Tactics

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Improved Guarded Compound is easy after the Underdark - killing Sion is the only tough part; throw out a Death Spell and the Skeleton Warriors drop, use Insect Plague and the spellcasters don't cause you any trouble either.

Improved Twisted Rune are hardcases, though - especially Shangalar. My suggestion is: buff up in the alcove, trigger the Skull Traps with one character using the Cloak of Mirroring, and make absolutely certain that you have anti-invisibility spells, Death magics and area-affect offensive spells available by the bucketload, and summoning a few Mordy swords will keep them occupied. Malison + Chaos works well on the Rune Assassins, too. Haste everyone and run like hell across the room (except the guy with the Cloak of Mirroring) so Shangalar's hideous chain contingency won't slaughter everyone in the party. Globe of Invulnerability and Spell Immunity: Abjuration will help immensely, too, as it will mean you can keep your buffs when Shangalar and Layene cast Remove Magic. They are bastards to beat without a lot of micromanagement.

 

Yeah I have a very specific strategy too. You don't have to use cloak of mirroring to safely trigger those skulltraps, first of all. A good old mirror image does the same thing. Moving your team post haste to the east end of the room is important, but I find you need to determine some matchups very carefully. I don't even worry about Shangalar and Layene until I've dealt with the beholder and the vampire at the least.

As for the rest, I figure we should let you beat them before we spill all our bag of tricks.

 

Well I've toasted the Twisted Rune and Improved Chapter 6 Bodhi. Both were relatively easy once I figured out a decent strategy. For both the Twisted Rune and Bodhi, I reloaded after I beat them so I could do it again. Lots of fun.

Bodhi was too easy though. Drizzt and Eric Van whateverstraaten handled the other vamps while I beat on Bodhi. Couple Lower MR and then high level offensive spells (chain lightning, horrid wilting) seemed to take care of her. I'm glad she wasn't horribly overpowered though. I don't really like battles like that (*cough* Eclipse crew *cough*).

For the Twisted Rune baddies I just had my Pally with the Cloak of Mirroring and Carsomyr (not to mention a couple other trinkets to bring my MR up to 70%) take care of Shangalar and Layene, then the rest of the party showed their worth by wasting everyone else. Beholder was first for sure. Anomen made sure of that. At the same time Minsc with Imp. Mace o' Distruption took care of that bad-ass-4-drain-per-hit Vampire. Lady Jah had no trouble with Ravenek. Meanwhile Kelsey was whippin' out the horrid wiltings and death spells on Cameron (my pally) so that the Mordenakain's Swords would pose no threat. Kelsey ended up killing both Shangy on Layene with a horrid wilting. The Rune Assassins seemed to be immune to Horrid Wilting spells, so Jan wasted no time in turning out the Fireballs and Flame Arrows and Lighting Bolts. What was left of them my paladin finished off.

What really pissed me off though was that Shangalar and Layene were pulling Time Stops outta their asses every round. But what really got me was they were totally wasting them with crappy spells. Oh well. Really fun fight though.

Improved Irenicus: Hot damn. This is near impossible. I seriously can't even get passed the damn dragon. I'll have to keep trying. *grumble* Stupid sword of greed goin' after my casters with it's *grumble* lvl drain.

 

Well you're making good time MC. You have to go nuclear on Irenicus, but it sounds like you only have 1.5 wizards (Kelsey and Jan). Between them, they should *just* be able to take out the dragon and the sword. I'll be interested to see how Sarevok goes; he's always the hardest for me.

 

Ok. Seriously. This is pissing me off something fierce. I cannot beat this mutherFUdge-loving battle.

So far I've gotten past the Dragon of Pride, and the Orb of Fear. I don't know how I'm supposed to beat the Sword of Greed. What am I supposed to do? Throw Magic Missles at it all day? I don't have time for that! Flame Arrow does nothing. I wonder about Bolt of Glory? A couple of those and it's bound to be hurtin' a little! Huh?!

Wraith of Wrath is a totally different story. I wish I could just get him tangled up in a couple Mordy's Swords so that I could get a moment to think! He takes the least amount of strategy to beat. If I could get him to attack Jaheira with her Ironskins, then I think I could take him down pretty easy.

Irenicus or Selfishness or whatever is something I'm confused about. He seems to do the least of all 4. But so far I think I've got my hitlist:
1) Dragon of Pride
2) Orb of Fear
3) Sword of Greed (first I disable it with Feeblemind. Seems to work alright for awhile. Confusion and spook don't.)
4) Wraith of Wrathvok

Then I'm done

EDIT: Just found out the Sword of Greed is very very easy. Death Spell works just fine.

[ November 04, 2004, 06:25: Message edited by: Mystra's Chosen ]

 

I would have suggested Horrid Wilting, but if it's coded as a summons or a Mordy Sword, then Death should work just fine.

 

Well. I did it. I beat Tactics on core my first try. And in good time I might add.

I found the Final Battle SOOOOO drawn out. I mean, c'mon. You have to "kill" Irenicus THR33 TIMES!! And what's with him teleporting around to every entrance, then whenever you catch up with him, he teleports away again. I find that more than annoying.

Anyway, despite it's little flaws, Tactics is a sweet mod. It's a keeper I especially like Improved D'Arnise Keep and the Improved Twisted Rune.

 

The final battle is a bother the first time but it is much easier the second time. I had no big problem in my last run. I wonder though if it is possible to beat Irenicus as slayer as a non-tank without the acid katana? Both the times I ahve fought him I have just run around with the acid katana and got struck now and then which have hurt Irenicus. My exhausted Wild Mage/Thief saw no other way, I did accidentely gender change Irenicus as slayer but it just turned him into a vampire, which was kinda good cause they dont run as fast.

 

I never had any problem running up and get my gear, with no protection at all. Even with the gear it is hard to beat Irenicus the slayer with no real melee capability, thought it was cheesy to just let the acid katana kill him so I tried minute meteor him but that was pointless as I hit with one out of three and I could only throw one or two before I had to run away again.

Could be that you are supposed to go slayer on his ass but a good character do not like that.

 

I usually use a sequencer or trigger of magic missile on Greed, but as you've all said, a couple of things will do the trick. As for Slayerenicus, my first time through the mod I didn't rest my sorcerer before the final battle. When I unloaded everything I had left on Slayerenicus, it only took him to badly injured and I just couldn't hit him enough with my staff. With no tricks left...Slayer time! That was a pretty big thrill. Then, of course, there was the Amazing Teleportirenicus, which drove me nuts.

Anyway, good job on taking him out. It is a bit of an endurance test.

 

I didn't have too much trouble with the round where he strips all your gear off. I cast Prot. from Evil on myself, then guzzled a poition of speed, then ran up and got Carsomyr. He only does about 5 damage per hit or so, but it takes awhile.

Where I had my trouble is with that bloody dragon, although after I figured out the only spell needed to beat him was a Breach, then it got easier.

What I did at the beginning of the battle was I put 4 Mordy's Swords down where all the baddies come up, that way, it buys me a little more time, and I get a whack at the Dragon first. Since the Dragon just wing buffets the swords, he comes flying up to get 'em again. The other Mordy's Swords tangle up Greed and Wrath, which is nice so you don't have to worry about them. Wraith of Wrath is really the hardest I guess, since it doesn't matter how manny protections you've got on, his STR drain with get you in the end. And his AC is so low. By the time I finished the battle, only characters left were Minsc, my PC and Kelsey. He killed the rest!

 

Wraith of Wrath gives me a hell of a time, since I usually play magic heavy groups. Three or four magic users run like little girls from him. I found success with superbuffing, but I thought a more warrior-oriented party like yours would have an easier time than that.

 

The problem with Wrath is that he drain yer flippin' strength, which, as everyone know, if any stat gets to 0, you die (which, as I think of it, why do you die if you charisma goes down? Do you get so ugly that people kill you or the gods smite you with their Ugly Stick +10 or what?).
Anyway, hitting him is pretty hard. I guess the best way to beat him is get him tangled up in high-strenth stat summons (Earth Elementals for example or even Monster Summoning III for orgre berserkers with a 18/00 strength) so they last longer.

I don't personally like battles like these because they tend to be really buggy because there's so many globals or something. For example the Ascension final battle rarely works for me, which makes me mad. For this one, I beat the first round, then nothing happened. I was supposed to see the lightning bolt dealie, but it never came.
Power Word: Reload!

 

I know that re-requipping your strength-boosting items will not overcome the strength drain, but has anyone ever tried casting Strength to see if it resets the stat to 18/50 (or the cleric spell Strength of One, which sets the group strength to 18/76)? It just occurred to me while reading MC's last post, so maybe I haven't thought it through all the way. It would certainly be an interesting way to resurrect that spell.

 

Right, I forgot about that. Anyone have input on the spell idea? I know that Wrath has a freakish THAC0, but with enough strength boosters and a revolving door of tanks, you might be able to take him toe to toe without casualties.

 

Not even Mirror Image helps. The STR drain just blows right past it.

Anyhoo, I just finished the Ritual quest, and I must say it was fun. I liked how you can't rest at all. All you're guys are lvl drained or something, not to mention wounded and fatigued, but you still gotta fight some freakin' huge-ass golems. I'm just wondering, how do you interupt the Ritual without killing the Countess?

But I have one question. What's with the amulets? Aren't they wayyyyy overpowered? Plus you get 6! I like the Yellow Dragon armour though. Looks kooky. Especially with Prot. from Evil on.

 

I was actually a little disappointed with the ritual quest. The grove was a little too "paint by numbers," and I grew bored and frustrated with it. I was really looking forward to the challenge, which sounded like the best part of the mod, but in the end I just brute-forced the encounter. I might take a fresh look at it some day, because on paper it *still* looks really attractive to me.

By contrast, I really enjoyed fighting Pontifex. He blew me away the first time I fought him, until I realized that you had to really clobber him--no holding back. The golems mixed things up nicely, and caused no end of grief to my magic-heavy group (I didn't even have Crom Feyr, so I had to put the rod of smiting to work).

Just to clarify, do you mean to say that if Wrath hits one of your mirror images, you suffer a strength drain? That doesn't sound right to me.

 

Yeah. Jan died because I thought I could get him to absorb all of Wrath's hits, but he up and killed him, even though I was pumping out Mirror Image illusions like nothin'.

BTW, do those Lillith Amulets you get cause your character to berserk every once in a while?