Thomas quest for Ascension

[Rataxes]

Originally posted by Assassin: [img]tongue.gif[/img] So basically, Fire Storm to kill the guards, run to the other side, kill the summons, Dispel Magic, some more Fire Storm.

Well... basically, yeah Simplest is often the best.

[ 02-26-2004, 08:00 PM: Message edited by: Rataxes ]

[Dundee Slaytern]

Well s***, I fail to see how this Mod is balanced. The condition(s) for the reinforcement spawns looks screwy or badly thought out. Especially since your Char massarced the Barracks only moments ago... so it will not make sense that there are still so many Drow Warriors. One spawn per incarnation was good enough.

I rather buff Sendai up herself instead. She is the one that needs buffing, not the battle conditions.

Let's face it, Sendai versus Abazigal one on one? I'm betting on the blue guy.

[Rataxes]

Originally posted by Dundee Slaytern: Well s***, I fail to see how this Mod is balanced. The condition(s) for the reinforcement spawns looks screwy or badly thought out. Especially since your Char massarced the Barracks only moments ago... so it will not make sense that there are still so many Drow Warriors. One spawn per incarnation was good enough. I rather buff Sendai up herself instead. She is the one that needs buffing, not the battle conditions. Let's face it, Sendai versus Abazigal one on one? I'm betting on the blue guy.

Agreed. This whole battle left a pretty sour taste in my mouth when I was done, and I doubt it'll be part of my mod list when I reinstall BG2. The infinite reinforcements is by itself a poor and lazy device to try and pump up the difficulty with, but it's just ridiculous when the reinforcements are so powerful. I honestly doubt even the most powerful NPC fighter could face one of those warriors in a 1 vs 1 without taking heavy damage, let alone trying to take on 3-4 at the same time.

[ 02-26-2004, 11:06 PM: Message edited by: Rataxes ]

[Assassin]

It wasn't that bad when tried it out. While sometimes, the elite guards are scary, when you have 3 frontline fighters, all Improved Hasted, with a Planetar to help out and Mordies to soak up damage, they start to lose their potency very quickly.

[Raistlin Majere]

Originally posted by Assassin: It wasn't that bad when tried it out. While sometimes, the elite guards are scary, when you have 3 frontline fighters, all Improved Hasted, with a Planetar to help out and Mordies to soak up damage, they start to lose their potency very quickly.

thats one of the plus sides of party playing...with a solo cleric: no mordies, no planetars and no frontline fighters. Not that Rataxes seems to need them, though...

[Kish]

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the battle. However, there's something I need to ask about.
You say that screenshot is three rounds after the Drow Elite Guards started spawning? If so, then this was a major bug and I should look into it. The spawn rate is supposed to be two every twelve seconds (two rounds).

Anyone else who's played with Tougher Sendai, was the spawn rate two every two rounds, or was it insane?

[ 02-27-2004, 12:53 PM: Message edited by: Kish ]

[Rataxes]

Originally posted by Kish: I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the battle. However, there's something I need to ask about. You say that screenshot is three rounds after the Drow Elite Guards started spawning? If so, then this was a major bug and I should look into it. The spawn rate is supposed to be two every twelve seconds (two rounds). Anyone else who's played with Tougher Sendai, was the spawn rate two every two rounds, or was it insane?

Three turns [img]smile.gif[/img] 30 rounds in other words, which looks correct, since I counted the number of drow in that pic to be about 30-35.

Not saying I didn't enjoy the battle at all, but many of the devices it uses to pump up the difficulty, such as all spells being forcecast, Sendai and her PI's having infinite spells, and the ultrapowerful and infinitly respawning reinforcements, are just tiresome to try and counter, because you can't counter them.

[ 02-27-2004, 02:20 PM: Message edited by: Rataxes ]

[Kish]

Ah, that's a relief. For a moment there, I was really afraid everyone was seeing way too many guards.

Just for the record, all spells being forcecast is an aspect of the difficulty setting, and Sendai and her images having infinite spells is the result of all spells being forcecast (Forcecasting doesn't remove spells from memory). If you were playing on Core or below, neither of these would be the case.

Her reinforcements are 22nd level fighters with 18/50 Strength, 13 Dexterity, and 12 Constitution, 130 hit points, and three HLAs (Hardiness, Whirlwind, and Greater Whirlwind). They have fairly standard drow equipment, ** in Two-Handed Weapon Style, and Grand Mastery in the halberds they use. I wouldn't call this ultrapowerful; I would expect Sarevok or a PC fighter to mow right through them, and two Dragon's Breaths should be enough to reduce the number of Drow Elite Guards all the way from however many are in the area of the spell to 0.

[ 02-27-2004, 03:20 PM: Message edited by: Kish ]

[Rataxes]

Originally posted by Kish: Just for the record, all spells being forcecast is an aspect of the difficulty setting, and Sendai and her images having infinite spells is the result of all spells being forcecast (Forcecasting doesn't remove spells from memory). If you were playing on Core or below, neither of these would be the case. Her reinforcements are 22nd level fighters with 18/50 Strength, 13 Dexterity, and 12 Constitution, 130 hit points, and three HLAs (Hardiness, Whirlwind, and Greater Whirlwind). They have fairly standard drow equipment, ** in Two-Handed Weapon Style, and Grand Mastery in the halberds they use. I wouldn't call this ultrapowerful; I would expect Sarevok or a PC fighter to mow right through them, and two Dragon's Breaths should be enough to reduce the number of Drow Elite Guards all the way from however many are in the area of the spell to 0.

Yes, I'm aware that the mod admits to outright cheating and throwing all sense of fairness out the window on Hard and Insane, but I still don't see how that makes it justifiable. People playing on Insane are certainly asking for a greater challenge, but that doesn't mean they're asking for cheating opponents with absoloutely zero adherence to the rules that everyone else have to abide by.

About the drow fighters, they may look average on paper, I don't know. As I've already mentioned in the report though, it took 4 of them 2 seconds to rip apart my 50th level Cleric, armed and armoured to the teeth. That was with 230 HP, -18 AC vs Slashing, and 45% Physical dmg resistance. They aren't overly hard to kill. It's just that they are capable of causing an immense amount of pain every second they live with their rock bottom THAC0s and GWW, and that makes it very hard to deal with the constant reinforcements. You just don't have time to recover.

Of course, I'm speaking from the perspective of a soloist. Balanced parties probably have a much better fighting chance in this battle, and I guess that that is what it was designed for.

[ 02-27-2004, 04:02 PM: Message edited by: Rataxes ]

[Rataxes]

Part eight.

Without further ado, I went straight for Abazigal after a short interlude with the Solar in the Pocket Plane. It was high noon when I reached the exterior of Abazigal's enclave with it's great bronze marble floor. A single human was guarding the entrance. Wondering if this was some kind of trick, I approached him cautiously. His cold opening remarks left no doubt that a fight was imminent. Hadn't seen such a pathetic mage since early SoA, absolutely no protective spells, and the only offensive move he could come up with was to summon more of those Invisible stalkers, who couldn't harm neither me nor the Deva I might add.

He ate a dozen blades, and just when I thought he was about to surrender, he made some kind of triumphant exclaim that I couldn't make out, and before I know it, the mage is gone and replaced by a huge dragon! Ok, it's cool, aint been no dragon that could beat me with a few blades in the pocket and lots of space to maneuver. But I'll be damned if this wasn't the fastest dragon I had ever met. Even with quadrupled movement speed, it was almost impossible to lose him long enough to throw just a single blade at him. I had to try and use his own Invisible Stalkers to trap him, but it was rarely good for more than a seconds delay. Nearly got me with his acidic breath attack a few times as well, but it became less of a threat after I discovered the scrolls of protection from acid that I had kept in my scroll case since I bought them by Galomb back in Waukeen's Promenade.

True to the nature of dragons, he also ran away to Heal as often as he could, which made this a long and tiresome fight with lots of wasted blades, but it inevitably ended with the death of Draconis.



Had a well earned rest before proceeding into the enclave itself. I had entered a damp and cavernous space where a Werewyvern and some lesser elementals were present to welcome me. That Werewyvern had me dumbstruck at first, it's regeneration rate must've been at least twice as fast as that of Greater Wolfweres. Couldn't make a dent in it with 4 ApR and Club of Detonation/Crom Faeyr. Had to retreat back outside and throw on the old HRDS + Imp Haste combo that had never failed me yet. Back inside, now with 8 ApR! Hehehe, meet your doom, puny bat! Destroyed the Earth Elementals with even greater haste, and then plunged into the topmost pool and swam through the filthy water as quickly as humanly possible.

With the kitchen mixer combo still active, I cut through the Frost Salamanders and the subsequent Bone Fiends like air, filled up on the strange liquid, and swam back. The liquid was apparently from The Abyss, as it allowed me to breathe underwater, thereby allowing me to pass through a much longer passage. When I left the water again, I had wound up in some kind of sewer system.

Oh yes, the kitchen mixer was still up and running for a few more rounds, so I went to work as quickly as possible, killing many Kuo-Toa warriors and Water Elementals before the Imp Haste faded away. Found what must've been the water elemental prince, Olhydra, and since I'm not exactly a fan of undispellable fire shields, I knocked him out from a distance with my sling. Exploring the other end of the sewers, I met an imprisoned monk and released him at once. He was dying, but told me of a scroll I would need to gain access to Abazigal's lair and gave me the rope I needed to enter the other pools just by the entrance before he gave in to the eternal sleep.

With the rope in hand, I plunged in, plunged out, and then descended into one of the deeper pools. Greeting me on the other end of the tunnel was a large flying eyeball. It did not look like a beholderkin, and didn't prove to be hostile, but just frantically hovered around in a circle. Most amusing creature. I proceeded to explore the cavern, and soon saw another floating eyeball. As I walked closer, the little bastard turned around and shot some kind of arrow at me. Furious, I drew my blades and cut him in half thrice over. I was wary of more eyes from that moment on, and anyone I spotted could within moments expect to see a barrage of blades flying in their general direction.

More than a dozen eyeballs had fallen to the ground, ravaged by the blades, before I laid my own eyes on a trio of petrified humanoids. Went to get a closer look, when someone in the shadows adressed me. It was a mage, and he sounded a bit loony, but didn't appear to mean any harm. I asked him about the scroll, and it just so turned out that he was the man in possession of it, or maybe he was just lying. Anyway, he wanted me to go fetch an eyestalk, though he also suggested that I let the three statues do the job. What kind of cowardice would that be though? Manipulating others to face dangers for your own benefit? Bah, I un-petrified them, but certainly didn't ask them to go do my job. All I had to do was plunge into that pool over there and fetch it.

This little Beholder nest had me scratching my head at first I must say. Three Elder Orbs and a Gauth that all assault you immediately upon entering the place. In the end, I dug up the Vhailor's Helm for the first time since the Keep, and set off my Simulacrum first thing I did when I got there. The Orbs didn't target the Simulacrum with any Anti-Magic rays at first, so he was free to summon a Deva for me, and together, we took down the Gauth and one Elder Orb, then the Deva was imprisoned. Ops, doing melee with these guys seemed kind of risky with this new revelation, so I used my Simulacrum as decoy for the two remaining Orbs, while I stood back and slowly killed them with my sling. Oddly enough, none of the Orbs ever used any ray attacks, except for an Anti-Magic ray every now and then.



Picked up the eyestalk and went back to the mage. He fortunately did have the scroll, and honoured the agreement. With the scroll in my possession, I marched away and dived into the only pool I had so far left untouched. My head popped up from the water in a vast cavernous chamber, and I spotted Abazigal's guardian further ahead. Never strike a deal with a dragon, people had said, but I had to take a chance here. Offered her her freedom in exchange for granting me access to Abazigal's inner lair, and to my luck, she both accepted and honoured the deal.

So this was it, nothing stood between me and the last of the five, and I did have an idea of how to approach the battle. I was confident in my ability to tank my way through this encounter, since all it consisted of was a bunch of meleeing lizards, powerful ones at that, but still, only melee fighters. Slapping on The Gorgon Plate, Defender of Easthaven, Golden Girdle, Shield of the Order, and buffing up with Potions of Mind Focusing, Imp Invisibility, AoFD, and everything else, I marched in solid as a rock.


Why do you do this to me Abazigal, why must you humiliate me so? Six? SIX?!!! I have -34 AC vs Slashing damage for God's sake!

Well, there went that plan out the window. Just what the hell was I going to do now? I tried out a variety of bogus tactics involving Fire Storms, trapping myself in narrow spaces to only face one at a time, Holy Smites, Devas and whatnot that all failed too miserably to be mentioned here. Then I saw the light: Energy Blades galore! It was so simple, Hit'n'Run was the one and only fail-safe tactic against melee fighters, and they were all melee fighters. Buffed up like before, figuring the rock-bottom AC would come in handy to fend of the stray hits that would probably have to be expected.

In I rushed with the first out of seven sets of blades in hand, what was going to be my first target? Not Abazigal certainly, the longer he stayed in his rather harmless (from a distance anyway) human form, the better. Not the Drakes, the immediate threat they posed was very slight. It came down to Tamah, yes, getting rid of her first would make things easier later on. Zoomed past two of the Drakes and Abazigal with ease, and began pelting Tamah with the blades. They did little damage at first, but after running around the place for a few rounds, slinging a couple of blades when I got a clean shot, and dodging the drakes and Abazigal whenever they got too close, she had already dropped to "Badly Injured". Due to a few lucky criticals, one with the off-hand Crom Faeyr, she actually dropped before I was even through with the first set.


Yes! Down you go!

With the big one down, I simply continued in the same manner against the minor drakes. I took a lot of damage from various breath attacks and stray hits, but the Bhaalspawn power Regeneration, combined with Imp Haste, kept my portrait nice and clean for just about it's entire duration.


(Note, not from the same attempt)

And then the Salamanders. When the last of them fell, I realized that it maybe would've been smart to leave a few sets for Abazigal himself, his human form now the only foe left in the lair. It was down to either the sling or the sword. Unfortunately, Abazigal was immune to missile damage when Hardiness active, and each bullet(at most) stripped him of a whopping 6 HP's whenever it wasn't. Then I got the bright (no pun intended) idea of using Sunstone bullets against him when the Hardiness was up, which dealt a devastating 2 points of fire damage per hit. It sure was a slow and steady method, very slow. It took me 10 turns to get through all his healing potions and get him down to Badly Injured, then I gave up when I noticed that he actually had a slight regeneration rate.

Next, I tried meleeing him, probably just about the dumbest decision in this cleric's career.



No, the solution had a name, and as it almost always was when that name wasn't Energy Blades, it was Fire Storm. Abazigal was definitely slow enough to make spending a round casting a spell a possibility, and if there was something in the world he was vulnerable to, it was fire. So the story up until facing Abazigal 1v1 was pretty much the same as above, except I left the salamanders alive, since they were slow as snails and couldn't hit a house from the inside. The two Fire Storms worked great, I used my superior speed to circle the storm and make sure Abazigal stayed within it's area of effect for the full four rounds. Threw some blades at him as well, just to piss him off.

Soon enough, he transformed into his true shape, and with the sort of offensive buffs he had applied with the transformation, I knew better than to go anywhere near him. Didn't have a plan for killing him, but for the time being, I was content to just circle him and wait for his buffs to wear off. Within a turn it came, the ranged and forcecast Imprisonment. Oh boy, that certainly was a fun and worthy way to go down. I can accept Demi-liches being able to cast a ranged Imprisonment spell, because that's just about the only attack they have, but _why_on_earth_ should a dragon have it?! And why does that obnoxious little prick known as ForceCast insist on popping up every single time a powerful monster decides to cast a spell?

The way I saw it, I had two options when I came to this point in my next attempt. Either memorize a Shield of the Archons and try to time its 5 second casting time so that the first and only spell that hits it is the Imprisonment, a move that would most likely require some kind of divine intervention. Or, I could use one of my precious Protection from Magic scrolls. Yeah, the scroll did look like the most promising alternative. I felt rather safe with the scroll activated. As soon as I had chugged down an Oil of Speed to be able to keep my distance with ease, I was completely impervious to anything he might try, excepting the Wing Buffet. Of course, I couldn't cast any spells either, so there was little I could do, except sling the odd bullet at him, which did not exactly cause a terrible amount of damage.

Hmmm, I noticed that though spellcasting resulted in instant casting failure, special abilities were quite functional. Would it perhaps be possible to take him down in melee? I waited until all his fighting buffs like Imp Haste and Righteous Magic had worn off before I attempted to find out. Didn't have much in the way of buffs myself at the moment, but a Potion of Power and Crom Faeyr in the off-hand made nice substitutes for Holy Power and Righteous Magic. Summoned the Seeking Sword and cast Imp Haste from the Cloak, screamed from the top of my lungs

ABAZIGAL!!! YOU FILTHY LITTLE SEWER FROG, I AM COMING FOR YOU!!!!

and then charged at him with raised sword and full speed. I was hacking and slashing like mad, but Abazigal was busy casting spells, and did not yet acknowledge the threat even as his Stoneskins were being stripped away one by one. When after several recastings, I finally broke through all of layers of stone, he finally awoke, smelled reality, and started to attack me.



I didn't care at first, his dragon form certainly wasn't as good a melee fighter as his human form, but after a few hits, I had to temporarily retreat and wait for him to start casting spells again. That was always my cue to rush back and start hacking away. This process went on for more than a turn, slowly, slowly, he reached the state of "Near Death". Then I heard a familiar sound and a very familiar bright blue circle-shaped animation. Oh no, oh no, you are NOT going to cast Heal you son of a mother! I desperately tried to disturb his ritual by carving my sword deep into his flesh, but that little monster ForceCast was as always present to make my life hell, and seconds later, his status had reverted back to "Uninjured". This just made me even more determined if anything, and I didn't allow him a moment of peace. When my Seeking Sword disappeared I summoned a new one immediately, when my Imp Haste disappeared I didn't wait a second to dig up the Amulet of Cheetah Speed from my bag, and give myself another burst. Abazigal acted surprisingly much like a complete moron and kept casting stuff like Secret Word and Earthquake instead of using his claws when there was a small, but very enraged priest down there by his feet furiously slashing and bashing his belly. Ever so slowly, his health detoriated once more from Barely, to Injured, to Badly, to Near, to Death...


You're dead. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YOU'RE DEAD!!

And with the death of yet another bhaalspawn I'll end this report. I Expect the final report will be up in a few days.

[ 02-27-2004, 09:32 PM: Message edited by: Rataxes ]