Some Screenshots From My Assassin Game

[Armen]

hmm - i did't know you could backstab creatues (demons, liches) that can see invisible . . .

[Iron Greasel]

It takes a special kind of person to know where liches and shadows keep their vital organs.

[ZFR]

I like it when assassin gets a critical hit on a backstab. I actually managed that in the ToB "arena" fight. Was nice... over in a second.

Very nice screenshots and story Dundee.

[ 06-14-2006, 01:05 PM: Message edited by: ZFR ]

[SixOfSpades]

Originally posted by Armen: hmm - i did't know you could backstab creatues (demons, liches) that can see invisible . . .

The game checks three things:
1: Are you Invisible/Stealthed?
2: Are you behind them?
3: Are they immune to Backstab?

If the first two are Yes and the third one is No, you can Backstab them. The game doesn't care if they can see the Invisible or not, that just makes it more difficult to get behind them.

Dundee, you mention using Summons against the Liches. Since I assume you have Slightly Smarter Mages / Liches installed, why do you not mention their Teleport Field ability? Did Weimer disable that in a recent version? Or maybe using Wands doesn't trigger it. . . hmm. . .

[Olorin]

Originally posted by Armen: hmm - i did't know you could backstab creatues (demons, liches) that can see invisible . . .

This might be due to stealth. I know that a stealthed character with the cloak of non-detection cannot be revealed by true sight, even though an invisible character with the cloak on will be revealed.

Apparently, the game treats stealth and invisibility differently. I would be good to know if you only need to be stealthed to backstab these creatures, or if you need the combination of stealth and non-detection.

Perhaps Dundee can do some tests(??) next time he encounters a lich or demon and let us know what combinations of invis, stealth, and non-detection work for backstabbing.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Originally posted by SixOfSpades: ~~ Dundee, you mention using Summons against the Liches. Since I assume you have Slightly Smarter Mages / Liches installed, why do you not mention their Teleport Field ability? Did Weimer disable that in a recent version? Or maybe using Wands doesn't trigger it. . . hmm. . .

Where would I be now, if I did not seek out to exploit every single excruciating loophole in the Tactics' AI Scripts?

The Tactics Liches only activate their Teleport Field if they are aware of your existence. My party was like 2-3 screens away happily twiddling their thumbs while I sent summons one by one to the Lich's location.

Clairvoyance is a SUPERB spell, and one of my all-time favourites, since it reveals the ENTIRE map, eliminating the obstacle of the fog-of-war(FoW). With no FoW, your summons can move ANYWHERE.

In short. So long as the Lich does not FFFFFF">Detect([PC]) or the like, it will not activate its' Teleport Field.

Always a hoot when a Lich casts Time Stop followed by a Spell Trigger of Chain Lightning, Chaos, and Death Spell on one Worg. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

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For the record, I have found a way to defeat the Sekolah Priestess in the City of Caverns without her summoning that overpowered Minor Avatar of Sekolah monstrosity.

And yes... I slew the entire horde of Improved Sahuagin, King and Prince, without the need to rest even once. Will post more on that soon.

Bruhwahaha! [img]graemlins/evillaughter2.gif[/img]

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ADD] Oh, and I think I have found a reliable way to defeat Liches without resorting to cheese and such. It... requires a Level 06 spell( one which I like to use a lot when I have Mages). One that I have found to be very much... underappreciated by most BG gamers, save a few( doing a search on it on the forums yielded... 3 results( 1 called it useless, 1 only wanted it as a joke, and only 1 actually like using it)).

You know... with 200+ over spells, a lot of good spells tend to be overlooked, just like Emotion:Hopelessness or Spook.

[ 06-02-2006, 10:32 PM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

[Raffin]

Dundee-Just a random guess from a BG 2 newbee, but you're not referring to Power Word Silence, are you?

BTW-I'm loving your blow by blow account. It's inspired me to try a Tactics runthrough with a Fighter/Mage, though not with your skill or success (damn nightfall! [img]smile.gif[/img]

-Raffin

[SixOfSpades]

Originally posted by Dundee Slaytern: The Tactics Liches only activate their Teleport Field if they are aware of your existence. My party was like 2-3 screens away happily twiddling their thumbs while I sent summons one by one to the Lich's location.

Hmm...in my experience, none of Weimer's scripts are limited by distance. I think if you had summoned those Worgs via a spell rather than a Wand, those Liches would have Teleported your party from halfway across the world. Then again, perhaps their script only kicks in after the Lich has seen a party member. Dunno.

For the record, I have found a way to defeat the Sekolah Priestess in the City of Caverns without her summoning that overpowered Minor Avatar of Sekolah monstrosity.

For the record, I'm guessing a stack of Traps.

I think I have found a reliable way to defeat Liches without resorting to cheese and such. It... requires a Level 06 spell( one which I like to use a lot when I have Mages). One that I have found to be very much... underappreciated by most BG gamers...

This may or may not be the spell you mean, but I like Death Fog. It's Level 6, it's area of effect, no WeimerCheese can block it, and if you time it right, Liches are unable to cast spells for 6 rounds. But it's not a guaranteed kill, so they have a fighting chance. Nice.

You know... with 200+ over spells, a lot of good spells tend to be overlooked, just like Emotion:Hopelessness or Spook.

I wasn't aware that anyone overlooked Emotion. [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Dundee Slaytern]

Originally posted by SixOfSpades: Hmm...in my experience, none of Weimer's scripts are limited by distance. I think if you had summoned those Worgs via a spell rather than a Wand, those Liches would have Teleported your party from halfway across the world. Then again, perhaps their script only kicks in after the Lich has seen a party member. Dunno.

It does not matter whether it is from a spell or an item. The important thing here is not to let the Lich be aware of a PC's existence. No see/detect PC, no TField cheese.

For the record, I'm guessing a stack of Traps.

Fie, fie. You, good Sir, wound me deeply. I can do better than that. [img]tongue.gif[/img] I would not be so coy about it, if it was such the case.

I think I have found a reliable way to defeat Liches without resorting to cheese and such. It... requires a Level 06 spell( one which I like to use a lot when I have Mages). One that I have found to be very much... underappreciated by most BG gamers...

Death Fog is hardly an underappreciated spell, and Liches are immuned to Acid anyway( what with all their Non-Breachable Combat Protections...) Raffin is correct. It is in fact, Power Word:Silence. It is a Lvl 06 Spell, so it bypasses the Liches' Spell Level Immunities. Liches have zero Magic Resistance. There is no save. It lasts for seven rounds. It has a casting time of 1. It is practically THE Anti-Lich spell.

The counters for Power Word:Silence are as follows,

Magic Resistance: Liches have none.
Spell Trap/Deflection/Turning: Just wait for them to expire, or cast anti spell protection spells
Spell Immunity:Conjuration: Not a common choice for Spell Immunity.
Vocalise: Rare in scripts too, for some reason.

A non-spellcasting Lich is a dead Lich.

I wasn't aware that anyone overlooked Emotion. [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]smile.gif[/img]

Level 04 is usually Stoneskin this, Stoneskin that. Greater Malison, Emotion, Polymorph Other, etc... get no love, or few.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Backstabbed Drows, backstabbed Drows,
Hear them scream and howl.
Oh what fun, is to hit,
Their spines as they split.

Hey!

Stabbing through their backs,
I swear Rena's not a hack.
It's just so easy now,
To create a big Ka-pow!

Oh!~~

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2nd Verse is 'Dashing through the snow'
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The above Drow party had four castings of True Sight, so I had to wait it out a bit. The observant will notice that my party is fatigued. That is because they have not rested since... the ship sank. Yeah... I am a cruel taskmaster. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

True Sight will NOT punch through Stealth+Cloak of Non-Detection, but it will dispel Potions of Invisibility. So... I had to bid my time. Once they ran out of True Sights, I utilised the same tactics as the Rune Assassins...

Backstab, drink a Potion of Invisibility.
Backstab, drink a Potion of Invisibility.
Backstab, drink a Potion of Invisibility.
Backstab, drink a Potion of Invisibility.
etc...

From ALL the previous encounters, I had amassed over a hundred Potions of Invisibility. I figured I might as well use them now... I borrowed Kelsey's Cleric Staff +3 for more damage, and it shows, in the 182dmg shot. This is merely the tip of the iceberg... look forward to 200+dmg backstabs in the future, when I get better equipment.

The Cleric Staff +3 has a weapon speed of 1. With one proficiency point in Two-Handed Weapons Style, this becomes a weapon speed of 0. Weapon speed is very important here, because the longer you take to stab someone, the harder it is to drink a Potion of Invisibility afterwards. With a weapon speed of 0, I can immediately gulp the Potion of Invisibility. Cheesy, but hey, just doing what the Rune Assassins are doing.

The Drow Fighter/Mages had Stoneskins, so I move in the rest of the party, shot each one of them with an Arrow of Dispelling and smacked them into oblivion.

~~~~ ~~~~

I get ahead of myself though.

What of the City of Caverns?

First off, a brief description of the mod component, the 'Improved Sahuagin'. Each Sahuagin is now armed with a Spear +3 and the Light Crossbow of Speed( +1 ApR, +1 enchanted). They each carry 120 Paralytic Bolts. The main difference between these bolts and their Kuo-Tua counterparts, is that the Paralytic Bolts only deals 1d10dmg, instead of 1d12. Paralytic Bolts also have weight, with each bolt weighing 1pd.

The Sahuagins also have Call Shot, which at their level(14), reduces your STR by 2 with each shot. This is deadly in combination with the stun from the Paralytic Bolts. They also have minor spells, which I think are mainly for show, since I mostly ignored them.

These Sahuagins are also programmed not to attack anybody holding the Shield of Reflection. They will instead, go melee. Bear in mind that these Sahuagins have 21 STR and -5 AC. They also have an effective melee THAC0 of 0.

They have GM in Crossbows, and Mastery in Spears, oh, and they are Rangers, with the Archer kit. You do NOT want them to shoot at you. They WILL hit you.

So they have... 3 ApR with Crossbows, and 2 ApR with Spears.

Their saving throws are Death(5), Wands(7), Poly(6), Breath(4), and Spell(8).

Sounds pretty scary right? It would be... if the AI was not abusable.

~~~~ ~~~~

Since this was my first time fighting the Improved Sahuagin. I did not know how their AI scripts would operate. I make it a habit never to look into a mod's .cre files or scripts until I have passed that stage, or gave up.

I started off using basic tactics, like using summons as meat shields, going into melee fast, spellpower, etc... all of which yielded little success. The best legitimate tactic I could use at that time was to lure them one by one into the waiting firing squad of my party( especially for Rena, since she was a Crossbow specialist, so I used back the Paralytic Bolts on the Sahuagin). This was effective. This was fair. This was also... tedious.

And so... I decided to cheese, to make things go faster. As I ticked off the cheese tactics one by one, I finally managed to plow through the City of Caverns because the Improved Sahuagin were vulnerable to one of the oldest cheese in BG2 history.

They do not respond to out of sight area damage.

Cue the massing whoring of area-damage spells such as Ice Storm, Cloudkill, Death Fog, Fireballs, etc... Man, I was so glad I pickpocketed all those scrolls from Athkhala.

Does the cheese apply to the Priestess as well? Why yes, it does. To put it mildly, you DO NOT WANT HER TO SEE YOU. Once a summon or PC is sighted, she gets about a galactic-gazillion number of buffs and summons the most dangerous thing in the ISahuagin Mod. The Minor Avatar of Sekolah. Unless you are well-prepared, you do not want to fight this monstrousity.

A problem occurs however. The Priestess dons the Cloak of Mirroring. Rendering direct area-damage spells useless, and she ForceCasts Zone of Sweet Air anytime you try to nail her with Cloudkill.

So how?

How can we defeat her without invoking the cheese of Sekolah? What cheese can we use to counter her cheese?

Hmm...

A hint. Think about what the Cloak of Mirroring does not protect against.

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At the end of the City of Caverns arc, I managed to loot 45 sets of items. That is 5400 Paralytic Bolts. Oh man... no more Bolts +1 for Rena. It is PBolts all the way now... After selling off the loot, I am currently sitting pretty at about 200,000gp.

I would rate the ISahuagin Mod as B. The amount of XP and loot justifies the difficulty of the Rebels, and most of them can be avoided by careful scouting( if you wish to avoid them that is).

The final fight with the King is difficult, but not impossible. Especially if you allow the Prince to help you in the fight. I had more difficulties because I was depleted of spells( I never rested), but had I rested and prepared accordingly, the fight would most probably have been a breeze.

The only flaw in my opinion, is the Priestess. The level of difficulty of that fight, compared to the King's, was waaaay too lopsided. It just does not seem to fit in well with the rest of the Sahuagin fights.

It would be like meeting a Tarrasque before you fight Jon Irenicus. Too out of place.

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An Aftermath Look At The Carnage


Backstabbing Is Fun


Yeah, Yeah. So Traps Are Dishonorable.


ALL Sahuagin Must Die! Besides, I Want To Make The Wave.