Strategy needed for Improved Irenicus!!!

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GASP! Have anybody tried Improved Irenicus from Tactics mode? That battle is so cool! I loaded a very old final save and tried it. Tried it for 6 times and BARELY suceeded in the last attempt, by luck! I am now doing SThieves missions in my current game and I definitely need some good strategy before thet battle! HELP!

For those who do not know, here is Improved Irenicus, the final vattle in Hell:
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(though just for the mod!)
Now the final is a gigantic battle with 3 rounds! You need to beat Irenicus in three different and epic battles! First round is HARD but doable, second is rather easy, but the third...DAMN I find it rather HARD to hurt Jon Bon...if not impossible! Let me explain the rounds so I need your tactics.

First round, Jon Bon comes, chit chats, and STEALS some of your best items! (He steals CromFaeyr, Sanchudooku,(an uber katana) amulet of Power, Cloak of Mirroring, and something more...) Then he creates his parts. As he is Irenicus, the shattered one, he shatters in to fragments, each described by sins in the hell. And they each have the stolen items, so you need to kill them to get these babies! You need to fight 5 really bad guys! Let me introduce them:

1)Selfish Irenicus:Unlimited mage spells, has undroppable RobeofVecna, Cloak of Mirroring, amulet of Power, dimension doors a lot, always has Improved Alacrity so he casts like in the demos of the game. ZAP! Cone of Cold, ZAP! Horrid wilting, ZAP! Finger of Death, OUCH! HRR! He has one ability too, a real pain..He casts SHATTER MAGIC, it is an UBER remove magic spell, removes all of your buffs and lowers your MR!! If you play in Insane he continously spawns nasty Liches!!!

2)Wraith of Wrath: He is like Sarevok, a tough fighter, drains str with each hit ata devasteting rate, has Protection From Magic on him so you can not cast a single spell on him, your fighters must kill him but he has a ridiculuosly low AC! AC is -24! So even your fighters can not hit him easily! He spawns lots of Wraiths in insane difficulty!!!

3)Dragon of Pride:Actually a Shadow Dragon with protective spells on, likes to use breath on casters to level drain them! ıt HURTS a ton to lose highest lvl spells! Plus it wing buffets a lot to disrupt casters as well. In insane it continously spawns a wyvern each round!!!

4)Orb of Fear, a nasty Elder orb with lots of protection spells, has Spell Immunity:Abjuration so NO breach or remove magic will work. Has nasty Elder Orb abilities plus a consitution draining ray as well and it kills fast! In insane he summons Beholder allies every other round!!!

5)Sword of Greed, typicaly a Mordenkainens Sword, but with the abilities of BLACKRAZOR! % chance of draining lvls and healing himself. You need to hit it with pure magic damage like all mordys. It spawns Mordenkainen swords in insane difficulty!

NOW that is a cool fight, still doable with some tactics. I managed to do it BUT WİTH luck! I need your starategies!

2nd round: All of your companions are magically held and it is YOU VS IRENICUS only! WOW! COOL! Only...he takes ALL of your items and throws it to the ground FAR, FAR from you! Then transforms into a very nasty, VERY FAST slayer and starts killing you! Only option I have found is...I transformed my PC to slayer as well and beat him..barely!

3rd round:It is final, all of your party vs Jon Irenicus HIMSELF, no more tricks he says...He is A-W-E-S-O-M-E! He is like Selfish Irenicus, but more powerful! Most importantly, he has Spell Immunityivination and Abjuration BOTH! This is a VERY nasty combo! You can NOT dispel his illuısions, and thus can not target him with spell due to invisibility. He always casts Stoneskins and PfromMgaicWeapons but you can not breach him! He casts TONS of spells, time stops, symbols, flame arrows, cones of sold, fingerofdeaths! If by any chance you do DAMAGE him, which is very unlikely, he dimension doors AWAY and QUICKLY casts Cure Critical Wounds till fully healed! Then goes back to killing you!

ONLY way I found effective was, Planetars! Planetars can see invisible and cast spell on Irenicus. Summon insects, (or was it Insect Plague?) proved to be devastating to him, they ate his stoneskins, he could not cast a spell, couold not heal himself, and by PURE chance my kensai landed a powerful blow that killed him..in 6th LOONG atempt, (if you die in any round you start from the beginning! ACH!)

So I need your ideas for this tough but COOL battle! I need some good strategie before I am there in my current game! HELP me OK!

PS:Can anybody beat first round in insane? I tried and the screen quickly became VERY crowded with their spawns, wyverns and Mordenakinen swords are a thing, Beholders hurt good but it was when all those liches that Selfish spawned started casting Timestops...I loaded and set difficulty to core..

ANY ideas are welcomed. TANKS ALL IN ADVANCE...

[ July 30, 2005, 18:17: Message edited by: Silverstar ]

 

Sheesh! I never installed this component of tactics for good reason.

To me, the first round on insane sounds the most difficult. Short of Time Stop/Improved Alacrity a couple of times, I can't see how else you could defeat so many powerful foes.

The second round sounds okay, slayer vs slayer, or run to pick up your equipment and kick butt.

The third round sounds quite interesting, but I guess the planetars would do the trick. Also, how do Nishruu's fare against him? Does he cast many death spells? If not, they sound as though they would do well against him.

 

I actually found the first round the hardest, and the last the easiest, but that was because my party was very fighter-heavy. But to get rid of his various illusions, ideally have a thief with high Detect Illusions. That would make the fight much easier, but relies on your PC being a thief, or including a mod thief. Alternatively, playing in multiplayer and creating a thief as another character would work.

Having lots of fighters made the final stage very easy. A nice way to do it is to place a summoned creature at each of the places he teleports to when wounded, and then he'll teleport away again. Keep one point full of fighters, so that when he appears there he gets smacked.

I'm appalling at magic, which is why I found the first one so hard. I tend to forget about it, and just use fighters. My only mage tends to be Imoen, anyway. Also, I rarely take a cleric, and make use of Rods of Resurrection and potions. I've never attempted it on any difficulty other than core.

The slayer one is really annoying, since it unequips armour, and you get no opportunity to put it back on. I just ran past him, grabbed my weapon and smashed him.

EDIT: As an aside... Why "Jon Bon"?

[ July 30, 2005, 16:31: Message edited by: Alavin ]

 

JWN, I tried TimeStop and Imp Alacrity via a Project Image, and it could NOT kill one of the big guys! Badly injured the dragon, injured the sword, BUT that Selfish Jon Bon dimensiondoored RIGHT in MY TIMESTOP so all those horrid wiltings I casted near him were for nothing! I was UTTERLY shocked and frustrated!!!

Alavin, yes it seems a simple detect illusion MAY turn the entire battle, BUT I am no pure thief lover(maybe due to all those cheesy traps that one can set, I can not help but use them! Sue me!) so it is no-no. Any other idea?

My party will be a rather heavy magic party. PC as a lvl 14cleric dualled into mage, a MP created kensai(for purest melee power! And I do so love kensais!) plus good old Minsc, Jaheira, Aerie and Imoen. Any strategies you find? Help? I am SOO excited and to tell you the truth...afraid of finishing the game...but it is a good thing nevertheless...I am not bored neither!!!

Ehh Jon Bon...a lovely name for our most famous, most charismatic and most powerful(well at least with this mod that is.) villain! We all love Jon right?

 

You could create yourself some extra fighting potential with Tenser's Transformation, Shape Change, Greater Elemental Transformation, planetars, and any other summons you can throw out. Slayer change would work too. Unfortunately, all my tactics involve excessive use of fighters.

 

Right I am sure fighters will fare better in 3rd round as for some mysterious reason final Irenicus is untouchable by every spell in the book, (maybe ecxcept Insect Plague...but then you can NOT cast it on him as he is invisible.) BUT HOW do you use fighters for the very final battle? Jon Bon casts Stoneskin AND PfromMagicweapons CONTINOUSLY, QUICKLY, and to NO END! Plus he ALWAYS dimension doors and heals too!

IDEA: He casts PfromMAGICAL wepaons, do plain normal weapons hit him? It seems UNLIKELY BUT maybe mod makers left it as a glitch? GOTTA try! Any ideas! NOTE:He sometimes casts Improved Mantle too! What this means you can NOT touch him with any ranged weapon..(were there +4 arrows?)

 

It's not a glitch. If a weapon isn't magical, Protection from Magical Weapons can't do a thing. As I recall he also casts Absolute Immunity a lot too though, which can stop them. But he doesn't has both active at the same time. Also, elemental damage gets through stoneskin. Flail of the Ages and the like are very useful. Put summons where he teleports to, and he'll teleport again, hopefully getting hit again before he goes. He only teleports to set places, so remember where they are and put long duration summons like Skeleton Warriors, elementals and such there.

 

I wondered if Irenicus is immune to normal weapons or NOT? If he is not, then when he casts Pfrommagical weapons, normal weapons can be usefull. This can be a glitch, a possible weakness for Improved Irenicus or..not?

Skeleton Warriors last long BUT he casts Shatter Magic a lot which reduces MR also so they die quickly too. Mabe Nishruus may be of use, I don't remember if he casted Death spell or not. But then Nishruus have pity duration?

EDIT:I have found some cheese way! Dropped all stolen items to the ground BEFORE fight starts and then picked them up when the fight started!! NICE!

[ August 04, 2005, 16:38: Message edited by: Silverstar ]