[SixOfSpades]

Originally posted by Hank Parsons: She [Bodhi] can't be hurt by any anti-undead tactic. That is acceptable to me. She is a ruler of undeads. You can use such spells on her minions but not on her.

To say that Boss Enemy of type R should be immune to magics that are supposed (even designed) to work against all enemies of type R makes no sense. The Boss should be tougher than his/her minions, sure, perhaps more resistant to Anti-R techniques, but immune to them entirely? In short, if Bodhi is supposed to be Undead, let her bloody well be Undead! None this ■■■■■-footing around because Weimer doesn't think the chick is tough enough. Where Weimer made her immune to False Dawn, I would simply make her immune to Confusion. Where he made her immune to Sunray, I would simply have her drink a Potion of Magic Shielding, so she's guaranteed to make her Save against it.

You cannot be unseen inside her lair. This is acceptable to me. When's the last time an enemy invaded your Planar Sphere, Ranger's Cabin, or other stronghold and waltzed around invisible? You don't have to put up with it, and neither does she. If you have a living heart beating blood, Bodhi can sense it anywhere inside her deepest lair. This is acceptable to me, in fact, it was silly when she couldn't. That seems perfectly fine to me for a major boss on her home turf. The lair could confer a lot of extra protections, such has been true throughout fantasy literature and D&D.

Your "living heart beating blood" analogy makes a lot of sense, and I concede that point. Her having attacks that cannot be defended against, however, I do not. You are correct in that fighting on one's own turf carries major advantages, but to imply that that would allow Bodhi to subvert the laws of magic in her domain is a fallacy: The only creatures that can do that in the D&D universe are gods, and then only in their own home planes, as I stated in my Tactics Review.

True, there are two abilities available to the player that cannot truly be defended against (apart from Power Word: Reload, of course): Turn Undead and Detect Illusions. But Turn Undead can be warded off by making the Undead critters be of higher levels than the Cleric or Paladin--it was still quite easy to vaporize many bosses in an unmodded game, but Tactics cranks the bad guys' levels up to where Turn Undead is once again difficult to abuse. As for Detect Illusions, the player has no defense either, and yes it is used against you: By Damien in the Underdark, and by the Thief in the North Forest.


As for Sanchuudoku, it's my opinion that pretty much any cheese used to fight that sword is A-OK. I'll give a grudging amount of respect to Kuroisan himself, but not his Cloak or Katana. One thing I will say, however, against those who use Fireshield against the sword: If you want to be honorable, you must wait until your THIRD meeting with Kuroisan in order to use it. The first encounter teaches you what his sword does, the second teaches you that he'll keep coming back, and by the time the third comes around, you should have the spells memorized.

Originally posted by JayS: Bodhi should be extremely easy to defeat with this strategy. I certainly noticed this in C3, as I said above.

I agree. Use the correct buffs, even get her alone if you want to, and she's as good as dead. I'm not saying that Improved Bodhi is too difficult (well, not anymore), I'm saying that her cheats are unjustified, and could be better implemented.

Originally posted by Assassin: BTW, I noticed that Bodhi should be immune to Sanchuu's Acid Arrows (immunity to spells level 1-2), but she isn't in my game for some reason.

Many spells in the game (especially Innate Abilities) are treated as Level 1, even if they should be higher. Even Kangaxx's Imprisonment counts as Level 1. Therefore, a simple Minor Globe should theoretically be all you need to gain immunity to all kinds of crap (never tried it against Kangaxx--I prefer Dragon's Breath). Perhaps Weimer wanted to force the player to go the extra mile and find at least one Protection from Acid scroll, so he bumped Sanchu's Acid Arrow up to a level that would bypass Minor Globe and/or Globe--and, by the same token, Bodhi's spell immunities.