I don't have anywhere near as much money as needed to buy the Astral Domine. I can't beat him in combat because he dodges all my attacks and is immune to all my magic!! I have all the other atifacts and plan to go to the Rapax soon. I need some really good tips to beat the asshole rattkin boss, Don Barlone.

It's no big deal to wait until you have the cash. Whenever you're ready, he;ll have the Dominae for sale.

As to fighting him, I only bothered when I has a faerie ninja, since Barlone has the Cane of Corpus, usable only by the faerie ninja. Even then, he doesn't drop it all the time, either.

So, I suggest you get on with the game and return when you have enough to buy the doodad. Or you're tough enough to take out the Don.

<center>Nightowl2</center>

It's pretty unusual to get that far and not have accumulated at least couple hundred K gold. Or do you have a wild one in your party who spends it as soon as s/he gets it? If you have anyone in the party with an Alchemy skill of at least 15, funds stop being a problem: you can have, literally, as much gold as you want. Buy Light Heal and Moderate Heal potions from Braffit and He'Li, combine them to make Heavy Heal potions, and sell those to He'Li. If your Alchemy skill is higher, you can mix better potions and make money faster. With an Alchemy skill of 50, you can make Renewal potions for a net profit of over 2000 per bottle.

WRT fighting the Don, buff and de-buff spells like Armormelt, Missile Shield, Superman, and Enchanted Blade are important. Or at least the first three: I've generally found it less painful standing back and poking arrows into the Don rather than standing up close and trying to poke knives into him.

WRT fighting the Don, buff and de-buff spells like Armormelt, Missile Shield, Superman, and Enchanted Blade are important. Or at least the first three: I've generally found it less painful standing back and poking arrows into the Don rather than standing up close and trying to poke knives into him. </font>[/QUOTE]Also make sure that you fight Milano and the Don separately. Taking both at once is a bit hard. When fighting the Don, throw a Canned Elemental behind him. The Elemental will usually not get many hits in, but this will expose the Don to attacks from behind (by either your party or the elemental). I have taken him out as early as level 8 adn it sounds like you are many more levels than that if you already have the Destinae Dominus. Haste and Guardian Angel will also help. Also if stamina or hit points get low, make sure to cast Rest All or Heal Wounds (Heal All if you have it).

Another thing I noticed is that, although the Don starts with around 1000 stamina points, you start hitting after a number of rounds when his stamina is still around 800 or so. I think it depends on how fast and agile you are, to some degree, as each party I tried has taken very different amount of times to kill him. After about 5 or 6 rounds, if you can survive that long, you all of a sudden get a hit here and there and it seems to accelerate. Maybe your mythology goes up while fighting so you know your enemy better? Something seems to kick in after a while. Make sure you have cure poisons and heavy heals, use guardian angel or stoneskin (whatever it's called) and the other protections. I even use element shield to raise poison resistance (not sure if it actually helps!). It shouldn't be that hard if your team is level 16 or higher unless you developed them slow. I've never paid the rat bastard. I feel I will need the money for Ferro later. Some of his stuff is 100,000 gold each.

Thanks for your help. I finally killed that greedy bastard using canned elemntals and potions of haste. I wasn't very good at developing my party because this is my time playing Wizardry 8. My mage was highly under used and I should've put more points into speed for my fighters. I think I'm ready to go to the Rapax Castle now. Will killing Don have any negative effects? Will I ever run into anymore Rattkin Razuka?

Yeah, I think the Razuka show up still from time to time. Though after taking out the Don, you should find them minor annoyances at best ;)

As for effects, no, there aren't any, aside from making all the rats made at you now. Of course, that's no big deal, either ;)

<center<>Nightowl2</center>

I killed the rattkin who offered me the bankjob and now the don is hostile to me. Now that he doesn't offer to steal the astral dominae, will I still get it if I kill him?

Looking at this, I just realized that I've *never* cast Body of Stone as a for-real I-want-what-it-does spell. I think I've cast it a couple of times just to see what it does, but that's it. Conversely, I'm a big fan of Razor Cloak: yeah, you can hit me but (as He'Li puts it) "It'll cost you".

I'm pretty sure it doesn't.

Same here. Though I suspect that may change when my solo Bishop gets there.

Yeah. Especially when you've got multiple characters that can wear Infinity Helms, Robes of Rejuvenation, and the like, or use the custom pieces. My current "Hybrid Honeys" party arrived at the Castle with over 600K gold, and spend over 80% of it within the first few days.

Lightweight, yeah. The trick to the Don is, he always has the Dominae, whether he makes the offer or not. So go ahead and take him out.

<center>Nightowl2</center>

P.S. You may, however, need to meet the Savant in the swamp before the Don has it available. I'm not too sure.