Author Topic: Ascension Strategy Guide  (Read 6889 times)

Rhearns

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Ascension Strategy Guide
« on: October 27, 2002, 07:51:58 PM »
Can anyone point me in the direction of an Ascension Strategy Guide. I'm too lazy and don't have the time to try this battle over and over and finesse my strategy to perfection. I'd like to fast track it a little. I breeze up to the part where Amelyssan the black hearted summons the five, problem is Illesera. She has boots of speed on, goes ethereal, improved haste and a -20 THACo. She harasses my protagonist to death. She is so quick I can't catch her to remove magic on her. I guess I could use improved haste myself and the amulet of the cheetah and run her down.

Also noticed none of the five would die. They would stay on 1 hp until they healed themselves. I think I read about this somewhere?

Any ideas on Yaga Shura? I tried a mind control collar but it didn't work! Is that even possible? I saved one especially for him, I guess he's big neck was too large to fit around.                    

Kish

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Ascension Strategy Guide
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2002, 08:00:15 PM »
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Any ideas on Yaga Shura? I tried a mind control collar but it didn't work! Is that even possible?
Yes, it's quite possible.  Mind control collars will not, in fact, work on any of the Five, or on Melissan.  If Sarevok is fighting against you, they'll work on him.

A Harm will take out Yaga-Shura.  Illasera is best dealt with by a fighter in your party--chop her to bits.  Surrounding her with Mordenkainen's Swords will also work, though if Abazigal and/or a hostile Balthazar are nearby they won't last long.  For Sendai and Abazigal, remove their magic resistance with appropriate spells, then an Insect Plague can will stop Sendai from casting spells.  If a bug stops them from dying, the ReadMe will tell you how to fix it.                    

Rhearns

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Ascension Strategy Guide
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2002, 08:40:50 PM »
Thanks Kish, can you tell me about 'Harm'? I'm not familiar with it, is it a mage or priest spell?

I forgot about Creeping Doom, that'll work well. Do you really need to bring down their protection though for it to work? What spells/protections would they use to keep creeping doom at bay?                    

Michel

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Ascension Strategy Guide
« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2002, 08:42:16 PM »
Harm is casted by a cleric. Not sure if it can be casted by a druid though.

                   

Kish

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Ascension Strategy Guide
« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2002, 08:51:38 PM »
Harm is a cleric/druid spell.
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What spells/protections would they use to keep creeping doom at bay?
I don't know what spells would block Creeping Doom, or Insect Plague for that matter, but it is subject to magic resistance.                    

Rhearns

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Ascension Strategy Guide
« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2002, 09:05:49 PM »
So if I have Aerie cast Harm at YagaShura he will die, or is he then vulnerable? What effects does it have?                    

Althernai

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Ascension Strategy Guide
« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2002, 09:23:18 PM »
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So if I have Aerie cast Harm at YagaShura he will die, or is he then vulnerable? What effects does it have?
                   You actually have to roll (it is not like Magic Missile and other auto-hitting stuff) to hit somebody with Harm - it strikes with a +2 bonus. Aerie will hit Yaga-Shura under 2 conditions 1) A critical 2) During a Time Stop. I recommend having her cast Time Stop (off of a scroll if she has no 9th level spells) and then hit him with Harm followed by a regular blow or two.                    

Rhearns

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Ascension Strategy Guide
« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2002, 09:34:00 PM »
Why will she only hit under those two conditions? Is it an issue with her THACO? Because with a sling her THACO is very low. She is LVL 22 or so.                    

Offline weimer

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« Reply #8 on: October 27, 2002, 09:50:25 PM »
Harm is like "chill touch" -- it turns your hand into a special melee weapon that, when it strikes someone, deals all but 1d4 points of damage. If you miss, it goes away. Aerie will miss because her Cleric/Mage THAC0 is usually not so hot.

Are you still having trouble with Ascension? Did you find Trent Goulding's writeup in the archives?                    

Althernai

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Ascension Strategy Guide
« Reply #9 on: October 27, 2002, 09:51:32 PM »
Yes, it's a THAC0 issue - with a sling or the Crom Fayer, her THAC0 is not bad - but you can't use a weapon if you are using Harm. Just try casting it elsewhere and see what happens. IIRC, Yaga-Shura's AC should be at worst -8. Look at her "Base THAC0," subtract 2 from that and add 8. You have to beat that number when rolling a D20. I don't know, maybe with your Aerie it's possible to do it without a critical, but you only get one shot at him per Harm (and it takes time to cast - there is usually tons of spell disrupting junk flying around Ascension at any given time), so I want to be sure it works.                    

Offline weimer

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« Reply #10 on: October 27, 2002, 09:52:57 PM »
Final note: sorry about the mind flayer collar thing. They used to work on Irenicus as well (in Asc 1.3, pre WeiDU) but I reported it as a bug and he fixed it :-(. That leaves basically just Sarevok if you're into that.

My personal advise is not to bother with the "control demon" ability. Whenever you finish off a pool, Mel seems to have a 50% chance of winning your demons back anyway, so the net gain for you is around 0.                    

Rhearns

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Ascension Strategy Guide
« Reply #11 on: October 27, 2002, 10:01:00 PM »
What are my chances of hitting YagaShura with Jaheira then? Better than with Aerie surely, hopefully it won't require a critical. Why would a timestop ensure that Aerie hits with a harm? Do you get no save when you are the victim of a timestop period.

What would be a preferable weapon for Jaheira to use in this battle? She currently wields Ixils Spear and has prof's in Club and Scimitars.                    

Offline weimer

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« Reply #12 on: October 28, 2002, 09:45:13 AM »
If you are tragically bored (or if this thing is second nature to you) you can compute J's optimal weapon by multiplying her attacks per round by her chance of hitting an average foe by the average damage done per hit and taking the maximum. Don't underestimate Improved Haste.

If you have Bloodbane, it's superior to Ixil. Does J have grandmastery in anything?

I didn't mention J in conjunction with Harm because I don't remember if Druids can cast it. They may not be able to. If they can, she'll have a much better THAC0 than Aerie.

I'm pretty sure you get a save when you are the victim of a timestop, but you may be automatically hit by people who are moving around. I'm not sure. Can someone who has fought the Eclipse a few times in recent memory with "show hit roles" enabled comment on this?


                   

El Diablo

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Ascension Strategy Guide
« Reply #13 on: October 28, 2002, 10:45:48 AM »
in the end i found mellisan to be easy just keep beating her to the ground with either smite, staff of the ram,balthazar or in case of emergansy ring of the ram she will be pretty much helpless

the five hmm i first went for ellisara and just beat her to death i kept 1 party member running around so that abiz and sendai kept running after her and after beating up ellisara the rest of the group went to beat up yaga shura though he was very hard to beat                    

Althernai

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Ascension Strategy Guide
« Reply #14 on: October 28, 2002, 12:24:22 PM »
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I'm pretty sure you get a save when you are the victim of a timestop, but you may be automatically hit by people who are moving around. I'm not sure. Can someone who has fought the Eclipse a few times in recent memory with "show hit roles" enabled comment on this?
                   What do you mean "you get a save"? When an attack is made during Time Stop, there is no "to hit" roll - you always hit automatically. This is why Time Stop + GWW (or Improved Haste) is a wicked combo, why your Liches with MMMs always take at least 50 HP off of anything in sight and why the Eclipse gang is so nasty. I do do not know what the interaction is between Harm and Time Stop, but I strongly believe that it works the same way - an automatic hit with no save (Harm never grants a save). If you ever let Sendai cast Time Stop, somebody in your party will probably die.                    

Kiki

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Ascension Strategy Guide
« Reply #15 on: October 29, 2002, 01:43:38 PM »
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Does J have grandmastery in anything?
                   Fighter/druids can only get up to two proficiency points in any weapon.                    

Offline weimer

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« Reply #16 on: October 30, 2002, 09:29:33 PM »
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Quote
Does J have grandmastery in anything?
Fighter/druids can only get up to two proficiency points in any weapon.
                   Bien entendu, but people playing here often have, for example, the Everyone-Grandmastery component of the Ease-of-Use mod installed. I also run into a large number of people who change the NPCs around with Shadowkeeper.                    

Kiki

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Ascension Strategy Guide
« Reply #17 on: October 30, 2002, 10:08:56 PM »
Quote
Quote
Quote
Does J have grandmastery in anything?
Fighter/druids can only get up to two proficiency points in any weapon.
Bien entendu, but people playing here often have, for example, the Everyone-Grandmastery component of the Ease-of-Use mod installed. I also run into a large number of people who change the NPCs around with Shadowkeeper.
                   Ah. I don't have Ease of Use installed. SKing Bioware NPCs seems like cheating to me, so I don't do that either.                    

INeedTheNetInMyRoom

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Ascension Strategy Guide
« Reply #18 on: October 30, 2002, 11:55:44 PM »
I sometimes SK the bioware NPCs, mainly for the perviously mentioned reason of proficiencies. I don't think it is really cheating unless if you don't take away the same number of stars that you put on.                    

Offline Quitch

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« Reply #19 on: November 05, 2002, 04:34:43 PM »
Of course it's cheating.                    
Past: Ascension
Present: Return to Windspear
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Auvrin

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Ascension Strategy Guide
« Reply #20 on: November 05, 2002, 04:53:14 PM »
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I don't think it is really cheating unless if you don't take away the same number of stars that you put on.

Ok.. Let's try it this way then... "It's not really killing someone if you stab them and bandage them up after they're dead."

SK is cheating.  :rolleyes:                    

 

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