Divine Epic Encounter SPOILERS Options

[rbeverjr]

I thought this encounter was hilarious – in a bad joke sort of way. After all, you must defeat it in order to face the final conflict. And there is no setting on the difficulty slider that is less than easy.

During this encounter you will face a Rakasha Prince god, a bunch of horrid and noble Rakasha (Rakashas love to cast Protection from Magic Weapons and Absolute Immunity, yee-hah), a supreme golem, two ultra golems, an elemental golem, a bunch of amber golems, and a coin golem or more. Topping this, the Rakasha Prince has a Repulse Field (or some Star Trek-like name). As near as I can tell, this power will strip you of your buffs (including hardiness), do a little damage, and has a chance of stunning you. Whooo-hooo! I think it may be an area effect power too. This power is in need of some nerfing as far as I’m concerned. The opposition is tough, but this power combined with the opposition is just wrong.

This is by far the toughest fight that I have ever faced in BG2. I am in awe of anyone who can win this battle. I am particularly impressed with someone who can do it on insane. I am absolutely dumbfounded now when considering that thetruth thinks he can win with a single fighter-mage!!!

OK, I struggled through some of the improved encounters in the beginning. Since then, I have had a few very tough battles: the Demon Prince wanting judgment day sword, The Horde in Watcher’s Keep (mostly because of the spell shield bug), and Yaga-Shura. Now, I have run into this brick wall. Please spoil me with detailed tactics to win this battle so I can finish spoiled but otherwise without cheating.

My crew is around levels 33-40: kensai, swashbuckler, inquisitor, stalker, mage-cleric multiclass, and sorceress. (I was ready to upgrade to v 4.3, but at this stage I’m just going to finish the game at v 4.2.)

PS With this encounter as just a prelude to the final conflict, I’m sorry that I may be pestering you experts for more help later on…

This post has been edited by rbeverjr: Jun 19 2007, 03:06 PM

[thetruth]

This is by far the toughest fight that I have ever faced in BG2.

Yes this is true.
It is the toughest battle of modded BG2.
Rbeverjr if you defeat the Prince everything else (Ascension included) would seem as a joke compared to this fight.

If you can't then it's not a problem since it is extremely difficult. You can even consider your IA game successfuly completed

I am absolutely dumbfounded now when considering that thetruth thinks he can win with a single fighter-mage!!!

Let thetruth to believe whatever he wants
He is not so reliable always.

(I just want first to try that battle solo before I exclude that possibility (for myself) . Though probably it's not doable. )

Now, I have run into this brick wall. Please spoil me with detailed tactics to win this battle so I can finish spoiled but otherwise without cheating.

My crew is around levels 33-40: kensai, swashbuckler, inquisitor, stalker, mage-cleric multiclass, and sorceress. (I was ready to upgrade to v 4.3, but at this stage I’m just going to finish the game at v 4.2.)

Before any heavy spoilers I would recommend to try it by yourself.

Anyway (slight SPOILERS)




1) If you your PC was a Mage class you would have a very powerful ally by your side (but anyway it is doable even without him with ... more reloads)

2) The weapons of IA can help a lot here. Read carefully their abilities and try different tactics (but then again even without them this battle is doable with ...even more reloads )

3) Set the difficulty to easier for the moment.

4) The help the Prince summons is not unlimited (they are just too many).
I had tried first to kill ALL of them and started fighting the Prince alone.
It just takes too much time.

5) The Prince nasty effects happen both when you hit him OR when he hits you.
But there is a way to get some help from the "items" you have collected through the game. Read carefully the battle text and look frequently at your characters sheet after the Prince has hit you for more info.

PS With this encounter as just a prelude to the final conflict, I’m sorry that I may be pestering you experts for more help later on…

No actually IA 4 finishes here.
But there are some plans for v 5. At the moment you have only the original ending or Ascension left.

[Arkain]

It took me two, maybe three tries on core. So... I'm good now? Cool

So... on to my tipps (SPOILERS included)





Afterwards I did some testing with it. IMHO there are two ways to do this. You can try it with tricky positioning, that is, making them spawn in a chamber like the Ravager's and then run out, while the spawning occurs (so you can use the small corridor to use the Ultra Golem's size against them ). So you would have to battle one at a time, but preferably you take the Supreme Golem out first (as he gates in an Elemental Golem. Or maybe it was someone else... Sikret's ways are... strange. Or something like that). After you finished off the golems focus on the RP. If he uses a protection spell take some other Rakshasa (actually I didn't really try to dispel his or any protections... as everybody who uses spells is immune to those removal spells [or rather all spell levels] anyway). So you can bash on some of them, when they aren't protected. Oh and use either Critical Strike or The Answerer (or both ) as his AC is -26 and you will have a hard time actually hitting him without Critical Strike or a lowered AC. The opposite is not true. His THAC0 is -28. But don't forget one thing: focus on the Prince whenever possible. Use every resource avaible.
Oh, one thing though: I experienced something bad with the narrow corridor tactic thing... my characters where trapped between monsters. BAD! Watch your positions. So the other option is open field battle. I won the battle when I charged at them... I took the golems down VERY fast by simply charging and pounding them into dust. The Rakshasas were more tricky.

Spells, which are, imho, quite useful (yep, no-brainers included):

- Protection from X (Protection from Energy covers them all ). Mostly because of the Dragon's Breath he constantly casts (aren't too bad... if you have resistance) and because of his Field of Repulse, which deals magic damage. So after all fire and magic damage are most important (suprise, surprise)
- Protection from Magic Weapons, maybe Absolute Immunity (you should have lots of scrolls, if you run out of spells. I don't know if the latter is of any use though). Obvious, no?
- Dragon's Breath. Actually I didn't spend so much time with casting offensive spells (most are useless anyway ) but this one might be useful, because of it's ability to knock the opponent back
- Comet. When it actually hits they may be stunned . In fact our favorite Rakshasa Prince doesn't have any magic resistance... and isn't immune to level 10 spells. Damn, abuse this! Just imagine all these helpless enemies on the ground...
- MAGIC MISSILE! Yes, I'm serious. I hit this damn Supreme Golem with every magic damage spell I could as he isn't immune to it. If it gets through his resistance... well, that's some 1s and 2s you don't have to inflict via weapons . Don't even try to use it on Ultra Golems... it heals them (125%) -.-
You could try acid damage against the golems, though. Too bad there aren't many acid based spells/weapons...
-> Pierce Shield. Maybe it's my imagination but those tough golems seem to be immune to lower resistance . As Pierce Shield is a spell of 8th level you could try lowering it with this. Maybe it works, maybe not... I mean, your pure mages don't have that much to do anyway, right?
- Planetar, Mordys etc. -> decoys. Sometimes they can pack quite a punch. In one of my corridor tests the Planetar lastet like forever if you compare it's power to the enemies that surrounded my dear little helper o.O. Also use your items. Ring of Greater Djinni Summoning etc.! Every hit that doesn't hurt you is a good one.
- DON'T use Fireshield Blue/Red. I had my game crash because of this. The Field or Repulse responded to it, the FS responded to the FoR, the FS... after all I got a lot of FoR hits and my game froze. Maybe it's because of my sucky PC . They are useless anyway. You can get resistances another way and the enemies are immune to either the spell level (dunno if this works) or the damage type.
- Greater Restoration, Healing and Mass Healing. LOTS of it
- Spells which offer physical resistances as Armor of Faith or Hardiness (it's a HLA, but what the heck?)! Also think of items. Barbarian Essence, Defender of Easthaven -> Flail of Defending and Wounding, Judgement Day, Roranarchs Horn (that helm component for the Staff of the Ram) etc. (there is something I've forgotten, right? )
- Time Stop. The RP and the golems are immune to it. The others are NOT! Have some solo fun (again, clever positioning) with a PfMW-ed F/M type with lots of attacks. You could either beat up the Rakshasas (on a side note: is the plural Rakshasi or Rakshasas?) which are (sadly =/ poor kitties *evil grin*) not protected (or simply can't protect themselves...) and get some free hits, or do the same on the prince. You two are aaaaaall alone for a few rounds =)
(edit: Best to forget about it... or do you have someone to pull this off? Sorceress with Energy Blades as weapons maybe?)
- clever use of sequenzer spells and contingencies (of course.. duh)

[edit] I took a look at your party: may be tough. Do you have any possibility to do some serious "tanking"? Maybe abuse PfMW scrolls with the swashbuckler? Use the C/M and the sorceress for distraction? Otherwise.. summons and evn more summons, eh? Oh and you need +4 weapons - at least my tests told me that. Impaler wasn't able to hurt him Rynn's Staff was - to actually hit the Rakshasa Prince, so let's hope you got some good ones? Summons having such include mordys, planetars or fire (and earth?) elementals. Guess devas as well. So again the usual high level stuff.
I faced the EDE with a F/M/C protagonist, Keldorn, Valygar, Solaufein, auramaster Cernd and Irenicus, so maybe it was easier for me due to fighter types with access to (protectional) spells. Not to mention your ally if you are a mage. Again, use your scrolls... and UAI. [/edit]

This post has been edited by Arkain: Jun 20 2007, 12:30 AM

[thetruth]

- Dragon's Breath. Actually I didn't spend so much time with casting offensive spells (most are useless anyway ) but this one might be useful, because of it's ability to knock the opponent back
- Comet. When it actually hits they may be stunned . In fact our favorite Rakshasa Prince doesn't have any magic resistance... and isn't immune to level 10 spells. Damn, abuse this! Just imagine all these helpless enemies on the ground...
- MAGIC MISSILE! Yes, I'm serious. I hit this damn Supreme Golem with every magic damage spell I could as he isn't immune to it. If it gets through his resistance... well, that's some 1s and 2s you don't have to inflict via weapons . Don't even try to use it on Ultra Golems... it heals them (125%) -.-
You could try acid damage against the golems, though. Too bad there aren't many acid based spells/weapons...
-> Pierce Shield. Maybe it's my imagination but those tough golems seem to be immune to lower resistance . As Pierce Shield is a spell of 8th level you could try lowering it with this. Maybe it works, maybe not... I mean, your pure mages don't have that much to do anyway, right?

Ehm Arkain are you sure you are talking about the Epic Divine encounter?

Supreme golems have 100% MR and res. to Magic dmg and there is no way to lower their MR. The same is true for some of the others.

Comet and Dr.Breath are 10 level spells but the enemies are immune to fire and the R.Prince cannot be stunned.

The only Mage Spells that can damage the Prince are the Biqby's spells, but the dmg is so pathetic that they are useless.


The Answerer is very useful here (but I am sure rbeverjr already knows it).

Spells which offer physical resistances as Armor of Faith or Hardiness (it's a HLA, but what the heck?)! Also think of items. Barbarian Essence, Defender of Easthaven -> Flail of Defending and Wounding, Judgement Day, Roranarchs Horn (that helm component for the Staff of the Ram) etc. (there is something I've forgotten, right? )

Yes some combinations of the above can be exploited.
Do it now that you can since I don't think that Sikret will allow 100 ph.resistance in the next version.

[Sikret]

Supreme golems have 100% MR and res. to Magic dmg and there is no way to lower their MR.

Supreme Golems' resistance to Magic Damage was 95% in v4.2. It's in v4.3 that they have 100%. Since you currently have v4.3 installed, you are right about your game, but v4.3 is not publicly released yet.

Comet and Dr.Breath are 10 level spells but the enemies are immune to fire and the R.Prince cannot be stunned.

This is true.

The only Mage Spells that can damage the Prince are the Biqby's spells, but the dmg is so pathetic that they are useless.

True.

I don't think that Sikret will allow 100 ph.resistance in the next version.

True.

[Arkain]

Ehm Arkain are you sure you are talking about the Epic Divine encounter?

Naaah, was talking 'bout that other Rakshasa Prince

Supreme golems have 100% MR and res. to Magic dmg and there is no way to lower their MR. The same is true for some of the others.

As Sikret said their current resistance is not 100%. rbeverjr is playing IA 4.2 now. He can damage them. But 100% makes more sense anyway
The immunity was somewhat obvious. Duh. Well, that's why I wrote "Maybe it works, maybe not..."

Comet and Dr.Breath are 10 level spells but the enemies are immune to fire and the R.Prince cannot be stunned.

Who cares about the damage? Dragon's Breath and Comet have nice knockback/unconsciousness effects. And I actually like it when there aren't that many enemies hitting me . I mean, if I were to wreak havok with my mages, annihilating armies within seconds by using spells such as Dragon's Breath or Horrid Wilting... I wouldn't play IA

Conclusion: Brute force rules, eh?

This post has been edited by Arkain: Jun 20 2007, 04:17 PM

[rbeverjr]

I tried that trick Arkane suggested of moving to the Ravager's den. It really didn't help. I was hoping that I could arrange for my kensai to kill ultragolems one-on-one with a cleric behind to heal if necessary, but things didn't work out like that. Rakashas were spawned on the other side of the tunnel, and the bloomin' rakasha god was swinging at my kensai right along side the ultragolem.

I did do everything I could to boost my resistance to physical damage. I also had one of the people using The Answerer. I am unsuccessful so far, and I am really kind of loosing interest in this fight. I may come back to it later, as I did with the judgment day sword battle.

Dragon's breath did not do much for me....

This post has been edited by rbeverjr: Jun 20 2007, 06:31 PM

[leonidas]

Imprisonment helped me win after a few hours of fruitlessly attempting to beat down all the summons.

[Clown]

Having read this thread I thought I'd try and test the truths theory for soloing this encounter. I used an 11mil xp fighter mage from my first xp cap removed run through, kicked out the whole party and equipped her with every IA item i had inc. judgement day. I also had a shed load of spell and protection scrolls saved from throughout the game. Oh yeah and I had the pasha, thank god.

So far no sucess but have managed to kill all three golems and was doing quite well against the prince after that but made a couple of costly errors. I am now pretty much sure it is possible to solo but will keep trying in order to prove it.

As for soloing it with the xp cap, no IA items or on insane I dont know but I'll leave that to thetruth to try.

[thetruth]

So far no sucess but have managed to kill all three golems and was doing quite well against the prince after that but made a couple of costly errors. I am now pretty much sure it is possible to solo but will keep trying in order to prove it.

Nice job Clown! Then maybe it is doable.
What was the biggest problem in this fight? Could you damage enough the Prince?


SPOILER (maybe useful to rbeverjr as well)
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When you are hitting the Prince the most annoying thing is his Field of Repulse (throw back + unconsciousness effect).

But if you use a Potion of Magic Shielding + the usual buffs (PfMWs, I.Haste, Spell Shield) this fight can become much easier (immunity to Field of Repulse).
Just be sure to kill first the other Rakhashas that can remove your protections.

[rbeverjr]

But if you use a Potion of Magic Shielding + the usual buffs (PfMWs, I.Haste, Spell Shield) this fight can become much easier (immunity to Field of Repulse).
Just be sure to kill first the other Rakhashas that can remove your protections.

Surely, it can be done with my crew too? I suppose that I could buff my mage-cleric in this way (+Holy Power+Righteous Magic), but I kind of like her sitting back out of harms way with Greater Restoration.

I've been resisting playing a fighter-mage type as a protagonist, but it seems that it would make things easier for the toughest fights.

[thetruth]

Surely, it can be done with my crew too? I suppose that I could buff my mage-cleric in this way (+Holy Power+Righteous Magic), but I kind of like her sitting back out of harms way with Greater Restoration.

I've been resisting playing a fighter-mage type as a protagonist, but it seems that it would make things easier for the toughest fights.

The ideal would be to make the Prince to attack a character protected by PfMWs.
Otherwise things will be difficult.

This character can be your M/C, the Swashbuckler with PfMWs scrolls or even the Sorcerer.

Then you can use the potions for the rest of your characters and after some hits with the Answerer (2 GWWs with your Kensai) the battle will become much easier, since anyone in your party will be able to hit him.

[panama]

The only way for a legitimate solo character to beat the Rakshasa Prince on Insane (using only the game's vanilla items) is to use the Rift Device. No point in engaging him in melee combat as he just regenarates INSANELY fast (4 or 5 hp every second), not to mention he casts Absolute Immunity about 4 times or so that cannot be dispelled/breached and will be back to full health in mere seconds. And that's IF you somehow manage to bring him down to Injured. Even with the best weapons and the help of a buffed up simulacrum, not enough damage can be given out.

The Rift Device is still the most powerful weapon in the game. It will bring him down to Near Death instantly. I really really hate to use this item as it's too cheesy but it looks like there's no other choice sadly. I haven't tried the cleric spell Harm yet, but it most likely won't work anyway as he's immune to spells from level 1 to 7, I believe. I'm surprised Sikret hasn't nerfed the RD (but after reading this post, he probably will in the next release of IA ).


And as for his golems, they just need to be dealt with individually so you can have the opportunity to save the game.

Make sure the Rakshasa Prince and his minions spawn at the exit like so :


1. Rakshasa Prince
2. Ultra Golem (this would spawn in front of him, and prevent him from seeing you, which means he won't cast his summons).

3. Supreme Golem
4. Ultra Golem (these two golems would spawn next to you, but if you run fast you can avoid them from seeing you.


Now immediately run back to any one of the rooms so you can save the game. None of the golems should follow your character hopefully. Then you can lure and deal with the golems one at a time.


By the way, I'm speaking from the point of view of not using the Pasha's help (killed him on purpose )

This post has been edited by panama: Jun 28 2007, 09:25 AM

[panama]

Imprisonment helped me win after a few hours of fruitlessly attempting to beat down all the summons.

That's strange. Imprisonment didn't work for me (at least not in my version - 4.2). Even the summoned Amber golems were immune to it.

[Sikret]

Using Rift device is a plain cheat; it's not a tactical advice.

[panama]

I didn't say it should be considered tactical advice, in fact I admitted I hate using it and never thought the day would come where I had to resort to using it.

But for a solo character (who is within the xp cap) playing on Insane, using only Bioware items and not using the Pasha's help, its pretty much impossible to deal enough damage and overcome the RP's regeneration.

[Sikret]

Solution implemented to IA v4.3: Rift device will not hurt any creature except the Unseeing Eye.

[Shadan]

I am still fumbling with EDE in 4.2. I am able to kill all golems and rakshasa, but that damned prince is too hard. When I hit him to badly injured he always put up his absolute immunity, and his fast regen heals him up in that 4 rounds. I tried everyting except Spellstrike to bring down is Absolute Immunity, even Dispel and Remove magic doesnt work. Any suggestion? When I fight him in solo (all adds down), I usually out of spells a bit, so I dont have full time to hit him when he is not protected by AI, I need tu run back with my fighters to heal them, buff them etc... Most annoying when he dispels them, or when my Prot. from Magic Energy faded, and my fighters got more damage from hitting pirnce than prince himself...

[Sikret]

Soloing EDE is Masochism. The battle is even harder in v5.

Hints:
SPOILER!

1- Try the double halberd tactics. I don't guarantee that you will win the battle with this tactics as it depends on several other factors in your party. Have both major halberds (Dragon Lord +5 and Pseidon's Wrath) with your warrior. The former grants immunity to Dragon's Breath, the latter grants immunity to ADHW. Each time a DB is cast immediately click on the first halberd and equip it. Each time an ADHW is cast equip the second halberd.

2- Try to hit the Prince only with the first halberd.

3- His Absolute Immunity can't be removed by any spell. You just need to have patience.

4- Make intelligent use of your potions (specially Potions of Magic Shielding as these potions guarantee that you will automatically make your saving throws).

Also, see thetruth's post above.

This post has been edited by Sikret: Dec 10 2007, 08:06 AM

[Shadan]

Thanks Sikret!

SPOILER!

I am not using halberds with any of my chars, but my main problem was not ADHW and Dragon Breath. It was that repulsing field, when my char hit and get back more damage than he done. Anyway, my most important question was that Absolute Immunity... Now I won't try to bring it down anymore, I just pull back all of my fighters except 1 tank, and take the time to rebuff, heal etc.

I will give some new tries for this encounters, since it is really annoys me I am not able to kill that bastard, and I don't want to start v5 run till prince is not dead.