My experiences with IA and Auramaster Options

[Shaitan]

Si senõr

[Shadan]

Hmm, those runed assasins in Firkraag's Lair were FUN! I enjoyed them very much. Exactly that type of battle what I like. Nalia and Cernd casted some AE spells to kill most of the weaker enemies, while they tried to neutralize the defense of harder enemies. Meanwhile my fighters tore apart harder enemies. Man, those many poisoned hits was disgustful.
I did Ritual also from Tactics. Sadly I was a bit high lvl, so was not a challenge. Anyway I've got a Plate Mail with -1 AC and 50 % piercing and missile resistance. What do you think, is it overpowered item? The another item (a boots which makes you immuno to dispel effects (Breach, Pierce Magic, Dispel etc.) and backstab is an overpowered imho, so I don't use it.

[Shadan]

I have found spider queen, but it seems I cannot kill her. My THACO at my 4 melee fighters are between -2 and -7, and it seems her AC is around -20 -22, so I can hit her only with roll 17-20. I do 1-3 dmg, and even with improved haste, I cannot bring her below barely injured. 1-2 unlucky round and she is uninjured again. Lower Res, Breach, True Sight, Dispel and Remove Magic doesn't help. He resists all of my spells, even Greater Malison-Slow... I am clueless. Nalia and Cernd can kill mostly only giant cobras, mutated ones has a high MR and fire/lightning immune also... Maybe I need some level again, I am still in chapter 3 with 3.5 million XP per chars.

[Arkain]

You do have +4 weapons? That was my big problem concerning the spider queen.
To hit her (as well as many other high AC enemies) I recommend using Critical Strike (HLA). Then use Critical Strike... and then some more Critical Strike . But you may be right and your party simply is too low for her at the moment.

[Raven]

You do have +4 weapons? That was my big problem concerning the spider queen.
To hit her (as well as many other high AC enemies) I recommend using Critical Strike (HLA). Then use Critical Strike... and then some more Critical Strike . But you may be right and your party simply is too low for her at the moment.

I actually think shadan was maybe talking about the Viper Queen judging from the rest of his post. But in either case recommending Critical Strike is sound advice...

[Shadan]

Ah, sorry, I wanted to write viper queen. Yes, I have FoA+4, Greater Entopy+5, Carsomyr and Mace of Distruption +2. Sadly I have only 1 Critical Strike in my party.
I killed spider queen with this party earlier, that was not too hard with so much XP in my party.

[Arkain]

D'oh. Yeah, never think about *parts* of a posting and ignore the rest or else such things start to happen

The viper is actually easier than the spider (imho). You might want to protect your party from acid (because if Death Fog) and memorize some Zone of Fresh Air spells. The trick is to kill her fast because, iirc, the longer she is alive the more snakes will spawn around you. You could try Vampiric Touch as it ignores magic resistance. But don't expect it to do some wondrous mega damage... But if I read your posting again it seems as if you simply aren't ready yet: you're unable to hit/injure her successively and even her minions seem to be a serious problem for you. You do have the possibility to gain some more levels, right?

[Shadan]

Minions were not problem imho. Incendiary Cloud and Firestorm killed giant cobras continously, and I was able to handle mutated ones. I had some Zone of Sweet Air also. So only problem was that I was not able to kill that queen. Well, maybe I could try Sunfire also with Vampiric Touch... Nvm, I will come back after Spellhold, since I did all quests, killed all enemies, only the main story left.
Well, Twisted Rune was my last fight yesterday before Spellhold. It was very hard. That double length Time Stop - Alacrity killed my PC almost always. I had SI: Abj., PofMW, Spell Shield, Globe of Inv, Soneskin up, and some illusions which were disapelled by True Sight. And my PC died many times.
My tactic was like this:
full buffed F/I and Haer went in, while other 4 chars stayed in the small room with the lich. F/I and Haer killed the beholder within 5 secs, and killed vampire in 3rd round also with Power Attack, Crit. Strike, Offensive Spin. Then I started to kill the melee fighter guy, while I waited for that double length Time Stop.
Meanwhile Keldorn and Anomen kept the lich in control. Nalia and Cernd casted RRoR on him after each other. When I had a time, I casted 1-1 spell on melee fighter also, 1st I lowered his MR with 3 triggered Lower Res. When my PC survived Time Stop, all of my fighters jumped on the lich, and when SI was dispelled from him, 1 Breach and he was dead. Then I killed fighter guy. After many tries I reached this point and only 3 Coin golems and the mage left. It is easy from here, thought I. But was not... That invis was undispelable even with True Sight or Keldron Dispel. Well, it was dispelable, just he went to inviws again within 1 sec. So I killed 3 golems then, while he wasted some Comet and Dragon Br. on Nalia... And then he started to shoot Melf's AA, so I thought its ok, I will kill him somehow now, he don't have anything serious left. Luckily when I went near to him, he came out from invis, and I was able to kill him. In his last sec Chain Contingency 3 Chain Lightning killed Nalia. I don't understan how, since I casted Prot from Lightning on all my chars, I am sure Nalia was not dispelled, and other perty members was not damaged by Chain L. Surely I missed sthing. It was my first character death in IA, but was too late and I was too tired to repeat this fight, was too much effort and too many tries to do it. So I decided to res Nalia, and leave that chamber. I used up 1 potion, 1 scroll, and now 1 ressurection only in my IA run till now.

This post has been edited by shadan: Aug 28 2007, 09:50 AM

[Shadan]

Well, Spellhold seems more easier with my party than the last made quests were. Maybe I am a bit high level for this, but I am only at the start of the maze, so I will see this...
Anyway I was thinking about sthings, which made some questions:
I was thinking about Twisted Rune encounter. I didn't want to do that "protagonist hided from mage to prevent wished time stop" thing, cause it is a some kind of bug, and will be corrected in 4.3 But I don't really know how can my protagonist survive that wished time stop, if he is not arcane spell user... Protection spells are not enough, cause 1 Breach, and those 3-4 Abi Dalzim, 30-40 missiles from MM, Bighby's Hand etc. would surely kill my PC. Only thing what I could do to raise MR with items, but I am sure, then that nasty mage should start with 1-2 Lower Res... Another option to raise magic damage res from items, but I am not sure if there are enough item to do this. So I am doubtful about non arcane user protagonist.
And this Wished Time Stop led to my 2nd, question. I am unsure about order of the spells from triggers or during Time Stop. When I fire out Gr. Malison-Slow combo from a trigger, sometimes Slow hit 1st, sometimes Malison does. And both case can happen if Malison in the last slot, and can happen also if Malison is in the first slot. At least according to text box... What order should be the triggered order?
And the same with Time Stop. That mage in Twisted Rune casted his Breach as his last spell, and despite this, my PC died, and he was protected from magic damage when Time Stop started. But when I casted Time Stop, and shoot some Lower Res on enemy followed by some spells, when Time Stop was over, spells hit 1st and Lower res hit later, so my spells were resisted. Any info about this?.

[Sikret]

Well, Spellhold seems more easier with my party than the last made quests were. Maybe I am a bit high level for this,

Going to spellhold with a party with average level of 13-15 is ideally challenging (the sooner the more challenging).

Going for the Twisted Rune encounter in chapter 2 is masochism! (you may eventually win after tens of reloads and plenty of good luck but you will hardly enjoy it. You need to organize the order of doing the quests for your own maximum enjoyment and minimum frustration. At least, when you see that a battle is too hard for your party, reload the game and postpone it to a later time instead of reloading and trying again the same battle for 139 times. As I said, you may eventually win with some good luck after trying it over and over, but it's not fun. This is my advice, but of course you can play the game any way you wish.)

Anyway I was thinking about sthings, which made some questions:
I was thinking about Twisted Rune encounter. I didn't want to do that "protagonist hided from mage to prevent wished time stop" thing, cause it is a some kind of bug, and will be corrected in 4.3 But I don't really know how can my protagonist survive that wished time stop, if he is not arcane spell user... Protection spells are not enough, cause 1 Breach, and those 3-4 Abi Dalzim, 30-40 missiles from MM, Bighby's Hand etc. would surely kill my PC. Only thing what I could do to raise MR with items, but I am sure, then that nasty mage should start with 1-2 Lower Res... Another option to raise magic damage res from items, but I am not sure if there are enough item to do this. So I am doubtful about non arcane user protagonist.

A non-mage protagonist (provided that he is high level enough and has decent equipment) can survive Layene's rain of spells without any need to hiding. We have tested the battle several times with ranger protagonists.

[Shadan]

Thanks for answers, Sikret. It is my 1st run, so I was unsure about correct order, next time I surely go to Spellhold earlier, and I will leave some encounters to chapter 6.
Anyway, could you answer to these question pls:
In spells triggers always the spell from the 1st slot should be applied 1st, right?
During the Time Stop spells should applied in casting order, after TS is over, right?

[Sikret]

You are welcome, Shadan!

In spells triggers always the spell from the 1st slot should be applied 1st, right?
During the Time Stop spells should applied in casting order, after TS is over, right?

Yes. However, different spells' travelling projectiles have different speeds and depending on the distance between the caster and the target it is possible that a spell which is cast later may reach the target sooner. Some spells have no travelling projectile, they take effect much faster even if they are cast later in the order. (In the particular case of Layene, she doesn't cast breach during time stop; she had surely cast it sooner.)

[Shadan]

I did Vithal's quest in Underdark. When he wants to give treasure to me, I answer "I want more", then he offers 1/3rd of the treasure, but if I chose "I will kill instead and take all" option, Vithal just answer with same sentences as the answer to "I want half of the treasure option". So I cannot initiate fight. So I can only chose items, and he teleports away. Is this intended or bug or what?

Also I am curious what do you think about bard's HLAs. It seems most of them are useless. Greater Evasion ok, and improved bard song also (anyway bards cannot fights or cast AND sing simultanously). But other HLAs are useless. Cheat Death nothing, 1 low level potion or scroll per day is nothing. And I really don't understand why can bard chose HLA traps, since bards don't have set trap ability.

Last comment: unnerfed THACO and spell table was recommended to install by Sikret. So my bard is able to cast lvl 8 spells also. Is it normal in IA, or is it a cheat?

[Shaitan]

It is normal when you have the unnerfed spell table installed AFAIK.

[Arkain]

Bards with 8th level spells: Yup, the same here.

Vithal: Nope, you should be able to attack him... connected with the loss of a few reputation points.

Bard HLAs: Well... I agree with you. Without IA a bard could (as they simply get the same HLAs as thieves do, with minor modifications) pick the traps as useful abilites. Not that it's that important to have them anyway. Although a Timetrap can be nice in the right moments. As of now, you should just stick to Greater Evasion, Cheat Death and maybe Timetrap as your HLAs... as there isn't that much else. Sadly.
But you could use the song this way: sing, cast or attack, at the beginning of the next round... well, repeat. If the song's active you just have to reactivate it once every round. The rest of the round can be spend as you like.

This post has been edited by Arkain: Sep 4 2007, 07:55 PM

[Shadan]

Thanks for fast reply. About traps and bard: how can I use traps, if his set trap is 0? I always fail with that...

[Arkain]

Designflaw?

If I'm not completely wrong the special traps don't need a (high) "set traps" skill at all. Could be the explanation.
In BG1 (iirc) bards could backstab, for example although they weren't thieves. I never tried this though, so it may be wrong.

This post has been edited by Arkain: Sep 4 2007, 08:32 PM

[Shaitan]

I never play with bards

[lroumen]

As far as I remember, the HLA traps always succeed when no enemy is around, but they fail when the trap layer is spotted.

[Shadan]

Thanks Irouman. You are right, I suceeded in trap laying with Haer. Seems there are 2-3 other useful HLAs for bards then. Anyway I have to try how useful those traps...