Sarevok Ascension (Spoilers)

[Dundee Slaytern]

Originally posted by Imrahil: ~ Illasera's usually the one I fear the most since her hits can Dispel your character, do lots of damage, & possibly give you Miscast Magic. I'd try to take her out during your Time Stop (which, it occurs to me, could be accomplished by Simulacrum'ing yourself, having you & your clone use Focus, then benefitting from a Time Trap from Valen who can go to town on one of the other bad guys). ~

Shield of Reflection.

I would actually consider her to be the easiest.

Cheers.

[ZFR]

The Balthazar ability that grants him immunity to time stop is called lunar stance:

lunar stance: adds twenty hit points, immune to time stop, level drain, disintegrate, and casts magic missile on nearest spell-caster.

It's not permanent.

[Sever]

Originally posted by Imrahil: It is possible to keep Sarevok on your side, but given how you described your character, you probably chose the dialogues that told him you won't need him later or you'll kill him or something, right? In that case, he'll most likely desert you. I'm guessing you found a way around that, though?

Actually i chose the dialogue options that i guessed would keep him happy. Brotherly love and all that. IIRC, his last conversation was to urge me to take the power of the throne and retain him as the right hand man. It's been many years since my last TOB romp but i think there was still more dialogue after this.

Originally posted by Imrahil: You do need a decent opener in this battle, but this is one of the places where I think prep'ing the battlefield ahead of time isn't cheese. You could easily justify setting traps around the area with SS & Valen. Set up a couple of Summons before stilling the final pool (if you can get Balthazar hung up on a Mordy's Sword, so much the better). As I mentioned above, cast Simulacrum right after stilling the final pool & have your Simmy use Focus. There are some cheesy, but not cheating IMO, tactics you can try out, as well. Use a Protection from Magic scroll on Sendai, for example (some of her spells are scripted, so it won't stop everything). If you can take out Sendai, you can scoop up her 2 Potions of Heal & use them to heal up after taking a beating from Balthazar. If Viconia & SS have nothing else to do, give them a Rod of Resurrection & have them sit off to the side using it to heal your front-liners. Alternatively, give Silver some Invisibility potions & have her Backstab people while using Poison weapon. Valen should make short work of Yaga Shura (& probably Sarevok if he's turned on you) if you use her claws, by the way. A few hits of Level Drain will take them down. Illasera's usually the one I fear the most since her hits can Dispel your character, do lots of damage, & possibly give you Miscast Magic. I'd try to take her out during your Time Stop (which, it occurs to me, could be accomplished by Simulacrum'ing yourself, having you & your clone use Focus, then benefitting from a Time Trap from Valen who can go to town on one of the other bad guys). If none of the above proves helpful, let us know where you're getting stuck & maybe we can offer more suggestions.

I'll have to reload an earlier save and work back to the five, but with the tactics mentioned, i can't see myself having any difficulty that i can't find a solution for. No traps for me though. Summons are far less cheesy. Once the initial TS madness is over, it sounds like the perfect time to try out a project image chain attack from both PC and the Simulacrum. Never done that before. Should be fun

- Imrahil [/QUOTE]

[Imrahil]

Originally posted by Dundee Slaytern: quote: Originally posted by Imrahil: ~ Illasera's usually the one I fear the most since her hits can Dispel your character, do lots of damage, & possibly give you Miscast Magic. I'd try to take her out during your Time Stop (which, it occurs to me, could be accomplished by Simulacrum'ing yourself, having you & your clone use Focus, then benefitting from a Time Trap from Valen who can go to town on one of the other bad guys). ~

Shield of Reflection.

I would actually consider her to be the easiest.[/QUOTE]Oh, certainly she's one of the easiest to kill, I'm just saying I fear her the most because she can Dispel all my buffs so easily.

I usually don't carry the Shield of Reflection with me that far into the game, anyway (I'm generally not much of a packrat). For example, given Sever's party, I'd be willing to take bets that the only Shield handy is the Darksteel Shield, being used by Viconia (with a small chance that that Silver Star has the Holy Buckler of Amaunator stashed away just in case). Viconia may be able to use Physical Mirror then go stand by Illasera trying to hit her if she's causing problems for the rest of the party, though.

[Sever]

Two points for you on the Darksteel, Imrahil.

Illisera's not causing any major problems as yet.

[Imrahil]

Originally posted by SixOfSpades: I usually get tired of my games before I get to Balthazar (ToB has that effect) ... I've also never played Ascension, but [from] what I can tell, it's all about cheese.

I think this just didn't sink in for me when I read it.

Six, you have to go play Ascension, with all the Improved Bosses that come with it (also, does that mean you haven't actually tried Turnabout? I assumed you had played both based on you commenting about Turnabout).

Anyway, if you really haven't, then all this time... I mean, ALL THIS TIME, have you been facing [I think we're beyond this in this thread, but it hasn't been mentioned yet, so... TOB END-GAME FINAL BOSS SPOILER ALERT!!!]...
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...Mellisan plus some silly demons when you play ToB?

I think you Owe It To The Game to play Ascension.

Ok, that was hyperbole, but still. The guy who absolutely dissected Tactics hasn't played Ascension? And commented on it? That seems like me never using Kelsey. Yes, you'll find it extremely cheesy at first. You'll probably get burned by the "one of The Five won't die & I have to reload & that utterly sucks" bug that we all run into once out of every 10-15 tries.

But still, I think you should at least give it a go. It has its fair share of cheese, but it strains your tactical abilities to the limit at the same time, but not in a "you can only win if you Chain Contingency these-3-exact-spells while dual-wielding Celestial Fury + Sanchuudoku" kind of way. Many tactics & parties will work.

You're telling me you've never faced Tamah in Abazigail's Lair? You've never had to deal with Yaga Shura's Lieutenants? You've never faced The Five all at once in the Throne?

You need to do this, if just to revitalize ToB for you. Plus, then you'll be able to offer insights into the Final Battle even I'd like to hear despite facing Ascension umpteen times.

If you have actually played Ascension, then just consider this post an advertisement for it (plus Turnabout) for those who haven't. [img]smile.gif[/img]

ETA: Ascension download link, just to complete the whole advertisement bit for anyone who hasn't tried it.

- Imrahil

[ 05-29-2007, 11:17 PM: Message edited by: Imrahil ]

[Sever]

*flashing neon sign*

Ascension: Get yer cherry busted!

[SixOfSpades]

Originally posted by Imrahil: Six, . . . I think you Owe It To The Game to play Ascension.

I've played through most of ToB with Ascension installed, but really, the whole thrust of ToB just leaves me cold. No choices, no options, no roleplay, just one gore-fest after another. So those games where I do make it all the way to the Throne are quite rare. I think I did it will my All-Wizard and All-Warrior parties, but apart from them, I don't believe I've been all the way to the end since my 2nd attempt at ToB. (My 1st was stopped cold by Draconis.)

I'm not opposed to challenge; it's just that I prefer certain types of challenge. In StarCraft, I can spend a lot of time & money assembling a fleet of 12 Carriers, with Observer & Arbiter support, and on the rare occasions when this attack wing gets defeated and destroyed, then I can come to grips with my failure and try again. In BG, the only way to cope with defeat is to Reload and pretend it never happened. True, every now & again there is the odd come-from-behind victory, where half your team is dead or incapacitated yet you squeeze out a victory anyway, but the vast majority of fights are basically decided by the first 2 rounds.

Improved Abazigal was fun, if you don't mind him cheating (special attacks during a TimeStop? A Dragon who casts Imprisonment?). Improved Yaga-Shura . . . kinda wasn't, considering he's still dead easy to isolate. True, installing Ascension was a net improvement on ToB, but in almost the wrong way: We were already trapped in a railroad plot and travel sequence, we didn't need to be forced to use one specific set of memorized spells as well.