I got juiced up to play my solo paladin again, and for those who read my thread on it several months ago I have dumped the cleric/mage (decided to stay solo) and am in lower dorn's.

Well, heres the deal. I'm level 30 with an unbuffed AC of -19 (I grabbed the Glory of Suffering when I got the Pale Justice). Here's the deal: I attacked malavon, whupped his similacrum, demolished his golems, obliterated his stalkers, annihilated his hulks, looted his chamber, then went out to fight him. Hit him a bit, he teleports, and suddenly...

I get attacked by a chap by the name of Illair (or Ildair or Iddair or something). Well, this stoneskinned guy busts out a 80 damage prismatic spray, followed by summoning up a bunch of elementals and hulks (which confused me), and finished me off with a 173 damage freezing orb (and I resisted a good bit more, too.

Who in the hell is this guy???

Okay, [/rant] time. I probably will beat him somehow before someone replies, I'm just confused on how I was hit for 280+ damage by someone who I have never encountered in a game before.

EDIT: second try I got him, but Mally himself managed to petrify me. This could come down to luck :D . Oh, and I realized that I am resisting well over 60% of the cold damage, so Illair in the above example was actually hitting me for... 400 damage. Wow.

EDIT2: hey cool, I'm a few colored stars.

[ 08-21-2005, 09:22 PM: Message edited by: Marty4 ]

Oh, Illair, i know him. He was that weapon of mass destruction Malavon was keeping in his used chamber pot :D

<font color = lightgreen>I don't think I've every heard of Illair, either. Of course, it has been nearly a year since I was last engaged in IWD.

How is the paladin faring as far as physical resistances are concerned?</font>

In lieu of bumping the thread I started earlier (thanks for your quick reply, Marty! :D ), I'd like to ask a question about fewer players in the party and XP.

In the old, first-edition rules, you would divide the XP of the creature killed by the number of party members. Does this still apply (in other words, 3 characters in the party will individually receive twice as much XP than a full party of six)? Last D&D game for me was the original pen-and-paper version (that I found much more satisfying, I might add...can't replace imagination with computer AI or even the best of graphics...)

Thanks again for your help earlier, Marty (and thanks to Serak and Brainless One, too).

[ 08-22-2005, 08:47 PM: Message edited by: Jaguar ]

Oh yea, the xp is still divided. That's why I'm maxed out at Mally, I only have one guy [img]smile.gif[/img]

Azred, I am actually not doing too well in the physical resistances. I am getting 10% to all from the Glory, and an extra 10% to crushing from my shield. Is there an item or two that I missed?

Anyways, I just beat the pair of party poopers. Illair, fortuanately, fell under a pair of criticals (at 25 str they are going for 66-ish damage). Malavon is also a problem, since he likes to Rage me for 100+ damage, but I only got hit by one (avoided the second), used lay on hands for 60 life, and finished him. It was tough to finish him before I got hit with a petrify.

It turns out that the girdle of Labelas' haste ability fizzles if used while under the influence of Righteous Wrath of the Faithful. Haste helped a lot :D

Well, I've bypassed this part of a cheasy anti-uberness part of the game. Hopefully I wont encounter any other problems.

<font color = lightgreen>Yes, there are quite a few items you might have discarded/missed that offer increased resistance to various attack forms. The best one--the Bone Marrow Belt--you can't use due to your alignment. Still, the more you resist the longer you'll live and/or the less you'll have to heal yourself. Anyway....

Once you pass Malavon it's fairly easy going through the rest of Lower Dorn.</font>

Oh, besides, IIRC Illair is aded in heart of fury mode and he also gets aded if you have a certain mod installed (don't know wich one exactly but i know there is one out there wich places heart of fury enemies and items in normal mode) or when you have finished HOW. so he's supposed to be though. I find it odd actually that the developers would make Malovan's battle even more difficult while the others are a cakewalk in comparison. I mean, maiden Ilmadia get's a few more priest on here side for crying out loud wich are easely dispatched with the right tactics.

The difficulty level affects the damage as well.

A certain formidable bug-like monster comes to mind that regularly deals 300-500 damage per hit on HoF mode. Thank goodness for resistances. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I noticed a lot of additions to the game when I moved from Core difficulty to Insane, so the Idair inclusion doesn't surprise me. I believe he was also around on Insane, but wasn't much trouble there. In fact, I had a harder time in Marketh's Palace and in the Ilmadia area than I did with Malavon, that time around.

**SPOILERS**

Watch out for multiple Priest-Mages of Vhaerun with Ilmadia and Marketh. They are nasty pieces of work - at least lvl 13 as wizards.

My Insane-difficulty power party nearly got trashed in the fire giant fight with the additions of the priest-mages, so they weren't a cakewalk for me. They somehow got through two islands-worth of spelltraps, so maybe I was just unlucky.

[ 08-25-2005, 12:57 AM: Message edited by: Aerich ]