Haer'Dalis's Chaos Blade: instant kill?

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Haer'Dalis's Chaos Blade has the interesting property of draining dexterity. You can get an instant kill if an ability score is reduced to 0 (that's how mind flayers kill you so quickly). Now Haer'Dalis himself is unlikely to achieve this, because he can only get two attacks per round max with the blade (offensive spin). However, a high level fighter-thief (or Swashbuckler) with Use Any Item and (Greater) Whirlwind Attack may well be able to kill anything in less than a single round (unless it's immune to +2 weapons). I also think that the ability drain would work through a Stoneskin (if mind flayer intelligence drain is anything to go by). Has anybody tried this? It's definitely something to consider if I ever take a fighter-thief through TOB.

By the way, one of the bonus pack items, Kachiko's Wakazashi, has a wisdom draining ability, but this allows a saving throw so is unlikely to achieve the same rapid kill effect.

 

nice idea!
works perfectly on mazzy, jan, korgan...

only problem: is there anyone you can hit
with a +2 sword in ToB?

 

It doesn't nessecarily need to be in ToB, because if you do a lot of quests you can get HLA's in SoA.

The mind flayers' Intelligence Drain isn't affected by stoneskin, because Stoneskin protects against damaging attacks, like a Mace or Magic Missile. Things such as Maze, Stun, Sleep and Confusion effects all affect a Stoneskinnned Mage - so obviously intelligence drain does too.
Thing is; for the Chaos Blade's DEX Drain to work, you need to hit someone - a physical attack.

Mad Crow, many things are hittable in ToB with a +2 weapon. Illasera, Gromnir, many normal enemies are hittable by even normal weapons (unless you count spells).

 

Stoneskin protects against physical attacks, but it doesn't protect against non-physical damage. If you whack a stoneskinned mage with the Flail Of Ages, he gets damaged for three points of cold, fire and acid damage. Likewise, the stoneskin protects against the physical damage of a mind flayer attack (a whopping 2HP!) but not the intelligence drain. So, I'm not certain that a stoneskin would protect against the Chaos Blade's dexterity drain.

Creatures in TOB that can be hit with +2 weapons? There are a few: Gromnir and various guards and goons, fire giants, salamanders, elementals, kuo toa, illithids, drow, spiders, various mists and horrors and, best of all, dragons, particularly if the blade does work through a Stoneskin. Shadowkeeper tells me that Draconis has 14 DEX, Abagizal 17, while Saladrex and the dragon in the Heart Key quest both have 15. Wouldn't it be cool to take them down in one Greater Whirlwind attack?

 

Chaos is nice.
But surely, if you can kill with Chaos then you can kill much faster with other, more powerful weapons?

 

Good question. Let's take Draconis who's got 190 HP and DEX 14. Now consider Minsc, with, say, the Warblade and a girdle of giant strength. He does an average of 6.5 + 4 + 9HP per hit = 20 HP give or take. Seven blows equals 140 HP: Draconis is badly wounded. Furthermore, he's generally got a Stoneskin up so no damage in fact without a breach spell (spell cancelled: can't target invisible creatures. Bugger!). Now consider seven blows with Chaos. Assuming that the dexterity drain bypasses the Stoneskin, Draconis should be dead no matter what physical damage he takes. Also, if you don't get seven blows in and Draconis casts heal on himself, the dexterity drain persists for three rounds - you can get him on the next round.

 

I was thinking of a fighter dual wielding Crom with all HLA's attached - or a Blade or F/M clad in the glory of their spells.
Anways, though I would like to contend this further, I see your point.

Btw, to settle it all, yes Dexterity drain bypasses stoneskin.