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wackypanda

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Garrulous Glaahk

Garrulous Glaahk (8/17)

  1. It's definitely possible to complete A:EftP and A2:CS without magic, and it's probably possible for A3:RW. But I think that's best attempted after a first playthrough with a mix of types. As Randomizer said, the major challenges are no mental effect removal (there is no item that removes mental effects), having to use potions for healing and curing, and physical-resistant enemies. Fighting large numbers of enemies, especially enemies with mental or ranged attacks, is also challenging. For mental effects, you have to raise mental resistance as high as possible, sometimes at the expense of other armor bonuses. You can grind infinite potions and restock stores. There are weapons which fighters and archers can use to deal non-physical damage. Fights will need some micromanagement to use your battle disciplines (mostly Adrenaline Rush) effectively, and to do things like use chokepoints and doorways. Overall, you need to be quite familiar with what all the stats do and where to train them, how combat and battle disciplines work, and where to get potion ingredients and good armor and weapons. The pinned Strategy Central threads have a lot of that information. A2:CS also requires at least one character to have 2 levels in Arcane Lore, which requires 2 levels of Mage or Priest Spells, even if you never use magic. There are threads about the gritty details of completing A:EftP and A2:CS without magic. All magic parties don't have these challenges, have a much higher damage output, and are not that much more vulnerable to physical attacks in comparison. You may have energy issues in the early game when fighting enemies like fire lizards that resist your low-cost spells. What I like to do when playing an all magic party is to impose some other requirements, e.g. make everyone put stats in a secondary attack, make one character a pacifist (only summons, buff/debuffs, and mental effects), make everyone Anama (no Mage Spells), etc. I haven't seen anyone post about playing a party with Mage Spells but not Priest Spells. There's a lot of room for experimentation, and you're most welcome to post about yours!
  2. Ding dong, Garzahd is gone! Long live the empress or whoever Garzahd's fortress is fairly straightforward. With a committed dual-wielder, I can use Demonslayer on the demon mobs better than a party without one. However, because my polearm wielder has points in Quick Action, my dual-wielder always acts last. This is bad for fighting the Warded Infernals, which need to be hit once with Demonslayer before they will take any damage. The fight in the narrow hallways with the Warded Infernals and Cave Demons kept killing my party members. Eventually I figured out that I could enter combat mode before entering the hallways, and clear out the Cave Demons first before fighting the Warded Infernals. For fighting Inquisitor Talon (the wizard who casts Death Curses on the party one by one), since this party doesn't have area attacks, I used speed elixirs and maneuvered my party around the other enemies to focus on Talon. If necessary, you can also use Adrenaline Rush to do this, since in A2:CS Adrenaline Rush allows you to move afterwards as long as you haven't attacked. With Garzahd, I had everyone take speed and armor elixirs (yes, I was still compelled to hoard the invulnerability elixirs) and climbed the stairs in combat mode so that I could get the first hit. My dual-wielder went straight for Garzahd while the other party members killed the starting defenders. After Garzahd's ward broke, I had everyone focus on Garzahd. I tried to kill one of the aides that spawn in because I thought they might do something, like Sulfras' death curse shades, but I don't think they actually do anything. One of Garzahd's tricks is to banish and ensnare party members to the bottom of the stairs. Fortunately I had enough curing items to cure the ensnares. I completely ignored spawned enemies (unless there was no way through them) and focused on getting banished party members back up the stairs and attacking Garzahd. I used Invuln potions and elixirs when damage started piling up. Party members did get killed, especially when Garzahd started using the magic missile that does 100+ damage even through Invulnerability. I had about 5 Return Life scrolls for each party member (see, hoarding pays off). Note that Return Life scrolls only raise one party member at a time (was it like this in the previous game?) and seem to place them at the bottom of the stairs more often than not, so sometimes I wasted turns having someone climb up only for them to be killed or banished again. But at last, Garzahd the arch-mage proved no match for my magically-challenged caveman party. Notes: - Regarding game design, the three game-winning quests can be beaten without casting a single mage or priest spell. However, the Spiral Pit quest seems to be locked behind a level 2 barrier; I cannot recall any other minor quest that is locked. There is also the requirement for 2 AL in the Barrier Tower, meaning that you need at least 2 points in Mage or Priest Spells, even if you plan to never use spells. - If I was doing this again, I would: -- Get Adrenaline Rush faster. Adrenaline Rush is the single most important battle discipline. -- Try a thrown weapon specialist. Thrown weapons can outdamage bows and in A2:CS they have ancillary effects, like cleave damage, that bows don't have. There are also stores selling infinite javelins and more enemies drop thrown weapons. The best bows in A2:CS are also locked behind level 2 barriers or formations. However, someone who only uses thrown weapons may still run out of them too often to be practical. -- Take the bonus XP traits earlier.
  3. And indeed there is! I just couldn't see the secret switch after doing the tougher fight. Thanks. As for the fights: I stocked up on potions beforehand. This is important because as noted above, you are trapped in Angierach until you fight your way out. The limiting ingredient when crafting potions is Energetic Herbs, as these are used for speed potions/elixirs, armor elixirs, and invulnerability potions. I burn through speed elixirs the most quickly, but I was also running low on armor and invuln. Between my limited stock of herbs and shopping trips, I scraped together enough potions so that each party member had roughly 5 healing elixirs, 2 speed elixirs, 3 armor elixirs, 2 invuln potions, and 5 graymold salves. These are the potions I use frequently enough to need crafting, though any other potions like curing potions and the lesser speed and shield potions should be split across the party. I also had a pool of about 11 healing potions for topping up health when First Aid doesn't cut it. Graymold salve both heals and cures the party and only needs 1 graymold each, unlike group heal and recovery scrolls which only heal or cure and must be bought. But I run out of graymold salve because I hoard the scrolls. Go figure. As for the shops, I think town stores restock without having to buy them out of their stock. I'm pretty sure I've bought all the elixirs (but not the infinite bandages) from the Tower of Magi store more than once. So that helps. The pit fight is harder than the battles afterwards. I used speed elixirs and entered combat mode immediately to climb out of the pit and move to one corner of the room before the first wave of monsters spawned. After that, the key was to have Battle Frenzy up all the time and add potions or items whenever I felt like it (armor elixirs for keeping health up, invulnerability for enemy types that are causing trouble, Rod of Alacrity to counter Slow instead of using graymold salve, etc.). The goal is to kill as many hellhounds and eyebeasts as possible before the eyebeasts can cast Battle Frenzy on a whole group. The quickghasts and mutant giants on their own don't do that much damage and I left off Battle Frenzy for a few rounds, but they really should be killed before the Haakai shows up and has the chance to cast Battle Frenzy. At least this time my party resisted most of the Terror and Charm attempts. After that the only fight of note was the boss, Midori the Lich. Speed elixirs sufficed for whaling on them until they cast Spine Shield, at which point I added invuln potions on everyone. The invuln potions helped against the summoned golems and against Midori's single-target magic missile which does damage in the hundreds. Invulnerability also cuts down damage from Midori's Spine Shield, allowing the melee fighters to continue attacking. I burned a lot of graymold salves and recovery scrolls countering Midori's Slow spell. The Mercuric Chain is a nice reward for returning the Angierach Crystal Soul, but I only used it to replace the Mercuric Leather on one of my archers. The Mercuric Chain can be paired with the Quicksilver Sandals to give one of my melee fighters a guaranteed 2 actions per turn. However, the Quicksilver Sandals have a -5% HER penalty and the Mercuric Chain has an opportunity cost (using it in place of chest armor that gives mental resistance), and I cannot afford either when I can't cure mental effects. Next and last will be Garzahd.
  4. Quoted from the A2:CS Item List, emphasis mine: Is there any path to the Lich Key that does not require level 2 Move Mountains? If not, I am locked out of one of the three ending quests.
  5. Destroyed the Portal. I skipped fighting the First Guardpost to save resources. I finally used a Spellward scroll because this is an endgame quest, and unlike A:EftP I don't remember where to get free wards (if any exist). I might have used invuln potions for fighting the Crystalworkers so I could get the control room commands. I'm not sure. Again, the most annoying enemies were the mind-affecting Haakai in the control tower. Because this party can't dispel the barriers blocking off the control room, I had to fight Haakai twice. I don't remember encountering this many mind-affecting enemies when I tried a no-magic run of A:EftP. Beating them took healing, speed and armor elixirs, careful positioning to rush the Haakai before they could cast Terror or Battle Frenzy while avoiding being swarmed myself, and - a lot of re-loading and luck. I might drop the difficulty back to Normal for the other end-game battles. For the run to the exploding portal, I used speed elixirs, invuln potions, and one invuln elixir, for the Battle Frenzy and for tanking the eyebeasts' magic. I then focused fire on Dervish Lokallan so that I could collect the Jade Halberd. (Does Dervish Lokallan drop the Jade Halberd if you leave him to die in the portal explosion instead?) The Jade Halberd is why I did the Portal quest before Angierach (my third Crystal Soul) or Garzahd's fortress. I need that +10% HER and as much polearm damage as I can get. +15% fatigue reduction is also very nice, but now when facing enemies that cast Terror, Terror often lasts longer than the fatigue from Adrenaline Rush.
  6. Got the itch to try this again. Had to reorient myself first. I thought I'd go to Angierach or attack Sulfras for the First Expedition greaves, but both of these were taking too many potions. For the Sulfras fight in particular, my dual-wielder had sub-90% chance to hit Sulfras, which usually is a sign that the fight is not level-appropriate. The party was around level 32 or so. One of the Mad Demons in the Sulfras dungeon is immune to physical damage, but so long as I used doorways to my advantage, the Frozen Blade, Bow of Storms, and some scrolls solved that. I would also have had some chip damage from the Ever-Rotting Bow, but that archer got knocked out. For some reason I'd never even discovered Harston on this playthrough, much less done anything with the northern waters. Cleared the Empire Archives. Mental attacks from the Haakai there were a pain. Pyrog's lair was next. The Terror and Mindbreaker Agents have a chance to stun and charm respectively when attacked in melee, which is annoying. Using doorways is essential to avoid getting swarmed. At least my melee fighters still had a minimum 20% chance to hit with their bows. After Pyrog's lair, I used Wisdom Crystals to bump everyone up to level 35, maxed out luck for my polearm-wielder, and tried Sulfras again. Fighting Sulfras is not necessary to complete the game, but I wanted the First Expedition greaves. I equipped all my mental resistance-boosting items (at the expense of armor % and damage boosts) and used speed and armor elixirs before starting the fight. I used invulnerability potions after combat started and only if Sulfras or the summons were targeting someone, because invuln potions have a shorter duration and no one can craft invuln elixirs. My dual-wielder still had sub-90% chance to hit, so I used Rod of Battle a few times. The archers stood as far away from Sulfras as possible and picked off the death curse shades as they were summoned. I think this keeps the archers just out of range of Sulfras' terror spell, but I'm not sure. In any case, I had a good run where my melee fighters resisted all the terror casts. Sulfras (while still chained) can be killed on Hard mode without mage or priest spells. A general tip for new players who might want to try this or players who might not be consciously aware of how AP works: Using items always costs 5 AP. Attacking uses 9 AP by default, 5 AP if Haste or Sniper procs. Once your AP is at or below 0, your turn ends. Normally this doesn't matter, but once you rack up extra AP from Gymnastics or Battle Frenzy and/or have Haste, timing your item use may allow you to do more per turn.
  7. Cleared Ornotha Ziggurat. I think I actually missed the Fort Haledon assault force and, on top of that, forgot that I only needed one character to successfully cross the Guardian Plains. Oops. I used invulnerability potions, armor elixirs, and a Spellward scroll and had my archers attack first, while my melee fighters stood in front of them and waited for enemies to come closer. Finally made a break for it after there were about 5 enemies and Garzahd left. Fortunately, the party had killed so many enemies that they got most of their health back from the bought First Aid. I don't know if there's a way to get the Talisman of Might from the altar on the second tier without triggering the fight where the entire party gets nullity. I'm not sure if any of my party has access to the Battle Frenzy discipline; one tactic might have been for everyone to use that discipline and then take the talisman in combat mode. What I did was station everyone outside one of the doors to kill the eyebeasts and cryodrakes one by one, which has been a useful tactic throughout this playthrough. I encountered a bug on the third tier where one of my archers stepped into the quickfire and died just before I stepped onto the roof, but then appeared with my party on the roof with 0 health and no fatigue. I used the resulting infinite Adrenaline Rushes to see what happens when you fight Garzahd. As reported in another thread somewhere here, he can't die, but he will flee on the next enemy turn if you reduce his health below a certain amount. So there's that. Also, trying to learn spells from Wilvron-Bok with only 2 Arcane Lore is funny. You know the saying: "There are no bad students..." I then spent most of my gold buying ancillary skills, like Gymnastics to help my melee fighters' evasion, and extra potions to save some grinding.
  8. I think in lore it would, but I don't think you gain essence in-game.
  9. Some things which I'm not sure were mentioned elsewhere: The Magical Efficiency bonus from the chair in Ornotha Ziggurat costs 500 XP (!) from all characters. The obstacle course in Camp Samuels can give XP once.
  10. Reviving this thread now that I have time to play my older games. A few key differences between this and the no-magic run of A:EftP: - As mentioned, there are no trainers for Arcane Lore or Resistance, so there are even fewer ways to boost Mental Resistance. --- I have seen posts mentioning items which remove mental effects in the unmodded game. Was this changed? - Adrenaline Rush costs 6 fatigue instead of 8 and allows you to move after using it as long as you haven't attacked. - I haven't encountered any physical-resistant enemies, except for the bandit leader in Silvar who uses Bladeshield. - Potion farming is a lot easier. - There are merchants that sell infinite bandages, healing potions, and javelins (crude, iron, and steel). You could play with a thrown weapon specialist if you wanted, which was not advisable in A:EftP. --- Since I haven't seen this written anywhere else: the potion recipes are the same as in A:EftP, except that each set of recipes belongs to a different crafter. There isn't really a lot to talk about in the late mid-game. Some notable fights: - The crystal shade room in... I think it was the Halls of Chaos, where you have to shatter all the crystals in a room before they regenerate each other. The changes made to Adrenaline Rush in A2:CS were very helpful. - Getting the Orb of Thralni in Kothtar; unless I missed how to disable the defenses entirely, you have the choice of facing golems, gazers, and/or vampires depending on which tiles you step on. Normally I would try to fight all of the guards, but in this case I used invulnerability and shielding potions on just the golem fight. I haven't gone after any of the Crystal Souls, although I should probably have done Ornotha Ziggurat earlier. Everyone is at level 30 or more. Lokum Strength 32 +9 Dexterity 9 +2 Intelligence 9 -1 Endurance 19 +5 Pole Weapons 11 (? bought) Hardiness 13 Parry 12 Blademaster 10 +3 Quick Action 12 +2 Lethal Blow 12 Bows 2 bought Thrown Weapons 2 bought Gymnastics +1 First Aid 2 bought Cave Lore 2 bought Luck 4 +3 (? bought) Traits: Strength x5, Endurance x5, Mighty Blows x3, Parry Mastery x2, Recovery x1, Fortune x2, Backstab x3, Health x3, Vahnatai Secrets My weapon of choice is Smite or the Chaotic Halberd. The lower fatigue cost of Adrenaline Rush suggests that fatigue reduction from Quick Action, Recovery, and equipment will get me 1-2 more ARs per combat than without. Assuming that the fatigue reduction percentages are additive, 12 QA on my spear wielder gets 60% fatigue reduction. Adding Recovery makes 70%. Smite (and the Jade Halberd later on) both have fatigue reduction, so filling in the other 30% with equipment should be easy enough and will guarantee AR every 3 turns instead of 6, which is just too tempting. Of course, I could be wrong about how the game adds up these bonuses. Urist Strength 32 +7 Dexterity 9 Intelligence 9 Endurance 19 +5 Melee Weapons 10 Hardiness 13 +2 Parry 12 Blademaster 10 +1 Quick Action 8 +2 Dual Wielding 8 +2 Lethal Blow 7 Bows 2 bought Thrown Weapons 1 bought +2 (Should swap this equipment.) First Aid 2 bought Cave Lore 3 (? bought) Resistance +3 Luck +2 Traits: Strength x5, Endurance x5, Mighty Blows x3, Parry Mastery x2, Ambidextrous/Dual Blade x2, Fortune x2, Backstab x2, Health x3, Vahnatai Secrets Weapons of choice are the Frozen Blade, which can be obtained relatively early, and the Singing Rapier. Against cold-immune enemies, the Frozen Blade still has good base damage and is useful for the Weakness Curse, fatigue reduction, and cold resistance. I might swap the Radiant Shortblade for the Rapier. As for traits, even with what I mentioned above, Backstab x2 is probably more useful for my dual-wielder than Recovery. If I had noticed earlier that I couldn't take the Improved Intelligence traits, I might have taken the EXP traits (Quick Learning and Great Wisdom) earlier. I didn't want to take them at level 30. Feb Level 31 Strength 10 -1 Dexterity 36 +10 Intelligence 9 +3 Endurance 15 +5 Pole Weapons 2 bought Hardiness 3 Parry 2 Bows 12 (2 bought) Sharpshooter 12 Lethal Blow 12 Thrown Weapons 2 bought Gymnastics 12 +5 Sniper 10 Priest 2 Arcane Lore 2 Resistance +1 Tool Use 3 +2 First Aid 2 bought Cave Lore 3 (? bought) Luck 7 +2 (2 bought) Traits: Dexterity x5, Intelligence x3, Endurance x5, Sure Aim x3, Fortune x2, Nimble Fingers x2, Health x3, Negotiator, Vahnatai Secrets This is the only party member who could take the Intelligence traits to improve mental resistance. She has the highest mental resistance with equipment at 62% (the lowest is Lokum at 54%). Not bad, but still lousy without a way to cure mental effects. Both archers are using the Mercuric Leather for +1 AP since that's craftable. Their Gymnastics then only needs to succeed once to get them an extra action. No one in this party can afford to use the Quicksilver Sandals now that they're -5% to HER. Sniper also gives extra attacks, but you don't know whether it's worked until after you attack. In A2:CS the best bows (First Expedition Bow, Possessed Bow) are behind level 2 barriers or formations which this party can't break. Boo. Hiss. Egdoth Level 31 Strength 10 -1 Dexterity 36 +6 Intelligence 9 Endurance 15 +5 Melee Weapons +2 Pole Weapons 2 bought +2 Hardiness 3 Parry 2 Bows 12 (2 bought) Thrown Weapons 1 bought Sharpshooter 12 +1 Lethal Blow 12 Gymnastics 12 Sniper 10 +1 Spellcraft +1 Tool Use 7 +2 First Aid 2 bought Cave Lore 3 (? bought) Luck 7 +6 (2 bought) Traits: Dexterity x5, Endurance x5, Sure Aim x3, Recovery, Quick Learning/Great Wisdom x2, Fortune x2, Nimble Fingers x2, Health x3, Negotiator, Vahnatai Secrets I'm not sure Recovery will be as effective here if it's not stacked over Quick Action. Worth a try, since the only other trait I could think of was Fast Recovery (extra First Aid, which this party does use).
  11. There is no dialogue for impressing him. Leave him to his little waveblades while you prance about with Demonslayer and the Jade Halberd. Welcome to the forums. Please leave your sanity at the door.
  12. Remastered fyoras should have that ugly cute look of baby reptiles. They currently do not. I like that creations will be getting more abilities, although if the Shaper class used to be the class where you experience most of the game mechanics by default, this may be even more true of the remake. Wonder what the new quest lines would be. If I recall correctly, the entire western half of the island didn't really have quests directing you to explore it, unless you wanted the special keys or items from there to do specific things with the Geneforge complex on the eastern half.
  13. Party size mod for Avadon 1. Link will expire at some point.
  14. Yes, bait them so you can fight them in small groups. If you deal enough damage to Alwan and Miranda they'll flee, but there's really no point unless you want the extra challenge. They leave the zone permanently when you open the next chapter.
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