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The Adventures of Onan the Barbarian


Lilith

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So while I was doing the no-magic challenge, Slar suggested an even tougher one: no canisters, no magic, and no creations. Since I obviously have nothing better to do, I'm giving it a go.

 

First decision: Warrior or Servile? Well, as it turns out, this isn't a tough choice: the Servile gets 2 more starting HP and slightly better Leadership/Mechanics. I guess the Warrior really is completely useless.

 

I spend all of Onan's skill points for the first few levels on Leadership and Mechanics until I get them to 8 and 10, so I won't have to worry about them for the rest of the game. After that, I pump Endurance -- with extremely limited access to buffs, I'm going to be taking a lot of hits, so I need the HP.

 

I've reached the end of Chapter 1. Notable difficulties so far:

 

Shaila's shaping room presents a problem; I could just take the back entrance and sneak up on her, but that would be wimpy -- and besides, I need experience. I could use healing pods, but I want to save them for when I *really* need them. Instead, every round I eat two pieces of the considerable stash of food I've been carrying around, then attack one of the creations she's made. The 15 or so HP recovered per round from the food is less than the damage I'm taking, but it's just enough to keep me alive. By the time I've killed all of Shaila's creations I'm down to 5 pieces of meat.

 

The Dumping Pits were painful; I burned a speed pod on the Runewarded Thahds and a few icy crystals on the spinecores, and even then it took a lot of reloads. The occasional poisoning isn't so bad on account of my ridiculously high Endurance.

 

Chickweed Bridge... hoo boy. Okay, I probably should have just come back much, much later for this, since the creations here aren't really supposed to be killed. But I wanted the experience, so I killed them anyway. The Crazed Drayk required a shot from a terror wand and several shots from a discipline wand to take down. The patrolling alphas (that is, the ones I didn't blow up with the mines) each went down with a couple of hits from my steel broadsword plus an icy crystal. Hope I don't run out of icy crystals before they stop being useful.

 

Stats as of the end of Chapter 1:

 

onan_ch1stats.jpg

onan_ch1equip.jpg

 

Time at end of Chapter 1: Day 70.

 

I didn't let Greenfang join me. I'm undecided as to whether I should officially add a no-joinable-allies rule; Khur and Shotwell aren't going to be much use to me, but I'll kinda miss not having the Servile Technicians.

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Without the Servile Techs you are forced to go the pure combat route and go down the center of Northern Grosch into Monarch's Realm. While it is possible to go the difficult 20 route, I doubt that you will want to do so since you can't deactivate the other mines.

 

I think that in the case of the Fens where you are allowed to recruit helpers it should be okay to use them, but if you want to do it the really hard way, then go for it. The experience will run out in Burwood a bit later since you will be a level or 2 behind by not doing the mines and traps.

 

I really should try this challenge. I probably would use icy crystals a bit differently than you are. Sandros Mine's parasitic shade is really hard to do alone as a servile. I don't know how long you can go without raising combat skills, although you could put all the points into strength and dexterity now and then in chapter 3 the combat skills will jump quickly.

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Quote:
Originally written by Randomizer:
Sandros Mine's parasitic shade is really hard to do alone as a servile.
Don't I know it. I just managed to beat the thing, though. In the process I used up a speed pod (useful for a whole 1 round before the shade slowed me), a shielding pod, a battle pod, about 8 healing pods and a couple of spray crystals. 2 healing pods a round was enough to heal me faster than the shade could hurt me, but not faster than it and its summoned shades could hurt me, so the spray crystals were necessary to take those down.

And now I've got a handy fire enhancement on my broadsword, which means I can kill roamers in one hit every time instead of just some of the time. Wooo. Onan is proud of his sword.
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What? There are no mines in Sandros Mine. :p

 

Having ludicrous health does have its perks, though; rather than waiting to get 12 Mechanics to open the hardest of the trapped chests in Southforge Citadel and Dillame, I just opened them up and took the 200 points of damage. Sure, I missed out on a tiny bit of experience, but that won't make much difference in the long run.

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I'm trying it and really miss daze. I want to use a little different build with more emphasis on missle attacks so I can avoid closing to melee. There are too many areas where you get swarmed.

 

I tried the same tactic in Sandros Mine with spray crystals since it gave me time to just fight the parasitic shade.

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Ack, how did I miss this thread?

 

You shouldn't worry about experience. As Synergy so kindly discovered, Monarch's rogues in at least one area of the fens respawn infinitely despite giving solid experience.

 

Weapon enhancements become a major point of debate in this challenge, as they are essentially your only source of slow, stun, and curse effects. I guess slow is probably the best one to use.

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I found the slowing effect to be pretty underwhelming, since it only takes effect a small percentage of the time, and many of the things that you most want it to work against can haste themselves. I'd rather just go with a good old golden crystal -- hitting more often for more damage is always useful.

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Progress update: now most of the way through Chapter 2. Doing all the rebel quests except for killing Eliza and Shaftoe got my reputation down just far enough to get the Girdle of Life. Now I can finally be a filthy double agent and do some Shaper quests to net me useful rewards too. Emphasis on "useful"; I destroyed the Heart of the Kiln, since the Skein of Wisdom does precisely nothing useful for me.

 

I've also traded in my Steel Broadsword for a nice Shaped Blade dropped by the shaper loyalist captain in Rocky Point. That was a bit of a tough fight -- I had to use a couple of spores so the rebels could fend for themselves a bit better. Even then, only 3 of them survived to leave the area.

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Well, Chapter 2 is complete.

 

Onan didn't like Moseh's attitude, so he decided to kill him. Moseh's creations were a problem; spray crystals were the solution.

 

Time at end of Chapter 2: Day 301.

 

onan_ch2stats.jpg

onan_ch2equip.jpg

 

Yeah, that's right: 29 unspent skill points. Honestly, I don't have much to invest them in right now anyway (unless I *really* want 3 more points of Endurance), so I may as well save them up until Archibald trains me and I can start investing in combat skills.

 

Eliza and Shaftoe are both way beyond my ability to kill right now, at least without wasting a lot of items. I'll try coming back for them after Archibald's trained me and I've used up all those skill points.

 

The first no-magic challenge felt like it was the way a shocktrooper was meant to be played (although it'd be even better with a little Healing Craft). This challenge, on the other hand, feels like an actual challenge. Onan has all the problems a normal singleton servile has, compounded by a lack of blessing and healing ability. I'm sure I'll be able to finish the game this way, but as for Matala and the Titan... well, I'm not making any promises one way or the other.

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Quote:
Originally written by Cryptozoology:
I found the slowing effect to be pretty underwhelming, since it only takes effect a small percentage of the time, and many of the things that you most want it to work against can haste themselves. I'd rather just go with a good old golden crystal -- hitting more often for more damage is always useful.
Interesting. I haven't actually used them in G4, and it seems they've been nerfed from G3, where they took effect every attack (though never on QA swings). I don't remember the GC affecting hit chance but that makes sense. How much of a boost does it give?
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Scary stuff.

 

As a Windows user, it is easy to feel a bit peeved when, before one has ever played GF4 at all, Thuryl will have completed it without magic, creations or canisters.

 

I draw comfort from the fact that, on the basis of the above discussion, this is only possible by using pods, wands and crystals. In which case you're not really playing a no-magic character, just applying stricter than usual limits to your supply of magic.

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Update: I've gone north as far as the rebel camp. The Maddened Rotghroth was tough; I had to lead it through the minefields to wear down its HP before trying to fight it. Of course, its fang meant I could make the Talisman of Might, which was more than worth the trouble.

 

With my newly-boosted combat skills, I went back for Eliza and Shaftoe, who gave me surprisingly little trouble. The acid from the Oozing Sword also helped a lot; Shaftoe was taking 70-80 damage per round from acid by the end of the fight. I'm almost tempted to stick with the Oozing Sword and leave the Guardian Claymore in one of my caches.

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Quote:
Originally written by wearywanderer:
Why not just acidify the Claymore, and get the nice stat boosts from the sword while adding that little something special?...
Well, mostly because I intend to use the Claymore for the rest of the game. Do you really think acid would be more worthwhile than a golden crystal?

Update: Just beat the Imprisoned Soul and the Soultaken Twins. I took the twins out one at a time using a bit of trickery with spray crystals and running around corners. (Spray Crystals helped with the Imprisoned Soul's shades too; unfortunately, my supply is running low.) I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to kill the Old Golem; it wipes the floor with me at the moment. Ah well; it's not as if the Shaper Trueweave is of any use whatsoever to me in this game anyway.
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For the Old Golem you are halfway there with the health. You need to add spines to the armor you are using and pile up major healing items for the really bad part.

 

One nasty trick is to pop in and out of the Forsaken Lands Shaper Camp using speed pods/spores and slowly kill a few guards. Retreat and return to loot the items. If you are lucky they will drop restoration potions. I don't know if you are powerful enough to try this.

 

I wasted a day redoing my game. Not being lucky enough to score a thahdskin tunic, I had to replay the game with less mechanics so I could increase strength to compensate. Having dexterity at 7 reduces the successful attacks from most rogue creations. I know it's not a great build method but it got me through the swarms of worms and across the Forsaken Docks with my lower endurance.

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Update: Just went down under Grosch and "rescued" Khyryk. Went in through the southern route, but avoided most of the rogues, since they don't give XP any more and going in and out to kill a few at a time is just tedious rather than challenging. Killing the Warped Creator took a couple of speed pods and a shielding pod, and left Onan at exactly 1 HP by the end of the fight. Fled back to the rebel camp to lick my wounds and sell/cache various loot.

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Finally finished Chapter 1 and really hated the Dumping Pit. Used up way to many icy crystals on the spinecores. Finally got a thahdskin tunic in Sinkhole Bridge of all places.

 

Level 14, health 148, skill points 5

Strength 6 (+2), dexterity 7 (+2), intelligence 2, endurance 8

Melee 3, missle 2, parry 3, quick action 4

Leadership 6, mechanics 8, luck 1 (+1)

 

wearing - coated cloak, thahdskin tunic, girdle of nimbleness, steel broadsword, shielding band, shaped boots, swamp pants, shaped gloves, steel shield, stability bauble.

 

Lower endurance means that I have to go back to heal more often, but that should be better in chapter 2.

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Whew. Well, Monarch was interesting. Basically I had to hit him hard enough and fast enough that he kept running away instead of attacking me; once I cornered him and he started fighting in melee, things went south fast. By the end of it I was slowed and desperately low on HP; there was no way I was going to survive another round and I didn't want to fight the battle over again, so I let Monarch live. Hope this doesn't somehow screw me over later.

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Never get into melee with Monarch. Always use missle attacks. If he begs for his life he near the end, but with you slowed that really didn't help. I don't think it makes much difference to the Rebels, but I never tried it and then visited the Shapers to see what they thought.

 

You may have to replay it.

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Quote:
Originally written by Randomizer:
Never get into melee with Monarch. Always use missle attacks.
Eh, yeah, I probably should have shot at him for the last few rounds. Meleeing him was okay at first since even if he didn't run away, he'd take a few steps back and blast me with magic in preference to using melee. Once I cornered him he stopped doing that. Whoops.

But hey, you can't argue with success -- I didn't even need to use any healing pods.

Quote:
If he begs for his life he near the end, but with you slowed that really didn't help. I don't think it makes much difference to the Rebels, but I never tried it and then visited the Shapers to see what they thought.

You may have to replay it.
Honestly, I'm sufficiently curious about what the Shapers' reaction will be that I'm just going to go on regardless.
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I played letting Monarch go once and Greta is a little upset, but is more concerned about the Shaper research notes.

 

I just finished the parasitic shade in Sandros Mine. Used up my healing pods and spores the first time so I had to redo so I'd have some for crossing the Secured Crossroads. Having less endurance is making a difference with healing, but I can kill most things with one blow with the higher strength.

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Well, I found out what happens with the Shapers -- not much. Basically you tell them you defeated Shaper Monarch and gloss over the fact that you let him go. Bit of a letdown, really.

 

And as for Greta, I don't think she has much of a right to be annoyed about my putting innocent lives at risk, considering that she supports the release of the Unbound later on. (She was indeed much more ticked off that I'd handed the papers over to the Shapers, anyway.)

 

onan_ch3stats.jpg

onan_ch3equip.jpg

 

Day count: 386.

 

Oh, and by the way, I did finish this chapter without using any of the joinable allies, including the servile technicians.

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Victory! The Old Golem is no more!

 

I stuck Steel Spines (mostly from trading in supply tokens at Shaper Camp Gamma) on every single piece of armour I had and a Golden Crystal (from Eye's Road) on my Guardian Claymore. I had a Wand of Death (also from Eye's Road) as a backup weapon for the Bladewarded form, which neither my sword nor my spines would have much effect on. Most rounds were spent using three healing pods and then attacking, or, if I wasn't so badly wounded, attacking once, using a healing pod and attacking again. Once or twice I had to use another shielding pod when he debuffed me. When he got to the crumbling form I waited for the lightning aura effect to wear off, then finished him off in one more round.

 

At the rate I went through healing pods in that fight, I don't think Matala is going to be remotely feasible. Mind you, that won't stop me from trying.

 

EDIT: Whoa. Okay, killing the Forgotten One is going to be painful. I think I'm going to come back when I can actually hit him more than 50% of the time.

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Update: Guh. Fort Raevinn was horrible.

 

I mean, it's been horrible in every previous game I played, but more so this time. Not a single one of the trapped rebels survived. I had to resort to running out from behind a wall in combat mode, throwing icy or spray crystals, ducking back behind the wall and leaving combat mode. I used up my entire remaining stock of icy crystals on the attacking wingbolts.

 

EDIT: Helping Shaper Horis... oh dear. Well, Plan A didn't work; ensnaring fibres and a submission baton were not nearly enough to render her kyshakk helpless. Plan B involved a shaped blade, a runed onyx, a few speed pods, a few shielding spores, and lots and lots of healing spores. Horis's kyshakk, fortunately, can't haste itself. It took several reloads before I succeeded in slowing it in the first round; the runed onyx really is very unreliable as a source of slowing. Once I'd succeeded, though, slowing it meant I only had to do half as much healing, which I could keep up with using the spores.

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Fort Raevinn is always a pain because if you go outside to chase down the wingbolts, then you get swarmed with no support from within the fort. If you stay back too much, then they run outside and get killed.

 

Matala as a single unsupported character is hard because you get cursed in melee and missle attacks do very little damage.

 

I thought that you would get more parry rather than quick action to reduce damage. Slarty did a parry thread and it seem somewhat useful to reduce damage.

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Quote:
Originally written by Randomizer:
I thought that you would get more parry rather than quick action to reduce damage. Slarty did a parry thread and it seem somewhat useful to reduce damage.
Parry above 10 apparently doesn't do much against missile attacks, and most opponents just aren't all that scary once you get them into melee.
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I hate the Maddened Trall. frown

 

The only way I had of damaging his first form without using up *really* valuable resources like torrent gems was the acid from my Oozing Blade -- good thing I'd left it in a cache just in case. I did a lot of ducking and running and abusing AI glitches, and it took an inordinately long time. Once he switched to his melee-vulnerable form, I waited for his creations to wander out of the room and him to wander up against a wall so I could corner him, then started fighting him in melee.

 

I'm all out of regular healing pods and starting to eat into my major healing pods. Somehow I get the feeling that Chapter 5 is going to get ugly.

 

Update: Just wiped out the Cultist Safehouse. Not nearly as bad as I'd expected; the cultists can be drawn out one at a time fairly easily, and individually they're easy to kill.

 

Update #2: After helping all 5 infiltrators and getting both sets of papers for Kiki, my reputation and leadership were *just* high enough to get Alwan's quest. (I had to put on all my infiltrator items first.) Looks like I can keep being a double agent for a while longer. Now, off to go back, kill the infiltrators and get the reward for that.

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Chapter 4 complete! Salassar was pathetically easy; I outmeleed him without even needing to haste myself. The Forgotten One and Matala haven't been dealt with yet; I could beat the FO right now if I wanted, but I'm waiting until it's easier so I use fewer items in the process.

onan_ch4stats.jpg

onan_ch4equip.jpg

 

Day count: 534.

 

Update: Fun trick in Khima-Uss, which I discovered completely by accident: if you refuse to pay the toll to Reevass and he attacks you, any cryodrayks that come near him will also go hostile. Go hide in a room nearby until they manage to kill Drosstro. Wham, free Forbidden Band. The best part is, once you leave Khima-Uss they're all friendly again! (In fact, it's best to leave quickly just to make sure they don't inflict any other collateral damage -- wouldn't want them to kill off a shopkeeper or quest-giver.)

 

Another update: The Forgotten One is now defeated. I equipped cold resistance and anti-undead gear, and the Quicksilver Sandals and Quicksilver Bulwark (to get me to 10 AP unhasted). Then I meleed it with a Frozen Blade -- useful for its cold resistance, cursing power and to-hit bonus, and also enchanted with a runed onyx to slow the enemy. I used a combination of spray crystals and steel spines to take out the burrowers as the FO summoned them. Most importantly, I didn't need to use any healing pods, which I suspect will be my most precious resource in the endgame.

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I'm wondering if for Matala you could use the slow from your version of the Frozen blade to keep the golem in the starting area. Since moving Matala out of the rotgroth summoning area is the hardest part of a single character game. Repeated essence shackles sometimes works for a lifecrafter to prolong the first part.

 

I know sometimes the drakon never gets revived to attack you.

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Hee hee. Trython's dialogue in the Sealed Catacombs makes reference to whether you killed Shaper Monarch. So far that's the only difference I found.

 

Oh, and by the way, I killed the Titan.

 

I picked off the sentinels and other encounters one at a time, running back to the healing pool in Monarch's Realm when injured. The Southern Sentinel can be led away from its cryodrayks without them following it if you do it right.

 

Form 1 of the Titan itself was straightforward; I beat it up faster than it could set me on fire. My Ultimate Debuffing Blade (Frozen Blade with slowing enchantment) helped with this.

 

Form 2 was, of course, nasty. As soon as it appeared I ran out of sight, left combat mode, walked back up to him and led him around a corner so I could catch him up against a wall and force him into melee (having used a bunch of Rod of Alacrity charges beforehand to resist his slowing effect). This form doesn't seem to end until you kill its kyshakks, so I ran around a corner and ended combat mode again, went back into combat mode, ran just back into sight of them and killed them with torrent gems.

 

When it switched to form 3, I ran around a corner again and used a bunch of regular healing spores to heal up -- they're too weak to use in actual combat at this stage, so it's not like I'm going to use them for anything else. I meleed it until it summoned its final creations, then used torrent gems and Wand of the Inferno charges to wear down the glaahks and rotdhizons. Once the Titan and glaahks were dead, I finished the rotdhizons off in melee.

 

All in all, the fight was somewhat tough and required moderate engine abuse, but very doable, and I didn't use up too many of my precious, precious healing items.

 

Now, all that's left for me to do is Matala and the final battles.

 

Update: Freed the prisoners in the Western Morass, which I hadn't got around to doing earlier since I was trying to build up my pro-Shaper reputation. Had to use a madness gem to cover their retreat.

 

Update 2: Wiped out the Poryphra shaper camp using no items apart from a few reaper thorns. Took a few runs in and out, but not that many. Made somewhat easier by the fact that Alwan and Miranda had already left. Koerner drops a Puresteel Blade and Litalia rewards me with Viper's Touch, which are both very nice weapons. It's actually rather hard for me to decide which of my many very nice weapons to use now.

 

Update 3: Killed Khyryk for fun and profit, and by "fun" I mean "XP" and by "profit" I mean "a golden crystal". The fight was longish, but not hard; once I had him up against a wall, I just had to keep fully hasted to 15 AP so I could kill his newly-made creations with two hits and still get one hit in on him with the Viper's Touch.

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Matala was a bit of a disappointment; turning off his power spiral before he gets to it seems to break his AI, and he just sits there and waits for you to kill him. Not that I'm complaining; even as it is, I used a whole bunch of resources on that fight. I'll still have plenty left for the ending, though.

 

I'll do the Rebel ending this time -- and just to make things a little more challenging, I'll try to kill the invaders while they're still in Northforge Warrens.

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I always found that madness gems or mass madness works wonders in the Titan and Southern Sentinel encounters. Turn his summoned creatures into your allies for a few rounds and they turn on each other. They usually ignore you while they fight amongst themselves. It's a bit less of an engine abuse.

 

Still slogging through Illya. That lower endurance slows things down, but I can kill most things with higher strength.

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Quote:
Originally written by Randomizer:
I always found that madness gems or mass madness works wonders in the Titan and Southern Sentinel encounters.
I tried madness gems a couple of times; they consistently failed to daze or charm anybody. One time I got one dazed kyshakk; that's about it.

Casting Mass Madness is not an option, for obvious reasons.

Anyway, that's not important now. Because...

*drum roll*

I've won! Onan has released the Unbound!

The final battle in Northforge Warrens was a nightmare, especially since I had to do it all in one go without leaving the zone, and stay mostly in one corner without moving to avoid damage from the machines. I cornered and killed Miranda, healed up with my weaker healing items, hasted, blessed and shielded repeatedly with all the buffing items I was carrying, charged into the corner behind Alwan and threw everything I had at them: torrent gems, madness gems, wands of the inferno, restoration potions and spores. By the end I was reduced to using armor potions as supplementary healing. Once I'd killed Alwan I ran straight out of there, barely managing to hide from the wingbolt and war trall Alwan had created while simultaneously healing enough to not die of a lightning aura on the way out.

Final day count: 677.

Onan's stats and equipment are presented here exactly as they were when he escaped from Northforge Warrens. As you can see, it was a pretty close fight and I didn't have a lot left to fight with by the end of it.

onan_ch5stats.jpg
onan_ch5equip.jpg
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Congratulations on winning. I didn't think that Matala was possible. I was hoping that you would answer the question if it was possible to finish the game with over 1000 health, but you didn't need it.

 

For the next game play it with one hand tied behind your back and blindfolded. Just kidding.

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Quote:
Originally written by Randomizer:
Congratulations on winning. I didn't think that Matala was possible.
Well, it would have been a lot harder if his AI hadn't broken; his HP was only about halfway down when that happened, and there was still the drakon in the last room to contend with. I think I could still have beaten Matala if that hadn't happened, but I don't know if I could also have beaten Alwan in Northforge Warrens in the same game.

EDIT: And, uh, looking back on my inventory I see that I had two Rods of Succor that I mistook for Rods of Battle and didn't use. Whoops. That would have taken a little pressure off as far as healing goes. I probably could have done it, then.

Quote:
I was hoping that you would answer the question if it was possible to finish the game with over 1000 health, but you didn't need it.
The answer is yes. If I put on the Ornkskin Gauntlets and Symbiotic Cloak, I end up at 1014 health. Even if I'd only worn one of those, I could easily have afforded 2 more points of Endurance if I'd put a little less into dexterity, missiles and parry.
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Quote:
Originally written by Delicious Vlish:
One shudders to think what Augmentation would do to your hit points.
Not all that much, really. Armor potions gave me about 75 extra HP. I just loaded my lifecrafter game to see if actually casting the spell produces a better boost, but it's pretty similar -- Augmentation and Essence Armor each give about 80 HP. MaxHP buffs are great for lifecrafters with low endurance, but they're a drop in the ocean for serviles.
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