Tactics

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Huh. I wonder if it's because of his anti-magic sphere. I never noticed that before.

Yeah, the amulets are cursed. I never use them, but they sure are pretty.

 

About the strength drain...what if you wear a Belt of "insert giant name here" strength?

AFAIK, there was this bug, where you wear a Ring of Human Influence, and keep using your Rod of Terror, till your Charisma drops BELOW 0. Remove the ring, and you get 25 Charisma.

If that is true...then this should be true of Strength with a belt of something or the other strength as well...shouldnt it?

I mean, if you wear an item which SETS the stat to something, strength drain shouldn't affect it.

If it does, however...they're cheating, so you might as well cheat back at them and CTRL+Y the suckers.

 

@ faraaz

well, i remember trying to use a "your fave giant" - strengt belt against those lovely revenge spiders that come along with solaufein, but i didn't work at all ... had to make up different strategies

 

Yeah, this already got briefly covered earlier in the thread (MC and I went back and forth quickly for a while there). Reequipping strength enhancing items does not fix strength drain. Hence Beren's input on potions and my question about using spells.

 

Just to clarify about the Lillith amulets, I think I've figured out the disadvantage. Whenever a character gets hit and wounded, there's a certain % chance of him going berserk, just like Minsc's ability (+2 to STR, DEX and CON, +2 to THAC0 and Dmg I think, special immunties, etc.)

So far that's it.

 

That risk accumulates, or atleast it seems like it. So the longer you wear them the bigger the risk for berserk.

 

@Nightwood, Eric: Hmph. Sucks to be Charname then...

 

Just to give this a bit of a bump, I just soloed a FMT through Jon's dungeon, which was a whole new level of detailed battle planning. I was certain that Rasputin was going to be the worst, and that I would have to get a lucky hit with the hold person scroll from level 2, but I was wrong. A warm-up backstab and 1 oil of speed made him the easiest of the group. Illych can't be backstabbed, so he was pretty vile--had to get my AC down to -6 with the Blur scroll, draw his fire, and then use the Monster Summoning I scroll to bring in artillery support. That Ogrillon dished a good 30 damage I'd say. That fight would have been easier if I'd drawn Karamazov first, since his full plate would have dropped my AC to -9. Anyway I roughed up Karamazov with a backstab, then used the scroll of Invisibility and backstabbed him again. After that he went down fast. The glabrezu was nasty since I'd used all my healing potions and his AC is terrific, but he was the easiest to isolate of all--he can see through your hide in shadows, but he doesn't dispel your invisibility, so he chases you and the rest of them stay behind.

So my FMT walked out of Jon's dungeon at 7/8/9 and 8 hp, leaving alive 3 badly wounded duergar proletariat that I couldn't break apart and the vampire.

That might have finally satisfied my desire to experiment with Improved Illych. I'm not sure there is anything else to prove there, unless someone thinks it can be done with a "lesser" class.

 

dear mother of god.

 

I'll confess that I am a total Tactics junkie, but I did have some purpose behind this madness. I've always been disappointed that some people on this board seem to think that Tactics is impossible or requires cheating. But if you can solo it, you must be able to beat it straight up with a group of 5, right? At least I hope that's what people think when they read that last post of mine.

Oh, I should have mentioned, no resting. I was finished in about 16 hours of game time. That's another one of my pet peeves. You don't have to rest to get through Improved Illych.

 

What it sounds like Tactics requires is a level of obsession with the game that most players will never come close to

I've played through the game a number of times, and my tactics are getting pretty refined (my current goal is to make it through the game without needing a reload), but I doubt I could solo a F/M/T through the standard dungeon without resting. Hell, a party of mine usually rests twice before getting out.

How many reloads did you need? I'm wondering if you reloaded until your Monster Summoning I scroll produced an Ogrillon, as opposed to, say, a rabid dog...

 

Guilty: I am obsessed. What can I say.

I had to reload a few times on Illych but not because of the specific monster I got--he is MUCH more powerful than you are. He kept smashing me, although now I'm pretty sure I can kill him repeatedly with this method--provided I don't get a bad run of luck. I managed to save up 5 potions of extra healing, but I only needed to use 3. Also, I had a scroll of fireball that I was planning on using, but the Ogrillon did much better than I expected. So there was a fair amount of room for error in that battle.

As for the summon, I was actually hoping for 3 kobold archers, but indeed the dog would have been a disappointing summon. Still, it should have been enough for 10-15 damage (2-3 hits, it's a long battle). But the real place where I expected to use a lot of reloads (as I mentioned) was Rasputin. His stunning fist = instant death, but by a great stroke of luck he never managed to stun me.

 

Without resting? Are you totally insane?! Holy freakin crap! I'm depressed now because I know for a fact I'd NEVER be able to do that ****.

 

Here's the thing, MC. When you play through the normal game (unmodded), you walk out of Jon's dungeon weighed down with treasure that you sell or save for future use. But when I'm finished with a run through the Tactics version, I don't have anything left. No scrolls, frequently no arrows, no spells left for Imoen or Jaheira (or the PC, if you play as a sorcerer or know to fill your spellbook as a mage/wild mage). My first time through, everyone had less than 10 hp left and if a pack of kobolds attacked I would have died. That's what I love about the mod--that is exactly the kind of drama that I think should go into getting out of Jon's dungeon. Of course, now that I've refined my skills, I have no trouble getting out with a fairly healthy party--which is why I tried the solo. Now that I've succeeded in that, I think I could stroll out with a party. But the thing is, it's really just a matter of practice (and obsession, I suppose). Anyone can do this, if they put in the time.

BTW, just for kicks I went back and freed Minsc and Jaheira after I cleared the place out. They kept telling me it was too dangerous to split up, and refused to believe that our jailers were all dead. I hope they didn't run into those wounded Duergar on the way out...

 

You must have rested once to memorize your spells in the first place

 

First of all, the game "rests" you right at the beginning, when Irenicus is talking to you. That's why a sorcerer starts with all his spells. A straight up magic user (or cleric), though, has not yet selected spells for his spell book. He/she "rests," but gains no benefit from this. However, if you pause the game while it's on the black screen before you talk to Jon, you can access your spell book, choose spells, and then "rest." This is what I hinted at in my last post when I mentioned knowing how to fill your spellbook before the game starts.

Second, because I was using the splint mail, I only used one fireball spell (on the greater otyugh). I had planned on using a mirror image before the battle with Illych, but there was never enough time to take off the armor, cast the spell, put the armor back on, and enter battle. So I actually walked out of Jon's place with a decent array of spells, which I still don't use too much (now that I'm wearing full plate).

 

Its not so much the difficulty that i hate about tactics, its the cheese. Not cheese thats required to win, but cheese used against me.

 

I figured I'd just mention two more things before I forget about them. The first is that I kinda got screwed with the key wands. Frequently one of the goblins in the hallways surrounding the greater otyugh room drops a scroll of identify. This time around that didn't happen, and my lore wasn't high enough to id any of the wands. That meant I couldn't use the monster summoning wand, which would have been an enormous help. That makes me think that a bard character might have a high enough starting lore to id all of the wands, and that might be enough firepower to take on the Illych gang. Just in case anyone wants to solo a bard.

Second, the greater otyugh might have been the hardest fight in the dungeon. Between the dolorous decay and the poison, there is enough damage to kill you outright. In addition, you can get slowed, and you *must* kill it before the carrion crawler shows up. There was a moment where I was pretty sure I'd have to sneak past him and draw up a new strategy for fighting Illych's gang, since I usually use the otyugh room as my base of operations. But a preemptive fireball, a backstab, and a little bit of luck got me through.

By the by, Improved Mae'Var was much easier than I expected. Invisibility and detect illusions turned it into a rout.