Chapter One Finale - Spoiler Questions

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Alright...I made it to Helm's Hold and even tried to take on Dethros last night and I ran into two significant problems.

1) In the Main Lobby, I could NOT put the etched gem onto the pedestal. I tried everything I could think of, but could not get it to work. HOW DO YOU PLACE THE GEM ON THE PEDESTAL???

2) What does it take to damage Dethros??? I must have re-loaded that battle over a dozen times and I NEVER even injured him. [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img] I know that he can't be defeated, but I wasn't able to deal any damage to him at all. One problem was ALL the henchmen and helpers he has around. They were pounding steadily on me. If I concentrated on killing them, Dethros killed me. If I concentrated just on Dethros, his hirelings killed me. Very frustrating.

I have Daelen Red Tiger as my henchman, but I plan to replay the Finale from the beginning (where I enter the Main Lobby). This time, I will use my Stone of Recall to return to Neverwinter and trade Red Tiger for Linu La'Narel. I think a cleric would be much more beneficial in Helm's Hold. Maybe she can zap some of the undead cronies that Dethros keeps throwing at me.

All suggestions, tips, and tactics are welcome

[Zuvio]

Just on a side-note here: Sharwyn makes IMO the best NPC there is. She has healing spells as well, does wonders with her powerfull shortbow, can summon a dire wolf (!) and far better looking then Linu !

But it is paramount that she stays powerfull and not downgrade once you step into the ritual chamber (see my post "What the Hell?".....)

And P.S.: you can't get back into the City Core. The ritual chamber is as far as you can go...

[ 08-19-2003, 10:19 AM: Message edited by: Zuvio ]

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by Zuvio: Just on a side-note here: Sharwyn makes IMO the best NPC there is. She has healing spells as well, does wonders with her powerfull shortbow, can summon a dire wolf (!) and far better looking then Linu ! But it is paramount that she stays powerfull and not downgrade once you step into the ritual chamber (see my post "What the Hell?".....) And P.S.: you can't get back into the City Core. The ritual chamber is as far as you can go...

Sharwyn may have nice items, but she can't Turn Undead. As far as being better looking, that's debatable, but it also doesn't enter into the equation. They are both better looking that Red Tiger, but I'll take him in the Docks District any day.

Regarding the items for Sharwyn being downgraded...how are you able to view her inventory? Every time I try to look at a henchman's inventory, I just get a message saying "You cannot view this henchman's inventory at this time." How do you get around that? I've found the first items for Linu and Daelan's personal quests, but I never had any dialogue initiated from them about it.


I still need my first two questions answered also.

1) How do you place the etched gem on the pedestal?, and
2) What tactics work well against Desthor?

[Zuvio]

Originally posted by Cerek the Barbaric:

Regarding the items for Sharwyn being downgraded...how are you able to view her inventory? Every time I try to look at a henchman's inventory, I just get a message saying "You cannot view this henchman's inventory at this time." How do you get around that? I've found the first items for Linu and Daelan's personal quests, but I never had any dialogue initiated from them about it. [/QUOTE]

Check www.nwvault.com, for the inventory HAK.

[Granamere]

Spoilers!!!!


1. You open it like it was a chest and drop it in like you were putting it in a chest.


2. Do you mean Desther? If so you need to take out the ritual creatures first. Then you can damage him. Yes it is a very tough fight. I might be able to help with strategy if I knew what your class was.

Granamere

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by Granamere: Spoilers!!!! 1. You open it like it was a chest and drop it in like you were putting it in a chest.

I tried that. I must have *clicked" on the hand over 20 times, but I never got a screen showing that it was open. I will try again tonight..maybe I just wasn't looking closely enough.

Originally posted by Granamere: 2. Do you mean Desther? If so you need to take out the ritual creatures first. Then you can damage him. Yes it is a very tough fight. I might be able to help with strategy if I knew what your class was.

[img]graemlins/doh.gif[/img] I guess that would help, wouldn't it.

I'm playing an elven Wizard(8)/Rogue(3). I have 3 Fourth Level spell slots and 4 Third Level spell slots. I have the Staff of Power (purchased from Undermountain and brought into the game..didn't plan to use it in Chapter 1 until I kept getting my butt kicked last night), a Sonic Staff (unique weapon - staff that does 2D6 Sonic damage), Crossbow of Affliction and a host of magical bolts to fire (paralytic bolts being my favorite).

I have wands of Lightning, Negative Energy, and Magic Missiles. I also have about 8 different trap kits that I tried setting in the hallway just outside the room with Desther. That worked pretty well, but I still died.

So I have weapons and spells a'plenty....I just haven't found the right combination so far.

I also have Daelan Red Tiger as my henchman, but I plan to exchange him for Linu La'Narel in hopes that she will be able to deal with the undead I keep running into.

It helps to know that the Ritual Creatures have to be killed first. In my first attempt last night, I just ran in and started bashing them with my Sonic Staff (it's a wonderful melee' weapon - not many protections against sonic damage ). I actually killed two of them fairly quickly, but Red Tiger was killed by that time and the rest of the room ganged up on me. I died very shortly thereafter. [img]graemlins/crying.gif[/img]

I also noticed that the entire room will follow out into the hallway if I try the standard "Hit and Run" tactic - including Desther. I think it will help to have Linu's clerical spells to back up my own in addition to her fighting prowess. Red Tiger is great at melee', but the number of opponents is just too great in this room.

Is it possible to to lure a few of them out of the room at a time and close the door behind them? Or will the others just open the door and come on out anyway?

[andrewas]

I just redid helms hold with a level 14 Arcane Archer. I need more XP and since I just reinstalled all the worthwhile chapters are closed to me. Sigh.

Anyway, I did manage to activate the altar this time, the only difference I can see in what I did, is that this time I didnt bother to fight all those 3-XP and just ran straight to the altar after grabbing the gem. I clicked it, it opened, I put the gem in, and the gaurdians got themselves killed in short order. At regular level, the gaurdians would probly be more effective, the enemies scale up with the PC, the gaurdians dont seem to.

I suppose my tactic to kill desther wont help you much with such a radicaly different character, but an Imbued Arrow (think Fireball) took down the ritual creatures anyway, and I was able to inflict enough punishment on desther before he could get to me.

If you had the HP, you could simple ignore the undead and concentrate on magiking/crossbowing desther, but I dont think you do. Stoneskin may help, but your AC will likely be pretty low as well. Do those paralytic bolts actualy work to paralyse the undead? Ive never used them, but if so you could block the door.

Down a potion of Clarity to avoid the fear from the Warrior Mummies (may not be present at your level).

[Granamere]

The problem with Desther in the hallway is you need to take out the ritual creatures first and they do not leave the room. They do not have many hit points so I would try to line them up and hit them with lightning. You might also want to go invisible leave your henchmen behind go into the room and drop you traps there. As long as they do not trigger one and you are invisible you should be able to deploy them all. Then you just have to lure the creatures into the traps. Do not use negetive engery on undead it heals them! ESP negetive energy traps! Also if you want put down the traps go back out the door. Get out of the line of sight of the creatures in the room as best you can and summon a creature into the room. Then shut the door. If you do this a few times it will weaken them. If done right they will not even leave the room.

Granamere

[Cerek the Barbaric]

To misquote a line from a famous 1980's movie.....

"YEEEEHAAAAAA.....DESTHER'S DEAD!" {bonus points if you can name the correct line and movie}

OK, Desther isn't actually dead, but I DID defeat him - FINALLY!

Since I had Saved the game at the point just before I enter the room with Desther, I decided to give it another shot before starting all over back in Neverwinter to pick up Linu.

Using the advice given here, I told Daelan to stay in the room just to the side of the entrance to Desther's area, then drank a Potion of Invisibility. Setting traps inside the room did not work. As soon as I successfully set the trap, the Invisibility was negated and I was attacked. A quick re-load and I tried again.

I noticed that there are 9 "henchmen" (in addition to the Ritual Creatures). These are located in 3 groups of 3 around the room...so I used the Staff of Power to target each group (one at a time) with a Fireball. After targeting a group with Fireball, they would rush to attack and I went back out in the hallway. I had Red Tiger come out and help with the resulting melee while I closed the door to prevent the others in the room from coming out. This tactic worked quite well. I learned it is important to draw the whole group out, but to get the door closed - otherwise Desther will come out also.

A couple of trial-and-error runs, and I had defeated all 9 henchmen without taking any serious damage myself (well, nothing the Healing Kits couldn't handle anyway). Unfortunately, Desther had also come out as I killed the last group of 3. I had Red Tiger follow me back into the side room and we shut the door behind us. We took a few minutes to restore ourselves to full health and opened the door. Sure enough...Desther was there waiting for us. Red Tiger and I hit him with everything we had, but it didn't do a bit of damage...and Desther killed Red Tiger during the process.

Realizing that it was useless to fight Desther until I killed the Ritual Creatures, I quickly gulped my last Potion of Invisibility to get away from him. I went back into the room with the Ritual Creatures and drank a Potion of Speed. Then I attacked them with my Sonic Staff. Magic spells had been ineffective because they have a high resistance, but straight physical damage killed them very quickly. Each R.C. fell after only 1-2 hits (12-15hp total). Desther had come in and was chasing me around the room as I ran from one creature to another, but he was having a hard time hitting me. Fortunately, he didn't try to blast me with any spells.

After killing the last Ritual Creature, I quickly turned and shot my last Magic Missile spell at Desther. I was overjoyed to see him finally take some damage. Even though I was still at full health, I wanted to keep as much distance between Desther and myself as I could, since my Master of Melee was no longer available. I searched through my scrolls, planning to use a Summon Creature when I found an even better choice - Bigby's Interposing Hand!!! I cast it and watched with satisfaction as Desther kept trying to push his way around the hand to attack me. I started smacking him with my staff (since it does more damage than my crossbow...and I also tend to miss a lot with the crossbow). The Sonic Staff and a couple of Magic Missiles from the Staff of Power eventually drained Desther's will to fight.

So now I have only to loot...er...search through the rooms on this level and then haul Desther's sorry hide back to Neverwinter where he will answer for his crimes.

[Zuvio]

Great effort there Cerek! Just defeated Desther myself actually (second time around, though I couldn't remember how I did it last time).