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ITEM ENCHANTING
If I try to rest in the lower level of the Vault, either I rest the full 8 hours, or a pair of undead monsters will wake me up and attack. The undead monsters will be the same as always, Ancient Vampires, Shadows of the Void, or Death Lords. Sometimes I go two or three times in a row whereby I can sleep for 8 hours. Sometimes I get attacked by undead two or three in a row when I try to sleep. Other times I sleep for 8 hours, try to sleep again and get attacked by undead.
I pursue this cycle with a couple of objectives. One is to accumulate some of the crafting essences I want for my long term plans. Some enchantment plans I can realize once Valeria hits her 30th level, so it's those enchantments that I want enough essences for. Others will have to wait until later. I have definite targets in mind (i.e. numbers of certain kinds of essences) that I'll describe as I go along. The other objective is to accumulate experience. The sooner that Valeria can hit 30th level, the sooner that she can add the most potent enchantments to everybody's items.
Keep in mind that the tactics vary according to the situation. If Okku, the only party member who hits anything with reliability at this point, brings an undead to 'near death', Valeria will instantly Eternal Rest it. Other times, it will be 'badly wounded' but pretty close to 'near death'. What that means is that I not want Okku to hit it again because I want more hit points to result in more spirit energy for Valeria when she uses Eternal Rest. What I do in that situation is command Okku and the others to attack the other undead monster in the pair. Valeria will use a Shocking Grasp spell or two to peck the initial target down from 'badly wounded' to 'near death' before using Eternal Rest.
Once in a while I'm forced to sleep three times consecutively, which will result in pretty low spirit energy for Valeria. The solution is simple. I carefully bring down the first undead to 'near death'. If I have to, I'll peck down a 'badly wounded' undead using Magic Missiles and even forcing Okku and the others to run away periodically if need be, before unleashing Eternal Rest to maximize my spirit energy return. I then run upstairs to the first level, wait out the 5 minute cooldown period, then head back down to repeat the process on the other undead.
Sometimes the undead monsters will target Valeria herself, which can be a bother. The easy antidote is for her to cast Greater Invisibility on herself, and slip away to a discreet distance. She is then ready to unleash Magic Missiles or Eternal Rest instantly if she needs to.
Another thing, sometimes I'll get an indication that my rest has been interrupted my monsters, but they won't be in immediate view just yet. I simply wait for them to come to the central room. Once in a while, only one will come to the central room while the other stays behind. I'll easily take care of the first undead that comes into the room. I'll then have to search around and kill off the other undead if I want to be able to rest again. In my experience, the undead that stays behind will typically be found in the room that had the Lamentations of the Dead scroll.
There are a couple of objectives to look out for in the meantime. One objective is to collect all of the essences that I'll want for my planned item enchantments. More specifically, I want at least 33 Pristine Power Essences, 27 Pristine Fire Essences, 24 Pristine Air Essences, 12 Pristine Earth Essences and 9 Pristine Water Essences. The Fire and Power Essences will accumulate naturally, since the undead monsters here tend to drop both Fire Essences and Power Essences. The other objective is to accumulate enough xp so that Valeria reaches her 30th level, and can therefore place the highest level enchantments on the party's items.
The next set of videos shows my pursuit of the targets I have in mind. I don't show every single fight. I only show the ones where a party member has acquired enough experience to advance another level, or when I've acquired enough of a particular kind of essence that meets one of my targets.
Enchanting Cloaks
I begin by placing the Shroud of the Elder Doom into the Enchanter's Satchel, along with 4 Brilliant Power Essences. I have Gann cast Tortoise Shell on the Satchel to add a +5 deflection bonus to armor class to the Satchel. I am careful not to add any more enchantments, because I want to leave the fourth enchantment slot open. Valeria wears the Shroud for now as an interim Cloak, although she will ultimately pass it off to Kaelyn much later in the game.
I now place the Cloak of Blackflame that I had imported earlier into the Satchel, along with another 4 Brilliant Power Essences. I again have Gann cast Tortoise Shell on the Satchel to add the +5 deflection bonus to armor class. I now place 4 Brilliant Spirit Essences into the Satchel. Valeria uses her Mold Spirit power on the Satchel to add +6 Charisma to the Cloak. Gann wears the Cloak for the rest of the game, and it will at some point be made even more powerful still.
Gann's Charisma bonus modifier is now at +5. That, combined with his 10 ranks in Use Magic Device, now allow him to wear the Boots of the Sun Soul +5 and the Thieves' Hood.
Next, I place the Cloak of Fortification +5 in the Satchel along with 4 Brilliant Spirit Essences. Valeria uses her Mold Spirit power to add +6 Charsima to the Cloak. Kaelyn wears the cloak for now as an interim item, and a key reason for this is that I want her to now have both a deflection bonus to armor class and a bonus to Charisma.
The video concludes with me combining all of my essences into Brilliant and Pristine grade Essences.
Kaelyn's 22nd Level
I return to the central room and now begin the process of resting and killing off any undead that interrupt. I switch targets to Ancient Vampires and Shadows of the Void because I want to burn through more xp for the next while, and also hit my target of 27 Pristine Fire Essences at the same time.
Kaelyn reaches her 22nd level. The one highlight is that she's almost reached her target of 8 skill ranks in Use Magic Device.
Gann's 24th Level
Gann reaches his 24th level after the very next battle. He gets to select two feats.
One feat is the epic spell, Vampiric Feast. It's a spell that can inflict instant death on multiple foes, without hurting party members, and with a considerable +5 boost to the DC.
The other is Empower Spell. The rationale is much the same as it was for Qara during the OC. Gann can on the fly decide to unleash either a Fire Storm or a Call Lightning Storm that will unleash x 1.5 the usual damage.
Valeria's 27th Level
Valeria reaches her 27th level on the next battle. She obtains a key target in the Combat Insight epic feat. It allows her to add her Intelligence bonus modifer to her melee weapon damage instead of Strength. The bonus damage will apply to critical-immune enemies as well. It will also stack with the bonus damage provided by Insightful Strike against enemies that are subject to critical hits.
Okku's 25th Level
For now I prioritize getting Ancient Vampires of Shadows of the Void on interrupted rests. It will make levelling go faster for the time being, and it allows me to pursue my objective of 27 Pristine Fire Essences.
Kaelyn's 23rd Level
I get enough xp after defeating a pair of Ancient Vampires. Gann advances to his 24th level. He now has his Spellcraft skill catch up in ranks so that he'll be able to qualify for epic spells.
Kaelyn advances to her 23rd level, whereupon she can select two feats. One feat is the Empower Spell feat. I won't really be able to take full advantage of this feat until Valeria gains enough influence with Kaelyn, whereupon it turns into the Improved Empower Spell feat. A key point here is that Kaelyn will then be able to cast an Empowered Fire Storm as a 9th level spell, which Clerics normally would be unable to do.
The other feat is the Persistent Spell feat. It allows Kaelyn to memorize a Persistent Prayer as a 9th level spell, and a Persistent Divine Favor as a 7th level spell.
Valeria's 28th Level
Valeria has enough xp to advance to her 28th level after a battle with a pair of Ancient Vampires. She selects an Arcane Trickster level to increase her thieving skills.
She also selects the Protection from Energy and Resist Energy spells, which will be important for my item crafting plans.
Okku's 26th Level
Okku has enough xp to advance to his 26th level after a battle with a pair of Ancient Vampires.
The video concludes with me combining my Power Essences and Fire Essences into Pristine Essences. I am nearing two of my goals, 33 Pristine Power Essences and 27 Pristine Fire Essences.
Accumulating Pristine Power Essences
I switch back to Death Lords for the time being. And here is where I reach my last target of accumulating at least 33 Pristine Power Essences, whereupon I stow them away into my Greater Magic Bag.
Accumulating Pristine Fire Essences
Now I switch back to insisting on Ancient Vampires and Shadows of the Void during interrupted rests. I reach my next target of 27 Pristine Fire Essences, and stow them away as well.
Gann's 25th Level
Now I switch back to insisting on only Death Lords during interrupted rests. Gann soon advances to his 25th level.
I select the Spell Resistance feat for him, which makes sense because he is one of my primary offensive spellcasters in the party.
Kaelyn's 24th Level
I get a little more experience and advance Kaelyn to her 24th level. She starts to catch up with her skill ranks in Spellcraft, and adds a +1 to Wisdom.
At this point I now combine all my Power Essences into Pristine Power Essences, which is now at a new total of 14. I am nearing one of my other objectives.
Accumulating Pristine Earth Essences
At the moment I have 4 Pristine Earth Essences, and no Brilliant Earth Essences. My target is 9 Pristine Earth Essences. That means I need 40 Brilliant Earth Essences to obtain that target.
I continue the process of resting and killing off any Death Lords who interrupt until I've acquired 20 Pristine Power Essences, which includes after I've combined together all of my Volatile Power Essences and Brilliant Power Essences.
I next convert those 20 Pristine Power Essences into 40 each of Brilliant Air Essences, Brilliant Earth Essences, Brilliant Fire Essences and Brilliant Water Essences.
After that I combine the Brilliant Earth Essences into Pristine Earth Essences. I now have my target of 9 Pristine Earth Essences, so I stow them away into my Greater Magic Bag.
I then combine the Brilliant Air Essences and Brilliant Water Essences into their corresponding Pristine Essences.
I've already met my target for Pristine Fire Essences, so the video concludes with me converting any Fire Essences I have into Power Essences.
*Note* Whoops, I realized later on that I needed 12, not 9. I corrected this later.
Valeria's 29th Level
I continue until get enough experience to advance Valeria to her 29th level, and Okku automatically advances to his 27th level.
Valeria takes a 15th level in Wizard, so now she gets both the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat as a bonus feat, and the epic spell Hellball (the best damaging spell in the game) as her regular feat.
Accumulating Pristine Water Essences
Valeria now had 5 Pristine Water Essences and 6 Brilliant Water Essences. That means she needs 26 more Brilliant Water Essences to reach her next goal of 9 Pristine Water Essences.
I continue the process of resting up and killing off Death Lords until I get 13 Pristine Power Essences. Converting them into elemental essences gives me the 26 Brilliant Water Essences that I need. I combine those Essences and end up with my target of 9 Pristine Water Essences. I stow them away into my Greater Magic Bag.
I have met all of my targets except my last one, 24 Pristine Air Essences. So now I begin a cycle of converting all of my Earth, Fire and Water Essences into Power Essences, then converting my Power Essences into elemental Essences, converting my elemental Essences into Power Essences, and so on, until I am left with only Air Essences. The process leaves me about halfway to my goal, with 10 Pristine Air Essences.
Gann's 26th Level
I grind it hard with Death Lords all the way until Gann gets his 26th level of experience. He selects the Greater Spell Penetration feat, which is consistent with his role of offensive spellcaster.
I realize that I actually need three more Pristine Earth Essences. So first, I combine all my Power Essences together into Pristine Power Essences. I then convert 12 of those Pristine Power Essences into elemental essences of brilliant grade. That results in 24 Brilliant Earth Essences, which I combine into 3 Pristine Earth Essences that I stow away into my bag.
Kaelyn's 25th Level
Kaelyn has enough xp to get her 25th level after a few more fights against Death Lords.
She selects the Cleave feat. Kaelyn is usually at best a situational spellcaster, and by contrast performs as a front-line tank quite often. I therefore give her this feat to increase her number of attacks quite significantly. It will activate frequently due to her ability to land hefty damage with a Warhammer that packs multiple sources of elemental damage as well.
Accumulating Pristine Air Essences
It turns out that I have everything I need after one more battle against a pair of Death Lords. I commence the process of converting Power Essences into elemental essences, and converting earth and fire and water essences back into power essences, and son until I hit my target of 24 Pristine Air Essences.
Okku's 28th level
I continue to hunt exclusively for Death Lords for the sake of racking up more Power Essences. Okku soon reaches his 28th level.
The video concludes with Valeria combining all of her Power Essences into Pristine Power Essences and Brilliant Power Essences.
Valeria's 30th level
More Death Lords and xp means that Valeria soon has enough xp to attain her 30th level. I select Arcane Trickster for her last level-up. It was important to have her take Arcane Trickster during her even-number level-ups during Mask of the Betrayer. The reason being that if she took a Wizard level on her 30th level, that would have meant a lot of skill points gone to waste.
She makes a point of putting her Tumble skill at rank 30. That means a +3 dodge bonus to armor class for her. After that, I distribute her skill points to her conversational and thieving skills.
She is now at her maximum level, and that means she can now add the very highest of enchantments on the party's items. The video concludes with her combining her Power Essence together, and then pulling her Pristine Essences out of her Greater Magic Bag.
Epic Armor Enchantments
Now I take the opportunity to enchant three armors.
First, Valeria places her own Mithral Chainshirt into the Enchanter's Satchel along with three Pristine Power Essences. Casting a Stoneskin spell on the Satchel raises the enhancement bonus of the Chainshirt to +8. She then places three Pristine Fire Essences into the Satchel. Casting Protection from Energy on the Satchel adds +8 regeneration to the Mithral Chainshirt. She next removes one of the Shadow of the Void Essence she had acquired earlier from her Greater Magic Bag and puts into the Satchel along with the armor. Now she uses her Mold Spirit power on the Satchel to add 75% cold damage immunity and -25% fire damage vulnerability. She won't be worried about the fire damage vulnerability either, since she'll add a hefty bonus to fire damage to her shield later on.
Now then detour for a bit to the Magician's Workbench in the Veil Theater. Valeria pulls the Radiant Earth Essence, the Glowing Power Essence, and the Blue Diamond out of her Greater Magic Bag and places them into the Magician's Workbench along with the other Mithral Chainshirt that Safiya had crafted earlier. Casting the Banishment spell on the Workbench adds the fortified property (immunity to critical hits and sneak attacks) to the armor. I also add a +8 enhancement bonus and +8 regeneration to the other Chainshirt. Lastly, I put the other Shadow of the Void Essence into the Satchel. Using Mold Spirit on the Satchel then adds 75% cold damage immunity and -25% fire damage vulnerability to the armor. The fire damage vulnerability won't be a concern for Gann, since he will stockpiled fire resistance from other items as well. I have created a Mithral Chainshirt armor for Gann that is functionally equivalent to Valeria's armor, and he will wear it for the rest of the game. After that, I return to the lower level of the Death God's Vault.
Lastly, Valeria takes the Mithral Full Plate that Safiya crafted earlier and places it in the Enchanter's Satchel. She adds a +8 enhancement bonus and +8 regeneration to the Full Plate. After that, I place three Pristine Earth Essences into the Satchel. Another Protection from Energy spell adds a bonus +35 hit points to whomever wears the Mithral Full Plate. Kaelyn wears the armor for the rest of the game. The second best base armor in terms of pure armor class is the Mithral Full Plate when worn by a character who has a Dexterity of at least 16, which Kaelyn already has. The only setup that's even better is a Bracers of Armor +10 or a Robe that provides at least +10 armor (there is one in the expansion) when worn by a character that can put his or her Dexterity through the roof.
Epic Shield Enchantments
Now I enchant the shields for Valeria, Ganna and Kaelyn. For each shield, I first raise the enhancement bonus to +8, in the same manner as for body armors described above. I then add +8 regeneration to each shield, also in the same manner described above.
Epic Boots Enchantments
Now I begin some epic-level item enchantments. For Valeria, I place her boots, which are Boots of the Sun Soul +5, into the Satchel along with four Brilliant Spirit Essences. I use Mold Spirit on the Satchel to add +6 Constitution to the Boots. Three Pristine Air Essences now go into the Satchel. Casting a Cat's Grace spell on the Satchel will raise the Dexterity bonus of the Boots to +8. I repeat the process for Gann's boots as well. I am careful to leave the 4th enchantment slot open for each pair of boots so that I can raise the Constitution bonus even higher once I acquire the Malleate Spirit ability, and then add a Reflex saving throw bonus on as the fourth and last enchantment.
I do things a bit differently with Kaelyn's Boots of the Sun Soul +4. I don't even bother to add a Constitution bonus, since she'll get that from a different item anyway. I simply raise the Dexterity bonus to +8. I then add three Pristine Power Essences into the Satchel along with the Boots. I next cast a Fox's Cunning spell on the Boots to add a +9 bonus to Reflex saving throws right away. Kaelyn is set for the rest of the game as far as her boots go.
Keep in mind that these enchantment sequences are intermingled with resting up so as to fight more undead monsters and replenishing the spells I need for enchanting, which I don't show in the video. Doing so also has the additional benefit of letting me accumulate Power Essences naturally.
Epic Belts Enchantments
Now I place Gann's Ceremonial Uthgardt Belt into the Satchel, along with three Pristine Power Essences. Valeria casts a Bear's Endurance spell on the Satchel. The Belt already had a +5 bonus to Fortitude saving throws. Doing this results in raising the bonus to +9. I next place four Brilliant Spirit Essences into the Satchel. Valeria uses Mold Spirit on the Satchel to add +6 Strength to the Belt. Gann now has his Belt for the rest of the game. Gann spends a fair amount of time on the front lines cutting down the opposition with his Katana, so a belt that adds both +10 Strength and +9 to Fortitude saving throws is most certainly welcome.
I next place Kaelyn's Girdle of Holy Might into the Satchel. As with Gann's belt, I also add a +9 bonus to Fortitude saving throws as the last enchantment. Kaelyn now also has her belt for the game.
Epic Ring Enchantments
First, I place Valeria's Ring of Improved Evasion into the Satchel along with three Pristine Fire Essences. I next cast a Resistance cantrip on the Satchel to add +9 saving throws vs. fire to the Ring. I repeat the process, but this time with Pristine Air Essences instead so as to add +9 saving throws vs. electricity.
My plans also including adding bonus 8th level arcane spells to Valeria's rings, but I can't do this for now because Valeria can't use Legend Lore as a Divination spell. I'll have to wait until Safiya reaches her 30th level and can cast Legend Lore.
I engage in similar processes for Kaelyn's rings. I add +9 to saving throws vs. acid and +9 to saving throws vs. fire to her Ring of Regeneration. I add +9 to saving throws vs. cold and +9 to saving throws vs. electricity to her Bone Ring.
I also intend to add bonus high level Cleric spells to Kaelyn's rings. But I won't be able to do that until Valeria acquires the Malleate Spirit power much later in the game.
Note that you can only add one bonus spell slot to a ring, whether it's a bonus Wizard spell or a bonus Cleric spell, in Mask of the Betrayer. Also, you can't upgrade the spell slot (e.g. 3rd level spell to 4th level spell) once you add the spell slot. You have to stick with your first choice. I prefer to add bonus 8th level Wizard spells to Valeria's ring. The reason being that I want Valeria to have multiple instances of spells like Empowered Disintegrate or Sun Burst or Empowered Chain Lightning, all of which are effectively 8th level spells.
Lastly, keep in mind that bonus Wizard and Cleric spells on rings won't benefit either Gann or Okku. That's the reason I prefer that they wear rings that are already loaded up with plenty of enchantments as it is, while Valeria and Kaelyn get rings that have at least one enchantment slot left open for bonus spells.
Epic Amulet Enchantment
First, I place Gann's Amulet of Natural Armor +5 in the Satchel. Three Pristine Power Essences and a Superior Resistance spell add +7 to saving throws. Three Pristine Fire Essences and a Resist Energy spell add +45 fire resistance. Three Pristine Air Essences and a Resist Energy spell add +45 electrical resistance. Gann now has his amulet for the rest of the game.
Epic Weapon Enchantments
First up is the Adamantine Rapier that I made for Valeria. Three Pristine Air Essences and a Chain Lightning spell will add +5d6 electrical damage. Three Pristine Earth Essences and an Acid Fog spell will add +5d6 acid damage. Note that I am not adding an enhancement bonus to the rapier for the time being. The reason is that I will be adding an enhancement bonus by using Slumbering Coven Essences later on. Those Essences will not only add an enhancement bonus, but other benefits as well. Valeria can, in the meantime, make due by casting a Greater Magic Weapon on her Rapier at the start of each new day.
Next is Gann's Cold Iron Katana. Three Pristine Power Essences and the Greater Magic Weapon spell will mean a +8 enhancement. Three Pristine Earth Essences and the Acid Fog spell will mean +5d6 acid damage. Three Pristine Water Essences and the Ice Storm spell will mean +5d6 cold damage. Gann already has the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, so it's natural to have him use a katana which has a better damage range than other swords. Note that I deliberately chose bonus acid damage and cold damage for Gann's weapon. The reason being that Gann can add fire damage through the Flaming Weapon spell (that's actually true of everybody else's weapons too), and electrical damage through the Storm Avatar spell, both of which will stack with the other bonus damage sources of the weapon.
Lastly, I go to work on Kaelyn's Darksteel Warhammer. Three Pristine Power Essences and the Greater Magic Weapon spell will mean a +8 enhancement. Three Pristine Water Essences and the Ice Storm spell will mean +5d6 cold damage. Three Pristine Air Essences and the Chain Lightning spell will mean +5d6 electrical damage. When she uses her Divine Might power, the divine damage will stack with the bonus cold damage and bonus electrical damage. The reason I chose Warhammer is that it is probably the best blunt weapon that can be used with the Martial Weapon Proficiency feat. Kaelyn can cast the Weapon of Impact spell if she encounters foes who are subject to critical hits.
Weapons of Blindness
I've by now accumulated plenty of Power Essences, so I figure I have enough to sneak in a couple more enchantments. I now need 4 more Pristine Earth Essences. So I begin a cyclical process of converting Pristine Power Essences into brilliant elemental essences, and then converting air and fire and water essences back into Brilliant Power Essences, which can be combined into more Pristine Power Essences. I keep the process going until I have 32 Brilliant Earth Essences, which I can combine into the 4 Pristine Earth Essences that I need.
I'm left just a little short of the 6 Pristine Power Essences that I need, but it's easy enough to get the difference from Death Lords.
I play Gann's katana into the Enchanter's Satchel, along with 3 Pristine Power Essences and 2 Pristine Earth Essences. I then cast the Blindness / Deafness spell on the Satchel. The katana now has a 10% chance of afflicting its target with Blindness, which lasts 4 rounds and has a DC of 26. I repeat the process with Kaelyn's Warhammer.
The Blindness power will affect critical-immune enemies such as elementals and undead and golems, which makes it an ideal fourth enchantment to add to a weapon.
*Evil* My targets for the evil playthrough during this time were:
Now it's time to leave the Vault, for my next destination is the Lake of Tears Garrison.
