An impossible solo?

Remove all ads!

Whoops, you guys are right, it's the same person.

And Yaga Shura has *zero* resistance to magic. He has 50% res to cold and maxed out fire res. The rest are all 99%. Including all physical damages...

 

We'll just have to wait and see. They say the Ascension battle is the hardest of all in ToB - probably because the "fireworks" in this battle are pretty heavy.
Keep us updated.

 

... Nope

No.I think the final battle is impossible for me.

|
|
|
|
|
SPOILERS
|
|
|
|

I enter Throne of Bhaal, Melissan welcomes me
(you know: ''You shall suffer...'' etc.)
and summons 2 friends from the past, Irenicus and Bodhi + 2 fallen devas.
And to my big surprise I see also my sister Imoen transforming into the Slayer(or is it the Ravager?) and she attacks me (probably her revenge for having abbandoned her so many times ).
Fortunately I have on my side Balthazar.But it's not enough.Irenicus and Bodhi are more powerful than ever.I ignore Imoen (I couldn't kill her)
and I manage to kill the 2 devas.Poor Balthazar in the meantime is doing his best against Irenicus and Bodhi but can't damage them enough.
After a while Imoen returns in herself and leaves (don't understand how she did it)
but at the same time Balthazar dies...
I kill Irenicus but Bodhi doesn't want to die...
Everytime I have her ''near death'' she transforms in gaseous form and regenerates.Then all over again
After more than 30 minutes (I don't exaggerate) of me chasing Bodhi she finally dies from a GWW attack in her bat form.And I really didn't understand why she died and didn't transform again in gaseous form ...
Anyway Second Round : I click on the first pool(gaining some new abilities + virtual rest) and then I have to kill many really powerful demons.
Third Round the same.Click on pool-more demons...

Last Round - Last Pool: I have charmed (with one new ability) 2 demons,I prepare myself with everything I have and click on the last pool...

And the party begins ... - and it's definitively NOT my party but Melissan's
All of the ToB's scums against my poor fighter...

The best I have done? - Killing Sarevok and Ilasera.
What happened then? - Melissan reappears-end of the party ...

I am really,really disappointed.
Maybe the ideal would be to kill Sendai first as she is the only mage + she heals everyone else.But she is very well protected and the others don't allow my fighter to stay in the same place for more than 5 seconds - I take too much damage.

If anyone can suggest a good tactic,I am here
but I really ...

 

I'm afraid I only know six-man tactics for the Ascension, as I met the resurrected Five with a fighter / mage and his five closest allies. I spammed Time Stop and went medieval on them while they were frozen (I got the idea from Dave Milward's walkthrough here on Sorcerer's Place). I had both Imoen and Edwin to pummel them with Comet and I think Horrid Wilting. Sarevok killed Yaga-Shura with level drain (Gram the Sword of Grief +5).

I didn't have Balthazar on my side because my character was evil. Sendai is indeed the most dangerous for good guys like you, because of her magic power (she's a Cleric 20 / Mage 20, or some such).

 

Doeasn't matter if you manage the last battle, thetruth. You are my hero already. I bow.

 

Try using stat-draining weapons. Kachiko's Wakizashi comes to mind. Do you have any Illithid mind circlets? Maybe you can try charming Sendai with one. If you have any Protection from Magic scrolls left, now would be the time to use them offensively.
If you have to run, use the Shield of Reflection. In conjunction with the Cloak of Mirroring, it'll help increase your lifespan a bit. Try changing the setting of the game so it pauses every round - this helps a lot so you have more time to think what to do next.
Since you can't afford to be mobbed, rely on the enchantments your weapons have, like the celestial fury's 1x/day special. If you have the Short Sword of Mask, you can use it to separate them.
Remember that Mel has the ability to kill you in one hit (via a ridiculous amount of cold damage, insta-kill, iirc).
Did you bring the Staff of Fire? Spamming Fire Elementals wouldn't hurt, I think.
You probably already know some of the strategies I gave.

[ June 23, 2005, 18:12: Message edited by: Scythesong Immortal ]

 

You probably shouldn't kill Ilasera as she poses no threat to you. You can kill Savavek and Mellisan won't appear. Sendai is very difficult to kill even with a mage. She telepots and heals a lot. I don't think she does too much damage to you, so you probably should leave her alone for a while. But chasing her telepot may not be a bad thing as you can buy some time. So I don't know...

And I don't think you can charm Sendai, seriously, that would be... You CAN charm Saravek.

I think You should kill the one who does the most damage to you before Mellisan appears. Probably Abazigal. He may have tons of protection from magical weapons. You can kill him with a normal weapon.

After Mellison appears, quickly kill Ilasera and Gromir. That leaves you with Yaga Shra, Sendai And Mellisan. er... I don't know any more at this point. Because Yaga Shura and fire gaints in general always scare the crap out of me... Maybe just run around chase Sendai and heal yourself, meanwhile Yaga Shura's res. wears down. Then you can kill him and somehow kill Sendai...

Then you still have to kill Mellisan. One problem with her is she casts power word: kill whenever your HP is down. And sure enough you will die and have to start everything again....

Keep on trying...

And I've heard people use the charm demon techniques. I've never tried anything. But you probably could charm a bunch of demons etc. Mellisan will charm a bunch back...

Here is the weimer forum if you don't already know. You might find some useful tactics...
http://forums.pocketplane.net/index.php?PHPSESSID=5958dc6a88555e29c0767a8988ebd024&board=50.0

[ June 23, 2005, 23:31: Message edited by: 14 ]

 

OK I think my real problem is Melissan herself.

Even if I manage to kill all the others (something that seems impossible at the moment) Melissan:
- Can damage me even from distance with a special ability.That happens whether I use my last green (protection from magic) scroll on her
or on me.It's the same.
- Can cast time stop.I don't know if it's possible for someone to cast timestop while he has the prot. from magic scroll on him.I can't
remember.
- The combination Sendai-Melissan is lethal. With Melissan around Sendai casts power word kill instantly !!
That means that my real hit points from 215 become 155! Or in other words if my fighter has 60 HPs or less he is dead...
(Does cloak of mirroring protects from p.word kill?)
- Most important of all: Melissan in one of her timestops has started melee-attacking me.More than 200 HPs gone in a few seconds!!!
So what are we talking about? The only thing I can do to avoid it is to cast focus (a new ability gained that gives immunity to timestop for some seconds) just before Melissan casts timestop ! Something that is close to impossible ...

@ Western Paladin

With Yaga Shura I thought using the Sword of the Mask (it has only 15% chance of level draining but with no save) so thats why I chose to upgrade this instead of the Sword of the Grief.And of course I pay now the prize of beeing good by not having Blackrazor.

@ Scythesong

Interesting the Kachiko's Wakizashi but it's not clear what save vs. death is required to avoid wisdom loss.Is it possible to kill
Yaga Shura this way?And the wisdom drain lasts only 2 rounds.
As for equipment and other stuff I have everything a fighter can use.I have even brought with me some Holy Water
I have 2 mind circlets but everyone except Sarevok are immune to them.Same goes for vorpal hits ...
As for the auto-pause, you know, during this final battle, my left thumb has already gained the special ability of auto-pausing the game every round (dunno maybe when I clicked on the last pool )

@ 14

Charming Sarevok actually is not so good.He can't damage me because he uses only non magical weapons (I guess they made him like this for those who have prot. from m. weapons on). So ignoring him is the best thing to do.
Charming demons is also useless.They aren't going to last more than some seconds against the 5 and even if they do when
Melissan reappears takes them back.
And Yaga Shura's resistance this time doesn't drop but remains always at 99%.

@ Koki

Thanks Koki . But you know it feels very bad beeing so close to complete a long game like this and not beeing able to do it ...

 

OK Yaga Shura probably has no res. to poison. So use whatever poison thingie to kill him. Actually one of the new baal powers is a poison attack... I never tried it though.

As to Mellisan's timestop. You could use some summons and hope to buy a few seconds. Or don't know if you tried hardiness + the flail sold at Copper Coronet. That gives you 60% res to physical damage. Mellisan ought to deal less than 200 damage with that.... If not, er...

I don't know, do any of the demons have the power to summon more demons ? Their job is to make as many people "near death" as possible, then quickly kill them when Mellisan appears... Don't know if that's possible...

keep on trying...

 

Tactics'Improved Pit Fiends can cast Gate, can't they?

 

Yes they do.

It's probably a missile attack of some sort. Maybe the shield of reflection can help.

I don't think so. I'm quite positive the sphere prevents the person inside from resorting to any magic.

There is one weapon I remember which protects the wielder from death spells. I think it's the Improved Hindo's doom, but I'm not quite sure.

Nope, it doesn't.

Maybe Mel can be waylaid so she goes after something else should she manage to cast timestop. (better yet, surround yourself with somethings in some corner so she won't be able to get to you)
If it's impossible, you can try using the Cloak of the Sewer's shapeshift into jelly form in conjunction with 14's suggestion (hardiness+the flail) so she won't be able to do as much damage.

It's possible. Stat drain is one of the few undefendable attacks in the game - the moment his wisdom (or anyone else's for that matter) reaches 0, he'll die instantly. The problem is, stat-draining weapons tend to have low enchantment (Kachiko's has the best, +3), so it's useless against certain bosses. (including Mel )
Don't forget Torgal's Claw!

Can you make him go after Sendai? If he still has his Deathbringer assault...

 

@thetruth: Have you installed the Tactics mod with The Ritual?

If you have, could you please please please play it with your solo fighter and tell us how it goes??

If you can beat it...I shall bow down to the might that is TheTruth!

 

@ Faraaz

Ehm, actually I have already beaten Pontifex... Take a look at the second page of this topic (posts of 8 and 9 June).
And I had more problems disrupting the ritual than killing the same Pontifex.
(No need now to bow down to anyone,really )


@ Scythesong

Great memory Scythesong .Indeed Hindo's Doom +4 does it.

- Unfortunately Melissan can cast timestop even inside the sphere of the prot. from magic scroll
- Kachiko's Wakizashi and Torgal's claw don't seem to stat drain Yaga Shura.He makes most of the saves.
- The transformation into a rat with the cloak of the sewers don't give 90% resistance to phys.damage?Or am I wrong?
But I am sure that it isn't cumulative with the phys. resistance of the flail - Defender.
- I was thinking the same about Sarevok's deathbringer assault.But everytime he attacked Sendai nothing happened.
And he doesn't resist much.They kill him quickly...


-------------EDIT--------------------------------


I have done it !!!

Melissan is dead and I can't believe it...

In his last post, 14 gave me a great idea : ''make as many people "near death" as possible, then quickly kill them when Mellisan appears''...
And this is exactly what I did.It went like this:

1)I charm Sarevok.Even if he got killed quickly, he distracted Sendai in her initial timestop.And took all the damage of her spells (thank you brother ).

2)I start a marathon of hit & run tactics with the dagger Firetooth (I had to have shield of reflection equipped because Ilasera is lethal with her bow).

3)This tactic isn't very difficult but takes a loooot of time.
2 hours (real time) was the duration of the final battle!! And with NO save in the meantime.So if you make a mistake you have to start over again ... (fortunately it didn't happen)
But is a safe tactic.Noone can damage you much if you are careful.The trick is to have all of them ''near death'' when Melissan reappears.Thats it if you want to have a chance against her. So:

4) I bring ''near death'':
Ilasera (uses 5 potions of healing)

Gronmir (uses 5 potions of healing too)

Abazigal (has a small regeneration due to high CON I guess)

Yaga Shura (looot of HPs but with him I used a lot the amazing flail o.a. which did 6 damage/hit, instead of the 1 of the dagger)

Sendai (was very tough.I dispelled her protections with arrows of dispelling, but the worse was that she healed everyone.But eventually she ran out of healing spells )

5)Sendai was the one I chose to kill in order to make Melissan reappear:

http://img294.echo.cx/img294/8385/1sendaidead0rc.png

Now is the time to use my last prot. from magic scroll + the 17 GWW attacks which I kept for dear Melissan and to finish off the ''five''.

6)Then I killed Abazigal :

http://img294.echo.cx/img294/4492/2abazigaldead6rh.png

(As you can see here I risked a lot)

Illasera :

http://img294.echo.cx/img294/3546/3illasera1sttimestop9rc.png

(Hehe she died during the surprised Melissan's timestop)

Gronmir :

http://img294.echo.cx/img294/8531/4gronmirdead8jh.png

And the last one was Yaga Shura:

http://img294.echo.cx/img294/4763/5yagashuradead0er.png

7)Melissan is a bit surpised :

http://img294.echo.cx/img294/8673/6melissanabitsurprised1dc.png

She casts 3 timestops but she only casts spells during them and fortunately doesn't make melee attacks against my fighter.
I am magic-protected (green scroll) so I hit her with GGW attacks and run away when she casts imp. mantle.
Then I repeat... She died shortly:

http://img294.echo.cx/img294/2041/7melissandead5vj.png

And she has to accept it :

http://img294.echo.cx/img294/8823/8acceptit1dq.png

What remains? Yes I have to make my choise:

http://img294.echo.cx/img294/3561/9mydecision9pz.png


Just an interesting epilogue for Balthazar:

http://img294.echo.cx/img294/3115/10balthazarsepilogue3pe.png


And that's all.A happy end indeed ...

[ June 25, 2005, 16:13: Message edited by: thetruth ]

 

I doubt you are mortal....

And just make a new post, instead of the stupid edit...

It's a common tactics to knock them down to "near death" really...

And it looks like Yaga Shura has no res. to poison. It'd be quicker to poison him to death...

Anywayz I'm pretty speechless right now... was a great journey following your... er... Edwin-ish character...

 

"I doubt you are mortal...."

Quoted for truth

 

I am SO not worthy. /me bows to thetruth

Getting the Five to Near Death with six heroes hammering them with spells and god-weapons is one thing.

Killing Yaga-Shura with the Flail of Ages is another.

Well done!

 

Indeed. I could empty a dictionary's worth of congratulative remarks right now. Very, very well done!

 

Thank you all guys for your kind words

It wouldn't be possible without your support (special thanks to 14 and Scythesong)

- Some things about my favourite character:

He finished the game with 3773 number of kills (among them 13 dragons, 21 liches, 2 demi-liches etc.)
and once again proved himself very reliable in every situation.
I believe that now is the time for his definitive retirement ...
(although I already know who will be the first to try a new challenging mod )

A special mention to the flail of the ages:
I love long swords, I like katanas also, but in a hard fight I had to put the other weapons aside and use only the f.o.a.
- Excellent against mages-liches with stoneskins
- Very effective against dragons and tough melee-opponents with its slow-effect
- The best against enemies with physical resistance

Actually the best against everything...
A fighter with the f.o.a. and g.mastery in flails is a very powerful character.And without it I doubt if I would be able to finish this game.

@ 14

Actually my fighter doesn't use Edwin's portrait but the other one which is very similar to Edwin's.
It's the portrait I had chosen for my very first BG character (he was a fighter too) when I didn't know anything about BG and
RP games in general.I still remember how ignorant I was in that time ...
Just one thing: I made my character and in the stats screen I didn't use the reroll button I just didn't know what it was for ...
Fortunately his stats were not very bad (around 75 if I remember right).

@ Western Paladin

Who said that I would be able to win the final battle with a party?
I am sure that it would be the same, if not more difficult to do it.