Vak Dracons

[rbeane1]

Someone was going to run a party of 6 Valk Dracons has he ever report his
progress? I was intressted in how it was going.

[yoodaa]

I started the party a few weeks ago, but never did post a report. Due to a lack of time, the party's only level 9 right now (three are level 8 with a saved level). I'm waiting for their Divinity to reach 30 for the level 3 spell picks.

For stat development, I have everyone trying to max out VIT asap; the VIT's important because I'm not resurrecting, only cheating death, and it gives more stamina for better dracon breath. Of the six valkyries, I have two each working on INT, PIE, or STR for their secondary attribute. INT to unlock powercast, PIE for faster Divinity learning, spell points, and stamina, and STR for melee power and stamina.

For skill development, I have everyone putting points into Polearms and Close Combat, to make up for the low to-hit and initiative from messed up stats. I probably shouldn't have put so much into the fighting skills for the INT valks. They're not doing much melee because I have them casting as much as possible to raise Divinity (only having base PIE shows!) I also have an artifacts expert and a throwing expert to use the powders/bombs/scrolls that I need to make up the lack of diversity within the group. The throwing expert also works on shields.

General difficulties...
1) Low initiative. It hurts having to take the hits first and not being able to heal, smelling salt, guardian angel, etc. first.

2) No locks & traps skill. Making do with the poseur's cap and thieves' buckler and divine trap and bashing for now.

3) No scouting skill. Even with Search on all the time, not a single item was found in the Monastery. This, I couldn't live without. Originally, I planned to go through with no NPC, but I wanted all the hidden items (esp. the stamina regen amulets). Went and got Sparkle =)

4) The party misses quite a bit. Perhaps it's just low skill and expert difficulty, but having only base DEX should have an effect.

5) Money problems. Valkyries can wear heavy (and expensive) armor and also cast spells. Multiply by six for a huge sum. With Sparkle, I only mix whatever is in the NPC's inventory, refraining from sleeping just to get more potions to mix. Was only able to get half a dozen spellbooks.

6) Lack of good group offensive spells.

Genaral boons...
1) Lots of HP. Yes! With everyone pushing VIT, it partially offsets the low initiative. Being poisoned is less of a problem as it takes longer to kill the character. Does having more VIT make it easier to cure poison naturally faster?

2) Cheating death. This was useful in the fights with Gregor and the Bank Golem. Anyone know what affects the chance of cheating death?

3) All extended weapons. With all polearms, it's much easier to concentrate on one enemy to kill it or weaken it faster. One time when the party was lvl 6, the group faced a larger party of Piercer Modai in a crevice. The frontline of the Piercer Modai couldn't get into short range (two trying to squeeze into a space for one?) They just stood there defending while everyone got free hits. Perhaps having an empty front section helped in that situation?

4) Everyone's a healer. Very useful in conjunction with the Large Max HP and low initiative.

5) Guardian Angel for all. The sound six Guardian Angels being summoned in succession is really satisfying.

6) Dracon breath. I should give this its own section.

Dracon Breath...it rocks so far. Each time you breathe, it takes away 20% of your max stamina. The max damage that you do is probably based on your current stamina, since damage goes down with following breaths. Keeping stamina high or full is important to keep damage high. So in a way, dracon breath damage increases with level-ups, since you gain slightly more stamina.

Noticed a couple of things from using dracon breath:
- it's neat seeing the entire party breathe
- it's better when you're in a crevice with all the monsters targeted by the breath
- it's awesome if you have Rest All, letting you all breathe again.
- For every two points of HP damage done, you do 1 point of stamina damage
- Distance might be a factor to damage, as closer things dqie faster. Hmm, could be a line-of-sight thing too.

Party progress...Not much, as I went to the Umpani to pick up Sparkle for her searching ability. From there, we went back to the monastery to grab all the hidden items. After that it was to Arnika for some much needed spellbooks. Currently taking our time on the way to Trynton with full 8-hour naps after battles to regain mana.

Tough fights...
Gregor at level 4. Put the throwing/shield expert in front and have her defend all the time. Was doing well until Gregor knocked her unconcious. Used all the miscellaneous combat commands that fight...Protect on the unconcious members, Equip to grab smelling salts and healing, and Defend to raise stamina so the party could actually hit and penetrate. Luckily, everyone survived until Gregor ran out of stamina.

Obstacle course training dummies. Party was level 5 or 6. Didn't expect such a tough time, but the dummies kept on knocking people unconcious...didn't help that we were surrounded!

Bank Golem. This fellow was tough just from the pure damage. Basically gave all the best armor to the shield bearer who defended a lot. Dring the fight, the group still didn't have the appropriate stats and skills in combat to hurt the golem much.

Hogar...Amulet of stillness (paralyze pwr 5) used as a crap shoot saved the party. It didn't drop a tusk though.

Nine level 11 Juggernauts with two lvl 12(?) Rank Weeds. This fight appeared tough, but was easy since the party was in a crevice with three characters rotating casts of Rest All to feed the Dracon breaths. Average damage was about 10 on each of the Juggernauts. Woke up after that battle to be faced with...level 6 forest mites and soldier ants. Dracon breath hit as high as 20 on the mites; it was a slaughterfest.

Ok, this has been longer than I thought. Might have more progress in another couple of weeks.

[Wereboar]

No scouting skill. Even with Search on all the time, not a single item was found in the Monastery. This, I couldn't live without.

If you have one character with senses 60, you'll find nearly all items by walking ~3 times over the spot where something is hidden. With low senses, you can walk it 10 times and still find nothing.

If you just have search mode on all the time, you'll miss many items. If you only search the rooms, but search them for some time, you'll find much more of them. (and playing the game for the 20th time helps, since you know where to serach)

Money problems. Valkyries can wear heavy (and expensive) armor and also cast spells. Multiply by six for a huge sum.

With hybrids, i usually don't buy many books. You don't need every spells with every character, or at least you don't need them all at once.
BTW playing without ressurection powders shoud save lots of money.

Cheating death. This was useful in the fights with Gregor and the Bank Golem. Anyone know what affects the chance of cheating death?

It has been mentioned that having high stamina helps. I don't know if this is correct.

Gregor at level 4. Put the throwing/shield expert in front and have her defend all the time.

With only one front liner, using a granite potion (from burz) helps a lot.

[Krull]

Yoodaa

You've intrigued me.

How do you manage without Missile Shield and Element Shield? Although if you keep Sparkle for long enough she can help with the latter I suppose?

Mind you, having each Valk being able to cast Superman and Guardian Angel would help....

[rbeane1]

Thanks for the update!!