Soloing the Ritual...

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Well, I've been playing BG2 with a solo Fighter/Mage/Thief on Insane. I know its been done before, but this current run of mine is set apart by the fact that I have installed ALL the mods I could find to make the game as insanely hard as possible...such as Tactics mod, Ascension, Super Firkraag etc etc. I've never actually done Improved Ilyich before...I just got really angry with the cheesiness of the fights and let it go.

Anyway...I'm upto the Ritual right now...its still Chapter 3...but I've finished with Watcher's Keep...Chain Contingency Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wilting x3 >>>>> Demogorgon's Baboon Butt.

I've started off with the Ritual, and finished clearing out the forest and disrupting the ritual. I went back to Pontifex, and he gave me these amulets and then...zap. Dragon out of nowhere, with a Timestop and a buff list a MILE long.

Now...the reason why I created this thread.

How THE **** do you beat that thing?

Solo F/M/T - lvl 26/23/28 (I think...something like that)

HELP!

 

Well, now! Interestingly, that's exactly the situation I'm setting up for myself... solo F/M/T, every mod imaginable installed (except for CTB and NTotSC, which are too buggy and don't play well with others). I'm still still in the middle of the BG1 portion (with BGT installed), though, so haven't gotten to the serious nastiness available in BG2.

Ideas on the dragon, though:
1. Multiple chain contingencies, all buffs (stoneskin, spell immunity, improved invisibility, blur, mirror image, etc.), set to go off upon being hit/enemy sighted/whatever.
2. Multiple spell sequencers, set to dragon-killing mode (lower resistance, pierce magic, doom, greater malison, etc.).
3. Equip the items that'll protect you best against that dragon (with a solo of that level, you should have enough items to max. out just about any of your resistances, eh?)
4. Beg for mercy...

Don't know if any of that'll help, but it's a start, right? Good luck on that! You'll need it!

 

@DtD: Mate...I tried all of that..but there are several problems.

Firstly, the game goes into a cutscene while Pontifex morphs into the Dragon, and if you are invisible when this happens, the game freezes. I assume this is a bug in the mod itself...but if it is an anti cheese tactic employed by the mod creator...I am NOT amused.

Secondly, how can you cast multiple sequencers? You can only have one...

Thirdly, I cast Improved Alacrity just to get the following buffs up BEFORE I even talked to that guy...

Stoneskin
Remove Fear
Mirror Image
Spirit Armor
Spell Immunity:Abjuration
Spell Immunity: Enchantment
Spell Immunity: Divination
Chain COntingency on hit: Mislead, Mirror Image, Stoneskin
Protection from Elements
Improved Haste
True Sight
Summon Dark Planetar (I'm evil )
Hardiness

All of that, and my character is untouchable!!! For all of 1 minute...after which, I get pwned so hard its not even funny.

You can't use traps because he summons those gay sand golems which absorb them all.

You can't use Dispel Magic, Breach etc because he uses Spell Immunity Abjuration.

THe only way to get rid of his protections, is to cast a Magic Missile, or any other spell to get rid of his Spell Shield, then Ruby Ray of Reversal to get rid of his Spell Trap, then ANOTHER RRoR to get rid of his SI: Abjuration, THEN Remove Magic to get rid of his other buffs. I spent an hour trying to work out a quicker alternative...no go.

That's 4 rounds.

In 4 rounds, that ******* casts Time Stop, beats on you, casts ANOTHER Time Stop...does he even bother CASTING the damn thing? Smashes you up some more, then casts ANOTHER Time Stop and...

You get the idea.

Who the heck created this mod? You'd better tell us how to beat this guy...

 

What about Shadow Door? Improved Invisibility/Spell Immunity: Divination? Mislead/Haste/Spell Immunity: Divination? Simulacrum? Simulacrum/Mislead (x2)/Haste?

Incidentally, can you get immunity to Timestop with Spell Immunity? I don't know the answer to that one. Best case scenario... LOTS of summons/clones/misleads to distract the thing. Simulacrum should get you a way of taking his protections away faster, shouldn't it? I mean, two mages for the price of one, right? Simulacrums can use single-use items without reducing them from your inventory, so a Wand of Spell Striking can be used it as well as all the spells to debuff dragon-dude.

I think I'd have to play this to have any more specific advice, but for now, the clone/simmy might be a good bet.

 

Well...I COULD do all of that if he f****** LETS me!

I mean...INSTANTANEOUS time stops? Gimme a break.

You know...really, I think you need to play this to believe it.

 

@ Faraaz

Can't you survive the time-stops? If so i think after he runs out of them (for ex. Firkraag had 5 time-stops) then you can pass on the offensive.
If the map is watcher's keep then if i remember right if you stand at a spot near the lake you can keep yourself out of his wing-buffets, maybe it can help

 

After the first time stop his wing buffets should send you to the upper right corner of the map... quickly go on the small wooden bridge there, and he won't be able to hit you with his attacks...

 

Every possible trap you have- lay them to beat on the sand golems. You want to set lots of time traps, hopefully giving you enough time to hit him with some RRof reversal, remove magic etc. Cast some more time stops and hopefully you can keep a string of them going until he dies.

Mind you, this won't necessarily work. I have had that guy cast time stop, while he was stopped. Crazy paradox.

 

@thetruth: I CAN survive them...but I've counted 8 time stops so far...and there's only so many TS's I can survive without refreshing my buffs. This guy is a joke.

@angryguy: I tried what you said. There's one problem. The time traps trigger with Pontifex still in his human form. He's unkillable in that form...(tried it with CTRL+Y ) I also tried setting those time traps a bit further up, near that bridge, then RUNNING all the way...with a few spike traps set behind me to take care of the sand golems. No go...the traps hit the golems only, and the dragon was off screen. I ran back to him, and tried casting time stop...but the time trap ran out, and he cast time stop BEFORE I did...and I've got the Robe of Vecna and Amulet of Power equipped!

I'm thinking of resorting to using those boots I got from Kangaxx...permanent Improved Alacrity...

I mean, its only fair. This guy cheats like no tomorrow...and I thought Improved Irenicus was bad.

 

Jeez, which mod is that ?

btw, does all that mislead etc work against a dragon ? never tried...

[ June 03, 2005, 08:48: Message edited by: 14 ]

 

14, the mod with the funky boots is Items of the Magi, iirc. You eventually get a full suit of overpowered epical arcane killingness. Not really fair against poor Jonny unless you have these mods installed...

 

And what about time traps? If sand golems would trigger that, you could gain some time to attack the dragon...

 

OK Faraaz. I sell you that sword that makes you immune to timestop,i got in the Asylum.
How about 1.000.000 gold + some items i need?

 

Can you drop his protections with say a MM and 2 RoR's in a Chain Contingency set to "see enemy"? Follow with 3 Lower Resistance in a Spell Trigger and a Greater Malison and 2 Spooks in a Sequencer (the Spook spell will have a -10 on his saves, should fail at least one). It might be a better use of the CC then the buffs. Does he throw any spells other then Time Stop? A Spell Trap (from SotM) might help, Spell Turning might be even nastier. You might want something in a regular Contingency too, like a Sunfire (if it touches the golems).

 

Ditto, I think that's great advice. CC the ruby rays and a spell trigger of three lower resisitence.

Even better, just CC 3x piece shield directly which does both of the above. Although PS belongs to the abjuration school, it does dispell all spell immunity.
Edit: actually the dragon doesn't seem to have more than 60% MR, so two piece shield is enough. You can put whatever spell for the third slot.

Again I believe dragons simply see through all kinds of invisibility ? So all the mislead etc should be useless...

[ June 04, 2005, 05:25: Message edited by: 14 ]

 

Hmm...I finally did beat him.

Here's what I did...

Firstly, I went and recruited Viconia to talk to that idiot...strictly as a decoy. I dont CARE if it violates the solo only rule, I was getting really angry.

I started casting Imp. Alacrity, then when I was half way through, talked to him with Viconia, then hit Enter like crazy, because my guy was still casting.

LUCKILY, I managed to finish the dialog just as my character finished his Imp. ALacrity. After that, I proceeded to empty the following spells into that yellow piece of ****:

Magic Missile
RRoR
RRoR
Remove Magic
Remove Magic
Pierce Shield
Pierce Shield
Pierce Shield
Improved Alacrity (first one ran out)

He'd cast Time Stop be then...but no worries as he couldn't touch me...

ADHW
ADHW
ADHW
Mordy Sword x 3 (meat shield for the golems)
Skull Traps x 6

Toasted Dragon...

 

It's beter to use breach as it guarantees to remove his protection of magical energy etc. remove magic doesn't guarantee plus remove magic is level three which conflicts with skull trap.(how did you get 8 level 3 spells anyway ? ) And the ruby rays and piece shield are redundant. I think tree piece shield in a CC is enough. (one for spell trap, one for spell shield, one for spell immunity)

but Yeah whatever, you killed him...

I reckon you could do better man.... do it without Viconia... do it youself...

[ June 06, 2005, 12:44: Message edited by: 14 ]

 

Stuff that...

I finished that game upto Irenicus, and then couldn't be bothered finishing up ToB...it got too easy, what with UAI, Spike Traps, Improved Haste for 20 rounds for 9 attacks per round...Mislead if included...

Yeah...so I started up another game, this time with my other all time favourite character, Fighter/Mage/Cleric.

Going to try and do it totally solo this time...

Hopefully, just dispelling his first three spell protections, then whacking him with SotM should leave him free for some loving with Harm...

 

Nice thing about Cleric/Mage combos (including F/M/C with the cap removed) is doing fun things like putting a Doom and 2 Dolorous Decays into a Spell Trigger. Better still to drop MR with Pierce Shields in a Chain Contingency, then a sequencer with Doom, Greater Malison and Slow followed by a Spell Trigger with some "Save or bad things happen spells". I like Dolorous Decay for this, as it has a -2 penalty on the save (so -8 with the Sequencer above) so dropping 3 in a trigger should result in a blown save or 2. For each blown save, your target will take 1 hp of damage a second for 50 seconds. I doubt he'll get any spells off durring those 50 seconds. Regardless of save they are slowed for 2 rounds, which can help too.