Started a v5 game, Will play slowly Options

[Sikret]

Sikret, why does your sorc have 10 in intelligence?

Unlike mages, sorcerers don't need high scores on intelligence. They are not going to learn spells from scrolls.

For a sorcerer, the most important attributes are respectively:

(1) Wisdom (for good results when using Wish spell)

(2) Constitution (for hp bonus, though a 16 is enough)

(3) Dexterity (for the AC bonus naturally)

(4) Strength (for when they get into hand to hand combat, say, against golems when wielding the Golem Slayer rod)

[Raven]

Just a small thing, to prevent some possible confusion for people reading this:

SPOILER!

If you have already cast SI:abjuration on your mage, the protection spells of the abjuration school won't affect the mage afterwards. This makes things a bit tricky with short duration abjuration buffs such as Resist Fear which is a must in this battle.

Abjuration spells will affect a mage with SI:A, but only if they are cast by him/herself. This is why, for instance, both IA enemies and party members can cast e.g. PfMW on themselves even though they are protected by SI:A and PfMW is an Abjuration spell.

[Sikret]

Yes, Raven! Thank you. I should have been clearer on that point to prevent any possible confusion.

[Sikret]

I've noticed that despite my warnings and notes, some players do read my hints and spoilerish reports prematurely before they really need them and before actually trying the battles in their own games.

Perhaps, the reports inside the spoiler tags are too tempting to be left unread by most players even when it's not yet the time for them to open and read them. So, I guess I'll be a bit more hardfisted in writing spoilerish hints in the future.

[Shadan]

I enjoyed your 2 new reports, Sikret. To tell the truth I don't think I am a bad player, but that chessgame regarding Valygar's death was above me... Forexample I always thought Impr. Cat Figurine is an instant, so I would chose that...
This death was with v6 version of the fight, wasn't it? Since in v5 version I was able to keep all assasins together, my casters bombed them with AoE, while my warriors killed the hardest ones with melee. I tried to kill coordinators 1st after some RRR, then masters and grandmaster. Other were killed by AoE, and left golems to last.
I am eagerly waiting your reports about Orcus and elven city, but much more about Twisted Rune.

[Sikret]

I enjoyed your 2 new reports, Sikret. To tell the truth I don't think I am a bad player, but that chessgame regarding Valygar's death was above me... Forexample I always thought Impr. Cat Figurine is an instant, so I would chose that...

SPOILER!

I also chose line no.4 and used the Imp. Cat Figurine, not because I was much optimistic that it would work fast enough, but for a different reason: If Valygar was to die, I would prefer him to be killed by 'Power Word Kill' rather than by physical damage, because if killed by the spell, I could certainly raise him later, while if killed by heavy physical damage, there was some chance for a chunked death and with Valygar's portrait disappearing, I would have been forced to reload the game. I wanted to complete the battle with no reloads and I was close to the victory; so, I picked the 4th line.

This death was with v6 version of the fight, wasn't it?

Yes, it's now harder than the v5 version.

I am eagerly waiting your reports about Orcus and elven city, but much more about Twisted Rune.

Thank you very much for your interest, shadan!

To be honest, even I, am scared of Twisted Rune. I have not forged many protective items and don't know how it will go. Should wait and see.

I have also refined the Twisted Rune battle in v6 to make it much more difficult for the protagonist to hide from Layene's line of sight, though this change won't have any impact on my own game, because I wouldn't try to hide anyway.

EDIT: Just forgot to mention that I have also improved Vaxall the beholder to throw his rays faster than in v5 (he will now use his eyes with the same speed that other ordinary beholders do). Should see if this change will make the battle too difficult or not. Fortunately, I am testing my recent changes to the battles and if any of the improvements prove to be overkill I can undo them.

This post has been edited by Sikret: Apr 30 2008, 10:10 AM

[Shadan]

To be honest, I tried the "hide from LoS" tactic in 42., but it didn't work for me. In v5 I haven't tried it. I had some tries of this battle in v5. As I wrote in other topic, I was able to kill the lich, the vampire and the fighter before Time Stop. But that beholder, the golems and Layene always killed 1 or 2 of my chars, which means game over for me. And I had to stop to play BG2 due to my timelimit. I think I will continue it soon, but your reports could give a more strength to try it again.

[Hideous the W...]

Well I suppose I'm just about at the same point as you Sikret. I've done everything but the Twisted Rune, Kangaxx, Orcus, Suldunesselar, the final mage stronghold battle, and post Firkragg. I have yet to do level 3 of Watcher's Keep as well. I'm glad you posted the update because I've tried a few times tonight to fight Orcus and I don't think there's any way I can beat him right now. I was going to ask for hints but since you've mentioned saving Orcus and the Twisted Rune until right before heading for the TOL, I'll try that first. That will get my party a bit more experience and possibly a couple more +4 weapons. Right now I have:

Protag level 20 Necromancer
Imoen 19
Kensai 23
Vagrant 20
Wizard Slayer/Thief 9/24
Ranger/Cleric 8/23

I enjoy reading your updates and am having a great time with your mod!

edit - one question...I beat Kangaxx, but a couple of my created characters were imprisoned. I can't add them back to the party by asking them, do to not installing "allow player created NPCs to wait here". I plan to go back and beat him without getting them imprisioned but was just wondering if CTRL q-ing them into my party would have been a bad idea.

This post has been edited by Hideous the Wu Jen: Apr 30 2008, 10:29 AM

[Sikret]

edit - one question...I beat Kangaxx, but a couple of my created characters were imprisoned. I can't add them back to the party by asking them, do to not installing "allow player created NPCs to wait here". I plan to go back and beat him without getting them imprisioned but was just wondering if CTRL q-ing them into my party would have been a bad idea.

This is issue has been fixed for a long time. You just need to install this fix.

Haven't you installed the fixes uploaded to the forum? Their list and links can be found in the first post in the Progress Report topic.

[Shadan]

Where can I meet with Green Wyrm? It was some time ago when I played v5, and I don't remember to this fight. Maybe I haven't done it yet, or it was just not so hard for me, so I don't remember.

This post has been edited by shadan: May 1 2008, 10:20 AM

[Hideous the W...]

This is issue has been fixed for a long time. You just need to install this fix.

Haven't you installed the fixes uploaded to the forum? Their list and links can be found in the first post in the Progress Report topic.

Ah, thank you. I hadn't really worried about any fixes since everything has run so smoothly.

[Shaitan]

Hey Sikret haven't you got time for playing anymore?

[Sikret]

Walkthrough is updated.

[Shadan]

I am very sad, Sikret, because you didn't write any details about Orcus and Twisted Rune. I would be very interested at Twisted Rune, especially Vaxall ablities and startegy. I thought I will write my tactic, since it was different than yours, but I reconsidered since you didn't write so maybe not too wise idea to write down the killing. Anyway Twisted Rune took a lot of reload at me, but a dead character meant reload in my game. I just summarize the reasons my reloads:

- 2-3 reload because my PC died during or after Time Stop. I don't know why anyway, he had more than 100 % elec and fire res. and 75 % magic dam res. without spells. He was immune to Abi Dalzim, was Hardiness up, and ha had a lot of HP.
- 3-4 reloads when 9 RRR didn't dispel SI. Abj. from the lich. Known bug.
- 1-2 reloads becuase I had to figure out how to chess out that silence from lich.
- 1 reload when I chess out which characteers do I need prot. from level drain form items.
- 3-4 reloads when that antimagic ray dispelled my buffs, my cleric was silenced or he was in antimagic ray, and some triggered/contingencied spells killed my unprotected character.
- I think 2 reloads was because I was not able to Breach Layene, so I had to endure all of her spells and had to wait she is out of PfMW. This mass Breach with Wish is brilliant idea, sadly I didn't use it.

It seems I am not so good, since these are a lot of reloads... Anyway I don't know so much the game as Sikret, and I am not so patient to play "chess game". When there are a lot of combat text in text window, sometimes I miss infomations.

[Sikret]

@shadan

If you have any particular question about my battle with Twisted Rune (or Orcus), feel free to send me a PM. As I have said before, I'm not writing too many spoilerish details in my reports, but you can always ask in a PM.

[crunk]

Yeah make the librarian lich, but make it come out of that tome you have to flip the pages for. I kept expecting a boss at the end, and it was just trash all the way. I was disappointed after putting up with tons of extra waves of zero xp-spawns to flip through the pages one by one.

Keep adding. I really enjoyed all the other extra battles added, Dracolich, Kruin and Umar witch being my favorites. I just read this thread after already playing through, and I noticed a fight I never encountered. Lady Vanya never showed up at Radiant Heart for me.

Here's how it went down. I went to the bridge district as my first screen when I returned to athkatla, and Kruin happened to be there as well as Higgold's messenger boy and also the paladin asking you to go see Vanya. So right as I loaded I was immediately gamgbamged with npcs coming at me from three directions asking me to do shit, cowled wizard tp in and tell me to stop casting spells, meanwhile elemental golems and gith spawning in my sorc's face. That paladin started fighting Kruin and got himself one-shotted, but I thought I was good, having already talked to him and agreed to go see Vanya. Apparently not.

At the time I didnt even know Vanya led to another 'Chess match' or else I would have been more careful with my game saving. I saved over my main file because Kruin fight took so long, although I beat it on my first try by doing ring around the rosie with the golems, around a building with a boots of speed while I picked dudes off one by one.

Anybody know what happened? I'm gonna do another playthrough soon, and I dont wanna miss it again.

[Sikret]

Perhaps your reputation had dropped below 20 after you spoke to the messenger and before you went to check the Order of the Radiant Heart.

[darkjeshush]

I'm just curious what your strategy is for Rakshasa Prince, and I noticed you didn't address it at all in this thread.

My method seems kind of cheesy, but it gets the job done. I let my vagrant tank a huge pileup, enough to slow my computer down to 2 frames per second, with DW flail + Judgment Day + Hardiness. I start out standing between the 2 ultra golems so at most 4-5 enemies are hitting me at once. I also have all 8 barbarian essences at my disposal. Ultra golems aren't too hard to hit and don't use pfmw, allowing me to proc pfmw on Judgment Day hits. The rest of my group sits 3 screens away. Peel a chunk away whenever pfmw wears off, kill, rinse repeat. Many greater restorations, many wishes. I just dont see any "kill order" that will prevent the screen from filling up with a hundred enemies. I don't see any other way to do it.

It's very doable, but any winning strategy just seems so cheesy to me. PfMW tank does pretty much the same thing, since you should still have at least 50 pfmw scrolls sitting around in case you fail to wish-rested. Throw in a greater elemental and see what happens lol. Dead magic FTW. I am a masochist.