Critto's v5 journal Options

[critto]

Sikret, thanks for the answers. I have also a problem.

I just found out that the reputation of my party is 12 (average). How on earth could've that happened?? What are exactly the actions for which game punishes by lowering the reputation? I did not kill any civillians. Neither did I steal anything from anybody. No slayer transformations. No cheating. How else can I loose reputation? It just doesn't make any sense.
It was 20 not so long ago, and I managed to start lady Vanya's quests and the first quest from expanded ranger stronghold. Am I gonna be able to continue them without my reputation being 20? It seems also I that I can't start the second ranger quest now since it also requires reputation of 20, right?
Is there any way to raise the reputation? If I am not mistaken, I can raise it up to 17 in temple, and then how? I do not have much stuff left to do (kangaxx, orcus, twisted rune, wizard and bard strongholds, shimmering light quest, lady vanya, WK, suldanesselar). I wouldn't care about the reputation if it wasn't for the vagrant's quest. I'd really like to see it.

This post has been edited by critto: Feb 22 2009, 01:09 PM

[Sikret]

SPOILER!

You have most certainly killed the dominated ranger or the dominated paladin during the battle with the enchanter in "The Mystery of Shimmering Light".

One way is to return to a saved game before that fight; the other way is to find some other quests to do to raise your reputation back to 20.

[critto]

Indeed. Why didn't I thought of that. By the way,
SPOILER!

I did not kill the ranger, only the paladin. I remember the first one saying thanks after I've disposed of the evil mage.

Well, unfortunately, I do not have any saves before that moment. I'll see what I can do about reputation.
Still, will I at least be able to continue Shimmering Light and lady Vanya's quests, even if won't find the means to raise my reputation back to 20?

This post has been edited by critto: Feb 22 2009, 01:57 PM

[Sikret]

Indeed. Why didn't I thought of that. By the way,
SPOILER!

I did not kill the ranger, only the paladin. I remember the first one saying thanks after I've disposed of the evil mage.

SPOILER!

Yes, you have killed one of them. Had you killed both, your reputation would have been 4 (rather than 12) and you would have lost your rangerhood for sure.

Well, unfortunately, I do not have any saves before that moment. I'll see what I can do about reputation.
Still, will I at least be able to continue Shimmering Light and lady Vanya's quests, even if won't find the means to raise my reputation back to 20?

Yes, If you have already met Lady Vanya, you can continue her quests. The Mystery of the Shimmering Light can also be continued IIRC, but you won't be able to complete "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" unless you find a way to increase your reputation back to 20 as soon as possible.

[critto]

2 Sikret.

Yes, If you have already met Lady Vanya, you can continue her quests. The Mystery of the Shimmering Light can also be continued IIRC, but you
won't be able to complete "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" unless you find a way to increase your reputation back to 20 as soon as possible.

I finished the Shimmering Light quest.
SPOILER!

Killed the Grandfather of Assassins, got the reward from the Order of Radiant Heart. By the way, this battle certainly should be improved. I think it even easier than the battle versus guildmaster and his company.

After that I visited my cabin at Umar Hills:
SPOILER!

there was a swanmay waiting for me who asked to retrieve the jewel for their community.

I believe, this is the beginning of the vagrant's new quest? My reputation is currently 16 now (spent some money in the temple).

[Sikret]

SPOILER!

Killed the Grandfather of Assassins, got the reward from the Order of Radiant Heart. By the way, this battle certainly should be improved. I think it even easier than the battle versus guildmaster and his company.

It's improved quite a lot in v6.

After that I visited my cabin at Umar Hills:
SPOILER!

there was a swanmay waiting for me who asked to retrieve the jewel for their community.

I believe, this is the beginning of the vagrant's new quest? My reputation is currently 16 now (spent some money in the temple).

It begins but won't continue with a reputation lower than 20. In v6, I've made sure that it won't even begin.

[critto]

2 Sikret:

It begins but won't continue with a reputation lower than 20. In v6, I've made sure that it won't even begin.

Well, that's a shame. Maybe I'll do another run with Vagrant sometime to see this quest.
By the way, I have one more question about lady Vanya:
SPOILER!

I have finished her second quest. She gave me some exp and money, and vanished. But I suspect that she also can give my prot a 48-sided garnet, if only I had a reputation of 20. Am I right? Even if I am not, the possibility to find this gem somehow connected with the reputation of the party? I do not need any spoilers on the location, I just want to make sure that I still have the chance to find it, since I have done nearly everything in the game. Thanks in advance :)
PS: maybe you can write me via PM, if this information is too spoilerish to post openly on the board.

[Frazurblu]

SPOILER!

You can still find it.

This post has been edited by Frazurblu: Feb 24 2009, 12:55 AM

[critto]

Thanks for the hint, Frazurblu! I think I might've figured out where the gem is, but I am not sure.

Well, speaking of other things, besides my lack of attention (it is a journal, after all). I am facing three difficult battles right now: Twisted Rune, Orcus and the Supreme Leader of Githyankis. Tried to beat the last two ones already, but had no luck yet. The crowd control is certainly an important aspect in these battles. I have nearly managed to win the battle with Orcus, but I lost total control of the situation for a moment, and my blade got killed. With him gone, and being the key figure in this battle, my last two fighters got overwhelmed with skeletons and everything momentarily has gone down the bad road.
It is also quite difficult to get the mages away from the main battle zone quickly, so that they can provide support to the fighters. If it is not done fast enough, Orcus conjurs some more help, and the things immediately get worse for the mages. Though, in the most successful try I've described above I managed to handle the things quite effectively thanks to my sorc, who bought some time by being cornered by orcus and the vamps, thus holding their attention for quite a while due to his large amount of stoneskins, mirror images and other protective spells.

This post has been edited by Sikret: Feb 24 2009, 12:20 PM

Reason for edit: Spoilers regarding the location of 48-sided garnet removed

[critto]

Sikret, sorry about the spoiler about 48-sided gem. I've tried to make it as spoilerless as I could. The problem I described is not solved yet, so I would be very grateful if you'd give your comment on it (maybe, via PM).

Okay. Now, the battle with Orcus. Today I won it without reloads! So I figured i write a 'little' report about it.

SPOILER!

Prebuffs included protection from level drain (have 10, used 5, since protagonist has an amulet of power), potions of storm giant str for kensai and blade (usually my blade wears crom fayer, but in this battle I gave crom to prot-vagrant, who has boots of ranger lord, and left blade with FoA +4), 2x barbaric essense for prot and kensai. Prot and kensai also use their HLA hardiness. Kensai's AC boosted with spirit armor.
Blade has maximum amount of mirror images, stoneskins and PfMW memorized. Also max amount of Delayed Blast fireballs to kill the vampires. He also has about 15 scrolls of PfMW. Uses one before entering the lower crypts (casting from scrolls takes time, and from spellbook it is done immediately due to Eternal Melody armor and Melodic Fury ring).
B-cleric casts regeneration, she also has a ring of gaxx for an additional regen. Her task is to kill grandlord who spawns on the left side of the battlefield very quickly and run away there with thief/mage and sorc. They need to stay alive and help kill vampires with fire damaging spells. Sorc's job is also to Wish and refresh imp. haste if needed. b-cleric is too weak for such an amount of grandlords, so she stays off the battlefield and casts greater restoration until they are dead, then she joins the fight with the leftover vampires and skeleton lords.
So, the party enters the location. Game is immediately paused, I command vagrant, cleric and t/m to summon greater swanmay, spider and lion into the location where the most of grandlords are going to be spawned. That should give us a little time to regroup properly. Skeletons appear. Cleric rushes for the left skeleton; prot, kensai and blade dive into the center, positioning blade in such a way so that he could be the target for the most enemies. Meanwhile, sorc casts haste to improve his and t/m's speed (forgot to do it while pre-buffing).
B-cleric disposes of the skeleton and rushes downwards. Orcus is still on the south of the battlefield, so there is no chance that his second wave of summons will spawn near my mages. I decide to leave them there, near the entrance to the crypt. Prot, kensai and blade have already killed 2 or 3 grandlords, so about 4 or 5 are still active.
Orcus calls his wave of vampires and skeleton lords. Sorc immediately cats two dragon breath spells, one after another. t/m helps with fireball and blade with sunfire. Vampires are badly injured, as well as some skeleton lords (it seems, that the fire sometimes hits them too, as I gathered). On skeleton lord is throwed away by DB right in the direction of cleric. He engages in battle with her, Orcus comes to help (uh-oh). Sorc casts Wish, and I get "Hardiness on the entire party". Wo-hoo! That was really lucky. Now my cleric in less danger.
Also it really boosts up my frontliners' defensive capabilities. They quickly dispose of the grandlords and vampires, and run to help cleric. They get the Orcus to the "injured" state, and he starts to protect himself with PfMW, which we have no way to dispell from him, as I figured.
So here begins the second phase of the battle: we have to survive the new waves of Orcus's summons. He soon calls the second one, and we start beat them. Sorc, blade and t/m damage vampires with fire spells, fighters are disposing of skeleton lords. My party was severely wounded here, and blade was running out of protection spells. So b-c casts Greater Restoration and sorc wishes one more and (wo-hoo! again) gets "make if rested". That is really lucky, I must say. Fighters immediately refresh their hardiness, blade - his magical buffs. Somewhere in between these actions Orcus's PfMW wears off and we manage to him once or twice before he casts another one.
With the third wave comes another problem: protection from level drain has weared off. Unfortunately, kensai, though he has nice AC and hardiness, gets drained to death. Prot has amulet of power, blade - PfMW and other buffs, b-c usually gets charmed, so no harm comes to her and she just stays that way till we kill all the vampires After that "remove magic" and she's back with us. Tactic is being the same: vampires are hit with fire spells, skeletons are quicky disposed off in melee combat (those boots of ranger lord are quite useful, I must say). After two (I think) such waves Orcus is left with no PfMW and he's down. Vagrant made the last hit. Though her "most powerful enemy disposed" is still bodhi. But they kind of the same really, if we wouldn't count in the mighty escort of Orcus.
The only weak link of this whole tactic is the Wish spell, I was very lucky to get such responses with only two castings. But, things weren't that bad so my party maybe would have a chance even if sorc didn't get such an excelent results from the first cast. But again, careful planning and control was very important. Without it, my party lost the fight in previous runs even with sorc casting several successful wishes.

Still, it was very enjoyable battle. IA is brilliant in the way of presenting such challenges that allow you to spend some time on researching its' aspects, then come up with effective strategy and, of course, receive the satisfaction of implementing it successfully.

This post has been edited by critto: Feb 25 2009, 06:30 PM

[matti]

SPOILER!

On the Githyanki Supreme Leader (cool name btw.) fight, your main priority is to kill this two golem creating with ak47 speed, jokers as quickly as possible. On enter let your strongest fighter/fighters (but not your protagonist, yet.) go straight to them, ignoring evrything else, give him/them two different weapons coz one joker is immune to one kind of damage and the second for another ;] and start whacking like a madman. Let your prot summon two swanmays, let the others summon greater genie, noble spider or three mordekainen swords. And then, this is critical, separate your summons from your party, I mean, leave the summons where they are and let your party go forward to finish off golem hokus-pokusing jokers. The point is to draw attention of the githyanki bunch on your summons and to keep them away from your party concentrated fully on destroying golem creating specialists, as far as possible for as long as possible. This giths are like little puppies severally, but they are pretty annoying and dangerous en masse, not to mention golems will haste them making them quite deadly. It will be really good if you manage to kill Hra'c'knir and Mlar (spelling, LOL) before your summons bite the dust and all the gith bunch returns to entertain you. Don't even think to fight Supreme Leader before you kill everetnig else that moves, try to distract him at all cost, summon rest of the swanmays, summon everything you got I mean everytnig, starting with the strongest summons of course, even hapless kobold may be useful when absorbing Supreme Leader's hit (and he is really, REALLY, good fighter) instead of your prot fighting coin golem. And then, if you have fighter/thief multi, give him a couple of PFMW scrolls and send for the... almost... one on one duel with the Githyanki Supreme Leader...

[Sikret]

Sikret, sorry about the spoiler about 48-sided gem. I've tried to make it as spoilerless as I could. The problem I described is not solved yet, so I would be very grateful if you'd give your comment on it (maybe, via PM).

No problem. I sent you a PM.

[critto]

matti, thanks for your input on the Supreme Leader battle. Though I didn't read it fully before finishing the battle myself, I still appreciate it
I will not write a wide report about the battle with githyankis, since it very similar to what matti has written.
But here some key points I figured:
SPOILER!

Getting rid of golem makers is a task for somebody who has the ability to protect himself with magic for a long time. Thus, it should be some kind of F/M or, in my case, blade. I buffed him with Improved Haste, Offensive Spin and Improved Invisibility, so he could quickly get to the golem makers.
While he was finishing them, the rest of my party was fighting the horde of githyankis and the Supreme Leader. Summons really helped here, as matti has pointed out. We managed to stay alive under the Supreme Leader beatings thanks to the good amount of Hardiness HLAs and Contact with Nature of my vagrant. Again, the sorc was very helpful, successfully wishing "make if rested" two times, thus giving the blade an opportunity to hold on a little longer (by the time we finished with the simple gith, blade got rid of the golem makers, but he was surrounded by 20-30 golems!).
I was planning on helping my blade with golems after the Supreme Leader is dead, but I was very surprised when all the golems have vanished after his death. It was very helpful indeed, but I think my party would have managed to finish of the golems (most of them were clay and stone, who are easy killable with Crom Fayer).

[Sikret]

SPOILER!

I buffed him with Improved Haste, Offensive Spin and Improved Invisibility, so he could quickly get to the golem makers.
.

Due to a bug of the vanilla game, Blade's Offensive Spin ability stacks with (Improved) Haste resulting in quadruple speed. I have fixed this bug in IA v6, but please don't abuse it as long as you are playing v5. Use either Offensive Spin or Improved Haste on your Blade, but not both of them (don't even use the 3rd level 'Haste' in conjunction with Offensive Spin; it will lead to the same bug).

PS: The same bug existed with the Boots of Speed, but that one has been already fixed even in v5; so, there is no problem/risk in using Improved Haste on a character who has worn the boots.

[critto]

Due to a bug of the vanilla game, Blade's Offensive Spin ability stacks with (Improved) Haste resulting in quadruple speed. I have fixed this bug in IA v6, but please don't abuse it as long as you are playing v5. Use either Offensive Spin or Improved Haste on your Blade, but not both of them (don't even use the 3rd level 'Haste' in conjunction with Offensive Spin; it will lead to the same bug).

Oh, I didn't know that this was a bug. I thought that is how the things supposed to be under such buff combination. Anyway, I only used this combo 2 or 3 times, and in this battle Blade used it only to get there quickly. His IH soon weared off, so he was using only spins while fighting with the golem makers.
By the way, Melodic Fury ring gives Blade permanent haste, as via the 3rd level spell. So, it turns out, using an Offensive Spin while wearing this ring is also exploiting this bug? Of course, it wouldn't be a problem if Melodic Fury wasn't a cursed item.
PS: I also forged Hespherus sword for my protagonist. It's very useful in certain battles due to it's Sunray ability, but it has one disadvantage also: when the sunray is cast, char just stands there doing nothing for 2 or 3 seconds. Is it a bug or is it how it's supposed to be?

[Sikret]

By the way, Melodic Fury ring gives Blade permanent haste, as via the 3rd level spell. So, it turns out, using an Offensive Spin while wearing this ring is also exploiting this bug?

Unfortunately, yes.

All of the Offensive Spin's bugs (including the other bug which could radically decrease your total number of attacks under certain conditions) are addressed to and solved in v6 (see the progress report for IA v6: Fixes applied to the vanilla game).

PS: I also forged Hespherus sword for my protagonist. It's very useful in certain battles due to it's Sunray ability, but it has one disadvantage also: when the sunray is cast, char just stands there doing nothing for 2 or 3 seconds. Is it a bug or is it how it's supposed to be?

It's not a bug in the accurate sense of the word, but it's not the optimal way this weapon was supposed to work either. As mentioned before in this post, the problem is resolved by replacing the sunray with a much better ability in v6.

[critto]

All of the Offensive Spin's bugs (including the other bug which could radically decrease your total number of attacks under certain conditions) are addressed to and solved in v6 (see the progress report for IA v6: Fixes applied to the vanilla game).

That's bad. Well, Blade still quite a winner under IH

It's not a bug in the accurate sense of the word, but it's not the optimal way this weapon was supposed to work either. As mentioned before in this post, the problem is resolved by replacing the sunray with a much better ability in v6.

That's good to hear. Looking forward to it, because Hespherus seems to be a good pair with FoDaW for Vagrant. Currently my Vagrant does not wield it always, only on occasional battles with the undead.

Some more notes from my current run, since I'm encountering the most fun and challenging battles now.
After the Supreme Leader fight I continued to explore the WK. Saladrex wasn't that hard, but demi-lich battle took some time to win:
SPOILER!

Cleric was a reall winner with his death ward. Also, I forgot that Vagrant's Contact with Nature HLA protects him from Imprisonment. If I were to use it, the battle would've been simplier.

On the fifth level I did everything except Ancient Dragon (tried him a couple of times, but decided to leave him for ToB):
SPOILER!

The most tough battle, after the grave liches, was the 3rd Golem encounter in the Globe. Those Ice Golems really spice things up with their ice storms. Everything else wasn't that tough, since I've got used to dealing with the spiders
The Orc Horde was fun too. I lost the battle for a couple of times because I tried to think offensively rather than defensively. After that I changed my tactic and won.

Twisted Rune battle, well... let's just say it was so long that I don't even remember the exact order of things that took place there
SPOILER!

This battle, in short sentence, is a bunch of the most toughies from different types of enemies. Personally, I was more annoyed with Shangalar, than with the beholder. He was running around and casting, and just didn't want to die!
And of course, when you think it is already fun enough, a bunch of golems arrives! Fortunately, I was done with the most of the twisted party, only Shangalar was running like a madman and Layene casting her stuff being invisible. The most funny story about it, when I finished every one off, except the Layne, and she seemed to run out of spells, but didn't want to come out of her invisibility and I had no True Sight memorized! I even thought I'm gonna need to re-do the whole battle because of one spell. But fortunately, we managed to get her break off her invisibility via casting defensive spells which she started to dispell. In that window Blade casted his Breach and fighters were kicking her. Fortunately, we prevailed before sorc ran out of spells
I know, Sikret is going to improve this battle even more, and I'm a little afraid to think about what's going to wait us, humble tacticians, in the next version

Everything was done in SoA, so I have gone for Irenicus. The battle in Hell was interesting! Though it is not as hard as an Orcus battle, for example, there are still a lot of things to consider because you cannot let your characters die (their items will get lost during the transportation to ToB). So I had to be sure my fighters protected with Hardiness or magical buffs, and mages should stay quite away from battlefield (and look out for those nasty 3x Finger of Death triggers).
Now I am in ToB. Another funny moment was when I was trying to fight both Nyalie and the horde of skeleton lords. I was thinking that they won't stop until she's dead Add my beloved spiders on top of that chaos and you can imagine the picture of the battle. But then I figured that the battles aren't connected so I finished them one by one without any serious difficulties.
Right now I'm thinking on the Yaga-Shura battle. The main problem here is that my laptop really slows down to the point when the game is like a slide show because of the number of the enemies around. But I'll figure something out.

[critto]

Okay, I finally managed to beat Yaga-Shura. In order to do that I had to accomplish two things:
SPOILER!

1. Switch off every last graphics settings there is. This will buy me some time before the real slowdown begins
2. Divide and conquer. It is really necessary to use one or two characters to fight with Yaga-Shura escort, so that Shura himself is left alone and unprotected. I used blade for that, since he have plenty of magics to withstand multiple attacks from all those goons. Vagrant and Kensai were kicking Shura. Both drank 3x barbaric essense and used their Hardiness to minimize the damage. It is also a good idea to bring Yaga Shura to someplace where his smite won't throw the characters half the screen away.
Weapons with elemental damage seem to be quite effective against him, but I didn't forge any decent stuff like Poseidon's Wrath or Hammer of Thor, so I tried to maximize the physical damage instead.

Then I went for Ancient Dragon. He was surprisingly easy. Elite Nishruu caused more trouble then the dragon itself. Dracolich was way more chalengable due to character levels not being so high. Finally forged Dragon's Lord halberd for my kensai. The rest of WK was easy.
Oasis battle was quite fun, but I managed to win it with no reloads so there is nothing really particular about the tactics.
Abazigal's hideout was quite easy too. Draconis made some problems, but we prevailed (is it me or is he sometimes immune to Breach? It didn't seem to work every time). Abazigal himself fell so fast like a leaf, I didn't even got time to become frustrated because of the company he summoned to help him. Kensai with Dragon's Lord is a real winner.
Sendai's enclave. Were those drows always so annoying? Anyway, got throught the half of the enclave right now. Sorc with his comets shines here. Kensai also, since his halberd can cast dragon's breath sometimes.

[critto]

Haven't written for a while. Not that there is too much to write right now, since my current run is almost done. Sendai's enclave wasn't that tough, and now I'm thinking how to beat an EDE (I will certainly post a report on it when I beat it).
I decided to try and start another run so I stumbled on some questions while thinking on party composition, so if nobody minds we could have a little discussion about it here.
1. After my first run it seems to me that the party should have two mage-type characters at least. For my current run I was thinking of taking only 1 sorcerer and, maybe, a Cernd. How exactly effective such a combination would be?
2. I was thinking of exploring the thief class and, more precisely, his backstabbing capabilities. How really useful the backstab is in IA? Is it worth it to take a pure assassin into team? There are even some nice items for him in IA to-forge list.
3. Has anybody used monk in IA? I want to try him also since I like monks in general in D&D, but in IA it doesn't seem to be the best choice. From my point of view, he's too weak before 13-14 levels, he gets +3 and +4 enchantment on his fists too late for IA, he cannot be hasted and, since he's not geting his 4 attacks quite right from the start, he's gonna be stuck with low APR for a while. In summary, that means lack of effectiveness. But that's all theory. Anybody tried monks on practice?

In short words, I wanted to bring a little experiment into party composition, go away from standart (3 fighter types, 1 cleric and two mages) party composition. But I don't want to end up being stuck with the party who just not that effective to make it through IA.

This post has been edited by critto: Mar 12 2009, 05:38 PM

[Kerkes]

For your questions:

1.Cernd is worth while and makes early and mid-game quite easier, but I don't like him since in late game he is (IMO) just too weak. If I'd take him, however, I'd make a custom specialist mage (conjujer, but that's just me) and dual him to a cleric at lvl9. That way, you have a full-class cleric who can still cast high lvl spells via scroll. A bit low on Hp, however. He'll still have acess to SI, which is good. For more details, you should probably ask people whio have more exp with an Auramaster than me.

2. Asassin is crap. Period. You want to backstabb - fight/thief multi is the way. Or Valygar. Don't dual, since you'll loose acess to fighter HLAs. I believe f/t is one of the best classes in IA, and I had a very easy game with it. HLA Asassination + 8 APR...very quick way of killing numerous oponnents.
Big problem is that you ain't getting HLA's until late, meaning you'll have to depend on your sorcerers Wish - Hardiness to keep him alive. Once in ToB however, there's little they can't respond to.

3. As for Monks...I had Jaheira once as a monk. Nice, but not enough. Magic resistance is good, since mages prioritise Lower resistance prior to killing a Monk with ADHWs. As you already said, inability to be slowed/hasted is practically a pure disadvantage. Slow is useful, but it's easilly countered by a simple Haste. + IA brings in a lot of weapons to forge, most of which are far more powerful than monk's fist will ever be. I got up to the END of WK with monk, but I'd vote against them.

Hope this helped anyway.