Venduris: WTF???

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I ran into this guy, Venduris, right after staking Bodhi (my game went into a little movie scene, and Venduris with his posse ask me a bunch of questions about being a Bhaalspawn and stuff.

I backed down from a fight, but was curious about this character, so I checked up on him in a few different walkthroughs. But I can't find anything about him anywhere! Can people tell me about this guy?

 

Must be part of a mod, cos' I've never heard of him.

 

Isn't there one mod which adds an extra vampire encounter after you defeat Bodhi? Venduris could be part of that.

 

As I recall, that's part of Avenger's Rogue Rebalancing Pack. Basically (if I'm thinking of the right person) he's a servant of Cyric, who wants to kill you so that you won't oppose his god.

 

Those guys are the Chosen of Cyric from the rogue rebalancing mod.

If you have a save from around that time, I advise to load it and fight them; they have some pretty good items.

 

Ahh, it must be from that, then. I didn't even remember adding that mod until now!

I tried beating them, but they pick on the protagonist first, and I'm playing a Sorcerer (they take away all your defences before the fight begins).

Anyway, I figured it wasn't really worth it, and it's behind me now. Thanks!

 

I guess this is an old thread, from a year ago?

My team is not too awful bad: multiplayer F/T, C/M, Mazzy, Keldorn, Jaheira, and Imoen. Mazzy's up to level 28, I beat Watcher's Keep pretty easy, and I just finished Bodhi off.

This Venduris crew polished me off like nothing four times in a row. It's a little disconcerting. A group of six, it looks like two assasins including Venduris, a fighter, archer, mage, and a cleric. Seems like a standard combo, only beefed up. During conversation mode while I cant do anything about it, Venduris strips of all my buffs, then seconds into normal play, Imoen's backstabbed before I can get Keldorn's True Sight going, my C\M is cornered and has to defend before she can even get off a Golem Book golem, which is pretty fast, and poison is coming from somewhere, I think from the archer, but antidotes dont seem to get rid of it, so one by one each of my characters eats it... and, that's it. Woe! What a disaster!

Is there perhaps some strategy I could try, or just go at it over and over till I eventually get lucky? Maybe time stop..

I could talk them out of attacking, but that's ignominious, if I have to I will, but I really hate to leave them bastids behind in a game where no dragon, demogorgon, or ANY enemy is left alive!


Having followed a few threads on Chosen of Cyric, it seems like what I'm running into here is smarter AI, the bad guys are certainly not being distracted by my fighters and letting my mages stand off to the side to cast spells... They are playing like the way I would, which is bad news for me, and I'm going to have to do some thinking about this.

 

I'm totally unfamiliar with this battle, nor will I test it. However here are some advices (based on IA experiences when all buffs are stripped from PC and he has to engage dangerous foe immediately afterwards).

Summon powerful cannon fodder right before the talk starts. Enemies will strip your buffs, but your summons will stay. "Tough" means a Planetar, an Elemental Prince, and/or Mordenkainen Swords. If you have any other powerful special summons/summoning items added by mods (preferably non-death spellable), use them as well.

Cast Improved Alacrity with your mages right before the start of the talk/fight. At least in Improved Anvil, all powerful buff-stripping abilities/traps/enemies always fail to dispel Improved Alacrity. Under Alacrity, your M/C, with reduced casting speed of 5, is probably going to make a lot of trouble for the enemies (like dispelling all their buffs while protecting/buffing himself and your party as well). Use (minor)Sequencers/Triggers for your longer-casting spells (like Chant, Bless, etc). Implosions may be a good choice, with casting time of 0 with Vecna + AoP, significant damage and Hold effect for 1 round against those not immune (no save).

If enemies also dispel your Alacrity, then try casting multiple Contingencies/Chain Contingencies. These require no cleansed aura, so you may cast them immediately before/after normal spell casting. A little practice is required, however, to get the hang of it so try.

Use Hardiness + physical resistance items for your protagonist (Jansen's adventurewear + Defender of Easthaven + Belt of Inertial Barrier). Give him a poison immunity granting item as well.

You should've collected 3 poison immunity granting items up to this moment - Periapt of Proof vs poison, Ring of Gaxx and Albruin, the bastard sword +1. Distribute those amongst your most vulnerable party members (i.e. those without Stoneskins/Ironskins/ProMagicweapons). BTW, Jaheira, being a druid, should be immune to poison at these levels (innate druid ability).

Get Mazzy as far away from battle as possible, and let her shoot Dispellation Arrows with the Tuigan Bow at whomever needed (preferably enemy spellcasters). You should also consider retreating Keldorn as well. Activate Hardiness on both at the start of combat to make them live a little longer.

I suppose you've already tried this, but have you tried to set Spike/Time traps with your F/T before the start of combat?

Anyway, good luck. You have a powerful 6-person party with probably a good collection of powerful items, use them wisely and you'll win.

 

Have you tried checking the walkthrough section of the readme? There are a bunch of tips for dealing with the Chosen of Cyric there.

If that doesn't help, try setting the game difficulty to a lower level (i.e. Normal or Easiest). The AI will play much less aggressively and use less powerful spells on the lower settings. If all else fails, remember that the CoC encounter can be resolved through non-violent means i.e. by simply talking your way out of trouble. Also, the encounter won't even occur if you set the game difficulty to Easiest before leaving the Graveyard.

 

Thanks for some good ideas, Saros. I'm definitely going to have to re-arrange hardware and load up contingecies before going into this. Traps worked great in watchers keep, but this scene is a "you have been waylaid" at the city gates, so they get to lay traps, but I dont. Time stop took way to long to cast, Imoen got chopped. Also I should re-do party order so when I get to cut scene Imoen ends up at the back of my party. I think if I get the right plan, this fight is win-able. Earlier I was mostly in the kind of shock that a brat kid has when he finally runs into a stern teacher who wont let him get away with doing it the easy way anymore.

aVenger, I forgot that I added Rogue Rebalancing back when I loaded up the game. I kinda noticed there were a lot more Liches distributed around various dungeons, but for the most part, the mod was so seamless that I didnt really notice it was there... until now. Great stuff, thanks.

 

Yeah but it didn't sit well with him that he took out dragons and ran from this fight. I can understand that.

Besides these are a bunch of jerks o'Cyric. It is arguable that putting an end to their activities would be a service to society.

I'm all for non-violent solutions to some encounters (I tend to cast Invisibility 10' radius on my party and just walk by the knights Firkraag tricks into attacking you). But sometimes I choose not to avoid ones with evil parties/groups.

 

I can sympathize with that to an extent, hence the aforementioned AI adjustments on the lower difficulty settings.

BTW, there's also an evil dialogue option which lets the protagonist transform into the Slayer and optionally kill Venduris during a cutscene. This can make the fight with the remaining CoC members somewhat easier.

 

Try almost five years on the button