADHW to land between Neera and Imoen
Dragon I think has more than 400 hp (and/or regen)
Fight is long
First mages under alacrity cast ADHW, summons (having dragon cast death spell or breath while RB/Kensaï protected is good) , renew IH,...
Shaman out of dragon LOS south mends
Sibel, out of LOS west ready to GR or Word of wisdom to remove malison/doom (very important)
Dragon targets RB, so keep RB aura cleansed to RD if needed, while Kensai can renew CS
Never lose attention and watch out for elec/fire resist (had 3 painful reloads because RB or Kensaï chunked by breath seconds before greater dracolich died)

Et voilà! (that's it!)

Reward is just splendid

After that tons af regular or reinforced amber chunks in inventory

Oasys now comes third in my difficult IA fights ranking

Just for the fun, a guess (party is Shaman/RB/Kensaï/Sibel/Neera/Imoen), most powerful vanquished are (alphabetical order)
Ancient Golem/Greater Dracolich/ Greater Elemental Golem/Greater Elemental Golem/Layenne/Spider Queen (2 GEG is not a typo mistake in the list)
Which belongs to who?

Meet lady Elowen, forge many things (reinforced ioun stone, kensai staff, phosphorous +5, ulimate horn)
forge with cespenar corrosive lance, ring +2, death of a thousand cuts, circlet of netheril

Clear abazigail lair

Enter Sendaï's
Tunnels do not provide any more huge amounts of gold and xp (gold I have a plenty, xp I wish I had more)
Protag hits level 30 (9.1 Mxp)
Sendaï fight still one of my IA-favorite (even if I had to use 2 barbarian essences)
I have enough money to forge 5 Dragon lord Halberds, a pity just one is possible

Time to face my nemesis fights; Ancient wyrm and Demogorgon
Estimate 50% to win wyrm (that is 50% to give up because fed up to retry), 20% Demo, to compare with 99% EDE

last update

Ancient dragon
Just one reload (RB chunked, 365 damage from a breath, fire resist was too low)
A long long fight
SPOILER!

RB and Kensaï go for wyrm, all others summon big game (Berserker, djinni, archdeva and smilodon)
Neera first silenced while spellstrike from scroll start of fight
Key here for me was to use hit with trigger breach/LR/LR and hide (from silence) with Imoen then Neera (got shot once more by silence), Under foreknowledge and with gear, trigger is faster than a breach to cast, so helps retreat before silence is cast by dragon.
Thus sorceress hits with trigger, retreats, then recast trigger then hit again to dispel all wyrm pfmw

Carefull and planned (waited to have RB AND Kensaï incapacited) use of the 3 Word of wisdom from Sibel
Sibel WoW or GR from afar, summons some fodder

Shaman summons (no mending, did not want to expose him)

RB and Kensaï punching is quite efficient

Dragon desperate heals, desperate again very soon(summons take a toll too)
While regenerating (and leaving a firestorm as legacy) dragon is killed

Forge dragon lord halberd, the Truth (old habit) and Hindo doom

Open seals
First talk with D, get scroll after orden leaves

Back to city to kill balthazar

Time to face Prince
Use greater wish +20% magic damage resist
prepare and buff, 100% physical resistance for Shaman/Sibel/RB/Kensaï

Use greater wish again resistance for an hour against electrical discharge (btw did not prevent ultra golems from lowering my electrical resistance)

Alpha Smilodon joins (druid quest)
Prince gates
SPOILER!

Sibel ancestor sends his leather Golem, yeah!!!

SPOILER!

First golems are terminated (all of them, 9 chunks of amber litter the ground)
5 punchers: RB/Sibel/Kensaï/Shaman Under spirit form/Imoen tenser + undoer (she is great!!), all of them brilliant I have to say
Supreme could summon just one elemental who could summon just one coin in turn
Ultras took a bit longer to be cut down, had time to summon many ambers (5? total, not 100% sure)
Anyway amber golem do not last long against Imoen/RB/shaman (while Under spirit form) while Sibel and Kensaï exclusively deal with ultra
Neera Summomns and fires trigger/sequencer full of RoF and "single" RoFs
Soon Prince is alone
First AI, 2 bunches of rak, Neera dispels raks PFMW (Imoen still Under tenser), 3-4 rounds later no more rak around
Second AI Imoen no more Under tenser
Second rak bunch lasts seconds
With great sadness Alpha Smilodon dies (it could not be healed by Shaman mending, alas)
Leather Golem still standing up and fighting, tough guy this one!
Third and 4 th AI, no more Rak bunch, Prince admits defeat

Easier than great wyrm, but quit delightful fight

Time to face Archdemon

Thought I could use regen 9HP from greater wish, but had to take +30HP, should have read dialogue more closely before, and thus used greater wish much earlier… Well, let's say I am Learning for a next run

Nightmare during my first 2 attempts which ended in disaster. As always The first 3 rounds here (which last for me in RL time)clearly dictate whether or not hope remains to win, one party member down means no, a mistake in debuffing (and casting offensive/debuff spells on an enemy that ignores them) means no….

What worked:
SPOILER!

Buff RB and Kensaï share my 8 last barbarian essences without 100% physical resist on those two I would lose
Sibel protects from fire, summons from everybody, regen, 3 layers on mages, IH, etc.
Important thing which turned events compared to first tries: Imoen and Neera read an absolute immunity scroll before going down

Then Demo got his gun:

So many events happen simultaneously in so short a time it is difficult to sum up
First Saint kargoth was killed, debuffed, lower resist, acid and electicity from mages
Then Exarch Kazuul; RB and Kensaï pounding, mages Under alacrity debuffing
Those two events tooks some 4-5 rounds which seemed to last an hour
Had a Wish-rest during this phase, renewed summons (Arch deva, Smilodon and Djinni) and helped replenish spell stock
Nulonga third, debuff and pounding from Sibel, Kensaï after exarch dead
Belcheresk, pounded by Kensaï and debuff, lower resist, CO, VT an AA from Imoen (meanwhile escort killed by Sibel)
During Nulonga and Belcheresk Killing, RB and some summons tank Demo, Rozvankee, vargoyles and one escort
At this moment of the fight Imoen has no more level 1 to 3 spells
A while later Rozvankee is dead, RB and Kensaï Under CS had its skull
Demo, 2 escorts and 6 vargoyles around
Démogorgon bites the dust after a while (focused RB/Kensaï and Sibel on him)
4 escorts and 1 vargoyle to deal with, no big trouble
All the while, shaman ranged alacrity Healing was more than helpful, as were Sibel's Word of Wisom or GR (used just 2 of them during fight)

Helm ghost appears and grants a beautiful reward, a pity just Melissan fight remaining
loot splendid as Always, a pity I have Nothing useful to forge (anyway Cespenar is gone)
Confess I went to meet Lady Elowen to see if some forging could be made with helm's gift (as an easter egg, big wink to dev team)

Some party info for the record
Shaman: kills in game 3%, kills in chapter 2%, mpv Greater elemental golem
Sibel: kills in game 17%, kills in chapter 14%, mpv Greater elemental golem
RB: kills in game 36%, kills in chapter 39%, mpv Spider queen
Kensaï: kills in game 33%, kills in chapter 32%, mpv Ancient Dragon
Imoen: kills in game 5%, kills in chapter 8%, mpv Draconis
Neera: kills in game 4%, kills in chapter 4%, mpv Greater Dracolich

Time to regain mortal life

Melissan has new helpers, more challenging than before
SPOILER!

Skeleton grandlords first
Then, I let you guess the type of monsters, some really tough guys who take pitiful damage per hit from a RB or a Kensaï (1 to 5)
Melissan knows how to incapacitate mages and does it, had Kensaï and Sibel to raise from the dead
No rest after 3rd seal is broken (costed me one reload, party was exhausted from HLAs, spells, summons,...and could not survive last fight)
Then Melissan gates throne guardians
A very long and tortous finish

Now Melissan fight means something
In the end party was drained, but all alive

The End

This post has been edited by nicoper: Jul 5 2024, 07:49 PM