Mongerman's IA4.1 adventure Options

[Mongerman]

I'm having problems with the shadelord. I can polish off all his minions easily, but his undispellable field of death and x3 horrid wilting contingency gets me all the time. Any tips on whacking him?

[Clown]

Shade Lord had to be just about the hardest battle in SOA at least for me personally, same reason as you, would get his protections down but then he would whack me with the abi dalzims thing soon as I really started hurting him. Best way round this is simply to get lots of protection from magic damage on one or preferably two fighters. Either try using belt of inertial barrier, cloak of mirroring or valygar's new armour any combination of which will offer 100% immunity, have this character deal the damage while your mage sits back at a safe distance and keeps his protections down. In your case probly best with Minsc using the belt and cloak as you dont have valygar.
Also try using the fighter mage with protection from magic energy then spell immunity abujuration to do the same job or just to do it quicker. If the Shade Lord takes down your spell immunity too quickly try mixing in a few higher level spell protections so he needs more ruby rays to bring it down.
Anyway hope that helps and good luck as I said I found him a real tough one.

[Mongerman]

I'm aware of using prot from magical energy. But since lvl 6 slots are taken up by improved haste, I was trying to prevent casting from scrolls to save it for later battles. Oh well I've finally done it by using 2 scrolls.

[Mongerman]

I've finally made it to the underdark and gotten my 1st HLAs for my f/m and r/c. What are the HLAs i should pick? I usually just stick to GWW but critical strike is going to be useful against those high AC enemies later. Suggestions?

[Arkain]

I *usually* go for some GWWs, some hardiness and mostly CS for melee characters. Though it depends. If an enemy is immune to critical hits you should pay attention to your attacks per round. With a improved hasted character you can get like 5-10 attacks depending on class, weapon mastery grade and the weapon itself (two weapons or one, that is). If you can have like 9 attacks per round anyway, why choose a mere 10/round HLA? If you strike the enemy 9 times with a critical hit, it's first of all a guaranted hit, whether he's immune or not. If he isn't immune to critical hits it's like 18 hits, in theory.

Though I don't know what would be the greater help in IA.

This post has been edited by Arkain: May 11 2007, 02:21 PM

[thetruth]

For the F/M: as you said you will need many Critical Strike HLAs.
Critical Strike is useful not so for the double dmg, but because they let you hit even the enemies with the lowest AC; and you meet many enemies with low AC later.

Then Mage HLAs (mainly the +1 6,7,8 spell) and the rest for GWWs (always useful in long duration battles) and a few Power Attacks can be useful (stun for 2 rounds with a -4 save).


For the R/C: I wouldn't pick not even one Cleric HLA.
Go for many GWWs and Critical Strikes again.

The R/C will need the GWW since his I.Haste can be dispelled without SI.

[Arkain]

Hmm... I have to disagree, thetruth. At least the Implosion spell is something I enjoyed with my M/C, as it would deal a good amount of damage (10D10 fire and crushing iirc) *and* stun the opponent, giving me time for more spells. Although I haven't tried it so far, the spell might be useful... don't you think so?

This post has been edited by Arkain: May 11 2007, 10:20 PM

[Mongerman]

Lets just say there are more useful spells for your lvl 7 slot, greater restoration being one of them.

[rbeverjr]

Lets just say there are more useful spells for your lvl 7 slot, greater restoration being one of them.

Greater Restoration Rocks!
Devas used to be better undead slayers than Planetars, as they had disruption weapons. I think Planetars are even better at that now in IA.
I'm not sure if Storm of Vengeance is worth buying and fitting in a level 7 slot either. Apparently, thetruth doesn't think so...

This post has been edited by rbeverjr: May 12 2007, 12:29 AM

[leonidas]

I don't think the cleric quest spells suck per se, it's just they're nowhere near as good as a speedily-cast, infinite range, mass heal, that also cures confusion.

[Mongerman]

I just entered the drow city, and have some spoilerish questions. Regarding the 'mystery of the 3rd color' quest, will it develop as part of the story line, or do i have to search all over the place for it? Also, does anyone has exp with the deeper dungeons? i hate mazes...some basic directions to get started would be great

[Sikret]

I just entered the drow city, and have some spoilerish questions. Regarding the 'mystery of the 3rd color' quest, will it develop as part of the story line, or do i have to search all over the place for it?

You need to search.

[thetruth]

Hmm... I have to disagree, thetruth. At least the Implosion spell is something I enjoyed with my M/C, as it would deal a good amount of damage (10D10 fire and crushing iirc) *and* stun the opponent, giving me time for more spells. Although I haven't tried it so far, the spell might be useful... don't you think so?

Yes Implosion can be useful (ignores also MR) as Storm of Veng. can be (spell disruption), but the problem is that they are not so effective against the tough enemies.

A M/C or a pure Cleric should pick them but a R/C who is one of your main tanks will find more useful the fighter-HLAs IMO.

And as the other guys said, G.Restoration is extremely useful in the harder battles of the mod, so my 7 level spell slots would be for that spell.

[thetruth]

i hate mazes...some basic directions to get started would be great

The best thing to do is making a map. There are about 15 areas IIRC, give a number to each area you enter and try to understand to which other areas lead the exits. If you have problems with it, dropping some items on the ground in each new area could help "identifying" them.

[Sikret]

Or you can put identifying items inside the containers in each area.

[Mongerman]

Well I've made it through the maze. Only to be continually pummelled by the dracolich. A word of advice to all, buff BEFORE going to the final area! The dracolich just rushes straight in your face. Now, does anyone has any advice how to defeat the drcolich with an unbuffed party?

[Romulas]

Well I've made it through the maze. Only to be continually pummelled by the dracolich. A word of advice to all, buff BEFORE going to the final area! The dracolich just rushes straight in your face. Now, does anyone has any advice how to defeat the drcolich with an unbuffed party?

Buffing your party is many times a waste anyway as the bad guys have a high level dispell/remove magic so it all goes away anyway. Here is what I did.

On the second try (the first he rushed me and waxed my pc before I knew what was coming), I rushed him with my fighters and summoned planatar, then the battle got bogged down, meaning that I was hacking on him and he went through his many protection from magical weapons. When those ran out it was nothing to kill him with my two fighters. The trick becomes his wing buffects. I always have my fighters so that they get knocked back near my other characters, many dragons that if they knock out the front line fighters will head for the other party members anyway, so as my fighters are getting back up they meet him again before he gets to my pc. I also tried the ruby rays and so forth but found that was a waste of time basically and took a chance of putting my sorcerer in the line of fire.

Front line fighters with low AC was the way to go, I also used my cleric for restoration when the damage became too great.

Romulas

[Sikret]

So, you didn't actually ignore the maze, Romulas!

[Mongerman]

Sikret, Crom faeyr seems to do extra electrical dmg. It is mentioned in the description, but not in the dmg. IMO, thors hammer doesnt offer enough incentive for me to spend so much gold on...

[Romulas]

So, you didn't actually ignore the maze, Romulas!

No I did not. The first time I tried it during the underdark I faced the wall of frustration and left it. Later on I went back and noticed the patterns for it. Pretty nice way to do a maze actually.

As for thors hammer, I forged the thing and it is defineately worth it. I noted that keldorn on a single hit did the normal hammer plus electrical damage along with 68 points more, this was the extra damage of 10d10 given 10% of the time. I would say that it was worth the bucks.

One suggestion though sikret. Since the hammer is named for the thunder god (even though no association is given), perhaps it would be fitting to also be used as a missile weapon just as the real hammer is. Just my opinion.

Romulas