Nashazzar the Haakai

[Lemur Industries]

I decided to complete the 4 tributes and then go back and kill them for the drops. However, after agreeing to give tribute Nashazzar seems to disapear. Does he drop anything noteworthy that is worth killing him when given the chance?

Synergy List has a ? next to his name for drops.

 

Thanks,

Ed

[Randomizer]

It states when you get him to agree to tribute that he will leave so there isn't a chance to go back and kill him. Synergy and I never tried just killing him for the item drop so until someone posts I have no idea if the item drop beats the reward from Melanchion (see job board after getting the fourth reward) for completing all four tribute quests.

[Mah Al Ibara]

Just how strong do you have to be to defeat Nashazzar? I tried slowing him, tried going after an imp first, tried focusing entirely on him, but I get my fanny kicked every time. I was able to take out the gremlins (I got the nine trinkets, but ran out of time just steps away from the door to their room and had to kill them), but it seems I'm just not ready for the haakai. My party looks something like this:

Human fighter LV 32 Strength 13, Endurance 7

Slith fighter LV 29, Strength 12, Endurance 5

Human cleric LV 32, Intelligence 13, has Control Foe and Enduring Armor

Human Mage LV 32, Intelligence 13, has Fireblast and Arcane Shield

I still haven't gone after Vesna the lich Thalon the eyebeast. Are they easier prey?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

[Lilith]

Nashazzar is the toughest of the four by a considerable margin. As always, make sure you have the best possible buffs on everyone (haste, protection, Arcane Shield) before the fight starts. It helps if your characters all have the Battle Rage discipline, since this will protect you from his special attack. When Battle Rage wears off, you have to kill an imp, then cluster your entire party around the spirit that appears so you can receive its blessing.

 

Of course, arranging your party like this makes it hard to ensure that Nashazzar attacks your fighters instead of your mages -- you may want to time your attacks so that your more fragile characters only attack when they're standing far away and Nashazzar can't get to them to retaliate. Summoning can also help distract him from attacking your party. Don't be afraid to use potions if you need them; if all else fails, you can just make everyone invulnerable and keep attacking until he gives up.

[Mah Al Ibara]

Thanks! I think I'll the haakai for later, when I have more overall strength.

 

But speaking of potions (sorry for drifting off topic), is it me, or is energy elixir harder to come by in V than in any previous Avernum game? Energetic herbs are ridiculously scarce (while I have enough mandrake roots and greymold to fill a sizable silo), and there are only so many ready-made elixirs you can buy. It also seems like money is scarce, too. By this point in previous games, I'd be rolling in gold (if I remember correctly), but now I have a hard time scraping enough gold together to buy spells.

[Randomizer]

Vensa and Thalion are much easier than Nashazzar, but you should go back and recharge after taking out the "minor" monsters that guard their entrances.

 

Jeff wants you to have potions made in Exodus and Muck. Energy elixirs are in demand for parties that rely on the more powerful spells. I found after my first game that I had to conserve them and return more often to towns to recharge spell energy. Energetic herbs seem to be the limiting factor in the game because you need them for energy potions/elixirs and knowledge brews. So buy and steal them whenever you can.

[Mah Al Ibara]

Thanks for the tips. I did finally managed to subdue Nashazzar (but just barely--one of my PCs was killed immediately before he gave in).

 

I've been pretty good, I think, about getting energetic herbs wherever I can, but I don't remember them being sold anywhere, and my conscience won't allow me to steal from anyone not hostile to me. (Stupid, I suppose, but my feeling is there's no point in doing RPGs if you're not actually going to adhere to a certain minimum of "role playing.") And I still don't feel I have enough. But I did manage to finish the game, so I suppose it was enough, strictly speaking. Now I'm going back and trying finish various side missions and areas I missed on my first run through. (I saved just before leaving the castle, and after finishing the game, reopened that slot and used the "backtostart" cheat so that I could benefit from everything I gained in the castle without ending the game.)

[Soul of Wit]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I keep seeing posts suggesting that energetic herbs are rare (relative to the other herbs.) My experience is that both mandrake and greymold are rarer.

 

I suppose that someone who is constantly making energy potions/elixirs might jump to this conclusion.

[Randomizer]

Mandrake root is the rarest and needed for knowledge brews. Energetic herbs are the next rarest and used for energy potions and knowledge brews. Graymold is the next rarest and needed for elixirs.

 

Graymold and mandrake root appear mostly in the last part of the game so you think they are rare, but graymold is easier to get than you think and is usually found near mandrake root at the end.

[Mah Al Ibara]

I probably thought mandrake roots were common because I almost never use them and they just kept piling up. I don't have items made very often, and I don't think I ever had a knowledge brew made (though I had a couple of knowledge crystals made). Who makes knowledge brew?

[Evnissyen]

Yeah, it's the mandrake roots that are the most rare and therefore the key to knowledge brew.

 

Thorn:

There are two craftspeople in Muck: One makes knowledge brews and the other wisdom crystals; take your choice but both require a mandrake root.

 

I'm glad that in A5 Jeff brought in the knowledge brews earlier in the game: One of the things that annoyed me in A4 was that the guy who makes knowledge brews came too late in the game to really enjoy it for long.

 

[Synergy]

There are about 20 less Mandrake Roots than Graymold or Energetic Herbs (which exist in roughly equal amounts) in the game, including all caches, found herbs, buyable herbs, and safely thievable herbs. In my current game (Torment duo), which is at the end, I exclusively used my herbs to make Knowledge Brews. When I buy the final five Mandrake Roots available in the game from Domont, I will have made a total of 50 (possibly a couple more I forgot to note) Knowledge Brews this game. That's 100 free skill points, not including the many Knowledge Brews and Elixirs attainable through other means in the game.

 

When I arrived in Muck with all collected herbs in tow (I only bought Mandrake Root), I had 91 Healing Herbs, 56 Spiritual Herbs, 50 Spiritual Herbs, 46 Graymold and 22 Mandrake Root. This approximate ratio persists through the game, though Mandrake Root becomes more common, so stays at about 20 less, rather than half as many as the next three.

 

I also got eyestalks from all three eyebeasts I killed first time.

 

-S-

[Bhima]

So, back to Nashazzar...

 

Am I CRAZY for attempting this battle at my fighter level 26 and spellcasters at level 28? I've lost track of how many times I've reloaded (more than 20) trying different strategies, trying different luck (most of the time I'm killed after the second blast from "Nasty Nash".

 

The furthest I've seemed to get is about the third blast from him. I start off with four slow spells on this cat, which gives me one extra round to buff (I've already started with all buffs). I use my fighter to beat on him. I've tried to go after the imps, but even if the spirit casts its blessing, it doesn't seem to rebuff Nash's next blast, which inevitably blows at least my strong priest out of the water.

 

Normally, I'm all for some major challenge, requiring some strategy, but I can't seem to get around being blasted to the Hell Nash Came From each round. My latest guess is that I'm going to need to buy a LOT of invulnerability elixirs and come back.

 

My DT/EW fighter is Level 26, and my DT/NM or DT/PS spell casters are level 28.

 

Help?

[Lilith]

Nashazzar is pretty difficult, and level 26 might be a bit low to attempt him. Your party members all have to stand quite close to the spirits in order to receive the blessing. Using the Battle Frenzy discipline will also protect you for a few rounds, if you have it. Summoning monsters to take hits for you can help a little bit for surviving his regular attacks.

 

Remember, you don't have to kill him. Just damage him until he surrenders, unless you really want the Jade Halberd he drops when he dies.

[Lucheiah]

(Sorry, thread necromancy)

 

With respect to the gremlins, if you want to be able to succeed at their challenge what you need to do is (assuming you kinda know where the trinkets all are) haste all your party members and go into combat mode and just travel in combat mode. I guess you could do it without haste but haste gives you that extra movement which is the real big deal with the gremlins' challenge.

[steelytan]

Actually, I think I've discovered an easier way to kill Nashazzar.

 

If you wait to attack him and instead work your way around the edge of the room, you can kill all of the imps without provoking Nash. It's important, for some reason, not to cluster your party up around one imp, because then Nash will attack.

 

I had a slith warrior, nephil warrior, human mage, human priest. (I can't remember the levels they were at, but I'm pretty sure around 26). I started by leaving the mage and priest back in the stairwell and having my fighters provoke 5 imps with range weapons. When the imps came in, I hit them with the fighters, lightning bolt, and smite. Once they were dead, I brought the mage and priest into the room and moved the fighters further down. Repeated the technique, one warrior on each side of the room.

 

After I attacked the last imp, Nash finally decided he'd had enough and attacked. I was able to focus fire on him and take him out without too much difficulty, though I constantly worried about losing the heat shielding. I did lose the mage to the hot room in the last round, so she must not have gotten enough protection from the dispelled imps, but everyone else was fine.

 

I don't remember Nash agreeing to pay tribute to me; I just took him down, collected the jade halberd (great weapon), and left. I still got Melanchion's reward after completing the fourth tribute quest.