Kerkes' IA5 walkthroughs, qwerty Options

[Kerkes]

tnx Matti!

Got one photo just for you, you'll know it when you see it!

[Shadan]

Nice writings, Kerkes! I wondered why you use so few buffs prior to battles. I usually buff with mage prot. from fire/cold/magic damage and cleric prot. from lightning all of my party members if needed, and I used to use many other buffs. Then I realized your main tactic is to have 2 dwarven warrior which means insane saving throws for them. So you have to protect mostly only Anomen and Valygar. However I really enjoyed some of your battles. You made a few mistakes (I usually make more), but you never gave up a battle after 1-2 mistakes or death. Personally I am thinking to put out of order my "no death" rule in v6 run. I reloaded all of my IA games when any of my character was dead.

[Baronius]

@ Baronius

whish I knew how...if someone knows, please share!

Open the screenshots (that you would upload otherwise) in Paint (mspaint), or in any other suitable program. Use the "Save As..." option of the software, and choose "png" or "jpg" as the output file format.

[Kerkes]

tnx Shadan! As for buffs... yea, Dwarves rule, at lest early on...now I have Valy immune to Fear and Confusion, 95 resistant to fire, 50 resistance to magic dmg (without Belt of Inertial Barrier), permanent imp.haste - all that - undispellable. Rangers are better than fighters, even Dwarven, in IA. + they get that Contac with Nature which beats Enrage by long and far regarding how useful it is. Enrage is great in the beginning, but in late-game, I tend to use it only for avoiding Imprisonment or lvl drain, nothing else.
For some other buffs - I always say - you don't need prot fire. Just take an example of a, relatively standard (and very powerful) party:

vagrant
Valygar
Berserker

now - by the end of SoA, Vagrant is immune to elemental dmg
Valygar - give him upgraded Dragon helm, imp.Corthala and he's at 95 fire res
Berserker - Red Dragon plate, a Fire Ring and there you go, everybody's practically immune.
sure, spellcasters are not but they don't need it that badly and you can have cleric (or ranger) cast it on them.

And I have played Ia for more than a few times, so I know what triggers/contingencies enemies use, and when, so I know who to protect, and how.

@ Baronius
tnx, will do next time

Supreme Leader / to make this a challenge, no Whish castings, otherwise this too easy

lvls :

protagonist - 24
Valygar - 22
kensai - 24
Anomen - 26
sorceres - 21
Nalia - 21

SPOILER!

prebuff:
imp.haste for fighters, prot magic energy only for protagonist
sorceress - chain contingency 3xADHW enemy sighted/nearest enemy
prot evil
Hardiness

Fighters rush to Mlar
Anomen summons a skeleton
Chain Contingency did not trigger
Supreme Leader dispels kensai's imp.haste, protagonist and Valygar still have it on

Contingency triggers on a single Gith
Nalia summons another skeleton
Anomen casts DW on sorceress
sorceress - SI:abj
kensai cannot reach Hracknir (too crowded) so attacks Mlar
Protagonist drinks healing potion

Fighters are taking big dmg, Anomen Greater Restoration
Valygar kills Hracknir (I had not used any HLA yet but Hardiness)
sorceress goes to help fighters
Protagonist and Valygar attack normal golems, too crowded to help kensai
kensai activates GWW

kensai GWW again
Anomen casts DW on Nalia
Nalia casts haste

Both Anomn and Nalia go down to help fighters
kensai finally kills Mlar
Anomen casts Greater Restoration
All fighters attack a Coin Golem

Sorceress - Dragon's Breath into the fray
Anomen Greater Restoration

Gith & Golems are thrown away. Fighters now regroup and start attacking golems

Hardiness expired.
Valygar got Mazed.
Protagonist tries to re-cast Hardiness, spell disrupted.
Yes, it was a very bad round.
Nalia - Dragon's Breath
kensai gets near death, re-casts Hardiness
Anomen - Greater Restoration (has only 1 more left)
sorceress - Dragon's Breath
Supreme Leader - RR Nalia

sorceress r-casts stoneskins (Gith are on her)
kensai drinks resurgence

Nalia - ADHW
sorceress - imp.haste on kensai

Anomen fires his last Greater Restoration
sorceress sumons a Skeleton
Supreme Leader - RR at sorceress

sorceress ADHW
Nalia summons a skeleton
Anomen attacks a gith
Supreme - Breach at sorceress
Anomen - DW sorceress

Supreme Leader - Breach at Nalia
Anomen - DW Nalia
Nalia - imp.haste at kenasi (sorceress' spell was interrupted)
Valygar is still mazed.

Kensai kills a Coin
Anomen and Nalia summon 2 more skeletons
Protagonist kills a Gem

kensai kills another Coin (he was already badly hurt) and drinks big healing potion
protagonist also drinks a potion

Supreme Leader - ADHW on sorceress
kensai's Hardiness expired, he has no more HLA's, only a WW
Nalia casts Mirror img
Anomen uses imp.Cat figurine

Supreme Leader - True sight
Valygar finally appears. He has no more Hardiness, but still has Contact with Nature, which he uses immediately.

Supreme Leader - Death Spell, all summons are gone
Anomen - mass heal
sorceress - summon skeleton
Nalia - Pierce Shield at Supreme, his SI wore off

A Coin Golem dies, due to a devestating critical from kensai
Only 1 Gem is now left, all fighters attack him

Supreme - Remove magic, Nalia
Haste is dispelled, Anomen's DW is still on
sorceress - last 6th lvl spell -imp.haste - Valygar

Gem Golem attacks kensai, he drinks healng
Supreme activates Critical Strike and attack my protagonist (note - even without Critical, Supreme Leader hits my protagonist, who has AC of total -21 vs Slashing on a roll of 2 (!). As soon as I noticed this I removed useless shield and equiped Foebane +3)

Gem Golem is dead. Protagonist equips DoTC main hand, fighters attack Supreme.

Supreme is injured, he activates Hardiness.

Supreme is badly injured, he activates Body Equilibrium.
Protagonist - Critical Strike
Valygar - Critical Strike
kensai - WW attack

Damn! He gets to injured. Forgot about his Hardiness. No more HLA's, only my protagonist has 1 more - Smite.
Anomen starts Heal on protagonist.

Supreme is now uninjured.
Heal is cast

Supreme fires his trigger for crap dmg.
Anomen - mass heal
Protagonist's last Hardiness is off.

We just attack, in hope that Anomen's heal spells will be sufficient.
Anomen starts Heal on protagonist.
Supreme Leader activates GWW and kills my protagonist in a single round.

AAAAAAAGH!!

Reload.

Pretty much the same, rush, summon some skellies near door, survive.
This time, however, slightly different. Protagonist equips FoA (+3! forgot to upgrade!) main hand for Supreme (it slows him!), and we killed Mlar and Hracnir with our few Criticals.
As for Supreme, just waited him out.
When he got near death (and his Body Equilibrium expired, he still had Hardiness) protagonist uses Smite
(note - it's better to use Critical on golem summoners, if they're killed fast less healing is required).
Smite threw him near the dragon's bones, which was perfect, another 2 hits from protagonist (all made as Criticals, Smite lasts for 2 rounds!), a hit from Valygar and a finishing touch from kensai were enough.

Killed Saladrex in melee, too easy and does not deserve a mention, didn't even protect Nalia (she was there only for Brach) with DW only prot fire and ONLY on her.

Had to reload on Minotaurs, since even if Rock is SPOILER!

immune to physical dmg

he is SPOILER!

not immune to Ice, and he got crashed to pieces, taking the loot with him. Next time, kensai used Ram staff.

DemiLich

SPOILER!

prebuff -

prot energy for Nalia and sorceress
Nalia - turning, deflection, Globe, SI abj
Sorceress - Turning, SI
Anomen and kensai DW
Enrage
Contact with nature for Valygar
imp.haste for protagonist and Valygar, not kensai since he's the target for Demilich's Remove magic anyway

Protagonist and Valygar go left for Gem, acivate Critical
kensai takes distance from Anomen and attacks the Coin, activates GWW
Lich - remove magic, kensai
Anomen DW kensai

Gem golem dies. We all go for Coin
Lich RR on sorceress

sorceress starts SI, but casts it to soon, Lich had not yet fired his 2nd Ruby at her
Lich - RR sorceress - SI is gone
Anomen - DW sorceress

Sorceress - SI
Coin is gone, we attack Lich
Lich - RR Nalia

sorceress - Spell Turning
Lich - remove magic at kensai, all imp.haste is gone
kensai - GWW
Anomen - DW kensai

sorceress - imp.haste protagonist
Lich - RR at Nalia
Nalia starts SI.

ummm. BAD move. Anomen - DW Nalia.
Nalia finishes SI.
Demilich - Remove magic - Anomen. Nooo!
Here I paused the game and went outside for a short walk . Anomen is surely Imprisoned. He has not a clean aura, only way he can survive this is if his DW does not get removed. I'll have to waste a nice scroll (and expensive) of Freedom to get him out. Or, reload. Bugger.

Well, let's press Space Bar and see what will happen.
Remove magic reaches Anomen.
DW is off.
......
Demilich dies before he cast Imprisonment. HA! DoTC bleeding dmg got him.

Now I had over 250 K gold. Items I had in mind were Nalia's ring, Green Wyrm scale (prot poison is good), boots of imp.haste for Valygar, Valygar's katana, Flail of Def/Wounding (still had to upgrade 2 +2 flails), 3x Cloak +3 (for fighters).
Alas, forged nothing. Instead, did :
Globe machine all golems
all mages
1st bunch of spiders
1st bunch of Undead

went back to De'Arnise, forged FoA+4. I also sold Phosphorous.

Did 2nd Temple quest for stolen ring, finally.
Right prior to that I battled an Ultra + a Greater Elemental Golem.
Took Armor of Faith as a reward, which is easilly the 2nd best armor if you have a Barbarian with you (1st is imp. Human Flesh), other armors for Barbarians are crappy.

Forged Ring of Djinni.
Back to WK, did all but 4 Liches.

lvls:

protagonist - 26, THAC0 is -13, has 3x Hardiness, 1x Critical and a Smite
Valygar - 23, -13 THAC0 (has Crom Fayer), CwN, 2x Hardiness, Critical, Smite
kensai - 26, -20 THAC0, 3x Hardiness, 3x GWW no Critcials

See this pic!

Forgot about an interesting battle which was fought before Supreme Leader

Rune Asassins
this took 3 reloads. I completely forgot that I had Periapt of Poison! Once my prot equiped it, it was over.

I won-t write this round by round, but there was a very interesting situation which occured, it-s on these 2 pics.

pic 186:

SPOILER!

There are many things happening here. 1st of all, kensai is dead. He had not prot poison, and got wasted. 2nd, SI is off. Breach is being cast at Nalia, who will have to take a nasty Chain of 3xFod at her. Valygar is stunned. If he takes some more dmg, and he will since he is stunned, he is open for PW kill.
Anomen has 2 Acid arrows in him, is taking heavy dmg, and cannot cast spells with a long casting time.
Nalia just summoned a skeleton and has not a clean aura.
I had several choices here.
1st. Anomen casts DW on himself. He is the only one with illusion dispelling spells, and the only one who can cast DW and mass heal.
2nd Anomen tries for "remove paralysis" on Valygar. Slim chance of it working, however, since it will probably be disrupted by acid.
3rd Anomen casts DW on Valygar. If a Coordinator casts "remove magic" at Valygar, it will also remove his stun.
4th. Anomen does nothing, but waits until Breach is casts and then casts DW on Nalia.

Guess what I did! Then look at pic 187 to see if you were right! Had to kill the buggers with normal wpns, since I had no True Sight or Oracle.

This post has been edited by Kerkes: Mar 10 2009, 11:28 AM

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[matti]

Yeah, last time I've fought Saladrex he has "Master! Improve me!" tattooed on his forehead. ;]


Heh, lack of good armors for barbarian is a real pain for me.


Demilich battle in WK is my second favorite battle in IA (my first favorite is Improved Halfling Warriors, sic! ). It's a perfectly disigned, custom made IQ test using infinity engine, imo, not to mention pure frigging fun. I just love this battle. "Hello, Mr. Skull, how are you today?" - Zap! - portrait's gone....

[Kerkes]

Very true Matti, Demilich is one of my favourites also. However, the difficulty of this battle varies a lot depending on your party. Take for example this - Vagrant, Cernd, Nalia, Barbarian, Valygar, Berserker - Cleric Dual. No problem. But without innate Imprisonment - resistance abilities, this is mega-painful. Or, you have to wait for Cleric to reach high enough lvl so DW does not get dispelled ASAP.

[Kerkes]

hello all. decided to put a few, hopefully, interesting pictures of some Anvil sessions, still in anticipation for v6.. V5 pics of course, but they're nice.


pic 223 is pretty much straight forward, however I never saw it happen - 3 critical misses in a row by golems..
229 - screen from EDE, my Vagrant wielding 2 awesome wpns attacking the boss..didn't finish that one anyway, this is taken just seconds before he got killed.
Had no cleric in this party, however.
230 - my pride and joy. soceress' level is 13, and Thax falls beneath the spell slinging of 3 arcane casters + Cernd. 1 single time I killed him with 1 single
Breach casting that early in the game.

This post has been edited by Kerkes: Dec 8 2009, 03:26 PM

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[Kerkes]

236 - an AC experiment - inquisitor, swashbuckler, berserker with a shield, some buffs like prot evil - 0(!!!!!) HP lost....never took a hit. Early chapters.
238 - same party, Demon Knights....forcing more than a dozen reloads. Swashes fall like flies in this battle. (and any fighter below 130 HP).
240 - same as 236. check out Skeleton's attack rolls.

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[Kerkes]

241 - Draco battle. Ac is awsome here, and can save you. Not as much as skellies , but very useful. See Draco's attack roll. less than 50%hits.
248- this is the highest attack roll from a Golem I saw missing. 17, miss, attacking my Swashie (still dressed in Shadow Dragon scale! no UAI)

[Edited by Sikret, spoiler removed.]

This post has been edited by Sikret: Dec 11 2009, 02:15 PM

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[matti]

230 - my pride and joy. soceress' level is 13, and Thax falls beneath the spell slinging of 3 arcane casters + Cernd. 1 single time I killed him with 1 single
Breach casting that early in the game.

wicked screen

haha, Lilarcor