Haha! Death to the Acid Kensai! (Spoilers)

[Gangrell]

After reloading about... five times with my characters ranging from 11-13th level, I have finally gathered enough info on why he so hard (to some anyway).

He can bypass spell protections including Stoneskin, Spirit Armor, Mirror Image, Barkskin, and Defensive Harmony literally cutting right through them and kills mages with about 2-3 hits. He can see through Invisibility, and he's equipped down to the bone with all the trimmings including the Robe of Vecna, he has 50% MD Resistance do to the Belt of Inertial Barrier, but... has no actual MR but yet he can resist spells that effect MR, even spells that only count on Saving Throws such as Hold Person, Chaos, Greater Malison and so forth are still negated because of his Magic Resistance (thats what the screen said).

So, I'm at the de'Arnise Keep, and as soon as I re-enter at the City Gates, there he rears his head. So I reload and pre-buff my party with most of my defensive spell protections and Teleport to the Docks District in a nice open area. As a first tactic, a sad one maybe, but I run to evade his double Death Fog, then he immediately goes after my mages (Jan and Tashia). As I said, he has no problem cutting through protections and Invisibility he ignores so they did a bit of running while my other character fought him. Breach and Spell Thrust were spell favorites of mine in this fight, though it was annoying when he kept throwing up PfMW from his scrolls. Tanking was a must, though since my mages were out of view, he just stood there for a bit while my tanks pounded on him (don't know why) but with DoE on Mazzy, she could take a bit of his attacks. Stunning Fist was ineffective, but eventually he did fall. I would have done more to remove his Spell Protections, but my spells were limited and like I said he has an odd amount of MR and protection against Magic Damage.

Please feel free to post any tactics you may have to fight him, though I couldn't find much out of that fight and from Shadow Keeper. So in short, he's overpowered, and a major pain in the arse, thanks for reading.

[Xen]

Congrats! Currently i have to play CS so i`ll get back to you later.

[Assassin]

He can bypass spell protections including Stoneskin, Spirit Armor, Mirror Image, Barkskin, and Defensive Harmony literally cutting right through them and kills mages with about 2-3 hits. He can see through Invisibility, and he's equipped down to the bone with all the trimmings including the Robe of Vecna, he has 50% MD Resistance do to the Belt of Inertial Barrier, but... has no actual MR but yet he can resist spells that effect MR, even spells that only count on Saving Throws such as Hold Person, Chaos, Greater Malison and so forth are still negated because of his Magic Resistance (thats what the screen said).

Nope. He doesn't bypass it. He has insane ApR, which is why he can cut down Mages. He can't see through Invisibility. That's his major weakness. And, I think that he drinks some potions that increase his MR. That said, good job [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Gangrell]

Actually, I looked into Shadow Keeper a bit closer, and I don't see why he bother's throwing up Spell Turning or Spell Deflection, he has the Cloak of Mirroring on, along with a Ring of Protection +2 and the Ring of Gaxx. They've just assembled him with so many powerful items, it's too over-powered for an earlier encounter in the game.

With the ability to cast Improved Haste 3 times a day, I can see the reason behind his power for ApR, I just thought he ignored Spell Protections, quite frankly, I've never seen someone cut down a mage with Stoneskin still active. He can see through Invisibility, of that I'm sure, because once Jan had casted Imp. Invisibility and made haste away from the Death Fogs, he went right for him.

[Assassin]

Nope. He can't. I'm sure of it. I've used Invisibility on him numerous times. And, the simple solution is, if you don't want to fight him, don't use the Celestial Fury. Or give it to him. I mean, you don't have to fight him. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[True_Moose]

Hey Grangell, correct me if I'm wrong, but won't acid damage bypass Stoneskin.

How I beat him: lvl 14 solo Anti-Paladin dual-wielding Sword of Balduran and CF, with potions of Regeneration, Oil of Speed, and multiple invisibility potions. Dispel on hit rocks. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[weimer]

Kuroisan does not have the "invisibility detection by script" effect (look more closely using Near Infinity), so if he did happen to see through invisibility once for you, it's a game engine bug. Like so many Weimer enemies, he falls to invisibility.

Elemental damage (like his acid) bypasses Stoneskin -- that's one of the (many) reasons why the Flail of Ages is so powerful.

Too powerful for an early-game encounter? That's the point, so I'm glad it's working. K is supposed to inspire you to avoid Celestial Fury until you have the power to deal with him.

Copies of powerful items? That was also the point. K was made at a time when the Kensai-Mage dual was all that anyone talked about on a.g.b-g. The subtext here is that although the kit and items are powerful, it's really the human intelligence that rules: you still end up defeating the big K, even though he has all of the "cheese".

HINTS-Kuroisan has more info.

[Gangrell]

I must have a bug in the Tactics Mod about the Invisibility then, not unless Jan got hit by the Deathfog, but I didn't see it happen [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img]

Originally posted by weimer: Too powerful for an early-game encounter? That's the point, so I'm glad it's working. K is supposed to inspire you to avoid Celestial Fury until you have the power to deal with him.

Heh, as if [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Thanks for helping to clear some of this up, maybe I will wait a bit longer before I snatch CF next time [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]