Ascension Yaga-Shura....

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... is absurd? There is no point fighting any of the mobs consisting of soldiers, mages and fire giants, because they respawn pretty much at the same rate I kill them. Yaga-Shura himself is 99% resistant to all magic and probably around 90% resistant to physical damage as well, is hasted, does huge damage with a very high THAC0.

Even if I could single out Yaga Shura it would be hard to kill him, but I couldn't find a way to single him out. I tried going Mass Invisibility, hitting him once so he disappears for 30 seconds, invisibility again, wait until he re-appears, and then since he is scripted to attack you whether you're invisible or not, drag him to some corner of the map. Unfortunately the minions follow you around (without attacking) when you're invisible, plus they spawn continuously wherever your party is.

So yeah, very frustrated with this, I can't attack his army because it respawns as fast as I kill it, and I can't attack Yaga Shura because he's close to immune to damage and anyway I'm getting slaughtered very fast by both him and his immense army. Summons get slaughtered very fast. Horrid Wiltings work great against his army except every dead soldier immediately respawns, so it doesn't even matter.

Anyone has ever succeeded? A google search for ascension yaga-shura didn't reveal much.

SCSII's version, btw, I originally was using vanilla Ascension but it crashes in that battle and seems to be a known bug, fixed by SCSII.

 

IIRC Yaga Shura's %90+ resistances slowly drop as battle progresses. Magic Missile spell will always do 5 damage to him (each missile does 1 dmg) and flail of ages is perfect cos each elemental damage does +1 damage per hit. (except fire, he is always immune to it ofcourse) So you will end up doing 3-4 damage per hit, any other weapon will only do 1-2 damage. GWW with flail of ages hurt him nice and may slow him down too! (can't remember if he is immune to slow effect)

You can try Harm spell, if hit it will drop him to 1 HP. Also, if I am not mistaken he is weak against ice, so 3xCone of Colds in spell triggers can do wonders, also try Cone of Colding him repeatedly while under TimeStop+Improved Alacrity+Robe of Vecna combo. Also wands of frosts on every character that can use it can soften him up nicely.

 

Hmmm, looks like you're right. His stats (from YAGA01.CRE in the Override folder, I guess that's where Ascension installs):

AC -8
HP 350
THAC0 -4
#attacks 3
Resist fire 127 (it heals him!)
Resist cold 50
Resist electricity 99
Resist acid 99
Resist magic 0
Resist magic fire 127
Resist magic cold 50
Resist slashing/crushing/piercing/missile 99

And then it's not really Resist magic 0 because there are a bunch of "Effects" on him:

Immunity to effect (101) -> Intelligence bonus (19) - whatever that does
Increase casting speed factor by 2
Invisible detection by script
Magic damage resistance bonus of 99
Movement rate bonus of 4
Regeneration 2hp/sec

So, it indeed looks like the only thing that can damage him is really cold, I shall have to try it out.

---------- Added 1 hours, 5 minutes and 59 seconds later... ----------

... wow, I did it. And it wasn't even luck.

Still, I've never put that much preparation into a fight before. I've basically revised the entire spell book of every spellcaster.

First we go haste + invisibility, Zeckul hits him once, then invisibility again. We just wait until he respawns, not fighting anything.

I had both my clerics only trying Harm on him the entire time. Edwin had 4 level 9 spells: 2xTime Stop + 2xImproved Alacrity. Cast Time Stop then I.A., then he can unleash his 9 Cones of Cold in a matter of seconds (he has an amulet that shortens the casting time as well). Imoen has less spells but she can cast a Time Stop and 3 Cones of Cold during that as well. When I'm out of Cones of Cold, I use Otiluke's Sphere on every enemy, which is the only way to really remove them from the fight. Symbol of Fear works well too.

EDIT: Melf's Acid Arrow does damage as well!

All in all, a lot of planning, but a relatively easy victory in the end. That feels pretty good.

 

Cool, congratulations! It is strange isn't it, a relatively never-before-used spell (cone of cold) becomes extremely useful in this instance, to snuff the flames of Yaga Shura.

BTW, I like your lets play videos on youtube, will watch BG1 one when I have time.

 

I'm guessing that's so you don't do a Time Stop + Shapechange -> Mindflayer combo. Because during a time stop every attack is an automatic hit and with the Mindflayer shape you could kill him very easily. In fact, I think in vanilla ToB you could kill him before he disappears by draining his intelligence while also time stopping him.

Just checked and yes, you can. They do it in the speedrun of ToB.

/edit
Actually, he kills most bosses like that in the speedrun. Killing Draconis without him even getting a chance to change into a dragon is fun

 

I had literally never used Cone of Cold in my life before that fight, LOL. In retrospect I wonder how it never hit me that a Fire Giant should be vulnerable to cold...

Glad you like my videos!