1st Tactics game. (Full of spoilers)

[Ilyich]

I'm now out of the Underdark and into Chapter 6. I've killed Kruin and his group, Drizzt's party, and most notably, Adalon. Before getting to Adalon, the rest of the Underdark shall be reviewed.

Firstly, Vithal. One of the mod components I have (maybe Zyraen's Misc. which I got when I reached Chapter 3 in game) makes Vithal offer the player the choice of items from the hoard he collects. (Written by Six of Spades, according to the mod readme) This is all well and good, but he didn't offer me Time Stop and Abi Dalzim's (Edit: this is reasonable, I'm just nitpicking), so I killed him after he gave me the reward (for a double dose of 20k exp)

Liches (Deirex) are not too tough in Tactics, though is probably more due to the Anti-Paladin kit than any tactics of mine.

The Mindflayers in the Phaere rescue mission are immune to Death Spell in Tactics, which is good. Ust Natha is much the same as before, just a tad harder due to intelligent spell picks by the mages.

Onto Adalon, who I wasn't going to kill until she went hostile on me when I summoned Imp. Kitthix. She was easily the toughest creature to wear down so far, but didn't cause too much damage to my party, even with her breath weapon. Korgan eventually killed her with Stonefire, after a lot of spellwork (Lower Res., Greater Mal., Flame Arrow and Mag. Missile etc.) from my mages. I did however discover something great in this fight. I thought it would be a good time to try out Similacrum with Imoen (my highest level mage, now just over 20k away from level 18, thanks to a component of Zyraens Misc.) after which I discovered that Sim. images can use scrolls and items without using up the "Master" copy of the item. I had it use my Sim. copy of my Time Stop and Abi Dalzim's scroll, along with the Ring of the Ram. (Probably common knowledge on IW, but I didn't know about it)

Drizzt and Kruin's squads were not too tough, but I am slightly annoyed to find an Anti-Paladin only 2H-Sword on one of Kruin's crew, which I won't be using. (My A-P dual wields)

Edit: Corrected bad spelling.

[ 12-05-2005, 06:47 PM: Message edited by: Ilyich ]

[Cam_H]

"I did however discover something great in this fight. I thought it would be a good time to try out Similacrum with Imoen" ...

Uh oh! You are playing Tactics I guess, where anything goes! I bet Vhailor's Helm's starting to look a lot more useful now!

Your Anti-Paladin's THAC0 should be good enough by now to use any weapon, so if you see advantages in the Githyanki sword, I wouldn't be too hesitant to use it.

[SixOfSpades]

Originally posted by Ilyich: One of the mod components I have (maybe Zyraen's Misc. which I got when I reached Chapter 3 in game) makes Vithal offer the player the choice of items from the hoard he collects. (Written by Six of Spades, according to the mod readme) This is all well and good, but he didn't offer me Time Stop and Abi Dalzim's (Edit: this is reasonable, I'm just nitpicking), so I killed him after he gave me the reward (for a double dose of 20k exp)

The mod is Quest Pack. I just wrote the dialogue, it was SimDingo who actually put it into the game. Yes, the Time Stop scroll is so valuable that it almost outweighs all the other items by itself, so Vithal certainly wouldn't throw in an ADHW scroll to go with it. The double EXP is a bug, though....possibly dating from the original version. I'll tell Sim. Thanks.

[Ilyich]

No problem Six, if I can help to improve mods by playing them, I'll be happy to do it.

Update. I've defeated the Lich in the Docks, the Elemental Lich of the Kangaxx quest, the Planar Sphere, the Gnome Illusionist in the Docks and the Shadow Dragon. My party is getting close to TOB levels, so I may attempt the Ritual soon.

I would do the Improved North Forest, but my game stops everytime it tries to load the area. Also, is 3 Million Exp. for all members of my party enough to beat the Red Badge?

[Cam_H]

"is 3 Million Exp. for all members of my party enough to beat the Red Badge?"

This will give Edwin access to the HLA Summon Dark Planetar spell (x4 I think). Your Anti-Paladin should also have access to a Fallen Deva by the 3,000,000 XP stage.

The ability to get access to such high level summons should get you part of the way there.

Reading the HINTS-Poison.txt file will get you another (big) part of the way there.

Personally, I have found that 'divide and conquer' has been a successful approach by heading quickly to the east side of the clearing, where you deal 'hopefully' with 'only' Fallowmist, Bittersnake, and Bloodcaster (iirc) with the aid of summons (usually I get Devas, so Planetars should be even more useful), while your Anti-Paladin's True Sight should also be handy. If you can take out the first three, then you should be able to draw out Redspike with the benefit of fog of war, before confronting Bloodspear. Protect your PC with the Periapt of Proof vs. Poison (or Ring of Gaxx if you deal with that first - which may not be such a bad idea) and give him at least one Rod of Resurrection. I'm sure other approaches may work as well if not better.

While you may comfortably win this one on your first attempt for all I know, don't be too disheartened if it takes you more than one shot. The prize is pretty impressive.

[Ilyich]

Thanks for the advice Cam_H, it is very welcome. Anyway, I've managed to get the Celestial Fury, beat Firkraag and Kuroisan. Firkraag fell to my Tactics Improved Dragons tactic of surround, Lower Res., Mag. Missile + Melf's (for Red dragons) or Flame Arrow (every other colour) and melee with Korgan, Amschat + Kitthix. (summoned by Viconia) Having 3 mages is really helping in big fights.

On to Kuroisan, who proved annoying for a while. I first had Edwin cast Ruby Ray on him, after which he fled through a door. Inside I Breached him, again he fled, this time outside. He used 3 Prot. from Mag. Weapons before I Breached him again, this time with Imoen. Before this I used Spell Sequencers with Edwin and Imoen, (both containing Fireshields Red and Blue and Minor Globe of Invulnerability) in an attempt at taking advantage of the "Chain Damage" cheese exploit, which I first read about here in a post by Dundee Slaytern. It didn't work, so I had Amschat attack him with a normal Long Sword, and Korgan with Celestial Fury, along with Kitthix. He was stunned by Korgan and was quickly chunked by Amschat within a round of being attacked at melee range. After this fight, I can see that the Anti-Paladin is a very good kit, but overpowered, especially the Dispel Magic on hit.

[Cam_H]

It is overpowered, but it's a Weimer creation, just like a significant slab of the Tactics battles, so don't beat yourself up too much about it!

Just on my burb in my previous post, I can't recall exactly, but you may need to go invisible initially to avoid having Redspike and Bloodspear follow you across to the east side. Sorry - it's been about a year since I did this fight.

Well done on your other progress!

[Kyrvias]

Just for the record, aren't the Dark Planetar and Fallen Diva the same thing?

[Cam_H]

No...

Fallen Planetars have a bucket more spells and a much wider range of spells, albeit they don't get the Fallen Deva's 'Cure Critical Wounds'. Generally their spell selection is considerably better. The Fallen Planetar gets an extra 5% magic resistance (75% compared to 70%) and fights with a Silver Sword (vorpal hit chance) as compared with the Fallen Deva's Improved Mace of Disruption (counts as +5 enchantment).

[Ilyich]

I've just beaten (although slaughtered is probably a better word) the goons in Kangaxx's house. I first sent in an Improved Invisible Amschat in to scout out the place. I was hit heavily by the two Liches initial Spell Triggers and Contingencies. They did in excess of 140HP of damage, though Amschat survived comfortably. (I scouted the place much earlier in the game, but died to quickly to note every enemy.

After the initial damage, I used my two Sunrays (upgraded Daystar) and did damage to everything except the "ordinary" Lich, though the "Cleric" Lich healed himself after the damage. This killed 1 Skeleton Warrior, but heavily damaged the others and the Battle Horrors (one of the mods I have adds them to certain battles). I then did something to make myself visible to the gang so I could lead the Dwarf outside, though the "ordinary" Lich followed as well. The Dwarf was quickly killed by Korgan outside and the Lich was killed in short order as well.

I then healed Korgan and Amschat, as well as restoring Edwin, who got Level Drained by a spell, before heading inside. The Battle Horrors were killed quickly outside by Korgan and Amschat because they followed Viconia outside, who I had accidentally sent inside. Again inside (just Korgan and Amschat) I quickly killed the Fighter and the remaining Skeleton Warriors before attacking the "Cleric" Lich, who continually summoned Skeleton Warriors and Hakaeshars. He was more resilient than the "ordinary" Lich, but was still eventually killed, along with his summons.

I will attempt Kangaxx later, after I think of a way to kill him with Korgan without anyone else in my party nearby, (because of the Teleport Field that most Liches use in Tactics) Korgan will most likely be wielding Celestial Fury in this fight, unless I think of anything better.

[ 12-13-2005, 08:41 AM: Message edited by: Ilyich ]